The sun rose higher into the sky, shining heat down into the valley. Even as Cato sweated and waited in the shade of houses for the zombies to strike or news of Banage, nothing happened.

It was paradoxical, how much waiting there was to be done. The zombies had only moved slowly in the forest since morning, and Banage had disappeared under the leafy canopy in a somewhat wrong direction. Cato still didn't know what the Fuka was doing, no matter how much Tharoden demanded answers of Cato.

And so, Cato was sitting on the porch of the main house of Char clan, sweating uncomfortably in the heat and somehow still nodding off anyway. After it was clear that Tharoden and Tulore weren't going to listen to him, and that Cato didn't know what they wanted to know, there wasn't much to talk about.

"And then after that immensely stupid act of courage, I found myself running from a frothing mass of zombies!" Ryulo was telling the tale of the chase again. Was he puffing his chest out? Cato smiled a little, perhaps it was Danine listening raptly with her tail shooting up in alarm or coiling in mirth as the story progressed.

Aleas poked him in the ribs, causing him to squirm in a most unmanly way. "Hey, don't you go forgetting your own immensely stupid act of courage showing yourself on the hillside. "

"I haven't gotten to that part yet," Ryulo complained, rubbing his side. Danine snorted and grinned. "No matter, soon you will see the truth of my heroic actions. "

"You know, are you sure you're not turning into Toal?" Cato asked, suppressing a yawn.

"What? No! Of course not!" Ryulo took Aleas's hand and kissed it gently, "With a cute maiden like her by my side, what man worth his tail could resist showing off?"

Oh gods, that was so corny... and Cato almost gaped as Aleas flushed cherry red and looked down bashfully. Seriously.

"I think-"

Danine cut off whatever she was going to say when a young Fuka kid ran up to the house.

"Ka just came back. The zombies are coming!"

Cato sat up straight, his sleepiness disappearing like mist under the hot sun. "What about Banage?"

The kid shook his head, "Ka said that Banage hasn't left the forest yet. He thinks they missed each other. Ka never saw anyone from Banage's group asking for directions. "

Cato frowned, whatever was that man thinking? "Thank you," he said to the boy. There was nothing to do but hope that Banage realized it and could come back to the village on time. And that the defence effort of Tharoden would be enough.

The zombies crossing the open fields would take another day, he had better go see what he could do. Sharpen a few stakes maybe.

Toal and Cato watched the large group of zombies slowly walk towards them from the last hill. Banage was not visible from the walls, even though Ka had said he had spotted them leaving the forest a few hours ago, heading back towards the village.

Where the hell was Banage and what was he thinking? Cato scowled at the zombies.

Almost as if on cue, the zombies broke into a run, a tidal wave of black decaying bodies running through the grass. The slapping of hundreds of feet on soil and stones built into a thunder. Arrows flew out to meet the zombies. Like before, it wasn't enough.

Cato watched as only a few zombies fell down. Strange that they should topple over after only a few arrows, even if it took a handful per zombie. A human would be in serious trouble after just one but he expected the zombies to just ignore pain. And many of the zombies weren't even hit in the legs. For what reason would the zombies fall down and stop moving then?

Things got a bit too hectic for thinking once the zombies reached the gate. Almost immediately, the gate began to buckle, despite the Fukas' efforts to chuck stones at the zombies from above.

Cato looked up from picking up yet another rock and saw a few figures running down from the hill. Then a cart appeared and he made the connection. That was Banage! He was back! Perhaps they could distract the zombies from outside or even attack them...

His train of thought was interrupted with a giant crash. Like before, the gate crumpled inwards under the weight of the zombies, only now there was many more of them. They surged forwards, spilling through the gate onto the prepared spikes and defenses.

The Fukas wavered under the onslaught, there were simply too many zombies and they were getting overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers as the zombies clambered over the stakes without heed for danger.

Tharoden was there, at the front and center. For all of his obstinacy, the man lacked no bravery. He calmly leveled a heavy spear and threw back zombie after zombie, an arm speared on the knife blade like a garish flag of war. The Fukas rallied around him, shouting their defiance at the zombies.

But for all his strength, he couldn't hold back the tide. Even as the zombies were cut down by the dozens, the Fukas were still being pushed back. The second ring of stakes made out of houses that used to be near the gate was being assaulted already.

A roar of voices from outside the gate drew Cato's attention. There was a whiff of smoke, of wood ash, and he saw the glint of red flames licking upwards from the carts. Banage's group had loaded up their carts with firewood and were charging towards the gate with the carts aflame!

"No! Stop! STOP!" Cato shouted, waving his arms and trying to get their attention, but it was no use. Banage was there, his white beard whipping around as he shouted at his clan members.

The carts were fully ablaze when they crashed into the zombies. The zombies whose dried dead flesh was quite flammable. The zombies who had been packed like sardines, trying to squeeze through the gate and the ring of defenses.

Cato spun around on the ground, trying to figure out where he was. The choking black smoke of burning zombies and the screams of Fukas did not help.

The zombies had caught fire and it hadn't even slowed them down. While Cato certainly couldn't have predicted that, it didn't change the fact that the Fukas were now facing a horde of zombies charging at them while on fire.

The gate hadn't lasted long after that and the line of Fukas simply broke in panic. And then the zombies were spilling through the gaps into the village.

A strong grip grabbed Cato's arm. Oh, it was just Toal. He gulped at the grim faced blacksmith, trying to settle down after that shock.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"This way, my forge is nearby and I have a few things there. We'll go to Danine and Irld to get them out of here," Toal said.

Cato nodded mutely.

He caught sight of Tharoden, still standing in the center of the main road, shouting at the knot of Fukas near him. They were still holding back most of the zombies, despite the flames and choking fumes.

Cato adjusted his estimation of the older Fuka upwards dramatically. They were buying the rest of them time... to do what? Some of the buildings were already catching fire and Cato could foresee the disaster coming with all the wooden buildings packed close in the village.

Toal dived into his forge and came out carrying a small bag of metal tools, a large cloth sling, and a large crossbow over his shoulder. Then he lead the way to Danine's house.

"What are we going to do?" Cato asked.

"Leaving," Toal replied simply.

Orange flames seemed to flicker around every corner, Cato could see the embers drifting upwards from the conflagration burning down the village, landing on fresh houses to spark new fires. Leaving sounded like an eminently wise idea now. Why hadn't Cato left when the Fukas appeared to not know what they were doing? Which turned out to be true.

They found Arbor already packing some food from their small storage.

"Where's Danine?" Cato asked.

Arbor pointed further down the road. There was a small crowd of women and children trying to move out of the back gate. Good, they were going to be safe, hopefully.

"You have more grain than you can carry, let us help save more of it," Toal said, indicating the small pile of sacks on the floor.

Arbor nodded and they grabbed a sack each before the three of them joined the fleeing Fukas.

Ka stood at steps in front of the entrance of his house, trying not to cough and cry at the same time. The stone platform was high enough to see the entire village and most of it was on fire.

The wind had shifted and the smoke was now blowing away from him. It didn't stop the tears flowing down his face. The zombies were still running around down there, even if most of them had crumbled to ashes.

Amazingly, a small group of Fukas remained, despite their dead lying strewn around them amongst the zombies. Grouped around the bottom of his tower, they were defending the lower steps as they retreated up the tower. The forest of waving spears pushed the zombies off the tower and back down the steps.

If they fell to the zombies, then Kee would fly away, carrying his children, and Ri would follow them.

Ka would stay here with Mii. Ri would understand one day, when she found a pairbond. If she even found a non-relative.

There was a clatter of wood on stone as the Fukas retreated up to the platform. There were so few left, only nine. Ka nodded grimly at Tharoden, the man's left arm dripping blood from a deep gouge and half his tail singed black. The Fuka nodded back, eyes still flaming with anger.

"We hold here," the man said to those who still remained with him, "There is no where left. "

"Let me help," a high voice said shakily.

Ka gulped. "Mii, it's dangerous. The zombies will be here any time now. "

"If the zombies get you, they'll get me too. I may as well help. "

She looked at him steadily. Ka was about to open his mouth when Tharoden reached down and corrected her grip on her short spear.

"Hold it like this, or you'll break your thumb," the man grunted.

Mii gazed upwards and nodded.

A zombie running ahead of the pack ran into the line of Fukas. It was smouldering and charred but at least not on fire. Tharoden gave it a shove with his leg and it went flying off the edge of the platform.

And then there was another and another and it seemed like the world consisted of dodging burning claw-like hands and trying to find an opening to jab his spear through. Ka cut the hamstrings of a zombie to no effect, then a Fuka fell backwards onto him and they went down in a tangled mess.

They were getting pushed back again. Even if the zombies that had followed them up were not many, most of the zombies were on fire.  And everyone was tired.

Except Mii.

Tharoden struggled against four zombies scrabbling at him, trying to fend off their grasping hands. He was still holding his position, accumulating scratches and wounds but not budging an inch.

Then Mii screamed as a zombie dragged Ka out from under the Fuka. He struggled and yelled, the fire was burning his clothing and it was trying to tear out his eyes-

Like a massive white blanket, a large wing batted it over the head. The zombie staggered back and Mii drove her wing down again.

Ka rolled clear and stabbed his spear down at the zombie's foot, feeling the wood crunch on the bone. Then her wing came down a third time, slamming it downwards into the ground. Ka shoved on the spear, hard, and the zombie toppled over.

He looked up to see Mii holding tightly onto the stone floor, her wings unfurled high over them. Her left wing was bent at a painful angle, Ka winced as he saw her screaming in pain.

It didn't stop her from whacking zombie after zombie over the edge. Her wings trapped bits of burning zombies, charring and smoking, but still she tried and the zombies got pushed back with every stroke.

Tharoden roared, crouching to dodge Mii's wings. Another Fuka ran over and charged at the four zombies facing him. Then Tharoden surged to his feet and drove his spear clean through the front zombie, before slashing it open with the blade at the tip. It collapsed messily. Tharoden and the Fuka charged the remaining three and drove them off the platform.

And then suddenly, there were no more zombies. Only four Fukas were left standing, not including Tharoden. Mii lay on the ground, sobbing in pain, her wings broken in more ways than Ka could count and bleeding from a dozen wounds.

Tharoden knelt next to a wounded Fuka, trying to stem the bleeding from tears and gouges wherever the zombies could reach.

Ka stumbled over to his wife, tears running down his face. There was nothing he could say, nothing he could do. Using his wings as a weapon was not something he could have thought of, not with the price it meant.

Behind Ka, the wounded Fuka under Tharoden's hands drew his last breath, blood bubbling out of his mouth.