Caius was woken by the smell of roasting meat. Marcus had strips of something or other spitted on sticks and roasting over the fire.

  "Morning, Caius. Want some? We have more than we can eat."

  After confirming that he would like some meat, Caius settled on one of the sitting rocks around the fire. "What kind is it?"

  Marcus gestured to what looked like a butchered fox. "Idunnir caught it sometime last night, it brushed against one of the alarm wires."

  "I'm glad Idunnir was here, then. I didn't hear anything." Caius supposed the alarm bells were exactly the correct volume if they woke Idunnir, but the idea of something stumbling into the camp without waking him was concerning. Not concerning enough to make him give up sleep, however.

  "Yes, my Idun has ears like a cat."

  Fortunately, Marcus was cooking the fox meat thoroughly. Caius would have felt awkward for insisting, but he wasn't going to eat undercooked meat from a carnivore. That was how you got all sorts of parasites.

  Caius made some oats to go with the meat. Feeling particularly generous, he cut up some of his dried fruit into the porridge to sweeten it. But the meat was definitely the bulk of the meal. In a time before refrigeration, it was definitely a good idea to make the most of it.

  Idunnir made it out of the tent just in time for the food to be done. Eyes dull and motion sluggish, Caius would have guessed the man was badly sick if he didn't know the cause. It was a horrible, vampiric thing to witness the difference from the energetic young man of the previous evening.

  Marcus made sure Idunnir ate and drank water. It seemed to help a bit. When the meal was done the armored man was moving like he was when Caius had first met the two. Not too fast, not too slow, not a wasted step or movement.

  They all packed up camp and set off early. Caius was desperately craving coffee, but a quick dip in the stream while the others were packing their tent woke him up. Effective but not very pleasant so early in the morning.

  Apparently they could be at the village in time for lunch the next day if they made good time. Marcus also said there was a place with a beautiful view where they could break for lunch.

  Midmorning brought them to a place where their rough path through the trees met a proper road. It was very impressive, a stone construction that reminded Caius of the ancient Roman ones that survived to the modern day.

  When he asked about it, Marcus informed him that "It's an old Imperial road. There's a few around that they got around to building before the bad times." That was all the older man knew, apparently the aforementioned bad times had concluded before he was born.

  They made very good time on the level road, though Caius feet were starting to make themselves known. His guess was that his weight distributing shoes were, on snow, the most perfect walking experience ever. On stone the lack of modern padding was rearing its ugly head.

  Part of the road was cut into the side of a very tall and lightly forested hill. On the side they approached from the slope was gentle, and they climbed up it for lunch. Evidently this was the spot Marcus had mentioned.

  The far side of the hill was steeply sloped and bare of trees. This resulted in a breathtaking view of the forest spreading out below. Off in the distance was a curl of smoke, Caius guessed there was a village or something.

  He had to conclude that the spot was, indeed, very fine. Lunch was mostly leftover meat they had pre-cooked that morning and only needed to heat up over a tiny fire. Caius almost revealed his pretty rock as an alternative, but didn't. He really wasn't in a talking mood that day, which was something that happened to him regularly.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Naturally this peaceful, beautiful moment was when everything went wrong.

  Only a slight crunching of snow warned them of the approaching threat. Idunnir had his helmet off for lunch and Caius briefly made out a look of absolute shock on the man's face.

  Wolves. And behaving in a way even more unnatural than the one from the previous day. Several were limping on visibly broken legs and Caius thought he saw one with a broken, dangling lower jaw.

  Caius froze in place. He had never been the fight or flight type.

  Marcus shouted for Idunnir to do something, anything. That seemed to snap Idunnir out of his shock, whatever the cause. He moved quickly but without that perfect grace from his execution of the injured wolf.

  Helmet on and sword drawn, Idunnir met the threat. But something was still badly wrong with both him and, apparently, the wolves. The sluggish way the animals were moving reminded Caius of something, but he couldn't identify what.

  As they closed in, they did speed up just a bit. The healthiest looking one managed a leap, which Idunnir met with a broad swing of his shield. His attack was quick and powerful, but looked almost clumsy.

  The wolf went flying. Caius found his eyes following it as it crashed in the snow and picked itself up without a sound. One of its front legs had been completely shattered by the blow or landing, but it dragged itself towards the closest man. Which happened to be Caius.

  With a sort of detached, clinical frame of mind, Caius examined it. He noticed its eye sockets looked empty and rotten. Its mouth was hanging open and full of broken teeth. It looked like...

  Like a zombie, of all things.

  Caius felt like an idiot. He had grown up during that odd period when media was obsessed with zombies and knew all the signs. But the idea of actually seeing one was so ridiculous he had been unwilling to reach the conclusion.

  That was a bad habit of his, the same thing that had stopped him from identifying his magic early on. He was still frozen in place, dimly aware that he was probably going to die.

  But when the zombie wolf tried to bite his leg, its mouth found something else instead. A golden glow wrapped the limb like armor. It tried again, with the same result. Caius noticed that his amulet was flashing with an inner light every time.

  The realization that his protection amulet was actually working as intended shocked him out of his paralysis.

  Idunnir was flailing, surrounded by several wolves. Flailing wasn't the right word, all the wolves had ruined bodies from where Idunnir had chopped, tabbed and bashed them to limited effect. All the excess movement had the man visibly heaving for breath.

  "Their..." Caius tried to shout, got verbally stuck, then tried again. "Their heads, Idunnir! Crush the skull or sever the spine!"

  Snapping his helmeted head to Caius, Idunnir was almost caught from behind by a wolf with a completely collapsed ribcage from where he had kicked it. When the armored man spun to deal with it, his movements regained some of their purpose.

  His sword came down with renewed precision, severing the spinal column just behind the skull. The wolf went limp instantly.

  Once again, Idunnir was a predator. Clearly his confused state had been caused by facing a problem completely outside his realm of experience, because now that he had a plan he began dismantling the entire pack.

  It wasn't quite so easy, of course. He was already exhausted and surrounded, but skill compensated somewhat. When the wolves were dead, both men spun to see if Marcus was alright.

  Marcus was dead. From the state of him, Caius guessed that Idunnir had accidentally launched a wolf straight at the older man during the fight. Marcus' throat had been ripped out and a smear of blood in the snow led to one of the wolves that Idunnir had finished off.

  "No... no... NO NO NONONONO!" Idunnir's raspy voice rose until he was screaming in denial and he sprinted over to cradle Marcus' limp form.

  Caius had a horrible premonition that he knew exactly what would happen next. After all, Marcus had been killed by a zombie. But where there was one group of undead there was usually more.

  Looking around, he didn't spot any. But that didn't mean they weren't there.

  "Idunnir. We need to move."

  The armored man didn't respond, just remained slumped over. Long, slow shudders passed through his body. Caius walked over and leaned down to put a hand on his shoulder. Like a snake striking, Idunnir threw a punch at him. It met the same golden flicker as the wolf had.

  "If these things haven't reached that village, we need to warn them. Before this happens to anyone else." Caius tried reason, to little effect.

  This situation was bad. Caius had only the barest idea of where the village actually was. And he had no idea whatsoever how many hits his amulet could take. For all he knew it could last either one more attack or a thousand years.

  And something told him that, if he didn't get Idunnir moving, the man would just sit there until he died of exposure or withdrawal.