"Here." Jess handed Gred a small copper spoon.

Gred accepted it, then noticed that Jess held one too. He frowned. "What the hell is this now?"

"For harvesting the Grave Moss." As Jess spoke, he began scraping it from the leg bone with his spoon, transferring each small amount into a little pouch.

Now it was Gred's turn to vomit. He rushed to the wall and retched violently, but since he had eaten nothing that morning, only a little stomach fluid came out.

"Seven silver a pound, Gred," Jess said grimly, then resumed scraping.

"Seven silver coins!" Gred roared. Then he reconsidered and sensed something wrong. "Screw you! Didn't you say you weren't selling the Grave Moss? What damned good would even seven gold coins do?"

He cursed, but still wiped his mouth, ran back to the stone coffin, pushed the lid farther aside, and began scraping.

Only a layer covered the corpse's surface, but once they had scraped most of it away, they had gathered a surprisingly large amount of Grave Moss. It might not reach a pound, but hefting it in their hands, they estimated that it occupied about as much space as a bottle of cola and weighed at least half a pound.

After doing the work for a while, it no longer felt quite so disgusting. They scraped, pushed the coffin lid farther open, and continued scraping.

Once they had opened it completely, Gred saw the corpse's face.

"Jess. Hey." Gred nudged Jess with his elbow. Jess was still lost in the work of scraping Grave Moss.

"Look at this. Is he staring at me? I'm afraid I'm seeing things."

"Hmm?" Jess glanced over. The dead man's face was surprisingly intact. He lay submerged in dirty water with his eyes open, almost lifelike.

At that moment, the corpse's eyes turned toward Jess.

"He isn't looking at you. He's looking at me." Jess went back to scraping.

Gred slapped the back of Jess's head and roared, "He's fucking alive!"

"What?"

The blow jolted Jess awake. To focus on scraping the Grave Moss, his mind had begun automatically blocking out anything frightening.

The corpse suddenly grabbed Gred's arm. The dwarf howled. Jess reacted instantly and chopped off the walking corpse's arm with his axe. Gred jumped, shook the severed limb loose, grabbed the sack and their tools, and ran.

Jess clutched the axe and followed. His foot slipped, nearly sending him sprawling. The corpse abruptly sat up in the stone coffin, released a feeble rasp of breath, climbed out, and staggered after them.

Neither man dared look behind him. They fled upward with all their strength. As they approached the crypt entrance, they saw another zombie standing directly in the doorway.

"Get out of the way!"

Gred roared and charged with his sword. One clean swing severed the creature's head, and he kicked the remaining headless body aside.

Jess followed him out of the crypt, only to discover zombies standing everywhere throughout the cemetery.

As the two men started toward the hole they had used to enter, a chorus of strange moans and grunts rose from that direction.

Several hunched humanoid monsters covered in rotting flesh shoved through layers of brush and darted around the gravestones toward them. To run faster, some switched between racing on all fours and sprinting upright. They resembled a pack of rabid beasts far more than humans.

"Ghouls... Quickly, run the other way!" Gred pointed behind them and shoved Jess into motion.

Jess turned and ran, but he knew there was only one place where they could leave: the hole behind those ghouls.

Everywhere else was blocked by the tall fence, whose top was decorated with spikes meant to prevent intruders. Climbing over it was impossible.

But the ghouls were extraordinarily fast. Like a pack of wild dogs, they wove through the mindless crowd of zombies and raced toward the two men. Jess had almost no time to think of a solution.

When they reached the fence, the dwarf flung the herb sack and all their luggage over it. Then he looked Jess up and down. "Come here."

"What are you doing?"

The dwarf did not answer. He seized Jess and, before Jess could say anything, threw him over the fence too.

Jess's mind went blank. An extraordinary force hurled him into the air and sent him skimming over the iron spikes. They tore several holes in his clothes, and his back hurt terribly.

After landing, he lay dizzy for a moment, then grimaced and felt his back. Fortunately, he was not bleeding. The spikes might only have scraped the skin.

Realizing that Gred was still inside, Jess grabbed the bars. "Are you fucking stupid? How are you getting out?"

"Run. Get back to Raven Hill. If I can't handle these ghouls..." The dwarf flourished his sword but did not finish.

"Shut your mouth... Let me think." Jess looked around, then at the zombies and ghouls approaching from the other side. Suddenly, he remembered a similar scene from a television show.

The Walking Dead, was it?

He picked up the logging axe and struck the iron fence with all his might. The deafening clang startled Gred, while even the zombies and ghouls hesitated for an instant at the noise.

"Now run... Gred, find a way to reach that hole on the other side."

"I understand. Be careful!" While the ghouls and zombies puzzled over the sound, Gred rolled into the nearby brush.

After the dwarf vanished, Jess stood alone before the fence, tightly gripping the rusty logging axe. Facing the upright, swaying shadows among the mist-veiled gravestones, he suddenly felt an intense loneliness close around his heart.

He raised the axe and struck the iron fence again. As if awakening, the zombies began shuffling toward him.

Before he could swing once more, a ghoul suddenly lunged up in front of him. Its grotesquely long arm shot through the bars and nearly caught Jess by the throat.

Jess's heart seemed to stop for a beat. He retreated two steps and involuntarily swallowed as he stared at the monster's swollen eyes, rotting face, and teeth as sharp as a wild wolf's.

Then a second, third, and fourth ghoul clung to the fence, growling as they thrust their arms through. One spat a mouthful of green pus that nearly splashed Jess.

The ghouls resembled a troop of starving, frenzied baboons, and in their eyes Jess was a piece of juicy fruit.

Jess hesitated for a long time, not daring to approach. At that moment, one ghoul seemed to hear something. It paused and glanced behind itself.

"Fuck you." Cursing under his breath in his native language, Jess rushed forward and slammed the axe against the fence again. This time, he caught every ghoul's attention. They reached for his arms and collar in a frenzy. Jess retreated several steps, tripped over a stone, and fell. Only after checking his arms and body and finding no wounds did he breathe a sigh of relief.

"Come on, you brainless bastards!" he roared. His voice seemed three or four levels weaker than the axe striking the fence, so he found an opening, shifted position, and hit it again, once more avoiding the ghouls' snapping jaws.

This time, he felt as though he had gotten the hang of it.

More and more zombies gathered, each pressing toward the fence and staring fixedly at Jess. But he was becoming accustomed to them. Every strike he made was safer than the last.

Then one ghoul lifted its head and studied the fence's upper edge.

Jess froze when he saw it. His throat grew increasingly dry.

He coughed lightly to moisten it. The ghoul suddenly jumped and nearly caught hold of the spikes at the top of the fence.

"I..." Jess muttered in panic, snatched up the cloth sack, and prepared to run. Then someone suddenly grabbed his collar.

"Get off me!" Jess violently tore himself free and found Gred standing behind him.

"It's me! It's me!" Seeing Jess drenched in sweat, Gred seized him by the collar and gave him a hard shake. "Now, go!"

"Go... Right."

They gathered all their luggage and sprinted into the forest. Only when they could no longer hear the zombies roaring did they gradually slow to a stop.

Jess threw his yellowed, filthy shirt into a patch of brush and put on a new brown linen one. Then he sat on the ground, eyes wide, panting hard.

"You should know something, Jess." Gred swallowed. "Even the bravest Wildhammer warrior couldn't remain calm in a situation like that. I promise you. You're the bravest fucking human I've ever seen. If you don't become a knight or a member of the royal guard one day, then that Wrynn boy must be blind, or this entire kingdom has something wrong with its head."

Only after a long while did Jess mutter, "I'm never coming back here."

Gred could not suppress a laugh. Jess looked at him and began laughing too.

They laughed for quite some time before Jess asked, "What time is it now?"

The smile gradually vanished from Gred's face. He said coldly, "If I could afford a pocket watch, would I be risking my life out here with you?"