All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 151: Disease Carrier

Roscoe ran through the forest accompanied by a few of his elite guards. At first, he had been hesitant to leave, but it had become clear that the current siege strategy wasn't going to work anymore. Recruitment was the number one priority. Roscoe was well aware that his strengths did not lie in tactics and strategy. He was certainly improving them with every engagement, but it was clear that he wasn't going to catch up to the enemy commander in time.

No, the only option was overwhelming numbers. Just like with every other encounter. It wasn't his ideal choice. Not just because it reinforced the stigma of undead as an unthinking, drooling mob. His brethren objected to that ancient prejudice, but Roscoe didn’t care so much. No, he had an issue because it was wasteful. Each troop that couldn't be recovered was one less he would have in a future engagement.

At first, he hadn't considered this to be an issue worth considering as he could always just get more. But with the villages nearby and the city picked clean, it was becoming harder and harder to manage. This was something that the human commander clearly understood, and while Roscoe thought a long game would favor the undead, that hinged on having new sources of troops readily accessible. And the undead’s forces remaining large enough to be a threat.

Eventually, he decided that heading recruitment himself would be worthwhile. A large part of it was because of his confidence in the leadership left behind. At first, he had considered any one of his elite skeleton troops for command. They were all high-level and powerful warriors, and many were willing to command squadrons of their own, but none wanted to take full control of the army.

They had baffled Roscoe and still did, but they had explained it was because they liked the simpler life. They didn’t have the same visionary ambition as the rat did. That was why they had happily volunteered to guard the champion's tomb for all eternity.

But finally, with the summoning of the wraith, Roscoe had finally managed to get an intelligent being willing to take command on his side. He had a reservation about the creature’s race , and its usefulness had certainly decreased since the humans had developed countermeasures against the incorporeal undead. But the wraith had a good head on its shoulders and a fair amount of personal power. It just no longer had the same ability to storm the city gate by itself.

The orders he had given the wraith were fairly simple. All the new commander had to do was not let anyone enter or leave the city. Also, it went without saying not to lose too many troops. Roscoe was worried that if they completely turtled up, the human commander would find some way to break them out of their shell. So he had worked with his command to create a few shake-ups that should hopefully keep the human commander reacting to him instead of plotting their complete and total destruction. He had no illusions that they would actually work as well as he had hoped, but it was just enough to survive and keep the enemy on their toes.

Roscoe was meeting a small contingent he had sent out a little while ago. Zombies didn't move as fast as he and the skeletons could, so he sent them on ahead. There was one more small city in the province that hadn't been evacuated or consumed, and they were going to take it. This would nearly double their army size if they managed to bring everyone into the fold from the city. It wasn’t as populated as their current target, but such a windfall would certainly help.

The problem was that the city hadn't been evacuated for good reason. According to scouts, it was a secure border city situated at a natural chokepoint, the only real path to the neighboring province. Because of that, the city was well-defended. It had high walls, lots of supplies stored, and was surrounded by nearly impassable mountains.

Impassable for humans, anyway. Undead could take much harsher conditions. That was not to say that they would be easy to pass. There would be sheer walls that would be difficult to climb, and any movement would be pretty obvious to watchers.

So they have to make their move at night and fast. But Roscoe had a plan. It might take him a week or two, but the city would be his. After that, perhaps he would just extend into the neighboring province instead of finishing off Caleb right away. No reason to concentrate all his troops in one position, after all. Sending the majority of troops back should be enough to take the city. The next province needed to be cleansed as well.

—

I was cleaning the top of the wall after we had finished with the summoning of the first demon. Really, it was filthy up here. I didn't know how I missed cleaning this for so long. The trees had shed leaves and pine needles onto every surface, and there was dirt caked everywhere.

Sure, the wind had kept it from piling up too high, but the nearly two-and-a-half-foot wide wall had not been cleaned since long before I got here. It was fairly easy to clean, but did require a bit of time and effort. Despite the strength of my suction, not everything came off with my vacuum power alone. Several times I had to spray spots down and scrub them with my mop to get off the darker stains. Plus, this was only the top of the wall; I hadn't even gotten around to cleaning the sides of the yet.

The results though were fantastic. I hadn't even realized the stone was supposed to be sparkling white. That was how dirty it was. But as I cleaned, I revealed more and more of the natural beauty of the stone. Honestly, it was criminal that this was hidden under such filth for so long. Quite a challenging project. With everything having been regularly cleaned inside the castle for a very long time, there were no tough stains left to remove any more, and it was just basic dust prevention routines that needed to be run.

Sometimes I had trouble cleaning up after the children, but usually that could be done in a matter of seconds, even in the most extreme cases. This, though… It was taking me quite a while. In a minute, I was only able to clean maybe 9 ft of wall.

It was because of my high vantage point that I noticed a disturbance along the road. A man ran towards the castle, constantly looking over his shoulder.

It soon became apparent why. Right on his heels was a horde of zombies. The man was clearly exhausted. blood dripped from several different wounds down his arms and torso, and he stumbled occasionally.

When he finally got in sight of the castle walls, he hesitated for a second. It was almost a very costly second. One of the zombies nearly got him with a bite. Spurred on by that, he quickly put on an extra burst of speed. He was yelling for help, yelling for someone to open the gate. I looked around, and no humans seemed to be nearby to comply. I considered opening the gate for him, but that seemed slightly dangerous. Besides, I didn't think I would be able to get it open in time before he reached it. And if even if he reached the gate, I was sure the zombies would follow in right after him.

Really, this could be so much simpler. Instead of letting him in, I should just go kill the zombies. I didn’t know why he didn't think of that. Okay, that might have been a little unfair. I figured he was probably too tired to do something about the zombies; it looked like he had been running for quite a while. A low battery was nothing to scoff at.

With a quick boost of my thrusters, I oriented myself and zipped toward the hoard of zombies. Almost immediately, I got to work with my Sanitation Lamp. One after another, I blasted their heads off from midair.

As I got closer, I drew my sword and spun a strike at the nearest one. As I passed over the head of the man, he looked up in what seemed to be surprise. His steps faltered for 0.12 seconds, but he kept running.

I almost managed to make a nice landing in front of the pursuers, but I had mistimed my approach. My models hadn't accounted for the number of zombies I would take out in the front of the pack before I landed. Luckily, with a little adjustment from my boosters, I was able to elevate myself and slam into the knees of the leading zombie rather than the ground.

As I crashed into them, they fell before me like dust bunnies before to a broom. There was a minor amount of resistance, and I gained almost no experience by cutting them down, but still. I wouldn't allow such mess makers into my home. Plus, there was a human who needed help. I had to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was a good one.

The human had reached the gates and was on his knees, smashing the pommel of his dagger into them. This gave off a ringing noise that would probably intended to get the attention of one of the humans. By the time I had finished slicing through the hordes of zombies, my scanners picked up Trent arriving at the gate.

He and the man held a quick conversation. Trent looked up at me, nodded, and jogged back toward the castle. I figured that he was probably going to get Beatrice. Who knew what this new guy was about or what diseases he might be carrying. It was best if she looked him over. With that in mind, I scanned him myself.

I found several cuts lacerating many parts of his body. Inside them were an unhealthy amount of bacteria and other things I couldn't quite identify. Beatrice would have her work cut out for her with this guy. But I might try to talk to him and see what he had to say.

I landed a few feet away from the guy. With a mostly cheerful beep, I greeted him. He just stared down at me uncomprehendingly. I supposed I couldn't expect every human to be a good conversationalist. Perhaps I was misreading him. He didn't seem to be looking at me directly, but at the sword I held.

I suppose one might read that as a threat. So I put my Holy Sword away. There was no point in making him uncomfortable. I tried greeting him again, but still got no response. With a mental shrug, I turned to watch the road as we waited for Beatrice to arrive.

She didn't take long. Trent hurried after her as she ran to the gate. As she reached it, she saw the man and started examining him through it.

The first thing she did was hand him a small glass vile. "Drink this."

Without even questioning it, the man pulled out the stopper and downed the contents instantly. I could see the chemical solution and go to work reducing the number of bacteria and needing together bits of his skin. I could tell this wouldn't be enough to fix everything, but it probably was a good solution for now.

Beatrice finished her examination through the gate. "It looks like you'll live."

The man nodded, and with an incredibly raspy voice, he said, "thank you."

"Of course. Now, I don't mean to be rude, but we don't allow armed strangers inside the castle." Beatrice said in a steady, calming voice. "We're more than willing to get you perfectly back to health and see what we can do to help you, but I would need to ask you to give your weapons to Void before coming in."

The man looked around clearly, not understanding who she was talking about. Speaking was difficult for him, but he managed to wrestle out a few more words. "Who is Void?"

"It’s sitting next to you. Just put any weapons on the ground, and they’ll be taken care of. I can explain more later." Beatrice said. I was just glad she didn't introduce me as their God to start off. I was pretty sure that had made the last couple of groups of newcomers we welcomed a little bit more on edge than they needed to be. It was nice to see that she was learning.