Larry Niven - The California Voodoo Game

Finally, Dark slumped to the ground, dead.

All about them, the tide seemed to be turning. Top Nun shouted, "Hoo-hoo!" and then The door crashed open again, and their own dead shambled forth.

Here was SJ, his torn body reanimated, his head slumped onto his right shoulder. His eyes burned with terrible new awareness. He carried a club studded with nails and broken glass. And there was Holly Frost, body mashed by some unimaginable pressure, eyes bulging from her head, sword trembling in her dead hand. There were Crystal Cofax, Friar Duck, Tamasan, "Aces" Wilde…

Shambling, lurching toward their former friends, hell-bent for blood.

Griffin found himself beside Top Nun. She and the crutch were glowing fiercely, extending power to her allies. Again and again, wounds that should have been fatal healed on Acacia or Tammi, and once on Griffin.

Demons, Mallbeasts, and zombies batted and scratched hungrily at her shield, struggling to get in, trying to claw their way to the meat…

SJ lurched against Top Nun's barrier, snapping his teeth. "Brains," he mumbled, black fluid drooling from his mouth. "More brains. Fresh brains." And slapped against the barrier again. "Sweetbreads?"

Some zombies were specially marked, sporting Virtual symbols on arms or legs that only Adventurers could see. Griffin struck a glowing head, and it burst. Spiders and snake-things sprayed out in ghastly profusion, and the zombie fell to its knees, twitching.

Alex leapt in, striking at the glowing designated limbs (just cut on the dotted line), getting a spectacular nauseating effect every time.

In the center of the fight, unable to contribute, were Mary-em, Alphonse, and Poule; Alphonse watched the action nervously-he had been disarmed, but it was getting too much. He pointed to Poule-Acacia had disarmed a Mallbeast, had a long and a short sword, and was wielding them like a Fury.

Poule came from behind and wrenched one of them from her hand. She gasped in surprise, seemed for a fraction of a second to consider fighting him for it, then came to her senses and turned back to the hungry dead.

"Cipher! Give Al his damned sword!" she screamed.

Cipher shucked it from his back without losing a word in his spell and tossed it to Al the B. Al snatched it, dropped it, almost lost his head picking it up, and then went on the attack.

And just in time. Top Nun had run out of juice. The golden shield failed, and she tumbled to her knees atop the crutch, exhausted. General Poule got an arm around her waist and carried her as if she were a child.

Alphonse was fighting like a fiend, but Alex saw him stop and adjust something at his belt. Griffin glimpsed a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag, and something within. A doll?

Then they had fought their way to the door, and Tammi led the way down the stairs. The stairwell was narrow, lit from overhead by a row of little yellow bulbs. Shadows flowed from one landing to the next. They stopped to catch their breath, and Twan came lurching up the stairs.

She was still slicked with rancid water. Her mouth gaped. A chunk of meat was missing from her midsection, and viscera bulged within. Her almond eyes were alight with a terrible fire, and she was encrusted with filth. She was carrying two shields-two trash-can lids.

Her eyes found Tammi

Tammi came at her, spading, swinging her blade. One shield came up, then the other, in no obvious haste; but Twan had the sword trapped. Her foot came around and found nothing. Tammi had leapt back, dropping the sword.

A moment later it was over. Tammi had remembered her other defences. Flame burst from the Nommo crown and enveloped Twan. The undead woman slammed back into the water. Her eyes bulged from their sockets, and exploded Alex was saved from looking at the rest of it. The lights had gone out.

"They killed the power," Acacia whispered.

"Enough already with the darkness. A little light, maybe?" Top Nun's force field came to life again. It might have been too weak to offer protection, but illumination it could provide.

They continued past Twan's smoking corpse and found their way down to the Mall level.

The ceiling was cracked, and great mossy sprays of graveyard dirt hung from the cracks, matted with mud. Water ran in sticky puddles on the ground and had ruined many of the shops. It dripped into the central well with a steady echoing sewer sound.

Tammi and Acacia were on the point now, Bishop taking up the rear.

Griffin's eyes were as open as he could get them. He was watching everything around him.

Then came drumbeats. Hot, rhythmic, jungle sounds, hypnotically alive and compelling. It seemed to Griffin that they came from every corner of the third level at the same time.

"What do you think of that?" he whispered.

"Catchy. Makes you want to dance," Alphonse said, but he stood in fighting stance and his eyes were wide.

Captain Cipher's arms shot into the air. Another dome of light covered them, and the music was muted.

This murky light Griffln started to flip his Virtual shield up. "Keep shield in place," a voice whispered in his ear.

Then the Mayombreros came out of the murk. They charged from every angle; they were everywhere at once, slavering and hungry, a living carpet of enemies fighting and dying for their terrible cause.

The Adventurers fought as a unit now, and with the power of the talismans they were strong. They ripped a hole through the Mayombreros in a whirlwind of fire and steel. General Poule shook blood and sweat from his scalp, panting. "There!" he screamed, and pointed to an EXIT sign twenty feet away.

It was the last thing he said. In the next instant he was down, buried in a forest of fangs and ripping claws.

The rest reached the stairwell. Bishop slammed the door shut on a hairy arm. It dropped to the ground, writhing and trying to crawl to the attack. Cipher's magic burned it.

"Seal the door!" Bishop yelled. Magical bolts hit it from three directions, slagging it shut.

"That won't stop them," Acacia said, sagging against the wall.

"Yeah," Tammi said. "But it'll take them a minute. Maybe. And meanwhile…"

Alphonse was gasping. That had been close. Very close. Mayombrero talons had nearly clawed his belt loose.

And that wouldn't have worked at all. Not at all.

I've got something for you, Bishop. It's almost payday.

The base of the stairwell was abandoned. Tammi touched the closed door gingerly. As she did, they could hear the ringing of an alarm klaxon. Insistent. Frightening. "This is it," she whispered. "Everything depends on what happens next. Any last thoughts?"

There was an awful silence, in which only the klaxon spoke. Then Mary-em raised her hand.

Griffln stiffened. It would be good to hear the clarion call to battle, as spoken by this redoubtable Warrior-woman. What would she have to say? Words to stir the blood, no doubt. They all leaned close.

"Ah…" Mary-em said, mouth twisting into a rueful smile. "I think my water broke."

Friday, July 22, 2059 8:23 P.M.

The upper door was being battered in, one shuddering crunch at a time. Cipher lit Oya's chillum pipe and puffed smoke to form a magical window. It showed them the Mallbeasts slamming their bodies mindlessly against the portal. Horribly, they seemed to ignore the tact that their own flesh was tearing, their own bones breaking with the effort.

But at the bottom of the stairs, a delicate miracle was taking place.

Tammi stood with her back to the Adventurers, scanning the landing above them. The Mayombreros would have to get through her first. Bishop and Acacia stood guard at the bottom. Top Nun focused all of her energies on the task of bringing Mary-em's child into the world.

"Push!" she coaxed. Mary-em gave a convincing imitation of a woman attempting to pass a watermelon. She bucked and writhed, she held her breath until she purpled, and she screamed and clawed the ground, gasping.