Bob, mortal instrument of Mork, winced. Rubbing at his stomach, he wasn't mad that he'd gotten woken up from his nap. He had asked for that. He hadn't specified how he wanted to be woken up. It seemed like his new special friend had a streak of malicious compliance.

He wasn't against pranks. He just didn't want to cry out and notify all the zombies around. Even with this group of unruly warriors, he didn't want to chance it.

Bob was just glad that he was walking on the top of the maze without a limp. Sonya was behind him.

While he was doing all the prep work required for dinner, Sophie had been hard at work. The raised bridge extended another block and a half. She was actively trying to extend it to the card shop they had raided earlier.

"What in the world is that contraption?" Sonya said, gesturing at his ropes course.

"We needed a way in and out. I wanted to make it a cakewalk as much as possible. Hence, ropes to ascend to the block we needed to get to. Believe it or not this road up here was full of zombies."

"I bet you have a ton of cake puns."

"I've got a few in the oven. That one was free."

Sonya cringed.

"That felt a bit like psychic damage. Stella definitely needs to know about these terrible jokes."

"She knows. She loves them," Bob said, sighing. She probably liked them too much.

Sonya gestured to one of the monks that was running on their right. He jogged over, the zombies chasing him still a healthy distance behind them. It was probably a twenty to one ratio.

"I want to close off this way," she yelled. Sonya gestured east and west, towards the depot. Two blocks away, she could make out a tinker wagon in the center of the street.

The monk gave her a thumbs up before continuing on. She surprised Bob by continuing to walk towards the beltway.

"Uh, Sonya?"

She stepped off of the first story building. Bob ran to intercept her, but her foot found solid ground. Bob watched as a bridge of earth rose to meet her.

She split the road, walking across the rapidly forming wall without a care in the world. Bob just stood there watching as the earth solidified. Once across the road, she turned to face him. Her eyes shone purple.

"You coming, Bob?"

He gulped and then followed after her. As she moved towards the sun, Sonya continued to create ridiculously strong earthen walls.

The closer he got, the more he felt like this was a new development. True, he hadn't been there when she had formed the core of the walls around the first mansion, but this? This had been so unexpected. He was beginning to wonder if he could make a warlock class card. He had to be careful before he turned as green as Finley.

It took her only a few minutes to get to the block and road before the warehouse that they were looking for. Large signs showed the painted image of a dark brown potato over a grey melon and several other smaller vegetables. Most of them were root vegetables, he realized. He was not ready for Stella's lectures about eating veggies, but it definitely looked like a large part of his diet would be dedicated to what they found inside.

"I really hope that we find some sort of shipping wagon that we can use," he said. "That would be great. Something with a lot of storage. Do you sense anything out there?"

"Sorry. I'm not really able to do much from here. I can sense the earth around the building, but it seems like the interior is worked cobblestone or something. At least the floor is. Why don't you send out your cat to scout?"

"Ca'at is currently working to slice and dice every zombie that they catch in the tower."

"Ah yeah. Well he is a useful little fluffer."

"How far can you extend this wall?" Bob looked south. The monks had cleared out so much of the vicinity that he was having trouble finding any zombies.

"I'm nearly tapped out, Bob. This might look impressive, but I'm not going to be able to keep it up."

"Magical dysfunction? I hear that there's a topical cream for that."

Sonya leveled a look at him. The raised earthen wall he stood upon jiggled underneath him.

"Sorry! It'll be our secret!"

"I swear to Cara, Bob. If you make this a running gag, I'm going to develop a cabbage cannon or something."

"Noted. Also Cara?"

"Cara is the god of overlord travel and drug deals. And my patron."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Sonya crossed her arms.

"So like drug smuggling or something? I would say that that is oddly specific, but Mork is similar to that. Maybe this place allows that. Is this patronage a new thing?"

"Best guess? I was on the free trial before. Now I'm paying the price of admission."

"So long as your god's goals and mine aren't divergent, I think we can work together. I think we can be adults."

Sonya nodded, before continuing her work.

Bob wasn't certain what Mork's long term plans were besides him slaying a bunch of death knights. After that? Maybe he would retire. Or open up a bakery. Another bakery, not focusing on cakes.

Maybe a coffee business? Sell some lattes and baked goods? He smiled. He could give it a good name.

He would have to think on it.

----------------------------------------

The last remaining contingent of zombies from the cutoff quadrant had been dispatched. Sophie received the signal, a green flag waving from two blocks north. She returned a wave. It would have been nice to have a set of signal flags for this kind of thing. Sophie made a mental note to look into it later.

Her team headed in. Sophie took point this time, with Stella in the back. They crept through the roofs to the cordoned off area surrounding the warehouse. Two ladders near the warehouse gave them easy access to Plainsmount.

Moving as a unit, they approached the two story warehouse. The design was one of worked iron around a brick facade. It felt just right to Sophie. To her, it appeared that dwarves valued form over function, and would have appreciated a good plaid shirt.

A single door stood next to a large imposing iron roll up door.

When choosing between two options, Sophie had to consider which suited her more. Did she want to tempt fate by opening up the dwarf sized door? Would the roll up even work?

She spied a lock on the ground, clearly doing the goat lords work of keeping it closed.

Sophie smashed the lock.

The door flew up. The clean dwarvish design had a fail safe, stopping it at right above her head. Of course, since the designer hated workers leaving the job on time, it was incredible at keeping people where they wanted them to be. It just so turned out that the warehouse owners wanted people to stay at work. Dozens of dwarves had been stuck indoors. They, in the intervening time since the outbreak, had turned into zombies.

"Biscuits," Sophie cursed.

Sophie jumped back, putting more distance between herself and the staring horde as they turned one by one. She pulled onto her mana reserves. While Sophie cast a spell, Bob shot a crossbow over her shoulder into the first zombie. The dwarf stumbled backwards from the head shot.

Sophie unleashed a focused gale of wind, attempting to knock back the dwarves. It reminded her of working at a wiggles concert, turning a heavy fan on the children in the heat. Rebuffed, several of the zombies fell backwards, knocking still more down. The zombie domino cascade effect resulted in most of them learning the meaning of floor time.

"Let's move! Backwards!" Bob shouted. He moved up next to her, reloading his crossbow. Stella came in between them putting her hand on both of their shoulders. Still facing the threat, they started moving backwards, trying to get out of range.

"Now would be a **great** time for some artillery!" Stella said, in what could be called the world's worst stage whisper.

As they stepped back, Stella breathed out a cold icy breath. They kept moving back at an even pace, facing the zombies. Several of the zombies lurched towards them doing the zombie shuffle, a close second cousin to the Naruto run. They were greeted by the best and only bob sled team on the continent.

"All right now, run!" Stella said.

Sophie's mind drifted to the maxim about good guys and never looking at explosions. Once she thought it was a cool thing to do, but it hadn't made much sense. As a near supernova took out zombies behind her, she realized that it was something entirely mundane. Heroes didn't want to have to deal with bad vision or shrapnel.

The artillery woman herself, Sonya smiled at them as they ran towards her. Her purple eyes oozed with raw power.

The group had come up with two ladders, putting both side by side against the earthen wall. Sophie wasted no time in ascending. She knew that it given a chance. Bob and Stella would have a small argument that could set them back. Bob would say women first please. And then Stella would be insulted.

Hence, Sophie had decided to take matters into her own hands and had two ladders brought. Also since she was faster than both of them, she wasn't going to wait on either. Chivalry was a truly dead and beaten horse, but girls couldn't run the world if they were dead.

Thus, without any discussion, Stella and Bob both climbed a separate but equal ladder. Bob looked a little peeved at the situation. It was hard to make a chivalrous dedication to ones boo thing in the middle of a heated fight.

Bob sighted down his crossbow and hit the first undead dwarf that shambled through the smoke.

Sophie sent a fire bolt to the next. She waited a second then fired a second one. She settled into a rhythm with Stella and Bob. One would attack then the next, each in turn.

Sophie could smell the smoke from her elemental magic. It would have been a good party trick. It really was too bad that there weren't any other parties going on in Plainsmount. She was the only show in town. She would give them the best performance of her life.

---

Stella had shown up for the earth works, but stayed to the fire show. As her mana waned with every shot, she took more and more time between shots. It had to have been more than a minute before she was spent. Stella brandished her spear, ready to back up whatever passed through the smoke.

After threatening to leave for what had to have been an eternity, the smoke finally disappated. They were able to clearly see the pile of half destroyed bodies and loot. Stella pulled her scarf up over her mouth. The others did the same.

"That was pretty great, Sophie. You really got into it there."

"Thanks. You weren't too bad yourself," Sophie said. She lifted her scarf up briefly to take a swig of water.

"I felt like a bit of a one trick pony. I won't be able to cast any ice spells for a bit," Stella said. "Bob, are you alright?"

"I am. Thanks to both of you." Bob got up from his kneeling position, taking a hand from Stella. It was obvious to all parties that Bob didn't need the help.

She quite enjoyed the little thrill of touching his forearm, lingering for the longest time. Sophie for her part was preoccupied by casting a wind spell to move the smoke out.

"Let's give them a minute to-" She said, pushing out a continuous gust from her hands. "Come out if there are any more. Then, we head in?"

"Just say when," Bob said. He prepared to sling his crossbow, then moved it to his back. He pulled a spear out from where he had stored placed it, tip down.

They gave it another good minute where no more zombies appeared. Then, they moved down the ladders to find that the warehouse had been cleared out of zombies.

Sophie double and triple checked the warehouse with meat shields one and two. They scoured it for more zombies. Finding none, they returned outside. Sophie waved to Sonya, giving her a thumbs up. Sonya then pulled out a signal flag back to the staging area.

Before long, two figures on horseback approached and they set out to do their salvage work.