Chapter 82 - We’re Under Attack!

It wasn’t just a few of the things, either. This was a sea of zombies. An ocean of undead. I hadn’t seen this many of the things in one place since watching “World War Z.”

We clearly hadn’t been wrong when we guessed there might be as many as a thousand zombies lurking in the mall, because there were so many hundreds of them working their way through the forest that it wouldn’t have shocked me if a thousand of them were marching our way.

“Kara, wake up,” I said, pitching my voice so it wasn’t quite a yell.

“Wha?” She sounded groggy. I needed her alert.

“We’re under attack, Kara!”

That woke her up fast. Nobody had survived this long past the Event without developing a highly refined sense for danger and good reactions to same. Kara bolted upright, looking around. She saw me at the wall and came to join me, poking her head up above the timbers.

We hadn’t been the only ones to notice. The ratkin occupied a few of the other rampart guard posts, and they’d also spotted the attack. So far, they were still just chittering nervously to one another, although I spotted one ratkin rush down his ladder to wake the others still sleeping below. The undead were still too far out for arrows, and probably too far for most spells as well.

“Holy shit, Selena. How do we fight that?”

“I have no idea,” I replied.

I wished I did. Those sorts of numbers, though? This wasn’t going to be a fight. It would be a slaughter.

I had twenty assorted undead humans, plus Sue and Hope. There were also Kara and myself, both of us more than capable of taking down a few zombies. A few! This was so far past that I froze, unable to think my way through the problem. The ratkin had some warriors, too. A couple dozen of them were capable of fighting. It wasn’t even close to enough.

Those zombies would hit the walls and look for a way through. Worst case, they’d find a way to batter down the walls. If they had shovels, they could undermine the walls from the outside, digging away at the dirt that held up the palisade. Hell, there were enough of them that they could do it with their bare hands. They’d still get through in short order.

Best case, they couldn’t take down the wall. But there were enough of them they could literally do the ant thing—climbing one atop the next until they’d created a set of undead stairs, climbing right up to where we were. Once they reached the top of the wall, it would all be over. They’d swarm the defenders at the wall, kill us, then surge down the ladders into the space inside, slaughtering everyone else living within.

We’d cost them a lot of soldiers. I figured even trapped like this, we could account for hundreds of undead. Sue alone would make them pay a steep price for the victory. But undead could be replaced. There were still probably tens of thousands of living humans in the surrounding area. Left alone, without our interference, the mall horde would grow uncontrolled. It might reach a large enough size that nobody could stop it, if it was allowed to remain unchecked.

Clearly Kara and I had scared the monster in charge of the horde way more than I’d thought. I figured we’d pissed it off, but this was way past that. This swarm had to be the majority of its troops. This was a Hail Mary strike; if we somehow beat the horde, the big bad couldn’t have much left to defend itself with.

Which would be great if I could think of any way to beat it, but I was drawing a solid blank on that one.

“Selena, seriously—how do we fight that?” Kara asked. She sounded scared now.

I was, too. They were getting closer, and we were running out of time to come up with a plan. Another ten minutes and they’d be at the walls.

“I don’t think we can,” I replied, my brain snapping back into action. I shook my head to clear it. We needed crisp, non-panicky thinking here. “Come on!”

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I went down the ladder quick as I could, racing to the bottom. The ratkin were mostly awake at this point. I saw them gathering in the wan light from the fire pit embers. One ratkin was giving orders. That had to be Patches. I headed his way.

“Lady Death,” Patches said. “We are under attack?”

I wished he wouldn’t call me that, but this wasn’t the time. “Yeah. Patches—we can’t win. Not against this.”

“But you have power over the dead!”

“Limited power. There are too many of them out there.”

“A hundred?” Patches asked, remembering our conversation earlier, where I’d explained what that meant.

“No. Many hundreds. They will reach the walls and either tear them down or climb over. Either way, if we stay we will all die.”

“So we run.” He didn’t sound happy about it, but I’d gotten the message across.

“Yes. I’m sorry. I don’t see another way. I never expected them to pursue us like this.”

I should have, maybe. I knew we’d tweaked the nose of whatever run things there. We pissed it off enough that it spelled out a message for us in undead bodies. It knew we were a threat. I just figured it would wait where it was strongest, not come knocking at our home base.

Clearly, I’d grossly underestimated how much we’d pissed the boss undead off.

“Kara and I will mount up on Sue and buy your people time to get away,” I told him. “But you need to get out of the fort now. Once they reach the walls, none of us are going to escape.”

Patches nodded and rushed off to talk to more ratkin. They were all up and moving now, and his shouts gathered all his people near the gate. I felt a tap on my shoulder and whirled, ready to fight—but it was just Kara.

“What about us?” Kara asked.

“We’re mostly packed anyway,” I replied. “Help me hook the supply bags back onto Sue. We’ll bring what we can. With luck, we can lead them away. Maybe if they chase us they’ll leave the fort alone.”

I doubted that, but hey, it was possible.

Kara and I swiftly went to Sue’s side and started hooking up the big satchels the Guard gave me along with the supplies I’d traded for. We had plenty of rope, so tying them to Sue’s back wasn’t difficult—it just took more time than I liked. We were running out of precious minutes. I glanced at my watch. By the time we were ready, it had been six minutes since I slid down the ladder. The undead had to be almost on top of us.

“We need to get out there. Buy the ratkin time,” I said. “You with me?”

“You bet!” Kara replied. She looked scared, but also determined.

I ordered Sue to bend down close to the ground and we both clambered up onto her back. All my other undead were gathered around Sue, lined up in two ranks, with Hope standing ready in front of them. We were as prepared as we were going to get.

“Open the gate!” I shouted as I ordered Sue to rise and start in that direction.

Two ratkin lifted away the bar holding the gate shut and flung the doors open. They swung out, revealing nothing but the night-time forest, thank god. The zombie horde hadn’t reached us quite yet.

There wasn’t time for a slow advance, so I ordered Sue to surge forward. The dinosaur rushed toward the gate, powerful legs carrying us all outside in just a few strides. Hope ran alongside, keeping up, while the rest of my undead marched to follow us.

“Lady! Where do we go?” Patches asked as I rode past.

I halted Sue, my thoughts racing. Where could they go where they’d be safe? Or at least have a shot at safety? I remembered pouring over my map, looking at potential sites, good places that were defendable. But nothing was defendable against a foe like this.

Hidden and out of the way would have to do. I pointed north. “That way. There’s a river. Where the big road meets the river, there’s a bridge, and near the bridge is a large island. You should be safe there for a while.”

“Thank you, for all help you give us. You join us there?”

“I don’t know,” I answered as honestly as I could. “I will if I can. If not, Patches, then lead your people bravely and well. Good luck!”

Then I had Sue bolt forward again, turning toward the enemy rather than away from them. They were close enough to be easy to spot now, even in the dark woods. I swallowed hard, fighting back my fear. That was a lot of zombies.

Our main advantage was Sue. The dinosaur moved faster than the enemy undead, even burdened by our supplies, Kara, and myself. If we played it smart, they’d never get within hand to hand combat range of us.

My undead were another matter. I was going to lose them in this fight, I was already pretty sure of that. The zombies and skeletons were just too slow to escape. Thankfully they were replaceable, but losing my army was still going to sting, and leave me a lot weaker.

Their sacrifice might save the ratkin, though. I ordered them to form up their ranks, melee ahead with casters behind, and advance along the outside of the wall toward the horde. At least with the wall on their right, they couldn’t get flanked on both sides. They weren’t going to be much more than a speed bump, anyway. Not against so many hundreds of zombies it was impossible to even estimate their numbers.

I had Sue spit a Fireball at the oncoming force. It burst perfectly, blowing apart a couple of the nearest zombies and setting half a tree on fire. I’d need to watch that. If I set the entire forest ablaze, we might all die in the conflagration.

Reaching out a hand, I cast Drain Life on one of the nearest foes. It dropped instantly. Before I could crouch back down again, two beams of dark energy streamed forth from somewhere inside the horde.

Both of them slammed into my chest. Two Harm spells, probably cast by skeleton mages. The first I handled well enough, although it hurt like hell. The second was a shock though. I hadn’t seen it coming, wasn’t braced for the attack—and it sent me tumbling from Sue’s back, falling toward the dark ground below.