As Grey approached the shop, he heard a woman's screams.
"Stay there! I'm helping you!" It was Atria's soft voice, shrilly yelling.
Grey swung the door open, brandishing his sword in one hand. "Atria?"
She had cornered a zombie behind the counter of the shop. The zombie wasn't even a normal monster. It was a man, who had been infected and turned evil. The green-tinted skin of the infected man was peeling off, exposing his soft rotting flesh underneath.
"Grey! I thought you had died." She turned to reveal she held a glittering diamond sword that sparkled in the light with its magic.
He stood in near-shock. The witch looked like a warrior, and yet she was trying to save an infected man. "What are you doing?" He moved closer to help trap the green evil being behind the counter.
"We can cure them!" She sighed and shut her eyes for a moment, before opening them to look at Grey's surprised face.
"That's impossible! The infected have to be killed!" He stared into Atria's eyes, trying to tell if she was lying. Tons of townsfolk had been infected throughout his life. More than just a few infected there family upon stumbling home. It was horrific to have to kill the infected, but Grey had been raised to think it was the only way.
Atria didn't flinch. "If we can trap him somewhere, we can save him." As the infected man stumbled around behind the counter, she watched him with pity. "You have to help me, and him."
"I-I…" Grey stuttered. How could it be? Why didn't the witch save all the people who were killed after being infected? "I'll help you. I met a girl who has a chicken coop on the back of her wagon. We can fit it in there."
"It's a him." Atria told him. "He's still a person."
Grey nodded. "Yeah, sorry." He examined the trapped zombie, which groaned loudly as it looked for escape. "If you don't mind me asking, why didn't you save the other infected in the village?"
Atria closed the clasp on her overcoat, hiding in the folds of navy cloth. "Let's focus on getting this guy in the coop first."
"Alright." Grey took a breath. "I don't know what I'm going to say to Kara about this." She had just had all of her family murdered, and he was planning on bringing a potential killer into her wagon. She was going to be mortified, if she even allowed it.
The witch shoved her sword behind the counter, forcing the zombie to back into the wall. "Is that the girl you found, 'Kara'?"
"Yeah," He said. "She survived the siege hiding in the coop."
Atria pointed to a length of rope on the floor, and Grey handed it to her. She began to slowly tie the zombie up, and as she did so, the infected man grew increasingly angry. He groaned and moaned, his mouth gaping and saliva drooling down his putrid sun-burnt skin into the nomad's garb he wore. Atria was skillful in getting the rope around him, like she had done it before. She pulled it around his limbs and torso, binding his arms to his chest. Then she put the rope in his mouth and neck, almost like bridle on a horse. "That will keep him from biting anyone. You didn't get bit anytime, did you?"
Grey shook his head. "Nope. I was out fighting skeletons all night, but I ditched the bones when I heard a zombie." He remembered what seemed like forever ago, when he was excited to fulfill Atria's deal to get gold. "I guess I won't be buying a mule anytime soon."
"And I won't be getting my bones." She knotted the thick tweed rope and opened the gate to let the zombie free. "Let's get this man to somewhere safe. Watch out, he's got a bad temper."
The infected man instantly stumbled out of the trapped area and into the shop's floor, tracking Grey. He groaned loudly, and lunged out to bite him.
"Whoa!" Grey dodged, and remembered exactly what they were doing. Right now, he going to heal an infected man after being raised his entire life to think that was impossible. It almost seemed surreal. He couldn't imagine what magic would be involved in curing zombies. "Won't he burn in the sun?" Grey remembered that zombies were easily defeated by the sun's rays, and the same went for the infected.
Atria smiled, and brought a small, red-orange potion out of her cloak's inside pockets. "I thought of that. Back up, and cover your eyes."
Grey walked all the way until he was by the door. This was his first real encounter with magic, and he didn't know what to expect. He shielded his brown eyes with his hands, and held his breath.
He heard the witch laugh. "It's not that dangerous. I just don't know if you're allergic to anything in this, and this bottle is glass."
Then the noise of a shattering bottle filled the room, and left the space silent. Grey waited a second, then uncovered his eyes.
"What happened?" The zombie didn't look any different, and continued its loud growling even though tiny glass shards now were embedded in his flesh. "You smashed it on the zombie."
Atria sighed. "Yeah, I didn't have a spray bottle on me. It's a fire-resistance potion. He won't burn anymore."
"Oh," Grey said. It made him feel dumb being around all the potions and magic the witch knew about.
"Come on, help me get him out the door." Atria yanked on the rope attached to the zombie, pulling him closer to Grey and the door. "You'll lead the way to this girl."
"Okay." Grey opened the door for the witch to pull the zombie through. When the infected man reached the sun's rays, he still half-expected him to start burning and peeling, but he didn't. The potion worked its magic and the zombie was restrained and unharmed. "This way." He turned down the street, starting off to the covered wagons.
As Atria pulled the zombie along, Grey led the way. He passed a dead body, but ignored it. It was almost like shock; he hadn't quite accepted that everyone was dead, and if he didn't look at the bodies, he could keep lying to himself.
"What are you doing!" A familiar voice cried out. Kara was still sitting at edge of the wagon, and when she saw the zombie, she climbed up to evade to monster. "Kill it, now!"
The witch sighed. "It's okay, I have him restrained." She looked at Grey. "You explain."
Grey hesitated. How could he explain that they wanted to bring an infected man onto her wagon?
"Umm… Atria knows how to cure the infected." He started.
Kara scoffed. "If the witch knows how to cure that monster, why hasn't she? She's tricking you, Grey! She even has a sword with her!"
"I'm not evil, and I don't exactly know how to, but I know someone that does. A wizard." Atria sheathed her sword, which she held in the hand that wasn't holding the zombie's lead.
The nomad came down to inspect to zombie, limping slightly on her torn leg. "This… zombie…"
"What is it?" Grey asked. Kara suddenly looked on the verge of tears.
"This is my brother, Kalen." She looked down. "He… went out to look for help when the siege started."
The zombie was wearing classic nomad garb, with long tan pants and a loose blue-violet shirt that symbolized peace.
"Notch," Grey said. "I... didn't know you had a brother. But… Atria can cure him. He's not dead yet!"
Atria stepped forward. "I can cure him. Just… let me lock him in your coop over there, and we can take him to the town where a wizard lives. It's not that far from here, and he'll cure him if I ask."
Wait, I thought she said she could cure the infected herself? Grey thought, but he didn't say anything. He would have to ask her later, because that was something different then what he had been originally told. Almost, if not, a lie.
Kara nodded. "Anything to save my brother. I'd help you get him in, but I got my leg scratched."
Atria spotted her wound. "I can heal that. Grey, take this." She thrust the bonds of the zombie into Grey's hands while she dug in the deep pockets of her navy blue cloak.
Grey leapt back, trying to keep the zombie as far away from him as he could. The zombie was thrashing around, moaning as it oozed red from the peeled skin around the rope. It made him shutter to think that he was restraining Kara's infected brother.
"Found it." Atria pulled a small glass vial of a pink liquid. She handed it to Kara. "Drink up."
Kara paused for a second, watching the contents of the bottle sparkle and shimmer within the clear glass. Then she uncorked it, and drank it in one gulp like a shot. She twisted her head, and gasped. "It tasted like brown sugar and apples. What's in that?"
Grey gave the lead back to Atria, who accepted them as she smiled to Kara. "It's just a potion I invented. I'm afraid I can't tell you the ingredients, but you should look down at your gash now."
Kara did so, and her eyes grew very wide as she unwrapped the gauze Grey had give her.
"It's… healed?"
Grey saw as well. Kara's fair skin no longer had the long bloody scratch, and the witch's magic worked once again.
"Now, let's get your brother in the coop."