Chapter 10: 3.2 Battle for the Hill

  The portals open to face them as if windows affixed to the front of a house. The two quickly reposition behind the portals, concealing themselves but also preventing themselves from being able to see them. Jack is staring at the back of where they should be when Red slugs him in the arm. He quickly looks over as she’s pulling a new axe from her back. She then tosses it aside while Jack’s eyes follow to see it land nearby.

  “What was that about?” Jack asks.

  “What happened while I was gone, Jack? And don’t tell me it was nothing or that it’s fine.”

  “Do we really have to do this right now?”

  “I’ve got too much going on already, Jack. So, tell me. What. Happened?”

  “We had a fight is all. He was still adamant about fighting with you. So, I chocked him. And then I threw him.”

  She shakes her head. “Did you even give him a chance in this so-called fight?” Jack drops his eyes and shakes his head. “Damn you, Jack. I don’t need you to fight my battles, and I especially don’t need you traumatizing Wolf.” A zombie steps out of the air and continues to walk away from them. “Shit, shit, shit,” she whispers as she draws her katana and a single pistol.

  “Don’t you think it’s time we get out of here?”

  She becomes distant for a moment, then shakes her head. “No, whatever we can take out now will mean less we’ll have to wade through later.” She turns back towards where she had tossed the axe to find that the grass has frozen solid around it. Jack sees it too and raises an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t just go to see Patches. That’s yours. Consider it an upgrade.”

  He grabs the handle and lifts it as he looks over the intricate carvings along the axe’s head. It’s a bearded axe and has an edge that arcs low enough to shield a wielder’s hand when grasped under the head. An ice fog continues to radiate from the blade edge and Jack looks at it with awe.

  “Yeah, yeah. It only took a little theft. But I may have earned the eternal ire of a bad ass war god that’s known for violent acts of genocide—and by genocide, I’m referring to other gods.”

  Jack looks at the axe again but with a little less awe, instead feeling a growing amount of concern. “Are you sure I should have this thing?” he asks, holding it further away.

  “It’ll be fine—probably.” A zombie starts to turn towards them and Red steps forward, quickly slicing, removing the top of its head. It continues to turn and walk after its head sloughed off. Its wounds aren’t fresh, and its ragged clothing exposes various locations of exposed bone. It walks a few steps further, then loses its balance and topples. While the two of them stand at the backside of the portals, they are concealed by the doorways and maintain their ability to launch lethal attack at whatever comes through.

  Another zombie steps out of the air and Jack hefts the axe, judging its weight. He takes a decisive, downward swing, causing the zombie to freeze and a subsequent explosion of ice shards that impale the ground in the direction of his swing. Another zombie was in the process of stepping through, receiving a graze on a protruding shoulder as it hunched forward. The graze caused the explosion to happen within the doorway as well, completely blocking it off. Jack’s eyes go wide, and he looks back over to Red. “Screw that guy. He’s not getting this axe back.”

  “Just try not to block off all of them. We still want some of them to come through.”

  More portals begin opening to face them, allowing the zombies to notice and begin moving in their direction. A zombie walking forward has a portal open right in front of him and exits right beside Red. It reaches for her as she thrusts her pistol forward, loosing a shot and the top of its head. It brushes against her as it falls forward.

  “She’s getting a little too accurate with these, isn’t she?” Jack calls as he cuts down several zombies in sequence.

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  “She su—” Red’s words are cut short as a portal opens under her. She falls through the ground into some other place, then opens her own portal that sends her sailing back across her original location. She swings her katana through a zombie, then tumbles to a stop before regaining her feet.

  “What the hell did you just do?”

  “That wasn’t me. She’s getting too accurate. I can’t stay still for too long.”

  She continues to walk forward as she attacks. She severs the arm of a reaching zombie, then takes its head. She alternates, cutting down zombies and loosing shots to drop approaching ones.

  Zombies continue to move out of portals in waves and the hill is quickly becoming saturated with undead bodies. Jack’s swings are varying, with some of them yielding ice effects while others do not. The ice-entombed zombies start becoming obstacles as they block off areas around him. The undead are forced to move around them, but his own movement is also becoming restricted. “We’ll need a new plan soon, Sarah!” He drives the butt of the haft into the face of an attacker, then drops the axe head to finish it off.

  “I’m on it.” She switches pistols, empties its clip, finishes off the zombies closest to her, then opens a portal at her feet. Suddenly, she’s plummeting towards Jack with her scabbard in one hand, katana in the other. She returns the blade and strains as she tries to force the katana further in. An exposed part of the blade begins to glow light-blue, then she draws the weapon again. As she plummets towards the top of Jack’s head, she swings the glowing sword, opening another portal at his feet where they both pass through. The portal’s exit sends them tumbling across a stone floor in a heap.

  “Close it, Sarah.”

  Red gets her bearings as zombies fall through the portal, mounding up like cottage cheese slowly oozing from a container. Red rushes to her nearby katana, grabs it and the portal, bisecting several zombies that were still piling through. They both regain their feet and finish off the ones that made it through.

  Jack lifts the axe to rest it on his shoulder but quickly takes it off again, remembering the ice. “How am I supposed to carry this thing exactly?”

  “It should be fine. I think it only triggers when the wielder is attacking. It’s not going to discharge on your back or shoulder—probably.” Jack just shakes his head at her. “Ugh, wait, what did you do with the ammo bag?”

  Jack reaches for his shoulder, then sighs. “Sorry, Sarah. I must’ve dropped it.”

  “It’s fine. We’ll have to get it though.” She replaces her mags and tosses the empty ones to Jack. She opens a new portal in the stone floor. The exit is over the hill, and she gazes through the opening as if looking down from the hill’s attic. Her grandmother’s portals seem to be gone and the remaining zombies have returned to wandering aimlessly.

  “There it is,” she says, spotting it among the bodies. She closes the portal in the floor and opens a new one about chest high. She sticks her head through, popping out of the hill’s ground like a prairie dog. She grabs the nearby bag and pulls it through.

  She digs into the bag as Jack starts to look around. “Where are we now?” he asks.

  “Oh, just some place with a bunch of marionettes and a giant lava spider.”

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