Run Away Bravely (Stormwind)

(Timeskip?)

Breezepelt sighed, allowing Cinderheart to lean on him.

Cinderheart flinched when Breezepelt landed the blow, but most of them had had to do mercy killings by this point. She buried her face in his pelt, trying not to cry.

Breezepelt stiffened beside Cinderheart when he realized whose body that was. Frowning, the Windclan tom nonetheless unsheathed his claws and delivered a killing blow to the queen’s body to prevent her from coming back. And maybe, just maybe, he’d done it quickly enough to send her to Starclan.

Cinderheart let out a choked sob when she came across the body of Honeyfern, who as a queen shouldn’t have been fighting but she had been separated from the group and the infected didn’t care anyway.

The poor, exhausted warriors were now forced to take the bodies of their kin and clanmates, frequent sad wailing audible from around the island as the bodies of the dead were recognized by some cat close to them.

It took at least an hour before all the badly injured had been found and moved to the medicine cat, and the warriors didn’t have a chance to catch a break before they had to start collecting the dead.

Breezepelt nodded, getting to work now that his concerns had been addressed.

Mistystar sighed. "We're not. We're going to be dumping them out in the former RiverClan territory. The idea of dumping them in the lake was only briefly considered."

“I don’t think we should be dumping the infected back into the lake,” Breezpelt Mewed to Mistystar, that being the first leader he spotted. “What if they make it unsafe to drink?”

There were precious few warriors that were still able to stand but they were set to first taking the injured to the medicine cat den (which was wrecked and most of the herbs were ruined, but still), then gathering up their dead, and then getting rid of the infected's bodies, which would doubtless be the hardest task. Everyone capable of it was set to this task, even the queens.

Most of the totally exhausted warriors had flopped onto their sides once the fighting ended, their battered bodies almost indistinguishable from those of the dead.

The fighting seemed to go on for hours, and it might very well have, because the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon when the infected were finally defeated (the few remaining backing off for whatever reason). This left the entire island and especially the barrier almost completely destroyed, with bodies of both the infected and the Clan cats lying everywhere.

Hollyleaf has done enough to give the other warriors a brief respite, but as she moved around the island they were soon locked in combat once again, unable to idly watch her anymore.

(I love how the way that’s written makes it sound like they’re just standing around and watching her XD

Also, I have no clue how Hollyleaf is doing it shhh. Clearly, she has magical powers. Or there’s a weak spot on the infected. Hm.)

Hollyleaf ignored the stares of the other warriors, only sparing a moment’s thought to think snidely on how they were clearly going to get themselves killed, sinking her fangs into an infected’s throat and ripping it out.

“How is she doing that!?” Came a mewl from the crowd of warriors, with the rest murmuring amongst themselves as they watched Holly Leaves make short work of their infected adversaries.

Cinderheart cast a quick glance at Hollyleaf, shoving down a jolt of surprise at how easily she was taking down the infected, before following after Breezepelt.

Breezepelt’s eyes widened as Hollyleaf flew past them, but he didn’t let the chance she gave them go to waste. He quickly slipped out from between the wall and the infected and started to lead them around the wall. The infected followed, blind to anything about their circumstances besides the loving cats directly in their field of vision.

Cinderheart was pressed up against the wall alongside Breezepelt, preparing herself to go down fighting, when (as always happens in stories :p) Hollyleaf seemed to appear out of nowhere, spitting and snarling as she flung herself at the infected.

(Whatever you want it to be!)

Breezpelt stiffened when he took another step back and felt the actual wall behind him. There was nowhere left to go.

(Ah. Right, yeah. Hm. What should that be?)

(I’m implying that Hollyleaf knows a technique the clan cats don’t, since she went around slaughtering them after she ran away.)

(The last moon? It’s been almost eight and a half moons since the apocalypse started, I checked :p)

All three of my cats that were allowed to fight at the moment were quickly tiring, their breathing getting heavier and their movements slower.

Breezepelt growled softly, Firestar’s flank of the island forced to back up against the bramble barrier as well by the onslaught. There didn’t seem to be a consistent method of killing them beyond striking them down by a million clawings, which tired the already-exhausted warriors quickly. At least, no cat that had been with the clans the last moon knew of a quick killing blow.

(I’ll tell you if you’re killing someone that can’t die yet :p But don’t worry, Antpelt doesn’t matter anymore)

Cinderheart let out a quietly relieved breath when other warriors went to go hold the other line, whirling around to get back to fighting the infected.