Selena
Did they need to eat? Selena stared at the dead watchman and his grisly feast. In one sense, the dead bodies had to be sustained somehow, but Selena had been leaning on the magical for the parasite's energy source. Or was this some sort of... augmentation, perhaps?
“HEY! YOU IN THE SHADOWS! ARE YOU ALIVE?”
Selena froze, terror running through her body. The voice had come from the alley next to the tavern, and Selena could see a couple of dark figures there...
Selena looked back at the dead watchman. He was staring at her, straight at her. The grisly remains of the arm dropped to the ground with a wet smack. Another watchman stepped into view, his throat slashed open, and a stain of blood covering the insignia on his armor. And then another, his head hanging at a strange angle. This could not be happening.
There was a resounding thunder from her side, and the nearest watchman was knocked off of his feet, his leather armor shredded under a dozen impacts. Lore had fired her thunderstick, and now Perl was drawing his sword. Weapons. Right. Her hands grabbed, fumbling, at the drawcord that started her Mark VI Autocrossbow.
Perl charged forward, dashing across the street to confront their foes. Selena heard the sound of more swords being drawn, and then a clash of steel on steel. Her hand closed on the cord, and pulled. The engined roared to life, and she raised her weapon of choice. Perl was in the way again, fighting fiercely in the doorway. Then he was flying backwards, knocked off his feet by a heavy blow from a shield.
Selena pulled the trigger, unleashing a short volley of bolts over Perl's prone form. The watchman in the doorway caught them on his shield.
“Perl, flank right!” Sunder's voice! “Kallaster, get Kara over to my friends!”
Perl rolled to his feet, and circled around the doorway, avoiding a slash of the emerging watchman. The two squared off... exposing the watchman's back to an arrow that came flying from the alleyway. The dead man staggered, but didn't go down.
Jack Sunder
The arrow sped past Jack, and planted itself in the dead watchman's back, a little right of center. Unfortunate. “Kallaster, move, don't shoot!” Then he was there, and with a cry, he chopped down with his machete into the watchman's armored back. The hardened leather caught most of the strike, but the heavy blow drove the watchman to the ground regardless.
Jack raised his machete to finish the watchman off, then instead used it to block a strike to his head. There was another dead watchmen, standing the the doorway, and more than a few former tavern patrons behind him. This was not good.
Jack ducked the next slash, and struck at the wrist. The dead man blocked with his shield, then bashed Jack backwards, away from the door. Jack stumbled, but managed to keep his footing, his forearms smarting from the blow. A tavern wench stepped out behind the watchman, and Perl sank his blade into her leg, but then a burly man was out, a meaty fist grabbing Perl's sword. So much for holding the door.
“Glynn, torch the building!” Jack tried to circle left around the watchman, to expose the man's back to Selena's bolts, but the dead man sidestepped to match him, and they traded blows again. Cutting the legs would be ideal, but Jack didn't dare leave his upper body exposed...
Then there was the sound of breaking glass above him.
Kara Varnya
Kara hurried after Kallaster, watching Mr. Sunder fight. She could see that he was trying to hold the door – with him on one side, and that swordsman on the other, any dead man would have his back exposed to one of them. But that plan was failing, with more and more of the dead piling out of the door, and Mr. Sunder and the swordsman being driven further and further away from each other...
“Stay behind me!” shouted Kallaster. The self-proclaimed adventurer notched another arrow, and aimed, but her target—the big man now throttling that swordsman—grew a half-dozen crossbow bolts out of his leg, and toppled over. Instead the arrow flew into the knee of a newly emerging watchman.
Glass shattered, and Kara watched as a dead man leapt from the second story window, crashing into Mr. Sunder from above. Mr. Sunder was holding the man's slavering mouth at bay, but only just... and then there was the watchman with his sword and shield...
“I need a weapon,” she said to nobody in particular. Sunder had refused to arm her earlier, explaining that running was a far better defense than a dagger, but now... now he was in trouble, and she could do nothing.
A blast of flame shot over Sunder, roasting the watchman, and then another thunderous bang came from one of Sunder's friends, a young women. The street girl Sunder had mentioned? Kara watched as the young woman pulled a small sphere out of a pouch, twisted it, then threw it through one of the tavern's windows. A loud blast from inside shattered all the windows, and threw a watchman out of the door.
Sunder was on his feet again, and the dead man who had been on top of him lay on the ground, sporting an arrow protruding at an angle from his back. Compared to all those around her, protecting her, Kara felt helpless, useless. She was just a noblewoman out of her element, relying on others to help her. Maybe Rae was right, and she should just embrace her fate. But then she would be just like her sister, and that... that she could not do.
Jack Sunder
There were too many. Maybe a half dozen on the street now, by Jack's estimation. Not all in fighting shape—the first watchman had been continually trodden underfoot by the others—but those out on the street easily outnumbered Perl and himself. Lore, Selena, and Kallaster were helping... but if Sunder and Perl fell, then they would be facing the women, and their weapons would be far less effective. Should he have split them up for a crossfire?
“Perl! Retreat! That alley!” Sunder chopped the head from his current opponent, a scrawny boy, and kicked the corpse over. He backed away. “Selena! Focus on the legs! Perl, get moving!” The big man was dueling with another watchman, but Sunder could see how much slower the former soldier was moving. Then an arrow sprouted from the dead watchman's leg, and Sunder hurried backwards, out of the man's reach.
Glynn had been blasting magical flames in through a window, but now he backed off as well. They all hurried to the alley in question, the dead people behind them hampered by scattershot, bolts, and arrows.
“Perl, where's Maureen!” The big man was gasping for air. “Selena? Where's Maureen.”
“Back at Narma's!” the young lady replied. Sunder did a double take. At Narma's? Why were they there?
“Lore, lead the way there! We're leaving the city, it is lost.”
The group hurried into the alley, Lore in the lead. Behind them were the dead, recovering from their leg wounds, as if the bolts and arrows were nothing more than decorations. A watchman, his chest armor ripped apart by scattershot, but otherwise undamaged, emerged in the lead of the pack. Something was wrong with his stomach, his exposed gut spasming. Far behind, he could see new dead approaching, drawn by the sounds of the fight.
“Glynn, can you spray fire wide, block the alley?”
The bald man shook his head. “Only for a bit – I'm getting tired.”
“Do it when we get to the corner, we need to blind them.” Sunder looked at the approaching horde. That one with the spasming gut was getting a bit worrisome, his gut heaving in and out quicker and quicker. It was looking a bit distended..
Sunder looked ahead. Lore, Kara and Kallaster had already rounded the corner. “Selena, shoot the weird one with the gut!”
Selena loaded a new clip of bolts, and aimed her gun. Sunder looked back at the horde. The man with the gut was heaving stranger... “Selena?”
Three bolts shot past him in response, and embedded in the gut of the watchman... then the man burst, guts and fluid spewing out of the three wounds. Sunder dodged to the side.
“Aaagh!” Sunder spun to face Selena. The young woman was half-covered in the watchman's entrails. “Sunder, I can't move! It's sticking! Hardening!”
The watchman deflated to the ground, limp, but the others were still coming behind him. And the ones behind them were quickly gaining ground.
“Perl, grab Selena. Glynn: Now!”
Sunder turned away from the blast of flame, not wanting to be blinded. Perl had picked up Selena, who was stiff as a statue. Several cobblestones were still attached to her feet.
Sunder followed them around the corner. Glynn right behind him. “Perl, can you run with her?”
“No.”
“Get in the the building,” Sunder said, kicking a rotted door in. “Get it off of her, meet me at Narma's. If not, then in Parveno.” Perl knew where the town was. “Keep them safe, Glynn!”
Perl hustled inside, and disappeared down a hallway, Glynn following him. The bald man stopped and turned. “What about you?”
Sunder looked down the road. Lore and the others had stopped, a block down. “I'll be with Kallaster!” Jack shouted, raising his voice for the benefit of the dead.
Glynn disappeared into the room as the first of the burned zombies rounded the corner. Undamaged ones were right behind them. Time to run.
Next: Chapter 9