3 Without A Means to Avoid An End

Lineir spent all night tossing and turning, trying to find a solution, but could come up with nothing. There was only one logical ending to him being discovered and that was his end! To make matters worse, he felt sicker and sicker as the night went on. On his back, he had discovered where his clothes had made contact with the horrid undead five glowing spots had begun to appear where the fingers had grazed him. These spots spread overnight into a interconnected tangle of swollen veins which itched terribly. Throwing his thickest most obscuring shirt on, he walked out and headed to a different gate. He dared not return to the scene of the crime, but he needed to find a new spot to search for valuables, his sister couldn't support them both on her own. With a huff, he hurried by the gate which had additional men this time. They called out to him,

"Take care of yourself traveler, there's been undead round this parts!" but paid him little heed, people exited the gates all the time from any place, they had little stake in it. Lineir however, was sighing endlessly, unable to catch the slightest break. All his usual spots were indeed mined out, and he once again found himself nearing the tombstones of the Deadzone.

"What are the odds of there being more undead? The White Horizon's Sect ought to have exterminated them all. Still... do I count myself as a lucky man?" Working himself up to it, he stepped ever closer to the first headstone, unable to cross that line. As he neared the edge, he sighed once again and turned back, "It's not worth my life, only a fool would risk his life for this! I'd be better off pickpocketing, at least I would die cleanly and be buried properly!" At that moment, his back ignited in flaming pain, and Lineir folded over onto the ground gasping. It felt like something was trying to dig its way out of his back. A sickening squelch sounded as from his back, a blackish-purple spider erupted from the blackened area on his back and plopped to the ground. It was swollen and engorged with a glowing red orb on its back, filled with Lineir's blood.

The blackish-purple spider quickly scuttled away into the Deadzone, and all faded to silence. Lineir bleeding with a hand-sized portion of flesh missing from his back, laid there and fought for breath. Eventually he was about to try to stand when he heard the sound he most dreaded for the second time in his life.

KAAAAAAHSSSSSSSssssss

The call of a higher undead! Lineir scrambled up to no avail. His weakened body didn't have an ounce of strength left and refused to obey his commands. He could do nothing but flail about like a turtle on its back, unable to right itself. Soon, he heard footsteps nearing and then felt grasping hands on his legs, as they were lifted up and he began to move! He was being dragged away by the undead, deeper into the Deadzone! Tales of undead hordes consuming men, making them one of them, flooded his mind. Nobody knew whether those eaten by the undead were still conscious, trapped forever in a cycle of rot and decay.

Lineir viciously fought to get away, he clawed at the ground and tried to kick free but the undead didn't care in the least. With a last feeble kick, Lineir passed out as his bloodloss and exertion caught up to him. As he drifted off, he thought to himself, "At least now nobody will know it was me that got the White Horizon Sect involved. My sister at least will be safe, though she will never know what happened to me."