The creature pulled its way higher, up and over the edge. It still had its eyes but nothing remained of their original colour. The whites and iris were now a yellowed bloodshot colour. The pupils fixed on Casey and Dodge and the creature’s teeth began to chatter like a cat that had just spied a bird.

“Casey! Get behind me!” Dodge ordered.

Casey shook her head. She was frozen to the spot, and besides, “It’ll just get us both soon enough anyway.”

BANG!

The creature’s head exploded. Blood splattered the pair of them.

BANG! BANG!

Another two shots. They could hear more of them falling outside.

Casey wiped the blood from her mouth and crawled on her hands and knees to the loft window. Cautiously she peered out around the corner.

Five Pistols Jack stood on the second-story roof of the saloon, firing shots into the tower of undead. Distracted by the noise, some of the undead even seemed to be turning toward the house instead. Some, but not all.

There on the second floor, at the window, Casey could see Billy. He waved to her, and she waved back. Then she glanced at the scene below and bit her lip. They needed to get back into the house and then lure the creatures back out here somehow. As she looked back up to where Jack stood, not far from a pair of decorative but solid posts that stuck out of the roof, and then up at the very solid and large piece of wood that jutted out just beneath the point of the stable roof, an idea started to form in her mind.

“I’ve got it!” she exclaimed, suddenly turning and banging right into Dodge who had also come over to see what was going on outside, leg injury be damned. This was no time for resting.

The stronger woman barely budged an inch and Casey found herself lying back on her own elbows, practically beneath the intimidating but alluring figure of Dodge.

As she looked up into Dodge’s mystery-filled grey eyes, she almost forgot her entire plan, where they were, and what lay outside. But then, in a puzzled voice, Dodge asked, “Got what?”

“An idea, hang on.” Casey extracted herself out from under Dodge and made for the lower floor of the barn.

She shimmied quickly down the ladder and came face to face with a large figure.

Casey screamed.

The figure screamed back.

Then they both calmed down. In front of Casey stood the saloon cook.

“Ms Neuman!”

Dodge peered down from the loft above to see what all the fuss was about. Seeing things were fine, or at least as fine as they could be under the circumstances, she began a search of the upper area, looking for anything that could help. She found an old anvil and dropped that out the window with a loud CRUNCH SPLAT. She found some spare ammo, alas the wrong caliber for her own pistols, and a several barrels of gunpowder, the latter of which got her thinking.

Casey returned to the loft with the cook a moment later. Both of them had their arms full of rope.

Dodge frowned. Her eyes inched toward the barrels of gunpowder and then back to Casey and the rope. With her hands on her hips she asked, “What’s that for?”

Casey faltered slightly and Dodge cursed herself inwardly for not being a little less brash. Her mother had always jovially told her that her mouth would get her into trouble someday. She’d already overstepped her bounds at least once in trying to make a good impression with Casey. But sometimes her boldness worked in her favour and if there was one thing that Dodge had learnt, it was that there was no point in fixating on past mistakes. Think on the past too long and it would stop you cold and leave you for dead. She focused on the future, survival, and, as she looked at Casey, other possibilities. She couldn’t help but remember the look on the lass’s face when she’d been admiring that painting. She softened her tone. “You said you had an idea?”

Casey bit her lip, obviously still unsure. “Well, I did, but now, I don’t know. It might not work.”

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“Well, we’ve got nothing else,” Dodge reminded her, trying her very best not to fixate on Casey’s soft lips. Although, she did have one idea, but she wanted to hear Casey’s first.

Casey led them to the loft window. She yelped and jumped back just as a hand reached over the edge for her boots, only to slip away a moment later as Jack shot it.

“Sorry,” he yelled out. “Had to retrieve some more ammo.”

He fired a few more rounds, but Dodge could see that there were still many undead emerging from the trees, and the bodies were starting to pile up down below. One particularly fast one hit the pile at speed and managed to jump high enough up for Dodge to boot it in the face before it landed.

“Where are they all coming from?” Dodge wondered aloud. “There’s no nearby city.”

Casey shrugged.

“Who knows,” replied the cook. “But the groups get bigger and bigger by the week. Yesterday was the most I ever seen in one go. It’s a good thing you turned up when you did.”

Down below the stable doors cracked and buckled under the weight of the pressing undead.

“We need to get out of here. What’s your plan?” pressed Dodge.

Casey pointed up. “So you see that beam, and then over there, the post on top of the saloon. If we can string a rope between then then maybe we can climb across. But I don’t know how we get the rope there, it’s quite far to throw it, and if we miss…” she glanced down. A rotting stench rose up. She wrinkled her nose and then looked to Dodge.

But Dodge was grinning. “That idea’s so crazy it might just work. And I can throw it. You’re looking at the best lasso in all the west!” At hearing Casey’s idea, Dodge had been relieved. It was a much better idea than her own, and she was pretty good at rope work. This should be a cinch. The only part she was worried about was how well the other two would fare at crossing such a bridge. But they’d cross that when they got to it, they had to.

Meanwhile, Billy had had his own idea. He disappeared into the house and then returned moments later with a couple of handheld mirrors. He arranged them all on the windowsill and tried to align them so the sunlight that hit them was reflected back at a single point. It was difficult, given how the creatures moved and he had to keep adjusting them.

Eventually Jack noticed the weird flashes of light and called down, “What are you doing boy?”

“I read this in a story once. If I can get the light concentrated in one place for long enough, then I can burn through the skull or set their clothes on fire and maybe kill em that way. That or at least distract them.”

Jack shook his head. “You’re never gonna get them to stay still long enough. Just grab and pistol and come help me shoot.”

But Billy was persistent and Jack was soon distracted by Dodge yelling instructions at him.

Dodge hadn’t been lying. She climbed up to the top of the barn roof, leaving enough rope dangling that the others would find it easier to follow. Then, once she was comfortable and Jack nodded that he was ready to catch, she made a loop. Slowly at first, she whipped the loop in a circle. She sped it up and with eagle eye precision and a strong throw, she sent it flying right over down over Jack. He whooped with laughter, then dove quickly for a good hold as the rope started to go tight.

Dodge pulled in as much slack as she could before it fell, not wanting any of it to drop within reach of the undead below.

Jack slung his end over the roof post and then Dodge tightened it. Finally she tied off her own end. She looked down at the cook and Casey. “Right are we ready?”

It was at that moment that Billy’s plan found some short-lived success, as suddenly some of the dry hay outside the barn, burst into flames. The ravenous flames spread quickly in the arid air. They caught and spread up the shredded pant leg of one dead-eyed walker, and given his proximity to the others soon several of them were on fire and pressing tight up against the wooden barn. So of course it was no surprise when the barn itself suddenly caught fire.

Casey watched with wide eyes and and open mouth, as the hungry flames ate their way up the wall towards them.

Hades laughed, for Billy’s kills were his, however his laugh was soon cut short as some of the burning zombies started to stumble in the direction of the saloon. “Uh oh.” He threw down two of his cards rapidly chanting, “Holy water! Holy water!”

“Damn boy, whatcha done that for?” asked Jack as he looked in dismay at the scene. “Quick! Go find some water before the flames reach the saloon.”

Billy ran back into the saloon, darting unseeingly right past two large canteens of water that conveniently sat nearby on the dresser of the fair-haired priest’s room.

Hades dropped his head to the table with a gentle THUMP.

“Dude, you’re burning the cards!” cried Artemis as she waved at his hair.

Hades lifted his head. “Oh, oops.”

Ares scowled at the singe marks but remained silent.

Artemis batted out the last of the flames on the now slightly charred table.

Casey felt Dodge’s strong arms reach down and pull her up to the rope. “Quick! Across you go!”

Casey wasted no time. She wrapped both legs so her knees were hooked over the rope from underneath, and then as fast as she could, she started across. She kept her eyes shut the whole time, only focusing on moving forward. The pain in her arms growing ever stronger. She was just starting to think that maybe she couldn’t hold on any longer, when she felt the rough hands of Jack, help her off at the other end.

She blinked and looked around in surprise. The flames were half way up the stable by now. The orange tips licked at the edge of the loft. The cook was up on the roof. She watched with trepidation as Dodge made her own way swiftly across the rope bridge, hand over hand, in a similar fashion to what Casey had done, only much faster.

Dodge dropped down beside Casey, giving her a smile that made Casey feel at ease, despite the spiraling situation around them. But, hey, they’d made it to the saloon, it was a small victory at least.

Then the barn exploded.