They were almost to the gate when Magda finally managed to pull her hand out of Denny’s grip.

“Magda, come on!” Denny reached for her hand again. “We have to get out of here!”

“I’m not running down the road with my tits out!” Magda hissed at him. “And we don’t even know if the road is safe!”

“Fine!” Denny snapped. “You put your tits away, and I’ll cast Flare again,” Denny said, feeling his blood pounding.

“I can’t!” Magda hissed. “You never let me get my shirt or my boots!”

“Then you’ll just have to go without them!” Denny said, not minding the idea of her chest remaining free of encumbrance. Maybe they could finish what they started once they got far enough away. “If we can catch up to my parents before they leave in the morning, we can get you a top.”

“And you some pants,” Magda said icily.

“What?” Denny reached down, feeling at himself. “Shit!” He had panicked and ran without any trousers! He couldn’t see his parents like this; they’d know what he and Magda had been doing.

His Ma would skin him alive.

“Okay, okay,” Denny swallowed hard. “I’ll cast Flare, and we’ll check the road before we run back and get clothes.”

“Hurry up then,” Magda snapped. “I can’t see a thing.”

Denny huffed and started to gather the mana to cast the spell again. His body burned, unused to casting the spell.

“Hurry up!” Madga hissed. “I think I heard something!”

“Flare!” Denny hissed as he fired the magic straight up once again.

The night turned to day, showing the figures shuffling through the darkness. They were only a few meters away from the gate to the farm, but a wall of undead had beaten them to it.

A burst of groaning poured from the mob as the milky eyes and empty sockets of the shambling dead saw Denny and Magda only meters away.

“Shit!” Denny scrambled backward, falling on his bare ass and feeling gravel bite into his skin. “What the fuck!”

Looking around in horror to tell Magda to run, he saw nothing but empty air.

The sound of crunching gravel made him spin further, seeing Magda with her head down and arms pumping as she sprinted back down the drive and towards the Farmhouse.

“Magda!” Denny yelled after her as he launched himself back down the path after her. “Wait!”

Magda ignored him, her eyes fixed on the door to the house as she got closer to the shaky safety of the building.

She was almost there when a figure shuffled around the side of the house, reaching for her.

“Look out!” Denny yelled, seeing the fingers slide over her bare shoulder as she dodged away.

“It touched me!” She screamed, “Gross!”

Denny almost laughed, but the flare died once more.

They were plunged into darkness again. This time, he knew for a fact that there were undead right on them.

The only light left was the dim shine of the fire that he had built showing through the front window.

With no idea if there were already undead in the house, Denny grabbed Magda by the hand and ran for the Barn.

Pushing Magda through the door ahead of him, Denny slipped into the barn and slammed the door closed. His fingers slid over the wood until he felt the locking bar and slammed it across.

He turned and leaned against the door, taking a slow breath and trying to think.

A cow stomped on his foot, and he slammed a hand over his mouth to stifle the scream.

“Ow! Fuck!” Denny hopped and cradled his foot while pushing through the now silent beasts as he fought to the ladder that led to the hay loft.

Pulling himself up the ladder, he found Magda was already up there, her eyes pressed against the gap in the loading shutters.

“Are they coming?” He whispered, still rubbing his foot. It really hurt, and he couldn’t put his weight on it fully.

As a lifelong Farmboy, there was no doubt he had broken something. He had been stepped on enough to know the feeling.

It usually wasn’t a problem, but for some reason, he doubted the traveling healer would be coming out to the farm in the middle of the undead invading it.

“Are they?” He hissed angrily when Magda didn’t answer him.

“No!” She snapped.

“Good.” Denny slid down the haybale he was leaning against and tried to catch his breath. “Come and sit down,” He called Magda over. “We need to figure out how to get out of here.”

“Fuck off!” She snapped at him.

“What are you pissed at me for?” Denny asked. “I didn’t invite the bloody undead to the farm.”

“You dragged me away without thinking!” She growled from her spot by the shutter. “Even if we do escape, I’ll be a scarlet woman once people see me half-naked!”

“You!” Denny grumbled. “I’m the one with no trousers on! My Ma will skin me from ass to earhole!”

“Good!” Magda wrapped her arms around her exposed chest.

“Wait!” Denny suddenly remembered. “I think I can fix it!”

“Got a spare blouse up here, have you?” Magda said snarkily. “One of the other women you got trailing around after you left it, I suppose?”

“Sort of,” Denny muttered as he fished around between the haybales.

“Sure, Denny,” Magda said. “All the girls want you, right, Denny?” She opened her mouth to go on, but a balled-up shirt hit her on the back of her head.

“There you go!” Denny said triumphantly. “I knew it would still be here.”

Magda looked at Denny as she un-balled a really nice-looking silk top. It was actually pretty fancy.

“You have a girl following you around?” She asked suspiciously.

“All the time,” Denny laughed. “She never gives me a moment’s peace.”

“Who?” Magda asked. “You little shit!” She swore, “I thought I would be your first!”

“You are,” Denny grinned, “That’s my sister’s top.”

“Ewww,” Magda held it away from her as if it might explode. “Why do you have your sister’s top?”

“She hides it up here,” Denny shrugged. “One of the temporary helpers caught her eye last summer, and she would wait till everyone was busy, then drag him up here to fool around.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“She never did!” Magda gaped at him.

“She did,” Denny laughed. “And he got carried away and ripped her blouse one time.” He smiled, remembering his sister begging him to bring her a spare blouse. “So she kept a spare hidden in the hay up here.”

“Didn’t your Dad ever find it?” Magda asked, pulling the top on. It was a bit baggy, but it was decent, at least.

“I’m the only one who does the hay,” Denny said.

“I didn’t know your sister was a scarlet woman,” Magda said. “It’s so weird.”

“Don’t call her that,” Denny frowned. That was his sister. She was a nightmare, and he would gladly see her married off and not hassling him constantly. But she was his sister.

“Sorry,” Magda grinned. “But she acts all superior, and in reality, she’s just a scarlet whore!” She giggled.

“You came here to hump, didn’t you?” Denny said hotly. He knew he shouldn’t say it, but he was pissed. “That’s no different than her, or me for that matter.”

“That’s different,” Magda insisted. “We are gonna be married one day!”

“Not if you call my sister a scarlet woman we ain’t.” Denny hissed back.

“She had some fun, that’s all.”

“Since when do you defend her?” Magda nudged him with her elbow. “You always say you hate her.”

“She’s a massive bitch,” Denny said, feeling himself smiling a little, “But she’s still my sister.”

==============

“They aren’t going to stop, are they?” Magda whispered.

“No, and this place ain’t that strong,” Denny sighed as he watched the crowd building up around the Barn.

The terrified cows stood as still as they could, eyes practically rolling in terror. This many in such a small space couldn’t stay still forever, no matter how hard their instincts told them to.

“They’ll panic soon,” Magda gestured to the cattle. “They’ll tear this place apart when they do.”

“Yeah,” Denny said before a thought hit him. The cattle would panic soon. They were almost there as it was… and a stampede in a closed barn was a grim thought. But it did give him an idea. “Yeah!” He grinned.

“What?” Magda asked.

“Stampede!” Denny hissed. “No one can stop a stampede!”

“Denny!” Magda said, backing away.

“Get ready!” He told her. “We’ll follow 'em out and right through the horde!”

“Denny, this is crazy!” Magda snapped. “The door is locked! They can’t go anywhere!”

“Well, I’ll just go unlock it then,” Denny said with determination.

“The undead will pull it open and eat you.” Madga insisted.

“No, they won’t.” Denny started down the ladder, but she reached out and grabbed his arm.

“How can you be sure?” Her face was pale and sweaty in the darkness.

“They don’t run, they don’t jump, and they don’t work together,” Denny tried not to sound too smug. “These aren’t real undead, like the ones in the stories. They are Zombies like my Da fought in the war.”

“Your dad fought in the Rangewars?” Magda gasped. “I never knew that.”

“Yeah,” Denny waived that away. “What he said was the undead is kind of like a different set of creatures all lumped in together. Zombies are basically just a mouth on legs. They don’t move fast and are dumber than your average stick.”

“You’re sure?” She asked.

“I’ll be real quick,” Denny said. “Don’t worry.”

Sliding down the ladder, he slipped between the cows and started to pull the bar back from the door.

It scraped along the metal brackets a little, and the door pressed inwards as the mob outside pressed against it.

Denny grinned as he shoved his way back to the ladder and climbed back to the hayloft.

“They ain’t moving!” Madga hit him on the arm. “It didn’t work!”

“Ow!” Denny shied away, “Ow. Stop it! They ain’t supposed to run yet.”

“Then how are you gonna make 'em run?” Magda folded her arms and glared at him.

Denny raised his hand, the softly glowing magic already gathering in his palm.

“Don’t you dare!” Magda yelled a split second before he pointed at the Barn’s back wall and hissed, “Flare!” He ducked as the magic hit the far wall, and light exploded in the Barn as the cattle brayed in panic…. And started to run.

“You’re a fucking prick, Denny O’Conner,” Magda said as they swung out of the hayloft on the loading rope and dropped to the churned dirt below.

“Yeah, yeah,” Denny was grinning as he fired off the flare again. “Let’s get after them cows before the gap closes after ‘em.”

It was getting easier and easier to cast the spell with every use.

There wasn’t even a burning anymore.

The light revealed the maddened cattle running full out toward the wall of shuffling figures. It was the happiest Denny had ever been to be looking at that much cow ass in one go.

He didn’t even mind that he had just stepped in a cow pat.

“Go on! Yah!” He cheered after the cows as they approached the Zombies.

The cattle charged forward before turning from the zombies and running along the side before bellowing again and scattering into the horde in a dozen different directions.

The flare died just as the bellowing screams of the dying cows started to come from deep in the horde.

“Fuck!” Denny swore, “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“This is your fault!” Magda punched and slapped at Denny. “I never woulda been here if it weren’t for you!”

“Stop!” Denny tried to fight her off in the dark, taking a good few blows before he managed to get both of her arms in his. “Stop it!” Denny tried to pull her into a hug, but she kept fighting. “We’ll get out, don’t worry!”

“No, we won’t!” She snarled at him, slamming her head into his nose. Denny let go and stumbled back.

“Magda, what the hell?” Denny gasped, feeling blood running down his face.

“This is a judgment!” Magda spat at him. “Your whore sister, and you are perverts before the Eternal Light!”

“What?” Denny asked.

“You with your forbidden images, tempting me with your pecker, and your scarlet sister who humped a farmhand like an animal in heat!” Magda backed away from him. “You brought these things here.”

“Magda, don’t be an idiot!” Denny swiped the blood off his face. “You don’t buy all that crap, do you?”

“The wicked will be punished!” Magda looked almost as crazed as the cows to Denny, her eyes glassy and unfocused. “Repent, sinner!” She pointed at Denny.

Denny knew when people were hysterical, you had to slap them.

So he stepped forward and slapped Magda across the face.

The sound was thunderous in the darkness.

They stared at each other in shock for a split second.

Then Madga punched him in the face.

“You were hysterical!” Denny protested, but it did no good. Magda punched him three more times, and then, to add to his problems, she kicked him really hard between his legs.

Denny folded up in a world of his own agony as she punched and kicked him a few more times.

“Repent!” She kept yelling. “Repent so we can be saved!”

Denny just covered his head and kept quiet.

“I repent my sins!” Magda yelled and walked off, raving about her sins.

Denny carefully unwrapped from his huddle, a dull ache between his legs as he watched her walk with her eyes closed and arms open… straight towards the approaching zombies.

“Denny, you’re an idiot!” He hissed to himself as he pulled himself from the dirt and picked up his axe. “She’s gonna die; you can’t save who don’t want to be saved.”

His Dad had taught him that. The farm had taught him that.

“Shit!” He watched as the closest zombies turned to shamble toward Magda, who still had her damn fool eyes closed.

He had to go. He had to leave her, or they would both die.

“Denny!” Magda screamed, and he saw her backing away from the horde. “Help!”

She had opened her eyes at last.

“Fuck!” Denny kept the litany of insults going as he rushed forward, swinging wildly with the old wood axe.

He actually managed to hit a couple of them in the head, and they fell like limp ragdolls, just like his Dad had said.

Two down, thousands to go.

Denny kept swinging, and they kept falling.

He even managed to get a flare fired off in between swings. His blood ran cold as he heard a shriek behind him.

Magda.

He turned, seeing her struggling with a zombie. She was a good distance away.

Growling to himself, he realized she had tried to sneak away while he fought.

Just for a moment, he considered making a break for it.

After all, she had tried to do it to him, but the light of the flare lit up her tear-stained face, and it was still his best friend over there.

“Damnit!” Denny dashed over, swinging his axe high and wide.

Magda saw him running over to her and pushed the zombie at him with all her might.

The zombie’s body crashed into Denny just as Magda’s face twisted into a feral grin. She was just opening her mouth to say something when the axe that had slid from Denny’s sweat-slick hand hit her square in the face.

“MAGDA!” Denny wailed as she twitched and fell; the old wood axe dug deep into her head.

Denny pushed himself out from under the undead and scrambled away as the zombies crowded around the still-warm corpse of his best friend.

Hands grasped at him as he crawled. They snagged his shirt more than once, and he felt the expensive material tear. Whimpering, he crawled on while the legs and hands kept coming.

After what felt like hours of crawling but could only have been a few seconds, he felt the ground vanish beneath him. He rolled down a short slope and crashed into stinking mud. A few of the things came down with him, and they flailed in the mud as he slipped away.

He knew this smell. He had fallen into one of these ditches often enough in his youth.

Denny was in a drainage trench, and from the shadowy figures on either side of the trench, the zombies were ignoring it.

Denny put his head down and crawled slowly through the stinking mud full of stagnant water. Tears still streamed down his face as he pushed onwards, his head full of images of Magda as the wood axe took her life.