The creature was moving through the shadows near the burnt-out diner across the square. It was hideous worse than the dead deer that he had encountered in the forest. The body had long ago rotted away from the skeleton leaving clinging strips of putrid flesh hanging here and there. The skeleton shuffled slowly back and forth through the hollowed-out building seeming to care little if it walked through the fires.
It was unnatural and its eyes glowed with a strange light when it passed into a shadowed area. It was not a color, but it looked like it should be, like a glowing black light which was impossible. But then walking skeletons were impossible a few days ago.
'Grandfather always said the dead would walk but I always assumed it would be more like the deer. Only recently dead things coming back with the flux corruption taking control and using them to spread. This is going to make things much worse' Layan thought about all the graves full of bodies littering the world.
The monster was slow and did not look like it was too much of a threat to Layan, so he started walking towards it drawing his swords.
The slow shambling thing barely managed to turn around before he bashed in the skull with the solid pommel of his short sword. The head was caved in and the body crumbled to the floor. Whatever was holding it together falling apart with the head.
As the bones rattled over the floor there was a movement and a crash as something metal hit the ground behind the counter in the kitchen area.
The area was burnt out but the old-style wooden counter with its retro stools was still solid enough that he had to make his way around to the end before he could look at what had made the movement. When he turned the corner into the kitchen area, he found his second monster.
This was the old cook whose name he never found out. The man was half eaten, his guts making a long bloody trail from the grilling area towards the door. It pulled itself forwards with its arms moving faster than Layan expected as it's black eyes and mouth were fixed on taking its own bites out of him.
He stabbed it through the top of its head, the sword thrusting cleanly through the skull. With a twist and a yank, the blade came free and the monster collapsed dead for good this time.
Layan wandered looking through all the main square buildings and found nothing more. The rest of the place was completely deserted. It was strange, just two monsters for a town with about a thousand people. There should be a lot more of them here and where are the rest of the people. The flux wave shouldn't have killed or changed everyone.
His grandfather had always told him the first wave was the easiest. There would be deaths from the wave and many more from those that changed after the wave. Most of those deaths should have come from the elderly and the sick. So, a town like this should have lost maybe a few hundred at most to the changes.
The people in this town were not city dwellers, they were loggers and hunters. They were men and women used to living a hard life they should have been able to hold out and fight back. This was one of the reasons the plan he and his grandfather worked out included this town.
Confused and worried Layan decided to press on and headed for the main road out of town.