Kaleg greatly respected the commander, but he always felt she is being overly cautious.

Of course it felt good to have top grade equipment even for simple scavenging missions, but it also felt a bit much. They could have moved faster without the body armor and all the other high-tech stuff.

But they were soldiers and they followed orders. And because of that, when the zombie horde unexpectedly hit them hard out of nowhere they actually had a chance for survival.

***

It was late afternoon, but the sun was still up. So the zombies should have been hiding in the ruined buildings.

Only they didn't, they charged at the soldiers, and they were everywhere, there was no chance for a retreat, so the humans made their last stand in an old restaurant. They had laser weapons, a flamethrower, grenades and machetes, so they put up a good fight, while they were calling for a reinforcement through the radio.

Their squad had three teams, each four man strong, so their sergeant, Darem, had twelve men to command, but not for long, since he was the first to die. He always preferred bravery over caution.

Kaleg wanted to cry as the zombies started to eat his friend alive. Instead he shot him in the head, and then incinerated the zombies with his flamethrower. Perhaps he shouldn't have wasted time for the mercy kill, but he imagined, that being burned alive wasn't much better than being eaten alive.

Darem is dead– he thought– He is no more. He is dead!!!

And so the command fell to Corporal Tarik, the most senior of the three corporals, Kaleg's former team leader. Kaleg never liked the guy, but he had to admit, he was a good leader, better than either Darem or he himself.

But fine leadership here, high-tech equipment there, there was just too many zombies. Only five of the soldiers were alive when the helicopter arrived.

It had two machine guns, which made short work of the remaining zombies.

The survivors left the burning and now mostly crumbled fast food restaurant. The helicopter started it's descent to pick them up, when the rotors of the copter suddenly stopped working. They watched in horror as the machine crushed into the ruins of a skyscraper not too far from them.

Then, the zombies came again.

They ran, but they knew they had no chance.

Kaleg dropped the now empty flamethrower, and since he was physically the most fit in the squad he could have outran the other survivors, and maybe even the zombies, but he was the last surviving corporal, which made them their leader, even though none of the other members of his team survived.

He slowed down, waiting for the others. It was foolish, since it only meant, that all five of them will die instead of just four. It would have been wiser to run back to the base and warn them about the strange behavior of the zombies– their radio was lost through their escape– but there was a reason why Kaleg was such a good friend with Darem: like his sergeant, he was also more courageous than wise.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

So, in the end the zombies surrounded them. But then, a strange thing happened. It seemed that the undead finally started to remember that they're not supposed to be outside during daytime– sure enough they all had bad sunburns now, and howled because of the pain– and so they started to run away.

"What the..." one of the survivors– Igmol– started to ask, when they noticed three robed figures walking in their direction.

Strangely the fleeing zombies seemed to gave them a wide berth.

They looked like monks of the Black Order. Members of that order revered the Black Canon foremost of the Four Canons, which was the Canon of the Martyrs originally, later the Canon of the Saints.

Black monks of the old were primarily warriors - knights. Many of them were elementals, so after the Purge they were disbanded, and then the order was recreated as a charity organization of the Dome. Until the Apocalypse. Now they were warriors once again, albeit without the powers of the elements, but zealous and brave nevertheless. Kaleg, like many other soldiers, respected them greatly, and read frequently the Black Canon– considered the most controversial among the Canons, because many of the saints of the old were elementals themselves.

But these monks were somehow strange, and not just because of how the zombies avoided them.

At first he didn't know why, but then he saw that the crucirco, the holy symbol of the Dome– a golden circle, divided to four differently colored parts by a golden cross– was missing from all of their robes.

He couldn't see their faces, because of their hoods, which made him anxious too.

"Stop right there!" He told them, pointing his laser pistol at them. "Identify yourselves!"

They stopped.

"Shoot, fool." One of them - the one in the middle - said. "For all the good it will do to you."

With that, he started to walk again.

"I warn you!" Kaleg shouted at him. He felt something strange, some weird, damp coldness.

The robed figure did not stop.

So Kaleg fired... Or at least tried. The laser didn't work.

The others tried to fire too, with similar results.

"Can't you feel it? This strange cold?" Asked Morik, the squad's know-it-all. "He must be using elementalism on our weapons!"

The robed figure stopped at that.

"Well, well. It's good that at least some of you got some brain in your skulls. We still do love brains after all."

Kaleg pulled out his machete, and the others followed suit.

If these strangers really were elementals they likely didn't stand a chance. So he tried diplomacy one last time.

"Look, I don't care about that you are an elemental. We could use your help, actually."

The stranger laughed.

"Elemental, you say? Oh, kid. We are so much more."

With that, the monk– or whatever the Void he was– slowly pulled something out from one of the pockets of his robes: a plastic vial, filed with some red liquid, which looked like blood. Whatever it was, the stranger drank it.

"Ah, yes... So much better than warder's blood. But back to business, shall we?"

Kaleg seen enough already. He charged at the robed man before he even finished speaking.

Then he felt something warm, a dry warmness, and he stopped. It was like his blood was on fire as it ran through his veins, and his brain.

He felt a strange presence too, and he knew it was the stranger's presence. The robed figure wanted him to order his men to surrender. He tried to resist his will, but it was stronger than his own. So he heard himself giving the order.

"What? Are you out of your mind?" Asked Igmol, incredulous.

His resistance completely gone, Kaleg turned at Igmol'y direction, then he shot him with his laser pistol– it was working again– right in the head.

"Oh, dear," said the robed figure in the middle. "I forgot that aiming for the head is so ingrained into you. Next time aim for the neck or the heart, will you? I am really hungry.

Kaleg nodded, while the others screamed around him.

"He is possessed!" Shouted Morik. "One of the other two is using Fire on him!"

Kaleg– following the stranger's will– gave the order to surrender once more. They had no choice left but to do as they were told to, since only he had a working laser pistol.

The other two robed figure took away their weapons and handcuffed them all. They only had four handcuffs with them, but it was enough, since Kaleg killed Igmol.

Then, the stranger released his mind. It only dawned on Kaleg what happened– what he did– now, after the burning sensation left him.

He screamed.