29 Killing Heros

"Jones!" cried the man downstairs. "Say something!"

Albie pointed at the uniformed husk in the lab. He thought to the bees do move it to in front of the doorway. The bees moved as he had hoped and placed it in front of the door.

He looked around for his more human shaped servant. He noticed the pail lurker had slipped into some shadow and was likely making ready to strangle the intruder. The solder was a valuable source of life. The young mage did not want the undead wasting the life force. The thought was strange to Albie for a moment but decided to ignore it.

"Don't take it," cried Albie just load enough for the solder downstairs to hear. Hopefully the lurker would hear it as well. "You, can't have it!"

Albie quietly entered the lab and mound hoping the man downstairs would come. The lab door was left ajar. A crack wide enough for him to see out of with his remaining eye.

"Jones I'm coming," shouted the solder over spurs dashing out stairs. "Don't let them take your sword I'm almost there!"

The would-be rescuers response amused Albie. Why would giant bees want a sword? This guy must not have been too bright.

"ughhhh," Albie moaned again. Being near death was something he was well versed in by now. He was certain he knew how to sound just pitiful enough to sell it. The jingling spurs charged down the hall to the body.

"Jones! Get up, before those bees come back," shouted the young cavalryman as he kneeled down to grab his comrade. His friend was laying face down on the floor in the hallway. Something about him seemed wrong. He must be hurt bad but didn't see any blood.

He grabbed the man's shoulder with his left hand and was startled by how thin the arm was. His coat felt two sizes to small. He looked around the hallway his saber in his right hand ready to strike at those large bees. But they were nowhere to be found.

"Jones, come on," shouted the solder. He flipped the body onto its back. Jones blackened husk looked back at him with empty eye sockets. The solder jumped to his feet with a jingle horrified at the body in front of him. If this was jones what had been calling to him? He looked up at the door to see a red eye staring at hum from the crack. The door opened to reveal the eye was sunken into a pail emaciated corpse of a man. Its neighboring eye looked to large for the socket and almost like it belonged to a fly. The solder got into a guard stance with his saber as the emaciated corpse struck at him with a dagger. He raised his blade to parry the attack but the dagger.

He smacked the tiny blade with a practiced motion. But was surprised when he felt like his sword had struck a steal post. The little blade was nor redirected as he had planned, and he felt his hand grow a little numb. The moving corpse reached out to grab him with his free hand and the solder tried to counter with his own. To his surprise the creature grabbed his hand. It laughed in a wicked delight. Chills ran through the man's body as he heard this thing laugh. Then he was pulled into the man. He tried to resist but this thing had the strength of ten men, and he felt himself falling forward his balance disturbed.

The solder fell to the floor pulling Albie along with him. Albie continued to laugh at how well this was going and how easy it had been. The two men were on the floor laying on the husk of another. Albie managed to grab the man's arm under his shirt and began to leach his life force. The solders struggling soon lessoned as his body was drained of his very life force. He had tried hard in escaping, but the young mage was using his magic to strengthen himself. The solder had no hope of freeing himself from the mages vice grip. He had lost his sword in the fall and his other hand was busy trying to wrest away the dagger.

Albie watched as the man dried out like those before him. Soon the man lost consciousness. Albie absorbed all the mans vitality leaving two blackened corpses in the hospital hallway.

The mage relished the meal sitting on the second corps its twig like arms trapped in a defensive position. He felt the life force of two men flowing through his body. He did not feel hungry anymore. The sensation of his life leaking to the other side from his phantom wounds was gone. The power of life filled his muscles as he stood up.

He sent to his bees the thought of eating the corpses and the large and small bees all rushed to consume the bodies. Digestive fluids coated the bodies in seconds as the bees began their meal. Albie put his hood up as he walked outside to where the two men's horses were tied up. Albie looked at the creatures. They neighed and bucked on their leads in fear of him. He could practice rearranging the horses so that they could eat the cavalry and their horses but that seemed a waist. If they eat the others what would he eat. He already had the bees and the rats for that. The young mage wanted something like a spider but in the, mean time he needed more bees. That meant more flowers. Before him was a grassy front yard half filled with rotting defenders. He touched the horses with one hand and had the bees put in his other hand a few flowers. He channeled life from the large beasts into the flowers and they began to grow. He pressed the growing flowers into the living horse. They began to grow all over the horse. Spreading their roots into the beast's meat like it was dirt. The animal shrieked in pain as its body collapsed. The plant had taken over and the horse was now more plant than animal. The flowers and their roots [read to the yard and began to stretch into a bright array of flowers. The plants reached the second horse and began growing into the beast. The horse bucked and screamed. Its suffering apparent to Albie but he was unwilling to stop. The flowers had grown over a quarter of the yard and were beginning to grow over the old barricades.

He felt bad for the horse as the plants over came it. He chose to watch the flowers consume the barricades dead defenders. They would still serve and tonight he would see to it that others would serve as well. In a more active role than as plant food.

The second horse died, and Albie began to feel the excess life force slip away. He stopped and looked over the field. Half the yard was covered over with flowers the bees buzzing around them. The be colonies would hopefully grow more rapidly with so much food at their disposal. They would serve well in keeping the solders from the hospital. Bags would return soon, and he would be able to grow more rats. He needed a natural trapper. Something that could take the solders alive so that he might feed on them later. One animal came to mind, but he doubted the bees had let any survive. He would have to find them later tonight.