Courage and Sacrifice I

Mena

"The undead; there are so many of them," said Alva, looking outside from the small gap in the window.

"Alva, get away from the window; it is dangerous," I said to the young girl. "A minute more. Sister Mena. I want to see Sister Barb, once again," said the young girl, with eyes shining.

I am still having a hard time, believing what I saw, not long ago.

A few minutes ago, a group of undead had gathered and were coming toward us. Fear filled our hearts, and I had even taken out the crystal bombs; ready to throw at them when suddenly, Barb came running.

She went straight toward the undead while Alva and I shouted at her to stop. Fearing she would die.

Even with the sword in her hand. She was no match for the group of undead, she was running toward.

It was then she did the most shocking thing possible. 

She breathed out a huge plume of fire that enveloped all undead and burned them. It was a shocking scene; that I would never be able to forget in my life.

I was in my thoughts when I saw the little one in front of me move. She began shaking like she was having a nightmare.

I hesitated for a moment before placing my hand gently on her head. It seemed to help her, and the shaking stopped.

I am at an orphanage. There are two of us girls and three carers, along with twenty-nine children aged two to nine. 

I grew up at an orphanage since I was five, and it was a horrible-horrible place. Things happened there, that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It is that orphanage; that sold me to a brothel. 

"Miss Mena, will undead attack us?" asked Karja, a middle-aged woman worriedly.

It is not the first time; the carer has asked the question. Everybody is worried, especially since the guards around the orphanage left to fight the undead.

"I don't know," I replied and turned to the children.

The carers have skills that have made the little ones sleep, but many older ones are awake. They didn't say anything; at most, they would talk in whispers with each other and stare at the elders.

It is really dangerous outside; the undead are roaming everywhere, while guards and volunteers run around killing them.

A few times, we saw mages, or rather spells appearing and wiping out the undead. Till now we have been lucky. No undead have attacked us, but I fear we won't be able to be lucky forever.

Undead might attack us, and we would be powerless to do anything against them.

I really wish I had learned fire breathing when Barb asked me and others, but we simply rolled our eyes at her. If I had, I might have been able to do something against them.

I shook those thoughts as they came. I have no interest in a dangerous thing like fire breathing. Even if I tried learning it; I would have failed. Worse, I would have maimed myself.

"Gasp!"

I was in my thoughts when I heard the gasp from the young girl and feared something worse.

"What happened?" I asked and moved toward her. 

"Fang," it is all she said. 

Her answer confused me and put my face beside her to see through a small gap. For a second, I saw nothing, before I saw a cute little white thing among the undead.

Fang appeared behind the skeleton, and I was about to shout at him when the familiar claw of dark blue energy came out of his real claw and he swiped it across the neck of the skeleton, decapitating it.

"His claws seemed to have become longer," said Alva, and I nodded.

Fang is a good boy and if he is in a good mood. He will show you the energy claws if you ask nicely. Those claws are extremely sharp; I had not seen anything; he hadn't cut smoothly with them.

Now, the energy claws have become longer.

The skeleton fell down, and I thought he would move toward another undead, but he went toward the skull of the skeleton and sucked out the fire from its eyes. 

"Did he just eat that?" asked Alva and all I could do was nod at his strange action.

I thought it would be a one-off event, but no. He went to the other skeletons and ate the fire from their eyes, till he finished all the skeletons and turned to the zombies.

He didn't do strange things with zombies as he did with skeletons. He just straight up, decapitated them.

Soon, all the undead around us were killed, and I saw him turning his little head toward us, before running away with his little legs until he disappeared from our eyes.

"First it is Sister Barb and now Fang. Strange things are happening through the night, good things," said Alva. 

I smiled and walked back to the children while the young girl remained at the window.

An hour passed, and Fang had made another trip; killing undead that once again gathered in front before leaving.

Now, the undead once again gathered in the front and they are moving around. Till now, they haven't attacked us, preferring going to places where there are more people.

This small have two hundred thousand people. They are in buildings and tents. Protecting them are a thousand guards and volunteers who had never fought in the battle.

I don't know how many undead had breached the area, but their numbers should be in the thousands, seeing how they kept appearing, even after being constantly killed.

Hun!

I was thinking that when the group of guards arrived and killed the undead, while I watched in silence.

I wanted to do something, but I couldn't. I am powerless. 

The guards were good, and they wiped out the undead before moving away. It didn't take long for the undead to appear again.

"You should sleep, Alva. When you wake up, everything will be better," I said to the young girl. Everybody had fallen asleep, even the carers.

"Soon," said the young girl and turned back to the window.

I didn't press her. I am quite impressed with the young girl; many in her place would have slept or not decided to look at the horror outside. 

Gasp!

I was in my thoughts when I heard the gasp from her. The moment I heard it; I knew it was bad; the horror in it was clear as the day.

"What happened?" I asked as I moved toward her.

She didn't answer, nor did she need to. I reached her quickly and saw what she was seeing, and it chilled my heart with horror.

"Everybody, wake up!" I said shoulder, immediately waking up the carers and the children.

"What happened, Miss Mena?" I asked Karga. I wanted to lie, seeing the children looking with muted fear in their eyes, but went with the truth.

"A large group of undead had appeared," I replied, before turning back to the window and saw over a hundred undead appearing in a small and the big group.

There were undead before, but their numbers have never reached over twenty, but now there are over a hundred of them.

I watched them with bated breath and wished they didn't come toward us.

Seconds passed painfully as I watched the undead take step after step and was relieved to see them going straight. 

Hun!

The relief didn't last long. One group among the undead turned and to my utter horror. They are coming directly at us.

"Get away from the window!" I said to Alva, and the young girl listened without any resistance.

Though, before leaving the window; she opened it a little. So. We could see what was happening outside from the distance.

"Everybody at the door," I instructed. 

This is a single-floor small building; it used to be a small store and thank god for that. There are two doors here, one in the front and the other in the back.

Everybody listened, and we moved toward the back door. Picking the small children in our arms, who are watching the horrified faces of adults with their innocent eyes.

A little blond girl in my arms tried to look toward the window, but I gently turned her head away. The little girl didn't resist and put her head on my shoulder. I gave her a gentle peck and turned to the window.

"They are c..coming," said Gensa, shaking in fear.

She is not the only one; I found myself shaking in fear, too, as I saw the undead coming closer to us. I wished they wouldn't, but they were coming toward us.

There are barely a hundred meters between them and the building.

Raa Raa Raa

They came so close that we started to hear their strange scary sound, which scared the people even more. 

These children are brave, not a single one screamed or cried. They just watched silently.

It is not the same for the adults. 

Ahhhh!

Norla screamed. I immediately activated the Privacy Circle. I don't want the undead to hear us.

Though from what I have been informed. It is not the noise that attracts them, but the life itself. The more people there are, the greater life-signatures it would produce and will attract more undead.

Thud Thud Thud!

The zombies reached the building and started to hit the wall of the building hard, while the woman screamed again.

I glared at the woman, but she didn't stop. Karga had to forcefully close her mouth with her hand to stop her from screaming.

I didn't blame the woman. Even I wanted to scream, but I did not. There are children around us.

These things will give them nightmares for months and years to come.

Khik!

The undead kept hitting the wall, till one of them hit the door and the ax pierced through it.

Thud!

It hit again, and another hole appeared. We were watching that when the brick fell down. 

The people around me started to scream. It filled my heart, but I forcefully controlled my emotions.

I need to remain sane.

"We can't stay here. It won't take long for the undead to break through the wall." I said, looking at bricks falling, and the door being torn apart.

Click!

"Where would we go?" asked Karga. 

Click!

"I don't know, but staying here would be waiting to be killed by the undead," I replied and turned to the door before opening it.

There was only a moment of hesitation before others nodded and began to walk out of the door. They understand very well that staying in the building is waiting for the undead to kill them.

I don't want that; nobody wants that.