Dorian grabbed a bow, quiver of arrows and a short sword all stashed near the tavern’s front door. He strapped the sword to his left hip and slung the bow and quiver around his shoulders.

“Come on Chadwick. Let’s go see what all the hub-bub is about.”

Chad stood from his table, “Why can’t we leave this to the town guard?”

Dorian stopped at the door and looked back at Chad, an amused look on his face.

“You think a town this small can finance a militia? The guard, as you call them, are a small group of volunteers. They are largely for show, a deception of protection to any outside threats.”

His amusement at Chad’s question continued, “If the town guard is so reliable, where did your escort run off to?”

Chad huffed and walked towards Dorian, their feud forgotten.

“So how does the village defend from monster attacks?”

Dorian stopped, hand resting on the door ready to push it open, and I saw him look over his shoulder in my direction for just a moment.

“The Temple of the Goddess used provide the town a level of protection, taking care of that for them. Except for the occasional roaming fledgling, the town stays largely undisturbed.” He hesitated and sighed, “Now that it’s gone, it appears Her protection is as well.”

With that, he pushed open the door and strode out into the square beyond, Chad right behind him.

I stood frozen in place. I caused this? I mean I technically didn’t have a say when I crashed into the temple on my arrival but…

Noelle snapped to attention first. She spun and addressed everyone, “Alright you heard them! This is not a drill!” She clapped and clasped her hands in front of her. “Everyone please start moving to the back room. We have an exit into the cellar to bar the entrance. Come on! Get up! Let’s get going!”

She started shepherding and shooing all the customers and girls towards the back, including Roscoe who, despite his supposed leadership position, was also frozen in place and utterly useless.

I felt someone pulling at my arm. “Come on! You heard Noelle! We have a place for you to be safe!” Ash pleaded. “We can’t have you at risk already! You just arrived!”

I turned to Ash, “What about Dorian and Chad? We’re expecting them to save us on their own?”

“They know what they are doing! They know how to defend themselves!”

Ash tugged at me more fervently, but I stood my ground. I was taller and stronger than he was, and he huffed at me in frustration as he realized I wasn’t going anywhere.

I turned back to the door, grim determination on my face as I imagined what horrors might be plaguing the town. The horrors that Dorian and Chad were now facing alone.

I knew I didn’t have a clue what was out there. I had no idea how large or small the attacking force was, or what kind of monsters called this realm home. The only thing I knew for certain was this was the kind of thing the Goddess brought me here for. This was the kind of stuff a chosen one was supposed to overcome! I wasn’t going to cower in a basement and wait to be saved, especially by Chad of all people!

I shook my arm out of Ash’s grip and started marching towards the door. Ash chased after me, still begging me not to go outside.

“Please, Goddess, don’t leave! Don’t go out there!”

I ignored him as I pushed open the door and marched out into the square after the boys.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. The air was filled with the stench of rot, like the sky had opened up and rained dozens of corpses on the town. It was so overbearing, it bore into my nostrils and attempted to climb into my mouth. I reached up to cover my mouth and nose and was immediately grateful that I hadn’t eaten much for breakfast.

Within moments of scanning the square, I discovered the source of the odor. The town was under attack by several undead corpses. There was at least a dozen of them I quickly observed, with Goddess knew how many more elsewhere. I looked for Dorian and Chad, hoping they were still alive.

Dorian had vaulted on top of a small marketplace tent nestled up against another nearby building and was actively sniping the monsters with his bow. While he was safe for now, I was pretty sure he couldn’t do that forever.

Chad was further down the square, near one of the side streets where the horde seemed to be spewing from. It allowed him a choke point to control them, but it also meant he was alone against the tide. He had coordinated with Dorian and was occasionally letting a straggler through for him to pick off. While this was great in theory, they were too outnumbered for this to work long. Something had to break.

It was then that I saw the corpses.

Not the corpses of the undead already dispatched by arrow or blade, but the corpses of the living. Scattered throughout the square were the mutilated corpses of men and women, taken by surprise in the early moments. Their blood was pooling underneath them, with some of it growing into a larger singular pool of red from the bodies that had fallen closer together.

My eyes went wide with shock. I had never seen a dead body like this before, where just moments before it had been full of life and hope, and certainly never the remains of a person that had been savagely murdered. Many of the bodies also showed signs that the undead had been feasting before Dorian and Chad had interrupted them.

I turned away from the grisly scene and vomited on the cobblestone. I had gone through so many difficult or emotional moments today. My body was done enduring it all. These were real people whose lives had just been snuffed out. All their hopes and dreams and promises, gone in an instant. I wiped at my mouth and forced myself to look back and take in everything again:

Chad dodging and swinging, keeping all he could in front of him and out of arms reach.

Arrow after arrow flying from Dorian’s hands into anything that got away from Chad and threatened to get lost in the town.

And the screams. The screams were the worst of all. They seemed to come from everywhere, the cries of the townspeople echoed off buildings from the nearby streets. They were crying out in surprise, in pain, in fear.

It was a moment before I realized some of the screaming was being directed at me.

“Amelia!” Dorian cried out. “Get back inside damnit!”

He had probably been trying to get my attention for a while, but I had been so disoriented that I hadn’t noticed. Ash had followed me and was again pulling at me insistently, now attempting to use the door frame of the inn as additional leverage.

“Ash! Get her inside! Get Noelle to help if you have to!” Dorian shot one of his few remaining arrows. It was about to get dicey.

“Goddess, please!” Ash continued to urge me to retreat into the relative safety of the Wish.

I whirled back at Ash and snarled, “I am NOT your Goddess!”

My tone was much more venomous than I had intended, but my head was swimming with all sorts of emotions, and I couldn’t control myself anymore. He shrunk away from me and looked genuinely hurt.

“If you want to run and hide, go run and hide!”

I pointed out to the village. “People are dying out there and I’m not going to stand by and watch!”

I turned away from him and frantically looked for anything I could use as a weapon. I spotted a small market butcher stand not far from me and sprinted over to it. Just as I was hoping, I found a hand-axe implanted in a cutting block.

I picked it up and quickly looked it over. I was no expert on judging a blade for sharpness and was in no rush to accidentally injure myself testing it, but it seemed like it should do the trick. I wasn’t thrilled at how close I was going to have to be for scoring some hits, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

By now, Dorian had finally run out of arrows. He slung his bow back over his shoulder and leaped off the market stall. He drew his short sword and joined Chad, who had lost control of his choke point and had been slowly retreating. The zombies were now less contained and started to spread out. There were so many! Where were they all coming from?

The boys fought side by side, making a formidable pair and looking for easy kills to thin the numbers. Their familiarity with each other was clear and neither got in the other’s way as they danced from engaged foe and back to their held ground they were struggling to maintain.

Chad continued to demonstrate his skill with his sword, but Dorian also held his own with a blade as well. Had their earlier disagreement deteriorated into an actual fight, Chad probably still had the upper hand, but it would’ve been closer than he would’ve liked. Their combat stances and movement radiated with confidence, but they had to have known the danger they were in, and it was only a matter of time before something got out of control.

I raced to join the two of them and jumped next to Dorian, trying to form an enclosed semi-circle around the zombies and help even the odds, brandishing my newly acquired hand-axe.

Dorian finished skewering a corpse through its head and jumped back to me.

“What in the name of the Gods do you think you’re doing?!”

He scowled, extremely frustrated that I wasn’t obeying his orders to hide, and he positioned himself in front of me. “I’ve already got to protect pretty boy over here. I don’t need to be worrying about you too!”

Chad took offense to this, and his movements became more exaggerated, his sword dancing in unnecessary flourishes to easily dispatch a target of his own, slicing it down through the middle with relative ease.

“Remind me again how many you owe me for saving your life today? You’re easily above a dozen.”

Dorian laughed as he drove a foot into the knee joint of another undead before slicing off the head as it fell towards him, “You haven’t even killed a dozen since we’ve been out here! Was one of them going to kill me twice?”

I could see the seriousness in their eyes and yet their ability to tease each other, despite death mere rotted teeth and claws away, was oddly calming. I felt a bit relaxed and steadied myself for my first opportunity. One of the larger undead had gotten loose past them and was lunging towards me. I quickly pushed aside my fear of facing the larger opponent and hurtled forward to meet its charge, screaming like a mad woman as I brought the axe down, cutting through the air.

I could do this!

Memories of my frustrations from the morning flashed in my vision: Chad belief that my destiny was to be his silent and obedient wife, the girls forcibly dressed as eye candy for drunken men to fondle, Roscoe sliding his hand up the girl’s skirt. Or worse, Noelle or any of her sisters being forced to do those things. I channeled all of it into a white, hot fury as I brought the axe down as violently as I could.

Unfortunately, my aim had been terrible. I wasn’t used to my longer limbs quite yet and, in my blinding rage, I had missed the angle on the undead’s head completely. The axe lodged deeply in its shoulder instead, making a wet chonking sound as it impacted. The attack also did not stop the larger fiend’s lumbering momentum and it was now forcing me backwards as it continued to move, attempting to at grab at me while I held onto the axe handle.

I struggled to stay out of its grasp while trying to dislodge the axe for another swing. It gurgled at me, a green frothy liquid seeping from the sides of its mouth, as it got a grip around my arm. It used its grip as an anchor to hold me in place, pulling itself closer to me, and I couldn’t help it any longer.

I screamed.

I screamed like the terrified little girl I was inside.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know how to stop the undead now biting at my face and getting closer with each attempt.

I felt helpless.

Letting go of the axe handle, I tried to back up and wriggle away. Unfortunately, the creature still had a firm grip on my arm and was able to keep up with my retreat, step for wretched step. He swiped with his other hand and got a fist full of my dress, a curse escaping my lips. I knew there was a good reason I never wore these things!

It began pulling me toward it with uncanny strength. Struggling against it, I tripped and fell backwards, the zombie falling on top of me. It released the grip on my dress and pushed me down by my shoulder, its other hand still firmly grasping my left wrist. Squirming underneath the heavy weight, I was now pinned to the ground.

My shoulder straps had gotten loose in the struggle and had slid down my shoulders. Its mouth gaped open in anticipation, with more green rotten saliva dripping down onto me. I shrieked as I felt droplets plop onto my face and exposed upper body. It burned and smelled horrible. I pushed against it with all my strength, but it wasn’t enough, its dripping maw getting ever closer, leaning down to feast on my flawless, smooth neck.

Was this it? How was it possible I already failed?

Right before its jaws clamped down on my throat, a blur dove across my vision and slammed into the midsection of the corpse, freeing me in the process. My assailant and rescuer were now rolling around on the ground, wrestling for control over one another. My axe had also been dislodged in the process and wasn’t far from where I lay on the ground. I scrambled to get up off the ground and it took me a moment to realize it had been Ash! He had overcome his fear and surprisingly come to my rescue.

And not a moment too soon!

His element of surprise now gone, he was struggling to maintain control of his much larger opponent and was now in danger himself. The drooling corpse had now pinned him to the ground and was trying to make up for the loss of its previous meal. He turned back, made eye contact with me, and simply shouted,

“Run!”

And I did.

Running straight at the zombie, I collected my weapon off the ground and, this time, successfully plunged it deep into its skull as I had intended the first time. Axe sinking into its rotting skull, it flopped over lifelessly on top of Ash.

I helped get him squirm out from under the zombie and looked back towards Chad and Dorian to see how the rest of the battle was fairing. I was relieved to see that the number of undead had all but been taken care of and the square now appeared clear of any danger.

The remainder of the horde dispatched, they jogged over to where Ash and I stood shaking next to our lone kill. I had fixed my disheveled dress and was panting heavily, struggling to push away the terrifying images lingering in my mind from just moments ago.

What had I been thinking?

Chad ripped the axe from the skull’s remains and confirmed the kill while Dorian grabbed me by the shoulders with both hands and shook me furiously.

“What the hell was that? Thank the Goddess Ash stuck around and was able to distract it for a moment!” I could see the genuine concern in his eyes as he looked between us, “You alright kid?”

Ash nodded and refused to leave my side, more worried about my state than his own.

Chad walked over, thumbing the axe, then hesitantly at my left arm, recalling my swing at him from this morning. He looked back over at the dead and gave a small nod of approval.

All the boys then started looking me over. Save the irritated spots on my exposed face, shoulders, and collar bone where the saliva had mercilessly dripped on me, I didn’t seem to be any worse for wear.

“I am glad no serious harm came to you, my lady.” Chad’s expression was stern, “But please, leave this sort of thing to us. A battlefield belongs to the men for a reason.”

“He’s being a dick about it, but he’s right,” Dorian huffed.

It was clear they were dead serious about this if they were both in agreement.

“These kinds of situations will just get you hurt, or worse.” He said, as he pressed a hand to his chest. “I can’t allow that to happen.”

All of this admonishing was just making me angrier about the situation. I stomped my foot and exploded, my emotions boiling over.

“Oh, but I bet it would have been fine if Noelle had been out here!”

I clinched my fists, arms stiff and defiant at my sides.

“I’m sorry I’m not a seasoned fighter like both of you, but I still killed it! And had I not missed the first time, I probably would have killed more of them! I don’t need YOU! Either of you!”

My face was blistering with anger, but I realized it wasn’t just at them. I was frustrated at myself too.

But I was also frightened.

I had charged in, thinking I was bullet proof as the one chosen by the Goddess to solve the world’s problems. Instead, I had been moments away from death! Ash had saved me, of all people. I had gotten lucky. I didn’t want to admit it, but Dorian and Chad were right and that hurt what diminished pride I had left.

I wanted to cry, but I wouldn’t. Not in front of them. Not after just so passionately trying to argue my case that I was also capable of taking care of myself. I couldn’t show that kind of emotional weakness now.

I did the only thing I could do.

I finally turned and ran.