Jeanne could smell the scent of blood hit her nose as they neared the town. Soon it was coupled with the scent of burning smoke, accompanied by a low buzzing him. Jeanne closed her eyes tightly for a moment as she came to recognize the source of the noise. It was something she had become accustomed during her years with The Cold Company, though only by pure necessity.

“Hold,” Cid said, holding a clenched fist into the air and causing the rest of them to halt their steeds. He turned back to them, a grim expression on his face. “Let’s dismount here and head in on foot.”

“Who’s on point?” Jeanne asked.

“Gabriel,” Cid replied, “I think you should be on point for this one.”

Gabriel nodded as she snapped her spear taunt and moved forward. Cid turned to the others, “Jeanne, take Ben, Hypatia forward and secure a way into town, Kel, take the rest and set up a location to fall back in case we run into trouble. Doctor, get a triage set up in case we find any survivors.”

Leonidas silently nodded. The others unsheathed their weapons and began moving into the village. They moved slowly. Their steps cautious and eyes always seeking some unknown threat within cloaked in the shadows. Jeanne could feel her fingers tightly grip the handle of her war hammer as she journeyed deeper into the town with her squad.

As she saw Gabriel drop the front of her weapon that the tip sunk into the earth, Jeanne could feel her stomach turn deep within her. “Oh no,” she uttered beneath her breath as she saw the terrible sight before them.

Bodies laid out before them, some on streets, other lying over the threshold of doors and windows. One body was hanging from the neck, their intestines used to form the noose to suspend them from the rafter jutting out from the peak of the roof.

“Shepherd have mercy,” Jeanne said as she saw the wretched scene.

Gabriel went over to one of the bodies, a halfling male with most of his innards removed and flung all over the ground nearby. She knelt down and examined a part of their body. “Come take a look at this,” she said, calling their others over.

“What is it?” Jeanne asked.

“Look,” Gabriel replied, pointing to two long gashed running down the length of the halfling’s neck.

“Oh … shit,” Jeanne replied.

Benkin and Hypatia came up and examined the body.

“Is that what I think it is?” Benkin asked.

Gabriel nodded. “Vampyres.”

“I didn’t think there were any vampyres running around in this part of the country,” Hypatia said, “or so emboldened.”

“It’s not common,” Gabriel said. “Most try to keep attention far away from themselves as they can. And attacks are away from towns and cities. Usually a single person targeted for food, more than anything else.”

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“Then what the hell happened here?” Benkin asked.

“That one I can’t tell you,” Gabriel said, “though this is anything but a good sign.”

“Do we need to worry about them coming back to life?” Benkin asked, gripping the handle of his sword tightly.

Gabriel shook her head. “I don’t think so. Though I’m not an expert on those intricacies.”

“What do you mean?” Hypatia asked.

“Well, normally, from what I’ve seen, you’d want the person still alive when they’re turned into a vampyre. And even then, most people turned do so over a long period of time.”

“Never heard of that being a thing,” Benkin said, keeping his eyes and sword point trained on the dead body.

“It’s to make sure the body is acclimating to the change properly,” Gabriel replied. “Not everyone takes the change the same as everyone else.”

“There’s adverse effects?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Sometimes. One person can break out in hives, another can suffer vomiting and a severe rash, and I heard of one who had their ribs jut out and transform into a hellhound.”

“That was a jump in reactions,” Benkin said, leaning back slightly.

“I thought it was going to be a simply cold,” Hypatia followed.

Jeanne looked off to see another corpse, their body mutilated in a similar fashion to the other they were next standing next to. She moved over and examined the body from a distance. Some parts of the body twitched randomly while the person laid in state. Jeanne turned to see a rake as it leaned against the wall. She grabbed it and turned her attention back to the corpse which was now gone.

Her eyes grew as she felt a pit form in her stomach. “Did anyone see a body right here?” she asked the others. The rest turned to Jeanne, shaking their heads. Jeanne turned back to where the body was laying, putting the rake back and taking out her war hammer again. Moving to next to where she saw the dead halfling, she heard a growl from a house nearby.

She barely turned her head to the noise as a creature leapt from the open window and grappled her to the ground. The creature slashed at her arms and face, before a spear point pierced through its chest and lifted it off Jeanne and thrown away from them. The creature landed hard, loud snaps punctuated the air as the other rushed to Jeanne’s side.

Jeanne looked up, seeing Gabriel standing next to her, holding out her hand. “Are you all right?”

“Amazing,” Jeanne said, taking the vampyre’s hand and being lifted to her feet. “The hell was that thing?”

“I think we’re about to find out,” Benkin said as he readied his blade to the enemy.

The creature stood on its feet, snapping its joints back in place and revealing itself as the dead villager Jeanne had found earlier. “I think it’s time for a little repayment,” Jeanne said, summoning her stone scale armor.

Hypatia stepped towards the creature and with her two blades held high and spun them quickly, filling the hearts of the others with a spirit of zeal and fire. Jeanne jumped on the balls of her feet as she readied to rush towards the creature. Gabriel moved towards the creature, landing two swift strikes into the undead’s head. The first one landing into the villager’s head forcing it back and the second landing deep into the roof of its mouth, the force tearing the cheeks open, letting blackened blood to start pouring out from the wounds.

As Gabriel moved back, the undead’s head lurched back into place as it let out a terrifying scream. She moved back in and thrusted her sword towards the fiend, the creature barely missing the strikes and racing as it spotted Jeanne. “Hi,” she said with malicious intent, “remember me!” She lifted her hand and a stream of fire poured from her fingers and struck the villager.

It screamed as its flesh began burning and charring from the heat of the fires surrounding it. As the flames died, they could see clumps of singed flesh fall off the body, exposing blackened bone underneath. Benkin rushed towards the undead, landing his blade deep within the torso of the villager, slashing its torso open. As it let out a painful cry, Benkin lifted his sword on high and cleaved the undead into two halves.

As the remains fell to the floor the group looked at each other. “Well that happened,” Benkin said, wiping the blood from his blade.

“We should head back to the rest,” Jeanne said, “let them know what happened.”

Before they finished, four more undead rose from the ground and homes. Moving their way to the others.