Chapter 18: Friedhof

-10 MONTHS REMAIN-

Miryam gasped as she shot up. Her breaths were heavy and irregular. She struggled to ground herself. It was just a dream she told herself. Just a terrible dream. The same dream she had been having for a while. A reoccurring nightmare that forced her to live through that day over and over. Everyone else was still asleep. They had turned in early that day. It was barely night now, but they had been so mentally and physically exhausted that they needed to rest. Miryam turned to Aurora who was sleeping next to her. 

"Miss Vale." She whispered, nudging her. "Miss Vale!" She repeated. She raised her voice ever so slightly. "Aurora!" She pushed on the alchemist harder than before. Finally, she awoke. 

"Miryam? What is it?" She said groggily. Aurora yawned, rubbed her eyes, and found her glasses. "What time is it?"

"I'm not sure. But we've been asleep for several hours." She looked down at the dirt as if embarrassed. "I'm sorry to wake you, but I had a nightmare and couldn't sleep." Aurora stood up to stretch. 

"And you made that all of our problem?" Aurora groaned.

"My apologies." Miryam said sheepishly. 

"I'm just messing with you. We should get going anyway." Aurora cracked her joints. "Go wake up Ulric." Miryam nodded and shuffled over to Ulric's side of the makeshift camp. She nudged him awake, a lot easier than Aurora, and the three got themselves ready. Once they felt sufficiently awake, they continued down the path through the Astral Verdant. The night felt like more of the same. Nothing weird or out of the ordinary caught their attention. It was dark and quiet as usual. They had gotten used enough to the forest that traveling at night no longer felt so uncomfortable. Although there still was a bit of unfamiliarity and tension, thanks to Cassius. After a short time, however, their plans of a routine night of walking changed. They spotted something in the distance. A wooden palisade. It looked as if it was built not out of necessity but rather tradition. Every other town had some sort of wall so why not this one. Despite that it was still beaten and worn down, proving that it was at least somewhat effective. The three approached it with caution. “I didn’t expect us to come across a town so soon.” Aurora noted. “Ulric, you’ve traveled a lot. Do you recognize this place?” Ulric shook his head.

“I’m just as surprised as you are. From what I recall there shouldn’t be a town here on this path.” Aurora and Miryam frowned at the comment. Whatever town this was, it was much smaller than Aetherwind. Only a few buildings could reasonably sit within the walls. Once they reached the gates, each party member took notice of something. A sign on the wall, groaning coming from beyond the wall, and a dead guard slumped against the wall.

“Friedhof.” Miryam read. She cocked her head in confusion. It was certainly an odd name for a town. Solstya had the habit of naming its cities and towns after the heavens. Celestial bodies and ethereal phenomena captivated the Solstyan people. From what Miryam could tell, the name Friedhof didn’t relate to either of these. Aurora pressed her ear against the wooden wall and tried her hardest to hear through it. She could hear a collective groaning coming from within, but couldn’t discern anything like cause or reason. It just was happening. Meanwhile Ulric crouched down to inspect the guard.

“His wounds are the same as that deer.” He said. The remark immediately made Miryam shiver.

“Like the one we saw before encountering the vampire lady?” She asked in a panic. Ulric nodded.

“The wounds seem fresher though. Like this man was killed recently.” Miryam nearly fainted from shock.

“So whatever monster killed him is probably still around somewhere.” Aurora added.

“Stop talking!” Miryam yelled. Her face was so pale she might as well have been a ghost. She covered her ears to block out the discussion Aurora and Ulric started to have, and closed her eyes in the hopes that maybe she was still having a bad dream. She reopened them hopeful, but felt her heart stop when she saw the two crack open the town gates. They crept inside and Miryam reluctantly followed. Being with them couldn’t possibly be as bad as being outside alone, right?

“By the gods!” Ulric gasped. Just before them, aimlessly wandering through the small town, were several dozen zombies. These zombies weren’t typical undead. They didn’t remotely resemble the typical reanimated dead of Solstya. Those undead were civilized and cultured. They had customs and beliefs. They walked, talked, and acted like any other man. They had just lived through more lives. Most importantly, they had their own independent thoughts. These, things, however were what the people typically thought undead were like. Mindless corpses that only acted based on instinct. Anything else they did was purely coincidence. If one wandered into a store it was because that was the direction it happened to be shambling, not because it was interested in its wares. In a sense they were true zombies. Moreover these creatures did not resemble typical humans. They were humanoid shaped, but possessed extra and or lacked certain features. Too many joints. Not enough limbs. Too long a spine. Not enough space for the teeth. Some even possessed traits that were most definitely not human. Antlers, wings, shells. Miryam covered her mouth, trying desperately not to throw up or scream.

“Why haven’t they noticed us yet?” She whimpered.

“Probably because we smell like rotting flesh.” Aurora reasoned. “We’ve been covered in dirt, blood, and who knows what else with no real way to wash ourselves.” She turned to Ulric. “Again, a bath, soon, please.”

“I would say we could take one now that we’re in a town, but something tells me there isn’t a working bathhouse here.”

“Can we please focus?!” Miryam was getting more agitated as time went on. She was starting to act a bit more like her age. The snippiness was a sign she was gaining a bit more confidence. That or Aurora’s attitude was rubbing off on her.

“Relax.” Aurora reassured. “I doubt they’ll do anything to us. If they were going to attack they would’ve done so by now. Let’s just calmly move forward. Acting in a panic is bound to rile them up.”

“You want me to walk closer to those things?! I can barely look at them without gagging!” Miryam protested.

“What else are we going to do?”

“Leave!” As if ignoring the conversation beside him, Ulric marched forward into the town. Miryam stood aghast while Aurora chuckled.

“Not with him around we aren’t.” She smiled before following Ulric’s lead. Miryam once again reluctantly followed. As they explored they got a closer look at the creatures populating the town. These gross perversions of the human form were even more disturbing up close. Despite keeping a cool disposition, Aurora and Ulric too couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of them. They moved unnaturally, unnervingly. They had stitches running across their bodies, connecting parts that had no right being together. They were uncanny; unmistakably human at one point or another, just not now. Even though they could move about unbothered, a sense of dread still consumed them. Then the tension broke. A blood curdling, stomach churning, soul crushing screech shook them to their core. They flinched and dared not to turn around. It wasn’t Cassius, it was too guttural , too unnatural. But whatever it was, it wasn’t friendly. Nothing that was friendly would make a sound that haunting and unholy. Everyone stopped in their tracks, not just the party, but everyone. Every zombie stopped what they were doing and, collectively, turned towards the party. The beast behind them, whatever it was, roared again and all of the zombies charged snarling.

“Run!” Ulric commanded, pulling out his claw blades. The three wasted no time at all. They all broke into a sprint, making a mad dash through the town. They didn’t have a destination, they just knew they had to run. They took every turn they could, dashing down narrow alleys and climbing over fences. The creatures were relentless. They hunted the party down with brutal accuracy. Ulric ripped and teared through the hoard of zombies. Aurora supported him wear she could, stabbing stragglers and shooting at creatures that attempted to flank and gang up on Ulric and the others. Miryam simply kept pace, occasionally calling out where the closest zombie was attacking. They made surprisingly quick work of the beasts, but they never could find the space to catch their breath. The creatures always knew where the party was and always knew the best times and places to strike. As if they were being controlled and fed information. Eventually the party was cut off. The main beast, the one that shrieked earlier, jumped down in front of them. It was massive, easily towering over them at seven or eight feet tall. Its limbs were lanky, with its arms almost touching the ground. It easily looked the least human of the bunch. Long claws, a reptilian face, and huge wings being its most unique features. The beast roared again, its face splitting vertically for the jaw instead of horizontally. Ulric instinctively summoned Ursa. He threw the spirit at the monster, letting the two clash. They paced each other growling. Each one would make a swipe at the other every now and then but would never commit. They sized each other up. It wouldn’t take long for both of them to figure out who was clearly the stronger foe. Ulric took this brief opportunity to lead the rest of the party away. They continued to run through the streets and to their surprise the zombies didn’t follow. Instead they all remained locked on to Ursa.

“There! A light!” Miryam called out. She pointed at a house in the center of the town. It was the only one they saw that had any light coming from its windows. Ulric changed course and ran straight towards the house. In that time he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked back to see Ursa down on the ground. The zombies had surrounded it and had descended upon it. They clawed and bit at the incorporeal body, expecting to receive flesh but instead scrounging up nothing. Once the main beast figured it had been cheated out of a meal, it searched for its original prey. It didn’t take long for it to locate them. It screeched again and charged. Aurora shoved past the other two to reach the door to the house first. The beast quickly gained on them as she fumbled with the handle. Eventually she pulled it open, let everyone inside, and slammed the door back shut. She held her body against the door to brace it, expecting the creature to come slamming into the house. But nothing came. Miryam peaked out the window.

“It stopped. It’s just standing there, waiting.” She sighed. The other two sighed with her. They could finally catch their breath, or at least it seemed that way for now.

“Well, this is a pleasant surprise.” A voice from across the room interjected. A man sat in a plush chair on the other side of the room, calmly flipping through a book. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends, Ulric?”