𝙳𝚊𝚜 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚣: 𝙱𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝙴𝚒𝚗𝚜

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑

𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚, 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚

Hours now past, the untoten have long gone and the camp lay still as the icy rain drips from the sky. All are dead and the horses that had not been eaten by the creatures have run away. A scene expected to be bloody is quite the opposite. The creatures, having not only fed on the bodies, have lapped up much of the blood that had pooled on the ground as well. As the sun begins to rise and push back the rain, a crow soars overhead. It lands on the body of Koza and begins to peck at him, scavenging on what it can from his open wounds. Suddenly, Koza's hand comes up and grabs the crow, throwing it to the side. It lets out a caw and flies off. Koza sits up in bearable pain, his eyes blur as he looks over one dead body after another and begins to remember he should be no different. He rises slowly to his feet and sees Thayer coming to him in a similarly frayed and dazed state.

They stand, simply glaring at one another. "What has happened? Are we alive?"

Koza says haggardly to his old friend, "I do not think so."

Thayer looks out at the dead, then back at Koza. "Then we are die Untoten."

With fatigued hesitation, "We are the Undead," Koza replies nodding in agreement.

A brief distance from them, they hear the sounds of struggle. With a bit of effort, Ermanno pushes carcasses of the untoten off of him. He gets up as if he has been through a rough night of tavern escapades. "It figures he came back," Thayer says in ill humor.

Koza looks to see if others are rising, but detects no such thing. He turns to Eber, who lies prone on the ground. Koza walks to him and lowers to a knee. He sees the wounds on Eber, the worst being a virtual slit on his throat from tearing nails clawing at what they could. He looks at the lifelessness in Eber's eyes. "I would have thought if anyone were to return from the dead, it would be him," Koza states.

Ermanno comes to Thayer who is watching Koza. "Maybe he is just playing possum, poke him," Ermanno gestures with a grin.

"I am not going to poke the Commander!" Koza snaps back to him.

Koza stands up and looks down at his fallen leader. "Should we bury him?" Thayer asks.

"I will find a shovel," Koza replies and slowly walks back to the two men.

Ermanno slaps his hands on his stomach and proclaims chipperly, "I am hungry."

Thayer and Koza equally turn their attention to him and ask, "For what?"

Not quite knowing himself, Ermanno glances around, finally resting his line of sight on a nearby body. He steps over to it and kneels down, picking up the dead man's arm in his hands. He lowers his mouth to it and just as he is about to take a bite, he notices Thayer and Koza staring at him. "What?!... I am the undead! I'm going to Hell anyway."

Thayer looks away and in that second, he grabs Koza's arm. "Mikhail!" the men turn to see Eber lifting himself to a sitting position. Slowly, he starts to get up but appears unsteady. The men watch as Eber's movements are more like the first untoter that came to the camp. "Commander?" Koza calls out. Eber stops moving without turning to face the men. Koza swallows forcefully, knowing that the Commander would not be nearly as easy to cut down as the first untoter was. "Eber?" the General turns and looks at the men. His eyes have an incoherent appearance as though he does not know who he is. In this moment, he is nothing more than a thoughtless creature of damnation. Steadily, Koza readies himself. "Men, I believe we are going to have to fight the Commander."