Our usual spots for the nights became ruins of settlements, places with high vantage points or ones that were well hidden – all better than being in a tree or the open.

  We had shifts through the night. We all guarded for an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half every night. The shifts were as follows: Roosevelt, Rich, Leo, Lily, Raven and me last.

  Raven was often awake when it was my turn.

  It was one of the few opportunities for a private conversation with him. However, most of the talks were unimportant small talk or we were outright silent, with only nature and the campfire, if we decided to make one, breaking the silence.

  Occasionally, I tried flirting with him. However, it always failed, whether during the day or night.

  Due to his bad terms with the others, I was the only one he could have a friendly chat with.

  During the nights, we sometimes even made a campfire! However, Raven was against it.

  His reasoning was that the light from the fire could be seen and might attract some humans or intelligent undead.

  Despite that, I still insisted on making a campfire. Without fire, our menu was restricted to Mercenary food. I just needed to eat anything else but that thing!

  We had some opportunities to forage for food. Once, we even managed to hunt a rabbit!

  After cooking it with the wild ingredients we found and ate, I felt alive yet again! We even came across a few edible mushrooms back then!

  It all happened the day after we ate our last good provisions and were left with the Mercenary food. I felt like it was a gift from God!

  All of us, excluding Raven, preferred to cook rather than eat the rations and before we realised it, only the Mercenary food was left.

  Raven didn’t even take a bite from the rabbit or mushrooms. According to him, he’d not eat something that might be poisonous. Well, more for me. The only con was that the animal was too small to fill our bellies.

  Ravan’s caution came from the last similar experience. We were fine after this meal, but there were some problems with our past foraging.

  We found a slightly poisonous food and we had problems with our stomachs… Excluding Raven, we spent more time running in the forest to defecate than staying at the campsite. It wasn’t pleasant. We barely travelled that day.

  Raven shaved with his knife every seventh day, while the boys did every second or third day.

  Another interesting thing about Raven was that when we had to camp in the open and trees were nearby, he always went to rest in a tree. I got the feeling he had a memory related to it.

  We had been on the road for around a month now.

  Today’s camping spot was a small cave, less than 40 feet long and 13 to 14 feet in height.

  We made a campfire! Sadly, only the mercenary rations were left.

  We decided to end the day’s travelling earlier than usual. We had a reason for that – there was a loch close by!

  The opportunities to replenish our water supplies were limited. We also needed to purify it before drinking to ensure safety.

  We always boiled the raw water on the campfire. Even Raven agreed with us on making a campfire if we had to boil water.

  This was the largest water pool we saw along the way and we determined to clean ourselves.

  We discussed who wanted to bathe and in what order.

  Having us divided by gender would have been ideal, while taking one simultaneously was the most efficient way. However, someone needed to keep an eye on our belongings.

  “I’m intending to clean myself in the pond,” I started.

  “We all would,” Roosevelt replied.

  “I mean bathing, not just washing my hands or face.”

  “Then go on. No one stops you. Just pick who will be your guard,” Raven shared his opinion.

  “It’s…”

  I didn’t care much, but I sounded purer if I had problems with it.

  “How can you be so dense?! She clearly fears you perverts would peek!” Lily helped me with annoyance in her voice.

  “Then you can stay and watch us if you think so little of us.”

  “Then who will protect her if the undead attack her?”

  “She just has to pick anyone but you.”

  “And have him peek at her?”

  “I think we should go by gender first,” I tried to stop their bickering.

  “Sounds great. Go on,” Raven hurried us to do so.

  “That doesn’t solve the problem I mentioned!”

  “Worry not. We’ll give you our word that we won’t. Would that be enough? A gentleman’s word is his bond,” Roosevelt proposed.

  “I, refined gentleman, never intended to do something so shameful,” Rich replied.

  “I also don’t want to see you… nude,” Leo said with a hint of embarrassment in his tone.

  Both Lily and I gave him an icy stare.

  We didn’t want you to watch our naked bodies, but if you say you didn’t want to was an insult to us. Even Lily, who wanted the boys to notice her the least, was annoyed.

  “Even I would have rephrased it,” Raven said, “I do not care whether or not you have clothes on.”

  “The heck?”

  That was even worse than what Leo said!

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked him to clarify before my compatriots got the wrong impression.

  I hope it just sounded wrong.

  “You will go take a bath, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you bathe with your clothes on?”

  “No.”

  What an obvious question.

  “Where do you keep your gadgets for self-defence?”

  “In my clothes and holsters.”

  “Then, say a zombie comes. Or worse – humans find you. What will you do without anything to protect yourself? A zombie you may beat to a pulp, but a human, especially a male one, with a gun, would be difficult. Someone needs to keep guard. This is what I would advise you.”

  I tried imagining the situations. With Lily, beating an undead was easy for her, but a human with a firearm? Too risky. I suppose he emphasised that if a hostile group of men were to find us, we might prefer death to what shamefulness they’d do to beautiful maidens such as us.

  Thinking as such, having our boys guard us was preferable. Neither of them had the guts to make a move on either of us. Raven was the only unknown, but I doubted he’d do as such out of nowhere.

  “Fine, but promise you won’t be looking at us.”

  “It’s a hard promise to make, but I can comply.”

  “What?”

  “I’m against it!”

  My teammates, especially Lily, were against it.

  “Then who else?”

  No one dared to admit they wanted to see us naked. Only Raven had the guts.

  “We’ll first get the fire going. Let’s make it warm in here! The last thing we want right now is to catch a cold! Could you boil the water while we are away?”

  “Sure thing!” Leo was the first to agree, dooming the others to do the same.

  “So you know, if I feel that something dangerous is around you or me, I will look around,” Raven added

  “If there is a good explanation, we’ll let it slide.”

  I felt he might try to peek, but I might allow him to see just a tiny bit of our perfect skin.

  While the sun was still up, Lily and I went to the loch. Raven was with us, but we instructed him to watch the clouds. The only exception was if a threat came.

  We went near the loch’s shore, I took off our jackets and footwear, while Lily took all off and we went into the loch. Lily was constantly watching Raven, hiding her back from him while also hiding her intimate parts with her arms.

  There was a slight breeze. The water was calm, almost unmoving. I saw my image in the water and dipped my foot to test it. It was cold!

  Lily was walking backwards into the water, ignoring the coldness.

  “Come in, Mary. The water is fine.”

  Fine? How exactly?

  But she was right. I rushed with all my might into the water.

  I somehow managed to endure the coldness.

  “In what would you dress if you wet all your clothes?” she asked me.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  It wasn’t like you had anything spare to dress in…

  “I’ll stay in my jacket or sleeping bag.”

  “With nothing underneath? In front of that many… beasts?”

  She meant men.

  “Yes. I see no problem. It’s not like I’d be naked, would I?”

  “…”

  “You also took nothing with you.”

  “I did. I took my spare underwear.”

  “Where is it? I didn’t see you getting anything.”

  “It’s in my backpack.”

  “We didn’t take them.”

  “Oh… Dammit! I was too worried to take it.”

  “Would you constantly keep an eye on him while we are in the water?” I tried to change the subject.

  “Yes, I would. I don’t trust him enough to believe he wouldn’t steal a glance at our naked bodies!”

  “It’s fine.”

  “It’s fine?”

  “I mean that he is far away. Even if he were to steal a look at us, he couldn’t see much, could he?”

  “Even a glance from those pervy creatures can make them give in to their nature.”

  She meant he might be unable to resist our womanity and try doing “things” with us.

  I doubt it, but even if he did, he’d have died.

  I thought that if I had Lily with me, even if naked, she could take down a bunch of undead.

  Still, I decided it would be a good way to test Raven.

  All men should want to see a beauty like me nude. Lily also had quite an attractive body. A bit less developed than mine, but still at the higher end. We, the two beauties, bathing was an irresistible sight to behold, am I right? I couldn’t be too mad if he desired to see us.

  If it was just seeing, I didn’t mind much.

  “You’re overthinking it,” I tried to dispel her worries.

  “Am I? Or did you already allow him to look at your naked body?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The memory of ‘You are still in your underwear’ is clear in my mind,” she said, her face blank and emotionless.

  “It’s all a misunderstanding!”

  I knew she had heard it all!

  “Anyway, I’ll also wash my clothes. Don’t want you to be the only one strange,” she went back to normal.

  She gave up easier than I thought.

  I hoped it wasn’t just the calm before the storm…

  Lily also washed her clothes one by one with me. We used the green apple soap to help us with it.

  It was one of the few opportunities to wash both myself and my clothes. How could I miss this chance? Even if I had to cover myself with my jacket later on, even if the water was cold, I would endure it!

  I took the first batch of wet, clean clothes to the shore. When I had my body out of the water up to my waist, I realised the chilly wind was quite cold when nothing covered my body. This was the first and last time I did, leaving the other times to Lily.

  She relaxed a bit (for how much one could relax in cold water) and didn’t care much about Raven. However, she continued to look in his direction.

  I sometimes looked at him. He was absent-mindedly looking at the sky.

  I thought he would at least try peeking once.

  He either had already done so or thought the reward was too little for the risk.

  It was calm. Nothing unexpected was happening. It was time to clean our bodies and get out.

  I used the apple soap, Lily helped me wash my back and I got a devilish idea.

  The memory of her assaulting me that night was in my mind. It was the perfect opportunity to teach her a lesson!

  I went behind her and stared at her back.

  Her delicate skin bore a large tattoo of a fire lily covering a portion of her back. The design was detailed, colourful and it gave me the impression that it could be touched, as if a real flower was on her back.

  It always amazed me when I saw it. It was so beautiful. Only if such tattoos weren’t related to what they were, I’d say she had a painting on her back.

  “Mary?” she asked me, a tinge of worry in her voice.

  I put my index and middle fingers on her spine and moved them slowly downwards.

  “Say, Lily, dear. Do you remember when you happened to interrogate me while bathing a while ago? Do you remember what you did to make me talk?”

  “Mistress, please! Now is not the time to tease me! He might watch us if you did something like this!”

  “You have to be quiet and he wouldn’t notice anything.”

  “… Be gentle, please.”

  “Will do my best~”

  I rubbed her back with the soap.

  Lily sheepishly looked in my direction.

  “This is a warning for you. The next time you won’t get this scot-free.”

  “You already punished me back then…” she sulked silently.

  “What did you say?”

  “Nothing, mistress!”

  “Oh, back to ‘mistress’? Didn’t we agree to call me as such in public only back home? Hmm?” I had one of my arms slip and grab her butt.

  “Yes, Mary, I’m sorry!”

  “Well, whatever,” I let go of the juiciest part of her body.

  I was enough teasing for today. She was blushing to her ears.

  The sun started to set when we got out.

  The cold water was mostly calm and our movements were one of the few things to disrupt the loch. When we got out, the yellowish water in the distance and the sun made for an unforgettable scenery.

  The cold breeze didn’t allow me to watch the scenery for long.

  I was dressed in my jacket, with my upper body completely covered, but my thighs and legs below were visible. My intimate part was barely covered. My most important assets were hidden from the eyes, so I was calm.

  On the other hand, Lily didn’t do so well.

  Sure, she was like me – only her thighs and below were visible, but she was conscious of her body.

  While we were bathing, she always had her tattooed back away from Raven.

  I feel that if she had to pick between a man looking at her tattooed back or her groin, she’d prefer the groin. She was that sensitive about her lily on her back.

  “We are done bathing. You can now look,” I said when we got to Raven.

  “Are you dressed in something?” he asked while still looking at the clouds.

  “Obviously. Why else we’d allow you to?” Lily asked rhetorically with a cold voice.

  “I see. Then I’ll finally have a look.”

  He looked at us a bit after getting up.

  Lily was holding her wet clothes with one hand and keeping the other one around her groin area in fear that the jacket might not hide it well. Her cheeks were also reddish.

  I didn’t care that much, but I felt a bit embarrassed. I had my wet clothes in both hands, but kept them near my groin area.

  “Well? How’d you score us?” I asked playfully.

  “What is there to score?” he mocked.

  Well, with Lily here, teasing might be dangerous.

  “You go on, I’ll wet myself and come after ten minutes.”

  Wet yourself? Did you mean in the loch?

  “Why don’t you wait for the others?” I asked.

  “And be in total darkness? Hard pass. I’ll be fast, you go to the fire to dry yourselves.”

  “I see. Hope an undead helps you clean your back.”

  Lily!

  “I would rather if one of you did.”

  “Hard pass.”

  “Here,” I gave him a soap.

  It was the soap. We had it from our home. It was a high-quality product. I used it for washing or bathing. By now, it had shrunk to a quarter of its original size, but its scent was still pleasant.

  We went to the cave. Inside was hot. Compared to the usual, the fire was three times as strong

  “Welcome back.”

  “How was the water?”

  “We made sure it’s warm in here.”

  The boys greeted us all in their own way. All of them had removed a layer or two of their upper wear, the sweat visible on their foreheads.

  “Where is he? Did he peek and get drowned?” Leo asked.

  “No, he is using the water now,” Lily replied.

  “With no one keeping an eye out for trouble?” Rich inquired further.

  “With no one keeping an eye out for trouble.”

  “Wasn’t he the one who said we needed someone watching over us while bathing?”

  “Beats me. The “advice” he gives us doesn’t seem to apply for him,” Roosevelt shared his opinion.

  “Wait… Could it be… Was it all a plan to look at you?!” Leo exclaimed.

  “No, he was looking at the sky the entire time,” Lily replied.

  They were trying to find fault with him, but could hardly.

  “By the way, just out of curiosity… What are you dressed up as right now?” Leo asked us, his face turned as red as his ginger hair.

  “Our jackets. And you better not try looking you-know-where!” Lily gave a fierce reply.

  Lily and I sat near the fire, having our legs obscuring our “you-know-where”.

  Our clothes, underwear included, were close to the fire to dry. We had spare ones, but we waited to dry before donning them.

  The boys did their best not to look at our wet underwear. How cute and kind of them. Were it Raven, he wouldn’t care at all.

  After a while, Raven also came, water droplets falling from his wet clothes.

  “Thanks for waiting for us,” Leo reprimanded his actions.

  “No worries, mate. Now you can go. Sure, the water was cold, but it was bearable. Three strong males do not need someone to babysit them. Or do you?”

  “We will in a bit,” Roosevelt replied.

  “You better do so soon before it gets dark. Or other zombies come.”

  “Other zombies?” I exclaimed.

  “Just a few Walkers. That was why I was late. You better keep a weapon with you when you go. Also, take torches and flashlights.”

  “I think we should be fast about it then,” Rich proposed.

  The other two nodded and prepared to leave.

  “Can we believe in you to keep watch?” Roosevelt asked Raven.

  “Sure can.”

  Seconds after they left, he sat next to the fire and returned the soap.

  “Weren’t you told to keep watch?” Lily asked and her arms aided in hiding her intimate part.

  “Yes, I am watching how the fire is.”

  “How’s that keeping watch?”

  “They did not say on what to keep watch.”

  “Were there really any undead?”

  “None. I just wanted to get them off of me.”

  “You dirty liar.”

  “It was for their good. Washing in the night would have been risky. Now, when there is some light, was their safest bet. The light sources they took could also be helpful if they take too long. Explaining it and persuading them takes too much time.”

  Yes, they often bicker with you about your advice, but it also helps me understand how and why you think so.

  “Or you just wanted to be alone with two defenceless maidens.”

  “If said “maidens” wanted me to do something with them, they would have invited me to take a bath with them. Or after it at the latest.”

  “Pervert.”

  “The water was so cold! I barely managed to endure it!” I tried to change the subject.

  “Was it?”

  “Didn’t notice it.”

  They replied as if it were the normal temperature.

  Okay, then…

  “By the way, why are your clothes wet?”

  “I washed them.”

  “I mean, why didn’t you wear your jacket like us?”

  “Because I would not be as conscious if someone saw my di… I mean groin as you would and would not care if you saw it. I bet you do not want to see that. Or am I wrong?”

  “You got that one right,” Lily scoffed.

  “Then why wear your jacket over them?”

  “Felt like it.”

  Our meaningless small talk continued.

  Eventually, the boys came. They were also like Raven, leaving droplets everywhere they walked.

  “We appreciate your advice and warning,” Roosevelt said when they came back.

  “What?” Raven had no idea what they were talking about.

  “While we were bathing, we got ambushed by a few Walkers. Thanks to the little light the sun gave us, we managed to spot and neutralise them with no problems.”

  “Glad to be of help.”

  When our clothes dried, we had the boys go outside while we dressed. Lily was watching the entrance constantly. She also didn’t want anyone to see her back.

  When some of the boys also dried, Rich and Roosevelt escorted Lily while she returned to the loch and washed her and my jackets. They were the only things we couldn’t clean before.

  Nothing eventful happened afterwards until it was time for my night shift.

  As always, Raven woke me up and both of us stayed awake until morning.

  I decided to start our chatter.

  “I’ve been wondering for a while now.”

  “Ask away.”

  “When we see those creatures, you say ‘zombies’ and I say ‘undead’. I know that they are interchangeable, but it still intrigued me.”

  “I dislike it when people call them ‘Undead’. It is surprising how different people call them: ‘Ghouls’, ‘Lost ones’, ‘Fallen ones’, ‘Turned ones’, ‘Devils’, heck, I have even heard some use the term ‘The Exalted’ or ‘Neo-Humans’!”

  Different places call the undead in various ways. Half the synonyms he spoke were the first I had heard of them. Only those religious fanatics would use the last two terms.

  “Why’s that? Why do you hate the term ‘Undead’?”

  “It sounds too classy, too refined. ‘Zombies’ sounds barbaric, more primal. The first time I knew of their existence, I called them ‘zombies’. It was like an entire now endangered class of zombies was named after the creatures they resembled in folklore and legends – ‘Vampires’.”

  “I get your point, but I’ll keep calling them ‘undead’. The first time I knew of their existence, we called them ‘undead’.”

  “You be you and I will be me.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “Glad you understand.”

  “The extermination of the Vampires is considered to be the highest achievement for the decade in the Old Continent. The operation was named Bloody Mary, if my memory serves me right.”

  “Yes. It was Bloody Mary.”

  “I also heard that one of the participants got a black rank for fighting… their equivalent to a Queen?”

  “Vampires have the strongest Queens and lack a figure resembling a King. They were given a different name, but I cannot remember it now.”

  “Have you ever fought one?”

  “Yes. It was such a freak show.”

  “How so?”

  “The folklore about them fearing sunlight, garlic, holy water and so on is all nonsense. The only thing correct was their taste for blood and unusual regeneration. I was lucky it was either a lowly one or it had starved for a long time.”

  “Do they reproduce like vampires in legends?”

  “I am uncertain, but I heard only high-ranked Vampires had the ability to do something similar. Let’s talk about something else.”

  I was ready to ask you about them until sunrise, but I prepared other inquiries.

  “Okay. There is something I’m also curious about.”

  “Sure, go on.”

  “You either sleep in a tree or sit with your back to the nearest object when you hit the sack. Tonight was no exception.”

  “Hit the sack?”

  “Go to sleep.”

  “I often travelled alone in the past. Before I knew it, I had developed the habit of sleeping while sitting with something ensuring me protection from my rear. I do like sleeping in a comfy bed like any normal human being, but in the wild, that is too risky.”

  “Then what about in the tree?”

  “During my travels to “find myself”, I met someone. They had this sleeping habit of sleeping in a tree. I think I got it from them.”

  He hid their gender.

  “Were you two close?”

  “The first time we met, they were so angry for having to travel with me. No, my existence boiled their blood and when they were ordered to “show me around”, they had such a tantrum. I felt like bashing their head into the nearest object.”

  I gave him a shocked expression.

  “I had a severe problem with alcohol back then. Now, I am a bit better.”

  You did seem to act more aggressively when you were drunk.

  “Then? What happened afterwards?”

  “At the beginning, we met a child. I have no idea how I agreed back then, but we had them travel with us. The three of us journeyed for a while, fought zombies and humans now and then. We started to learn more about each other, about what we had been doing and what we wanted to do. What hardships we had experienced. Hardships we overcame together. Deaths we witnessed or caused. I guess we bonded somewhat.”

  “I see. Hope they are doing well now.”

  “…”

  He went silent for a while.

  “I truly hope she’s doing well,” he said, with regret and sadness.

  His mood dampened.

  We didn’t talk about anything else that night.