Imperious, Chapter 003 - Home Security (Patreon)

Anna’s chest rose and fell as she looked down at the shattered skull of the skeleton. Her fingers trembled around the handle of the bat. She licked her lips, tasting the sweat that was already beading on them. She hadn’t been this active in a long time. It’s dead… right? She paused and frowned, How can a skeleton be killed? She thought, a little bit of confusion settling in. She looked down at the thing and kicked its ribcage, trying to urge it back into motion. Nothing. She let out a sigh and felt her arm muscles relax, the bat falling from her numb fingers.

The bullet had done it in one hit but she’d had to whack the damn skull at least five or six times before it finally broke. Sighing, she plopped down on the ground and closed her eyes, giving herself a moment to catch her breath. She glanced over her shoulder at the gun and reached for it, drawing it over to herself and engaging the safety for now. How many rounds did I put in this thing? Mom never explained it to me. She thought, drawing her knees up to her chest and looking the gun over. I think it was fifteen. 

She looked down at the bat laying at her feet, the weapon had a small dent on one corner but was otherwise undamaged. That was good, she was probably going to need it. Just in case… She thought and willed herself to stand up after a few soothing breaths and crouched next to the skeletons. Nice axe, mind if I- 

She froze when she tried to pick it up.

It weighs a ton! 

She could barely get her fingers around the haft of the weapon and after that no matter how she managed to set herself up around it, she simply couldn’t get the damn thing off the ground. Why is it so heavy? I don’t get it! She grunted and pulled, nearly throwing her back out in an effort to get the damn thing off the ground. Ultimately she gave up and kicked it in frustration. To her shock, it skittered across the carpet as if it weighed only a little more than the average hand axe. She narrowed her eyes. You what? Bullshit.

She marched over to it and gave it another test kick, it moved again. She crouched down and tried to lift it, no dice.

Seriously, what the fuck? She griped, scratching her head and trying to make heads or tails of what she was dealing with. I don’t get any of this shit, where’s that damn supervisor?

As if summoned by her grumbling, a window appeared in front of her face.

Supervisor ETA: 22 Hours, 6 Minutes, 21 Seconds

It’d barely been twenty minutes! She clapped her hand over her face and let out a groan, “Are you fucking kidding me?” She whined, “That was the longest twenty goddamn minutes of my life!” She sighed and kicked the axe again just to be petulant. Grumbling she walked over to the bed and snatched up the remaining bullets. Doing a quick count she figured she had about forty-five left besides the ones already in her magazine. So three more magazines besides the current one. It’ll have to do. She thought, Now I really need to come up with a plan, who knows when more of these things are going to show up.

She glanced down at the broken skeletons before marching over them and through her mother’s ruined door. Downstairs she took a moment to peer out the windows from behind the curtains, scanning the street running in front of her house. Clear. She turned around and hurried over to the kitchen and pulled the fridge door open only to hesitate when she noticed that the inner light was out. That was when she realized that none of the lights were on in the house, the sunlight had made it hard to tell and they rarely turned on the lights in the hall with the stairs anyway so she hadn’t noticed.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised what with this, uh, apocalypse? I guess it’s an apocalypse. Everyone’s gone, but they’ll be back, so… She frowned at her rambling train of thought and rubbed the side of her head absently. Nervous breakdown? Yeah, probably. She snorted and snatched up some yogurt, vegetables, a pair of apples, and a leftover pair of sausages from the morning. Better eat this before it goes bad, she reasoned and shut the fridge to make sure what was left stayed good for what little time it had left in the summer heat.

She ate quickly, manners be damned, before she checked the water faucet. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t working either, though she did manage to get a little bit out of what was already in the pipes before it trickled and stopped. She chugged what she got into a cup and sat on the ground, allowing herself a moment to rest. I’m going to need a heat source for cooking when the time comes. I wonder if that old camping grill is still in the garage? She mused, The neighbors probably have food too, sorry guys but I’m not starving while I wait.

Some of them probably have weapons too, I’ll have to do some looting when I can. First I need to make sure the house is secure. Having only given herself a few minutes to rest she got back to her feet and marched over to the door, bat at the ready and gun in her pocket. She frowned when she found the front door utterly smashed in, shards of wood and insulating metal all over the place. Welp, that sucks. She thought and scratched her head, What the hell do I do? Do we have any boards? Nah, scratch that, those skeletons went through a suburban front door like it was nothing, plywood isn’t gonna stop shit.

She rubbed her neck, thinking hard. They have a hard time with obstacles. I could pile up a bunch of shit in front of the front door to make it hard to navigate. She chuckled at the thought of a skeleton stumbling over a crapton of legos. Sold on the plan at least for the time being she got to work, hunting around the house for anything she could toss down in the entry hall to make it a pain in the ass for an invader. She wasn’t sure if there was anything other than those skeletons out there that could handle debris more easily, so she tried not to think about it.

If there was, she’d be screwed anyway. She didn’t trust what happened with the skeletons themselves, whatever had made it hard for them to see her was nebulous at best. She could try to replicate it, but there wasn’t a guarantee and she wasn’t going to be stupid enough to lean on uncertainty.

I’m gonna live through this. She told herself as she scattered the broken chunks of the front door, her mothers door, some lifting weights, pieces of a chair she broke, two more whole chairs for good measure, the living room coffee table, and a ton of other heavy-ish things she found laying around the house. She decided to leave the axes at the top of the stairs, she could at least kick them down if she had to. Was it perfect? Nope, no way. Would it make the skeletons rethink their approach? Definitely. Did she have a solution if they tried to go through the windows or find another entrance? Absolutely the fuck not.

She threw herself onto the couch, exhausted, and rest her hand over her head. “Tired,” She grumbled, wiping the sweat from her brow. “How long do I have?” She asked aloud and once more the countdown appeared.

Supervisor ETA: 20 Hours, 13 Minutes, 37 Seconds

At least I chewed up a little bit of the time, She thought and rolled onto her side. I need to rest. I should go upstairs and lock myself in…

Anna woke to the sound of movement, her heart pounding as she sat up sharply on the couch. She whipped her head around, trying to find the source of the sound and scrambled for the bat at her feet. She pat her side and found the gun still in her pocket. Fuck, I fell asleep with it in my pocket, that could have been bad. Also, I fell asleep! Shit! She got to her feet and held the bat aloft, turning in a slow circle while she tried to find the source of the noise. It was coming from the entry hall. Something was trying to get inside.

Anna swallowed hard and crept towards the hall, stopping at a corner and slowly peering around. The sound abruptly stopped just as her eyes landed on the obstacle course of detritus. A pair of glowing eyes stared back at her. Not out of a human skull, though. It looked like a dog. Four legs and about the size of a mastiff. It had a long snout that looked like it had the remnants of fur and flesh clinging to it. The things glowing eyes bored into hers and its bony jaw opened. She felt her body start to lock up again and quickly looked away.

Oh shit! She screamed inwardly as she darted for the stairs. The creature let out a clattering sound followed by what could only be described as a hollow howl. Long, piercing, and almost mournful. She winced at the sound and hurried up the stairs. A crash from down below told her that the skeletal hound was no longer struggling with her haphazard obstacles. She reached the top of the stairs and whirled, steadying herself on the banister before kicking one of the axes down at the beast. 

It spun through the air as the monster raced up the steps and clipped the side of its head with the back of the axehead. The creature staggered before shaking its head righting itself just in time to get another axe sent hurtling towards it. This one actually hit blade first, slamming into the ribcage of the waking nightmare and sending cracks through the bony surface. The creature stumbled but righted itself again. Fuck fuck fuck! Anna rand down the upper hall towards her bedroom door, throwing it open and slamming it shut behind her. She hurried to her wardrobe and with a heave, pushed it onto its side in front of the door.

BANG!

The door rattled as the hound slammed into it.

Breathing hard, she heard the thing scratch at the door for a moment before pausing only to jump when another resounding bang told her that it wasn’t going to give up easily. She pulled out the gun and pointed at the door. It's a skeleton idiot, she reminded herself, Point blank works but it’s full of holes otherwise. You’re going to miss. She glanced at the wardrobe and hurried over to the side of the door, standing next to it and readied her gun in one hand and the bat in the other just in case. She started the breathing exercise from before. Won’t hurt to try, deep breaths, you’re invisible, just like school. They look right past you, they-

BANG! CRRRACK!

A huge chunk of the door was ripped open, shards flying everywhere. A splinter dug into her shoulder and she let out a gasp of pain as the hound shoved its head inside. Her finger curled around the trigger. She tried to force her breathing down, control it, but she shouldn’t have bothered. The hound sniffed the air. God damn it. She whined inwardly as it turned its head to look straight at her. She locked eyes with it and felt her fingers go numb for a moment. Shutting her eyes before that body-locking feeling washed over her again, she let go of the gun. Who shot a gun with their eyes closed? Instead, letting out a scream of fury, she brought the bat down on its head. Once, twice, three times, four times, she kept whacking away as it scrambled to get its claws through the door.

Come on! Die already!

A sudden sharp pain dug into her arm and she was forced to open her eyes. She looked down at her wrist as one of the beast’s claws dug into it. “Augh! Fuck!” She cried out, pulling her arm back as it tried to turn its head again to snap at her wounded arm. She barely managed to hold onto the bat even as blood left the handle slick. She scampered from the door, snatching up the gun and pointing wildly at the hound. She pulled the trigger a few times, loud bangs filling the room and sending her ears ringing only to miss every shot. The hound tore through the rest of the doorframe, crashing through her wardrobe.

“Mother fucker!” She screamed and held the bat up to catch its jaws. It slammed into her, bowling her over and she felt its claws dig into her shoulders and scratch down her chest through her shirt. Crying out in pain she tried to force her shoulder into position to use the gun. It wrenched its head left and right, biting down on the bat in its furious effort to kill her. With every ounce of strength she had she lifted her knees and pushed up, forcing its body up just a few inches and giving her the leverage to bring the gun around to just beneath its jaw.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three more shots, and finally the skeletal hound stopped moving. It fell onto her with a shudder, all its weight pressing down on her as its ribs dug into her sides. She groaned in pain but let adrenaline keep her going as she pushed with all her might, shoving it off of her and scrambling to her feet. Everything smelled like blood, her blood, she felt dizzy. She looked down at herself and saw several long scratches across her chest and arms, one of them way deeper than the others. She glanced at her wrist which was also pumping out blood and shuddered. Need to stop the bleeding. She forced herself to rationalize, stumbling towards her wardrobe and yanking the drawers out.

She dragged out her t-shirts, struggling to tie one around her wrist, pulling it tight with her teeth before taking another and pressing it against her chest. It was about then that the adrenaline finally stopped pumping through her veins and her vision began to darken. She struggled to stay awake, she needed to secure her surroundings first. What if another hound came? Gotta… please… just a little bit longer… Her last thoughts before unconsciousness took her, was how she was going to figure out if there was a customer service she could call when this was over.

Supervisor ETA: 14 Hours, 49 Minutes, 11 Seconds