Kass pushed him back again. He went flying. She watched as he seemed unconcerned with being thrown into a tree. He got to his feet, roared, and rushed her again.

“Kass!” Cat’s voice shouted from behind.

Kass turned in time to see Cat run her machete right through Harry. She then cut his head off for good measure, and rolled backwards out of the way as she threw the machete to Kass.

Kass grabbed it out of the air and turned back to face Diego. Luckily zombies don’t think very defensively. Kass swung the machete as he bore down upon her. His whole head went flying.

The body kept coming towards her but she pushed it back with her telekinesis. He fell down and didn’t get up again. She turned back to find a blood coated Cat standing next to the unmoving body of Harry.

“We should burn them,” Cat said.

Kass nodded. It wasn’t necessary, now that the bodies weren’t moving they weren’t likely to again but with Zombies you never could be completely sure. It was better to be safe.

They dragged the bodies to the edge of the fire. “We should probably make the fire around them.” Cat observed.

Kass nodded.

“I’m going to get the packs first and then some more wood. You keep an eye on them.” Cat walked off into the forest before Kass could get a chance to ask about the second pack.

Kass stood alone in the clearing. Blood soaked the ground around her feet. She took a nervous step away from the bodies and watched them closely.

Cat returned not too long after. She dumped both packs at Kass’s feet then went back into the forest to fetch some wood.

Kass found some stones while she waited for Cat to return with the wood. She placed them around the bodies as a fire barrier.

When Cat got back they surrounded the men with sticks, coated them in the remains of Kass’s brandy, not that there was much left, then took one long one stick and lit Harry’s clothing on fire. As the bodies burned Cat started going though their gear. Some things she threw on the fire with the men, others she pocketed.

“Why do you think they killed those trampers?” Cat asked as she rifled through one of the packs.

Kass had sat down on the ground, not too close to the fire, but she watched the flames intently.

“I think they were poaching. The guy earlier he had a patch on his pack, one that belongs to a ranger’s group. There’s no way he would have let their poaching slide.”

Cat paused and frowned and Kass knew she was probably kicking herself for not having noticed it. Cat thought Kass was observant but it wasn’t so much that, it was more that Kass didn’t like looking people in the eye so she often found something else to look at. She’d fixate on the small details and piece a person together that way. Cat liked to look people in the face. It was a good way to judge someone and how they were reacting to things you said. It was different kind of vigilance. A focus on the here and the now. Reactive instead of passive.

Kass watched as Cat eyed the rest of their equipment, coming to the same conclusion that Kass had earlier. “What do you think they were hunting?” Cat asked.

“What else?”

“The phoenix is pretty rare though.”

“Rare and expensive.”

Cat came and sat next to the fire and Kass. “Smells like bacon,” she observed after a moment.

Kass shot her a dark look.

Cat just gave her a smirk in reply.

Kass turned back to watch the flames dance over the limbs of the people they’d just killed. It wasn’t the first time for Kass but it was never really something you got used to, even though in most of her cases it had been necessary, at least that’s what Kass told herself. Sometimes she wondered. She could feel Cat’s eyes watching her.

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“You know, I’m not so keen on camping out here tonight,” Cat said, “and we’re not too far from the caves.”

Kass nodded.

“How’s your head?”

“Fine, how’s yours?” Kass gave her a sideways glance.

“Fine,” Cat replied with a smile. “They knock you unconscious?” she asked.

Kass nodded. “I see you found the pack.”

Cat smiled but didn’t reply.

“Pretty sure it was the invisible one that got me.” Kass was a little annoyed at herself for that. Sure it was hard to spot someone sneaking up on you who was invisible but she had heard footsteps, she just hadn’t recognized them as such since she hadn’t seen anything to go with them. She should have trusted her senses more. But then who expected to be snuck up on in the middle of a forest.

“How do you think they got up here so fast?”

“Maybe they had another way?” Kass shrugged. “Or they followed us and borrowed some telekinetic powers and shot up the wall further down.”

Cat narrowed her eyes skeptically at that last suggestion.

“They did seem pretty fit, so if they did have another way up they could have followed us to the wall and then gone up somewhere else further down. Maybe they even had their own rope set up. It’s not like we scoped out the easiest path up and down the cliff.”

“Hmm.” Cat frowned. “I’d have noticed if they were following.”

Kass gave a small laugh at that which she tried to contain least Cat be upset. But Cat didn’t seem upset. Instead she smiled and got to her feet.

“Shall we get going?”

Kass frowned. “We might want to wait until the fire burns down.”

Cat stretched. “Eh, they’re burnt enough, we can probably just put the fire out.”

“With what?” Kass asked but she followed Cat’s gaze to a small pool near the edge of the forest. “Oh.”

Kass frowned. She wasn’t sure she was ready to leave her spot on the ground and head back into the dark forest. It was the warmer season but still the darkness had brought a slight chill with it and Kass was tired from their fighting and long day hiking. “What are we going to use to carry...?”

Kass trailed off as she saw Cat’s face. Cat had one eyebrow raised. “Just use…” Cat finished her sentence by motioning her hands up with her palms raised.

Kass’s frown deepened and she turned back towards the pond. She’d never tried to lift water on its own before. She wasn’t sure it was even possible. She turned back to Cat. “We should get some lights out first.”

“Oh right.” Cat threw Kass a headlamp.

Kass put it on, sighed, and got to her feet.

Cat backed away from both the bonfire and Kass, probably to avoid getting splashed.

Kass attempted to raise the water. It fell away to the sides and all she managed to levitate was a giant muddy piece of earth.

“Well that’ll do I guess.” Cat commented from somewhere behind Kass.

Kass moved the dirt to the side and dropped it one the bonfire. Clouds of dust and ash puffed out at them.

“Maybe a little more gentle next time.”Cat commented.

Kass ignored her. She lifted another huge chunk of damp earth and dumped it on top. She repeated the process a couple more times. Eventually the only light that remained was the light from their headlamps and what had been a roaring fire was now a grave.

“At this point we probably could have just used the soil.” Cat remarked.

Kass ignored her. “What do we do about the rest of their gear?”

Cat grabbed one of the men’s bags and threw it into the forest. “It doesn’t really matter if anyone finds it. By the time they do everything will be too disintegrated to be any good as evidence.” But Cat threw the rest of their gear into the forest as well.

“The hikers will probably be missed though, and someone is bound to know when they were hiking. It’s not hard to match it up to other people who were out here then.”

“Not many people know we were out here though, no one who’s going to talk to a cop. Maybe we can do something about their bodies when we head back down. As for these guys, they’re probably known for poaching, unless they have rich friends I doubt the cops will look too hard into it.” Cat paused. “Kass?”

“Yeah?”

“When we were down in the other clearing I swear I heard a voice speaking from the other side of the forest, where the hiker’s body was. Do you think…”

Kass shook her head. “That was just me, I was trying to distract them.”

“So they didn’t bring him back from the dead.”

“No.”

Cat narrowed her eyes. “Cause I really don’t want to run into any more zombies out here.”

“Alaaaana,” Kass called in a deep voice that did sound a lot like the one Cat had heard earlier. It was a bit creepy Cat looked like she wanted to step back for a moment.

Then she smiled. “Okay, I believe you.” Cat handed Kass her pack. “You can go first creep.”

“How’s your bullet wound?” Kass asked as she slung the pack onto her back.

Cat inspected it briefly. “It seems to have stopped bleeding.”

“Good.” Kass waited until Cat was ready and then they set off into the dark forest.

By the time they made it back to the cave it was nearly midnight. The camera was set up outside, obviously to catch any sight of the phoenix. Cat wondered if they’d be in the cave since it was dark out now. Maybe they’d even spent most of the day sleeping.

“Hey Indi! Amanda!” Cat called into the mouth of the cave. There was no answer.

“Amanda? Indi?” Kass called into the forest. Silence.

Cat stepped into the cave. Their gear was there in the entrance. Both packs, with sleeping bags still packed up, but no sign of either of the woman. Indi and Amanda were gone.