Undead Dilemma
Chapter 8: Deadly Danger

I moved down slowly until I was standing on the branch that would intersect with one from her tree. I looked up for a moment and saw James angrily shaking his head at me, so I pointed at Cake until he looked over. I could tell he saw the same frozen terror and shock that I had. He looked back down at me and motioned for me to be cautious. I glared up at him as if to say, you think, then began the slow process towards the end of my branch. I held onto a branch that was just a little way up and out to the side of the branch that I was tight-roping across. I looked across at Cake and noticed that she was still hooked terrified to her tree. So I took a deep breath and proceeded to make my way. I had made it almost to the end when I felt my branch start to sway down under my weight. I took two steps back and looked around. Up above my head I noticed a branch that I could probably jump up and hand walk myself to the branch on her tree. I jumped up and caught it then slowly walked hand over hand until I made it to a part of the next branch that I thought could support my weight. I lowered myself down and sped myself across it as fast as I thought I could. As soon as I reached the meat of them limb I pulled myself up until I was on the same limb as Cake. She was still frozen in place.

I scooched my way across until I was right next to her. I pried her hands off from the bark and tucked them into her body. Then I wrapped my arms around her and pulled at her until she was leaned back into me. Then I started to quietly hum a tune. I wasn’t sure what it was I was humming to her I just knew I had to drown out some of the sound. I looked sideways and noticed the last of the zombies filing past the trees. I cupped her into me a little tighter and hummed just a few octaves higher. I felt her muscles gradually loosen and she sagged back into me. As the last of the fear drained away I felt her hot tears start plopping onto my arm, so I turned her until she was crying into my chest. I looked over as James joined us on the limb. He looked down at her and then motioned his head toward the departing undead. I shook my head and then we waited for the flood to pass and Cake to feel better. It only took five more minutes and then I could feel her pull herself together. She looked up and smiled a little sadly at us. “Do you think you can get down?” I asked her. She shook her head yes and we made our way down to the forest floor. I hated to ask but considering what had happened just now I needed to know. “Are you going to be able to handle this, Cake?” She looked up at me and I could tell that she wanted to automatically say yes. So I held my hand up to stop her. “This will not be the last time that we will run across the undead.” “If you can’t handle seeing and having to deal with them, then it would be better for you to get out now.” I stated. ” I can have James take you where, ever you wanted to go.”

I watched her eyes well up and even though I knew it had to be done I felt like the biggest piece of scum for having to hurt her. I turned away and looked down at the ground so that I wouldn’t give in to my want to tell her sorry. I looked towards the path that the zombies had taken and knew we couldn’t tarry here much longer. I felt her grab my arm and pull me slowly back around. Instead of looking at her though I cowardly looked to James first. He shrugged his shoulders at me and I could tell that in this I would get no back up or support from him. So finally I gazed down at Cake. “I know that I reacted badly just now and could have cost us our lives.” She started. ” And I know that every moment we take here puts the zombies one step closer to innocent people.” She grabbed for my hands and pulled me closer. ” I promise that I will do my best to never put us in this situation anymore.” I started to speak and this time she was the one to shoosh me. As I had opened my mouth she placed her hand over it. “I know I can’t guarantee, but I promise you that if I should ever fail you or the other lesser humans like this again...I will remove myself from the situation.” “I don’t ask you to be responsible for me Wit. I just ask that you train me and let the consequences of my actions be my own.” she finished.

I stared at her for just a moment longer. Then I squeezed her hands and said, “Okay then.” “I will hold you to your promise. Now we need to do something quick about those zombies.” James stepped closer to us and gripped my shoulder. “You know I am with ya man.” He said. “This will probably require some work. I need to see the lay of the land, figure out the closest population and we need some way to stop a horde of, around a hundred of the undead.” I smiled at both of them. “Anybody have any ideas?” A grin slowly spread across James’ face. “I think I know of a way to stop all of them.” He stated. “We will need some sort of gully, preferably with no water.” “If you guys can figure out where one is and how to get our walking corpses there. I can take care of them once and for all. I will just need to call in one of my contacts for what we need.” He finished. “Somewhat vague on the details but just enough for me to follow your lead my friend.” I told him. Cake looked back and forth between us.” So are we splitting up or sticking together?” she asked. “We will need to split up because my contact is somewhat of a recluse. But I have my cell so once you know the place, hit me up and I will try to have everything set up before we all get eaten.” He chuckled at the end. “Alright when then the first order of business I need is my laptop in the car.” I said. ” K, I will be off. See ya soon or on the other side.” James said as he flipped his phone out and walked toward the direction of the road.

I turned to Cake and held out my hand. She gave me one of her all-star grins and grabbed my hand. We took off and made our way to the car. If we weren’t in such a dire predicament I probably would want time to think about why I liked holding her or just touching her hand any chance I got but since we are I will leave those musings for another time. We made it to my little Ford and I opened the door, pulled out my laptop and placed it on the hood. I booted it up real quick and then passed my cell to Cake. ” I need you to look up the closest populations to the southwestern sector of the Fern National Forests.” I told her. Then I got onto my comp and looked for the perfect location like James had asked. I found one not too far off from our current position. Now the only thing we needed to know was the populated area. I don’t know how Zoms do it but they somehow automatically shamble themselves toward populations. I booted down my comp real quick and glanced at Cake hoping she would have the answer soon. Just as I was closing up the comp to put it back in the car I heard her exclamation.

“Wit, the Zombies are probably only about 10 minutes away from the nearest town.” “Do you think there is any way for us to get to them before they hurt any people?” She asked. “Let’s hop in the car and you lead me to the town, then we will try and lead them away.” I said. So we climbed into the car really quick and I backed us back onto the road. Then I drove as fast and safe as I could while Cake gave me directions. We were about a mile away from the town when I spotted the front of the undead column. I pulled the car off onto the side of the road and jumped out. Cake climbed out after me. “What’s up Wit, what do you think we need to do to stop them?” She asked. “We don’t stop them remember that is James’ deal.” “We just have to get them to follow us to the gully I found.” I replied. “Text James and let him know where the gully is located and let him know that we have spotted the Zoms and will be on our way.” I said throwing the phone at her. She started texting as the first few broke through the trees. I started to wave my hands and make a lot of noise to attract their attention. I saw the horde start to turn in our direction. “What is next?” Cake asked. ” We are going to have to dodge and make sure they don’t catch ahold of us until we are sure that all of them will be following.” “Once we have their attention we will need to lead them into the trap.” I said.

We started to jump up and down, waving our arms and making weird noises. When the first few in the line reached us we dodged about to make sure they couldn’t grab ahold of us. We were lucky nobody drove by as we bobbed and weaved around the undead horde. Finally, though I could see that we had gotten all of their attention. So Cake and I ran a couple yards ahead and then started jumping and waving again to make sure that we kept their attention on us. We slowly got them back into the forest and making slow progress towards the gully. Every time one of the Zoms would start to veer off course we would go to the side a little until we had their attention again and then we would go back to leading them through the trees. It seemed to be taking forever to herd this shambling column of decay. Minutes ticked by as we guided them. I tried not to look at their faces, I didn’t want to have the faces haunt me later. I spared a small glance at Cake and was proud of how she was doing. I could tell it was a strain for her to deal with the zombies, but she was dealing with it. And she didn’t look like she was going to have an episode like earlier. I looked back at the Zoms just in time to dodge away from a reaching arm that was just a little too close for comfort. No more glances for me, at least until we were done with this gathering of rotting flesh.

Just to let you know, leading an army of undead walking corpses through the woods takes a lot longer than you would think. I checked my watch real quick and saw that we had been leading them along for about 30 minutes now. And if my calculations were correct (and usually they were) we had not made it even half way to the gully yet. I looked up and saw a couple of the Zoms starting to wander from the column again, so I veered a little to my left, jumped up and down and shouted nonsense until I had re-caught their attention. As they joined our informal parade through the trees I started to wonder exactly James had planned to take care of all the zombies. I have taken care of one or two at a time but I never had to deal with about a 100 of them all at the same time. I glanced over at Cake and saw her catching the attention of some wanderers on her side. I wouldn’t say it to her but I really hoped that she stuck around with me. I had only known her for several days but I knew that with some more training, practice and missions she would make a great addition to the Monster Protection community. Once fully trained though she would be able to decide whether she wanted to hang with me or go her own way. It scared the hell out of me but I really, really wanted her to stay with me.

I looked up at the sky and noticed we were moving towards dusk. Please let us make it to the gully and take care of these Zoms before it became fully dark. Leading them along and glancing at my gear I noticed that I hadn’t brought along a flashlight of any kind. It would be hard of us to know if they started to wonder off when it got dark. In woods this thick we wouldn’t even be able to count on the moons help. Walk and redirect, redirect and walk. Over and over and over, until finally I could just see the gully 20 yards ahead. If James was set up like he was supposed to be we just might be able to get this done before the sun set. I motioned towards the gully for Cake and we grinned at each other. We kept them in line and going forward with a new vigor. As we reached the middle and saw the last of the column makes its way into the gully I looked around me to see if I could spot James anywhere. But I couldn’t see a single sign of him. “Cake can you try and call James?” “See what the hell he is doing.” I said. I watched her look up and dial his number on my phone as we tried to keep moving around and keep the Zoms in the gully with us. She dodged right as one tried to take a swipe at her. “James.” she said. “Where are you we have made it to the gully with our undead friends?” I signaled to her and we circled back around to the other side of the gully. I couldn’t hear what she was saying until we met back up at the other end.