Adventure of True Dave 9

Yama takes the lead as the six civilians hurry off the eastern escape road toward a half-cleared apartment building. Its lobby offers concrete walls, a steel door, and furniture enough to barricade the entrance.

Marla follows with the remote lowered, scanning the apartment facade. True Dave comes behind her, light sabers ready, each careful step sending a throb through his wrenched ankle.

The civilians reach the entrance and begin dragging a toppled reception desk across the lobby. Yama plants himself outside the doorway, watching the empty street while Marla searches for an intercom panel.

Impacts begin sounding from the surrounding streets, first distant, then closer. The lobby door hangs open between the defenders and the gathering dead, while the civilians finish shoving the barricade into place.

True Dave locks both light sabers together, their hilts joining into one extended weapon. The combined blade flares across the lobby entrance as the Zombies surge toward him.

Force sensitivity guides his stance through the cramped doorway, finding the cleanest line across the advancing horde. The light saber answers with a steady, brilliant hum.

The endless survival chore weighs against his timing, but he drives through it and swings once. The giant blade cuts across the Zombies in a single sweeping stroke, breaking their advance.

The effort wrenches True Dave's shoulders and leaves his arms trembling. He keeps the combined saber raised while the disabled undead collapse across the street, opening the route.

Yama waves the Civilians through the cleared entrance. Marla Voss follows them inside, remote lowered, while the remaining street falls quiet around the barricaded lobby.

The Civilians disappear behind the steel door. True Dave's combined light saber remains ready at the threshold, its weight pulling against his strained shoulders as the survivors reach cover.

True Dave drives the joined light saber into the emergency intercom panel. The Force guides the blade through the cramped console, while the weapon's extended reach makes the strike clean and exact.

The panel splits beneath the golden blade, wires snapping as the intercom dies. The advancing Zombies lose their broadcast cue, and the street's answering impacts falter into scattered noise.

For one instant, the endless survival chore drags at True Dave's timing, but Force sensitivity steadies his hands and the combined saber finishes the disablement without hesitation.

Outside, the Zombies stumble apart instead of forming another advance. The cleared course remains open, and the steel door seals the civilians safely inside the lobby.

Marla kneels at the ruined panel and begins tracing the dead wiring. Yama guards the doorway, while True Dave keeps the combined light saber raised over the quiet threshold.

True Dave joins Yama at the steel door, bracing his shoulder beside the warrior’s broad frame. Together they drag a heavy lobby cabinet against the entrance.

The cabinet catches on the threshold. True Dave’s injured ankle throbs as he shifts weight, and the survival chore grinds at his timing, turning each shove into deliberate work.

His Force sensitivity steadies the cabinet’s balance, lifting just enough weight from the floor for Yama to drive it squarely against the door.

The combined light saber remains locked in True Dave’s hands. Its extended hilt hooks a fallen metal rail, and he pulls the rail into place as a second brace.

True Dave plants the rail beneath the cabinet and levers it tight. The steel door settles against the barricade, firmly reinforced while six civilians remain sheltered inside.

Yama tests the door with both hands, then releases it. The entrance holds under his pressure, leaving the lobby secured and the defenders free to inspect the building.