Chapter 2 Lora Desdemona

A warm breeze rustled the leaveless branches of the dead trees. Their spidery limbs reached into the starless night and made soft scratching noises when they were caressed by the passing wind. The moon was half obscured by the Earth's shadow and loomed ominously overhead.

Despite its partiality the area below was bathed in pale moonlight. Thick grey clouds drifted past at a slow march, but were unable to completely hide this darksome night's only light. Any onlooker who wasn't distracted by the eerie sight would spot something quite strange indeed.

A young woman trudging through the cemetery during the witching hour. With the frightening faint sounds of rustles and squeaks any man would be terrified in this setting. The young eighteen-year-old in her school uniform stalked through the graves without hesitation.

My name is Lora Desdemoda. I am a hunter and in order to hone my skills at fighting and proving the superiority of the human race, I take on missions that involve exterminating monsters. Being a full-time student, I didn't have a lot of time to pick up such cases.

This case was different however, it was personal. Over the past few months instances of grave robbings have been popping up in the town cemetery. Seemed like someone thought resurrecting zombies would be a fun way to pass time.

When zombies are unearthed from a graveyard they are relatively harmless. They have a basic craving for human flesh but walk fairly slowly. When regular human beings are transformed into zombies they retain their sentience.

The desire for human flesh can still be tempting for them, and with bodies relatively in tact it's a lot easier for them to hurt people. One of my ex-boyfriends, Felix was turned into a zombie.

He won't be able to age, he'll have to preserve himself, deal with the inevitability of losing limbs and the stench as well. Not only that but his lifespan has significantly decreased. He was not happy with that fact. Neither was I.

Since the grave robbing was happening in this cemetery alone, I decided to come here and find the witch responsible. It seemed whoever was bringing back the dead was quite powerful indeed, not just some meddler in necromancy. Hence I suspected I would be dealing with a witch.

Felix broke my heart when he dumped me. Considering I dumped my own boyfriend at the time, Cody Burkett who is my best friend now, to be with him you could say I deserved it. Now that he was a zombie I would never date him, it still angered me nonetheless.

I pushed my stylish glasses up the bridge of my nose and peered through the semi-darkness. Up ahead I could see where one of the corpses had been dug up. I stopped and lowered the huge metal scythe I had been carrying over my shoulder.

I had to sneak out past curfew, so I didn't get to bring my whole collection of weapons. That was also the reason I was still in my school uniform. I was good enough at using a scythe that it shouldn't matter if I had to fight a few zombies and a witch.

Even so, it was awfully dark. I pulled out a torch and flicked it on. The light flickered and then went out. I hit the torch into my palm a few times but it did nothing. Crap. I heard a rummaging noise from underneath me. I glanced down but didn't move away in time.

A rotten hand grabbed my ankle, and the earth parted while a howling zombie burst forth. I was lifted into the air as it rose until its waist was at ground level. My scythe slipped from my grip and I cursed. I fell forward while it still held my foot and I gripped a headstone.

Shifting my weight I kicked with my free foot into the monster's face. It shrieked and released me. On my feet again I ducked a blind swipe and picked up the fallen scythe. Bringing it over my shoulder I decapitated the zombie in one quick motion.

Crimson blood droplets remained suspended in my line of vision for a moment before hitting the earth in clumps. I breathed heavily and gripped my weapon more tightly.

"My, my. That was quite impressive."

I looked up to see a woman, probably in her mid-twenties with short blonde hair. She was wearing black clothing that showed off her shapely form. She smiled at me tantalizingly and her yellow cats' eyes glowed. A witch.

She was sitting on a cross-shaped tombstone. Letting out an exaggerated sigh she crossed her arms.

"What is a kid like you doing here? Judging by that weapon and your skill at using it, I'm guessing you're a hunter. Am I correct?"

"You've been turning people here into zombies. That doesn't sit well with me. If you don't stop I'm going to kill you."

"I love it when you get so commanding." She said seductively. "Why would such a cute school kid like yourself be throwing out death threats, hmm?"

"As tempted as I am by you, I'm going to have to insist you stop. You turned one of my closest friends into a zombie."

The witch closed her eyes regrettably.

"That's too bad," they opened and flashed with a murderous intent. Her lips parted, revealing a wicked smile "for you!"

All around me the ground started rumbling and dozens of corpses rose from the earth, thrashing and flailing. They groaned and snapped at me with their teeth. She had this many dead bodies already transformed into zombies and hidden underground?

Maniac and high-pitched cackling filled the air. One of the quicker zombies pulled itself out completely and ran for me swiping. I stepped to the side and carved through its thigh. Another zombie ran at me from behind and I meant to poke it back with the end of my scythe.

I watched in revulsion as the metal pole sank into the creature's soft chest, and it began to impale itself slowly as it walked closer towards me. I lifted my foot to its chest and kicked it off the end. I know I said regular zombies weren't too much trouble to deal with, but that was different when they were in a horde!

They started to swarm me and grabbed my limps. I struggled uselessly; the witch laughed even louder. She raised her arm as if she were holding something in her palm.

"Now feed on her. Dig in!"

The zombies snarled and their mouths opened. There was a putrid stench and volumes of hideous drool and bile dripped from them.

"Back the fuck up!" I managed to spin my scythe above my head, sending the pole crashing into the heads of the surrounding zombies. They all stumbled and fell over each other like dominoes.

Roaring, I started racing towards the witch, scythe in hand. She smiled, confident I wouldn't be able to get through her horde as they all advanced on me while I ran forward. Leaping I landed on top of a headstone and jumped to a stone cross.

Jumping across the headstones I flew over the swiping mass of zombies and made my way closer to my enemy. I pushed off of a cracked stone rectangle with both feet and flew. Hands reached for me below and my foot collided with the head of another zombie.

Using it as purchase I propelled myself forward and the blade of my scythe cut through her as if she were butter. A surprised, perplexed expression flitted on the witch's pretty face before her body came apart. Landing by her remains I stood and turned my face towards the zombies.

They stood frozen, staring at me with as much shock as their decayed faces could muster.

"Alright." I spun the scythe around once and caught it with both hands. "Now that the witch is gone I'll take care of you guys and call it a night."