The pair stop by the farm, all around them are a multitude of mutated undead torn apart on the floor. And a familiar helmet leaving a trail of blood that leads further up ahead. Jared whistles, sweeping off his bike, and Eliza follows from behind, wide eyed.

Loud yelling and growling echoes from atop the hill the trail of corpses and blood leads towards. Upon getting closer, they see a familiar woman tearing into the flesh of a ginger-haired man. She looks up towards the pair, her face covered in blood and viscera, and hair splayed wildly around her.

Jared tenses up, unslinging his rifle and pointing it towards her, eyes narrowed as he surveys the surroundings around her while slowly stepping back towards his bike. “Slave. Move. Back.”

Rider slowly stands up, her glitchy and spazztic movements make one thing clear. “The bitch has turned.” He aims for her head, but is stopped by the farmers waving their hands and standing between them, before he could pull the trigger. “Get the fuck out of the way. Zombies a zombie.”

“Wait a minute, she hasn’t turned. She’s still on our side.” Ray looks over at her “I don't know what it is, but we haven't been attacked! The guy she’s, uhh, eating, attacked us, he was controlling these mutants. She saved us! At least give her a chance” she slowly shambles over to them. “Please!” Jared struggles, his gun pointed at her, this is his chance. To finally get rid of the lapdog. But he hesitates. He clenches his eyes and feels her brush past.

He opens his eyes and looks back towards her. She picks up her broken helmet, and puts it on, collapsing on the ground. Eliza rushes over, checking on her, eyes darting all over her form in concern. Rider is out cold.

Hours later, deep into the night, the farmers had set up the lamps and generators per Rider’s instruction. Both the offroad and the road path are now safer. Now their abundant crops and excess slaughterhouse bounties wont go to waste. Having two roads also opens a proper trade route to Mike’s kingdom. Or perhaps, the inverse.

Rider lays on the farm’s infirmary bed. Her helmet is off, and so is her mechanic’s jumpsuit. Getting a clearer picture of her skin, she's extremely pale, a hint of blackened veins barely visible under her skin. “She looks just like the ginger fellow we put in the morgue”. The doctor looks her over “she doesn't seem to be a zombie. Or at least she hasn't become a herald. I’ll keep a close eye on her, you should go and enjoy the celebration” Eliza stares at Rider, she’s stiff.

Eliza looks at the doctor, and nods her head. Jared and Ray are at the kitchens, and she makes her way towards them. Jared is standing on the dining table with several empty bottles of booze around him. He seems to have recovered from his fall. She walks in on him regaling his adventures to the farmers gathered around.

“-and so I aimed my crossbow at one of those freaks and BLAM! It burst open like a fuckin’ bloon! Easily killin like- Fuckin- 60! One right after the fuckin other- just- BLAM! BLAM! FUCKIN BLAM!” he's moving around the table with a bottle in his hand, the farmers look on in awe of his awesomeness. “Then that old fuckin geezer got flung to a rock or sum an broke his arm, but I popped it back in blase, he- cried like a bitch.” He rubs his shoulder. “Amywhay I killed em all and we ran inside, little fuckin slave shit pissed herself scared, I grab’d that generator with one arm and rode back here escaping a dozen fuckin screamers!” The farmers cheer.

Eliza wants to avoid getting in a confrontation with him again, so she lets him be in his delusions. She looks around for Ray, and finds him preparing a feast. “Oh, Eliza! Welcome in, how is Rider?” She enters the kitchen, and sees several plates of roasted meats and vegetable platters. They all smell incredible. She finds herself reaching towards it instinctively, but she manages to pull her hand back before her fingers get her in trouble again.

“The doctor said she's not a zombie. Doesn't look like she's turning into a herald. She was stiff… frozen in place…” she sits down on a nearby stool. ”what… happened? While we were gone…?” Ray sighs, and begins to recount the events.

“Well… after you left…”

Several Hours Earlier

Rider observes the two ride off, and heads over to the offroad path, with the herald still struggling and clinging on to life as its lower body was grinded off by rough dirt. The offroad path has noticeably less zombies. Though not nearly enough to make up The Beast. “Theyre split in three…?” Upon closer observation, there’s something off about this group; not only are their numbers closer to 300, but the mutants among The Beast are missing, from both hordes. “Somewhere around here is a horde that's made of 500 mutants and 500 sprinters” she radios to Farmboy who's waiting some ways away.

“Ah shit, think we can take em?” he asks, with a worried tone to his voice.

“I don't know. From what I remember there’s a shit ton of busters. But if we’re lucky they’ll kill the sprinters with their outbursts.” Rider rides towards the horde, enticing them with what's left of the herald. She quickly measures her surroundings, there's a cliff’s edge nearby, it leads into a ravine. It is filled with the corpses of chasers, it makes for a good shield against the monsters for the settlements.

And it was, before The Beast formed. Apparently thanks to its horrific smell, that mass grave counts as a horde, and it attracts more zombies to make an even bigger one. While pits like these exist all over the area, they're regularly burned. That job was left to the raiders, but unfortunately they put a certain baldy with anger issues in charge. And it never got the burn it needed.

“Get ready with the flamethrowers, and on my signal torch the pit.” The farmers leave to round up their gear and bring in their numbers. And after a while they return.

Rounding up the horde, noting the farmer’s return, and making sure it's following her, she heads straight towards the ravine. The farmers look on in horror, she bears no sign of slowing down. “Maria… what are you planning?” Raylen whispers to himself.

Rider looks onward, and pulls the knife out of her boot strap. She readies herself, and the ravine approaches rapidly. And at the very last second, she makes a sharp turn, cutting off the herald’s rope, flinging it into the ravine, and the mass of undead hordes dive head first after it, like lemmings.

Once they're all in, the farmers roll up in their cars and begin to light up the mass grave, molotovs, flamers, anything that'll turn a humane body to ash. “Holy! That was way easier than I thought…” a farmer speaks up, followed by the cheers of his fellows. Rider rejoins the group, however she doesn't join the celebrations, as she gets a summons on her radio. It's Jared. As she explains to him what he’s looking at, the farmers look uneasy. They're terrified but relieved they are not with the two who set off.

However that wasn't the only source of the uneasy feeling. There was an out of season chill in the air. Their fight was far from over. As easy as it was, it was only possible due to pre existing knowledge of the undead. However, what approaches is so far removed from reason, it merits prayer to a God who had long abandoned his people.

Stolen story; please report.

A puddle of blood formed beneath a farmer. No one noticed.

SNIK!

A spear of solidified blood shot up from the puddle, impaling the farmer through his foot and through his neck, separating his skull from his body. His dangling spine showers his comrades in his blood. It happened so fast that they were still mid cheer when they turned around.

In the midst of their celebration dying down, Rider notices a red glint in the corner of her visor. She narrowly dodges another spear of solidified blood. Only it wasn't aimed at her, the spear lands between a small group of farmers, and it bursts, like lightning bursting from the ground up. A warped tree leaves the men impaled, like hanging fruit.

In another group of now shocked farmers, one figure is out of place. An extra head unaccounted for.

He stood there, with a wide eyed smile, a mass of solid red reaching from his arm to the ground, from which the crimson spear originated. Wild orange hair that seemed unkempt, save for a single rat-tail braided behind him, framing a pale thin face with green manic eyes. He twitched, and the tree of blood retracted immediately to his arm, nearly burying the farmers.

The farmers around him only gave a single shout of fear before more crimson spears shot out like a grenade, impaling everyone around him.

“Hello, Revenant!”

And with a mad dash towards her, the blood retracted again, forming into a wall of spears aimed directly for Rider. With nary but a second to do anything, Rider sweeps in a circle, grabbing her bike and lifting it in front of the bloody barrage. The remaining farmers in her group don't know who to focus on.

The supernatural maniac laughs, the liquid rushing back to his arm, and then shooting back out the other, this time seeming more like a wave being pushed into the form of a spike. It splashes against her bike, seeping through, smearing Rider’s helmet. She quickly takes it off and tosses it aside. She couldn’t see through it anymore.

As soon as she could see again, the maniac was inches away from her face, he had broken through her bike. Startled, she jumps backwards, only for him to jump with her, pushing her with tremendous strength into the ravine.

Rider grabs onto his hair, throwing her other fist into his face, again and again. The first punch broke his nose, the next, his skin, blood flowing, and each punch only drew more and more, the stranger's face becoming dazed and a bloody mess.

But his daze turned into a grin, spikes of blood erupted through her hand, and she let out a pained scream.

They're still several feet from the mass grave, but it's approaching fast. He kicked at her, making her let go of him, and to speed her descent, but she grabbed his braid and slammed him into the ravine wall, scraping his face all the way down.

They both land in a heap atop the corpses, his blood splattering them. The corpses rose with him, as she stumbled back to a fighting pose. The zombies all take the maniacs mannerism and pose, bent at unusual angles and curiously looking at her. Before they all laugh at once.

“How long can you last, I wonder?” She remained silent. Only picturing the slaughtered farmers. It was enough to fuel her rage.

The zombies all jump for her, and she ducks under one, rolling to the side and out of the way. She looks around panting and wide eyed, eyes flickering up for but a brief moment. She runs parallel to the rock face, using the now walking charred corpses she had just dumped here, as platforms to raise herself upwards. With one final step, she leaps for the wall, quickly using the rocks to try and pull herself up.

She looks down slightly, seeing a blood spike shooting towards her, and quickly pulls her feet up. Once it digs into the wall, she lets go, and jumps off the spear, leaping with inhuman strength even higher. Her gloved finger scraping against the ravine, her fingertips shredded to bone, the pain agonizing. But she persists.

The maniac got tired of watching her struggle. “The fabled revenant, now akin to a bug crawling on a wall!” He shoots out another spear, the previous having been retracted, but only groans as it misses once again, allowing her to gain more height.

He jumps up, using blood spears to anchor himself, and then jumps off to reach her, where she’s already clambering over the ledge. He passes her, and grabs her by her jumpsuit’s collar, hurtling her several feet away. A rough landing, followed by several men formed out of blood attacking her at once. She got up, panting hard, she blocked a hit from one but then got kneed immediately in the stomach, she arches over spitting out blood, followed by an uppercut from a fist made of her own blood on the floor sending her back. The blood men then fall over, revealing the corpses of the farmers.

She tries to get up, but is pinned down by a spear to her hand. The maniac leans in “You're nothing but a joke! A clown to keep me entertained. I don't know what he sees in you.” he grabs her face “What do you have that I don't, huh?!” Rider closes her eyes “Nothing.” he says, before Rider forces her hand through the spear to grab his wrist.

She bites down, tearing out a chunk of flesh, swallowing it with ease. The maniac screams out “Fuck!” before staggering back. He bolts away, a trail of blood leading towards him. “Fucking bitch! Now you'll get it!”

The sun is on the horizon, slowly trailing downwards, and as the darkness engulfs the land, the pained screams of the missing mutants draw closer. A buster pounds the ground, sending forth a wave of force through the ground that breaks off and lifts massive pillars of stone that shoot up into the sky. It uses its massive fists to leap up and send the stones onto Rider.

Rider looks up to the behemoth, and moves out of the way, her movements lack care and finesse. They’re twitchy and exaggerated. A line of stones is made in her path, and the buster busts through them. She grabs it by the arm, and with a contest of strength pins it on the ground, tearing it off. She begins to eat it. Another body enters her line of sight and is swiftly devoured. Anything in her path is torn apart with ease.

She moves towards the top of the hill, following the blood like the hound she is. Under the guise of the dark, the maniac tries to ambush her with chasers, but again. An uphill battle ensues as the maniac rejoins the fight, they trade attacks, he debuts bloodied whips but any lacerations have little to no effect. She uses zombie shields to block the harder attacks and heal with their flesh. She’s a frenzied beast. And the maniac is losing blood faster than he can call it back. She is relentless. And one fatal mistake, doomed him. He woke up the Revenant. The hunger she’s been suppressing for so long.

The bloodthirst.

She doesn't see an enemy to be feared. Not anymore. All she sees is a decent meal. Her brain is fried. A constant ringing in her ears. He's in tears, she’s drooling.

Now

Rider flashes in and out of consciousness, cloudy visions flashing before her mind. Voices fading in and out- “Your blood is unique.” A familiar man stands in front of her, hunched over her form, the edges of her vision blurred.

“My blood?” Another voice responded, the man in front of her nodding. Her eyes get tired, and she sees herself somewhere else, more clearer. A small wooden shack. “My blood- My power…” The second voice again.

Another place, too unfocused, save for the familiar man from before stabbing her arm with a syringe. And her arm is weird. It's pale, and freckled, but with less muscle than she’s used to.

The man has an assistant, a shorter woman with long black hair, however her face is covered in a mask and everything else seems too distant to make out. The pain kept her attention. The syringe is removed and pushed into a vial labeled “Sanguine”, and then placed next to a rack of vials each filled and labeled with unfocused words, save for one empty. “Revenant”.

The man again, now wearing a lab coat and badge stands in front of a door with a white glow. He’s talking to her, a hand on his shoulder. “Charles, I only need a sample of her blood, that’s all. Don’t do anything unnecessary, and come back alive. Please.” She nods, walking towards the light, and then she’s before a mirror.

Except it's not her. He’s ginger, pale and freckly, a manic grin plastered on his face. “Hello, Revenant!” She wakes up.