“Let's move forward.” Veros declares. “Erik, Zyra, you two keep an eye on what's behind us.”

Veros and Kellar slowly continue ahead while guiding Atticus and Royd's horses by the reins. Erik maintains an unfaltering sense of awareness as his eyes keenly scan the environment in front and behind him. Zyra, however, displays the same symptoms of subtle anxiousness that bled onto the surface of her face when she took out the lone undead on the road earlier that morning. Given her performance demonstrated in that instance, she doesn't feel capable or confident when being placed in a position where she's being depended on for the safety of the others. However, she has little choice but to try and adapt in these circumstances. With this in mind, she tries to feign calmness, but doesn't seem nearly as alert next to Erik. As they make their way deeper into the town, the sounds of the raging river beneath the bridge begins to subside with distance, and the eerie silence that oppressed them during their journey through the forest returns once again.

As the mounted members of the group make their way to the first intersection, Royd and Atticus continue their careful patrol northward. House by house, shack by shack, the two courageous Mistwalkers readily clear a path for their comrades to follow. Only a select few homes contained hostile stragglers, quickly eliminated by the warriors with ease. As expected, the buildings also showed mixed signs of both hasty retreat from its original denizens, as well as potential plundering by passing Mistwalkers. It's difficult to differentiate the two, but most rooms aren't nearly as barren as they were in Newmanstead, which was much closer to the safety of the barrier.

The slow and steady progress eventually leads the group to the northern gate they were seeking. As they approach it, the mist clears, and it fully comes into sight, and they're greeted with something they didn't expect: the massive double-doored gate is barricaded with inumerable large wooden planks holding the two sides together. Worse still, was a tall wall of haphazardly placed furniture further preventing the gate from being forced open.

“You've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me.” Kellar can't help but voice his displeasure. “I knew this would happen. Why did they think this was a good idea? What did they think this would block out?”

“Panic is rarely accompanied by logic.” Veros replies with a small sigh. Even he's a bit annoyed at the discovery. “I had assumed Levinburg was too far south to require such drastic measures to keep the town locked down, but it appears I was wrong.”

“Perhaps a massive pack of undead was storming their gates?” Royd offers his hypothesis.

Having no definitive answers, Veros only musters a shrug. “It's possible, but obviously it's unlikely we'll ever know.”

“So now what the hell do we do?” Kellar interjects. “Do we actually try and move all this trash? We'll be here for an extra hour or two.”

“No, there's the other exits I mentioned before. We'll have to double back a bit.” Veros turns his horse and looks down the street from where the group came. “There's another gate to the east. If we take a left a few intersections back, we'll reach the chapel courtyard, which has a street that leads directly to it.”

“You sure it won't be blocked off too?”

“It's smaller and more out of the way than this one, and doesn't have its own access bridge, so it's rather inconspicuous. Can't imagine they'd feel the need to seal it off as harshly.”

Kellar lets out a sigh, not feeling terribly convinced. “Guess we'll have to find out the hard way and head over there.”

“Indeed. Let's head back.” Veros leads the group back down the street in the direction they came from. Due to the inconvenience of the blocked-off gate, tinges of doubt begin to fester in their heads. The street they're on was supposed to lead them from the south gate to the north one, easily allowing them to cut through the town. However, now they're being forced into taking a detour through the center of it, opening new doors for potential danger.

“Down here.” Veros turns left on the third intersection from the closed-off northern gate, entering another wide street. “Royd, Atticus, you're up again. We'll follow at a distance.”

“Aye.” Royd responds automatically.

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The two capable men take point and begin another cautious trek through this new street that wasn't part of the original plan. One by one, they enter buildings of varying shapes, sizes, and room count. This time, some of them were more than just normal family homes. There were shops, tailories, and smithies, all clearly abandoned and with many merchandise and equipment left behind to deteriorate, rust, and collect dust. Royd and Atticus make steady progress clearing out each building that lined either side of the street as quickly as they can without being careless. As before, only a handful of strays were discovered, wasting away with no sense of purpose, and then immediately eliminated by the fearless warriors.

As the two acting patrolmen make their way down the street, they eventually disappear from the sight of the others, having been veiled by a layer of mist. Veros and Kellar still stay back with slowly decaying patience, while Erik and Zyra are too busy being aware of their surroundings.

“So let's say we get to that second gate,” Kellar begins speaking, “and it's inaccessible like the other one. What then?”

“Then I guess we'll have to waste the day moving the trash at the north gate, after all.”

“Hells...” Kellar curses under his breath. He's too aggravated to even raise his voice. “Second day out here and I'm already exhausted, and I didn't even do anythin' except sit on this horse for four straight hours.”

“If traversing through the mist were any easier, the source of it would have been reached by now.” Veros responds with a harsh truth.

Meanwhile, the knight finally approaches the end of the street, noticing that his burly comrade had gotten there before him and seems to be staring forward hypnotically.

“Did you find something?” Atticus asks as he walks up to Royd, who doesn't reply immediately. Instead he lifts his hand and points ahead with a dumbstruck look on his face.

Curious, the knight turns towards an open area finally clear of buildings. Opposite them, the thin veil of fog begins to shift and waft away momentarily. Atticus squints his eyes and takes a few more steps forward, and across the large cobblestone courtyard, is not only the chapel that Veros mentioned, but another shocking sight that none of them had predicted: bodies – many of them. Dozens are scattered among the area and steps leading up to the large, firmly shut wooden doors of the holy place, which is barricaded by a repulsive dune of another fifty to seventy or so greenish, decomposing corpses. All of them look as if they were recklessly thrown into a pile by an unknown force, strewn about over each other in awkward postures like boneless ragdolls treated poorly by a rambunctious child. None of them are moving. There isn't a single twitch or stir among the small army. They're perfectly still – eerily so.

“What the hell?” The knight can only utter complete bewilderment and shock at the sight.

“What do we do about this?” Royd asks aloud to no on in particular. Both men are petrified at the idea of having to tiptoe around this unpredictable horde that may or may not stir and awaken to wreak havoc, but they have little choice.

“You go and tell Veros what we've found. I'll stay here and keep an eye on them.” Atticus works up the frame of mind to take action.

“You sure that's a good idea? Staying here?” Royd replies with understandable reluctance.

“Well, one of us needs to stay here and make sure they aren't awoken while we're not looking.”

“Alright then.” With no other real options to deal with the situation, Royd concedes. “I'll be as quick as I can. But if any of 'em start moving, even an inch, run your ass off back to the group.”

“I will.” The knight gives a confident nod before his partner runs back down the street they came from and disappears into the fog.

Still a ways back, Veros has decided he's waited long enough.

“I think we should quicken the pace now.” He says.

“But they're not back yet.” Kellar responds, obviously more willing to play it safe and stay put for the time being.

“It's a long street.” Veros continues. “They're probably still clearing buildings out, and if they were any sort of trouble beyond their control, I'm sure they would have retreated by now. Let's go.”

The self-assured leader urges his horse forward, with Kellar apprehensively trailing behind, and Erik and Zyra at the rear. However, it's only mere seconds before a human-shaped silhouette is visible from the distance. It approaches them with speed and eventually reveals itself to be their burly posse member Royd.

“Royd? What's wrong?” Veros asks, noticing the expression of urgency upon his comrade's face.

“We've got a bit of problem in the chapel courtyard.” He responds while trying to catch his breath.

“What is it?”

“Undead. Lots of them. They're lying about the entire area, not moving.”

“How many exactly?”

“Too many to take the time to count. I'd say damn near a hundred.”

The news immediately catches the attention of Zyra, who notices that Atticus isn't present.

“Where's Atticus?” She speaks up with surprising volume, catching the other men off guard.

“He's at the end of the street, keeping an eye on the horde. We don't know when or if they'll start getting up and moving.” Royd attempts to explain as succinctly as he can.

“Is the street to the south not blocked off by them?” Veros asks.

The bulky warrior shakes his head. “No. They're mostly near the chapel doors.”

Veros considers his options for a deeply pensive, but short moment. “Let's go take a look. Maybe we can sneak around them.”