There were Zombies in Port Reggo.

I took off as fast as I could. To be exact, I could sense Zombies in the direction of the city, but judging by how far away they were and where the city was, my estimate said that they were in the middle of the city and spreading.

“There are Zombies?” Fyga wasn’t as fast as I was, so she was having to yell her questions from behind me.

“In the CITY!” I began rolling fire in my palms until I had a ball the size of an orange, then I threw it straight up into the sky. The fireball shot up about fifty feet, then exploded announcing itself far further than I’d be able to yell. It wasn’t the greatest warning, but hopefully Val and Eveth would understand what it meant.

I thought about the lumberjacks. For a moment, I considered leaving them. A few dozen people could die from a Zombie outbreak inside the walls in the time it took me to detour to warn them. I wasn’t sure which was the right call, but I diverted a little to head to the clearing. I didn’t plan on stopping, but those people were trusting me to warn them of danger and I felt responsible for telling them I was moving to a different crisis.

I pointed at the dock. It was about three-quarters of a mile away so we could see it even though it was going to take us a few minutes to reach it even running as fast as we were.

“Get over there and make an ice platform so I can run across it!” I kept moving towards the clearing.

“Where are you going?” Fyga kept running towards the end of the wall, so at least she was trusting me that far.

“I’ve got to warn the men!”

I felt her eye-roll, but she didn’t say anything as she kept running.

There was a group of men coming out of the clearing. Each pair of men had split wood over twelve feet long on their shoulders as the carried lumber away from the woods.

I pointed at the clearing, then motioned at the walls as I ran up to them, but didn’t stop. “ZOMBIES INSIDE! I’M GOING TO DEAL WITH THEM! GET EVERYONE TO SAFETY!”

The men dropped their load and one guy ran back towards the clearing while the others tried to keep up with me.

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“What are you doing?” I glanced over my shoulder.

“Our families are in there!” The red-haired man with an impressive beard was almost as fast as I was. “We’re not waiting out here while they’re in there!”

I thought about arguing. There was a chance that they’d get themselves killed and turned, which would just be another Zombie I’d have to kill later. But I could use help getting people away from the growing horde. I could feel the numbers inside increasing, which was happening way too fast. It took a few hours after a person died for them to turn into a Zombie and that was if there wasn’t a lot of damage that the magic inside them had to fix. This outbreak was happening almost like people were being turned in minutes.

“Fine! But don’t try to fight the Zombies. We need to figure out where is safe and get the people there.” I glared at the men, but I was sure something was lost as the look traveled through my goggles.

“Yes, Master Bokor.” The husky man stopped beside me as we reached the water.

“Why aren’t you done?” I pointed at the span of water that was only partially frozen over.

“You try freezing an ocean thick enough for these giants to walk on.” Fyga glared at the muscular men. “Plus salt water is a lot harder to freeze than regular water.”

Val hadn’t seemed to have much of a problem, but it had also been at night and some of the men weighed an easy three hundred pounds while I was probably the heaviest out of our group at one-sixty.

“Just make it thick enough for me to get across.” I leaned closer to the short woman and bent a little so I could whisper in her ear. “People are dying in there.”

Fyga sighed and dropped to her knees. The blue-eyed woman put both hands on the water and the entire length froze over.

One of the men tried to charge over it as soon as it iced over.

And promptly fell through.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” The barely over five-foot tall woman stood up and towered over the submerged man. “DID I TELL YOU THAT YOU COULD GO ACROSS?!?”

“He’s sorry, Master Bokor.” The redheaded man went to the edge and grabbed the wet man’s hand, pulling him out of the water. “He’s just worried.”

“He can worry and wait until I’m done!” Fyga glared at the two of them, then shifted her gaze to the others. Somehow her glare made all of them shrink back. “No one else better make me start over.”

Satisfied that she’d scared them, she knelt back down, sending her magic over the ice in pulses, slowly making the ice thicker.

After a few minutes, she nodded at me. “It should hold you.” She half-turned, stopping the men in their tracks. “ONLY Master Byler.”

“Find me when you’re done!” I took off across the ice. She had textured it so that it was rough enough that I didn’t slip as I ran across it. That was a nice extra touch and something I’d have to praise her for later.

Right now I had Zombies to find.