Gabina's First Encounter

Taking a seat next to the chief the Waitress asked in a flirtatious manner, "Do you need me to heal you, chief?" With one hand around him, her other hand was lifting her skirt ever so slightly.

Maybe this is a custom for them, or maybe it's the method to be healed? Liam didn't know why she acted so flirty. He has seen plenty of old people trying to hit on the younger generation, but rarely the opposite.

The chief looked at the waitress with a slight smile, and politely declined the invention before she could continue, "It's okay, we have a guest today so how about next time."

Still sitting next to the chief, the waitress looked over at Liam with a displeased look, "Fine." She replied as she stood up, "Can he even drink?"

The Chief looked over at Liam for a second before replying, "I'm sure he can handle himself, right Liam?"

Feeling somewhat dumbfounded by what just happened, Liam confirmed without much thought, "Umm, yeah." 'How strong can medieval alcohol be?' 

"Okay. I'm Emma by the way, don't forget it." Emma did a quick scan of Liam before looking back at the chief with a smile, "Ale than?" With a cheerful look, she rushed back to the bar counter before the chief could even answer.

While waiting for the ale, Liam looked around the pub. Unlike medieval pubs he had seen in games and movies, this place was a lot more bland. There were no paintings, no rugs, not even the casks where the alcohol should have been stored. It was just filled with a bunch of tables and chairs.

Behind the counter was a shelf with plates and mugs, next to it was a door presumably leading to the kitchen. Stairs were to the left of the room heading upstairs. The only thing standing out was a weird ball floating on the ceiling lighting up the room.

"This place seems nice." Liam tried to complement this place as best he could, "A lively atmosphere." Glancing over at Emma, He watched her pour two mugs of water and put a small pill-like object in both.

'What was that? Is she trying to poison us?' Liam continued watching Emma as she brought the mugs over and slammed them on the table, a Light brown colored liquid sloshed around in the mug. She scanned Liam again for a few seconds before letting go of the mugs, "Enjoy your ale." 

"Don't mind her, she has to deal with a lot of people every day. Here let's cheers." the chief picked up his mug and held it out to Liam. "Huh? Oh okay, Cheers!" Liam replied hitting his mug against the chiefs.

Before Liam had time to sip he saw the chief start to down the ale only stopping once the mug was empty, "Aahhh." Finishing his ale, The chief slammed the mug on the table with a satisfied look on his face, "Sorry, it's sort of a tradition for me to down the first drink. The first one always tastes the best." Finishing his sentence, Liam sees Emma bringing over another mug.

'At least it's not poison, I think.' Liam was nervous as this was the first drink he would be having. He took a small sip, the ale sat on his tongue for a second before he swallowed. It tasted like watered-down bread, with a hint of sweetness to it, but it didn't taste good, 'I don't want to drink alcohol if this is what it tastes like.'

"Hey Chief, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?"

"Just call me Leo. And sure, what do you want to know?"

"How long have you all been stuck here?" It was a question Liam wanted to ask for a while, from when he first heard they were stuck here. He originally thought they were a forest tribe.

"Almost half a year now."

"Why didn't you guys try to Leave?"

"There is no leaving. We sent people to try, they returned as zombies in less than ten minutes. we'll all just die trying to leave."

After a few back and forth, Liam got the basic rundown of everything that happened after they entered the forest. This trip was originally supposed to last a month at most. but disaster struck on day one.

On a dirt road wide enough for 10 men to stand side by side, the Gabina elite knights marched at the front, followed by 5 wagons, and 2 carriages, one at the front and one at the back. 20 horseback warriors and 30 more on foot scattered around. There were balls of light floating around the place lighting the road and surrounding.

People were chatting and laughing along the road. The forest looked like a normal morning under the floating balls of light but looking just a small distance into the forest was pitch black.

After an hour of walking, they saw a light ahead of the road, the knights at the front readied their swords while everyone else started quieting down. Everybody began battle preparation.

Walking to where the lights were, everybody was surprised to see no enemies but just a beautiful clearing, the clean river flowing through on the right, fluffy white clouds gliding along the bright blue sky, most people started discussing the idea of making a base and relaxing for the rest of the day. While most people were chatting away the knights had unsheathed their swords and started readying their stances, something was hiding in the forest.

The knight's motions caused most of the people behind to tense up as they couldn't see any danger but followed the knights and readied their weapons. People holding bows and staff started hopping off the wagons. The two carriages remained motionless.

everybody got into position, knights at the front formed a semicircle, and the others scattered around prepared to attack whatever was hiding. A small number were watching the rear just in case there was a flank. Mages started casting AOE protection spells.

Silence took over, everything felt frozen around them.

10 seconds past

20 seconds past

30 seconds past

The second felt like minutes, the atmosphere was heavy.

The sound of bones being crushed was heard.

Everybody turned around in horror, as muffled screams filled their ears. Blood started dripping from the first carriage. The screams ended just as quickly as they started.

Silence took over again. The warriors closest to the carriage went over to investigate.

One of the warriors went up to open the carriage door. Sweet started falling from his head, he took a gulp and went for it. The second the door opened, a hand reached out and grabbed his arm. The sound of his bone could be heard as it was getting crushed. The sight of his arm is seen being squeezed purple. Blood started spraying everywhere.

Before anyone could react, a zombie dressed in a cook attire leapt out of the carriage, using his free hand to grab the warrior's mouth. In an instant the warrior had his bottom jaw ripped off, a horrified look could be seen behind the man's tears, silent cries were heard by those close enough to him.

The zombie didn't give the warriors any time to react to the situation as it had already tackled its next victim. Sitting on top of the warrior, the zombie bit at the man's neck. A blood-curdling scream is heard by everyone around. Some finally started realizing what was happening.

The three warriors closest to the zombie all attacked it at once, but before any blow could land, three zombies rushed out of the carriage. One of the warriors got pounced on, another one got tackled, and the last warrior fell limp. Looking down everyone saw his head rolling towards them, stopping as it looked up at the warriors. Blood started flowing out from both the body and head.

At the same time, the knights upfront focused on the forest. A sudden breeze blew through the leaves causing the leaves to sway with the wind, but it didn't calm down, it just kept shaking more and more violently. A zombie onslaught started breaking through the boundaries of the forest into the clearing.

With each slash zombie heads and limbs started flying away, guts spilling everywhere. The knights looked like an impenetrable wall, with every available step forward, knights from the back pushed ahead taking over the fight till they made another available step forward.

The mages kept giving buffs and doing AOE attacks at the endless wave of zombies rushing out of the woods. Archers were shooting arrows but didn't seem to be doing a whole lot.

The warriors at the back Finally took care of the zombies that rushed out of the carriage, but to their horror, it wasn't over. The warriors that got killed slowly started standing up.

Bones being crushed, flesh being torn, skin being scratched off by the newly formed zombies. 

Some didn't want to believe it, they closed their eyes and started praying

In the carriage at the back, Leo stepped out, holding a staff with a ruby embedded at the top. Red veins spiraled down the staff from top to bottom.

After speaking an unknown dialect, Leo lifted the staff and yelled "MASS HEAL!" A radiant red glow brightened the entire glade. the zombies attacking suddenly started growling from the light, while they were screaming in pain, the warriors bashed the zombie's head in, officially killing them. The mass healing also weakened the zombies attacking the knights, zombies still in the forest stopped rushing out.

Leo yelled for a full retreat before coughing up mouthfuls of blood. Another healer cast basic healing on him while a few other people helped him back into the carriage.

Being given the signal for a full retreat everyone started running back along the road. The knights at the front started backing away slowly making sure everyone else could run first.

Half of the Horseback riders decided to just leave as fast as they could, the other half left at a speed just faster than the warriors running on foot. 

The carriage followed behind them, Leo was still coughing up blood inside. two healers kept using healing on him. 

Once everyone retreated the spell started diminishing and the onslaught of zombies was ready to charge out once again, the knights started running as well, but their speed was just too slow. some of the slower running knights turned around and reformed a defensive position, they were going to sacrifice themselves so everyone else could make it out.

"Many died that day, most were killed during retreat, but thanks to the knights who sacrificed themselves, half of us are still alive right now."