The bottlenecks of the second trench were widening as the army of the living brought down corpse after corpse, each collapsed wight widening the bridge until the flow was no longer manageable. Brienne sliced down a wight that made it past the soldiers ahead of her.
The first she'd stopped, but doubtless not the last. If the seven were on her side, she'd slay many more of the dead before dawn. If they weren't… well then… She'd worry about that possibility if it became a reality. And if it did, she rather doubted she'd be doing much worrying at all.
To her right, in Pods usual place, fought Ser Beric, she found his presence distracting. Perhaps it was because the sight of him reminded her that everything she cherished, everything she fought to defend was far from her. Perhaps it was because all his talk of the lord of light and fictitious saviors made her uneasy. She couldn't say. All she knew was that she would have given almost anything to switch him with Pod or Jaime. But that was not to be. They all had their duties and honor pulled them in separate directions.
She would focus on the task at hand. Wars could not be won with split focus. Wars could not be fought on two fronts. So she tucked away her worry for Jaime and Pod and sliced down another wight, choosing to live for this battle on this front and not the one out of her control.
She glanced back at the wall in time to catch a second flash of red flames.
Retreat.
"Fall back! Fall back!" She bellowed over the clash of swords ringing in her ears.
The soldiers rushed back the relative safety of the last trench as the long-bowmen retreated to the wall with the other archers.
Brienne held the gap as her men raced through the opening, despite the chaos of retreat Beric stayed at her side.
The wave of wights clambering over the growing mountain of dead was an overwhelming force, one the last trench could not keep at bay for long. Even less time if they overwhelmed the last trench before the path of retreat was collapsed and swallowed up by the waiting flames.
"Fall back, Ser Brienne." Beric yelled to her. "This ground is lost."
"We can wait, more men can get to safety." Brienne said, hoping more than believing it to be true.
"At what cost?"
She looked to Beric and saw the unpleasant truth written across his face. Those not already across the final trench were as good as dead… if not… they all would be. She did no have time to muse over her options. There were no options. Survival. That was the only choice she had left. So she nodded to Beric and they ran the rest of the way across the opening.
"Collapse the path!" She yelled to the waiting unsullied. Without hesitation, they swung their axes and the path was swallowed up by spikes and flames.
Brienne could hear the screams of the men trapped on the other side. She closed her eyes to block out the unpleasant reality of the choice she'd made as the screams for passage changed to screams of those being slaughtered.
The urge to be sick clawed up her throat, but she swallow the bile back. This was no time to be faint of heart. In a choice between a dozen or so men and everyone inside the walls of Winterfell, there was no choice at all, only an action that had to be taken and lived with.
Beric reached out and squeezed her arm.
"You did right."
She shirked off his touch. Though well meant, it did not offer her any relief.
"Retreat within the walls." she hollered, not bothering to check for signals. They'd lost the ground outside the walls of Winterfell, or they very shortly would. There was no point in losing more men by delaying. The final trench was as good as lost. All that was left was to use the extra time to retreat within the walls of the castle and pray to the gods that they could hold it.
A short chapter (side effect of action and such a big cast, require more jumping around) but I wanted to give you guys an update. I'm still here and this story is still very important to me. Things are still kind of rough, so I can't commit to weekly updates again yet, but I'm going to do my best to update every other week.
Please review.