“Crawlies,” remarked Aphrodite as she flipped the fifth card to match the number on the dice.

“Crawlies are boring,” replied Artemis.

“Now, now, it all depends on placement,” noted Ares.

“For a five, that’s actually not many zombies,” Hades said as he looked over the cards Aphrodite had drawn.

“Luck card, redraw.” Artemis threw down a card.

“What? Artemis you’re not gonna get a better draw than that.” Ares gestured at the easy stack.

“But I want more zombies. More zombies, more kills, more points.”

“The point,” Ares explained, “Is to have easy rounds early so your characters can build up strength and skill for the later rounds while you save up useful cards. If each of us lose too many characters before we get to the boss round then we might all lose the game. You only get so many character redraws.”

“I want to play my card.”

Ares sighed. “Fine, but not for a redraw. I have something else that’ll make it more interesting, promise.”

“Who’s bending the rules now?” teased Aphrodite.

“No, no, I’m playing it straight. What I’m offering is a trade. This card for the luck one.” Ares held out a card for Artemis could see.

“Hmm,” she considered. “Alright then.” She handed her luck card to him, took his other card, and placed it on the table.

Ares tucked the luck card away for later.

Casey rode at the front as she’d been instructed, while Dodge rounded up the herd from behind. Once they were moving they’d follow the horse in front. It worked like a charm and soon the herd was making their way back down the valley.

“Once we hit the bend at the end of the valley and they see home, they should head straight there,” Dodge told her. “They’ll be hungry for something more than grass and they know where that is.”

Dodge was right and as they passed the bend Casey found she didn’t need to be at the front anymore. The horses knew where to go. She dropped back and rode alongside Dodge. They followed a small tributary of the main river upstream, which flowed parallel to the larger hills, back toward the direction of town.

At one point, Dodge pulled her reins taught, and slid down off her horse. Handing the reins to Casey she said, “Wait here, I need a quick break,” and then she disappeared in among some thick trees.

Casey waited. And she waited. Then she started to worry. The air was still here and she could hear no sounds coming from the bushes. It was unsettling. “Dodge?”

No answer.

Casey slipped down off her horse and wondered if she should tie them to something. Her palomino sniffed at the air and pulled in the direction of home. Yes, she better tie them up or they might find themselves without a ride when they returned.

Casey found an old tree, separate from the rest of the thick shrubbery. She made sure the branch was sturdy and she tied a quick-release knot so it would hold for a gentle tug but release under heavy tension, just in case the horses had good reason to bolt.

Then she went in search of Dodge. Once she’d pushed past the initial thick shrubbery she found the area opened up more, although she remained shaded from the sun by a dark canopy of leaves. “Dodge?” she called again.

Somewhere in the distance she heard the flutter of wings but then the area was silent once more.

“Dodge?”

She made her way further in to where the small steam trickled along. It was too wide and deep to cross here without getting wet again but she could see further upstream that it narrowed. She could also make out a distinctive footprint in the mud. Recent and about the same size as Dodge’s boots.

She moved slowly upstream, pausing every now and again to call out. The ground was wet and boggy and her boots squelched noisily in the mud.

The water was clear on top but layered in places with a dark moss and she could only vaguely make out some strange dark shapes in the water. She stopped and holding on to a branch she leaned out a little over the water, trying to figure out what was down there.

Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed her ankle.

She screamed.

The hand was followed by a head, balding and grey with slimy skin. The creature moaned and opened it’s mouth wide. It aimed it’s teeth for her ankle.

Casey screamed again.

A gunshot sounded.

The creature released it’s grip and Casey stumbled backward, falling into the mud. She glanced up.

There was Dodge, making her way back through the undergrowth, pistol in hand.

There came more movement by the water and a second undead pulled itself forth. It’s lower half was gone and yet it still moved unnaturally, clawing it’s way through the mud towards her.

Dodge shot that one too. And a third.

By the time a forth one pulled itself out of the water, Dodge had reached Casey and helped her back to her feet. They watched the creature momentarily as it struggled slowly toward them. They were safe out of reach now, but Dodge still shot it anyway. The less of them to encounter later, the better.

“Poor thing,” Casey said pityingly as she watched it’s face splat into the mud and be still.

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“Poor thing?” Dodge asked in surprise.

“Must be a horrid state to exist in,” Casey replied. “To be half gone and yet....”

“Well it’s all gone now,” Dodge replied. “And we best be on our way too. I shouldn’t’ve gone so far in. Where are the horses?”

They found them right where Casey had left them. They remounted and headed toward town, barely having to nudge them to move at all.

As they rode, Casey turned to Dodge. “They were in the water and yet, they never attack in the rain. I thought maybe they didn’t like it.”

Dodge shook her head. “No, it just disorientates them, makes it harder for them to find people I think.” Dodge frowned and was silent.

Casey, seeing the look that crossed her face asked, “What is it?”

Dodge shook her head. “Nothing, maybe, just an idea.”

They were almost back to town when they heard on the dry air, the distinct sound of a bell ringing.

Dodge pulled her horse up short and looked to Casey with wide eyes.

“That’s the bell that signals the undead are approaching,” Casey cried.

Dodge frowned, a furious look crossing her face. “Didn’t they learn anything yesterday? Making sound will draw more of them.”

“We better go warn them,” Casey replied, drawing her reins tight, preparing to ride fast.

But Dodge shook her head. “It’s probably too late. We’ll need to lure them out. I need to get my noise contraption.”

“I’ll go warn them then,” Casey replied. At the look of worry that crossed Dodge’s face, Casey exclaimed, “There’s no time. I’ll warn them. You draw them away.”

Dodge’s expression changed to one of decisiveness and she gave a hard nod. Then she handed Casey one of her pistols. “Here, take my gun. Best of luck.”

Casey raced as fast as she could toward the town. When she reached it she could see men in the street, fighting off the undead. There seemed less of the creatures than last time, and yet, the bell had still not ceased it’s ringing.

She looked toward the bell tower, attached to the church, all the way down the other end of the street, and a little off-set from the other buildings. She could see that the fair-haired priest was trying to fight his way inside. She watched as one of the undead pulled him back. No one else seemed to have noticed his predicament yet. Casey raised Dodge’s pistol, lined it up, and fired. She was surprised when the shot actually hit the creature, allowing the priest to get free and clobber two more with the butt of his gun and then shoot down a third.

Casey took out another with equally as good precision but was then distracted as some of the horde reached her location. The last she saw of the fair-haired priest he was slipping his way between the heavy doors of the church.

She kicked out as one of the undead grabbed at her foot. Then she shot another. But there were too many.

“Casey!” she heard her father yell.

Then came a hail of bullets as Mitchell ordered the surrounding men to focus on the ones nearest Casey. They freed her enough that she could get through to where her father stood. A few moments later the bells stopped ringing.

“What are you doing out here?” he demanded.

“We went to get the horses father, like I told you this morning.”

“Well get inside.” He gestured toward the saloon.

But surrounded by the other fighters now, Casey felt perfectly safe, and she had a gun. She ignored him and she helped as much as she could.

She was not fast but it seemed she had inherited her father’s good eye for spotting a valuable target. More than that though, Casey was precise. She took her time to line up her shots and she was gentle on the trigger, never squeezing too hard to let the kick-back buck the bullet off target. Every shot went exactly where she intended.

She’d pick a creature right in the middle of the group, not the obvious ones at the front, but the ones that were surrounded by others, so that when they fell they’d knock over their neighbours and slow them all down.

When Mitchell saw what an effect she was having on the battlefield he handed her his rifle and pointed toward some groups she should aim for. “Get those ones over there. Keep that area clear for retreat, and any that get over there too.”

“Why was the bell ringing?” she asked as she glanced down toward the church. “Doesn’t everyone know by now that it brings more of them?”

“Aye,” answered James the Bear from nearby, as he took off a head, “But the damn priest has gone mad. He’s the one was ringing it.”

“The priest, but he just went inside?”

“The other priest,” replied the Butcher. He grabbed two creatures by the necks and knocked their heads together. Then he swung his flail through the air and took out four more.

“Where’s that friend of yours?” asked Trevor. “We could damn well use a distraction about now.”

“Speak for yourself,” cried 5-pistols Jack as he charged at a small group with an entire water trough. “I’m having the time of my life.”

“She’s on her way,” Casey replied as she looked toward the edge of town and hoped that it was true.

Dodge soon returned, dragging the kitchen contraption along behind her.

CRASH! RATTLE! RATTLE! HONK! HONK! NEIGH!

But something was different this time.

Upon hearing the sound, everyone in the street, retreated around the back and into the saloon, and there they all waited silently for the creatures to head toward the obvious noisy kitchen contraption, as they had done so twice before. Even the horse Casey was on came into the saloon with them. Billy kept it quiet and calm with some carrots from the kitchen.

They all waited for Dodge to lead the undead out of town.

Some of them stumbled toward Dodge, just as they had before, but this time there were many of them that didn’t. They seemed fixated on the saloon, even as Dodge rode right thorugh the main street and past them. They didn’t look at her. One tried to pry at the boards like it knew what was inside. Like it knew how to get inside.

“What are they doing?” whispered James the Bear as he threw back a shot of whiskey to bide the time.

“They’re trying to pry the boards off,” replied Mitchell in a hush.

“They never do that,” Knuckles said in a worried voice.

“Well they’re doing it now.”

“Oh blast this!” cried the butcher. “There’s not so many we can’t take these remaining ones.” He kicked the saloon doors open and ventured back out into the street, guns at the ready.

Mitchell shrugged and followed him out.

The butcher was right. They managed to pick off the last of the creatures easily. But with the usual distraction not working as well as it had, no one felt very good about things afterward. The dark-haired priest was brought back to the saloon in a sorry state. He was crying and apologising but no one could make heads or tails of why he’d been ringing the bells for so long. And Casey’s mother looked furious.

Dodge returned with all the horses not long after, even those that had wandered off the day before. She wasn’t gone long but by the time she got back, the saloon was full of intense conversation.

“They’re learning,” Trevor bemoaned.

“They’re too stupid to learn,” Mitchell replied with a frown.

Dodge entered the saloon then and she replied, “It’s a coincidence. It has to be.” But her mind wandered back to the ones that had been in the stream, almost as if they had been waiting intentionally.

“That’s the third day in a row they’ve attacked,” the butcher added.

While they talked the situation over further, Faith made her way across the room to Casey.

“Where have you been?” she demanded of Casey. “None of your chores are done! Except for the ones you seem to have made Billy do! And then he was late cooking lunch and you were nowhere to be found. What were you thinking?”

Casey wasn’t really listening. Her mind was split between the discussion the men and Dodge were having about the changes in the behaviour of the undead, and her memories of earlier and the peaceful lovely time she’d shared with Dodge at the river. How she longed to be back there now.

Faith slapped Casey hard.

Casey blinked in surprise. Her mother had never laid a hand on her before. Her mother’s lips shook and Casey could see there was fear in her eyes. Was that for her? Maybe some regret? But it all paled in comparison with the anger.

“How could you just wander off and not tell anyone where you were going?”

“I did. I told father,” Casey mumbled.

But the slap had drawn Dodge’s attention, and now she marched away from the group of men and turned angrily on Faith. “Casey’s a grown woman. She doesn’t need your permission to go somewhere.”

Faith didn’t back down. She shot back at Dodge, “You almost got her killed. Your reckless stupidity and...”

Casey vaguely listened to them fight for a little while. She was tired and their voices felt far away. It had been a long tiring day, and she hadn’t eaten very much at all. As Dodge and her mother argued back and forth, Casey found they got more and more distant. Her vision started to blur, and then suddenly everything went black.