Ego lifted the torch higher.
The light reached them.
She wished it hadn't.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Two figures emerged from the darkness.
A man.
A woman.
Or what had once been a man and a woman.
For a heartbeat she could not move.
Her legs rooted themselves to the earth.
The pair shuffled toward her with slow, uneven steps, their joints bending in ways no living body should. Their heads lolled loosely upon broken necks, swaying with every step.
A low moan drifted from them.
Not human.
Not an animal.
Something in between.
The smell struck her next.
Rotting flesh.
It wrapped itself around her like a filthy blanket.
She fought the urge to retch.
The torchlight climbed their bodies.
Skin hung from them in strips.
Bones pushed through torn flesh.
The man's bare chest was split by deep axe wounds that had hacked into the bone itself, yet he walked as though pain had abandoned him long ago.
The woman's wrapper clung to what remained of her body in ragged strips. One shoulder was bare. Her lifeless breast swung with each dragging step.
Neither blinked.
They had no eyelids.
Their swollen eyes rolled endlessly inside their sockets.
Blood seeped from their mouths, dripping steadily onto the ground.
Then both of them opened their jaws.
Too wide.
Far wider than any human mouth should.
A shrill scream burst from their throats.
The sound tore through the darkness.
They lunged.
Ego's body reacted before her mind did.
She stumbled backward.
The mortar tilted dangerously on her head.
She caught it just in time.
The pestle slipped from her grasp and struck her foot before rolling across the path.
She barely noticed the pain.
All she knew was that death was rushing toward her.
She snatched up the pestle.
As she bent, the creatures bent too.
She straightened.
They straightened.
Her torch slipped from her hand.
Both corpses turned instantly toward the flame.
They weren't looking at her.
They were looking at the light.
A thought flashed through her mind.
They're hunting the fire.
Without hesitation she stepped off the path.
Balancing the mortar between her knees, she scooped a handful of loose sand and smothered the torch.
Darkness swallowed her whole.
Silence.
The dead slowed.
Their empty eyes searched the blackness.
Ego did not breathe.
She dared not move.
Only a few more miles.
The four-way junction could not be far now.
If they found her...
She had no idea how one killed something that had already died.
The corpses dragged themselves closer.
Their bones cracked with every step.
Wet flesh slapped softly against exposed bone.
Then came the flies.
They swarmed around the dead like a living cloud before drifting toward her.
One settled on her shoulder.
Another crawled across her neck.
More landed on her face.
Their tiny legs tickled her skin.
She clenched her jaw.
One crawled over her lips.
Another wandered toward her eye.
A larger one buzzed directly before her nose.
The smell became unbearable.
It felt as though the corpses were breathing decay itself.
Her stomach twisted violently.
She swallowed the bile rising in her throat.
Don't move.
Don't breathe.
Don't scratch.
The fly reached her nostril.
It crawled inside.
Her entire body convulsed.
No.
Not now.
She raised the pestle as slowly as she could.
Millimeter by millimeter.
She brushed it gently across her face.
Instead of driving the insect away...
She pushed it deeper.
The world exploded.
"Achoo!"
The sneeze burst from her with enough force to shake the trees.
The pestle flew from her hand.
The torch clattered against a stone.
She fell heavily onto her back.
For one dreadful heartbeat...
Everything became silent.
Then...
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
The dead had heard.
Their broken necks twisted toward her.
They were coming.
Ego scrambled backward, fighting to stay silent.
Something cold slid across her ankle.
She froze.
A soft hiss drifted through the grass.
The dry leaves whispered.
Something long...
and heavy...
coiled slowly around her leg.
Of all the creatures in the forest, snakes were the one thing she feared most.
Yet one of them was now climbing her body with patient, terrifying certainty.
And she could not even scream.
Ego passed out from sheer terror.
Fortunately, she regained consciousness just as the reptile was beginning to slide off her body. She could feel its cold, scaled belly slowly rubbing against her bare chest. It had crawled between her breasts, its forked tongue flicking against her chin as it tasted the air.
Above her, the couple continued groping blindly, their outstretched hands searching for her.
Then, suddenly, a piece of wet, rotten flesh fell from one of their hands and landed squarely on Ego's face. Another piece dropped onto the snake.
The reptile reacted instantly.
With a violent hiss, it lunged away from Ego, striking at the source of the movement. The couple immediately followed, diving toward it with their decaying hands stretched forward. The snake slithered rapidly into the darkness, and the two corpses pursued it, stumbling blindly after their new prey.
For the first time in her life, Ego was grateful to have encountered a snake.
She remained perfectly still on the ground, afraid even to breathe too loudly. She listened until the hissing of the snake and the dragging footsteps of the couple had faded into the distance.
Only then did she dare to move.
She slowly pushed herself upright and dusted the dirt and leaves from her body. Her hands searched blindly through the darkness until they found the mortar. She reached inside and pulled out the two stones and the dry tinder she had wisely kept there for emergencies.
Holding the stones together, she struck them repeatedly.
Nothing.
She struck them again.
A tiny spark appeared and died.
Again.
Another spark.
On the fourth attempt, the tinder caught.
Ego quickly shielded the tiny flame with her hands, blowing gently until it grew strong enough to light the torch.
She hurried onward.
But as the adrenaline that had carried her through the encounter began to fade, another sensation gradually returned—the pain in her left leg.
She stopped and looked down.
The pestle had fallen directly onto her foot earlier, but she had barely felt it because of the terror coursing through her body. Now the pain had become intense. Every step sent a sharp ache shooting through her leg, forcing her to drag the injured foot behind her.
She glanced at the pestle in her hand and wondered how such a simple wooden object could have caused so much pain.
Perhaps it was the darkness.
Perhaps the forces at work tonight had made everything different.
Or perhaps she had simply been too frightened to notice the injury earlier.
Whatever the explanation, Ego was grateful to still be alive.
She raised her face toward the darkness above.
"Thank you, my Chi," she whispered silently. "Whoever is watching over me, thank you."
She thought of the dead couple.
She thought of the snake.
She thought of the ghostly child.
Each encounter had brought her closer to death, yet somehow she had survived every one of them.
She could not afford to fail now.
After what seemed like an eternity, Ego finally reached the four-way junction.
She wasted no time.
She placed the torch upright on the ground where its flame could illuminate the immediate surroundings. Then she carefully lowered the mortar from her head and positioned it at the center of the junction.
She picked up the pestle.
Her arms were already aching, but she ignored the pain.