I needed to move fast.


    The fourth zombie hadn’t been holding back, waiting to ambush me. It had probably heard our fighting and ran over to get something to eat. If there had been one zombie roaming nearby, then it wouldn’t be long before there were others.


    I glared at my useless companion. He was still heaving by the tree. It was a good thing that I had stopped him from attacking. Otherwise, he would probably be dead right now.


    I threw the heads outside the orchard and pulled the bodies to where they landed. It was going to make a decent-sized fire, and I wanted to do as little damage to the trees as possible.


    Once I had the bodies out of the orchard, I used my dagger to cut out the hearts. Once I had all four hearts out, I was ready to harvest the stones.


    A Zombie heart reminded me of an overripe peach. They were squishy on the outside with a hard pit in the middle. I sliced into the heart until I felt the blade hit the stone. I rotated the blade around the stone and pulled half of the heart off of the stone. That was the easy part.


    I steadied my breathing as I pushed the tip of the dagger between the stone and the flesh of the heart. One slip here was all it would take to slice my gloves and infect myself. At best, it would take a week to detox. At worst, I’d become a mindless zombie-like the monsters I had just dismembered.


    The tip of the dagger ground against the stone, but the flesh offered no resistance. I was able to peel back the heart until the stone was free.


    I tossed the mangled heart onto the pile of corpses behind me and dropped the stone at my feet. I wasn’t finished with it yet, but I had three more heart stones to harvest.


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    I was on my third heart when Max staggered away from his tree.


    “Is there something you want me to do?” He asked.


    I didn’t look up, “I’ve got it.”


    “Are you sure?” He took a few shakey steps towards me, “I could clean the blades, or…”


    I put down the heart and my dagger, “Look, I’m doing something very dangerous and I don’t need you distracting me.” I waved at the wastes around us, “If you need to feel useful, then keep an eye out for more zombies.”


    He looked down at his feet. For a moment, I thought he was going to say something, but he turned and walked off.


    I sighed. I had been hoping that he would be able to handle himself in a fight, but if he got queasy around blood, then most of the fighting would be left to me. I began to see why Master Junk had trained him to be able to walk for days with very little rest. Part of me wished that the rules would allow me to do the missions on my own, but I had to have a partner to be on a mission. If Max died or was sent back, then I would also be downgraded to an apprentice until another apprentice was ready to start the missions.


    For better or worse, I was stuck with him until the council decided I was ready for the marks.


    I pushed the thoughts about things I couldn’t change from my mind as I picked up the heart again. I finish pulling out the stone and moved on to the last heart. The first three hearts got the muscle memory kick-started and I finished it in almost no time.


    I picked up the heart stones and walked away from the corpse pile. Once I was far enough away, I dropped the stones and then shed my gloves. I pulled a piece of flint out of my vest and put my gloves back on. I used the flint and my dagger to create a spark. Zombie blood was very flammable, so much so that some masters carried some to start fires. I was glad Master Bran had never done anything that dangerous.


    The first spark caught the blood on my gloves on fire. I closed my eyes and held my breath as the flames ran around me, licking up all of the blood. The leather refused to provide fuel though, and once the blood was gone, the fire died.


    I opened my eyes and let myself breathe again once the fire was gone. Now that I was clean, I could finish.