Annette sticks to the back alleys

Darting into a nearby alleyway, Annette quickly and quietly made her way towards the sounds of the fighting. While she could see no active monsters on this path, there were a handful of dead ones, as she realised when her shoe went clean through the torso of one of the cadavers.

"Ugh, no, come ON!..." She exclaimed under her breath.

Instinctively she tried to pull it loose but it caught on some of the rib bones and started tearing into the material. Realising the best case scenario was now the recovery of a ripped, rot-submerged shoe, she sighed and continued the journey barefoot instead, trying not to step into any more disgusting obstacles on the path.

Noticing shadows on the ground moving towards her, backlit by one of the smashed oil lantern fires, the Priestess pressed her back against a stone garden wall and focussed on catching her breath and steadying it, in an attempt to remain hidden from the passing figures. Peeking her eye up over the wall, she checked to see if the patrol was one of the living, or one of the damned.

... No such luck. The one at the front featured a grotesque face with one of its eyeballs hanging down, turning Annette's stomach just looking at it. All of them were reminiscent of the one that attacked the healer's house earlier in the night, with badly damaged bodies, loose and clammy gray-purple flesh and lifeless cloudy eyes, no doubt scanning the area for helpless, unarmed women to sate their unholy desires...

And then one appeared.

A 20-something blonde woman in a nightgown, unfamiliar to Annette, turned the corner from the side of the militia's yelling and in an understandable cold sweat, let out a shrill scream directed at the monsters, turning on her heels and sprinting away back the way she came. Not needing to be asked twice, the first two creatures tailed her at surprising pace given their state of advanced decomposition. Leaving one undead left for Annette to figure out how to bypass.

Once again, the emerald-coloured eye of the Priestess slowly poked out over the stones. The lone zombie seemed... confused? It looked around as if the scream never happened. As it surveyed the area, Annette noticed that it's head looked particularly damaged and featured holes in the front and sides its skull. Specifically where the eyes and ears would usually be...

The creature did not seem to be see or hear anything, however it did point its nose forward as it moved, trying to sniff out its prey. Just as she made this realisation, its ugly head span around towards the wall where she was hiding and shambled closer.

Despite the fact the monster didn't possess sight, instinctively Annette broke eye-contact with the creature as she ducked her head down, quickly enough to knock one of the stones atop the wall to come clattering down. Fortunately, this couldn't be heard by it. Unfortunately, she could hear him, and he was very close.