Chapter One

Reaper's POV

Flash of light. It's odd for something like that to occur in a building. Then we were all in the middle of a forest.

"What the hell?" I shook my head and looked around. "Don't ask questions." I growled to myself. "Questions only get you in trouble."

Upon further investigation of our surroundings I notice that the dead were still there and closing in on us in our moment of discombobulation.

"Run!" I yelled, picking up little Puppy and throwing her over my shoulder, taking the rear behind Nico, Sanity, and Rider.

We ran for a good five minutes before we were out of stamina and the dead only a short ways behind.

"Passing the kid!" I called out and tossed Puppy to Nico who caught her mid-air and took off again towards a river, Sanity close on her heels.

Rider stopped just behind me, "Plan?"

I glanced over my shoulder and shrugged, "Hold 'em off…"

She threw a mock glare at me, "Great plan Reaps!"

The rumbling of the horde of dead came in through the just behind us. "Get up in the trees!" Rider yelled back to the others who had stopped by the edge of the water.

Rider and I stood side by side and unsheathed our swords. Our swords were not something special really. We had picked them up in a sword shop a few months back after meeting. The world had gone to hell after all. Ammo was hard to come by and we tried to save what we had in case of emergencies. Rider's was in the style of an old cavalry sword and mine that of a katana. Nico and Sanity each had a katana as well. They joined me and Rider moments after getting Puppy up in a tree for her safety.

Fifteen undead came stumbling out of the wooded brush at us and we seemed to get lost in a dance that we had perfected long ago. We had each other's backs. We had each other's front. We were family now. All we got left. It took a bit of effort to get the horde cut down seeing that there was only four of us and fifteen of them but in the end we managed it. We piled the carcasses and burned them away from the river in hopes of a little containment.

After getting Puppy down from the tree, we built a second fire down by the river for our personal usage with rocks encompassing it high up to hide the flames. Mostly we sat in silence, passing around some of our military meals that we had stored in our packs.

"Where are we?" Puppy asked in her meek five year old voice as she tugged on the sleeve of my jacket.

"To hell if I know little one…" I shrugged, offering her a kind smirk in return for my lacking response.

"But we were in that room… how are we in the woods?" her brow furrowed. "Did I fall asleep?"

"No," Rider grabbed another piece of wood and threw it on the fire. "You didn't miss anything Pup. We all just suddenly ended up in the forest."

I reached into my rucksack and pulled out my blanket and draped it over her small shoulders, "Sleep Pup. I'm gonna keep watch for the night. In the morning… I think you need a bath."

Puppy nodded and slid off the log that we were sitting on to the ground clutching her doll, Abbey, close to her. I met the eyes of my other companions and nodded. They too soon joined Puppy in her slumber. After several moments I stood up and began poking around the woods nearby. Before we had appeared here, there had been a lot more than just fifteen dead… there had been more like fifty. It was worrisome to think that there was about thirty or more dead wandering the woods waiting to get ahold of us still.

All my worrying and patrolling seemed to make the night go faster. I was a little deeper in the woods heading back to our campsite as dawn broke. That's when I head the bickering of deep voices. I stopped in my tracks and slowly looked over to my side where the noises were coming from. A group of fifteen… fourteen short men and one tall one were approaching. They sounded angry, pretty angry.

"Oy! Let's just get to the river and wash up lads!" I heard one voice yell out from the front of the group.

"River!" My mind was reeling and I took off before they could notice me.

I ran back to camp with all my might and got there just as the others were waking up, "Pack up! We need to get up in the trees! Possible hostiles are approaching from my six!" I growled.

Nico, Rider, and Sanity sprang into action packing up whatever belongings and trash we had with us. I rallied Puppy and got her up in the nearest tree. I threw both her small rucksack and my large one over my shoulder along with my sword and rifle. Looking over my shoulder I saw that the others were on their way up their own trees, climbed up to join Puppy. The group was loud and boisterous as they entered the clearing. Way too much for an unsecured area where the dead might lurk. No sooner did they enter the clearing that we had been in, did they fall silent.

"Someone was just here…" a deep voice from the head of the group growled. "Spread out and search nearby! Let's make sure that we don't have any unwanted visitors!"

"How the fuck did they know?" My eyes went wide. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

I looked over to the next tree to see my three other companions looking at me through the branches. Rider pointed her eyes from me to the river. I followed her gaze to see that in our hurry we had forgotten about the smoldering campfire that was still releasing small billows of smoke.

"Craaaaaaap!" I growled to myself smacking my hand to my face.

Puppy became restless as the group spread out in the clearing, becoming dangerously too close to our tree. If they just happened to glance up, they would see us. I put my arm around her, steadying her while holding a finger from my other hand up to my lips to signal for her to be quiet. She nodded, a small frightful tear rolling down her cheek. Giving her a reassuring squeeze with my one arm I looked down to see a man with a bald top of his head with tattoos on his head and a thick black beard walk under our branch. The man who had been at the front of the group joined him; he had long slightly curly black hair with gray strands streaking from where it was brushed back. Upon closer review, both men wore clothing that would have been medieval in characteristic and they looked pretty beaten.

"This is not good…" I sighed.

Puppy shifted a little then, causing Abbey to fall from her light hold in her lap and to the ground below. The man from the front of the group turned around and picked up the doll, looking it over in his hands. Puppy began to panic, shifting to climb down. I locked her down in an iron grasp with one arm around her body and the other over her mouth. She started to fight me more and more 'till finally she managed to throw me from the branch we sat on. On the way down our gear and my back snapped a branch and with a large thump I landed on my back on the ground, our gear sprawled out beside us. Puppy was still clutched to me. All the wind got knocked out of me and I saw stars mixed amongst the faces of the two men that had been at the base of the tree. Puppy bit my hand to make me let go of her and with a swift motion she jumped up and snatched Abbey from the hands of the man, clutching the doll to her in a death grip. She turned to take off into the woods when the man grabbed her by the back collar of her jacket.

"What is this?" the man grunted, lifting her slightly off the ground and taking a better look at her. Then he turned on me as I propped myself up slightly on my elbow feeling a twinge of pain in my back from my fall. "Who are you and what is your business here?" he demanded.

Puppy had tears streaking down her face, her eyes wide with fright, pleading me to do something. But I said nothing nor did I do anything, I wanted to see how this started to play out before I acted. The man seemed to get agitated with my lack of response. He passed Puppy off to the other man before drawing his sword and resting the blade lightly against my neck. Behind him, everyone else began to assemble again.

"Thorin, this is highly uncalled for," a tall man dressed in gray pushed passed the others. "It is obvious that our approach scared them."

"Either that or they are spies," this man, Thorin, spat at me. He pressed the blade a little harder into my neck. "She is armed and I would rather not take any chances."

I winced a little at the pain of the blade and it did not go unnoticed by Puppy. She kicked, punched, and bit the man that was now holding her by her arm causing him to release her. Puppy then took the two steps and kicked the one named Thorin in the leg as hard as her small one would allow her. Thorin growled and push Puppy off as the next tree over rocked slightly and rustled from my companions deciding to join in the fun. I took that opportunity to kick upwards and knock the sword out of Thorin's hand. It flew behind me several feet as I flipped painfully onto my feet.

"Nico! Plan B!" I yelled, grabbing Puppy and throwing her to Sanity.

Rider unsheathed her sword, taking a protective stance in front of Sanity and Nico.

Nico looked at me like I was crazy, "What's plan b?" she yelled over Rider's shoulder.

Rider let out a dark laugh, "Run of course!"

I side kicked Thorin backwards onto his backside a few feet back and blocked a punch from baldy countering it with an uppercut punch before grabbing Puppy's and I's gear. The rest of the other group moved towards us now, put on edge by the sudden assault.

The taller man dressed in gray moved forward, "Wait!" he called out to us all for not. I looked to Rider first and nodded. She took her leave into the forest and I followed her, pulling my sword from its sheath.