Undead zombies wandered aimlessly in the center of town. If they had a direction as a group, Bob, chosen ranger of Mork, couldn't see it. The human brain was wired to see and find patterns in the wild. Bob just saw hundreds of short grey people moving around.

It was the slowest little grey man rave he had ever been to. It was his only one thus far.

Part of his survival skill made him slightly more stealthy. It helped when he used his cloak to cover most of his body. Stella and Sophie were able to hide effectively in plain sight. Brandon the monk had no such ability. However what he didn't have in stealth, he nearly made up for in speed.

As such, rather than taking the most direct route, they had been slowly crossing from safe vantage point to point. Stella or Sophie would cross an open are when the coast was reasonably clear. Brandon would then use his monk strength to toss a brick, stone or something loud to draw the zombies away. They would hear the sound and change the direction of their movement. As he was able to throw improvised weapons nearly half a block, the streets were emptying out more and more rapidly.

He threw the bricks further into the urban center of the town.

They had crossed three roads and had approximately two more to cross. Bob looked forwards, and then had the unfortunate idea to turn back. They would need a safe way out. Part of all of the decoy noises was to steer the horde away from their path of egress. The one to two story buildings were good enough to hide behind. If they needed to run, Bob wanted to draw zombies away from their area of safety. He could see them ending up on top of one of the buildings without a way to get out.

Helicopters were not going to come in and save them. Airship tech wasn't quite there yet either. According to Finley, he had seen a hot air balloon, but nothing like a steerable dirigible.

Bob desperately wanted some rope to fashion bridges across the streets. Maybe shorter zombies didn't look up? He hadn't seen any of them do much more than shuffle around.

"Top of the building, let's see if we can find another way through," Stella whispered."I'll guard the ladder."

An access ladder on the single floor shop was positioned next to a large trash receptacle. As these were dwarves, the stench of a brewery permeated the air around it.

"I think that awful smell is helping them stay away," Bob said.

"Yeah, climb up, Bob. Meat shields first."

Sophie and Stella took up positions on the corner. The side they all occupied was clear but the opposite side of the building had at least five zombies. Once they were on top they could confirm the amount.

Bob climbed as quietly as he could. When he got to the top, he silently praised dwarven architecture. There was only one way up. A raised wall around the roof gave him two feet of cover, enough to stay concealed. The roof was generally level and mostly flat. He could see why.

Someone had left a child sized lounge chair in one corner.

This had been some poor child's hideout spot. That the child was probably dead and gone played on loop in Bob's mind as he made sure that the roof wasn't going to immediately drop him through to the shop below.

Once he was over, he signaled for Brandon to follow, then low crawled to the opposite side. The two men waited for Sophie to join them.

They took turns looking over the wall.

The next two blocks raised the density of the buildings. Where there had been room between to slink, now it began to be only roads between the shops. He could see a sign for the supposed card shop and breathed a sign of relief. Then he breathed in the dank smell of a gnome's stash and sighed. Of course someone had used the roof to smoke up, leaving their equipment there.

"What do you think?" Brandon asked.

As the party leader for this mission, they had been leaning on Bob heavily. If it was just him, he might have been tempted to move for the building. The road between the front of his current building and the next was only a few yards wide. If only he had some rope, then they might be able to cross easily. Bob added that to his list of things he really wished he had easy access to: rope and a flight card.

"Do you think zombies ever look up?" Bob asked.

"Why should they?" Sophie said, "Their food is on the ground."

Bob hadn't considered that morsel of information. If nothing else, Sophie was proving to be a potent source of common sense ideas.

"What are you thinking?" Brandon said.

The monk had gone bald and stayed bald. It reminded Bob that he was in charge of them for his mission, as if someone had chosen every single bald man for it. It even shone a bit like the he was a mascot for a cleaning company.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"I'm thinking I wish we had some rope and no this isn't a bondage joke," Bob said,"If Brandon could jump that far he could extend a rope back to us, but-"

He peeled his head over again.

"-there are too many of them. They would notice us if they ever looked up. Did you bring any bricks with you?"

"You know it boss." The only other notable thing about Brandon was the large sack full of 'presents'. Yes he looked like a cross between Santa and Krillin with it on his back, but it was a sturdy sack. At least evidenced by the seven bricks he pulled out one by one. He placed them along the wall.

"I think we need more distractions. Can you make these guys move towards the center of town?"

"That's doable. Just say when. I'll throw them one at a time."

Bob considered the other skills that Sophie and Stella had. With elemental magic, as well as a specific ice magic card, their defense was potent. Though they couldn't make an whole ice luge throughout the town they could cover a little bit. Also, if they leaned on the growth part of their magic they could make walls on either side of the road.

He quickly brought out some of the writing implements that he had acquired from the rich dwarves. He quickly drew their position relative to the Northern suburbs. That was only three miles or span away. Bob counted it as one hour of walking either way, through enemy terrain.

"I have an idea. We can close this road off, using nature magic to make a wall on either side. Make a safe corridor. We would still need to jump down and over. What do you think?"

"That seems like it would take a lot of mana. I can tell you right now that one wall would take about all of my mana pool, or at least I think it would," Sophie said.

"Well what about if we instead made a bridge. Like a covered bridge between the two buildings?" Bob said.

"You would need a support beam. These one story buildings aren't going to bear the weight," Brandon said, "I was an engineer. Mom didn't want to pay for the conservatory."

Brandon popped his head over briefly.

"That's interesting. Well if the zombies move randomly, maybe instead what we could do is sink a trench or two down so they'll eventually wind up there and we could shoot fish in a barrel. I just want to keep them away from me and I don't have a thousand crossbow bolts on me. I don't even think that I could carry that many without some overpowered card skill."

"A trench?" Sophie said.

Brandon waved for Bob to hand him the paper and pencil.

"If we made it slightly over the average human height, then these short dwarves wouldn't stand a chance. I think the warlock Sonya could do that. We would just need to make sure that we left a road for the caravan to take. These guys don't seem smart like the ones that worked with the death knight. So at least there's that- and Bob you said that there were four more death knights? I hope their influence isn't too much."

Bob was in fact tracking all four now. They showed up as little icons when he focused. He was able to tell how far away they were. Mork was nothing if not direct in how he wanted his chosen to act. Though he hadn't told Bob to go directly to kill these zombies or put a clock somewhere, he would feel a pull to complete the mission.

"There's also the other way to get them out of the way," Brandon said.

"Let me guess, you're going to have them chase you?" Bob said.

"You make the pit, I put them in."

Sophie propped herself up on her forearms. The ridiculousness of them planning this all laying down wasn't quite getting to Bob. He was getting a bit tired and it would be arguably dangerous to have his legs fall asleep.

"That could work. The setup would take more time than we have, I think," Sophie said.

"And we would get more cards and card pieces from them at least. I wonder if Ca'at can climb down a trench," Bob replied.

His summon card had very particular rules but didn't mention climbing. He felt the card power trying to tease out it and got the distinct impression of a cat staring right back at him. He noped right out of that line of inquiry.

"What do you think, Bob? We do plan M? For Monk running through the streets and getting the zombies to follow? Maybe ice some of the roads when he passes?" Sophie said, "Give me the time to make some sort of safe corridor back this way."

"I don't want to risk anything unnecessarily. How fast exactly are you?" Bob said, turning to the bald man.

Brandon drew a line over the crude map.

"I could clear that distance in five or six seconds. That's about a city block. I should say that I tested this with the other monks as well this morning."

Bob rubbed his chin. They were here to recon. Anything more than that would be risking too much.

"I think we have enough here to inform Anthony and make a decision."

"Then we should pack up and head back. As much as I want to get my hands on whatever cards are left there, it's too risky," Bob said, "Let's head over to Stella and let her know what's going on. Maybe she has some idea that we haven't thought of yet."

All three of them low crawled back to the stairs. Stella was watching the ground. Bob gave her hand a squeeze. He popped up, nudging her to get down. He checked their immediate surroundings. They still had a clear pathway back.

Sophie explained the situation. Stella didn't have anything new to bring up. Brandon didn't either.

Brandon would be the first one down. He was going to use some of his bricks to distract them before running back to their previous safe spot. The overturned wagon looked very inviting at that moment. Its broken and missing wheel, much less so. Bob didn't have time to get caught up in side quests. He simply made a mental note that there was a possibility there.

The rickshaw cart would be stuck there with one wheel. Even if they picked it up, it would go in a circle. Bobs mind spun with the possibilities.

"I've got a crazy idea," he said, "Let's go back and report in."

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Despite their stealth, the chaotic movements of the local zombies led three in their direction by the time they were a one yard away from safety. The mansion that they had cleared second looked like it was having a yard sale with all of the junk that had been tossed on the lawn.

When Brandon ran ahead, that was when the zombies chased them in earnest.

Sophie was the last one to turn around the corner. Bob was already pointing his crossbow nervously, waiting for the zombies to pop around the corner. Just a yard away, Sonya lowered a ladder down for them.

As the first one lurched around the corner, Bob loosed a bolt. At once, the zombie slipped on the ice, it's feet heading over it's head. The next two faced the same fate in quick succession. Sophie peeked around the corner. That had been about as quiet as they could do it.

None of the rest of the zombies seemed to follow the three. She felt in the clear. She left Bob to take care of the harvesting.