The invasion of the body snatchers continues!
When we last looked in on the intrepid Lawmen of Wappelville, they were anticipating the arrival of the heaviest Enlightened units.
The dust clouds betrayed the approach of the Ironhide and the Mercenary Buggy.
Apparently one of the replacement Interceptors had something wrong with its targeting mechanism...
Dad-gum Union war profiteers!
A move to outflank the Lawmen defending the Undertaker's establishment was met by a host of close combat Rangers, bolstered by two additional riflemen riding the rail cart.
A nasty surprise awaited the undead creatures in the Smokehouse...
The Ironhide made a predictable approach to the target. What the Lawmen could not know, however is what might leap out of it!
Thomas Tate Tobin claims his first victim! One of the shambling abominations was cut down right away.
One of the ruined beasts that staggered out of the Ironhide wielded a massive shotgun, pouring lead into the Funeral Parlor.
A particularly brave Ranger engaged the sinister creation in hand to hand combat, so that it could cause no further harm.
The Enlightened were able to utilize the Mercenary Buggy to outflank the defenders near the water tower. Would this spell doom for those defending the church graveyard?
Wyatt had assumed that the main thrust would head for Billy's corpse, so there were fewer heavy Lawmen units in that section of the fight. What rode inside that speeding vehicle might tip the balance...
You can see that the aforementioned Enlightened advance was building, and they stood at the cusp of activating the graves around the church! Fortunately, two Interceptors were now in position, and a group of Rangers had spread out from the church.
These Rangers were taking positions around the great stumps of trees, and the headstones closest to the church.
At the same time, the assault on the Funeral Parlor became even more furious. Some of the mines placed in front of the building had been taken out, and young Edison continued to jump out of the Ironhide, irradiating one Lawman after another!
Despite the loss of more and more of the blasted creations, Carpathian was able to keep up this furious action with even more terrible minions.
It was at this point that Hercules II leaped out from the Smokehouse and savaged a number of these fiendish beasts. One by one succumbed to the steel fangs of the K-9.
This allowed the Rangers to close in from behind the Smokehouse, threatening Carpathian himself!
Each time a reanimated monster was taken down, another took its place. The Lawmen were increasingly hard pressed. Each time one of them moved to engage the creatures, Carpathian would blast them from his hiding place.
Obviously he is not accustomed to a straight up fight!
Both sides were now mere inches from each other. The Rangers could easily smell the wretched things as they moved into the graveyard.
However, only the living could bring the dead from the graves, and the Lawmen carefully focused their attention on them. The Kauffman brothers and the Wraith suffered wound after wound...
A torrent of fire from in and around the church savaged the invaders. This also helped to cover the advance of yet another K-9. You can see him crouching behind the tree stand on the right.
The Wraith had influcted a great deal of harm on the implacable Rangers, and nearly destroyed the K-9 as well. However, the Steel Fangs would bring down the evil minion of Carpathian once and for all!!
The soil above the graves was stained red as Archimedes tore through the flesh of his victim. Even nearby headstones became unreadable as the blood and gore obscured dates and names alike.
Would those dearly departed lying beneath that soil eventually become more foul creations of Carpathian? Find out in the next chapter of Carpathian's Revenge!!
