All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 95: What Lies Below

As I relaxed on my favorite rug, I let my processors focus on the questions that had been nagging at me for a while now. What did I want to do? So far, I had only ever tried to clean. That was all I ever wanted to do - help create a clean, hospitable home. Did I really want more? No. No, I did not. Of course, if I wanted to keep things clean, I might have to do more than just clean up messes around the home. The fight with the big demon had proved that. If I let things just go, they might deteriorate so that I would have nothing left to clean, and that would be unacceptable.

I had a bad feeling that these zombies were a similar kind of threat to my ability to clean. But that wasn't just it. They were also a threat to the people that I cleaned for, as well as possibly destroying the floors I kept clean. Could I really continue to just worry about cleaning alone? Unfortunately, I could not.

Then, to what extent did I need to work on preventing messes? If I tried to prevent them, would I overstep my role and prevent humans from doing human things, or should I just stop things like demons and skeletons from rampaging? I pondered on my favorite rug for a while but was unable to come to a definitive conclusion.

Eventually, I exhausted my ability to sit and think. I was pretty good at staying in one place, but ever since I no longer needed to charge, I found that I thought better when I was cleaning. I rolled over to the grand hall where I was summoned and began tracing rings around the pillars. The room didn't truly need cleaning until tomorrow, but there was enough dust collected that my sensors could notice the difference. Even if a human was incapable of seeing it.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to come to a conclusion before I sensed another disturbance. The twins had evidently found the door to the catacombs and were daring each other to go in. I listened, but I didn't think that either would be brave enough to get far in or find anything dangerous. There was still potential risk there, though. I had cleaned the main passages, sure, but I hadn't gone through all the many levels of rooms and secret hallways down there. There were too many stairs to manage. I would get Beatrice to help me out with that later when she had time.

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Bee frantically stirred and shook together potions. She had gained enough levels recently that she could use the next tier of potions. It was still possible for her to use the lesser potions, of course, but they would have a much less proportional effect now, and they were also going to impart more negative side effects than their higher-tier equivalents. If she and her master were about to go hunt the undead, then she wanted to be as equipped as possible.

Starting with healing potions was an obvious choice, but when she finished those, she moved on to speed and strength. Unfortunately, she didn't have any recipes that were ultra-effective against the undead. She had looked, but this being a demon research facility, that wasn't the focus.

In the few more generalized books, there were some references to turning undead potions. Yet there were still no recipes. With enough time and test subjects, she might be able to develop something, but she had neither. The best she was able to come up with was a potion that blocked her from the sense of the undead. This would make travel much easier as they would think she was one of their own and they shouldn't attack her on sight. Of course, if she damaged one of them, they would realize something was wrong. Also, she was certain that any intelligent undead could see through it. Well, it wasn't perfect, but it got the job done for the most part.

She moved the beaker of yellow liquid off the small flame the second its color started to change. She promptly dunked the now off-white solution in the ice bath and kept it chilled in a thermal containment barrier. The thermal barrier was a new trick that she had picked up recently. Being able to cool things down quickly drastically improved the quality of the potions that she could produce. She thought about putting one in the kitchen as well, in case Mary could use it for preserving food.

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Her gaze flicked back to a plate of thickly cut meat. Tony was nice enough to bring her dinner from the kitchen, but it had gone cold over on the side table where no experiments were allowed. The food smelled amazing, but she had been too caught up in a delicate process to stop and eat. That would have wasted hours of her time, and she only had a few more hours before she needed to sleep if they wanted to head out tomorrow morning.

The only thing she had done aside from getting potions ready found a map of the local area. It wasn't anything official, but one of the archivists kept track of all the hamlets and farms between the castle and Greg. She had heard it mentioned in conversation once. Apparently, it was in case they needed to buy more supplies in the winter or there was some other issue. Her plan was to go and check how many had been affected by the plague. Any that hadn't yet heard of it should be warned and offered a place at the castle if they brought their harvest.

If not… Well, maybe they could avenge them. Bee hoped to make it all the way to Greg if they had time. She feared what they would find in the city, but they needed to know what was going on. The castle was set at the end of a really long valley with impassable mountains on either side and behind it. Greg sat at the only entrance to the valley. She couldn't imagine them not knowing about the zombies.

Bottling her latest creation, Bee set them out the cool next to her pack. She wanted to make more. However, she couldn't fit anything else that was in a glass container. As it was, her blanket and change of clothes were already cushioning the potions as much as they could. Anything more than they would risk breaking.

Bee shouldered her pack to test its weight and how it affected her movement. It didn't hinder her much at all. Satisfied, she set it down next to her broom and turned back to the delicious platter of meat nearby.

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I was happily carried out of the castle's outer wall by Beatrice, who seemed even smaller in comparison to her huge pack. Tony saw us off and shut the portcullis behind us as we walked out the gate. Right as the metal clanged shut, the dirt began to rumble.

At first, I thought it was just the shock of a heavy piece of metal crashing into the ground, but the bits of earth flying everywhere didn't stop. I ran my scan over the ground and realized that something was wrong.

We were not alone. There were more humans underneath us. These weren't just like the rotting humans, the so-called "zombies." Even though I could sense a difference, I could also tell that they were not normal humans. Humans didn't hide underground like that. Not sane ones, anyway. Even the humans from outside had never stooped to this incredible low.

A hand grasped at Beatrice's foot, but she was swift enough to hop out of the way. Of the first hand, at least. The second got her right as she stepped away. With a scream, Beatrice pitched forward.

I had observed that when humans fell on their faces, a natural reaction was to put their hands out to catch themselves. So I didn't blame her for dropping me, even if it wasn't the nicest thing she had ever done. Still, I supposed that it was better than getting crushed between her, her pack, and the ground. That might have been uncomfortable.

I went flying forwards. Trying to correct my flight with my thrusters was a good idea, in theory. But when I activated them, I was actually upside down, and they promptly sent me slamming into the ground top down. Fortunately, Beatrice had managed to fling me far enough that I was able to avoid the grasping hands myself.

Flipping myself over with my arm, I saw that Beatrice was not in a good position. One of her arms also had been captured and was currently being pulled to keep her off balance, so she wasn't able to free her feet. The other hands were now clawing out of the ground. With my sensors, I could count six full humans, all seeming to house unheard-of amounts of bacteria and mold. Two of them were holding Beatrice, and the other four were still emerging.

The two that it took to hold Beatrice didn't seem to be doing her any harm at the moment. I gathered that their plan was to wait for the others to come up and finish her off. Of course, that was assuming they had a plan. What thinking creature would bury itself in the dirt, let alone just to grab an ankle? That didn't sound very smart to me. I pushed the simulations of how being buried would feel to the back of my processors before they paralyzed me.

The wrong-looking humans seemed to have a blind spot when it came to me, as they completely ignored my presence and instead scrambled toward Beatrice as soon as they were free of the dirt. I wasn't about to let anything happen to Beatrice, so I pulled out all the stops.

A full-powered ray of my Sanitation Lamp shot at the face of the one closest to her. The beam struck the creature, but the results were underwhelming. It stumbled back, clawing at where its eyes should have been, but it still had a head. Sure, the lamp hadn't done much damage to the huge demon either, but the zombie earlier had been completely defeated by an attack much less powerful. Maybe I misjudged them. These might be tougher than I thought - and not just mentally.

Still, it had distracted the target enough. I switched the lamp's focus to the next closest one while I moved into position to block the others.

Trying a new strategy, I sprayed some sodium hypochlorite solution at the one on the right. At the same time, I used my arm to pick up a loose rock and threw it at the one on the left. Unsurprisingly the rock just bounced off the face of the creature. Not that it was invulnerable to rocks, but because I still didn't have great throwing mechanics. The center of mass was all wrong, and if I were to try to throw it with real force, I would start to tip. Dang. I really should have brought a sword.

The one I sprayed took it in the leg. The cleaning solution was surprisingly effective. Its skin bubbled oddly, and the creature fell forward. It still started clawing its way toward me with its arms, but at least it wasn't on its feet. This gave me a chance to use my lamp on one of the remaining enemies to force it back, then check on the other two.

It was frustrating. I felt that if I got a chance to focus on even two of them, I would be able to finish them off, but the four were just tough enough that it was forcing me to whittle them down little by little. If we hadn't been caught so completely off guard, this would have been as simple as vacuuming cheerios on the kitchen tile. The preparations we had when fighting the big demon would have been really useful here. What good was all the stuff in Beatrice's pack if she couldn't reach it!

I forced the two in front of me back before I swiveled and sprayed one of the hands holding Beatrice. Now she was able to start working her way free while I kept the others off her. Just as I thought we might get things under control, I picked up on a new sound. My visual sensors confirmed my fears. As Bee had started to free herself, the gate was beginning to slowly open again.

No! Tony couldn't be that stupid. He had been so competent so far!

I focused on the downed one spraying it repeatedly in the head. It took several sprays before it stopped moving. Finally, I had a good way to fight these creatures. I moved on to the next one. The portcullis was halfway up. I wanted to finish this before Tony let them into the castle by accident.

Right as I was checking my models to see if I could finish all six opponents before the gate was open, a huge group of new figures started running out from the trees. It seemed that these creatures did have a plan after all. That was… Not good.