Wood splintered under a gloved armor hand. A knight emerged from behind the window. His helmet offered us no face to recognize, only a dark, emotionless metal gaze... but perhaps Sir James knew who had been behind it. I imagined he had the same look as the dead man I saw from the kitchen window, but there was no way to tell.
He moved inhumanely, as if he had no idea how his limbs worked. Yet with a swiftness unlike any human possessed. The dead Greer knight launched itself at Sir James who was positioned between it and the group. They matched each other in stature, large and burly men covered in armor.
The shadows of Rol Forest shrouded us in cover but the ivory moon betrayed us. Grass tickled my shins, and the fresh night air fluttered around my worn, thin dress. The glinting sword met with armor, quick and trained. The blow met the dead knight with such force that I imagined a gust of air between the two knights.
Still, it wasn't deterred. I knew nothing of swords, but I could tell anything else ---Anything human --- would have been thrown off its feet by Sir James' hit. Yet the dead knight was only pushed back, barely an inch. It barreled forward immediately after the slash, its hissing sound constant.
"Sir James!" Came Virtue's shrill yell, "There are more!"
I looked on petrified at the displays of raw strength unveiling before me. I tore my gaze away to look behind the fighting figures. She was right. My body went cold, the hair on my arm raising in alarm.
The second knight had crossed the threshold as well. This one was shorter, and black blood ran down every crevice of his armor. It ran down his chest plate in thick streams. He was of a thinner build than the one Sir James fought too.
I moved back, my back bumping into a tree. He was the boy who we had left outside to die.
I wanted to turn and run, but I felt as if I could not look away. Where armor didn't cover the dead knights, there were puncture wounds... which looked like bites. Black blood seeped from them, deep from the meat.
A rotting smell hit me as the other things followed, climbing over each other, bodies tangled as they struggled against each other to right themselves. These weren't knights. They were tradesmen from Somia: men who brought supplies into Greel from the town.
One was missing a hand, the slice clean cut. One's entrails followed in a bloody mess from a sword slash against its abdomen. The last's teeth had fallen out. All had the same vacant surprised expression on their face, the same purple bulging veins, the same color of blood, the same wheezing yells.
And they were all running towards us.
Sir James yelled as he pushed his longsword against the taller dead knight focused on him, "Scatter!"
I ran before the word had even left his mouth, the wind hitting my face. I ran into the thicket of forest behind us. The gargantuan trees welcomed me like a mouse flying for cover between a hole in the wall. I only hoped I was as safe there.
My blood pounded in my ears, hot and fast. I was running blind. I could hear footsteps behind me, twigs snapping, feet stepping in mud. I wasn't sure if it was the others or those things, but I didn't look back. I ran with hands out in front of me, and only the occasional moonlight that filtered through the tree branches led my way.
I hit trees. My fingers scratched up against bark. My hair tangled into leaves. My body was hot, sweat dripping down my forehead. My limbs felt cold. My breath fogged up into the air. My limited vision became tunneled. Just get past this tree. Now this one. Faster. Tear your gown loose from the branch.
The footsteps behind me dwindled, but one set remained. The putrid smell of rot and blood revealed it.
Not human. Not anymore.
I imagined being chased by a wolf. Then decided it was a bird of prey. That was easier to survive... but then I remembered I was a mouse.
My body slammed against lumber, knocking the wind out of me. I began to wheeze. The heavy footsteps slowed. The high walls of the camp that were meant to cage us in and protect us would be my reckoning. I turned over to my stomach and scrambled for the knife that had fallen to the soil beside me. Dirt caked under my fingernails as I gripped the weapon. I scrambled back on to my bum and pointed the sharp edge at it.
The boy knight stood still and quiet, no longer approaching. The cover of his helmet revealed nothing, but I knew what they looked like. I imagined wide eyes staring at me. The dark fabric of his uniform painted him a shadow against the woodland behind him.
I felt my words stutter, the wind still knocked from me. "Don't come closer. I'll kill you," I warned. I would. I'd try at least. My hands shook in front of me, my body betrayed. Even on the brink of death, I felt my pride bubbling up from inside me. How pathetic.
That thing extended a hand, and its head fell limply to the side as he began wheezing. His fingers reached in my direction.
"H-help me..." My blood froze. The words croaked from his breathless lungs, "Someb-body plea--seee."