Chapter 86: Two Fists Can’t Beat Four Hands!

Magnus Vane’s roar carried through a huge section of the prison. Shane had just reached the Cell Block C control room and placed one hand on the door when he heard it echo through the corridors behind him, making his expression change instantly. A terrible feeling hollowed out his chest, and for several seconds his face turned almost bloodless. Unfortunately, he had no time to go back; two system-altered walkers were still close behind him, with more than twenty ordinary dead pouring through the corridor after them.

Shane shoved open the control-room door, rushed inside, and slammed it shut behind him. “Damn it… damn it! Damn it!” He dragged both hands through his hair and gripped it hard, ignoring the confused looks Oscar and Big Tiny gave him. Magnus’s words from the previous day still echoed in his head, along with the offer to make him deputy warden and give him something worth protecting. Shane had only just started thinking of Magnus as more than another survivor—as somebody close to the place Rick occupied in his life—and now that bond suddenly felt like it might be ripped away.

“Everything’s screwed…” Shane muttered as walkers began pounding against the heavy metal door outside. He paced back and forth, staring at the floor without really seeing it, while his thoughts became increasingly chaotic. Magnus had become the balance between him and Rick, the person capable of stopping either man from pushing the group too far in the wrong direction. Without Magnus, Shane couldn’t stop himself from wondering what would happen when the old arguments over leadership returned, or whether Lori and the baby would still have the protection and resources Magnus had promised them.

The darker Shane’s thoughts became, the worse the images in his mind grew. He imagined Magnus dying somewhere alone in the prison, turning into a walker, then eventually stumbling out into the yard where Carl and everyone else could see him. Carl wouldn’t be able to handle that, and Shane doubted Rick, Carol, Daryl, or any of them would either. The thought made his breathing accelerate until Big Tiny finally spoke cautiously from the side. “Officer… you okay?”

Shane spun toward him with such fury that Big Tiny immediately backed up two steps. Oscar watched him carefully and then said, “Maybe we should get out of the prison first.” The suggestion made Shane snap, and in an instant the shotgun barrel was shoved beneath Oscar’s chin. “Get out? If Magnus doesn’t come back, none of you are leaving this prison. Fair or not, that’s how it is.”

Oscar slowly raised his hands but kept his voice steady. “What I mean is that if the outside world is really what you two said, then rescuing him takes more people and more guns. Maybe we still can’t reach him, but that’s better than sitting in here doing nothing.” He held Shane’s gaze despite the shotgun under his chin. “You two didn’t come here alone. Get back to your people, call for help, then come in with enough firepower to actually find him.”

That managed to cut through Shane’s panic. He forced himself to breathe, swallowed hard, and gradually lowered the shotgun before stepping away from Oscar. For a long moment he said nothing, then looked toward the direction Magnus had disappeared. “Half an hour. Put on the protective gear in here and grab whatever weapons you can handle. Then we fight our way out through Cell Block C, get our people, and come back for Magnus.”

Oscar nodded slowly.

Shane’s expression hardened.

“Alive, we bring him home.”

He tightened his grip on the shotgun.

“Dead, we bring his body home.”

Meanwhile, Magnus stood in the connecting passage as both hordes closed in. The mutilated Walker Centipede reached him first, its remaining bodies twisting violently before accelerating through the mass of dead and rising almost upright in front of him. Its stacked pale torsos stretched nearly to the ceiling, while multiple human arms twitched from different points along its body like the legs of some enormous insect. Beneath the leading walker, distorted faces appeared partially buried in the connected flesh, creating the horrible impression of people trapped inside a single rotting creature.

Magnus tightened both hands around the Stone Sledgehammer. “Please tell me you don’t all share the same stomach.”

The hammer moved before the creature could answer with anything except another growl. Strength Lv10 exploded through Magnus’s shoulders and arms, sending the barbed hammerhead through the air with enough force to produce a sharp whistle. It smashed into the Walker Centipede’s connected torso, the barbed wire hooking into rotten flesh and ripping away a wide strip before the stone head itself crushed into the body beneath.

CRACK!

Bone collapsed.

The connecting section caved inward almost completely, exposing a decayed skull buried inside the creature’s abdomen. Spiderweb fractures spread across it before the entire head gave way beneath the impact. Magnus pulled the hammer free, bringing gray, partially dried brain matter with it, and immediately started preparing another swing.

He never got the chance.

Several pale arms shot out from the Walker Centipede and seized him simultaneously. Hands clamped around his shoulders, elbows, waist, and legs, locking his joints as if a cage made from human limbs had suddenly closed around his body. The leading walker bent down and buried its teeth into Magnus’s upper shoulder near the trapezius, tearing open a bloody wound.

“AAARGH!”

Magnus threw his head back as pain exploded through him.

Then Strength Lv10 answered.

Every muscle in his body tightened at once.

Magnus pulled.

The Walker Centipede’s arms began producing horrible creaking sounds as the joints were forced beyond what the dead flesh could withstand. One snapped, then another, followed by several more in rapid succession until Magnus tore himself free from the entire cage. He didn’t waste time finishing the creature; walkers were already closing from behind, so he spun and swept the Stone Sledgehammer horizontally through them.

Three walkers were launched sideways.

They crashed into several more and knocked down an entire section of the horde like bowling pins.

Magnus barely had time to turn back.

Something long and twisted whipped across his vision.

BOOM!

The Walker Centipede’s remaining connected bodies struck him like a giant tail.

For an instant, Magnus’s mind went completely blank.

His body flew through the air and smashed backward into what he thought was a solid wall. Burning pain spread across his cheek and chest, while another wave struck his back on impact. Blood filled his mouth, and Magnus coughed before spitting a mouthful across the floor.

Two fists really can’t beat ten damn hands.

Then something unexpected happened.

The “wall” behind him moved.

Magnus felt the surface give way, and a heavy door suddenly burst inward under the force of his impact. Light appeared behind him as he crashed through the opening, and several tall industrial machines painted dark green came into view.

His eyes widened.

“The generator room!”

Hope returned almost instantly.

Magnus hit the floor hard but didn’t stay down. He wiped neither the blood at the corner of his mouth nor the sweat from his face, instead scrambling for the Stone Sledgehammer as a dozen walkers and the Walker Centipede surged toward the open doorway. The muscles along his arms bulged again as he planted his feet and swung.

WHAM!

The hammer carved a violent arc through the doorway.

Several walkers blocking the entrance were knocked aside at once.

Magnus didn’t stop to see which ones were actually dead. He lunged forward, grabbed the heavy generator-room door, and slammed it shut before the rest of the horde could force its way inside. The lock clicked into place, but Magnus still didn’t trust it.

He shoved the Stone Sledgehammer horizontally through the door handles as an improvised brace.

Only then did he step back.

Magnus breathed hard.

The pounding from the other side began almost immediately.

He reached for the Remington 870 Police and turned around.

Something white flashed across the ceiling.

Magnus raised the shotgun.

A pale figure moved above him so quickly that he barely tracked it before it suddenly dropped upside down directly in front of his face.

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