They were louder and seemed to be coming from all around them. High-pitched clicking sounds mixed with growling echoed toward them, making it hard to pin down where they were actually coming from. Lola’s nerves were starting to fray. She jumped at every little noise as flashbacks of the massacre at Gloucester hit her. Russel’s tactic of keeping her engaged in conversation was failing and the terror was building up. She saw the blade she held in front of her begin to shake uncontrollably. She tried to keep it steady but couldn’t.

Russel saw her shaking and did what he could to comfort her.

“You can take these things,” he said, truthfully. “You have the skill and the strength.”

The ghouls were almost on them now. He could hear them easily. Judging by the sounds and different locations they were coming from, he guessed there were seven of them. Their scent was thick and heavy in the air too. It wasn’t pleasant either. It smelled like rotting carrion mixed with the smell of shit. It was distracting.

“Thank you,” she said, letting his words fill her with some courage. She tightened her grip on her blade and after a few seconds, it stilled. “Let’s hope you’re right.”

He took a quick second to catch her attention. She saw him turn toward her out of the corner of her eye and turned her head toward him. Their eyes locked and she felt even better. There was no hint of lying in him. He was telling her the truth. That gave her an even bigger boost of confidence.

“I know I am,” he told her, completely serious.

She smiled at that and then turned toward the sounds. Faintly, she could see dark things racing around. They moved quickly but she was still able to get some of their details. Their clothing looked like a collection of ragged strips of cloth dyed in shades ranging from beige to green. From what she was able to see of their skin, it was mottled and gray. She wasn’t sure but she thought there might have been open sores on more than one of them. The only other thing was that each one seemed to have a singular talon-like claw jutting out of the tops of their hands.

Oh. And fangs. Lots of long, flesh-rending fangs.

Russel had been right. There were seven of them. They sent one of their number in first, most likely to test the waters as it were. As dumb and brainless as they were, they still had a little bit of sense. The creature came for Lola, judging her to be the weaker of the two.

It opened its overlong, eerie mouth at her and let out a clicking roar as it brandished its talon-claws in her general direction.

Lola saw her blade start to shake again but she told herself over and over again she could do it. She could win and kill the thing. Russel looked as if he wanted to step in but she forced him away.

“I have to do this,” she explained. “I have to be the one to fight or I’ll just be running for the rest of my life. I can kill it.”

Russel looked at her, impressed.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” he told her. “Dispatch the thing quickly. The others are waiting. Watching to gauge how weak we are. If you kill this one fast enough, they might decide we aren’t worth the trouble and run off.”

Lola glared at the ghoul. It watched her, its head tilted to one side as it paced back and forth, looking for an opening. All the while, Lola’s heart beat against her chest like a war drum. Her legs felt watery and didn’t seem to obey her commands at first. But she shoved all that fear down, as far down her mind as she could. The world dropped away, leaving only her and the ghoul.

Her eyes narrowed.

Her hands tightened around the hilt of the blade.

Her leg muscles flexed.

With a shout and a wordless battle cry, she attacked first.