9 Chapter 7: Worry and Changes (Updated chapter number)

It's been all morning since Alice and Jacob began interrogating the four survivors who've remained in a shocked and dazed state like mental patients. Both Alice and Jacob sat behind a one-way mirror looking at officer Megan as she looked at the mirror as if she sees the two looking at her but was probably looking at herself for answers herself.

When Alice and Jacob had first entered the precinct it was like a shaken beehive as people were yelling and running from one place to another as they were trying to get as much information as they could about what happened at the graveyard. Every other 10 to 15 seconds one could hear the names of the four survivors who were brought in early that morning. Alice and Jacob couldn't slack with their skills in interrogation as this was a very high profile case.

Alice got back up to leave the private viewing room they were as to get back to trying to pry even a little bit of information from Megan who seemed to have now lost a marble or two. She entered the room slowly and said, "Ok Megan, we're going to try this again. Who attacked you and what happened to the bodies that were in the graveyard? What happened to the other officers and the FBI Agents."

Alice looked on at Megan who kept her silence while looking at her staring at her hands in a daze. Alice felt this was going nowhere until she remembered what Mattheson had said about the survivors talking about the skeleton and the walking dead. At first Alice thought it was just as Mattheson said and they were all in shock or under a hallucinogen, but she and Jacob were half a day into this interrogation and have yielded no viable information so far. So what could they lose by asking about the skeleton and the walking dead?

"What can you tell us about the skeleton and the walking dead that you told investigators when they found you?" Alice asked feeling that Jacob probably just spit his coffee on the one-way mirror as she question.

At first, Megan hadn't given any gesture that she was paying attention to Alice at all, but she eventually looked up at Alice with her head still tilted and said with a soft but sore voice, "It first started when we arrived on scene at the graveyard..."

As Megan finished telling her account of the events vividly as possible Alice looked on in shock but also in belief by what Megan had just told her. Her doubt really set in when Megan began talking about the talking skeleton and his zombie dogs that had her, Oscar, and the other two surviving FBI agents cornered. It was also like a cherry on top of the craziness coming from Megan's mouth when she talked about how the skeleton brought the dead officers and FBI agents along with the rest of the cemetery back to life as if they were all puppets. Megan could see the disbelief in Alice's face that showed what she thought about her testimony but finally feeling safe and having the chance to talk about the skeleton and his horde she says, "If you don't believe me then the investigation of the graveyard will prove what I've been telling you is true. The coffins will look as if someone broke or clawed their way out, The stone that made the crypts will be shown to be mostly outside than on the inside like someone broke out of them. Just wait till the result of the dog that's filled with lead show how it scarfed down a piece of my partner's throat. You'll see just wait, you'll see."

As Megan finished speaking she leaned over and place her face in the palms of her hands as if to hide and stop the tears from falling. Alice felt a little convinced but didn't say anything as she held a strong belief that the dead don't come back especially since her father passed away when she was a little girl and prayed for to happen to only have her hopes and prayers crushed by her mother.

Feeling that this was truly going nowhere she left the interrogation room feeling even more disappointed that she got no new usable information from the survivors until her phone began to ring. It was Lana. Alice had gotten far too wrapped into the graveyard situation and completely forgot about her mother and Lana who was supposed to be looking into John's safety deposit box.

She picked up the phone while quickly walking to the stairwell she believed would be quiet. Once there she check the stairs above and below her as she put the phone to her face and said, "Hello?"

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It had been a couple of minutes since Lana and Alexia had made it to the bank and convince a teller to let them have access to the safety security box once they presented the key. Once they had made it to the vault and got the box Alexia unlocked it to find a package labeled From: Mattheson and below the name, it said To: Big bro John.

Instantly Alexia and Lana recounted when Alice had called telling them of the complication that had arisen with their plan to ensure Alexia didn't go to jail and to find out if John was truly innocent as he claimed before dying. Seeing his name meant that their plan had just become exponentially harder as they both knew he would probably apply pressure to find out who killed his brother along with making any evidence harder to steal.

Without further ado, Lana opened the package revealing several documents and a recording tape. At first Lana thought back to herself, "Who the hell still uses walkmen recording tape." This thought quickly faded from her mind as she looked over at her grandmother which made her think, "Oh right their generation forgot." She made sure to keep her thought to herself as she knew her grandmother had several condescending and hurtful comments about her millennial generation that could flow out anytime like an uzi.

Alexia grabbed and skimmed through several documents and looked at many sketchy photos of the former orphanage director with many sketchy people she found to be familiar but couldn't remember who they were. Some of the documents she looked through were old tax transcripts and banking records she guessed were obtained illegally showing multiple discrepancies between his deposits, donations that were received, transactions, and finally taxes. It was clear to Alexia that these were more than just accounting errors, it was proof that the former orphanage director had received huge sums of money from something horrible as she read through the other documents.

She looked at Lana and said, "Call your mother now! We're leaving with the evidence."

Lana who hadn't seen the documents yet had a concerned face as she hoped from the bottom of her heart that it wasn't evidence that proved the man her grandmother had killed was an innocent man. Hesitantly she picked up the phone and dial her mother who took a moment to answer and finally picked up the phone saying, "Hello?"

"What got what was inside the safety deposit box and I guess I we're heading back to the house," She said she and Alexia exits the vault and the bank.

"Well what was it?" Alice says while whispering and trying not to be heard by people who might be in the stairwell with her.

Confused and wondering as well she says, "Well..."

Before she could say anything else Alexia interrupts her and says, "It's evidence. Evidence that proves the man I killed was innocent."

Lana with the phone in one hand and the door handle to their car in the other pauses and yells, "What!"

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It had been over an hour and a half and the echoing screams from the homeless that lived in the old sewer system had just become quiet. It was nothing but silence as now other than the almost soothing drip of water that fell into a puddle somewhere down the corridor accompanied by the moans, groans, and shuffling of the undead that had increased to 349 remained.

John had found this to be exceptional as he didn't expect there to be 166 homeless people living this far underground in the old sewer system. When he was alive and had been homeless he had heard there were only about 20 people who lived in down here but he just brushed the thought off and credited the rise of homelessness to the city's neglect of them of it's lower class.

Before John could think about the homeless situation that plagued the city he felt a notification of sorts from his consciousness. It was like a small nudge if anything, but still something John had never felt before.

Dixie who had calmed herself down earlier had noticed it as well by her sudden glance at John. By the way John looked at her and sensing his curiosity towards the nudging notification she flew up to him and sat on his hard boney shoulder and said, "That's your connection to your minions, It usually does that when they either want to relay something to you or an evolution is possible. In this case, your one zombie dogs have reached a high enough level, like you did, to evolve. If you want you can use your connection to them to chose an evolution route and they'll evolve where ever they are instead of them having to come all the way back to base."

John found this useful as he thought it through and pulled up his menu in his consciousness. He connected to his zombie dogs and saw their possible evolution route. They had the option of Zombie Wolves or Zombie Dog Beastmen which interested John but he had already set his eyes on what he wanted. He chose the route of the Zombie Wolf for all 19 of his Zombie dogs.

In an instant John put away his menu to look at one of the zombie dogs evolve through the eyes of his regular zombies. Without further thought John instantly saw the difference in how his minions evolved to how he evolved. Instead of them being consumed by darkness like he did, they just began to morph or for better words mutate into what John believed to be fully grown undead black wolves. John looked on as they grew larger and their bodies stretched and expanded to match the species they were evolving into as their previous wounds disappeared including the gaping holes from when John had impaled them.

John looked on with astonishment as they finished evolving into such wonders with eyes that glowed a murky blue hinting at the magic that keeps them alive. John began to wonder what the zombie humans would become if they survived long enough, but John had lost interest in what they could become and wondered about himself as he'd only evolved once.

He pulled his menu back up and looked to look at his level and stats.

Name: John Carlton

Species: <Magic Skeleton>

Stats: Level 17

Str: 67 Mana: 9500

Dex: 45 Hp: 165

Agi: 45 Luck: 30

Int: 175 Stat points: 40

Wis: 225

Seeing his level increase 4 despite having killed so many made John think for a minute. He thought on why his level wasn't as high as it should have been and the answer hit him. His zombie dogs had just evolved meaning they gained the experience to level up to their max levels so they could evolve, meaning they must have gotten most of the experience from the kills.

Just on time to fill in the blanks for John Dixie interrupts him and says, "When you have a minion under your control and it gets a kill or accomplishes a complex task it also gains experience. It's also due to your master and minion relationship they gain about 60% of the experience earned while you receive 40%. This very reason is why in the other world's summoners and necromancers are seen as weaklings."

Hearing this John thought of it as hilarious that someone could believe that necromancy was weak despite its fearsome prowess. He looked at his consciousness to see the hundreds of threads symbolizing his connection to his undead horde who could become stronger. He looked back at Dixie and asked, "Are there others who use necromancy in the other worlds?"

Dixie giggled and said, " Yes there are but because it's looked down upon and seen as forbidden magic they are often hunted down and killed. This leaves very few chances for those who have learned necromancy the chance to learn how to properly use it. You, having me, the best in my profession, and your menu gives you the advantage above others in any other field of magic."

John, hearing this found it reassuring that he'd be capable of bringing about mass extinction throughout the three worlds. Before he could think of anything else he began thinking about how useful Dixie has been to him and how he would probably be lost in this world that was currently ignorant of his existence. He exits his consciousness and looks at Dixie with his blazing red eyes and said, "Indeed you have been useful. Without you I wouldn't have made it this far, so thank you."

Dixie felt embarrassed as this was her first time ever being complimented by someone she was sent to help. Before she even realized it she was blushing with a surprised look plastered on her face. Without any delay, she hurriedly turned and coughed in her hands and said, "Well anyway don't you think it's about time you sent the horde to clear the new sewer system."

John had entered his consciousness again and looked through all their eyes but could find the entrance at all. Feeling displeased with idea of having them go through the sewer entrance again he said, " In all my time of being a homeless bum like the rest of them I never found it important to know where the entrance to the old sewer system was so it's going to take a while more."

"Well since I'm feeling generous I'll give you a hint that all Necromancers should know. As your companion is connected to your soul and mind you have many options such as giving them a little bit of free will and intelligence or viewing their memories. That's just a bit of what you can do as you are essentially in control of a hive mind." Dixie said as she looked at the many red threads connecting to John's back soul to their many mana nexuses.

John looking at his connections to all of his undead horde wanted to smile despite not having muscles, cheeks, and skin to express his delight over his further understanding of his skills. Feeling confident he focuses on his connection to all of his minions and puts his attention on their memories. It was like watching multiple movies on multiple screens all of their memories and knowledge became John's. Through the memories of several of his zombies, he saw the entrance to the new sewers being covered by a bunch of plywood.

It was truly an excellent bonus ability attached to his necromancy, but before he could do anything else a world splitting headache shot through John's head. It was so intense he couldn't help but fall to the ground and curl up while clutching his head.

He let out a roar that a magic skeleton shouldn't be capable of making better yet any skeleton for that matter. Dixie quickly flew down to him and said, "You weren't supposed to look at all of them for your first time. You're supposed to only look through one of your minions memories at a time and gradually become attuned to looking at multiple memories simultaneously. Because you rushed the process you going through a withdrawal effect, for now on take it slow when it comes to this ability."

John had heard everything that Dixie had said but it didn't matter. If the pain from the withdrawal was only this bad he could handle it unlike the pain from the evolution process. If it only cost this much pain to do this ability on a large scale as he did then to John it was only a little nuisance. As the pain from the headache receded he began to laugh as he saw how this ability gives him the option of using the knowledge he never knew to his advance. Whether it be engineering, construction, or inventing things that never existed in other the worlds he now had an exploitable advantage over those he's going to bring doom upon.