A pale moon hung high overhead as the sun sank closer to the horizon behind the trees. As a chill wind blew past Seth’s face, he held up his dented lantern like a shield. There was a prickle down the back of his neck that he tried to attribute to the cool wind, but there was a suspicion in the back of his mind that there was more to it than that.

“Are we still on the path?” Shon asked. “I can’t see it anymore.”

“It was difficult to find even in full daylight,” Tarun said. “It’s growing so dark now that I doubt we’ll be able to follow much at all, even with Seth’s magical lantern. We may be better off unpacking and setting up camp for the night and trying again in the morning.”

Without the tauroks and wagon, Seth, Tarun, and Shon had been required to divide up the most essential travelling gear and carrying them on their own backs. Shon had been disappointed to part with the sturdy beasts of burden, and Tarun had been reluctant to entrust Aluanna’s band with the belongings of his former companions, but Aluanna had informed them that the twisting forest paths they needed to take would be far too unpredictable and treacherous for the slow and awkward beasts. When faced with the choice of turning back, risking the lives of the tauroks, or sending them with Aluanna’s band, Tarun had decided they would be better off solely on foot anyway.

Shon had just begun to remove his heavy pack with a relieved sigh when Seth heard it. There was a sound of movement and disturbance in the woods that didn’t seem right. Seth couldn’t quite figure out what about the sounds put him at such unease, but he didn’t stop to deliberate. “Put your pack back on, Shon,” Seth said. “We can’t stay here.”

“What’s the matter?” Tarun asked quietly.

“We can talk while we walk,” Seth said. “Don’t bother whispering though. We might as well talk loud enough to hear each other.”

“Why do you say that?” Tarun asked.

“Because…” Seth began to talk, but suddenly his mind was racing.

“Because whatever is out there isn’t bothering to be quiet,” Shon interrupted. “That’s what you were just thinking, isn’t it Seth? I could feel the pieces fall into place in your mind. That’s what’s bothering you. Whatever noises you’re hearing, their being made by something that doesn’t care about being heard.”

“Exactly,” Seth said, quickening his pace. “Everything in the forest, whether it’s predator or prey, wants to be as quiet as possible unless it’s trying to find a mate. What do you hear right now?”

The three were quiet for a moment and all three heard the sounds of cracking branches, shaken leaves, and shuffling dirt. Even worse, they heard the sounds coming from all around them.

“Well I hope that isn’t anything looking for a mate,” Shon said.

“Alright,” Tarun said, picking up a large rock while he walked, “Seth is right. We can’t just stop and break camp. But where are we supposed to go? The sun is setting and we’re in the middle of the woods. We can’t see the trail anymore. We don’t even know what direction to go in.”

“I may be able to help with that,” Seth said. He held up his lantern higher, scanning the area in front of him. He tried to open his mind to the subtle nudging he’d experienced before when letting the lantern’s light guide him. He looked for anything. A gleam from a stone, a beckoning shadow, a spot that held the light for just a moment longer than the others. But Seth could find no sign of the direction he should go.

Instead, the lantern swung in his hands as he walked, and the light shone upwards into the tops of the trees. Seth looked up and saw shapes moving among the branches. He realized with a sense of dread that they were surrounded not only on all sides, but from above as well. It was while he was watching the shuffling climbing of the shapes up high that his feet slipped and he fell.

The slope beneath Seth was too steep for him to adjust his footing, and the mud was so slick that it wouldn’t have done him much good even if he could. He tumbled and slid without being able to stop himself, but he was at least able to keep his hold on his lantern and shillelagh, and he managed to keep himself from tumbling head over heels.

When he landed at the bottom of the slope, he was wet and muddy on his backside, but he was unhurt. He looked around and noticed that Tarun and Shon were still at the top. He was just about to call up to them when he heard Shon begin shouting.

“Aaah!! Who are you?! What do you want from us?” The young wizard sounded more panicked than Seth had ever heard him. “Tarun, they’re mindless! My magic isn’t working! Help!!”

Immediately, Seth heard Tarun howl with rage, followed by a loud cracking noise that echoed through the nearby hills. “Let go of him!” he bellowed. It was clear to Seth that their struggle was not going well, and he couldn’t find any way to climb up the slope to help them.

“Down here!” Seth called. “It’s slippery, but trust me! You’ll be safer down here!”

A moment later he heard a loud grunt from Tarun, followed by the sounds of something large sliding down the mud. At first he tried to position himself to catch Tarun and Shon, but as he saw the speed they were coming down at, he decided it best to just get out of their way. They landed much harder than Seth had, but neither seemed badly hurt.

“Are you alright?” Seth asked, helping them to stand. “What attacked you up there?”

Shon suddenly froze with a look of terror in his eyes and stared right past Seth. “Those!” he screamed.

Seth spun around and found that the three of them were completely surrounded by a dirty, foul mob. Except there was no shouting, jeering, or threatening from this mob. There was not even breathing. Every body illuminated by his lantern light had the same vacant expression and lifeless color. It was obvious to Seth the moment he saw them that these were not the faces of the living. Seth’s breath caught in his throat. “Undead.”

Tarun immediately picked up the largest stick he could find nearby, and started swinging it wildly. “I thought you said it was safer down here! Now there’s even more of them!” Tarun swung his stick hard into the head of one of the horde, but it didn’t even flinch when struck. It merely grabbed the stick and wrenched it away from Tarun’s grasp with an unholy strength. It began to step closer to Tarun, but then lurched and stopped.

Seth looked down and realized that the shuffling movements of their attackers were shifting side to side, but not forward. Their feet paced at the edges of where his lantern was illuminating the ground.

“Wait!” Seth said a moment before Tarun tried to throw a punch at one of the bodies. “Step back, Tarun. They can’t come any closer as long as we stay within the lantern light.”

Shon looked around them, dumbstruck. “Seth’s right,” he said. “Look around. The light is actually keeping them back!”

Tarun stepped back, but still held a large rock in his hand and kept his eyes fixed on the bodies in front of them. He took a few steadying breaths, and then finally spoke through clenched teeth. “Well what do we do now, then? We can’t just stay out here like this all night. What if the light goes out? Or these things find a way past?”

Seth was about to say something about the light never going out, but before he could speak, something caught his eye. There was a gleam in the distance. Almost as if the light from his lantern were reflecting off a pond in the treetops, or maybe…

“A window,” Seth said.

“A what?” Shon asked.

“Through those trees in that direction,” Seth said. “There are buildings. Or at least a building. I saw it just for a moment.”

“I don’t see anything,” Tarun said, squinting his eyes in the darkness.

“Trust me, it’s there,” Seth said.

“Like we trusted you to slide down here?” Shon shrieked.

“You’re better off down here than you were up there, aren’t you?” Seth said.

“Fine,” Tarun interrupted, “but how do we get there?”

“Leave that to me,” Seth said, sounding more confident than he really felt at the moment. He took a step forward, and the lantern light moved with him. But the mob didn’t move. Their feet were now within the circle of light, but they still came no closer. If this was going to work, Seth would have to get them to move back.

“Shurrah,” he said, taking another step forward. This time the bodies did begin to shuffle backwards until their feet were out of the light. “Come on,” he beckoned to the others.

Their progress forward was slow and unnerving. The hardest part had been when they had left the mud bank completely behind them, allowing the horde to move around behind. Still, they continued forward, and the barrier of the lantern held. Soon they came to a clearing and saw the remains of a ruined old village. The buildings were in varying degrees of collapse and decay, and inside they could see the shambling forms of more animated corpses. The one building still intact stood in the middle of the ruins.

It was either an old church or town hall. In either case, it must have been what Seth had seen from afar, because it still had glass windows intact in its central spire. At the top of the spire was a large brass bell. They continued to move slowly towards the door of the large building, until they finally reached its solid wooden door.

All three attempted to push against the door, but it held firm. For a brief moment, Seth thought perhaps he saw candlelight from one of the windows of the building, but realized it must have merely been the reflection of his own lantern light. They were just about to search for another entrance around the back, when they heard a loud creak from behind the door. Whatever had been holding the door closed, it was now opening.

Tarun stepped carefully into the doorway, followed by Shon. Seth stepped in behind them, holding his lantern high to keep the mob outside the door. A moment later, the door slammed shut, and the bolt locked behind it.

Seth
Art by Ryan Salway