Art by Aureolinflax

“ZOMBIES!” one of the guardsmen immediately spat out.

The fear on one guard’s face peaked with a flash fire, his entire expression practically popping off of his face. Corpses in various states of decomp- some very fresh with throats still stained with blood, others rotted or rotting or dried, a few mostly skeletons in the mix. Bones rattled and feet shuffled.

And it was at that moment when the lights caught yet another sight, high up in a massive tree branch overlooking the area. A lone zombie dressed in clothes almost identical to that of the soldiers, aside from the rot, all with a face that was completely dried and easily to be considered mummified. Its eyes were black with only a little glimmer offered back after the fire’s light struck.

Gray patches of long hair and a jaw stuck in open hang with the teeth completely visible, some of those also rotted out. The figure in the trees danced, their arms flailing up and then down, then up and back down again. A little shift and skip on one side of the body, then a hop to the other side. As the corpse kept doing its little dance, something else came into focus. The Guard Captain froze up firmly.

Something was dancing right behind that mummy, a figure in black much like the violin players with eyes aglow with a haze of orange. Their face was visibly pale and peaking out from behind the corpse’s head, their mouth curled back into a massive malevolent grin. More of that individual came into view in the form of their pale hands having hold of the wrists of the corpse, and shoes underneath the feet of it as well. The man was puppeteering the mummified corpse, making it dance using his own body.

“Look!” a man beside the captain shouted out, pointing up above the man and his dead doll.

In the next branch higher up was another all black figure, this one though with their arms held out right in front of them. They were dancing a little as well; though their fingers were twitching like mad and their arms were regularly bobbing up and down. A slight glimmer occurred with the shifting lanterns, silver strings, strings that whirled and wrapped all around the area- leading straight to all of the dancing undead.

Looking back down a few more figures in black had joined the fest of the undead corpses, now actually dancing with said corpses doing a little Swing. Spun right round and round while the rest of the corpses began to do their own individual dances. The Guard Captain shot forward and raised his sword swiftly-

“Ain’t no undead, they’re using the corpses as a distraction! FIRE! FIRE FIRE FIRE!!”

The guards wasted no time with all of the rifle and bow users aiming their weapons out. A rapid fire of bangs and bams rang out, puffs of smoke popping up around the group. The figures in black all zoomed into the air, darts of blur with even those with their violins evading. Shots flew into the corpses. Pockets of dust blew out with the shots hitting, different things transpiring after that first wave of gun fire.

A hand blew off of one corpse, falling right to the ground. Legs blew off, heads even rolled. The dancing figure up above swung his corpse partner round and twirled out of the way of some arrows which struck the bark of the branch. In one swift movement the figure then twirled the corpse right off the side and let it fall straight to the forest floor.

“WOOO HOO HOO HOO!! These guys are fired up now boys! Let’em have it!” the man then shouted aloud.

Green energy surged from the fingertips of the puppeteer high above and flew through those silver wires leading straight to the corpses. Flashes of green then engulfed the bodies, resulting in them all beginning to twitch and shake on their own. The Guards all looked around as empty casings flew from their rifles, as the bowmen reloaded. Collective gasps and groans were heard, and all at once the bodies began to stand on their own. Blazing eyes of pure green fire swelled within the sockets of those bodies which continued to shake.

The flesh of some began to grow and spread, becoming more moist than it was just seconds ago. Drool dripped from several of the corpses, now all beginning to stand.

“The fuck is this?”

“What the hell are they!?”

“Fuckin undead! FIRE ALL!!”

Another barrage of gunfire and arrows screaming through the air, with only a few shots taking off any limbs. For the most part those undead stood unphased. Up in the trees the four violinists and six figures in black stared down, some smug and others blank. The puppeteer landed beside the one who had danced with the corpse in the tree branch, both of whom were looking down now with smiles of their own.

Screams rang out as the undead began to move in on the guardsmen, followed by more shots sounding off and more grunts and groans.