Ascended

There was a problem.

The Zombies were moving.

I should have expected that the Zombies wouldn’t be standing still. Since we stole one of them away so easily yesterday. There were also a lot more of them, well over a dozen. There was a large part of me that wanted to go back to Gher and get both of the Bokor, but the Wranglers had already planted the torch stake and knew they wouldn’t leave even if I ordered them to.

“This is going to get dangerous.” I looked at them, “Please run if it gets out of hand.”

“And leave those things to get to the city?” The old man to a swig of something in a canteen. I noticed that all of them were mimicking the action.

“What is that?” I pointed at his container.

“This is the last of the cleaner.” Eli screwed the lid back on, “You don’t need any.” He nodded at the Zombies, “Nothing’ll happen to you if you get bit.”

“That’s true…” I shook my head, “But just because you have that doesn’t make you invincible. The Zombies can still kill you even if they don’t turn you.”

“Better to die on my feet, then in my bed.” The old man puffed out his check. “Now, you gonna start this or should I?’ He dipped the arrow in this bow into the fire that Jaz had started.

I thought about stopping him, but decided he'd probably do it anyway if I told him not to. “You can have the first strike.”

It was something I’d heard Master Bran say in the past. He’d warn the Humans that he wouldn’t protect them if they took the ‘first strike’. I’m not sure why he did that, but I’d seen him stand by and watch as some poor man charged too early and got swarmed by Zombies.

Eli looked a little surprised. I could tell that he thought that I’d tell him not to. He hesitated for a moment, then stepped up and shot the closet Zombie in the chest.

The Zombie lit on fire and screamed as it turned towards us and charged. The rest of the Zombies followed after it, running with a speed that I hadn’t seen in Zombies before.

“Keep shooting!” I looked at Berthre, “There’s no way I can hold this many back. You’re going to need at least two people on swords.” I didn’t bother to see who she screamed at to get out their swords. I had a job to do.

I ran towards the Zombie horde and my blade shone purple as I sliced through the Zombies like they were made out of water. It was still too many for me to stop and I only managed to take down three as they parted and ran around me. Someone was directing the Zombies, which meant if they started fighting back instead of trying to get to the Wranglers, I was in big trouble.

I turned around to help take down the zombies that had gotten around me. There were still over ten and Eveth and Berthre weren’t able to hold them all back. The Zombies fell on them and I saw a burning one on top of Prude.

The thing about Zombies was that they didn’t eat humans. They would bite them and latch on, sometimes even tear out a chunk of flesh, but something about their bite drained someone of their life. I’d been bitten before and it had felt like my soul was being sucked out.

I couldn’t cut off its head without hurting her, so instead, I ran over and grabbed it by the back of the neck. It had latched on to her with its hands as well and was using its whole body to hold her down. I managed to pull its head up enough to get my sword under it, then I let go and pulled my sword up. The Zombie tried to latch back on, but that only helped me cut off its head easier.

Without a head, the body was much easier to pull off. I offered her a hand. “Are you okay?”

Prude touched her shoulder. I could tell by the look in her eyes that the bite had taken a lot out of her. “I…”

She never got to finish. A spear pinned her through the chest onto the tree behind her.

I turned around and saw a man with purple eyes. His hand was pointed at her and there was another stone spear above his right arm.

The Touched had shown himself.