Zombie Panic (Day 2)

(Caution: depiction of corpses.)

[Toshima Magistracy: Hiratsuka]

"My lord Daikan! Just as the word from the Library-City warned, headless rotting corpses are welling up in vast numbers from a spot in the desert at the edge of town, in the quarter of the Dragon, a little over one ri away."

A report came in to the Toshima Magistracy.

"It's surely the corpses left over from the other day, when those folk from Awa lured in a great mass of Preta. Their moving is no doubt a trick of the eyes. Leaving them out in the desert like that, though, what a nuisance. I'll go take a look."

The Daikan kept only a small body of retainers. The sole real threat was the odd pirate; it was about 30 ri to the neighboring country's Kōnodai, three days on foot, but relations with Sō were not especially bad, and since there was no oasis along the way, there was no need to station troops there.

[The Desert Outside Hiratsuka]

"Mm, what a foul stench this is…"

As the Daikan's party drew near the site, a hideous reek hung over the whole area.

"My lord Daikan, there they are. The headless corpses are moving."

"As if corpses could move."

But the horde of corpses came shambling slowly toward the Daikan's men.

"M-my lord Daikan, there's hundreds, thousands of them. Look at that."

"Don't lose your nerve. Rabble like this will scatter the moment you cut a few of them down."

So saying, the Daikan cut down the nearest corpse. The slain corpse toppled to the ground, its form thinning until it faded clean away.

"It vanished… So these are no ordinary corpses. Some manner of monster or apparition, then."

But every corpse save the one that had been struck down and vanished kept shambling slowly toward the Daikan's men.

"There are far too many of them. Fall back!"

[Toshima Magistracy: Hiratsuka]

Hiratsuka sat atop a cliff that ran from northwest to southeast, a little over 2 ri long and some seven jō high; the southwest side was tableland, while the northeast was lowland.

"How many headless corpses are there, then?"

"My lord Daikan, likely upward of ten thousand, I should think."

The vast mass of corpses, advancing ever so slowly at less than half a man's walking pace, had filled the foot of the cliff and was now, with the same sluggish movements, trying to climb it. Perhaps because they had no eyes, many of them tumbled back partway down, but their reaching the top was only a matter of time. And it was already afternoon; at this rate night would fall.

"If only we had a stone rampart… but we don't, and that can't be helped. Tell the people: we have no choice but to abandon Hiratsuka."

"Which way can we flee?"

"There's nowhere but north. The Nameless Bridge is a little over 2 ri off. We can reach it while there's still daylight, and since the corpses walk slowly, we ought to buy ourselves a couple of hours. By contrast, Hatanodai to the south is 30 ri, and Fuchū to the west is 50 ri. If we're pursued, many would give out along the way. We'll send couriers south and west, all the same. There are two horses in Hiratsuka, so both can serve as mounts for the couriers."

"Understood."

"If those corpses do come chasing after us north, then the Director of Books will surely contrive something."