Urban Dead: The Price of the Oath

[Josh]

"You may be right," he said wonderingly. "Maybe. It would be irrational to get our hopes up, though."

[Caz]

"Well it's too early to be sure," she said contemplatively. "Joints are full of fluid because they have to stay lubricated to work. They can freeze just like pipes in a heater or a transmission, but even if a person's got hypothermia their body temperature stays far above freezing."

Zombies, however, were even more prone to the elements than reptiles.

"And they can die by heat..." She said.

[Josh]

"Fire and ice," he said musingly. "It's almost poetic."

[Caz]

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire." she mused.

[Josh]

"Frost, right?" he asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

[Caz]

She nodded, then finished the verse in a light, almost sing-song tone:

"But if I had to perish twice
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."

[Josh]

"Charming," he said. "For my own part, I'd just rather it didn't end."

[Caz]

"Well you have to admit we're a bit more resourceful than Frost," she said.

She then said: "If you'd like, I'll take a few down to the trenches and see how the cold's affecting them."

[Josh]

"Let's go now," he said, gesturing toward the elevator. "I'm curious to see this myself. It could change everything."

[Caz]

"Sounds like a plan," Melanie said with a grin, glad to be doing something productive once again. She whistled to the militiamen on the roof, asked if they could borrow a flashlight or two, then thanked the man as he handed two over. She tossed one to Zimmerman.

[Josh]

He caught the flashlight and mounted the elevator. They were cranked down to the ground, and he started trudging forward, shifting his jacket so his pistol was in easy reach. Even in a 'clear zone', one didn't walk around outside blithely.

[Caz]

She followed slightly behind and to the right of him, so as to be able to aim over his shoulder in case something arose. The cold was already affecting their own movements: her steps were slower, more measured than usual.

As they approached the trench, she noticed one thing first: it was quiet.

[Josh]

He cautiously approached the trench, shining the flashlight down into it over the dismembered zombies.

[Caz]

In the light, the movement was still apparent, but the chattering and groaning that usually accompanied it was quieted.

"They're slower," she said matter-of-factly. "Looks like they're freezing up."

She chanced to bend down for a closer look.

"Some of 'em haven't moved at all... The snow's undisturbed over here and here..."

[Josh]

He'd been holding his breath. It came out in a big puffy burst of condensation as he carefully walked down the entryway into the trench. "Thank god," he said finally. "Thank god."

[Caz]

Melanie smiled, bright and infectuous. She let out a tiny whoop of excitement and threw her arms around him in a moment of unbridled joy thanks to the simple release of tension.

"We can do this," she said with conviction, "we're gonna beat 'em."

[Josh]

And an unprecedented event occurred, at least for recent times. He grinned, widely and brightly for a long moment, staring at the frozen limbs.

Then, back to business, he pulled away. "Punt and Decimus need to know about this."

[Caz]

She nodded, momentarily forgetting what she and Punt had discussed in the excitement of their recent discovery.

"Right," she said.

[Josh]

He started back up out of the trench and toward the elevator, the only evidence of his exuberance in a slightly quicker stride.

[Caz]

As soon as the snow had begun, she'd fallen entirely silent. Not even coughing. Gwen leaned against the brick wall, still wrapped in the survival blanket as well as Petro's coat-pancho-thing. She shuddered every few minutes, her body's last-ditch effort to save itself from both the cold and her fever.

"H-head hunter," she whispered into the radio, "the explosions s-seem to have died down... I duh-dont know what happened at your mall... B-but I can't see any further than to say they blew a lot of shit up."

She waited for a response.

There was nothing.

Gwen closed her eyes, clenching her hands into tight fists around the radio handset. She tried again.

"This is Trouble... Anyone read me...?"

And again, nothing.

[Josh]

"Trouble, this is post 4. We're reading you. Stand by, we're going to see if we can get permission to extract you. The horde's been stopped for a little while. What's your position, exactly?"

[Caz]

"I d-dont know," she said, her voice barely audible above the wind. She hadn't known where she was even before the snow. Now she was entirely disoriented. At least she was past the point of feeling cold.

"Sorry I d-didn't see more," she transmitted. "I've b-been sick..."

[Cynical Cat]

The cold was good. It preserved the meat. He had made a good harvest, stringing the bodies up on wire and chains. He had turned the block into his own fortress. Chains and cables connected buildings above the reach of clumsy zombies. Improvised barricades controlled access. A leader could figure it out, could muster enough shamblers to storm his defences, but there was no human meat here. Nothing worth it.

He had scavenged blankets and heavier clothes. The plentiful food helped too. He remembered more when he ate. And maybe speaking helped too. Sparked human things buried deep in his brain. He had fire now, could keep warm and cook the flesh into something that tasted better. He remembered condiments. Mustard, salt, pepper, ketchup, barbeque sauce and the like were rather low on the looter priority list. He was beginning to experiment with cookings.

Wendigo Reaper stood on the top of the dilapitated building and surveyed his domain. He could see the mall in the distance. He smiled. He knew what he was now. He was a ghoul, a eater of the flesh, a devourer of the dead. Perhaps the only ghoul. But he had a domain. One in which all things were his, however small it might be. Malton's Ghoul-King.

[Josh]

She heard a muttered "Fuck," as the radio clicked back on, before he spoke once more.

"Listen, can you give us a general idea? Any nearby buildings? We can come in, signal, and then get you out of there."

[Caz]

"On top of a flat complex," she said with a hacking cough. "All I know..."

And then, grudgingly admitted: "Might not be worth it, post four..."