Disclaimer: The Secret World and all associated characters, settings, and situations are the property of Funcom and Electronic Arts. All use of them here is purely for entertainment purposes, without permission or intention to profit.
The Warmonger
Friday, November 3, 9:05AM
Sheriff's Office, Kingsmouth, Maine
"It's live?" the Sheriff repeats, worry evident on her face as she watches the zombies by the gas station circle and gather on the video feed. "We'd better get ready, then!"
"Yeah, you do that, but I've got a better plan for us," says Dan, looking to Kaiyo and me. "I'm thinking a preemptive strike—catch this motherfucker in the open while he's gathering a new hoard and take him the hell out."
I nod, agreeing with his tactics if not necessarily his swearing.
Kaiyo nods too. "Let's do this," she says. "Team KCD!"
Dan gives her a weird look, then looks to me for an explanation.
I just shrug and say, "It stands for Kaiyo, Chris, and Dan. Apparently Yako, Warden, and MacFadden sounds too pretentious."
"Whatever," says Dan.
We head out of the Sheriff's Office and turn south on Elm Street, toward the harbor. Even in the golden morning light, the water is a dull dark gray from the bottom of the hill all the way to the wall of black Fog that shrouds the horizon. But it's not the harbor or the Fog that grabs my attention. My eye is drawn to the burned-out gas station at the bottom of the hill. I can make out the zombies on the street corner below, slowly spiraling. I can't see what they're gathering around, and that unknown gives me goosebumps, literally. I can feel them prickling on the skin of my forearms, underneath the heavy army coat—and here I thought it was just a figure of speech! The coat itself is starting to feel too hot as the morning warms up, but I don't dare take it off or even unzip it. I want every layer of protection I can get between me and whatever waits for us at the bottom of the hill.
As for what that waiting thing is, I have no ideas, though my imagination provides some wild—and unhelpfully frightening—answers: disfigured witches with magic powers straight out of fairy tales, demons, aliens, the Filth… I decide to stop guessing and ask, "So…any ideas what's down there?"
"Fuckton of zombies and some idiot who's about to become an ex-member of the Being Alive Club," Dan says flatly.
I almost smile at the reference to Portal 2, but I don't think it was intentional. "So you think it's human?" I ask instead.
"Could be," says Dan. "Could be a lot of things. There's a pretty short list of actual immortals, though, so odds are whoever or whatever the motherfucker is, it can die—and after everything I've been through on this island, I'll be fucking ecstatic to send it packing straight back to Hell, express shipping, overnight delivery."
I do giggle at that reference in spite of myself.
"I'm just curious to find out what it is," Kaiyo says. "But Dan's right. Whatever it is, it's messed up this island a pretty badly, and I think a little taste of karma is overdue."
"Do you think it could be a Revenant?" I ask.
Kaiyo shakes her head. "It's not very likely. Revenants have never had power over other undead before," she says. "Still, I suppose it's not impossible."
"If it is another Revenant, we are not letting you get yourself killed by it again," says Dan.
Rather than revisit those events, I choose to tease Dan instead. "Aww, is that caring I hear, Illuninati?"
"Shut up," Dan says, and turns pointedly away from me, looking down the street. He doesn't turn or speak again until we're almost at the gas station.
At that point, we're close enough to the group of zombies that I can get a decent headcount. By my reckoning, there's just over two dozen of them. Their gray flesh, blank eyes, and bloodless wounds distinguish them from the townsfolk they once were. I see men, women, and even a couple children zombies—who in life could not have been older than twelve—shuffling around in a broad spiral at the corner of Elm Street and Belmont Avenue.
"I don't see what's controlling them," I say to Dan and Kaiyo, the nearness of the gathering hoard and their unseen master driving my voice down to a whisper. "There's nothing inside the circle. It's just zombies."
"The motherfucker's around here somewhere," Dan says. "Time to get his attention!"
Before any of us can say anything to stop him, Dan raises his hammer and charges forward. A red ball of energy crackles around the hammer's handle, growing larger and brighter until suddenly thrusts it forward at the edge of the zombie circle. There's a fiery explosion just in front of him, and shockwave spreads throughout the circle, knocking all the zombies to the ground. The force of the blast also blows Dan's trenchcoat back like a superhero's cape. "Come out motherfucker!" Dan shouts. "It's time for you to join your minions!"
A moment later, the answer comes in the form of a roar so loud and so deep that I swear I feel it in my bones as much as I hear it. A huge, armored blue mass comes swinging out of the darkness under the gas station canopy. It moves faster than anything fully three feet across has a right to, and it's only at the last second that I recognize it as a gigantic crab pincer—that's headed straight for Dan's chest!
I shout a warning and dash toward him, already knowing I'll be too late. Fortunately, Kaiyo sees the danger too. She rips her hand down off her razor blade and a thick rope of blood shoots from her hand, enveloping Dan in a crimson sphere. The giant pincer glances off the shield, splattering blood all over the sidewalk and leaving the shield almost completely transparent. Raising the shield also leaves Kaiyo looking deathly pale.
The crab claw retreats back into the shadows. Then it re-emerges slowly, followed by its owner. First comes a second blue pincer limb, huge and thickly muscled. It smashes the gas station's sign as it emerges from the shadows, causing the sign to topple down onto the street corner, crushing several zombies. Then the torso emerges: a thick rubbery mass of pink flesh, armored with an encrusting layer of barnacles. Jagged mountains of turquoise coral crown the creature's massive shoulders. It's head resembles that of an octopus, complete with writhing tentacles which reach down toward the rest of its body. I gasp. The rest of its body is human, or at least, it was. One of the tentacles of the upper head extends down into the vacant eye socket of a human skull. The other eye socket is occupied by a blank white orb that fixes us with a baleful glare. The coral shoulders that support the two tree-trunk thick pincer arms rest atop the shoulders of a pale-blue skinned human male torso: naked, though mercifully a few barnacles and a tangle of seaweed conceal its groin. What I can see, though is bad enough. Clinging patches of coral and barnacles armor its lower limbs and completely conceal its feet. One arm is missing and a vertical mouth lined with tiny white shark teeth runs from the torso's navel to sternum, opening and closing spasmodically while dripping drool.
Worst of all is the creature's enormous size. As it straightens, I see that, the tops of its coral shoulders stand taller than the gas station itself—nearly twenty feet off the ground. While it may have been human once, even its original torso is extremely large: my head barely comes up to its hip.
"Oh fuck me…" Dan mutters, stepping backward. He holds up a hand to the giant, as if trying to calm it. "Look, I'm—I'm sorry about your zombies, Mister… I'm sure we can reach some kind of agreement…"
The thing roars again, the sound reverberating through the air and ground around us. The surviving zombies begin to pick themselves up, despite their smoldering flesh, and turn their attention toward us.
"I don't think it wants to negotiate, Dan," I say, shouldering my rifle.
"When you're right, you're fucking right!" Dan admits. He hefts his hammer. "I'll distract it. Chris, get Kaiyo back in action! There's no way we can take this without her!" Then red flames appear around his hammer's head and he slams it into the giant's gut. A number of the shark-teeth in the vertical mouth break off and shower down around Dan as the giant grunts and staggers back a step…but it shows no signs of going down.
While it's distracted, I open fire, pelting it with explosive shots, aiming at its human chest, which is well over Dan's head. The bullets rip into the unarmored flesh and explode, sending out spurts of dark blue blood, but not appearing to hinder the creature in any way. I send the washes of anima energy to Kaiyo, healing her.
But I'm already almost out of time. Nearly a score of half-charred zombies are charging toward us from the side. I'm forced to turn my attention to them before we're overrun. I sweep them with automatic fire. About half of them go down. A few of the others are slowed. The rest keep coming. A moment later, a zombie in a tattered police uniform is close enough to grab the barrel of my rifle. I manage to force it upward and fire a three-round burst into his neck. The zombie gurgles and sags, slowly releasing its grip on my gun. It's too slow though. As it falls another zombie—who must have once been an eight-year-old girl—wraps his arms around my waist. Its grip is like a steel band, and I can feel its teeth sliding across the outside of my jacket. I panic, jerking my rifle free of the dying police zombie. I bring the wooden shoulder stock down on the child zombie's head, hard. Its grip loosens a fraction, but it does not let go. I club it again, and again, and again. Finally, the zombie releases me and falls backward. My rifle butt is almost black with gore, and I don't dare to look at what's left of the zombie's head. Instead, I make myself shoulder my rifle and turn to help Kaiyo.
Kaiyo is alright though. Around her the remaining zombies lie smoldering from lightning strikes. She's still a little pale, but she's standing, and the look on her face speaks of nothing but determination. She turns to face the giant. "I think I know what this thing is," she says.
"That's good," I say, turning my attention back to the giant as well, which is still busy with Dan.
"No, it's not good," Kaiyo says. "It's very bad. We'll definitely have to kill it."
"I'm so…fucking glad…you came to that…conclusion!" Dan says through gritted teeth. One of the giant's pincers grips his hammer while the other swings at him. Dan somehow manages to hang on and dodge at the same time. "I could use…a little help here!"
"Take out the knees, Chris!" Kaiyo says. "This thing's aquatic: it's not used to supporting its full body mass out of the water."
I nod, seeing the method behind her strategy. If we weaken the creature's legs just a little, we might get it to topple under its own weight. I take aim at the left kneecap. The giant's leg is as tall as Kaiyo and nearly as big around, so it's not a difficult target. Still, I have to move to one side to avoid hitting Dan. When I do start firing, the barnacles that encrust the joint deflect some of my shots. I determine to make the most out of the shots that penetrate, willing each bullet to not only tear through muscles and tendons but also to sap the brute's strength with magic.
I succeed in getting its attention. The giant grunts and swings its free claw at me. I jump back, firing another long burst into its knee. The creature makes another swing at me, but this time it overextends itself. Its knee buckles, then folds under its weight. The giant hits the ground with enough force to rattle my jaw from twenty feet away.
The force of the impact also causes the giant to lose its grip on Dan's hammer. Dan takes advantage of this. He runs over to where the other pincer rests on the ground, propping up the giant's bulk. He swings the hammer at the enormous armored limb, hitting just above the pincer. There's a wet crunch. I can see blue coral break and the pink tissue below tear. The giant howls and topples further, barely keeping itself from falling onto its side.
Kaiyo takes this as her cue. She raises her arms and shouts wordlessly toward the sky. In answer a hammer as big around as my torso plunges down, trailing lightning. It hits the giant's squid-like upper head. The force of the blow knocks it to the ground in a shower of sparks and electrical arcs. When they vanish, the giant lies on its back on the ground, head a smoldering cratered ruin and one pincer arm nearly severed. The other arm flails, still seeking a target.
Dan attacks it, bringing his hammer down on the pincer hard enough to shatter it. I hold my rifle on the giant as well, lest it try something else. I don't fire, though. Honestly, I'm not even sure where to aim on something that's still moving after having both its heads blown off by Kaiyo's spell.
"Hmm, stubborn isn't it?" Kaiyo remarks. She walks calmly to the giant's side and holds a hand over its heaving human chest. She stretches out her palm, then curls it suddenly into a fist. The giant spasms. Dark blue spikes stab out from its chest. Then they dissolve into blood and the creature lays still, finally dead.
"Jesus fucking Christ, what did you do to it?!" Dan asks, stepping back in alarm.
"I gave it a heart attack," Kaiyo says mildly. "A really bad one."
"You gave me a heart attack," I say, "Just not literally." I back away as well, though honestly more to get away from the corpse than from Kaiyo.
Dan is closer to the body at this point and he holds his nose and backs further away now, almost across the street. "Ugh! Whatever the hell that thing was, it smells like fish shit now."
That reminds me of something Kaiyo said during the battle. I turn to her. "You said you knew what this was?"
She nods. "Sort of. I remember reading about them once." She sits down beside the corpse and pulls the big leather-bound book out of her bunny shaped backpack. She rifles through the pages. "Let's see here…undead monstrosity, but not a zombie…influence over other undead…once human…pale skin…fish parts…"
Something she says jogs my memory. I recall an earlier conversation I had with Micah when I first came to the island. "Sounds like...the Pale Men," I say.
"Yes, they've been called that," says Kaiyo. "But their proper name is Draug."
"Wait, you've heard of them too?" Dan asks me.
I nod. "My brother found a blog somewhere that claimed they'd been spotted on Solomon Island before, but the last sighting was thirty years ago, and the blogger claimed the…Draug never left the sea."
"The Draug have been in this area before—a long, long time ago," says Kaiyo. "No clue why this one was here now, though, or why it was directing the zombies to attack us. In any case, I think we ought to tell our bosses about this one."
"Yeah," Dan agrees. "At least we'll be able to report our victory and the end of the fucking zombie apocalypse on the island. That, and I'll take that beer from ol' man Boone for finding a way to keep the zombies down, finally."
I'm about to agree, but then I see something around the street corner behind him that makes me change my mind. "We might have to wait on that last one," I warn, and point to the entrance of the Franklin Mining Museum. There, in front of the doors, lies a group of zombies Kaiyo killed yesterday. As we watch, one of them pushes itself slowly to its feet, moans, and begins shambling aimlessly about.
"Fuck," Dan says simply.
I nod. "Looks like we took down the lieutenant directing this battle…but not the general controlling the war."
Author's Note: I regret the delay on this chapter. I finished it up a week ago, but work and coming down with a cold prevented me from getting it all typed up until now.
As always, I'm extremely grateful for your feedback and support. It was my love of the games and their universes that first inspired me to write, but inspiration can always fade over time. It's your support and enjoyment of my stories that really keeps them going to completion!
While Dan might not have meant to reference Portal 2, which he's probably never played (or has he?), I definitely did. No one is better at delivering an amusing stream of sarcastic smack talk than GLaDOS.
Dan's attack on the crowd of zombies is based on the elite hammer ability Shockwave, and I seriously doubt it can take knock over 24+ zombies at once. It does look pretty cool, though.
I tried to make the description of the Warmonger match its appearance in the game as closely as possible. I always realized it was a big monster, but it wasn't until I started looking at side-by-side comparisons of the Warmonger and player's heights that I realized just how big it was. It's difficult to imagine fighting something that enormous. But of course, as Kaiyo's tactics demonstrate, size can also be a liability thanks to the Square-Cube Law. A creature 3 times the size of a human would have 9 times the surface area and would need to support a whopping 27 times the mass. Throw in the fact that the Draug are mostly aquatic, living in an environment where buoyancy normally helps them counteract at least some of their weight, and you can easily see how Kaiyo's technique could have been successful. It will, of course, not work in the game. Body parts are not targetable and it would subtract somewhat from the epic boss fight if the Warmonger tripped all over himself and fell flat due to his own body weight.
Speaking of Kaiyo, her finishing move is based on Cardiac Arrest, an in-game elite blood ability which has a fairly different animation. It's also not a guaranteed instant kill in the game, and I actually use it there mostly for setting the Impaired state so I can soften up an enemy a bit without worrying about them charging at me.
Yes, the Draug finally showed up in the story! Dan's reference to Boone owing him a beer is a reference back to chapter 6, and Chris and Micah's conversation on the Pale Men (the Draug) happened back in 5. It feels like forever ago since I wrote them, but I'm glad their finally coming back up. Now at last, the characters can begin to get a clue about what's happening on Solomon Island...or at least, think that they do.