Maharg67's Den (shorter works, short stories, poetry, etc.)

[Maharg67]

Zombies From the Sky is being transferred to Maharg67's Den as expanded, improved, posts.

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Zombies From the Sky: Three

One 2.1[2]{3}

 

The big tramp-steamer, a mixture of cheap freighter and passenger carrier, moved steadily through the large area of glimmering mist though none were at the helm. Gun shots rang out from mid deck, starboard, towards the aft of the ship.

 

Five desperate figures, immune to the mist's effects, struggled to lower a large wooden lifeboat even as former crew members, and fewer passengers, came shambling towards them as zombies. About half were failing, were crumbling, but the others were transforming into horrific leathery like humanoids that were gaining strength, endurance and resistance to damage. Yet others were becoming more smarter, gun using, ghouls or even more deformed charging, clambering, monsters of ghulks.

 

It was a terrible, horrific, struggle of great violence and no foolish mercy attempted by those fighting the undead.

 

A couple of ship cats leapt into the lifeboat, followed by some rats, and then the humans were following. Then they were lowering themselves towards the ocean surface. Zombies scrambled after, some falling into the sea where they quickly perished. The failures perished far more quickly than did the others.

 

Nobody tried to push the rats off the lifeboat; somehow it seemed not right to do so. Anyway there were those on board who made sure it was not done and had the capacity to do so.

 

Then five unlifen dropped quickly, easily, into the lifeboat. The damphirs had fought back the zombies, had killed two zombie like ghouls that could use guns along with many actual zombies; the failures had proven to be most easy to dispose of, acting as if they wanted death. Two unlifen nombies slid down into the lifeboat but there still was room. The powerful unlifen versions of zombies brought big packs of equipment and supplies, mostly supplies. Indeed all brought at least something small of use, thanks to the First Mate.

 

The living berserker beast, that had been the captain, leapt onto the deck but made no move to get onto the lifeboat. Instead it began to fight zombies, a battle that it could not really win but which it waged for the sake of those in the two lifeboats. Thankfully the undead had not yet really developed any real power and there were no lichs, or other most dangerous kinds of undead, on the ship.

 

Yes, there was another lifeboat with humans, animals and nombies. The other had set out earlier but was moving slowly enough for the second to easily catch up with it.

 

Nombies used the long oars with their powerful strength. Soon the two boats were moving steadily away from the doomed tramp-steamer where the abomination, of a former captain, was busy hurling zombies into the ocean.

 

The tramp-steamer had been carrying dynamite to an island mining site and now the ship exploded below the sea line. The ship shuddered and was soon listing as water flooded into it lower decks. More explosions followed and then the big old vessel was soon vanished beneath the waves.

 

It had been the work of the Captain, and a few others, who had done this to make sure that all of the undead perished. Only the captain had survived and he had killed some of the others when they began to become undead; the others had died of violence.

 

As the ship sank, an awful secret sank with it that only the Captain knew; he would not speak of it willingly.

 

The escapees headed towards the nearest inhabited island, hoping very much for a safe haven in a poorly charted area of ocean known for its mysterious vanishings and other events.

Edited June 26, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Zombies From the Sky is being transferred to Maharg67's Den as expanded, improved, posts.

Was One 2a.

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Zombies From the Sky: Four

One 3.1[2]{3}

 

In one boat nombies rowed with great strength while the First Mate steered the lifeboat with its rudder handle. It led and the other lifeboat, almost identical to it, followed quite closely.

 

With a gruff voice, the First Mate spoke. "Got a feeling that the captain may survive after all, just a feeling but he is one of the hardest, toughest, yet fairest men I have ever met. Smart too, and canny!"

 

The professor looked to the First Mate. He was very calm, as was his daughter the lecturer, as if they had endured such experiences before in their lives, had become used to them. "Now they he has transformed, into a berserker beast, most would not trust him to be safe. Yet he clearly chose to risk his own life to allow others to get to safety, even for that cat which he carried out of the cabins."

 

The destruction of the ship, its sinking, seemed to have come with the vanishing of the glimmering mist. This may, or may not, have been coincidental. It was hard to know with the glimmering mists.

 

Thankfully the ocean was surprisingly calm, especially for that area. It stretched out dark blue, and beautiful, while a scattering of white clouds moved slowly across the lighter blue sky.

 

The First Mate snorted. "He always did have a soft spot for cats, which is why there were so many of them in the ship of which all survived, hopefully. We need to make sure that the two lifeboats stay close together for the survival of us all."

 

The girl child looked out to sea with a solemn, sweet, expression on her face while her small dog was curled up in her lap sleeping off his recent fear and excitement. Three cats and five rats were snuggled up against her, but on either side of her so that cats did not meet rats directly and be tempted.

[Maharg67]

Zombies From the Sky is being transferred to Maharg67's Den as expanded, improved, posts.

Was One 3.1[3]{4}

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Zombies From the Sky: Five

One 4.1[4]{5}

 

The two lifeboats staid close together as the survivors sought the nearest charted islands. The conditions were harsh but the unlifen put themselves into a kind of survival trance and fresh water supplies became less of an issue. Also they had managed to grab a fair sized quantity of the valuable liquid.

 

Considering the poorly charted area that the tramp-steamer had been sailing through, far from any of the major sea lanes or even secondary sea lanes, their encounter with an uncharted island was no real surprise; this was despite it being quite large. Skirting dangerous reefs, they managed to get through an opening and then were in more sheltered waters. From there they found a way into a big island lagoon.

 

Blue sky was clear overhead, the day was warm but not too hot, as the boats were pulled up onto a sandy beach shore of the lagoon. They brought the lifeboats quite high onto the sands, thanks to the extra strength of the nombies, and spent some time resting and getting used to being on solid ground again.

 

The cats, and rats, staid with the group as if somehow drawn to do so. The rats got only strangely well with the damphirs and nombies, as did the cats, neither rodents or felines trying to hurt each other.

 

The small dog staid with the humans, glad to curl up on the lap of the immune girl who sat cross legged on grassy ground as she carefully wrote into her journal, using small print so as to conserve space. Next to her, as before, were cats and rats but in greater number. She would glance around at times, noting the three damphir teenagers that were two girls and a boy. Clearly they were triplets, by their looks and mannerisms. The other two damphirs were a married couple who now looked younger, than they had done, by a goodly amount of years.

 

The Second Mate was a thinly muscular, tall white man with a scruffy looking beard and a battered merchant sailor's outfit. He was human, was immune, and understandably upset at the terrible fate of the ship and most of its crew and passengers. He was smoking his pipe, using just a small amount of his carefully rationed tobacco. At first he did not seem too pleased by the presence of the unlifen entities, despite that most of the nombies had been crew members, and yet he was not truly antagonistic either. He would soon be more accepting of them.

 

Other humans were a professor of archaeology, his daughter assistant, four male deck hands and the ship's doctor, a man.

 

The first day on the island was a quiet one!

Edited June 26, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Future Sequence of Story and 'Other' Post as altered with addition of Zombies From the Sky

The Curse of Quamaire

Other

Not This Earth

 

Other

 

Zombies from the Sky

Other

 

DC Madness

 

Other

Doctor Who

Other

 

Restart From the Top!

 

Other will always be at least 3 posts and could be an internet picture, a visual joke, Perth WA Stories, Graham Stories, one of my own photographs or a wondrous personal poem or something else that will surely, possibly, entertain you.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.

Winston Churchill

Edited June 27, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Australian Quotes!

 

Unless you're willing to have a go, fail miserably, and have another go, success won't happen

Phillip Adams - journalist

 

A champion team will always beat a team of champions

Early Collingwood Magpies teams

As a leader you must celebrate life, you must celebrate success and paradoxically, you must celebrate heroic failures

Lieutenant General D.M. Mueller

I've never seen anyone rehabilitated by punishment

Henry Lawson - poet

 

A Platypus is a duck designed by a committee

anon

[Maharg67]

Zombies From the Sky is being transferred to Maharg67's Den as expanded, improved, posts.

Was One 3a

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Zombies From the Sky: Six

One 5.1[5]{6}

 

Quinn, Katrina and Salina gathered coconuts and bananas that seemed to be oddly abundant in the area. They found traces of animals but also of what could have been humanoids who had made some effort to hide their tracks. Two nombies came peacefully, with them, to carry gathered coconuts and bananas in thick cloth sacks.

 

It was a beautiful day, weather wise, on a beautiful tropical island, and the triplets wanted to make the most of it while doing some good for the group.

 

The damphir triplets were in casual gear, the femmes in dresses they had cut shorter to give more freedom to their leg movements. Under other circumstances there might have been some complaints at the immodesty shown but not there and then; contrary wise the doctor was too avid to observe the female triplets' legs.

 

Quinn shook his head. "Something about how the coconut, and banana, palms are gathered here... well I can't quite put my finger on it but..."

 

Katrina nodded in an absent minded fashion as if largely lost in her own thoughts. "There is something odd about the whole island, or at least this area of it we have explored so far. We need to find a source of fresh water and to consider doing some fishing at the lagoon."

 

Something shot through the air very high above them. They only caught a glimpse of a winged thing, so fast was it moving in the slowly growing darkness. There was something about it had none of them liked, not even the nombies who moved restlessly for a moment. The damphirs were pleased that they, and their nombie companions, were below cover.

 

Salina grimaced. "I strongly suggest that we get back to the camp and warn the others about that thing that flew so fast, so high, through the sky. I am glad that we brought the life boats well up from the open beach and placed them amongst the palm trees. We will have to be very careful in future, all of us."

 

They returned to the camp, even more carefully than they had left it, taking their gathered prizes with them. They did not have very far to go to reach the encampment but 'sensed' that they were being carefully observed by more than just animal eyes. Yet they experienced no real feeling of threat.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Zombies From the Sky is being transferred to Maharg67's Den as expanded, improved, posts but new episodes will be added as new posts. This is a new episode.

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Zombies From the Sky: Seven

One 6.1[6]{7}

 

There was the 'One that was Many that was One' that fought to keep the careful balancing of forces on the Isles of Mist. Indeed the Isles of Mist were not of just one world but many just as they were of one place. Also they were more of an archipelago, with minicontinents, than just a small bunch of islands. Isles of Mist, Archipelago of Fate, the Forbidden Lands, the Utopian Isles, and many other names had been used for them but to AlphaOmega no 'name' really fitted. He preferred to use the term the 'Archipelago of the Way' that was, as far as he knew, the oldest name he had ever heard.

 

He was vastly old but he could not remember all that he had lived through.

 

But there were 'things' on-of-in the archipelago that were vastly more older than himself, far more dangerous than himself though he was formidable, and he feared that something was waking them or causing them to arise from the 'depths'. It had begun back when a strange comet-projectile had exploded into one of the bigger islands.

 

Perspectives on the isles shifted as did perception and accessibility. He studied a great map that slowly shifted around, parts of it phasing in-out of solid existence or so it seemed for the exotic map had a far from perfect total view of the bizarre archipelago.

 

Small monkeys play fought on a big island bear rug while two elderly animans played chess on a coffee table on that same rug, sitting on big old wooden chairs to do so. One was a female tigerman and the other a male tigerchimp of mellower temperament than most of his kind; they were married with children and grandchildren.

 

AlphaOmega stood in a drab grey robe that looked far newer than it was, it being many centuries old. He looked at a view-mirror that was like a non-reversed normal mirror. It showed a view of the island and the newcomers, that had come to the island in two lifeboats. The view blurred every couple of minutes or so, indicating at least one very powerful entity was amongst the group but to his surprise he could not focus down on how many, or who, they might be. The resistance was powerful indeed.

 

He decided that he needed to talk to his former wife, the Oracle, though he had not communicated directly with her for a very long time.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Zombies From the Sky is being transferred to Maharg67's Den as expanded, improved, posts and new episodes will be added as new posts.

Was One 4.1[4]{5}

 

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Zombies From the Sky: Eight

One 7.1[7]{8}

 

Was it fate, or luck, that led the berserker monster to find the same island as the lifeboats did? What ever the answer was, the creature clung to a barrel and, with seemingly impossible strength and endurance, made its way across the ocean. The island was large and the former captain got through the reef but climbed up onto a shore line of the island. He came onto the island a goodly distance from the lagoon.

 

There the creature opened the barrel to find it mostly empty except for some sacks of raw potatoes and, surprisingly, two hidden away bottles of rum. Captain ManMonster, as he had come to call himself, took swigs of rum and bites of raw potato while sitting with his back to a banana palm. Then he fell asleep with the sound of waves crashing onto the beach, seagulls and other exotic island noises coming to his ears.

 

The beauty, and peacefulness, of the place helped him sleep well and to dream sweet dreams. Curious eyes, of different kinds of lifeforms, studied him with much curiosity but none came too close too him. At least not then and there.

 

When he awoke there were some ripe bananas, and cut in half fresh coconuts, left for him to enjoy along with some wondrous local mogsberries.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Zombies From the Sky is being transferred to Maharg67's Den as expanded, improved, posts and new episodes will be added as new posts.

Was One 5a

 

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Zombies From the Sky: Nine

One 8.1[8]{9}

 

The black flying creature noted stuff floating up onto the shore, driven by the waves, and some animans beach combing for anything they could find that was even semi-useful. They fell fearfully into crouching positions, upon seeing the flying thing, but the undead wingpire had no interest them. Nor did it spot anything but the typical type ocean provided stuff that somehow got past the reefs at times.

 

The rather simple minded creature did not have the capacity to even consider such mysteries and no desire to do so. Its lords, and masters, sent it to spy out the islands for anything unusual and that it did but only as best that it could do so.

 

On the sands below and animan dogman quietly cursed the creature as he stood up in his raggedy outfit. Yet he also held a powerful bolt-action rifle hidden by more ragged cloth. His raggedy outfit hid leather body-armour and a compact podleather backpack along with podleather webbing of pouch dotted belts. He was a rebel!

 

He spoke to others there, who were also disguised rebels, in the language known as Esperanto, and in a very strong voice. "The Oracle saw things important come up upon the waves here. We must do our best to find them, both the non living and the living."

 

Sanchi, a female adult catman, pointed to where there were some odd marks in the sand. "Those look odd, as if something dragged itself up the beach while trying to conceal its tracks. Not like anything I have ever seen before, Roger!"

 

Roger looked and saw what she was indicating. Then he noted some real beach comber animans and began heading towards them to ask some questions. It turned out to be a good idea for both of the ottermans had seen a monstrous figure come out of the ocean water and, with amazing speed, make its way up into amongst the palms. It was the same thing that had made the marks that Sanchi had spotted.

 

The adult female otterman shuddered. "It was like an octopus thing but with very leathery skin. It slithered and used its tentacles, of which it had three at the front and three in the middle and three at the end. It had smaller tentacles on its body and at the end of its big tentacles. We ran away and so we did not see where it went from there, from where we saw it."

 

Roger was pleased by the information and gave the pair of ottermans each a copper glowcoin, a thing of value through out the Paradise Isles. He would have to get a message to the Oracle as soon as he could do so because he knew it would contain important information.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Maharg67