Rune of Oldfyre

Chapter Nine

He collapsed to the ground. A bladed chain shoot back towards the origin of the bolt. I could hear a wet *thunk* and a yelp of pain before the chain shot back into the sleeve, now a bit more blood soaked. We ran over to Al's  sprawling body, blood flowing from the wound. He wasn't going to make it.

"NO!'' Anya cried. I thought the same.

"Who did this?" I asked.

"One of the villagers. He's been following us since we left town." The Stranger replied.

"How long did you know?" Anya aimed at him.

"Since we left town." He answered. Already having done this same conversation a thousand times before.

"And you let him kill Allister." She said, sounding more pissed off than all the other times I've seen her pissed off combined.

"I didn't have a choice, I AM DEATH. I can't prevent it. It's against my nature." He defended.

"Why didn't you kill him sooner?" I asked, hoping to sound reasonable.

"I didn't think he was a threat."

"He had a CROSSBOW!" Anya yelled.

"I didn't know." He said.

Anya began to walk towards him, ready to punch him in the throat. I put myself in between them.

"You're DEATH," I said, as calmly as I could, "Can't you do something?"

Without saying anything he walked over to Alister's  body. He leaned down close and placed his hand on Al's face. He lifted his head up and took a deep breath. I could see the glow in his eyes dim ever so slightly. He then got up and silently walked into the dense fog that surrounded us. We stood for minutes, Anya holding onto my shoulder.

We heard a yell from where Allister had fallen.

"Ouch, Fuck!" He screamed, his voice now a bit more raspy.

"You're alive!" Anya yelled, nearly falling to the ground to hug him.

"I don't think 'alive' is the appropriate term." He said. "I think I'm undead."

"Allister Smythe, Undead." I said, motioning my hands like I was showing the words on a sign. "Nice ring to it."

"Fuck off." He said, pulling the bolt from his chest.

I've seen zombies before. There was an encampment of them near the village I grew up in. A bunch of children would go there and we'd throw rotten vegetables at them. That it's until one of them ate the torso of one of the vegetable throwers. After that, we weren't allowed to go there and throw vegetables without adult supervision, which ruined the whole game.

"What's it feel like to be dead?" I asked.

"Weird. I don't feel my heartbeat. I have an insatiable hunger for flesh. And I may have become left handed." He answered.

"Cool." Anya and I said together.