It was a twenty-foot drop.

I had expected the fall. I had even prepared myself for the impact. What I had forgotten about were my ribs.

Lights flashed across my vision as I rolled over my wounded side. The sharp inhale that followed the pain was almost enough to make me pass out. Both from the stench and from the breathing.

I blinked back the tears and steadied my breathing as I stood up. The zombies were still focused on Val. I wanted to admire her ability to stay alive this long, but I couldn’t. There were tears in her clothes and she had been bitten at least on her left arm. My heart sank. Even if we killed all the zombies, the odds were good that she would die from the infection.

I pushed that thought out of my mind. She would die now if I didn’t do something to help her.

Both of my weapons had been taken. I had my matches, but using fire to fight zombies in this small space would be suicidal. Not that fighting zombies without weapons was much better.

I ran at the closest zombie. The guards cheered, apparently they weren’t worried about me being in the pen. It was four against two, and we were both wounded. They believed the outcome to be a foregone conclusion. Apparently, they had never seen a Bokor fight.

I clubbed the zombie with my double fists. There wasn’t anything around to cut the ropes and I didn’t have time to use my teeth.

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The zombie staggered but didn’t go down. I hadn’t expected to kill it, but I had hoped to knock it out.

It was enough to grab the attention of the rest of the zombies. They paused, unsure of which meal to go after first.

I clubbed the zombie again. This time it dropped to its knees. I grabbed the back of its head and pulled it towards me, raising my knee at the same time. There was a crunch as I broke its face. It fell to the ground with barely a sound.

The remaining zombies rushed me. I caught the first one by the arm and flung it away from me. It tripped over Max’s body and face-planted. Low growls promised another attack, but I had a few seconds for it to find its feet.

That only left Sera.

She was running at me as the other one had. The happy smile she had worn was gone, replaced by a hungry growl. I tried to see her as just another zombie, but she looked too much like herself. For the first time since becoming an apprentice, I froze.

It was the worst mistake a Bokor could make. That had been drilled into me by Master Bran. Make a choice and follow through. Bad choices could be corrected later, but hesitation was time that you could never get back.

All of this berated me as she bowled into me. I heard the guards cheer as she knocked me over. They wanted to watch her kill me. They were happy to see me die.

It made me angry. I had dedicated the rest of my life to protecting humans. To fight monsters so they could be safe. And they were enjoying watching me die.

I pushed the hungry teeth away from me and pulled my legs up. I planted them in her stomach and kicked her off of me. I wasn’t going to die today. They needed to be stopped, and they’d keep getting away with murder if I died right now.

I flipped onto my feet and prepared for the second attack. I wasn’t going to hesitate this time.

I felt teeth sink into my shoulder. I had forgotten about the other zombie. That carelessness had gotten me bitten.