Humans could get used to anything. In this case, the people living at Wu’s Gym had gotten used to the earthquakes, despite the fact that earthquakes hadn’t happened where they lived. Sadly, the change, as some called it, had, well, changed that. No longer did they enjoy tectonic stability, instead the earth would start to shake at random times, or maybe mostly random. Somehow, the quakes happened disproportionally often at night, making sure that people couldn’t get a good night’s sleep.

In this case, the earthquake was enough to bring down one of the nearby buildings, making an incredible amount of noise and waking everybody who had been trying to sleep up. And, for once, that was a good thing.

Just after the quake hit, one of the spellcasters, trained by the rather creepy, yet useful, Miss Jacobs raised the alarm. Wu Chenhua, the owner of the gym, had been dreading this, ever since the possibility had been raised. Raising, that was the problem, or rather rising. The petite and pale girl she had been training for years had suggested that the dead might not rest as easily as they had before the change had hit, that they might decide to rise again if enough of them were piled together or there was a powerful source of Death Magic.

She had talked to Cassie Grim, also known as the Denmother, a small but stout girl around the same age as Samantha, who had also played that strange game. While the Denmother had sounded far less secure in her words, she had done some strange divination ritual, asking the gods for guidance, or at least so she said. It might have been just some spiel to buy herself time to consider the options or to make herself seem more knowledgeable, either way, by the end of it, she, too, had been scared. Just as scared as Wu Chenhua, who had realised that trying to stay in the city wasn't a viable long-term strategy, not unless they could find a way to bury or cremate the countless dead bodies.

The death toll of the change had been astronomical, with not just countless dead people but also dead pets and dead pests. Just because a rat wasn’t mourned didn’t mean their body wouldn’t decompose and potentially add toxins to the environment.

And so, they had prepared to leave the town, leave behind whatever they had to and retreat out into the open. For weeks, they had been preparing, shifting supplies and people out to the farm where another group had sought shelter, dreading that they might not have enough time to shift everything. People from both groups, the one holed up at the Gym and the group that had sought shelter at the YMCA under the leadership of the Denmother, had worked together, gathering more and more supplies, as everything they couldn’t take would soon be lost. And now, it seemed to be clear that their time was up. Whatever else they wanted to take, they would have to move, and move now.

They had discussed whether it was better to move during the night or wait until morning and ultimately decided that it would be better to move quickly, hoping that moving immediately would limit the number of zombies that managed to rise. One theory had been that it would take time for the death magic to reanimate the various bodies, so with each hour that went by, more bodies would be moving about. Another had suggested that, just like the Shattered, the undead would start out weak and get stronger as time passed. Either way, the longer they waited the greater the danger to their flesh and brains would be. Sadly, there was only a single local politician at the gym, for once the brainless morons in the government could have been useful. After all, it was well known that zombies hunted for brains and they would have been perfectly invisible to them. Alas, it was not to be.

When the alarm was raised, previously discussed plans went into action, people were roused from their beds and forced to move, instead of trying to get back to sleep. The grousing and groaning was heard throughout the neighbourhood and might possibly have delayed what came next.

For about half an hour, the people could move about freely, following the prepared plans to get as much of the remaining equipment out, but their grace period didn’t last. As if to reply to the groaning and moaning that had been going on in the gym, a type of noise that had been quite frequent in those sweat-stained halls, the undead outside were beginning to make their way towards the building.

The guards, situated on the rooftops in good Korean fashion, had been waiting for them. While they lacked the automatic weapons their spiritual predecessors had used, they had their bows and one of them even had some magic. Not enough to truly focus on it, but he had managed to channel a bit of it through his bow, giving his arrows just a little more oomph.

Once fighting broke out, the plans to gather supplies were abandoned and instead everybody took up their specific loads and people started to move. It was a weird procession, the night pushed back by a few magical lights that kept floating above them, courtesy of one of their spellcasters, while the strongest fighters were on the edge of the group, ready to push back any enemies that engaged.

And engaged, they were. As soon as they left the area previously guarded by the roof Koreans, the undead started coming for them. The only upside was that the differences between these undead and the Shattered they had been facing since the change were rather insignificant, both were similarly mindless, with tough bodies and a general lack of agility that they compensated for with their strength.

Thanks to the training the various fighters had against Shattered, the large group could continue on their path virtually unimpeded. At least until they began running into groups of zombies. The undead had only started to get up and gather, which was drawing in Shattered that began leading those groups. The higher level of the Shattered, thanks to their weeks of prior existence, made it so that the zombies easily folded under their command, forming into mobs led by the more powerful creatures. These mobs were slowing the survivors down, but thanks to the magical support from the Denmother and quite a few other spellcasters, the leading edge of survivors could cut through the resistance and make it to the edge of town.

Dawn was still a few hours away but now, the second obstacle on their path was before them. The fields around town had turned incredibly dangerous as the domesticated animals reared on various farms and ranches had undergone the change and returned to a more primal existence. No more pushing around a cow weighing ten times as much as the farmer, no more raising pigs to face the butcher. The beasts of the field were more numerous than the people and could use their weight and the weight of their numbers to their full advantage. Sure, pound for pound the fighters amongst the survivors were far more powerful but the problem was, the beasts had far more pounds on their side.

Luckily, the beasts had been spooked by the shaking earth and the intense Death Magic that radiated outwards from the town. Just like the survivors inside the town, they could instinctively feel it and knew that getting some distance was only prudent.

But that went only for the wild beasts. When the procession of about two-hundred people made it out of town, they were greeted by a group they hadn’t expected. But then, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, or, apparently, the Army of Dog.

Led by a large, familiar to some, canine, two dozen dogs came bounding across the fields, forming into a protective formation around the group. Said familiar canine let out a few barks and growls, trying to get the stupid two-legs to fall in with their formation, but sadly, none of the two-legs could speak their language.

With their new canine guardians, the group made their way across the fields. Where a single person, or a small group, moving as quickly as they could, would have made it across within about thirty minutes, the large group took quite a bit more time. But they made it across and luckily, they didn’t get into any beef on their way.

As the sun was just starting to show its presence behind the distant horizon, the guards around Apple Gate Farm noticed the incoming group. And for once, they weren’t surprised by someone sneaking up on them. Though, with the large, glowing orbs summoned to let the people see, that wasn’t much of a surprise.

Finally, the two groups had made it to the land that promised them shelter, the Apple Gate Farm.