The Chill of Death

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I stood next to several of my neighbors that had been arranged into a hasty militia. A great evil was marching upon our small town, and there wasn't enough time for proper reinforcements to arrive. Three villages had been burned to the ground already, and no bodies were ever found. We had no reports as to the nature of this force, as every scout we had sent that had gotten too close to it had disappeared. All we knew was that this force outnumbered us three to one, and being a coastal city surrounded mostly by cliffs and water, we had nowhere to run. We had sent for aid, but there was no telling when it would arrive, probably several days after this fight would be over.2

Although I had trained myself some with a sword, I never actually had to use it in real combat before. Our village was quite peaceful before these recent attacks, and my only focus was on my wife, Tilania. She is two months pregnant and I had been busying myself preparing for our child when word came of this dark force. Now we were all gathered, a rag-tag militia brought together in desperation, and about to face an army that might very well outnumber us three to one. Our commander spoke over the crowd to us all, trying to raise what little spirits we had left.3

"So many have died or disappeared because of this menace, and now it comes upon us. If you cannot fight for yourself, then fight for those who cannot fight alongside you!" His speech did little to give us hope, but I realized he was only doing the best he could with the very little resources he had to work with. As he finished, one of our scouts ran up to him and relayed a whispered message into our commander's ear. He nodded gravely before turning back to us.4

"This is it, men!" There was the sound of dozens of various weapons being drawn before we ordered to our posts at the land-side edge of the village.  I was positioned in-between two buildings with three other men where we could ambush our attackers if they happened to make it into the village.  The first sounds of battle reached out ears, and we all tensed.  Already it sounded like a losing battle.5

The alarm that the first line had fallen blared through the village and we took deep breaths, preparing to attack.  As the sound of footsteps grew, we all leaped out and raised our swords, which soon fell numbly back to our sides.  We stared in shock and horror at the sight in front of us.6

Standing before us were the citizens of each village that had been previously attacked, though they did not look themselves.  Some were missing limbs, others had large open wounds in them, and all of them had grayish skin.  The stench of death hit us and the other three men dropped their weapons before several long, ghoulish arms reached out and grabbed them roughly.  As they were pulled into the crowd of monsters, they were torn limb from limb, and the creatures screamed with fiendish delight.  Next, they turned their malicious eyes towards me, and I raised my sword to defend myself.  The first arm that reached towards me I quickly severed from the owner, but that did little to slow its advance until I struck off its head with one stroke.  My victory was short-lived; however, as a dozen more zombies reached me and set in with their gruesome claws.  I didn’t even have time to scream before cold death washed over my body, and I was swimming in an empty void.7

I was suddenly awakened from what I expected to by my final sleep back in the village.  There were the corpses of my fellow guards strewn about and I guessed that the undead horde had moved on further with their attack.  As I sat up I noticed a man in black and red robes standing before me.  He carried a wicked staff topped with three human skulls and his skin was a ghostly white.  He glared at me with harsh, green eyes.8

“Finally, you’re awake.  They didn’t tear you apart too badly, so you’re still of use to me.”  I stared in confusion before looking down at my chest to see a gaping hole where the zombies had ripped me open.  It all started making sense now; our village wasn’t completely foreign to the term necromancer.  I looked up at the man with pure hatred in my eyes; I wanted nothing more than to rip into his chest so he could go through what I did.  I would’ve attacked him right there and then had I not noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.  I turned towards the source and saw my wife, Tilania, running towards me.  Despite my obviously grizzly appearance, she still willingly approached me.  Part of me wanted to embrace her, but a bigger part wanted something different.  I finally realized how cold I felt, and I knew it must have been this way since I had been brought back.  It was a numbing cold that I couldn’t escape, but as Tilania drew nearer, I felt slight warmth grow up against me.  It became stronger and stronger until I was certain it was coming from her, and I ran to her.  Though once I reached her, I didn’t hug her as I had planned to do; I set into her flesh with my teeth and claws.  She shrieked in horror as I devoured her, and warmth flooded through my cold body.  When she finally died, the warmth passed away, but I hungered for more of it.  I turned towards the necromancer, intent upon killing him as well, but he raised a hand.9

“Kill me, and you will be forever cold.  Work for me, and there will be plenty of the living to satisfy your hunger.”  Although my entire being still surged with hatred of this man, the warmth that had come from eating my wife was addictive, and I could not help but obey.  I lowered my raised claws, stained with the blood of my former lover, and lowered my head in reverence to my new master.  “Good, now get moving.  There are still plenty more humans left in this village and we must have them exterminated before sundown.”  I turned and began to dash off before the necromancer called me to halt.  “Remember, you are undead.  Remember, you serve my will, and the will of Morkthrone.”  The name was almost lost upon my ears; my bloodlust had been driven so high by the sound of screaming villagers.  Knowing that he had finished, I continued on my way, hoping to be able to taste living flesh again before the attack was over.10