What Heroes Don't Think About

8. wrecked and rotting, Part II

Lance Rock was an aptly-named, large pike of granite jutting out of the ground as if aiming for the sky. As the pair approached it, they noticed a few wooden signs in front. "DO NOT ENTER LEST YE BE STRICKEN WITH PLAGUE" said one, in barely-legible letters, seemingly carved into the signs with something sharp rather than painted with ink. Another said, "DO NOT ENTER THE DOMAIN OF OREISTE LORD OF LANCE ROCK."

The effect of the signs, ironically, was to alert Didi and Dominic to the fact that there was anything to "enter" in the first place. Lance Rock was solid and too small for anything human-sized to enter even had it been hollow. But there was a wider rock formation just ahead. The siblings shrugged wordlessly at each other and then went to investigate it. Sure enough, there was a hollow spot in between two large gray rocks, barely wide enough to squeeze through, but deep enough that the end wasn't visible.

"Well. I guess we start here," said Dominic.

It wasn't the most appealing path. They hadn't been expecting to go into a cave – they hadn't been trained to defend themselves in a place where their maneuverability would be so restricted. On top of that, the air inside was moist and smelled of decay.

"So. Who's going in first?" Didi asked.

"Not me!" said Dominic, touching his nose as he said it.

"Fine. I'll go. Chicken," said Didi. Dominic stuck his tongue out at her.

The cavern tunnel curved upward just far enough to make the rest of the tunnel invisible from the entrance, then turned down again. It also had the effect of blocking out the starlight, leaving the tunnel so dark that, even with Didi's elven eyes, she could see almost nothing. She plodded along with her hand against the mossy cave wall, feeling out the ground with each step like a cave monster finds its path with its antennae. It was almost a welcome relief when the cavern narrowed to the extent that Didi had to use her hands and knees to walk. It was easier to hold her balance that way, even if it wasn't so appealing to touch.

"Do you hear that? Someone's here," Dominic's whispered voice from behind her after a few minutes. Didi, who has been concentrating entirely on feeling out her path, stopped to listen.

A hum reverberated through the tunnels. It could have been wind or a long, throaty moan.

"That humming? That can't be a someone," Didi whispered. "People can't vocalize that long."

"A monster might be able to," Dominic reasoned.

Didi slowly got to her feet, feeling up the damp wall of the cavern as she rose so she didn't bump her head. Her legs felt wobbly. It was hard to orient herself. She turned her head back to see Dominic; limned by some very dim light. But, she realized, part of his outline was missing. The part where her shadow would have fallen over him. That meant the light source, whatever it was, lay ahead.

They went on. The hum soon grew louder. By the time they realized it was accompanied by another noise – slow, rhythmic footsteps, whatever other creature that dwell the cave had heard them, too. The tunnel curved, and the light – still dim–came into view. There was a draft from above; a hole in the top of the cave was letting in moonlight. And the moans turned to screeches as three figured came tumbling towards them, like angry drunks.

Didi's spear was out and plunging through the first creature's midsection before she had time to register what it was but, to her horror, impalement did not slow it: it came at her through the spear, leaving a trail of guts on the spear's handle behind it. She let go of the weapon and jumped back as graying hands came at her face. The other two creatures were charging at Dominic; he clubbed the first one with his staff and then began stirring the air to ready an attack on the next one. Didi turned back to her own assailant; it was half-moaning, half-gurgling and moving, though quickly, in an uncoordinated and awkward way, like a doll in a child's pretend game.

But other than that, it looked familiar.

Didi gasped: it was one of the adventurers Kaylessa has hired to investigate this place, the green-eyed boy.

"You!" Didi said, reaching for the magic with which to infuse her words at the same time as she reached for an insult. "You're... not as cute as you used to be!"

It definitely wasn't the wittiest insult Didi had ever come up with, but with the magic, it seemed to bother the zombie. It moaned as if in retort and lunged at her. Instead of jumping back, Didi dove past it, got behind, and grabbed her spear – it was slick with zombie guts. She gripped it tightly and pushed down on it, dropping into a squat as well. The dull side flew up and hit the zombie in the face, knocking it off balance. In the outer frame of her vision, the zombies crowding around Dominic slowed to a stop as the water in their cells froze.

Didi's zombie foe tried to pivot around and lunge at her, but couldn't maneuver around the spear. It groaned and stupidly tried to break free but, like a cat with a stuck claw, could not figure out that flailing thoughtlessly would not free it. Didi helped it out by leaping back with a firm grip on the spear; it came loose, and the zombie, now lacking the scaffolding necessary to hold itself upright, collapsed into a groaning heap.

Didi wiped her spear on the rock, examining the zombie, which was twitching, but apparently unable to standing. She was hit with pangs of sympathy, not for the zombie but for the boy the zombie had once been. She didn't know how to "kill" a zombie, but it didn't seem right to leave him like this. She looked over at Dominic; he was the wizard and might know something of how to counter necromancy. His own zombie foes were still frozen stiff. But Dominic was hunched over, heaving.

All concern for the zombie lost, Didi ran over to him. She got there just in time for him to vomit on the cave floor.

"Are you all right?" Didi asked him. She let him lean on her for a second to steady himself, but he soon pushed himself off to lean against the cave wall instead.

"Yeah," he moaned. "Just... grossed out."

"Since when are you squeamish?"

He didn't answer, just continued to gasp for air. His deep breathing was ineffective; the cave air was damp and thick with the smell of death.

"Maybe you were stricken with plague," Didi thought aloud, recalling the warning sign outside the cave.

Dominic shook his head slightly. "I don't think so. I think it's just the smell."

"Let's hope," said Didi. When Dominic seemed to have gotten his bearings, she said, "Dominic, I recognized one of those zombies. He was one of the freelancers Kaylessa hired to investigate this place."

"Hmm," said Dominic, with a final huff, before he pushed himself back upright. "Mystery solved then, I guess. She paid them an advance, didn't they? Maybe they still have the cash on them."

Didi looked back at the zombies Dominic had frozen. She was not surprised to see that their bodies had once belonged to the green-eyed man's companions. "What we can get off their bodies is the least of our worries," said Didi. "We should be more worried about whatever did this to them."

"Why?" asked Dominic. He glanced about the cave. "No one offered us money to figure out who's here. We should just get out and hope we don't meet them."

"But doesn't it seem like the right thing to do? At least three innocent men were murdered." There had been five originally, Didi remembered. She specifically remembered the boy with the braids, and noted that he was not among these zombies. "The other two might still be alive."

"What if they aren't?" said Dominic. "What if there actually is a plague down here that kills you and turns you into a zombie and they caught it?"

Didi blanched. "There's a such thing?"

"I don't know; maybe! I've heard of weirder things before!"

"Well, if there is a plague, we've both probably caught it, so it would be really irresponsible to go back to Red Larch anyway. We could infect the whole town."

Dominic couldn't argue with that, so he sighed and stepped away from the cave wall. "Fine," he muttered. "I just... really don't like zombies."

A/N: Sorry for the really abrupt chapter break. Part 3 coming soon.