Thick shoes clomping behind her made Zoe spin. Out of the alley stumbled one more creature. Wayne was incinerating a zombie to her side. This one fell to her. She raised her dagger and prepared to fire.
A small black sphere splattered against the neck of the zombie from its side. It flashed white a moment after.
The zombie’s head fell to the ground with its body crumpling after it.
Zoe whirled around to where the attack came from.
A woman stood next to a younger black-haired girl. The woman wore a suit–much fancier than Zoe’s own–splattered with blood. The sleeves were torn at the wrist and she had long black gloves tipped in sharp claws. What really drew Zoe’s eyes was the half-black, half-white mask with thin slits for eyes and thick cords that ran from the top of her head down her back.
The black-haired girl quickly placed something behind her back while Zoe was distracted with the masked woman. She wore much more normal pants, tee-shirt and a jacket.
It took a double take before Zoe recognized the girl. Zoe forced herself to relax and put on a calmer face.
“Eva, what are you doing here?”
The young girl looked up at Zoe with cold eyes. “Same thing as you, I imagine; cleaning up the town and hunting necromancers. Found any?”
“You’re covered in blood.” She wasn’t exactly covered in it. Not as much as her companion, at least. There was definitely blood, especially on her hands.
She looked down at herself then back up at Zoe with a small smile. “It isn’t mine.”
Zoe did not match her smile. If the blood was hers, she was injured. Not a good thing when zombies are running around. If the blood wasn’t hers then it was zombie blood.
“Eva,” Zoe started, calmly and slowly, “are you infected?”
The tall figure standing next to her tensed at the comment. Zoe couldn’t tell her facial expression beneath the mask, but she looked about ready to pounce. Judging by the blood dripping off of her clawed gloves as well as over her undamaged clothes, she was quite good at pouncing.
Eva held her hand to the side and gave a small shake of her head. The woman immediately relaxed.
“Don’t worry,” Eva said, “I took an anti-zombie potion.”
Wayne bristled at that. “No such thing,” he grunted.
“People keep telling me that.” Eva crossed her arms beneath her chest. “We’ll see who is a zombie in the morning and who isn’t.”
Zoe didn’t doubt Wayne’s knowledge of potions. She knew of only one way to counteract the infection from a zombie and she did not have a corpse flower handy. “You will become a hindrance if you are infected.”
“So you’re going to kill me then?” Eva half snarled. This time both of them tensed.
Zoe did not like how quickly the girl was ready to fight. She had one hand behind her back. Zoe did not know what was back there except that it was undoubtedly a weapon.
“Quarantine,” Zoe quickly said. “In the morning you can, if you’re you, teach Wayne how to make your potion.”
“Can’t,” Eva said with a wave of her hand, “I didn’t make it. My mentor did. It was delivered by,” she paused and glanced at the tall woman next to her, “his associate.” Eva relaxed, dropping her arm to her side. The woman next to her didn’t.
“Does this associate have a name?”
“Yes.”
“Why’s she wearing a mask?” Wayne asked.
“It’s Halloween, isn’t it?” The woman in the mask had a confident but very artificially modulated voice. Just four words came out like they weren’t being spoken by a proper mouth or vocal cords.
It set Zoe on edge. More on edge than she already was.
“Quarantine, Eva, is–”
“A waste of time. If you have no information on the necromancers behind this, then I believe it is time to go.” She turned, though the woman next to her did not. “Believe it or not, I am mildly fond of you. Don’t try to stop me. It would be… unpleasant.”
“Take one of these at least,” Zoe said. She pulled out one of her business cards and held it out. “If you do find the necromancers, let us know. We can help.”
Eva reached out and almost took it. She pulled her hand back mere inches from the card. “I’d rather not risk getting blood on you,” she said.
Zoe set the card on the ground and took a step back. Eva picked it up.
“If I do use this, I highly recommend not touching either of us without sterilization. Even if we’re badly injured.”
With that said, the girl turned and used her false blink down the street. The ‘associate’ remained–glaring if Zoe had to guess–for a moment longer before she sprinted down the street. She jumped straight to a rooftop that Eva blinked to and they were gone.
“You shouldn’t have let them go.”
“I don’t think we had much choice. I have no doubts that the thing next to her was not human. I do have doubts over how much we could have hurt it before it killed us.”
Wayne just grunted. “Come on,” he said, “night’s far from over.”
Zoe followed after him. She kept alert for any movement, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
A mysterious nonhuman associate. A weapon that she kept hidden even when she suspected an attack. A cure for zombie infection.
