Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

Just as the group begins to turn away -

A sound. Wet, squelching. Aberrant.

Barns’ blood runs cold.

He whirls back toward the field, eyes snapping to the trenches, where the last of the foam still bubbles over the awakening humans.

And then, something moves.

A figure - but not a zombie. Something else.

A survivor - but not anything like the others.

A man dragging himself from the bodies, skin half-decayed but his eyes fully aware.

He gasps raggedly, his voice hoarse from undeath:

"Please... help me..."

Barns’ heart stops.

The man was resurrected - as an undead.

The shambler gasps for air, dropping to his knees. Everyone looks to Barns in shock as the hero approaches, cautiously.

The man has definitively been foamed - that much is certain. And yet he hasn’t fully returned to his human form. He’s something in between - no longer rotted, but still sallow. Not dead…but a far-flung excuse for ’living’.

"Uh, hello?" Barns asks with a tilt of his head, unsure of what to say or do.

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"Yesss…help…me…it hurts…"

"You’re not gonna bite me, are you?"

"Why…would I…do such a thing…?"

Barns gulps. "Listen, guy. Tell me what you remember."

"I was…a Zombie Lord…but then an angel…smacked me out of it."

Barns turns to Osmond. "Hey, Ozzie," he calls snarkily. "You’re an angel, you know that?"

The demon is confused by the comment, so Barns calls him over. Even a powerful Demon Lord like him doesn’t like being around such a wretched creature as this.

"Oz," Barns says when the demon finally arrives at his side. "This is the Zombie Lord you fought. Look familiar?"

Osmond’s eyes widen. "You were the Zombie Lord!?"

"Yes…" the man says, heaving. He’s disoriented, and weak - but it’s undeniable. Faint green necrotic energy still simmers along his skin.

"My guy, we’re going to have to give you another foam bath. Is that okay? It might help."

"Anything…please…the pain…"

Barns gets Clancy over, and the bumbling crab blasts the half-zombie with a high-powered jet of foam.

But the man neither burns away nor looks any more human. An impossibility made reality.

"It’s possible the magic eroded his very existence," Osmond thinks quietly. "When I fought him, that necrotic power infected even my magic. It’s possible that it’s so corrupt that not even Clancy can undo the full extent of its malevolence."

Barns glances around. Maria and Eldrie are hard at work gathering the newly resurrected together. It doesn’t look like there are any other shamblers, just this guy.

"He might be able to use his powers even as a human, the same way Eldrie can with the vampire’s eye," Barns says as an aside to Osmond. "What should we do? Kill him? Or keep an eye on him?"

Even as Barns asks, he knows the right answer. Thanks to his Crab Intuition, he can scan anyone for murderous intent. This man lacks any sense of bloodlust. That’s not something a mindless zombie would be able to hide - not even Maria, master of manipulation, could disguise it from Barns.

"There’s so much we still need to learn about your Resurrection," Osmond whispers back. "We’d be fools not to bring him with us."

Barns nods. Quinn, the mayor of Dimartino, was a demon once. Even though he didn’t keep any of his powers, he did retain some of his memories. It seems that those who held higher ranks and positions have the ability to retain some of the power they had in their Apocalypse-form, whether they were a demon, a vampire…or even a Zombie Lord.

"Can you walk, guy? What’s your name?"

Barns is having trouble talking to and interacting with the shambler - he’s just too aberrantly grotesque, even though he clearly means no harm. At least his whole body is covered in foam, and it’s hard to make out his more disgusting features.

"Absalom."

"Your name’s Absalom? Alright," Barns scratches his head. That wouldn’t be too hard to remember - the living zombie named Absalom. It was almost too insane to forget.

"I can…walk…" Absalom grunts. "Who are you…people? My saviors…"

"Your angel over here is Osmond, and the crab is Clancy. He’s your new king. Oh, and me? I’m Barnacles, the legendary hero. But call me Barns."

They lead the people back to Ordella. The town is still quite empty and below capacity - Adon and Adea were running a tight ship, and killing often. The two thousand newly reborn citizens would fit right in to Ordella. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Specifically, they focus on having the newly resurrected settle the northern part of Ordella - the area that Donatella demolished several days ago. In no time at all, the area is rebuilt with fancy new system-generated housing.

All that remains is the question of how exactly to handle Absalom. He wouldn’t exactly fit into society.

"He’s gotta come with us," Barns says to Osmond and Maria, later in the day. Most of the excitement has died down, and the first group of Adventurers has already begun the journey back to Dimartino.

"We’ll keep him in the castle for now, away from the general population. I think that’s the safest thing to do, both for us and for him."

Maria snarls. "The castle’s just becoming home to all misfits, is it?"

Barns laughs to himself. He supposes it’s true - he and Clancy live there, of course - as do Maria and Osmond. They also have Roscoe and Eldrie staying at the castle, and most recently, Skado.

"It’s the best place for people who aren’t…you know," Barns smirks.

"Well, I suppose that would be no problem. I’ll tell my step-parents about it, otherwise they’ll probably die of shock."

"Of course."

Barns hasn’t thought about them in a while - the former king and queen. They mostly keep to themselves in a far-flung corner of the castle. But they are his birth parents, after all. It feels weird to him that they have such a nonexistent relationship.

He doesn’t press it. It’s time to get back to Dimartino.

He meets Absalom and Clancy by the gate. It would take them three days to walk to Dimartino if they let Absalom shuffle at his regular pace, so Clancy begrudgingly gives the half-zombie a ride, and off they go, with their company of Osmond, Maria, Eldrie, Skado, and Roscoe. One big happy family, of sorts.