Statue Apocalypse 2

DREAMS AND DEALS CHAPTER 9: Statue Apocalypse 2

We were being cornered by hordes of zombies. Arun was standing right of me and the path next to him was clear. Still he didn't rush to go towards it. 

He kept thinking about something while I hurried him. He screamed at me in response.

"Shut up. I'm trying to focus here."

He soon came to a realisation. 

"It is either a trap or they are trying to lead us the wrong way."

He said that and closed his eyes to focus.

"I offer my left toe."

As soon as he said that power started emerging from within him. His muscles started to bulge a little.

He picked me up with one hand and jumped to the roof of a building on our left. He then dropped me without warning.

"W… was that a deal?"

"Yes."

"How did you do that?"

"The meditation technique that you were taught, if you were doing it properly then you should be able to make deals too."

"I am doing it properly you bastard."

"No. Either you are doing it with half your willpower or the nightmare doesn't want to make contact with you. Both cases are bad."

He explained it to me.

"When you do it properly, you will feel as if you are communicating with your nightmare, they are smart yet dumb creatures. If you offer them even a little bit of control of your body, they will allow you to use their powers."

I thought for a moment and asked him a question.

"You didn't need to make a deal back then in the real world. Why was that?"

"Neil told you, they release a little bit of their energy passively, I just manipulated the energy they release in the real world. But if you can't make deals then you won't know how to do that either."

He continued.

"They don't release any energy in the dream world, to use even a little bit of their powers, we need to make deals."

He pointed towards his shoe.

I saw his toe moving from under the shoe.

"I didn't use a lot of power so it should be back to normal in a while. Now then…"

He then adjusted his glasses the anime way.

"Since the zombies were obviously leading us on that path, that means it was either a trap or they were trying to get us away from the nightmare's location."

"Makes sense."

"So my proposition is to move via the terraces and investigate the hordes."

It's risky but it seems like the only way. I might not be a hero or a saint but I'd like for people to not suffer what I did that day. 

His toe soon came back to his control.

"Let's start moving."

Most of the terraces were connected so we moved with ease. We kept looking towards the hordes every once in a while. They kept moving slowly, following us. 

It was like dropping food to fishes in a pond or a lake. All the fishes would come to the surface to see the food in your hands, except you are the food. 

I don't even want to imagine them hoarding around us if we drop down. I will die of a heart attack before they get me.

It had been about five to ten minutes of walking when we heard a sound we hadn't heard before here. 

We looked down at the building we were currently on and saw the hordes surrounding the walls, they stuck to it as if glued. Then we saw the zombies behind them get on top of them.

Soon we saw almost all zombies make ladders towards the roof. We screamed at the same time.

"Faaaa*k"

They are getting smarter very fast. These kinds of developments are supposed to happen halfway through the season, not in the first episode.

We started sprinting. We had lost the title of hunter long ago. We were just pathetically fleeing. 

We jumped to another building and saw the door to the roof bulging. Then sounds of cracking came from behind it. Then something slamming the door. Soon the door broke down and the statue zombies came out.

Arun looked around us quickly and saw a very tall building near us.

"I offer both my toes."

As he said that his muscles expanded again. He then picked me up like a puppy and ran towards that building on the other side of the street.

"I offer my left eye."

When he said that he immediately jumped more than 3 meters high. He crossed the street and we saw the terrace of that building. 

We thought the horror was over until we saw what was waiting for us there. There were 3 zombies on that roof.

As I was horrified and stunned, Arun threw me over, aiming to send me behind them.

I looked at Arun and saw a calm expression as if he had expected this.

"I offer my left ear."

When he said that in midair, two long pointy rods appeared in his hands.

He threw one from his position to the zombie closest to me and it pierced its chest.

He landed on the terrace and used the second one to bash the head of the second zombie nearest to him. He repeatedly hit the statue zombie until its head cracked open and crumbled. 

The third zombie attacked him but he used the same rod and impaled the zombie's torso. This particular zombie still didn't stop.

Aayan jumped towards me and picked up the rod from the first zombie's chest. He threw it towards that last zombie and it pierced through its body. It then flew away from us. 

Just like this it was over. All of this happened within a minute. All while I was left speechless and stunned.

Arun dropped to his knees and sighed deeply.

Soon, the skin of his ear became dark and the nerves in his eyes turned to black colour. The colour slowly spread to all of the eye.

This was the exchange he had performed to save us. 

He looked at me with scorn.

"If you had learnt already, I wouldn't need to use this much."

I retorted to it. 

"It has been less than a month since I became involved in this. What do you expect me to do?"

He looked away as if he didn't care for my words.

I thought about arguing with him but I saw the three zombie's bodies turn to ash. Once they died they became dust but they left behind their clothes.

I debated internally whether to wear their clothes and cover myself in ash to look like them. But it was a stupid idea so I abandoned it. It was also very scary.

I looked down and saw the zombies make the pile next to this building. But this building was very tall. The only way it was possible for them to enter this rooftop was if they either made the pile from a building next to us or broke down the door of this one. 

I looked all around us from the tallest building here. The first thing I saw was a white fog far from us. It wasn't visible from the ground or the roofs of the smaller buildings.

It was in the direction of the zombies where the zombies were trying to lead us initially. When Arun saw that he explained to me.

"That is probably the edge of this dream. If you walk beyond that, you might wake up and fail this mission."

I nodded. 

I looked around in the other direction and squinted my eyes when I thought I saw something.

It took me a few moments to see a hint of colour. I called Arun over.

He could only see from one eye so it took him a while to see it too.

"That might be where the nightmare is or maybe where Yuan is. It's definitely a dream of his hometown."

That was what I had thought as well. 

"I have a few guesses for the colour-scheme but let's discuss that later. We need to think about how we can get there safely. I need to recover too."

I looked towards the door of the building we were currently in. It was a solid metal door. I doubt they could break it. 

They were also getting very smart. They will definitely reach the same conclusion I got about the pile. 

Suddenly an idea popped into my brain. I asked Arun who was deep in thought.

"How do you think those three zombies appeared here?"

He paused to think and answered shortly.

"They were probably here from before. This place is supposed to resemble a human town, so some of the statues were placed here. Why?"

"And how long will it take you to regain control again?"

"Ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Again, why?"

It is very risky but… 

"I think I have a plan."

I told him with a shaking expression on my face and met his curious gaze.