I’d fought three groups.

The other two had been smaller, only three and a pair. The fights had gone much faster and they’d never gotten anywhere close to the camp, though I was starting to have a little bit of concern about how many fires I’d made in the woods. There wasn’t a lot of underbrush and I was able to keep it from getting out of hand, but the trees were dry enough this late in the year that it wouldn’t be hard for one of the pyres that hadn’t gone all the way out to spread with a little wind.

I’d tried to cover the ashes with dirt, but there was only so much I could do without water or a shovel. And I wasn’t going to waste our water for simple peace of mind.

Val was awake and packing up what she could without waking up the other two.

“How many?” The redhead glanced at me as she folded her blanket.

“Only ten.”

Val turned to look at me. “And you didn’t wake us up?”

I held out my hand and coaxed a small flame to grow in the center of my palm. “I didn’t have a problem with that few.”

Val shook her head as she returned to her task. “One wrong move and you could’ve died. What would have happened to us then?” She shoved the filled blanket into her pack. “Or what if some Zombies came from the other direction? You wouldn’t know if we’d been killed in our sleep while you were off playing the hero.”

“I can feel them.” It was a relatively new development, so I didn’t mind having to remind her of that fact. “I would have known if Zombies were coming from anywhere else.”

“You would have ran back here with the Zombies chasing you to fight the other ones.” Her voice was full of disdain. “That sounds like a good way to get us all killed.”

“Not if you would have got in the trees like I told you!” I glared at her. She was older than me, somewhere in her mid-twenties.

Since she’d been a Wrangler, she acted like she was the one in charge most of the time. When we were in cities, I was fine with that. She was the Bokor and had a lot more experience dealing with people. But I’d grown up out in the wild. I knew more about the dangers out here.

“I’m not sleeping in a tree.” Val glanced over at the two newcomers that we’d picked up. “And I’m not sticking them in one either.”

“Even if a horde comes after us?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Val glared at me. “They’d need a Touched to gather that many and didn’t The Master say that she wanted you and…” She motioned at the early-twenties blonde that had been sleeping next to her. “Eveth alive?”

“I don’t know what The Master is doing.” I shook my head. The Master of the Touched had sent an army of Zombies to destroy the town we’d just been in. She’d claimed that it was so that the Bokor wouldn’t kill everyone for developing a resistance to becoming a Zombie. I knew that the Bokor had made hard choices in the past, but I couldn’t imagine the group that had been dedicated to protecting Humanity since the beginning of the outbreak would resort to such destructive methods when there was finally hope.

“Hopefully she stays out of our way.” Val knelt down and touched Eveth on the shoulder. “Time to get up.”

The young woman rolled over and opened her clear eyes. It was like there were a pair of diamonds where her eyes used to be green. There was a glow to them that made the whites of her eyes stand out, so if you didn’t look too closely, you’d think that she was blind because of how white her eyes looked.

“Zombies?!” Eveth blinked as she quickly stood up and pulled her sword out of its sheath. Her grip on it tightened as she looked around for an enemy.

Her sword looked like it had been made out of glass. You wouldn’t expect such a thing to be strong, but I’d personally used it. Even without the resonance that Eveth had, I’d been able to kill Zombies as easily as if I had infused magic into my own Bokor sword. In her hands, the sword became even more lethal, because it neutralized the Zombie infection, turning the corrupted flesh back to normal. On a Zombie, that usually meant dead, but with her sword, she could stab a Zombie in the heart and kill them. That made the young Wrangler a very valuable member of our team, even if the concept of Humans wrangling Zombies was a foolish life choice.

“Put that thing away.” Val’s voice got softer, more gentle, almost like she was trying to soothe the other woman. “Byler killed them all.”

I wasn’t sure if it was disappointment or relief on her face, but the emotion disappeared as she put her sword away.

“I guess we need to get going.” Eveth yawned as she looked over at her younger cousin. “Zig! Wake up! Time to go!”

The young boy pulled his blanket over his head.

“We’re not doing that!” The blonde stomped over and grabbed the blanket, hauling the whole mound waist high with one hand. Her feat of strength must have startled her, because she dropped Ziggy back on the ground.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll get up!” The seven-year-old boy grumbled as he crawled out of the blankets.

Eveth just stared at her hands as the boy gathered up his things. Val went over and talked to her in a low voice, so I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The conversation ended with Eveth looking more normal and giving Val a hug.

“Everybody good?” I picked up my pack and threw it over my shoulder. “Let’s try to make it to Port Reggo before nightfall.” I glanced at the boy and tried not to sound too upset. If it had just been the three of us, we would have been there last night, but Ziggy walked so much slower than we did and he needed a lot more breaks. There was a part of me that hoped that someone in the port would be willing to take him in. Moving around with us would be dangerous and if the Bokor found out about us, then he would become a huge liability.

No one said anything, so I started walking east. We’d barely been walking for five minutes when the young voice piped up.

“When’s breakfast?”