November 22nd, 1878
The Texas Rangers are interested in this Joshua business too, eh? Seems like everyone wanted a piece of The Man. We had bigger problems though – namely a whole town of zombies…
The battle continued, with Olivia and Seri disabling large numbers of the zombies via faith and explosives respectively. Finally, having just cleared the mission, the sun begins to set and hundreds of zombies come up the hill towards the walled fortifications. The party closes and bars all the doors, and Father Patrick says a prayer by the mission’s well and when he’s complete, all of the zombie bodies burn away, and the zombies outside the walls seem to cry in pain when touching the structure. Father Patrick passes out from the strain.
A few hours later, huddled by a fire and eating preserved food from the mission’s stores, the party hears a peculiar whooshing sound coming from the hills. Brady Sims looks up and smiles, stating his reinforcements have arrived.
The dead we had encountered so far were slow, shuffling, and did not really seem to, well, know what they were doing. The ones we found at the mission, however, were different. To start with, they moved faster. These did not have the shuffling, slow gait of the ones we had seen earlier. They were fast, and were clearly intelligent enough to open and close doors, since they were inside, with the door closed. In fact, some of them clearly even knew how to handle a gun.
There were at least two different kinds. One group was obviously soldiers, or had been, when they were still alive. The other were probably Singers, or something similar; they wore strange clothes, or remnants of clothes. And there were a lot of them.
They came pouring out of a big room, with something that, from a distance, looked like a well. The rash Ranger ran off, seemingly having some sort of a plan. And Rat Girl, well, she threw a couple of boom-sticks into the room, and killed off some of the dead. And then… Then she turned into a big cat. She looked much like a náshdóítsoh, but she was larger. From what the others said, she had turned herself into a lion, this time. And yes, there are just too many big cats in this story.
Then our Singer, the one with the sword, had a good idea. Or so he thought. He yelled “cover me!” and ran for the well in the middle of the big room. Well, started to, anyway. He had taken no more than a couple of steps before he stopped, said something, then grabbed a walking dead and held it in front of him, as if it was a shield. Just in time, too, as the enemy had clearly waited for something like this. A salvo of gunfire sounded, and the Singer collapsed.
Then Singer Woman waved her holy symbol while she shouted something, and several of the walking dead collapsed, and several more were clearly stunned, making it easy to take them out. But the firing line were disturbing for several reasons. First, they would clearly be difficult to take out. Second, it showed a cunning that we had not seen before. Not only were they moving fast and able to fire a gun, they were even capable of laying an ambush. There could be no doubt that they had been waiting for one of us to enter the room, and that meant they were either actually intelligent, or someone was controlling them. Someone. Like the Red Lion.
The Ranger came running back towards us, a group of the walking dead following him. A couple of the others took most of them out, though one of them reached us. It headed straight for Exploding Man, and seemed to be about to tear his throat out, when it stared at him, and just stopped. Then the black man blew its head off.
The Ranger fired, but either his aim was off, or Rat Girl had seriously unnerved him, because he hit the big cat that she had changed into, rather than hitting one of the walking dead. It did not seem to hurt her too badly, though. And then she vanished.
A few moments later, we heard a great boom, and the firing line was mostly gone. It seemed Rat Girl’s boom sticks had been put to good use.
And then, just as the sun was setting, we spotted more of the walking dead heading towards us. There were hundreds of them; it seemed everyone who had ever died in the area had decided to converge on us that night. We closed the doors and windows, but suspected it would not keep them out for long. The Singer with the sword, however, started praying at the well, and from it, there was a bright light, and the bodies of the walking dead simply turned into dust, while the ones outside seemed to shy away from the mission’s walls. Out of curiosity, I filled a bucket with the water and threw it out from the roof. It seemed to harm the dead on the outside, and they were keeping their distance now, so for the moment, we were relatively safe.
I could not help but wonder if the Red Lion had sent them, and who she really was.
We built a fire, and tried to make the Singer as comfortable as possible; he had collapsed after the prayers. I did not think we would get much sleep that night, though. Even if we were safe for the time being, knowing all those dead were outside did not make any of the others comfortable. As for me, I was not going to sleep there if I could avoid it. Too many people had died here, some more than once, most likely. Although I have to admit, the thought of angry spirits was less threatening with the horde of walking dead outside the building.
It was later the same night that we heard a strange sound. It was a flapping sound from the hills, and the Ranger smiled and said: “Told you I called for reinforcements.”
Death. Overwhelming death. The whole building reeked of it, even over the smoke from Seri’s dynamite blast. As that smoke cleared, the zombies that hadn’t been incinerated began to pile out of doorways. So many lost souls intent on our demise! The others attacked, but it was as though I could SEE the horde that still waited inside. A great anger overtook me – I’ve never felt rage so strong. I remember clutching my crucifix as I reached out to the Lord. “Help us put these souls to rest!” I prayed. HIS reply was a wash of righteousness. It merged into my rage, and I lashed out with a holy fury. I can’t be sure what He did through me, but I felt a handful of zombies collapse while others were staggered by the Light. Death still crept everywhere, but at least a few of the horrors were easier for my companions to destroy.
The rest of the battle was a blur. First Mr. White was wounded, then Father O’Connor while trying to reach the well. I called upon His mercy to do what I could when suddenly Seri pounced – as a great lion – into the fray. When Mr. Sims wounded her by accident, she vanished… I don’t know who grants her such gifts, but I’m still awed by them! After she vanished, a huge explosion sounded from around the corner, which I discovered later was Seri’s dynamite wiping out the firing line that had wounded Father O’Connor. With that victory, the others pushed ahead, and the remaining monstrosities were laid low.
If only we could have found rest then! Someone turned and noticed another horde (Father in Heaven!) approaching. We barricaded the mission, and Father O’Connor finally reached the well. The Lord is strong with him, for certain. With a prayer, the well burst with light that surrounded us all. But then he collapsed, so I did what I could to make him comfortable with Ahiga’s help. The horde outside seemed repelled by the well’s light, but our rest will certainly be uneasy this night.