7 Chapter 06: Humanity and Tragic Ends

It's been about a few minutes since Alice arrived on the scene looking at the helicopters in the skies and news crews from who knows where to surround the cemetery with only a perimeter of police officers to stop them from trespassing on the horrifying scene.

Before Alice could begin her approach Jacob, her partner, hurriedly jogs toward her with his calm but easily seen through face, as she's just about to exit her car. He stops and looks around before leaning closer and saying, "OK Alice look, The Assistant FBI Director wants to talk to you and right now he's pissed as all hell so I don't think it's a good idea to keep him waiting any longer."

As they walk together through the crew Alice could finally see the officers keeping guard of the perimeter who let them through once they flashed their badges. Once they made it through the perimeter it was like a scene from a movie, all of the graves were and crypts were destroyed and broken as if people fought their way out of them. When she looked toward Jacob he kept a straight face as if not trying to look at the graves as sweat dripped down his face.

After walking past several FBI agents investigating and gathering samples from the surrounding area they finally met up with the Assistant FBI Director, James Mattheson. He was standing in front of six agents giving them orders when he heard Alice and Jacob approaching from behind him. He turned around and said, "Ok people meeting over with you have your assignments, so get to them."

As the six FBI agents walked off in separate directions Mattheson said, "Bout damn time you arrived. Alice, I need you to head to the 2nd police precinct to interrogate the four survivors. I and the top brass believe that as soon as they arrived on the scene where the unidentified flying object landed they and the groundskeeper were ambushed by an unknown group."

Alice listening to Mattheson looks around at all the empty graves and asks, "Ok you also want me to ask them about the graves because for an unknown group to dig out graves 7 feet under and to breakout of stone crypts that seems a bit strange don't you think?"

Mattheson looked around and leaned closer and said, " Look we're still confused about this whole situation as well. When we arrived here the four survivors were in shock talking about the walking dead and skeleton. Our first assumption was they were in shock or under the effects of a hallucinogen so that's why we're having you and Jacob go talk to all four of them once they calm themselves down."

As Mattheson finished speaking to Alice and Jacob he received a phone call and from the look of the stress on his face it was no good. After listening to what the other person on the phone had said he snapped, both Alice and Jacob looked shocked and bewildered as they heard Mattheson yelling about a brother who was found shot dead in his home.

At the moment Jacob felt sympathetic towards Mattheson as he too had lost his brother a few months back to a robbery gone wrong, But unlike Jacob Alice felt a shiver go down her back as what little information she had gotten from Mattheson's yelling she couldn't help but feel as if the actions of her mother and his brother's murder was one and the same.

As Mattheson walks away toward the more private area of the crime scene Alice and Jacob begin their walk back to their cars to begin their long night of interrogating the four survivors. After both Alice and Jacob had split to go to their cars Alice grabbed her phone from her back pocket and dial a number. On the other end was the voice of a calm Alexia who had said, "Hello."

"Mom, I believe things have gotten more complicated," Alice says while giving Mattheson one last glance before leaving the parking lot of the graveyard.

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It's been a day since John and his horde had entered the sewer system of Hornbrew city through the sewer entrance a mile from the graveyard. It was an almost silent march if not for the moans and shuffling of his horde.

John could have gave them sentience but chose to hold off on that until he could fully understand his limits. As far as he could understand he could see and sense all that is alive and dead through his undead army even when they are a vast distance away.

He tested his control with his undead as he willed his zombie dogs to scout far and wide throughout the sewer system while remembering and mapping out the tunnels as he let them scout the nooks and crannies. Within hours he had almost half of the entire sewer system of Hornbrew city mapped out along with the locations of several medium-sized homeless camps that he ordered his dogs to go around until he could make them a part of his legion without survivors letting the surface know him and his army of undead.

It took John a while to find a base of operations that he came to call The Grave Center. It was a huge open space in the shape of a circle with an 80-meter radius from the center with only one entrance which stood behind John and his horde. It looked as if the area hadn't been used in years as the pipes that ran parallel and a few that crossed over giving it a steampunk vibe as all of the pipes converged to the center of the ceiling through a hole leading to the newer tunnels.

When Hornbrew city had gone through its first wave of renovations to modernize the city they completely abandoned the old sewer system and built on top of it as if it had never existed and leaving it out books in order to hide the many violations that were never fixed by modern standards. The only people that really knew about the old tunnel system were the groups of homeless that lived throughout the new and old sewer systems along with support groups that had the intention of helping the homeless out of poverty. John knew about this as he had lived amongst them for a while before someone he didn't think survived the fire when he was six years old came and gave him a home of his own, his younger brother, James Mattheson, who went by the name of his foster family.

He'd spent several years down in the new sewers and never bothered to go very deep and enter the old sewer system, although now he was at the center of the old sewer system which also put him right under the center of the new one and the middle of the city. It was the perfect spot as he knew if he quickly got rid of the homeless population and added them to his army there would be very few to know the existence of the old sewer system then the first part of his operation would be complete. Dixie who had chosen to physically manifest herself looked at john as with a pleased smile said, "Well even though I exist mostly in your head most of your thoughts do get jumbled even to me, so tell me oh so merciless leader what exactly do you have planned so far.

John walking in the middle of the open space while listening to Dixie said, "Operation: Shadow Snatch is a multi-step plan that depends on patience Dixie. It goes as follows, Step one, kill and add the majority of the homeless populations from the sewers, alleys, and bridges above ground. Step two my poor Dixie, is where our patience will be tested the most as we will infect those near major areas of transportation with my undead curse as they spread state to state and country to country. Step three Dixie, Is where things become interesting, while waiting for the spread of my curse and growing hordes of undead in secret under their cities, I'll attempt to make a magic capable of disrupting communications worldwide to make the flow of information almost non-existent. Step four Dixie is the main course as we make our big reveal and begin our main attack on humanity on multiple fronts ensuring mass confusion and hysteria. If there's one thing I can promise, Dixie, is that the chance the gods have given me will not be in vain."

Dixie looked on in horror at how deep John had thought this through. She knew that at this point he was the complete opposite of the past heroes she'd assisted in the past. She knew John had anger that he had pent up and stored somewhere in his consciousness but didn't know that anyone could use it as fuel as John did when he created this plan. She began to wonder if the gods choice to allow him to bring an end to the humans of the Triad of Worlds was the right thing as she began to see just how black his soul really was

As John finishes he felt multiple tingling sensations within his consciousness and took a look. He looked through the minds of the zombie dogs and could tell they were notifying him of the complete mapping of both the old and new sewers. John was delighted as he knew it was time to enact step one of Operation: Shadow Snatch. Without hesitation, he willed the current horde around him into 7 groups of 23 and sent them at full sprint towards the camps of denizens who would soon be a part of his undead horde.

It wasn't long before the first group John made, which he mentally labeled as group 1, came upon the first camp of homeless people. It was a group of 15 that had posted their tents and shacks alongside the walls of the sewer. Most of them were sharing their food with each other while a few slept in their makeshift homes. Within their numbers were a few 2 children who were playing with a toy plane and train. John thought back to his childhood as it wasn't that bad before the fatal fire that ruined his life, and began to wonder if he should spare the children but that went out the window as soon as he remembered just how fucked up life can become at any moment. After that unpleasant reminder of his life John only saw them as baits to lure in potential victims during step two of Operation: Shadow Snatch.

He willed one final order to group 1, and that was to enjoy the feast. Not even hesitating, the small horde rushed towards the group of homeless making all sorts of ghastly howls, roars, and growls as if to let them know of their impending doom.

An elderly man rose from his seat and looked a behind him to see what was making the noises unaware of what was rushing toward him as the others that sat around the burning barrel and cooking food looked on in horror as the sounds got closer. Even though the fire from the barrel gave ampul lighting it wasn't enough so the elderly man grabbed his flashlight and shined it down the corridor to only reveal a decayed corpse pouncing at him. Because of his old age, he couldn't react fast enough as the zombie tackled him into the burn barrel and the person who sat across from him.

The zombie bit deep into the man's throat and ripped a huge chunk of it out as it jerked back swallowing the chunk of flesh. It looked up and around at the screaming people as they were being assaulted by its undead brethren as well. Before it could continue its meal It noticed a woman grabbing the hands of the two children and making an attempt to escape. Following its order to kill as many as possible it rose and bolted towards them as another zombie caught on and ran alongside it at full speed.

The woman saw looked back to only see a silhouette of the two zombies dashing at them. She knew that she run fast while holding on to both so now she faced a horrifying situation either abandon both and save herself or abandon one child but the question still sat with which one should she abandon. With not much of a choice, she abandoned the boy and picked up the girl and ran as fast as she could while ignoring the little boy's cries and scream of agony as he's mauled viciously by one of the zombies while the other continued its pursuit.

John watched the whole thing through the eyes of the zombie who remained to chase the woman and the little girl she carried with tears rolling down her face at her choice to leave the boy. At first John applauded the woman for making a smart choice but sadly he found it typical as he saw it coming.

After a few seconds, the woman grew tired and was tackled by the zombie tossing the little girl to the ground as he zombie bit deep into her nape. She made a bloody scream while looking toward the little girl before yelling, "Run Jasmine, Run!"

The little girl was stupid seeing as she could be next she ran a yard before stopping. The woman behind Jasmine kept crying and yelling for Jasmine to run as she saw that she had stopped. She wanted her to run and survive whatever was happening to them but all hope died as she saw what was in front of Jasmine. A silhouette of a dog that was half of Jasmine's size as it stood there as if waiting on an attack order.

Jasmine didn't know what to think of the dog the was now in front of her. As far she knew it was only people attacking, but with appearance of the dog she didn't know what to do. Before she could run try and run past it pounced for her neck.

Before John could see any more he disconnected his view of the scene as he began to feel a wait on his soul. A weight that was indeed heavier than he could ever imagine. Of course, he hadn't felt anything for the others he'd killed but the look of fear from the girl's face and despair from who John assumed was the mother killed felt different it was like a sharp pain in his soul. But as he began to think it over he felt something in his mind flip like a switch as at that moment John felt that weight on his soul become lighter. He wondered what it could have been but almost as if she knew Dixie flew toward John's skull and embraced him.

Dixie had seen what John's zombie had done and could feel what John had gone through but was oblivious to what he had just lost. She knew that John had immense hatred and anger towards and he had a darkness that laid dormant within his mind but seeing how he felt the sadness of taking the life of innocence showed Dixie that John indeed still had a bit of humanity in him. But she knew that this heavy feeling and sharp pain was a piece of his humanity actually dying.

John could see Dixie was crying as she was saying she was sorry over and over. John confused asks, "What are you doing little fairy do you know what that feeling was?"

"I could've stopped you from watching! I could've saved it! I could've saved the huge portion of humanity in you that just died! Please forgive me John! Please don't change on me!" Dixie cried with her eyes closed and her head on John's nasal bridge.

John didn't know what had gotten into the cocky and sarcastic fairy from earlier but from her words, he could summarize that something like this happened to someone she cared for deeply. He caressed her tiny back with his index finger and said, "Don't worry Dixie, I don't change so easily."

In Dixie's heart, she wanted to believe those words but in her mind, she could only recount the very same words coming from the mouth of the hero she once served. She knew this quest from the gods was a dark and sad one as they put her under the impression that the next person she would be in charge of supporting would have already lost his humanity. But at this moment she could feel that the humanity John had shoved behind his hatred and darkness had just become 25% smaller. From Dixie's experience with her last partner who had only lost 10% and became a brutal and sadistic killer she could only believe that John was going to become more monstrous.

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Hi guys and gals sorry for super late or as it's 4 in the morning for me early (Sinful author making sinful jokes, gotta love it) so I plan on doing a Q and A. First 10 to 15 questions will be answered (unless very spoiler-heavy then it will be skipped.)