Chapter 26: Building Bonds

Several minutes after John had finished his tree of death, John had taken Dixie and Candice back to the Grave center. Candice looked around to her own astonishment at the massive space of the room they were now in. She looked back at John and asked in a worried voice, "Where are we now? Where are my kids and grandkids?"

"Their about to walk through that door in about 7 minutes, but first Candice let me help clarify what exactly your role is going to be in this apocalypse," John said while walking over to his throne.

As he sat down in his throne he pointed Candice to her seat at the rather large table. She looked around at the many other chairs and realized she was the only one to have been brought to his side. This made her wonder if he too had coerced and mad deals with them too.

As she was about to ask about the chairs John cut her off by saying, "Your role in this chaotic time is to guide whatever pieces of human you can scrape up and make them into loyal religious followers of yours who will worship you as my proxy, my Supreme Grand Priestess of the Damned, and my as their god."

Candice looked on at John with fear at John as he explained her role. She couldn't wrap her head around the thought of her being the leader of a cult or better yet being the founder of a new religion built around the very thing many fear the most, death. It was incomprehensible from her viewpoint as at the most she was only ever good at being a psychologist and being obsessed with the supernatural and being big a fan of cryptozoology. Then as if a switch flipped in her head it was her skills in psychology that were of use.

As if reading her mind John said, "Yes your skill in reading people is a tremendous skill to have on hand but what we truly need is your peoples' skills combined with your skills in psychology is will be the leading factor in you gaining the trust of desperate survivors."

"How did you..." said Candice before being cut off by John.

"When I made you a demi-undead you became like my undead which now we all share a type of connection which Dixie will explain later, but for now in a second your family will be brought in and will leave it to you explain to them their current circumstance. I do remind you that it will be up to you to convince them of your identity and of the safety of being the first members to join our religion." John said cutting off Candice before she could ask about him knowing her thoughts.

Before the door could open John began to sink into his shadow. Before he completely vanished he made one last comment by saying, "I will take my leave momentarily as I have to tend to my daughter."

After he had completely left Candice lingered and thought on John's last words, 'daughter'.

The only door leading out of the room finally opened revealing a group of zombies surrounding and escorting a group of people and teens.

...

John rose from the shadow of a small and tiny undead girl and peeked over her shoulder as she used magic to levitate and connect body parts from several grown zombies onto several small zombified children. It was Joselin, and she was just putting the finishing touches on her creations when she finally noticed the giant figure behind her.

"Papa!" she said while turning around and hugging him.

John could tell that Dixie had done a good job in training both Joselin and Joseph in honing their magic and sensing abilities along with showing them how to look and control the lesser zombies that they had a connection with through him. He wondered just how far they had come but was distracted at Joselin's work.

The children he had given her to play with now looked grotesque and horrifying. Along with their original limbs, they now had eight additional arms on their backs that also had one additional forearm attached to each of them. Their lower Jaws split down the middle with precision with sharpened teeth. It took John a moment to notice their extra eyes wrapping around the crown region of their heads. John was shocked, but his shocked state of mind quickly changed to that of inspiration. Inspiration for ideas for new troops when the occasions arrived.

John looked back at Joselin and said, "What wonderful creatures you have made. What do you call them?"

Joselin looking back at her art and back at her skeletal winged father and said, "I think I call them zombie spiderlings. Since they always made fun of me when I made friends with the spiders down here I thought they could be my friends too if they became spiders too."

John looked deeply into Joselin's eyes and said, "Sure enough they look like spiders..." and just before he could say any more a thought came to his mind. Indeed the many zombie children that are gonna be made from this apocalypse would be taken down rather easily, yet make for good ambushers. What if they all became spiderlings then not only would they all be useful at ambushes and surprise attacks, but they would be like the wolves and be instrumental in outmaneuvering opponents, and freighting flanking tactics.

Joselin had just gave John the most excellent unit for counter and ambush tactics. John patted her head and said, "Well what if I said you can go out above ground with your spiderlings and use them to get more material for more spiderlings."

Joselin's went wide with excitement as the words John had just said reached her zombified eardrums. She jumped up and down with her arms close to her abdomen and her hands clenched into fist saying, "Really Really Really!"

"Yes, but first your spiderlings must have the capability to be like true spiders right. So why not ask Dixie to show you how to use something around the lines of magic threads so you may imbue the spiderlings with said knowledge so they may not only protect you but capture those you want to add to your group of friends." John said while also thinking he would rummage through her memories later and learn how to make the spiderlings himself while also learning a new skill.

"Ok, thank you, papa, I'll go and ask her right now," Joselin said while running from the room with her entourage of spiderlings.

Watching her leave with her spiderlings he an incredible idea. Why not make multiple variants of undead to add more flexibility among the forces starting with the wolves. With this new inspiration gained from Joselin's creativity, he couldn't help but feel the bond between him and his daughter deepen. He began to wonder just how long will it take for him to come to a decision if Dixie should be her mother figure because after all, she is closer to Dixie after all right?