Story by Zahir al Daoud, Chris Cook and CN Winters

Written by CN Winters

Produced and Directed by CN Winters

Edited by Susan Carr

Sounds by CSR

Art Direction by Robert Kidman and CN Winters

Video by Robert Kidman, CN Winters, Zahir al Daoud and Paul French

Artists – Robert Kidman, CN Winters and Zahir al Daoud

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A zombie, eyes sunken inside the sockets and flesh dripping from his face, walked through a graveyard. Suddenly an ax swung and he toppled to the ground, his feet lifting up as he fell.

Vi held an ax tight in her grapes as she stood over him. Quickly, she pointed to her right and shouted, "Three more!"

In the distance, three zombies made their way from the graveyard and three junior slayers raced over to catch up.

"Where are they all coming from?" Shannon shouted to Vi as she ran over.

Breathing hard, Dawn finally caught up to her slayer.

"Over there, maybe?" Dawn suggested to the pair as she pointed to a crypt before hunching over, grabbing her side in pain from running.

Vi and Shannon took off into a run and Dawn rose up with a look of exhaustion as she rolled her eyes and tried to keep up with them.

"God, I’m so outta shape," she muttered as she tried to run and hold her side at the same time.

Jeff walked through the hoards of slayers attacking the sea of zombies. Some zombies were starting to clear their graves when the slayers took them out while others were already on the move. He looked around the crowd and spotted Skye swinging a sword along with the slayers, taking out a few of her own and laugh all the while.

Jeff raised an eyebrow and simply shrugged. Looking past a battling slayer and zombie, he noticed Dawn making her way over to the crypt and he casually moved around the fighting pair.

"Batter up!" Skye yelled as she decapitated another zombie before laughing like mad.

"Cheer down," one of the slayers said to her as she killed a zombie of her own.

"Are you kidding? This is great," she said as she smacked another one with her sword, severing its head from its neck. "It’s like pee-wee T-ball."

As Skye smiled and went in search of another zombie victim, the slayer just shook her head in disbelief.

Vi and Shannon carefully entered the crypt and slunk along one side of the wall where they heard a man chanting, in an area that seemed to be draped in candlelight.

"Necromancer?" Shannon whispered.

Vi only nodded.

They moved to the corner and peeked around to see the man the some time of ritual shrine on top of an iron coffin. In front of him sat a glowing idol of some sort that he seemed to be praying to and sprinkling with water as he continued to chant.

"Don’t move. Watchers Council," Vi announced as she and Shannon rounded the corner.

The man raised his hand and sent an energy beam toward them. Vi stepped in front of Shannon to take the full force of the blow, but they both toppled to the ground. He picked up his ceremonial dagger and raced toward them.

"Go get back up," Vi told Shannon who immediately fled toward the door.

Vi tried to stand up but he hit her with magic again as he stalked toward her. Vi appeared paralyzed by the second blast, unable to move from her position on the floor although she tried.

He raised the knife above his head to strike when he heard a woman yell, "Halt!"

He turned to see Dawn and Jeff standing there – Dawn appearing the most menacing with a loaded crossbow aimed at him. He ignored the order and started to bring the knife down on Vi, who closed her eyes and waited for the worst.

Jeff knocked the crossbow up, sending the bolt off course as Dawn pulled the trigger. Using his other hand he sent a beam of energy toward the man. The necromancer screamed in pain and dropped the knife. Still unable to move Vi saw the knife falling toward her, but could do nothing. It sliced her arm as it landed and she howled in pain. Xander, who had just entered the crypt, raced toward Vi.

The necromancer began to convulse and then suddenly dropped to the ground next to Vi. Once he was still, Vi was suddenly able to move again.

Jeff and Dawn raced over, joined by Xander. While Jeff went to the shrine, Dawn and Xander went to Vi’s side. Able to move, Vi sat up and Xander inspected her wound, making her flinch.

"Are you okay?" Dawn asked.

"Just a scratch," Vi told her. "A very painful, burning type of scratch – owww," she added as she looked at her arm.

"Let’s get you back to the council," Xander said, helping her to her feet.

"Looks like we’ve stopped him. The idol isn’t glowing anymore," Jeff said.

"Something tells me that’s bad, well good, well…you know what I mean," Dawn rambled.

"Yeah," Jeff said, "but that might not stop someone else. What I can’t figure out is why anyone would need this many zombies? It’s not like they blend with the locals. You can tell a zombie from a human."

"What about him? Maybe we can ask?" Dawn said pointing to the necromancer.

Jeff walked over and felt his neck and then his wrist. "He’s not gonna tell us anything. He’s dead."

"You killed him with that spell?" Vi asked.

"No, at least I didn’t mean to," he replied. "It was just supposed to entrap him, but it looks like he might have had a heart attack or something. Either way, he ain’t talkin’."

Outside, the slayers busied themselves by picking off stray zombies as the clean-up crew to arrive, tossing bodies back into graves and covering them over again.

As Vi, Xander, Dawn and Jeff came out from the crypt Jeff turned to Dawn.

"Round up all the girls once they’re done. I want to perform a simple inoculation spell on anyone who took a cut to prevent zombie infection."

"Will do," she said and walked over to Shannon to start speaking with her.

The dead necromancer's hand was lying on top of his ceremonial dagger, his fingertips just touching a couple of drops of Vi's blood that were on the blade. No one noticed a tiny flicker of magic touch the blood, then fade away.