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“There are zombies in the fox village! Like real fucking zombies! I met my mate. There was this door and we thought it would just disappear but it didn’t and now there are fucking zombies! We’re inside the house but… Philip, there are real fucking zombies!”
“Are you armed?” Philip’s voice came through the phone.
“I have an athame and could probably make some Molotov cocktails but that would burn down the village and …”
“Put your mate on the phone, Pollie,” Philip said.
“He can hear you,” Leopold said before I had a chance to speak.
“I take it you’ve fought these things before on the other side of the door?” Philip asked, his breath shifting like he was moving around now. “What do I need to know?”
“Don’t let them bite or scratch you! Animals can’t turn but they’ll eat them. You gotta either take the head or kill the brain to really take them down,” I explained quickly, pulling Leopold closer to me again.
“Guns work?” Philip asked.
“Probably. I didn’t have a gun and bullets don’t last forever,” I said, feeling like I was explaining the end of the world to a stranger.
“Don’t burn down the village and don’t let Pollie out there to save wild foxes. Take the high ground. Most of those houses have attics. Get up there. Barricade it if you have to. Don’t try to pull a hero and…” Philip’s voice trailed off for a second and as he talked to someone else. “Yeah, it’s Pollie. No, he’s alone with some new guy. True-mate response. Yeah, fucking zombies. Pollie, how many of the bastards are out there?”
“Lots!” Pollie said.
“Pollie, kiddo, that doesn’t tell me much,” Philip said, his voice calmer than I expected.
“I counted at least fifteen,” I said. “But that’s just what I could see from the bedroom window.”
“Well, shit,” another voice said over the phone.
“Stay inside,” Philip said. “We’re on our way.”
The line went dead.
Leopold snatched up Pox and grabbed by hand. He pulled me down the hallway into the kitchen. He loaded my free arm up with food from the fridge and then grabbed the jug of tea. Pox squirmed to get comfortable but didn’t try to escape until he bounded up the stairs as soon as Leopold pulled them down from the ceiling. Spinach ran right after him. I glanced around the kitchen and grabbed the knife block. My dagger was still in the bathroom. I got my omega upstairs with the others and went back down for it. Then I went to each window and tried to get a better count. The undead were moving around but I was pretty sure I counted twenty-two.
“Can you still contact them?” I asked as I headed up the stairs.
“Yeah, but they can’t get here any faster,” Leopold nodded.
He stood at the attic window. It wasn’t huge, but we could go out in our fox forms if push came to shove. Pox and Spinach had found a high perch on a stack of rubber totes. I sat everything down and wrapped my arms around him from behind.
“It’s unlikely that they’ll get all the way up here. I’ve never even see them open a door before,” I whispered to him.
“Then how?” he whispered, pulling his phone back out. “What did you want me to tell Philip?”
“Twenty-two. I think there are twenty-two right now,” I said.
He typed something into his phone. Probably a text. He leaned back against me.
“It’ll be okay,” I said even though I wasn’t sure I believed that for a second. How could this end okay?
“I know. Philip and Canton are coming. Maybe others too. They come from a different territory. The one my sire grew up in. The GGB. The folks there are ready for everything. I’m not sure they have a zombie preparedness plan, but if anyone does it’ll be those two.”
His phone chimed and he looked down at it.
“They’re coming by the Other World gateway. It’s a bit of a walk, but Philip is a fast bear.”
“He understands he can’t eat them, right?” I asked, fighting off a shiver.
“Yeah. He wouldn’t try to eat a zombie. He’s experienced with weapons and stuff. They basically led secret rescue missions from insanely dangerous places back in the day. Before I was born. When my sire was a kid.”
