Run Like Hell

by Elliott Kay

  Only a handful of zombies remained, all of them up near the rest of the crew. Scars and War Cloud put them down quickly. Teryn stepped in with her sword again, saving her arrows now that the bulk of the enemy had been put down. DigDig helped Shady Tooth to her feet.

  Behind them, stunned and charred zombie survivors of Yargol’s lightning stirred once more. They moved even slower now, many of them missing limbs, but the threat remained. Others approached from farther back along the passage. “Boss,” DigDig warned. “Gotta go.”

  “Right. Push through,” said Scars. “Let’s move!”

  Scars led by example, swatting aside charred and stunned zombies with Teryn beside him. War Cloud got his arm around Shady Tooth to follow. Free of burdens and able to duck around their remaining enemies, DigDig found the energy for a sprint down the hallway. Someone had to get to Yargol.

  The firebats hadn’t caught every zombie. A shambling goblin and a dwarf missing one arm hovered over the cart. A flaming icicle shot out of the cart, catching the goblin at the shoulder but seeming to do little harm. The dwarf swung in with its one good fist to slam Yargol down. The goblin zombie climbed up onto the front of the cart.

  “No, no!” DigDig yelled, if only to distract them. He couldn’t break their focus until he came in at the dwarf with a full charge, raising his shovel raised like a spear. DigDig embedded the head of his shovel in the dwarf’s neck, decayed flesh yielding to its dulled edge. The collision brought them both down on the stone-tiled floor. It also brought the undead goblin off the cart.

  DigDig couldn’t wrench his weapon free. The remaining zombie loomed over him.

  Fire arced out of the cart, trailing from Yargol’s hands as he leaped out to grab the goblin by the shoulder. His hood fell back while in flight, revealing a bugbear’s feline nose under mismatched eyes, one goblin and the other a hobgoblin’s. Stitches all across his face marked the borders of sharply different tones of grey and green in his skin. The image lasted only a split second as Yargol’s weight took the zombie goblin down almost on top of him. DigDig abandoned his shovel to pull Yargol away. He kicked the burning zombie aside to get them both clear.

  “You alright?” asked DigDig.

  Yargol pulled his hood over his head again. “I’ll manage.”

  “No time, let’s move,” said Scars. The big warrior hardly slowed as he swept Yargol up off the floor. DigDig forced himself to his feet, glancing backward only once. The sight of more bodies still in pursuit gave him the push to continue.

  Nothing more blocked their path to the end of the passage. The exit lay clear but for a cart waiting at the bottom and an overturned shelf along one side. Another archway opened out into darkness beyond. “Bridge is on the other side,” said DigDig, gasping for breath. “Wood bridge to mines. Cut through there to the trade post. Safest way.”

  “War Cloud?” asked Scars.

  “I don’t sense anything ahead of us,” answered the gnoll. “Only behind us. And to the sides.”

  “Path to right is broader, but goes through more ruins,” DigDig agreed. “More bodies. Path to left is collapsed.”

  “The bridge it is, then,” Scars decided.

  The archway opened into a cavern, where the floor ran only another twenty feet before dropping out into a deep chasm going left and right. As DigDig said, stone walkways paralleled the chasm to either direction, but to the left the floor had given out not far from the archway.

  A wooden bridge offered a path straight ahead across the chasm, spanning fifty feet and leading to another archway and another tunnel. Little in the way of safety rails lined the bridge. Age had left some of its planks thin and others with gaps. “Stay along the nails,” DigDig warned. “Nails mean support from below. Middle might not hold up for you big ones.”

  “And it’s thin enough to burn in our wake,” said Teryn.

  “You share my thoughts,” said Scars. “Let’s go. Walk across in a staggered—”

  “Wait,” said War Cloud. “There’s something on the other side.”

  “We don’t have a lot of time to wait,” noted Shady Tooth. “We’re still being chased.”

  “No, something is moving in there,” said Yargol. He whispered a word no one recognized, reaching out into the air with one hand. A ball of pale light floated from his palm to hang in the air over the other side of the bridge.

  A lone figure stepped out from the darkened tunnel on the other side in the armor of an elven warrior. Chalk white hair hung from his equally pale head. His eyes glowed with a foreboding red light, while his face seemed to have decayed into a permanent expression of malevolence. For all the ancient age of everything else in the lower levels, including the walking corpse himself, his blade and shield looked perfectly functional.

  “He’s alone,” Scars sighed. His annoyance matched his fatigue. “What makes him special?”

  “That’s a wight,” said War Cloud. “A fallen warrior corrupted in death. More powerful that the rest.”

  “Come for me, little monsters,” beckoned the foe on the other side of the bridge. “It’s been so long since I had a visit from the living.”

  “He’ll be unharmed by ordinary weapons, too,” said Yargol. “Anything but silver and magic.” Though exhausted, the magician rallied his strength to hurl an Icefire Dagger across the chasm. The wight merely blocked it with his shield.

  While his missile was still in flight, Teryn had her bow up and ready. She aimed low at her foe in anticipation of the move with his shield. Her arrow flew faster than the ice, plunging through the wight’s armor just over his hip. The wight hissed in pain and anger, stepping back with a renewed glare across the chasm. When Teryn’s second silvered arrow came in, he was ready for it. The shaft broke against his shield.

  “Tell me this is not all you have,” the wight taunted.

  “It’s not,” War Cloud said almost under his breath. “I can take him.”

  “Maybe we can’t hurt him, but we can all pitch him off the bridge,” Scars considered.

  “Touching him will drain your life. I can hurt him,” said War Cloud. “I can do this.”

  Scars hesitated. Behind him, Yargol and Teryn shot again to little effect. The wight stepped onto the bridge, seemingly tired of waiting. Scars nodded. “Go.”

  War Cloud ventured out under cover from magical fire and well-aimed arrows. Teryn caught the wight in the shoulder over his shield, but the arrow only tore through the flesh and fell away. The wight seemed more angered than hurt.

  “Step close to the nails!” DigDig warned as War Cloud charged in.

  The wight met War Cloud’s charge by rushing in with his shield. Crashing together at the center of the bridge, the wight attempted to swing his blade around his own shield to catch War Cloud in the back. Supernatural or not, his attack faltered against the gnoll’s might. War Cloud pushed his enemy back several feet before they broke off again. Swords clashed as the fight opened up. Every thrust and swing struck against a well-timed parry.

  “Gotta help him,” DigDig thought out loud.

  “There’s no room for more than one,” said Yargol. “Even this is dangerous.”

  “We can buy time for him and for us,” Scars decided. “Teryn. Help me out.” He stepped back into the tunnel to wrap his hands around the old shelves. Grunting with effort, Scars pulled one great wooden shelf down to block their path. The zombies coming up the passage howled with frustration and rage. Teryn saw what he meant to do and quickly came to his aid with the other shelf.

  “Shady Tooth?” asked Yargol. “What about you?”

  “It’s getting better,” she fumed. Though bugbear tried to roll her shoulders, her muscles were still too stiff from the touch of the ghouls. “But not fast enough.”

  On the bridge, War Cloud hammered away at his enemy. Size and strength proved critical as usual in such battles. The wight continued to give ground, getting more use from his shield than his sword, but the battle was still undecided. A moment of overextension left War Cloud
open for a stab at his thigh. The wight’s blade cut deep, but War Cloud fought on.

  “Gotta help,” DigDig decided.

  Shady Tooth caught him by the shoulder before he made it another step. “You have no magic and there’s no room. You’d only be underfoot.”

  DigDig’s eyes widened. “Right!” He slipped free of Shady Tooth’s grasp, but didn’t rush out onto the bridge. Ignoring her calls and Yargol’s, DigDig slipped through the first gap in the wooden planks.

  With plenty of framework under the bridge, DigDig quickly worked his way across with deft hands and more than one dangerous jump. In moments, he heard the fight moving along over his head. Their shadows passed through gaps and holes in the planks.

  “Are you tiring, beast?” he heard the wight ask. “I never tire anymore. Never sleep. Nor shall you once you serve me in death.”

  War Cloud kept coming. DigDig saw him move through cracks in the wood. He jumped over one last gap in the support frame, catching himself on a beam that gave with a terrifying creak. Undaunted, DigDig reached for the next beam and pulled himself up, closer to the top now, close enough to feel the bridge shudder with every footstep and every clash of War Cloud’s blade upon the wight’s shield.

  “Not such mighty blows now,” the wight chuckled.

  “Shut your hole!” War Cloud shouted, bringing down another brutal strike. Again, the wight deflected it with the shield.

  DigDig punched through the weak bridge plank behind the wight. He grabbed the wight’s ankle and held on for dear life.

  War Cloud’s blade came in from above once more, slamming into the shield of a foe who could no longer keep his balance. The wight fell onto his back. With the boot wrenched free from DigDig’s hand, the goblin could only snatch his arm under the bridge again and hang on. His perch felt more precarious than ever.

  He heard a ferocious roar from War Cloud. The bridge shuddered with a final blow from his sword as he ran it through both the wight and the plank beneath it. The blade stuck through wood and undead flesh with the fierce, golden glow of a god’s blessing. DigDig stared at the light in shock. In another breath, the light faded away.

  Bridge planks sagged around the wight’s body. The sword jerked back halfway, then sank a little as the body pushed deeper and the planks sagged more. War Cloud wrenched his sword free only at the cost of shoving the wight’s body against the bridge. The wight smashed through both the planks and the weakened supports beneath it, putting DigDig’s heart in his throat. The whole bridge shook as the defeated foe took out even more old supports on his way down into the shadows below.

  “DigDig?” War Cloud called. “Where are you?”

  “Go!” DigDig hollered. He heaved himself up over one beam, reached for another—and then spotted a rickety vertical beam freed from any horizontal support now that the adjoining wood had been smashed. DigDig grabbed at the beam to hold it steady. “Go now! Everybody go! I’ve got this! Go!”

  “Move!” War Cloud urged.

  Heavy footsteps shook the bridge. Bits of wood and other debris fell from the edges. Support pieces broke away. DigDig hung on, looking up and counting the passing shadows of his friends. He saw Teryn, then Shady Tooth, then Yargol. The bridge shook worst for Scars.

  DigDig clung to the loose beam, refusing to let go. His strength held out, but the beam did not. It cracked and split over his head.

  Heavy boots fell through the wood as the last planks fell away. “Scars!” shouted War Cloud. DigDig thought Scars might fall straight past him, but his descent ended with a sudden jerk. War Cloud loomed over him, clutching Scars by the arm with both hands. He heaved back as more of the bridge crumbled away.

  “Hold this! Hold tight!” he heard Teryn shout. DigDig hardly listened, figuring they all had Scars now. He had to take care of himself. Frantically, DigDig looked for somewhere else he might grab on, but the cavern wall was too far out of reach. His perch broke in half, leaving him clinging to a vertical beam that felt less stable with every rapid beat of his heart.

  He looked up. Scars surmounted the ledge, pulled over by War Cloud’s strong arms. Yargol’s magical light still floated above, shining right in DigDig’s eyes and making him wince. A shadow suddenly appeared in his vision, blocking much of the light, descending toward him at speed and then suddenly rushing to his side. The vertical beam snapped under the added weight of a body wrapping itself around him, but as they fell they swung down against the cavern wall.

  “I’ve got you,” said Teryn. The fall stopped as suddenly as it began. “I’ve got you.”

  “Huh? What?” DigDig grunted. Teryn got her feet against the wall before he knew it, providing a little stability and a moment to think for both of them. “Can climb on my own now,” he said. “Just couldn’t reach.”

  “That’s fine,” she said. She pulled them up along the rope, going hand over hand and stepping upward like she’d done this a hundred times. He could hear the nervous note on her breath, or maybe he heard it passing, but her skill was obvious. She couldn’t have done this without some measure of practice. “I’ve got it. We can climb together.”

  The rope started moving on its own, too. Strong arms pulled them up before DigDig could break away and find his own handholds. Scars and War Cloud dragged them over the side before staggering back to catch their breath. Crawling to his hands and knees on the ledge, DigDig saw Teryn’s anchor: the bugbear who still leaned against the wall where she’d braced herself this whole time.

  “Why?” Shady Tooth breathed.

  “Huh?” wondered DigDig.

  She shook her head. “Not you. You’re fine. I get you.” She pointed her finger at Teryn, who was right beside DigDig on her hands and knees, trying to catch her breath just like him. “You. Why? Why’d you do that?”

  “Why’d I do what?” asked Teryn.

  “He already told us the way out. You’re human. Why’d you jump down there for a goblin?”

  Teryn frowned and winced as if she’d been confronted with a trick question. She shrugged. “He’s part of the crew.”

  Chapter Eight

  They sat in darkness without making a sound. Even without light to illuminate the chamber, the shift in their surroundings couldn’t be missed. Behind them stood an archway into mining tunnels traversed over more than an hour. Beneath them lay the flat surface of a smoothly-carved floor. Ahead, broad steps disappeared beyond anyone’s vision, be they accustomed to shadows or not.

  The air was deathly still down here. Still and vast.

  Scars looked from one companion to the next. Shady Tooth crouched with her ears perked up but shook her head. She heard nothing. War Cloud mirrored the motion; he sensed no undead. Yargol made no warning of anything he might detect. Essentially blind in the darkness, Teryn could only wait on the others.

  That left only their guide. Scars put one hand on DigDig’s shoulder, asking with the quietest whisper he could manage: “You’re sure?”

  DigDig gave a little shrug. “Same as last time. Dead stayed dead last time, though.”

  It was all the certainty Scars could expect. After all they’d been through, he preferred caution to assurance. They’d seen and heard nothing after several minutes of listening. No one sensitive to magic or the undead sensed any danger. At some point, they had to take the risk.

  “Alright,” murmured Scars. He pulled a glowstone from his pouch. Rather than keeping it close, he cast it off the stairway and into the darkness.

  The glowstone seemed utterly alone in its descent at first, like a star falling through the night sky with no others in reach. Eyes used to shadows quickly made use of the light, though, making out the distant walls and high ceiling of the chamber before the glowstone came to land. It sat alone amid a broad floor littered with debris.

  Nothing moved. The clatter of the glowstone set off no other sounds. With the light now still, Scars and his companions recognized the debris as carts, crates, barrels, and tables, some overturned and some smashed. Countless ancient s
keletons laid everywhere, still dressed in the remains of the clothes and armor they wore when they died.

  Light from the glowstone barely reached the wall of the cave to the left of their spot on the stairwell landing. To the right, they could make out the façades of dwarven structures carved into the cavern walls, towering over the floor. Ahead, across the broad, untended graveyard, rose a set of enormous doors.

  Slowly, Shady Tooth shook her head again. “Nothing.”

  “How long do you want to wait?” murmured War Cloud.

  “Suppose we have to take the risk sooner or later,” Scars conceded. “Teryn? Is this enough light for you?”

  “Not really,” she whispered. “Sorry. It’s like this cave swallows the light before it touches anything. I can see down around the stone, but not much else.”

  “Carrying a glowstone will make us targets for anything that might wait down there,” said Shady Tooth. Her voice lacked its usual note of complaint. “Should I move ahead first?”

  “No,” Scars decided. “Like I said, we have to take the risk. Better if we do it together. Let’s move out.”

  DigDig lit the way, carrying a glowstone low in his left hand and a dagger in his right. The stairs broke and turned at landings twice before they reached the bottom. At the lower landing, they came across goblin bones strewn within the skeleton of a dwarf, having died together in a tangle of blades and never separated again. The mess at the bottom was far worse, with remains scattered all around the base of the steps.

  “The dwarves made one hell of a fight for the stairs,” said Shady Tooth.

  “Bunch of last stands around here,” said DigDig. “Barricades all over the trading post. Lots of bodies by the main doors, too. Maybe the most of all there.” He led the group around the stairs to the broad, open plaza, working his way through the debris and the deceased with careful steps. Though any undead surely would have risen by now, DigDig clearly didn’t want to push it by touching anything. No one needed to be told to follow his example.