Undead Dilemma
Chapter 7: The Undead Element

We turned together then to make out our way over to Cake. Just as we faced her, one of the witches started to stand up. I looked over at James. “Want to flip for who takes out this one?” I asked him. “No my friend I just took out the last one, so I believe in all fairness that would make this one yours.” He replied. “Sometimes my buddy I wonder about your sanity.” He laughed at me. About this time the witch had made it to her feet. Swaying to and fro a bit I saw her struggle to understand what had happened to her and what was going on at the moment. I whispered an apology and leapt toward her with my knife ready. I was only about half a foot away when she threw some unknown powder in my eyes. I shook my head back and forth and tried to wipe my eyes clear. As I looked up I wasn’t seeing the clearing anymore, I saw instead a thick lush rainforest. Many colorful birds were winging through the air. In front of me was a delicious buffet set next to a swinging hammock not two feet from a lagoon. This tropical paradise was absolutely perfect. I started to walk forward to taste and enjoy this scene, when suddenly I felt something wet splash across my face. I spluttered and wiped my eyes yet again.

I looked up to see James putting the cap back onto his water bottle. “No times for thanks now dude.” He said. “Let’s hurry up and take care of the rest of these before we end up in more trouble. I wiped the last of the water off my face and shook my head yes. I made my way towards the sirens as James went towards the last two witches. I dispatched them as quickly and painlessly as I could. Sometimes I really wished I could have had a different life. As I looked over at the altar and Cake I was reminded that there were at least a couple of good reasons for the life I live. I walked over to her to make sure she was all right. I looked her over quickly but didn’t see any wounds or anything. I gently shook her shoulder as James walked up beside me. “Cake, you have to wake up now.” I said. She didn’t move a muscle. “Hold on man. I got an idea.” James told me. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a tiny clear bottle. He opened it up and I could smell the harsh liquid. “This should bring her around.” He said as he slowly waved the bottle close to her nose. She coughed, rolled her head back and forth a bit and then finally opened her eyes.

“Wit, what is going on?” She asked me. “It seems you were kidnapped again.” James told her bluntly. She swung her head around to look at him. Then she looked around a little more closely at our surroundings. I could see her eyes start to well up, but she didn’t let the tears fall. She sat up and wiped at her eyes. “I guess you better tell me how I ended up in the woods this time. Because the last thing I remember was doing the research.” She said quickly. “The shorthand is that you got possessed by a ghost, fought with me in the kitchen...” “And totally whooped his butt from what I could see.” James interrupted. I glared at him for a moment as he grinned wolfishly. “Then I guess the ghost brought you to our unknown leader, James came to the house, we grabbed some junk and tracked you down.” I ended quickly before James could butt in again. She rested her head in her hands and James and I looked uncomfortably at each other. ” I am so sorry Wit. I have been so much trouble for you.” She said. “A big part of me wishes that I wasn’t special, so that my family was still here.” “The other part...” She cried out. James and I both surrounded her and wrapped her up in our arms. She clung to us and we bent our heads down to hers. So much pain for her. We both knew how that was. We let go as she started to shift to wipe away the tears.

“If I could recommend a bit of advice for the time being.” James said. “Shift the pain and memories to the back for now. When we end this...and we will end this. Then I would let it free.” She looked up at him and he squeezed her hand. I looked down at the ground, my eyes wide. I felt jealous for a moment. It struck me swift and left me feeling torn. James was my oldest friend I would trust him in every way. But I didn’t want for them to be close without me. I glanced up at Cake and saw her look at me oddly. I smiled for her even though at the moment I just wanted to walk away and try and figure out what the heck my jealousy meant. I cleared my throat. “Well let’s get you down from there and outfitted.” I said. “Right.” She said. We helped her down from the altar and started handing her some of our weapons. I took off one of the extra belts I had and slung it around her hips as she was stuffing a couple globes in her pockets. Our eyes met for a moment and I blushed and quickly finished fastening the belt onto her. This was turning out to the be one of the most difficult and awkward missions I had ever been on.

Once we had her loaded up James and I started to gather up the dead enemies together. We needed to get rid of the evidence so that no unwary human came across the corpses and freaked out. Not that I would blame them in the least. As we were gathering up the last couple Cake grabbed one of the witches and started to drag her over. I wanted to snap at her that she didn’t need to do this but I stopped myself with the reminder that she had chosen to join up in this life. And no matter how I felt about it this was a part of it that she would have to learn and deal with. So I got back to work. Once we had them all piled together I sprinkled the pile with some of the silver flakes and I got clear. James then threw some of the UV globes at the pile. We watched it quickly flash and burn away the monsters. James and I had accidently stumbled upon the strange reaction on one of our other missions. Cake flinched away for a moment, then I saw her steel herself and make herself watch until the fire had ended. I started scuffing dirt and debris onto the area the fire had been, so that nobody would be able to tell that there had been a big bonfire there. We checked the clearing one more time to make sure we had gotten every trace of the event.

“What should we do next?” Cake asked. “I think first we need to get the hell out of here, and then I think we need to finish the research, so that we know what we need to do to finish this.” I said. “You know I can help in that.” James stated. Cake shook her head yes. “Alright then to the car.” I announced and dramatically swung my arm into the air. I held the pose for a second. Cake started to laugh...then James joined her and finally I joined both of them. When we were finally able to stop laughing and snorting we all looked at each other and shared a smile. Then James turned and started to lead the way out. I stared at Cake smiling for a moment longer and then gestured grandly for her to proceed me. She gave me a couple more chuckles, a shake of her head and started to follow James. I followed up at the end, automatically shifting back into wary mode. We silently made our way through the woods and mid-day sun. Looking around you wouldn’t have guessed that something sinister had almost happened in this beautiful place. We had almost made it back to the car when I started to hear a commotion in the woods off to our left. We all paused for a moment listening and looking in that direction. I gestured in that direction and we all carefully made our way towards the sound.

We made our way silently towards all the commotion, James and I automatically keeping Cake between us. The noise had to be so much louder than the drums we had heard when we were searching for her. I wondered at what we would replace when we reached it. When we got to be about ten yards away James motioned for us to slow down the pace even more. I strained to try and hear more clearly what lay ahead of us. Truly though I could only hear a lot of leaves rustling and sticks breaking. It couldn’t be animals because we wouldn’t just be hearing the breaking. Not lesser humans because there was no talking and for that much noise someone in the group would have to be griping about something. Once we were five yards away James motioned for us to go up and we each started to climb a tree to get a look at what was ahead. I climbed up about half way and worked my way around until I had a good clear vantage point near the sound. I checked behind me to make sure that Cake had made it up fine. I saw her working her way onto a good sized limb. I turned back around as the noise came even with us. Oh gods...I thought. I couldn’t be seeing this right. Just breaking through for me to see was a grouping of Zombies.

I glanced at James and saw the same horror on his face that had to be on mine. And it just kept getting worse because more and more of them just kept shuffling past us. Small fact about zombies, they do not actually moan or shriek like people have them do in the movies. They move silently so if it isn’t right in front of you and you didn’t hear their footsteps, you wouldn’t actually know they were there until their arms wrapped around you and their teeth sank in. The only part that some of the movies got right is that they really don’t move all that fast. Don’t get me wrong though, when you have a group as large as this one was turning out to be it is still extremely dangerous. I closed my eyes and hung my head down a moment. What the heck were we going to do? I opened my eyes and nearly toppled myself when I noticed that some of them were walking right below our trees. I waved my hands around and caught James’ attention, I then pointed to the ground below us. I saw him clutch at a branch close to him as he realized the same thing that I had. We were, for the time being trapped in the trees with no way to get down.

I swung my head up and whirled around as fast as I could without falling off my perch. Sure enough my fear was realized. Cake was clutched to her tree, knuckles white, pupils so dilated that I couldn’t see the crystal blue of them and her breathing wheezing in and out. I tried to wave and get her attention but she wouldn’t or I should say couldn’t take her eyes off the slowly shuffling horde of the undead below us. And I knew exactly what was flashing through her mind as she watched them shambling below us. Her mind had flashed her to that first night when our unknown foe had, had the witch sick her little zombie brother on her. I watched her and raged at the pain that she was going through. I needed to help her but how. I looked at her and my trees, they were positioned right next to each other. I tried to see if there was any way for me to cross over to hers. Looking around though I noticed that the only limbs that would support me and get me over to her were ones close to the zombies. I would be a mere two feet above their heads. There was absolutely no hope for it though, I knew that I couldn’t leave her over there alone. So I started to shimmy myself down to the branches and prayed to any gods above that I would be able to reach her safely before her mind broke and drew into itself from the trauma of the undead and the painful memories they invoked for her.