As the sun was going down, both Alyssa and Pablo went to the mayor''s office to break the news to Max. They told him that Gabriel bumped into the herd of the undead while he was savaging. That they were already heading in this direction and they never saw him and he hightailed it back to the town. Max should have asked more questions, but he smartly kept his attention on what mattered most, which was the horde of thousands of undead that were going to overrun their walls and breach the walls. He looked concerned as he was clearly tempted to drink out of the bottle of scotch in his desk rather than pour himself a glass. Earlier that day he was asking Gabriel for help getting one of the old ladies some heart medication, and half a day later he has to think of a way for all of them to avoid being overrun and eaten by the dead. He took a deep breath and looked back at the two people staring at him.


    "And how many are there?" He asked again, praying he misheard them.


    "At least ten thousand," Alyssa replied, "They''re going to be here sooner rather than later. Especially if we leave the lights on."


    "She''s right," Pablo said, sternly. "We need to go lights out and be as quiet and church mice... and I mean right now!"


    "What good will that do?" Max asked.


    "We have a plan." Alyssa replied, "And one that doesn''t include wasting all our ammo on that herd."


    "Let''s hear it then!" Max ordered, "Time is not our friend here."


    "We''re going to park one of the trucks out in front of the herd," Pablo explained, "Use bushes and fallen trees to build a small barricade."


    "What for??" Max asked, "You said there was ten thousand!"


    "This barricade will be to divert the herd," Alyssa explained, "Splitting them to walk in different directions. They''ll walk right around and right past us as if we were never there and move off."


    "That sounds interesting," Max said, "But how will it work?"


    "When they reach the split," Pablo added, "We''ll set off charges in the distance, to make them walk faster away from us.


    "What explosives?" Max asked, confused.


    "The ones Gabriel disarmed the night of the fire." Pablo answered, "I meant to tell you about it, but we never had the chance. Now they might save our lives."


    "They''ll walk around us as long as we stay quiet and keep the lights off." Alyssa said, "But we need to go lights out right now or we''ll be their prime target."


    Max stood up from his seat. "And what if one of them or a few happen to break towards us?"


    "We''ll have snipers on the roofs with silencers." Pablo replied, "Any undead bugger that breaks rank will be dropped. As long as they can''t hear the shot, they''ll keep walking towards our decoys."


    "Alright," Max said, convinced. "Tell Gabriel to get his shit ready."


    "He''s already out there setting up," Alyssa said, "Trying to save time."


    "Fair enough," Max said, "I guess that leaves us. Let''s shut off every light and get people to their shelters. I made sure every one of those shelters was sound proof so that our people couldn''t been discovered because a baby was crying."


    "Good one," Pablo said, cracking a smile. "I''ll have to remember that."Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "No time for ass kissing," Max said, "We have work to do."


    Max couldn''t sound the alarm cause that noise would have been encounter productive, so he and his staff spend the next twenty minutes getting everyone to their emergency shelters. In less than an hour, ever light was turned off and everyone was underground, so the entire town was dark as night and quiet as a church mouse. All while that was going on, Gabriel was using his speed and flight to get out beyond the wall to set up the new charges and get ready for the coming herd while Pablo and his men from Denver all went outside and used the truck and brushes and trees to set up the divide about two hundred feet in front of the town''s wall.


    "Will this work?" Sean asked, as he was also helping out.


    "It should," Pablo said, "As long as the charges draw them away. Even if they don''t, Gabriel should have no problem slicing and dicing whomever breaks off that that our silencers can''t take down. We might just get lucky."


    "We can hope," Sean said, "Let''s get back in there before they arrive."


    It was close to midnight when the horde of undead started to reach the divide. And it was partly working, but it was the first two explosions that caught their attention. Gabriel had split the charges he found up, so the bangs where not huge, but was enough to grab their attention on anything but the walls near them. Gabriel moved around in the darkness, and was just as invisible as he flew around. He watched with his advances eyesight and smiled as he realized that the undead were following the plan perfectly. He watched from above as the massive herd was splitting right down the middle as they both parted to follow the explosions and the light that emanated from them. Gabriel was one step ahead of them as he flew to the fires and put them out before the first zombie could make it. Right after taking off undetected, he set off another charge, this one even further away from the town. He was leading them away, one blast at a time. Gabriel kept playing both sides, and lead both halves away from the town but there were still a few that broke away from the herd and walked towards their walls. Pablo was waiting for them.


    He had a silenced rifle and gunned them down quietly from the top of the wall. With no undead making contact with the wall, there was no sound to give any of them that there was something between the two lights they were walking towards. In all, about fifty zombies broke away and tried to walk towards the town, and all of them were taken down quietly and didn''t attract further attention. Just to make sure that.


    They didn''t turn back, Gabriel flew down and took few dozen at the back of each group, increasing the gap between the walking herd and the town. It was around two in the morning, when Gabriel set off the final charges, which were set up on trees miles away that were sure to burn right for hours. That final explosion and light would give the thousands of zombies a light source to walk towards for hours, taking them far away from the town. He watched the two herds from the sky and only flew back to town when confident they were not going to turn back. He landed on the ground and walked up to the mayor who was on the wall with Pablo, both watching.


    "They''re walking towards the final targets." Gabriel told him, "As long as we keep the lights off for the rest of the night, we should be alright."


    Max sat down and sighed deeply. "If you hadn''t spotted them, we would have been under siege for days, maybe weeks. That would have been ugly."


    "Has this happened before?" Pablo asked.


    "Once but only with several hundred," Max answered, "This could have exhausted our ammo and put a strain on our walls. Thank you."


    "This is our home now too," Gabriel reminded him, "We were happy to help."


    Max left the wall to check up on the people in various shelters to break the good news, but also ask them to stay in shelters that night, just as a precaution."


    Pablo stayed on the wall and watched was watching for more undead stragglers but he looked back at Gabriel. "Do you hear anything?"


    "No," Gabriel told him, "We''re clear for at least a mile or two."


    "Good," Pablo said, also taking a deep sigh of relief. "No offence but I really didn''t want to move to Nashville. I like it here."


    Gabriel smiled back at him. "I do too, surprisingly."


    It was at this moment that a black cat walked out and over to where Gabriel was standing. Gabriel looked down at the cat, surprised to see him.


    "Hello there," he called out to him, "No need to worry, my fluffy friend. I think the threat is over. Things should be back to normal very soon."


    The cat made a few sounds, and then scurried off back from whence he came. Gabriel looked back at the cat with a stunned face and then back at Pablo.


    "What?" Pablo asked, "You actually understood him?"


    "I did," Gabriel said, just as surprised.


    "Well, what did he say?" Pablo said, rather curious about it himself.


    "He said thank you, and not bad for a blood sucker," Gabriel answered, looking back at his friend. "That damn cat knows all our secrets."


    "Oh shit," Pablo added. He knew what that meant.