"Zombies!" "The Enemy has come. " "We're all going to die. "

Cato seemed to have heard something like that before. Only now the commotion and whispers that ran around the village were more muted. More people seemed to walk around with dead eyes, going about their business with a mechanical routine, not seeing him and pointing like they normally did.

And most worryingly, no preparation at all seemed to be forthcoming.

Unlike the tremor, the zombies moved slowly and Ka's daily tracking of them showed them almost a week away. And even during that time, apart from some patches to the gate, there was little added to the defences.

If he was more daring of comment, Cato would have said the villagers had simply given up.

"So tell me more about these zombies," Cato said, sitting on the cold anvil at Toal's forge.

Toal rammed in a nail and sighted down the wooden block. "Well, they're pretty tough and hard to kill, since they're dead already. We know that they used to be humans and some unknown curse animates their bodies. They attack in packs and even in entire armies at once, overrunning everything with a wave of dead bodies. Some say that if you are killed by a zombie, you inherit the curse and become one of them. 'Killed' zombies also come back, again and again, until you destroy the body completely. You'll see that most of them are in a pretty bad stage of rotting and damage. "

Hm. That sounded pretty bad. Still, nothing like a zombie should actually be able to exist. How would it move without muscles? They would be rotting even as they walked.

Cato remembered a number of objections he had had to zombie movies, they were, by all physical accounts, impossible. And Cato hadn't spotted any physics violations yet, apples still fell to the ground, water and oil did not mix, et cetera.

So they were going to be attacked by a physically impossible army.

Still, the zombies clearly did exist here, never mind how impossible they were on Earth. Finding out how they worked might help.

Toal fixed the metal limbs to the crossbow and wound the string around it expertly, as if it was his tenth time instead of the first crossbow to exist. These people hadn't heard of winches and Toal had not been able to make one from Cato's descriptions. Which meant the only person who could load a crossbow was Toal himself with his brute strength. "Well, you'll get your answers pretty soon, much good that will do us. Of all the monsters, the zombies are the worst. Individually, they're weak but they come in massive swarms. Even you, armed with nothing more than a club, can off one yourself, they're slow and weak. But even the best armoured knight of Inath will be dragged down if they pile him from all sides. There's perhaps only a hundred in this bunch, we won't die to that. But if you see one zombie, you can be sure there's more on the way. "

The problem was surviving the experience. All accounts he had sought were the same. Zombie attacks started weak but then rapidly grew to overwhelming numbers that made them feared more than even Night Cryers. Tulore's story of how an army of zombies scaled an Inath city wall by climbing each other's bodies was quite chilling to any enthusiastic ideas Cato might have had about facing them in battle.

"So how do you kill them? You say I can 'off one' with nothing more than a club, how can that be when they don't eat, they don't bleed and likely not even breath?"

"You hit them hard enough, often enough and they drop down. Doesn't matter how, arrows, swords, a rock, anything will do. I've killed a few myself. The Inaths say though that they've killed the same zombies more than once, but no one can be sure. "

Huh. They reanimated even when they were killed? That could be bad, but probably didn't matter right now.

The first zombies appeared right as expected. Ka had been tracking them daily and now they were here.

The dead shuffled up the old road and started running towards the village once they got close enough to make out. A group of running dead, with tattered clothing flapping over half rotted flesh. Some of them were still wearing bits of armour or had bits of arrows sticking out of them in odd places. Most were almost falling to pieces, missing an arm or head and sporting huge dried out wounds that bled not at all.

There was no battlecry from the enemy, no shouts or noise of war. Just the sound of a hundred decayed feet running over the ground and the flapping of clothing.

The Fukas on the walls began firing their bows, those hunters who had them. It took many arrows to down a zombie but the Fukas fired steadily and patiently.

And then the zombies were at the gate, pounding on it futilely against the freshly hewn stout trunks.

Cato heaved a heavy rock over the side, trying to hold his breath against the stench of rotting flesh. Not seeing if he hit anything, he bent down to grab the next rock piled up on the groaning platform.

Beside him, Toal and Danine's father, Arbor, were grunting at the exertion, pitching rocks like Cato.

It had less effect than Cato hoped. The zombies fell over when hit but most got up again. Even splitting a head didn't seem to stop them.

The zombies began to push the gates inwards, despite the heavy tree trunks barring the way. Amazing what concerted effort could do, but now was not the time to admire group work. Despite the shouts and desperate yells of the Fukas filling the air, Cato had the sense that they were going to win. There were simply not enough zombies.

They continued to throw rocks until there was none left to throw and then they exchanged turns with other Fukas who had been gathering rocks from the ground and roads.

More than half the zombies lay broken on the ground when the gate gave way suddenly, sending running zombies surging into the village... to impale themselves on stakes hammered into the ground facing the gate entrance. The front zombies struggled and continued to wriggle even as the fellow dead pushed them deeper onto the stakes to clamber over them in a mad rush to attack the Fukas.

The battle was very nearly over by then. The Fukas charged back with improvised spears and sharpened poles, as well as one slightly bent sword that Danine later explained used to belong to an Inath soldier. Cato and the people on the walls pitched pebbles and the smaller rocks, trying to avoid hitting the living.

Without even caring that they were outnumbered and outclassed by the stronger Fukas, the zombies simply charged forwards en masse and were... stilled.

To the very end, not a single zombie had made any sound or given any recognition of anything. They had just madly charged and madly died. For what purpose, who could say?

Cato rubbed his arm muscles, feeling the raw fire in them.

Toal heaved the heavy crossbow onto his shoulder, freshly chipped where it had smashed bone. For once the ever-posing skirt chaser had nothing untoward to say.

"Not even a scratch," Toal commented, "no one died. "

Cato looked around at the Fukas peeling the bodies off the stakes. They were carting the zombies out of the walls, where they would go into a mass grave. Cato had misgivings about the grave, but he couldn't very well bring up Earth stories of undead hands shooting out of graves to dig the owners free. Tulore had wanted at least a minimally respectful burial and the villagers listened to her, not him.

"It didn't seem as hard as I thought," Cato remarked, "as long as we're prepared. " Cato already had some ideas.

"The zombies will be back, mark my words. "

The very next day, Ka reported that he had spotted a group three times larger coming from the same direction.

"Where's Tulore?"

"She's not coming yet, my son nearly got his head bitten off when I sent him to get her," Tharoden explained.

"We don't need her here," Banage said, "we are on the Council and we can decide things without her. "

"That would be disrespectful. The zombies are a week away, we have time," Tharoden fended him off patiently. It was an open secret that the fat man did not like the Elder but few would take it up with him and his large family.

"She may not even be coming," Banage rolled his eyes.

Tharoden could only sigh because it was true. Tulore did not take well to the Elder's responsibilities but her dedication to curse-breaking made her very influential in the village.

Tatit and Sulrod merely watched the familiar exchange, Questoress was picking at her nails, not even listening. Tharoden often opposed Banage and this sort of conversation must be familiar to them. The Elder had to appear not to take sides or risk splitting the village so it was up to Tharoden to suppress Banage's follies. No doubt of course, Banage thought the Elder was being foolish.

"We need to work together, now more than ever. And without the Elder, we have no one to lead us," Tharoden tried to explain, more for the benefit of the other four members of the village council and the small crowd of onlookers. Banage wouldn't be moved of course.

"We are not children," Banage shot back, "we can at least discuss ideas, surely we don't need the Elder to hold our hands all the time. "

"And you would leave out her wisdom? The legends have much to teach us. "

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Banage shrugged annoyingly, "The legends say nothing about the zombies. Besides, I seriously doubt the legends would say anything about how to defend ourselves. "

Tharoden saw a young girl and that outsider human squeeze to the front of the watching crowd. Darn, why did that boy have to stick his nose into everything?

Banage's eyes did not miss the opportunity. Without waiting for Tharoden to reply, he waved to the boy, "here, we have someone who figured out the tremor and killed it! Surely you have some ideas to contribute. "

"Eh? I only came because..." the girl whispered something in his ear and pushed him out of the crowd, "Eh?!"

Tharoden frowned, "don't presume to tell us what to do, human. "

"No, no, I insist," Banage said, "I want to hear what he has to say. "

There was a murmur of curiousity rippling through the crowd. The girl who picked him up was looking very proud of herself. Tharoden suppressed a snarl. The boy had killed a tremor, true, but even that should not give a human a place among the Fukas.

But they wanted to hear his ideas. And if ideas were mentioned, discussing and weighing them would be inevitable, whether the Elder was present or not.

"Come on, we were about to discuss ideas for defending the village," Banage tried to lead the boy, "You must have some ideas about how to improve our defenses. We could focus on arming ourselves better or improve the gate, maybe?"

The boy frowned at Banage's pushing but eventually asked, "How many people are willing to defend this village?"

"Everyone?" Banage replied, confused. For that matter, Tharoden was confused as well, of course everyone would defend the village. They would fight or the zombies would kill them all.

"Are your arrows limited? Why do more people not have bows?"

"Only our hunters have bows. But we have more than enough arrows," Banage replied more confidently. The conversation was definitely swinging his way.

"Then I would say we are going about this the wrong way," the boy looked around the crowd, "You do not kill the enemy by merely defending. The zombies don't care how difficult it is, or how many of them are killed. You cannot make the defence too costly, the enemy is fearless and far too many. The only way to win is to attack them. Take everyone with bows and everyone else who can use a ranged weapon, even if it's just a sling, and attack the zombies. "

The murmurs grew loud as the entire council was stunned at his words. Tharoden clenched a fist, what a terrible plan. The boy simply had no idea what sacrifice his idea would demand. And he dared to make it sound so seductively simple.

"The zombies are slow. Any of you will run faster than they do and I doubt the zombies can climb trees. If the Elkas help spot and the zombies continue to be stupid like we saw, it will be perfectly safe," the boy explained further.

Banage was getting a glint in his eye when an authoritative voice cut through the crowd. "What travesty is this?!" the Elder stomped through, the crowd parting like water. "You again!" she shook a finger practically in the boy's face, "I told you that-"

"Excuse me," Banage interrupted the Elder, sending a shock through the crowd, "I don't think he was finished. "

The boy shook his head instead, clearly knowing how futile it was. Tharoden clenched a fist behind his back, now that the Elder was here, they could go back to sensible ideas. Like deciding how much extra wall to build.

"Banage, shut up," the Elder said, "there will be no more talk of attacking the zombies. They are bad enough in wandering groups. If you provoke them, we will have an entire army in this valley to kill us all. "

"The human speaks true, Elder," Banage protested, "we can do it. "

"Enough Banage, I already decided. "

The boy spoke up, changing his tone in an effort to appear reasonable. Ha, like the Elder was going to fall for that. "Elder, I was told of what happened in your past. Of the Night Cryer. Are you not letting your past hinder your judgment? Please, consider my words. The zombies concern all of us. "

The little speech was met with complete silence at his impunity. Did he just criticize the Elder for being too hung up on her father?!

"Tharoden, please get him away from this place. I don't want to see him here," the Elder pointed a finger back towards the Arbor house.

That... might not be wise, for the Elder to appear to just silence opposition by force. But it was what she commanded and Tharoden nodded at his cousins, who grabbed the offending human and dragged him away over his pleas.

"Why do you fault him so?" Banage asked warily, "he is unaware of our customs and history. Surely you can forgive even-"

"Banage, you are coming close to offending me too," the Elder said, her voice drawn dangerously flat, "You are the head of one of the larger families here and if you feel that I am not required here, then perhaps my business lies elsewhere. "

"But-"

"This 'discussion' tires me. Tharoden, I will take my leave to prepare, please make sure something reasonable is decided. I have faith in your judgment," the Elder nodded curtly at him and left.

Tharoden stared open-mouthed at the Elder's retreating back. The Elder's faith in him was less gratifying than it would have been. The boy had cut her more deeply than Tharoden had realized and now they would have to go on without the Elder to guide them.

"We're just going fight over this. I don't see the point. " Banage said almost immediately and turned to go as well.

With a swish of his tail, Banage swept out of the meeting, leaving the remaining four standing around the central fire awkwardly.

With a heavy air and a voice that sounded too light even for his own ears, Tharoden spoke, "We should divide the work for improving the gate and making new spears to replace our losses-"

"I'm sorry, Tharoden," Questoress, who had been listening in silence finally spoke up, "with the Elder and Banage leaving, I don't think there's any point to this meeting. "

She stayed for a moment, as if giving him pause, but Tharoden couldn't think of anything to say to her. With a nod, she turned around to go.

Meek little Tatit and the ever sullen Sulrod stayed for a few more minutes until Tharoden let them go with a round of vague platitudes. With the Elder and the two most influential after himself missing, it couldn't really be called a meeting any more.

"What do you mean leave?" Danine said angrily, "we can't just run away!"

"I don't see anyone doing anything to prepare for zombies! Do you want to die here? The bigger pack Ka spotted is only three days away and he thinks there's a truly massive wave behind that," Cato shot back, but it was probably futile. He turned to her mother sitting across the table, "Irld, please, will you not go? If you came, I'm sure Danine will come as well. It's the only way we're going to survive this. "

"What sort of preparations are you thinking of?" Irld said gently. She had an air about her that Cato hadn't seen before, calm and passive.

"The zombies are vulnerable to anything that can kill us. You can dig pits around the walls. You can use dried grass and firewood as fire traps. Fortify the walls and gates with more logs. Anything! Sure, everyone's got a weapon now but we're just sitting and waiting for them!" Cato could almost pull out his hair in frustration. It was their lives the zombies were going to take away and they were just ignoring the threat. Much less attacking it as they should be. Cato had given up on that strategy.

Sure, the collapse of the meeting was probably catalyzed by Cato's mistake. But now the villagers were looking at him with both incredulity and contempt, as paradoxical a combination as it looked on their expression, they wouldn't listen to anything he might say. And with how badly that meeting had gone, they hadn't convened another despite the increasingly close zombie attack.

There was a knock on the door and Arbor got up to take it.

"Ah, you are here, I was afraid you would be out doing something," a familiar voice spoke up as the speaker entered the small kitchen.

"Banage!" Danine shot out of her seat.

The man's reddish tinged touched even his ears and tail, giving them a rusty brown look. Together with his middle aged look and slow words, it made the Fuka look quite proper for his position as leader of one of the bigger families.

"What are you doing here," Irld said stiffly.

Banage nodded, "now now, I was merely trying to have a talk with your guest. If you wish, we can take a walk. "

The two of them looked at each other for a while and an understanding seemed to pass between them. Irld sighed, "fine, you can stay. "

The exchange and Irld's animosity did not go unnoticed to Cato, but when he shot Danine a querying look, she just shrugged. No idea huh. Her father Arbor just stood at the entrance and watched them.

"I thank you," Banage bowed politely, "at my age, I much prefer to sit. Now, I'm sorry, Cato, but I couldn't help overhearing from outside. Are you really going to leave?"