Jewelry To Die For

Walking to the Abandoned Cabin region in the dead of night, Diana was taking on her first "real" job in awhile. Today she had been tasked with retrieving a rather expensive gold necklace with an octagonal ruby pendant for a young male client in Hargeon Town. The jewelry had been left behind by the client's girlfriend when they went to the Abandoned Cabin on a dare and fled when they heard moaning outside. They rushed out of the cabin and barely escaped being surrounded by a zombie horde and ran without looking back. That was the second-most sensible thing to do in a region renowned for being the home of numerous types of undead... the most sensible thing to do was to avoid the region entirely.

Wearing her black coat over her white shirt and navy blue knee-length dress with black hose and navy blue shoes, Diana approached the cabin with Silenced Handgun at the ready. She did not know if the zombies were still in the area, but she was ready for them. It was no crime to kill ambulatory corpses trying to kill her, so Diana did not need to worry about committing a crime whenever she put a hole in their heads. At least until undead rights groups came along, anyway.

Switching to natural night vision and looking around the bushes, Diana saw nothing out of the ordinary nearby. The full moon was behind the cabin, which had some human figures standing next to it and swaying in the breeze. Diana stopped in place and listened for activity. They had to be the zombies that had chased her client out of the cabin. There were at least a dozen of them, if not more, standing outside the cabin and who knew how many more nearby.

It was a good thing that the blonde's weapon was suppressed. There were enough of them to deal with without drawing any more zombies to the scene. Oh well... a contract was a contract. She was hired to retrieve the necklace and she was going to retrieve it no matter what. It was business.

[Word Count: 352]
[Total Word Count: 352/1,500]

With weapon in hand, Diana edged closer to the cabin that was where the client dropped his jewelry. The zombies standing "guard" outside of the simple wooden structure still had not taken notice of her, which was to her advantage because their obliviousness allowed her plenty of time to aim carefully at the head. She held her breath and squeezed the trigger, firing a single shot that punched straight through the temple of one zombie facing away from her.

FWIP!

It went down without alerting the others, who remained oblivious to the fact they were being picked off one by one. One after the other went down with a bullet hole through the temple or the forehead without any reaction from their fellows. This was almost too easy. Still, the blonde liked easy money because it spent just as well as money earned the hard way. She still had to complete the job to earn her pay, which meant that she earned the Jewels fairly.

Diana picked them off until none remained standing in front of her. For safety's sake she opted to check the other side of the cabin and found another dozen swaying while standing in place. She took the chance to get rid of them and prevent them from blocking her escape in case there was an unpleasant surprise lurking in the cabin. In her profession, it was always prudent to have an exit plan in case something went wrong during a job. Diana's exit plan for this job involved making sure her escape was not cut off by walking corpses.

After killing them again, Diana swept the area again and found that she was now by herself, but that was not to last for long. Just as she put a hand on the door to the cabin, she heard moaning coming from within the structure. That meant that some of them had gotten inside when the client and his girlfriend fled the area. Now it was up to Diana to deal with them. The blonde readied her weapon and put her hand on the door handle.

[Word Count: 350]
[Total Word Count: 702/1,500]

On a silent count of three, Diana flung open the cabin door and took aim at the nearest zombie, which was only an arm's length away. She shot it in the forehead just as it turned to face her, then disposed of the remaining six in similar fashion before they could muster a response. She peered inside the now-empty cabin and spotted something glimmering on a crude wooden counter in the moonlight. Diana carefully tiptoed inside to take a closer look at the object. She had to hold her nose just to tolerate being inside the cabin.

The interior of the cabin was unpleasant, to put it lightly. In addition to the unmistakable scent of death, the floor was stained with blood like someone had dragged a bloody hunk of meat around the interior. There was also a severed human arm lying in the corner... a cursory glance showed that the flesh of the stump bore numerous human teeth marks. It had been gnawed off by someone, probably by one of the zombies she had just put down. She had better get the necklace and go.

Diana walked over to the counter and saw that the object was indeed the golden necklace with the ruby pendant that her client had described. This was it! The blonde pocketed the necklace and had just stepped out of the cabin when she heard moaning coming out of the woods. More zombies were coming out to play and she did not want to be here when they arrived in force. She had gotten what she came for, so it was time to quit while she was ahead.

Diana walked briskly, not stopping for anything except to shoot any zombies that got too close for comfort. Within fifteen minutes of walking she was clear of the immediate danger zone but remained vigilant for further threats. Her natural night vision was kept active until she left the Abandoned Cabin region entirely... once she was clear she dispelled her weapon and maintained a brisk walking pace. She would run only if she had to. Running in dress shoes was something she did only as a last resort because dress shoes were not made to run in.

Diana had gotten the necklace and had gotten out without too much trouble. Now she had to get to Hargeon Town to return the jewelry and collect her reward. She could not wait to get out of the Cursed Lands and get back to civilization.

[Word Count: 414]
[Total Word Count: 1,116/1,500]

-Hargeon Town, twelve hours later-

It had been a long walk from the Abandoned Cabin to Hargeon Town, but it was worth it. She had completed the job and was now meeting her client at a cafe near the harbor. The young man was demonstrably appreciative of the trouble the blonde mage had gone to to retrieve the necklace. Diana handed it to the brown-haired youth to complete her end of the bargain.

"Thanks a lot, miss! You saved my life! My girlfriend will be glad to have this back!" He gushed with relief. He placed it into a side pocket of his khaki cargo shorts and immediately placed a hand on it to keep it in place.

"It is no problem." Diana assured him. She had gained valuable experience in fighting zombies, which were not too difficult to fight if one kept calm and had steady aim. Zombies were not the super-beings of media myth; they were just human corpses who refused to stay dead and needed some "persuasion" to go down and stop moving. The only reasons they were threatening were because being in the presence of death unnerved most people and because zombies rarely traveled alone. They were not much harder to kill than a normal human... all it took was a shot or two to the head and zombies went down for the count.

"Here, take these. I promised you Jewels for your work. You earned every last one of them." He said, handing her a small bag of Jewels. She took the bag into both hands as a sign of respect and pocketed them.

"That's the last time we ever go into the Cursed Lands on a bet. We made 20,000 Jewels from our friends who bet we wouldn't do it, but it was hardly worth it. The necklace you brought back is worth three times that because it's an heirloom my girlfriend's grandmother gave her. We were scared it had been lost forever." He said to her. Diana raised an eyebrow at the figure... it was no wonder he was so glad to have it back. She was glad that she had found it before some enterprising thief did and returned it to its rightful owner. If she had not braved the zombie horde and found it, chances were high that the client would never have seen it again.

This job was another success that Diana could add to the list. Maybe it would go a little ways towards balancing the books, but that remained to be seen. She did not think that there could ever be any good deed that could wipe away all that she had done as a slave-assassin for the Winchesters, but maybe there was. Then she closed her eyes. Who was she to even think about redemption?

"Thanks again!" The youth thanked her. Diana stood up and pushed her chair in.

"No problem." Diana said before she walked away from the cafe and on to her next job, whatever it was.

[Word Count: 502]
[Total Word Count: 1,618/1,500]