The creeper took several rapid steps toward him, like they broke into a run before stopping to catch their balance before falling. Their hair was shoulder length, dark, and ragged like someone took a knife to it to shorten it. In the low light their skin looked dull, like cement. Then there was that growling. It grew in volume, then died off to a rasping vocalization.

“Hey…” CJ said with worry as they kept approaching. “Just turn around okay, I’m not any trouble, you can just…”

They got close enough that he could make out their face. There were white bandage wraps around the lower half of their face, covering their mouth. There was a stain where their mouth was, the white bandages tinted dark gray like some liquid sprayed over it from the inside of their mouth. Their eyes were glossy and black, their pupils fully dilated. Their clothes were scraps of some kind of gray and red uniform, there was a faded portion on the left breast where a patch was ripped off of it. Their head was caved in at the jaw, beneath the bandage on their right. CJ was right earlier, their skin was a cement gray.

They stared at CJ, then their rasping rose back to a growl, and that rose to a ragged howling.

“Oh hell no!” CJ shouted, “A zombie?”

There was a crack of wood at the door, and CJ’s eyes left the creature long enough to spot a similar silhouette entering. A second one.

CJ’s nostrils flared, and he reared up to his full height. He wasn’t the tallest guy, but he was naturally on the big side. Large enough that the football coaches bothered him until he joined in high school. Large enough that people didn’t hesitate to cross the street at night if he was out in a hoodie.

But a zombie, this was definitely a zombie, and he had no idea how you intimidated a shambling undead monster.

It charged toward him, scrambling ahead with arms loose in front of it as if it would drop to all fours at any moment.

It still had that yellow line behind it, and it still followed a path out through the front of the church. It was a thin string, but it didn’t seem physical at all. It didn’t whip around as the creature ran, it always maintained the same arc up and away from the creature. But it was pulsing, like small beads were traveling through it away from the creature.

CJ took another step back and pulled his fists up. He wasn’t a fighter. He knew how to fight, but that was exactly because he wasn’t a fighter. As it got closer he let out a panicked cry that turned into a shrill yell. But when the monster got close enough, he drew his fist back and took his swing.

His fist connected, right on target with its left cheek. It felt like punching a cold bag of sand.

The creature staggered backwards, screeching the whole time.

CJ cursed, then shook out the pain in his knuckles. It didn’t hurt as much as he expected, but still bad enough that he was sure everything was working. More thoughts for after he escaped.

The creature snapped back upright. The second one that entered was rushing down the aisle to join them. A third was pushing through the door. They all had those yellow strings.

CJ shook his head no. Nothing made sense of this. It was too real to be a dream, but too insane to be real life. If it was a game, he had no memory of starting it and no idea how it could be this realistic.

It was possible he was dead, this was hell. But why hell would have a glitched out user interface, he had no clue. It was possible he was just losing his mind.

He couldn’t count on that. For now, he had to run, so he turned and did just that. The room with the cauldron, if he could get back in there and close it, maybe he could stay away from the creatures until they left for easier prey. He ran at full tilt, leaping the trunk where he got his robes, and reaching for the flue door as he got close.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

They were right behind him. The one he punched was close, and even leaped the chest. The second one fell over the chest, which made the third pause. They were quick when they wanted to be.

Cj got to the door and squeezed back in. When he was into the cylinder of stone again he started to pull it closed. But the zombie rammed into the door hard enough that it let out a resounding creak. The creature swiped at him with a hand, the fingers ended in jagged nails and fingers that looked a little too long.

It got hold of his left arm at the wrist, and CJ let out a panicked yell as he fought to get free. He kicked out the doorway, pushing the creature away as it tried to squeeze in the gap without the coordination to do anything but force its body straight through the narrow passage.

There was crashing out in the main room, but CJ could only focus on the monster right in front of him. He got two hands on the ring and tried to pull again, yanking with all the leverage he could muster.

The creature slashed down with its hands, and the sharp nails sliced at CJ.

As he pulled back, CJ could see two lines of red start to openly bleed to the floor. A second one was at the flue door now, they were forcing their way through, the pressure pushing the door back open. Cj could only watch as they worked on getting through.

He was going to die. Some strange creatures in a strange church were going to rip him apart. He wasn’t a magical warrior out to hunt the undead. He was just some guy. He went to sleep in his room and now zombies were fighting their way to him to rip him to shreds. It didn’t seem real.

Then he heard voices.

“There!” A deep man’s voice said, “Move up!”

Humans, living humans. CJ couldn’t remember ever being so thankful to hear the voices of other human beings. Someone was there, maybe someone that could explain. They could just as likely be the one behind these monsters, but he wouldn’t know that until he saw them.

Until then, he had to survive.

“In here!” CJ bellowed. He reared back and kicked one of the two zombies in the face as it clumsily forced the door.

It fell backwards, but that just allowed the other one to squeeze through easier. It scrambled into the room making hissing and rasping noises, sharp nailed hands out in front of it.

CJ tried to reach back to attack it, but it was too quick. It tackled him to the ground, hands scrabbling at his face as it tried to get past his panicked arms and get a grip on his head. It got a hold on him, but CJ got a grip in turn. It forced his head down to the cold floor while CJ held its face away from him.

“Stay with the Lady,” the man’s voice bellowed from outside, “I’ve got this.”

“Hurry!” CJ shouted between the monster’s fingers.

He could just make out the door to the flue being thrown open with ease. There was someone there, and then there was the sound of a flame rumbling to life. The room went from dark to aglow in orange light. Then CJ felt the monster push forward, then go limp.

It fell off him to the side, and CJ scrambled on his butt until he was a short distance away from it.

The zombie was cleaved in half at the waist, and the two halves were aflame. The top half was scrambling as if it could somehow twist and turn in some way that would prevent its violent end. It grabbed at the bandages around its face, pulling them down enough that it could let out a jet of reddish flame when it coughed and wheezed. It was ejecting something black, like ash. Together with the flame, it was a powdery mixture that immediately became a dense gray cloud above it. Then, after the ash cloud circled in the air for a moment, the creature fell limp on the floor.

CJ looked to the man. He was wearing armor, a mix of large dull metal plates and leather straps and padding to hold it all together. It had a high collar in the front, blocking the area right in front of his mouth. A metal symbol adorned the front, a red teardrop shape that swept to one side. He was bald, with bushy graying eyebrows and intense brown eyes.

It was his sword that really held CJ’s attention. It looked like a scimitar, long but bladed on one side and curved near the end. But along the back of the blade it looked like the metal had the form of a blazing fire, the metal was red hot and even crackled with the intense heat that CJ could feel at that distance. But it didn’t seem to actually be on fire, the red portion of the blade didn’t move, it was a fire frozen in place, as if the blade of the sword wasn’t sure if it was metal or flame, or some strange beast in between. That was amazing enough to get CJ’s attention, except on top of all of that, the sword was pointed right at CJ’s face.

The man’s intense stare and unwavering blade told enough of the story, CJ wasn’t getting out of this without a little more trouble.

“Explain what you’re doing here,” The man said with a commanding boom, “or I’ll snuff you out like that Ash Walker.”