With the trap in place, they had a simple plan: open the door and start yelling.

When the zombies responded, Daniel and Ivey would retreat deeper into the room; the zombies would follow and then die. Daniel did not expect it to work, or at least not perfectly. He hoped the traps would all trigger successfully and that the thicket of spikes and traps would injure most of the zombies and potentially kill some of the weaker ones. Then after that, the structural integrity would hold sufficiently to keep them trapped where their spears could finish them.

All that really mattered was that the entire structure held. If it fell apart, then they would probably die, but Daniel was hopeful. He had built in a couple layers of redundancy and, providing the zombies had their movements constricted, they would not get out. If they started throwing sharp claws around unimpeded, then all bets were off.

He wondered if they had made the right decision to throw everything into this being successful. They had stripped all the wood they could find, including the internal doors. There was no running away anymore.

They had debated it extensively. He had argued for a fallback position, but Ivey had kept her focus on the bigger picture. If they were restricted in these rooms, eventually they would die. Her words, not his, and he had to admit that they had rung with truth. They needed food and water, and as for the zombies in the stairwell, he doubted they would just go away. Where would they go? And then there was always the risk of stronger and more powerful monsters.

It was too late for second thoughts. They were committed now. All choices were equally bad and they had chosen to give up the opportunity. His gut was horrified at the thought that they had put all their eggs in the one basket. Who did that when their lives were on the line? Idiots, Daniel thought. The two of them were idiots. Yet the decision was right and they had the second door to swing shut to avoid being overwhelmed. It was a zombie apocalypse, and when all you had were prayers, you got down on your knees. There was no nice path with pretty signs that said this way led to safety. There were no simple options to be had. Every selection led to a fight to the death, and the best they could do was to tilt the playing field at least slightly in their favour.

If there appeared to be an easy way, Daniel was sure that it would lead them straight into being part of being a zombie buffet.

Everything was a gamble.

Daniel forced the door open. “What now?” he whispered, trying not to alert the zombies by accident.

“Help,” Ivey screamed, doing a wonderful impression of a damsel in distress. She winked at him and prepared her bow and arrow. She had used the curtain strings while he was creating traps to string it. Based on the holes in the wall she had also practiced firing it. She would start with range and then switch to her spear if she thought it would be more effective.

“Roarrah!”

It was a distant roar, but it was a response.

“Help, help!”

They were coming. It was all that Daniel could think of. He retreated to the position he and Ivey had planned. Where he could be both bait and control the traps. His knuckles hurt from how hard he gripped the club. It was ready, but he hoped there would be no need to use it. Once the monsters entered the contraption, Daniel’s focus would be on holding the haphazard collection together. Keep them contained so that Ivey could finish them, and knowing the power of the monsters, that would take all of his energy.

She held a bow with a spear next to her, and he marvelled at her. If someone had told him, when they had been dancing last night, that he would still be with her the following afternoon, you could guarantee that this was not what he would have been imagining or hoping for.

“ROARRAG!”

An arrow shot over his shoulder to slam into the door frame.

“Oops.”

Daniel could hear the zombies coming; it sounded more like charging cattle than humans. Then their flailing limbs were visible as half of them shot past the doorway before yanking themselves to a stop.

In those instances, Daniel saw for the first time who his enemies were. There was a one-eyed hairy beast, a hairless grey-skin type which looked like all the water had been sucked out of it. Another one like the androgynous first monster they had killed, but this one, while sexless, was covered in light reddish fur. Then there was an enormous creature that was larger than an NFL tackle after an additional heavy course of steroids. Huge beyond belief, the human that it used to be must have started over two meters tall and have been carrying sumo wrestler’s levels of weight to get to that size, and it had no fat on it now, only muscle. One arm hung limp. So that was the one that had thrown itself at his door.

Maybe his growth magic had been stronger than he realised. He marvelled at the thought that the door he had been reinforcing had stopped multiple shoulder charges from that thing.

“Help!” Ivey yelled behind him, almost making him turn in surprise. He constrained his impulse as he knew nothing had got behind him. Ivey was still playing her role. Riling them up. It was the right call; they needed them to swarm, to be overcome by rage or bloodlust. An arrow shot past him.

It was high and slammed into the giant zombie’s chest. Suddenly, en masse, they were charging. Three of them blurred forward, shoulder to shoulder, barely squeezing through the constricted entrance way and then spreading out to fill three of the four lanes. The androgynous, hairless, and another smaller one that he had not noticed initially.

It was so small. Please don’t let it have been a kid. A prayer, but his eyes told the true story. Fuck you, world.

He felt sick.

It was also the fastest.

SNAP!

It was like the jaws of a bear trap closing, and it had been designed to take down something significantly bigger than what was coming. Kid or diminutive adult, there was no way it could have survived those closing wooden teeth.

The trap worked. There was blood.

SNAP!

The androgynous zombie had attempted to slow down to avoid the fate of the smaller zombie, having seen it get splatted. That split second of warning allowed it to dig its claws into stop its reckless run forward, but even through the claws splintered the wood, it did not stop its momentum completely and it hit such that its head had taken the full brunt of the first spike.

Two down.

SNAP!

His eyes flicked to the third trap, and it had been less successful than the first two. The waterless, hairless one had mostly pulled itself to a stop but was a fraction slow and triggered the trap despite its best effort, but it had thrown itself to the right of the trap, which had protected the vulnerable torso but it had exposed its leg and arm, which had both been caught and mangled.

“ROARRA!”

The giant was in the room, along with a one-eyed zombie. Daniel smiled. He knew what had happened to that eye as he recognised the face.

For goodness’ sakes, how many were there?

Lots!

There were more in the corridor. They must have joined late. Which took them to at least eight, excluding the two he had killed earlier. It seemed like the group had found friends since they had last attacked his room. Remembering what his role was, Daniel triggered the vine that let him seal off the doorway. Five was already too many.

The door-shutting mechanism was an adaptation of the setup that had downed the first three zombies. Like the other traps once triggered, it shut awfully fast, with three spikes like fangs coming out of the door as it slammed close. There was a squeal from outside, so at least one of those thorns had scored. Then all of Daniel’s focus had shifted to the ones in the room with him. The ones who were trying to kill him. Could his construction contain the massive one?

There was an abrupt splintering of wood.

Nope!

Growth magic exploded out of him into the trap he had created. A setup that he knew better than his own hand because he had spent half an hour studying it and putting down what could be best described as conduits or nerves for him to send his signals and power to where they were needed.

Courtesy of the giant, the bits closest to the door were already jumbled. With Daniel barely thinking about it, spikes exploded out, driving into the one-eyed zombie. It had run down the fourth lane but was pulling to a stop before the automatic trap. The thorns grew from nowhere and burst into the creature’s back.

It leapt straight ahead, away from the spikes attacking it toward the last active trap. It might have seen what happened to its companions, but when something sharp poked you into a back, you jumped forward. Zombies seemed to have kept that instinct.

SNAP!

Four down, which left only the large one to deal with. Daniel barely registered the success. It looked ravenous.

Crack.

More of his trap was being torn to bits. What? Mouth dry, his right hand was in a death grip on his club, yet it was not the answer, and it was not like he could run.

He needed to stop the gigantic monster. For a moment, he opened his eyes to have a closer look. It was coming straight at him, its massive hand closing along wooden slats, twisting them and breaking them and taking another step. Systemically destroying the wood. It had no choice; it was too large to go down the prepared lanes, so it had to forge its own path.

Ivey’s arrows were slamming into it. One in the cheek, three into the chest area, but they were not doing enough to stop it.

Daniel had to slow it.

More than that, he had to kill it.

His hands were glowing green, and he knew it was a tactical mistake to watch its approach. Instead, he needed to be actively resisting it through the traps he had meticulously created.

Daniel forced his concentration on and into the wood. In a fashion, he could see through the wood. He knew where the monster was at all times. The mesh of spikes on the ground that Ivey had convinced him to include was useless against the monster as its feet had flattened the first mat.

Crack.

More of the trap got splintered, and the giant took another lumbering step forward. Daniel’s consciousness flexed, and the mat of spines under his next step transformed from twenty two-inch shards into a single reinforced foot-long spike.

Through the connection, Daniel could feel where the zombie’s foot was coming down, and he moved his spike a little to the left so that it was positioned perfectly. It came down, and he hardened the spike further to stop it from breaking like the smaller ones.

“ROARRAG!”

The blast of sound made him rock back visibly.

Daniel opened his eyes. The whites of the zombies’ eyes were showing as it violently yanked back its foot. Every adult who had kids or even men like him who had young nephews had stepped on Lego at some stage of their lives. Daniel was sure that feeling was a small part of what the zombie was going through.

Score one for the good guys, Daniel thought as it hopped on one leg, clutching the damaged foot.

There.

More growth magic exploded out from him. There was no point holding back; he needed to exploit its mistake.

Still on one foot, it jumped into a different lane. Like in Day of the Triffids, the single new spike he had created oriented perfectly to be under the descending heel of the beast.

It landed.

And ground its foot all the way through almost to the floor. In that brief instant, while the nerves relayed to its brain what had occurred, Daniel imagined what that position meant. Its toes were on the ground. There was no spike showing outside the leg, which meant . . .

The poor overgrown monster had a foot of wood extending from the arch of its foot all the way up through the ankle and into the calf. Muscles must have been cut and bones pushed aside. He could not even imagine what it must have felt like.

“ROARA!”

It was not incorrect to say it was no longer happy. Roaring without letting up, it fell onto its bum to let it pull its foot off. It hurt to just look at the red, very red human blood that flooded out.

“ROARRA!”

It was howling at the roof.

He had hurt it.

Realisation exploded through Daniel; this creature was not actually indestructible. The thick skin had flattened the first mat of spikes, but the rest of it was nothing like that. It was big, strong, and fearsome, but its skin and bone had been pushed apart by his hastily constructed spike.

Another arrow slammed into the sitting monster as if to illustrate the point, penetrating a good five inches. Maybe its soles and paws were tough, but beyond that, it was not. Even Ivey with her limited strength could hurt it.

It was on its hands and knees, swinging its arms like a kid knocking over toy soldiers, and Daniel’s painstakingly constructed network of constricting pathways and spikes shattered and went flying.

“ROARRAG!”

It pulled itself towards him and repeated the manoeuvre, unwilling to stand and risk getting spiked once more. More of his trap broke. in fact, what was left was useless, as the structural integrity was long since gone. Yet Daniel was not scared.

His power was focused on the slab of wood in front of him. Those hours of practising creating what were effectively spring-loaded traps came together. He was bending a wooden pole, extracting the energy, straightening, fixing its integrity, then repeating. Treating it like a pump. Each flex of his muscles instantly transferring into the weapon he was creating. He borrowed potential energy from three pressure traps that had not been triggered but were not positioned where they would help.

The monster, unable to stand, was crawling and swinging its arms to break the wood that had hurt it. The technique was effective, but luckily for Daniel, it was just too slow.

The pieces of his contraception were coming together.

Building up the tension in the spring.

Infusing the power.

It hummed with potential destruction.

Daniel let himself smile; he did not even have to be that accurate. Once the monster was impaled, he was sure he could direct the timber to grow to where he needed it to; he wished he had done it with the spike. But he had a weapon to stop this final monster. It looked like a giant fly swatter adorned with three-foot spikes.

The monster pulled itself forward.

“RAROO!”

Was that a triumphal scream? It prepared to knock away the last piece of wood, which was his new weapon. Daniel saw its fangs.

Not today, he thought.

Snap!

The weapon in front of him sprang into action, falling upon the defenceless creature. Its arm was extended behind it, ready to create momentum to smash aside the last bits of threatening wood and, as a result, it had nothing to protect itself. It noticed the trap just as Daniel released it and with the sort of intelligence that Daniel dreaded, it ducked its head and hit the ground to avoid what he had triggered.

As it did so, Daniel sighed in relief. The monster, given what it was facing, could not have attempted anything stupider. Then again, it did not know what he had created and probably thought it was ducking a swinging, slashing arm rather than a fly swatter.

It got an arm up and its head tucked in against its chest as it fell forward.

There was a blast of wind as the weapon activated fully, rushing through the air. It hit with a thud with the force of spikes, driving the monster to the floor. One spike hit the shoulder, another missed altogether, deflected by the flailing arm, but the last went straight through its exposed back.

“ROARA!”

An expression of agony, and it launched itself to its feet. Shredded, damaged foot and all. Pieces of wood went everywhere with the spike that had impaled it, torn out by the abrupt movements.

“ROAARA.”

Its eyes focused briefly on Daniel, but the moment its own eyes went slightly glassy and broke eye contact, Daniel looked down at the creature’s chest. There was blood running from a hole in the space between its pecs. That spike that hit the back had gone straight through it and punctured out of the chest. If its anatomy was still human, that was straight through the heart.

It looked dumbly at Daniel, trying to process what had just happened. Its hand covered the wound above its stomach, trying to stop the blood loss.

Blood spurted out around the paw that was uselessly trying to staunch the flood.

It was an extraordinary sight, but this gigantic creature was still alive, so even as Daniel stood apparently transfixed by the sight, he was ready to leap back even if it even flinched in his direction. The creature, however, no longer cared about him.

It collapsed to its knees.

Confusion etched over its features such that as it died, it looked all too human-like, crashing forward to break the last components of his trap that were still standing.

Daniel dashed towards the door, deviating only slightly to brain the hairless monster that was still alive, and then he was at the door, ready to reinforce it with magic, though, the pond inside him was dry, and all he could rely on was that tickle of energy that was falling into it.

It had been enough before and hopefully it would be again.

Head against the wood, listening.

Nothing.

He could hardly believe that their desperate attempt had worked so successfully. They had killed five zombies. More cores and probably a level up with his interface class and the traps had worked!

The crazy pressure traps had done better than expected. He was going to get strong, his tools better, and they were going to kill all the zombies out there.

He used his wood sense ability to search for anything outside and there was nothing. The zombies he had trapped outside must have retreated.

Success.

His stomach clenched in pain. The lack of mana made his brain fuzzy and heavy. The agony was building in his guts.

Darkness over took him, and he only time to lower himself to the ground as best he could. As he folded, he felt stinging pains, the splinters digging into him. Then he was unconscious for the third time in half a day, but this time he was smiling. They could win this, and he wondered what powers he would get this time.