Guild Of Zeroes

Chapter 18

Mouse and Quin lifted me to my feet, dragging me through the mud towards the tree line. My body ran, but my mind was lagging. It was still lying in the mud, dying next to Hawk. The world was over. Hope was dead. There was no coming back from this. There was no fighting Wraith. There was no winning here. My mind finally caught up to the rest of me. All we could do was run, so we did.

The dead legion came after us, struggling through the dense underbrush.

I pointed into the deep shadows between the trees. "Follow me," I panted. "We need to get off the trail."

I slipped into the brush, vanishing into the mass of leaves and branches.

"Are you crazy?" Mouse asked. "We'll never outrun them through this shit."

"No time to argue," said Quin. "When we're fighting in a library you can lead. For now, we listen to Parsnip."

Mouse grumbled but followed me into the woods and I led us on a winding route past the worst of the undergrowth, pushing steadily towards the river.

"Won't they track us through this?" said Mouse.

"Do you really think they have brains to track us?" said Quin.

"Noted."

"Quiet," I said. "I'm pretty sure they can hear."

The first of the legion stumbled into the forest behind us. They were bad soldiers, but worse Rangers. The corpses floundered in the rough terrain and tangled themselves around everything. Some smarter soldiers followed them, ordering their dumber fellows to back up and hack their way through the forest. I turned my attention back to the road ahead of us, putting the dead out of my mind, ignoring the fire lancing through my leg, pushing myself past my burning lungs, and I kept pushing. As long as I stayed focused on finding the river, on putting one foot in front of the other, my mind wouldn't wander the road it wanted to. It wouldn't tumble into the dark.

As long as I had a job to do, I couldn't think about Hawk. Right now that job was keeping everyone else alive. No one else was dying tonight.

We worked through the night, staying one step ahead of the corpses and burst through the trees and into the shallows of the river.

I turned and gave the press of trees a satisfied smile. The forest was still and the crash rusted blades on wood was far away. "See, Mouse? I told you they couldn't track us."

Mouse pointed past me. "No, but they can walk down a straight trail."

"Gods damn it all to hell," I said. The dead had beat us to the boats and were straggling out of the forest in ones and twos.

"Less swearing, more planning," said Quin. "Move! We need to hit them before they can spread out. Use that narrow path to funnel them in."

I had nothing left to give. Every breath was like sucking down a lung full of flames and my entire body was one solid knot of cramping muscles. But the only way out was through the corpses and into the boats. We charged. Quin hit the enemy lines first, smashing into them like a battering ram and felling three corpses before they could react. Mouse and I flowed into the gaps beating and slashing at anything that got past Quin. I parried high, and stuck low, cutting the legs out from under the undead warrior in front of me. There was no time for a finishing blow. I was caught in the rush of battle now. Dancing to the discordant beat of my heart hammering in my chest and the shrieking notes of the adrenaline rushing through my veins. Hawk's sword was longer and more delicate than I was used to and I fought with it like a drunken oaf, crashing and hammering the blade into everything in front of me.

"Someone get the boat ready!" Quin shouted.

One of the dead hooked a war axe over my blade and wrenched it down, breaking my guard. I tore my dagger from its sheath and drove it through the corpse's eye. "Little busy here!"