There was a brief moment of pause where the universe around them seeming to slow down and their minds evaluated whether a fight or flight response would be best. Seeing the rabid, rampaging, zombie cows beginning to run towards them, Winston did not delay his own decision, putting his foot down, but stalled the truck instead."s.h.i.t!"
"What are you doing?"
Winston turned the key in the ignition, restarting the truck and shoved the gear stick into the reversing position. The herd of undead barely two metres away, his foot heavily upon the pedal again, the truck shot backwards. Tyler was flung forward against the closed carriage, while the others gripped the sides.
Ren Zexian gingerly took to his feet threw out a sizeable ball of flames from his hand over Tyler"s head. It landed upon the forehead of one of the beasts, bursting into a flurry of fire across the creature"s vision. It shook away the flames, screaming as it did and knocked into the cow beside it. This delayed the herd for a just a few moments as beasts fell or stumbled, but they were not slowed for long. However it was enough for Winston to be able to do a sharp turn and thrust the truck back into first gear and begin accelerating away. Both Tyler and Ren Zexian slipped and fell during the turn, falling into the bed of the truck. The stampeding herd closed the gap during the manoeuvre, close enough that the stench of their rotten breath could be smelled by the men in the back.
Dexter attempted to shoot a few bolts of lightning, but while they were brighter, stronger, it was barely enough to stun one lone cow, which fell beneath the hooves of those behind it, trampled into a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp upon the asphalt. The next bolt fell upon the road, uselessly as the truck finally pulled away from the herd, challenging Dexter"s range.
"They seem st.u.r.dier that the human undead," Ren Zexian commented as he threw a series of small fireb.a.l.l.s.
"No s.h.i.t!" Dexter replied, grabbing onto the sides once more as the truck swerved down a side road, as Winston moved to avoid another threat, which was cutting off their way back to town; humanoid zombies that had been drawn by the sound of their truck and had been slowly following them since then. The squad were jostled up and down as this road was more dirt than concrete and lead to an small out of the way village. Naturally, there were more zombies, but their numbers seemed fairly low. Possibly most of those that turned in this place wandered away or followed escaping survivors to areas with more prey. These were infinitely easier dealt with, only one or two was even able to get near to the truck, which just swerved to avoid them, than the herd that had not yet ceased its hunt. The cows even trampled over any undead humans that happened to wander into their path.
But suddenly, the herd that had managed to keep upon their trail this long, stumbled to a halt. Their legs stomped upon the ground, nostrils flaring and the ones in front even seemed to attempt to back up a pace, but for the cows behind them pushing them unwittingly forward. One became extremely agitated as it came near to a thick hedge of foliage, piquing Ren Zexian"s interest as he asked the driver to hold on for a moment. Dexter seconded his request as a command. Zombies didn"t feel fear… right?
Without warning, a series of long, green vines rose upwards and swung down to wrap themselves around the zombie cow. It was lifted, upwards, its moos becoming loud and almost sounding distressed as the vines pulled it to the other side of the hedge and then the men heard nothing more from it.
"The hunter becomes the hunted?" Harry murmured as the zombie cows turned and ran back down the road, away from the hedge and away from the squad.
"But really, first zombie cows and now plants?" Tyler moaned, bitterly.
"I also have seen canines that had risen as undead," Ren Zexian mentioned, though his mind was currently considering the strange scene that they had witnessed. He stood up and jumped out of the truck bed.
"Are you crazy?!" Patrick cried out to him as the man neared the thick hedge and began to walk the length of it, though in the opposite directions of where the vines had appeared from. The truck came to a complete stop as Winston, who had seen this in the rear view mirror, waited for instructions.
"Had you not figured that one out by now?" Tyler laughed without mirth. "I say we leave him."
"Shut up, Tyler," Dexter warned. "Ren tried to warn you before, you could have been zombie bait or worse if your luck weren"t so good. So lay off him." Tyler winced in memory of his reckless tree climbing. "Ren, are you sure about this?"
"I wish to see what exists beyond this foliage," Ren told him. He had encountered plant-type monsters before in the middle realm, it would not be unexpected, in his views, to find them here. But where there were monsters of any type, there were often treasured herbs. He was not able to refine such into pills, he"d not the talent in it, but certain herbs could be refined within the body and could be beneficial to cultivation so long as one did not consume too much. There was risks with eating raw herbs, but in order to regain a little of his strength, he felt it might be worth it.
The thick hedge was long and Ren Zexian took many swift steps before coming to a large, wide gate of vertical iron bars. The gaps between the iron bars were narrow and there were horizontal bars attached to them. It was not the sort of gate that could be squeezed through by even a child. However, it offered a view of what was beyond it.
Harry whistled as they saw the large property a good length from the gate, at the end of a long drive. It was two storeys, but there were windows in the roof, indicating that in parts, it reached a third. A large door was at its midpoint, framed with pillars and reached by a series of steps. The building was mostly white rendered, with ivy vines rising up one corner and seemed as though it had been extended a couple of times over the years or decades. The roof was of grey slate and the windows in Georgian style, tall but with white lines dividing the gla.s.s into squares. The whole thing seemed to be placed in extensive grounds, surrounded by a wall of metal and hedgerow.
"What sort of money do you reckoned they earned to afford that?" Harry murmured.
"A lot more than we did," Patrick replied.
"What does that matter now? Money is obsolete!" Tyler lifted his hands in the air in self surrender, ending the conversation.
"Hey… is that a person?" Harry said suddenly, pointing to the side of the house. Sure enough, in the distance, a humanoid figure seemed to walk from behind the house and disappeared into more hedges.
"It could be a zombie…" Paul became the voice of caution as the bed jumped out of the truck bed for a closer look. Ren Zexian did not hesitate and solidified the air in places around him and leapt on invisible platforms to vault over the fence.
"Be careful!" Patrick called to him, suddenly feeling anxious and the man turned briefly to him and nodded.
He ran swiftly and silently down the long and large brick road for a moment towards the house. As he neared it, he felt the poison core within his stir. There were definitely the living dead in side it, but he had no intention of releasing them, so he ran along side the building to where he had seen the human. He had no doubts that it was a living person, his vision was clear and good, but how that person would react was another matter. As he turned the corner, he saw someone move behind the property, but was unable to see clearly whether it was a woman or a man.
With continued silent steps, he ran to where that person was and before him appeared an extensive and rather bizarre garden. In places, there were beds of vegetables and fruits, as well as places which were home to sweetly scented flowers and yet in amongst theses were large or tall, monstrous looking plants, with large thorns or strangely coloured foliage and flora. Some oozed darkened auras, despite the pa.s.siveness they currently showed.
The leafed vines that decorated this part of the property as well, moved, slipping off the side of the wall and slithering over to the person crouching and talking in whispered tones to the ordinary, fruit yielding plants and patting the earth they were in.
"Look out!" Ren Zexian called out, startling the person, who looked up at him for a moment with large, sapphire eyes, before casting them down and standing upright. Though it had been only brief, Ren Zexian felt captured by their beauty and wished to view them once more and with this thought, he stepped closer to this person, this young man. His hair was the colour of chestnuts, draping down to his shoulders. His body was a little on the thin side and he was not very tall. He made one wish to comfort and protect him.
The vines began to wrap around the boy"s legs.