“I can understand the human zombies,” Bill said quietly to Mim’s back. “But why all the cats?” He and Mim walked through the cellar of an old building, weaving their way through idly shuffling undead. The animated corpses of cats skittered about between the larger, human corpses, and the two trespassers were careful not to step on any of them.

“Company,” Mim said. One of the cats bumped into Bill’s leg. He hopped out of its way and watched as it gently pawed at the air where his leg had been. It let go a raspy, stifled mew and was on its way again.

Mim held a hand back, motioning a stop. She pointed at a large nearby corpse that swayed its head back and forth, then she made a mouthing gesture with her hand.

“You want me to talk?” Bill said. His attention was immediately drawn to the large corpse as it stomped toward him. Mim ducked and quickly stepped out of its path, while Bill hesitated and took a couple of steps to his side, leaning against a nearby wall. The corpse was a lot larger than Bill had thought, adorned with a polished breastplate and grasping a rusted longsword. Its head twitched erratically and it seemed to sniff at the air. It reached its empty hand out and grasped about for a moment.

Bill looked to Mim, shrugged and held his palms up. Mim’s attention was focused on the searching corpse, but when she saw Bill move she began glancing around the room. She pointed at Bill and traced a line with her finger along the wall he leaned on, indicating he move toward her.

Bill took a meek step and froze. The big corpse tilted its head and looked at Bill’s position. It slowly knelt and ground the tip of its sword against the ground, then began making a mumbling, whimpering sound. Nearly a dozen undead cats rushed toward it. It slowly stood to its full height and made a sound. “Mhh, mhhhhh,” it seemed to say, and the cats fanned out and began walking in a circle around the big thing. Then it took a step toward Bill.