Having decided to begin without Sammy, Bobby and his group crept towards the entrance they had come in from, due to the undead nature of most of his companions not a sound could be heard aside from the odd clunk of bone on bone, in fact Bobby felt quite self conscious over the fact that he seemed to be the loudest one.

  They came up to a corner and he peaked round it in the dim lighting, seeing a couple of burly guards ahead. One of them was puffing on some metal stick plastered with ads, it wasn’t the smoking or vaping of old, no this was in a way far worse. The sticks forced your body to burn away your fat reserves in real time, giving you a constant rush of energy with no side effects at the beginning other than horrible addiction. Bobby had seen the addicts though, they looked shrivelled and aged, their body burning itself up to fuel a constant never ending metabolic rush, using far more energy than they could consume.

  He shivered at the memory of the videos they watched in school, then looked at the other men, they seemed woefully unprepared for what was about to happen. Idly standing around and laughing, they were not the sort he wanted to die, but if they stood in his way they would have to.

  He drew a tiny radio from his pocket and pressed the button on the top, whispering the agreed upon signal to Gary. Then he waited.

  +++++

  Gary sat on the roof of the Truck, holding the little radio receiver in his hand, below him, packed in tightly, not needing water or food or even oxygen were one hundred supersoldiers. They had infinite stamina, no sense of pain, no hesitation and would not question his orders. Individually they were each stronger than the average man as well as being borderline bullet and blade proof.

  It was an astonishing force, such a small army could beat numbers ten times their amount on a level playing field, not that any playing field was ever level in war, strategy in battle was built around snatching every advantage as well as figuring out how to sustain your troops and he only had to bother with half of that.

  As he pondered how ridiculous his life had gotten as of late, the little device in his hand buzzed, a tinny speaker accompanying a horribly magnified low quality hologram of Bobby’s face. “There’s a Skeleton in the closet,” the hologram said.

  Gary chuckled and slipped the device in his pocket, before hopping off the truck and turning to the thrall who was staring at the ground and drooling. Jay was slightly different from the other thralls that Bobby had brought back, he seemed to have no ability to take the initiative in doing anything anymore without being explicitly told to.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Get the guns out.” he told the thrall before going round the back and throwing the back doors of the truck open.

  For a moment there was chaos as a small avalanche of bone flowed out, causing him to quickly leap back, then the skeletons started moving and extracting themselves, gently pushing their way out of the pile and standing around. A quick wave from him got the skeletons to move to the side, making more room for the others.

  Jay came back with a series of black suitcases before going to the front of the van to get more. Gary opened them, each lid folding up to reveal ten, dark gleaming firearms. He wasn’t sure what kind of rifle they were exactly, it had been a while since he was in a conflict and technology progressed fast these days, but they were relatively modern, the sort of choice weapons for most people other than the megacorps.

  Seeing the guns some instructions flashed through the skeletons' simplistic minds, prompting them to form orderly queues as they stepped forwards, armed themselves and formed a perimeter around the truck.

  Gary had parked the truck just on the other side of the bridge, tucked behind a half collapsed apartment block, he had wondered about the feasibility of sending the skeletons through the water so they could get the jump on the gang, but the guns weren’t waterproof sadly, so they would have to go from the front and be seen coming.

  Having obvious pale coloured troops in a very dark city was an oversight he realised he shouldn’t have overlooked, but it was too late to do anything about, so he would have to take it up with Bobby later.

  While the skeletons were finishing arming themselves, he went back to the front of the truck and opened the boot where older non electric vehicles would have had their engines, then he extracted a stack of alloy helmets, and instructed Jay to bring the rest. Bobby had explained that the skeletons stored the magic they used in their skull cavity and while they could continue to operate without their skull for a short while it was a major weakness, so he had made sure to get helmets made for as many of the skeletons as possible.

  Once the skeletons were all ready, armed and armoured, he took a deep breath before briefing them a second time and giving the signal, prompting the hundred skeletons around him to spring into action. He left Jay at the truck to protect their getaway vehicle, then Gary made sure to position himself near the back of the mob as they began marching forwards. The modern variety of kevlar could stop most bullets, but that didn’t make him sniper proof, and he could still die if he was sprayed with bullets continuously.

  Very quickly his army reached the bridge, and began proceeding across it. For a good half minute the sight of the skeletons in their scopes seemed to spook the Kamden Crew, but then the shooting began, and with that his skeletons charged forwards in a sprint.

  It took all of his strength to match their pace, but he made sure he did as the bullets rained down from the sentries atop the buildings and one hundred skeletons swarmed towards the entrance of a parking lot, starting their invasion.

  +++++

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