I had no idea what I was looking at.

  The pair of monsters tore into the Zombies and for the first time today, the Zombies fled.

  Every time one of the dogs bit a Zombie, the undead erupted in flames. The dogs were getting hurt, but they seemed to be shrugging off the wounds as they created a path of destruction.

  The Touched woman seemed to be genuinely concerned because she started retreating.

  “EVETH!” I clutched my sword as I tried to keep an eye on the burning battlefield. “COME ON!”

  While the dogs might be attacking the Zombies at the moment, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t turn on one of us as soon as they made their way to us. I was just thankful that the Zombies were backing up.

  The blonde slowly backed over to me. “What are those things?”

  I watched one of the black dogs get pinned by a couple burning Zombies. The pile stopped moving as the Zombies were reduced to ash, but there was nothing left of the dog either. The Touched woman looked at the other dog and blasted it with a gust of air.

  The wind fed the flames leaking out of the dog’s mouth and managed to push it back a little. The Zombies seemed like they were about to go back on the offensive when barks announced that there was another dog coming out of the woods.

  With two dogs active again, the Zombies began fleeing for the hole in the wall. The Touched woman glared at us before she slipped inside. Dirt and debris were pushed into the hole, sealing it off.

  There were only a handful of Zombies left outside the wall, once it was sealed off. Eveth and I stood guard between the mopping up and the people, just in case something came after them.

  “Now the moment of truth.” I swallowed as the dogs teamed up on the last Zombie, burning it up faster than they’d been doing alone.

  “Maybe we can tame them.” Eveth whistled, grabbing both of their attention.

  “What are you doing?!” My heart started beating faster as both dogs looked at us.

  “Can you imagine how much easier it would be to hunt Zombies if we had those things with us?” The blonde woman sounded too excited.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Yes, but I can also imagine how deadly they could be if they aren’t friendly.” I touched her arm as I backed up. I had a feeling about where this help was coming from, but I didn’t trust that the strange man was on our side.

  I was about to tell Eveth about him when the dogs just vanished. They were standing in the middle of the field one minute and gone the next like they’d never been there, other than all the patches of burning Zombie ash littering the landscape.

  “What do we do now?” Eveth looked at the walls of Port Reggo and I could feel her desire to go back, but I could also feel the thousands of Zombies inside.

  “We need to get these people to safety.” I touched her arm, then started walking towards the shore.

  If anything, the arrival of the strange dogs had served to hurry everyone more. Zombies, Bokor, and Touched were just another part of any day, but those fire breathing beasts were something that scared them. If I was being honest, I’d never lowered my guard even though I was pretty sure they were there to help and wouldn’t have attacked me.

  It took almost four hours to get everyone to the island. There had been a handful of people who had decided that since the Zombies were back in the city, they were going to make a run for Gher regardless of how many times I told them the city had been flattened. A lot of them hadn’t decided to turn back until almost the midway point, which meant they had to swim back to shore because the ice bridge had rapidly melted behind us.

  I was the last person to step off of the ice bridge, mainly because I wanted to make sure no one was going to fall in. As I watched the last of the ice melt, I made a promise that I was going to learn how to swim.

  The island was covered in a thick fog, but fires had already been started and groups of people were huddled around them in clusters around the shore. It didn’t look like anyone had gone into the trees and I didn’t blame them. The entire place felt unnatural, but my opinion was that this had to be better than being turned into a Zombie.

  “Took you long enough.” Fyga marched up to us. “Val has made herself hoarse yelling at people…” The blue-eyed woman looked around myself and Eveth out at the water. “Where’s Brimly?’

  “The mayor didn’t make it.” I shook my head.

  “Well, that’s great. Five hundred people and no one to lead them.” Fyga groaned while she handed me the pair of deeply tinted goggles. “You might want to put these on.”

  I slipped the dark eyewear on, which only made the island feel less inviting. “Is that all that made it?” There had been around ten thousand people living in Port Reggo.

  “I stopped counting at three twelve.” Fyga shrugged and motioned with her in the loudest direction. ”Let’s go let Val know.”

  I watched the two women start walking, then looked over at the forest. I hoped there really was a bunker on the other side of the island. I glanced back at the city and could still feel the mass of undead across the water. The Touched were planning to attack the Bokor island, but I doubted they’d try to force their way across the bridge. They’d have to wait until winter had fully set in for the lake to freeze, which gave us more than the three weeks that I had left to meet Master James in Port Town. I could talk to him then to warn the Bokor. Right now, I had an obligation to protect the people from whatever was on this island.

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