Chapter 13 - Cemetery

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 A moaning sound hit my ear, jolting me from whatever I was thinking about.

 "Shit!" I shout before raising my gun to shoot the zombie who's just some inches away from me.

 Blood stains my face as a bullet riddle through the zombie's head from behind. It collapses with his head striking my boot and blood tainting it.

 "You don't let a zombie get too close to you," Eddy advice before pulling the trigger again.

I hear a loud thud behind me but I never bother to check what it is. I aim at a zombie crawling towards us. Its legs are missing, like he got ran over by a vehicle. It kept groaning as slimy saliva drips from it's mouth to the floor. As soon as it get close enough to grip Eddy, I fire my gun and the bullet land on its skull.

 Eddy sights it and quickly look away from its messy head then he turns to me. "Let's go help larry."

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  The grinding sound of chainsaw suddenly stops as Larry cut through a zombie into half. His body is extremely soak with zombie blood which is going to start stinking anytime from now.

 "I love this baby," he says, kissing the chainsaw. By the time we get close to him, he turns to us and smile. "Where have the both of you been?" he ask.

 "I had to go check on China-girl," Eddy replies, pointing at me.

 "Oh really? Then the both of you left me with our friends here," Larry says, pointing at the heap of zombie corpse around him.

 "Well, I can see you handled them really well," Xiao says as she looks around.

 "In that case, I suggest we move then." Eddy pick up his bag.

 "We can't, you know why we are still here?" Larry says.

 "Yes, but we've been wasting time. The earlier we leave, the better."

 "You know that is never going to happen. we are to remain here till-"

Eddy slams his foot to the ground.

"Till when?" He ask. He turning around to look at the zombie corpse scattered everywhere. Some were killed days before and now thier bodies are beginning to stink.

 "Remember we are asked to meet at the river, that's why we're still here," I say to Eddy who seem not to be in for any conversation.

 "I agree with Eddy," Larry says as he pulls of his blood stained shirt. He turns to me and shrug. "How long are we going to be here waiting for them?" he ask then he move closer to me. "It's been two weeks." he says, raising two of his fingers to my face with blood dripping from his chin, he seriously looks tired.

 "But we shouldn't lose hope yet," I say to the both of them but they seem to have made up their minds.

 Eddy and Larry are not to be blame. They really tried, and it's normal to be fed up cuz I'm also sick and tired of having to stay in a location fighting off zombies which seem endless. This place seem like the most populated area of zombies, I guess it's because of the low land surrounded by hills, and a zombie can sight us from afar if its coming from the hills.

 "We are out of ammo and almost running out of supplies, soon we'll be forced to leave. What do you suggest we do before then," Eddy says with a serious look on his face, waiting for me to explain myself.

 I sigh. "Ok, just one last night."

 Larry stump his feet to the ground. "Seriously, another night in the open, did you know how many nightwalkers we are going to face tonight?" He asks.

 "Look, I know we've been delayed but we need Adam and Mel, they are our comrades and it'll be unfair for us to ditch them. We promise to meet at the river, let's just spend one last night and if they don't come, we move."

Larry and Eddy give me a long look for a while then Eddy turns to Larry but all he get is a shrug. Then he drops his bag and turn to me.

 "One last night," He says. "If they don't appear before sunrise tomorrow, we leave. Agreed?"

 "Yes." I shook my head.

Larry walks to the river, pulling off his clothes to wash himself up, not minding if the water is contaminated by the zombie corpse. Eddy sits on the floor with sweat dripping from his chin then he unload his gun and counts his bullet on the sand. Five bullets left, I just hope we survive tonight.

 "Holy shit" Larry says as he points to a zombie standing blankly on the hill.

 "Night walkers, It's just one. I'll take care of it." I assure Larry who's about to load his gun.

 The zombie shuffles forward as I walk to it, my eyes focus on its shattered teeth. As soon as I grip its hand I snap it and force my sword blade into its head. The zombie drops to the ground as soon as I pull out my sword. Another zombie rush to me but I dodge it nail attack and plug in my blade into its stomach.

 More zombies approach to me, and at the moment, the only possible action to take is to run. I bolt towards Larry and Eddy who begins to shoot at the zombies. I stumble and fall to the ground, immediately, a fat zombie jumps on me sinking it's teeth into my neck. I cry out in pain. My sword drops far away from my reach.

 "Xiao. hang on!" Larry voice echoes to me from below, and I pray he gets to me before this zombie drains my blood.

 A bullet riddle through the zombie's head and it drops on my body, I push it aside and Eddy quickly pulls me up. My neck heals slowly as we run away from the hoard of zombies appearing from every angle. This night seem worse than normal as we try to fight some zombies off , forgetting our bags and supply.

 "Look," Eddy says pointing at a small house.

 "Oh gosh!" I shout immediately a sharp pain struck my leg. I fall to the floor as blood ooze out of my left ankle.

"Deer trap" Eddy says.

 Without removing the giant teeth trap on my leg, Eddy lifts me up and carry me on his shoulders while Larry run after him. Thankfully, I'm not slowing him down.

Eddy drops me on a dry haystack while Larry shuts the door behind him. Quickly, they block the entrance door with different objects in their reach. The whole place is slightly brighten by the moon ray passing in through the window, but the thumping sound of the zombie feet drifts me back to reality.

"We have to survive tonight." Larry says to Eddy.

 "We will" Eddy replies as he pulls out a small axe, I guess he's out of ammo, and now that our supplies are outside, I wonder if we are going to make it when the zombies finally barge in.

 "This is all my fault," I say with my hands clench on both sides of the trap.

 "Weather or not, we're in this together." Larry says with his hand gripping on his knife.

 "We've made it this far and we are not going to get ripped off by some stupid brainless creatures," Eddy says confidently as usual.

 I try to pull the trap but it keeps sending streams of stinging pains into my head with sweat dripping from my chin with every breath I take. Deep down I know I won't last tonight, not with a broken ankle. The loud bang on the door jolts me once more as I gather enough strength to pull the metal hook slowly from my feet. Despite my screams, Larry and Eddy did not notice it, at this moment, surviving is crucial.

"Ahhh! Oh lord." I scream as flesh mixed with blood spurt out of my disfigured leg.

 I grab my sword and crawl to the others as the intensity of the footsteps increases. I barely stand but lying on the haystack won't do me any good.

 The moaning sound of the Zombies echoes from behind the door as I clench my fist around the sword handle.

 "They are close, get ready" Eddy says.

 Suddenly, gunshot reverberates from behind the door as bullets riddle through the walls. I drop to the floor all of a sudden with blood spurting from my neck.

 "Xiao!" larry shouts as he crawls to me.

My throat feels ripped off with blood spouting out from my mouth as I struggle to breath. Larry sticks his finger down my throat trough my mouth then he pulls out a small round metal and flings it. A cold soothing feeling runs down my spine as my body begins to heal itself.

 After a while, the gunshot stops and the zombie moans seem to have died down but the tension in the atmosphere still makes my heart race. The wound on my leg is gone and now I can walk but we have no idea who or what's behind the door.

 "What do we do now?" Larry asks.

 "How about you go check it out," I say to Larry.

 "No no no," he shook his head.

 We all raise our weapons as footstep echoes from the door. Slowly the door creaks open and someone walks in. My eyes sights the blood stain boot first then slowly I look up to find the last person I expect to see.

"Adam," I shout excitedly as I get on my feet and throw myself at him. He shifts as I stack all my weight on him, clasping my hand around him. I pull away to observe him from close range, physically he seem ok but deep down I know he's not.

 "Glad to have you back bro" Larry says as he taps his shoulder.

 "Me too," he says.

Eddy walks up to us and face Adam, he look around like someone searching for something, then he return his gaze to Adam standing in frontdrooling

 "Where is she?"

 His question jolts me for a second, with the looks on Adam's face I know something is wrong. Without having to ask, I pull him closer and hug him once more.

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 Through out the night, Adam stay awake staring blankly at nothing. He look lost and empty, moving his lips without the production of any articulate speech. I observe the drops of tears on his face as he wipes it and sniffs but as soon as he turns to me, I shut my eyes and pretend to sleep.

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 We set out as a team of four, low ammo, low supplies but high chances of surviving as long as we don't encounter somethig greater than us. I hate to imagine what will happen to us if we encounter the predator.

 "How many meters away?" Larry ask as he stares at my tablet screen.

 "Less than a Hundred kilometers north," I reply, still looking at the screen.

 We pass by a cemetery with exhumed bodies. For a moment, I stop in front of a pit wondering if Zombies now exhume corpses. Deep down I try not to imagine what happened to the corpse.

 I froze immediately Eddy taps my shoulder. He must have notice me staring at the grave. By the time I turn to see the others, there're already distance away from me. Adam seem not to be moved at all by the sight of corpses, he must have seen a lot recently, as he keeps walking without looking back.

 "Mel death really got the best of him." Eddy says pointing at Adam.

 "It affected us all" I reply.

 "It must have been really hard for him,"

 I nod and stare at Adam as we walk, Larry try to catch up with him when he suddenly stops and crouch down behind a car.

 As soon as some group of zombies come into view, Eddy drags me down and we hide behind a large gre en container containing lots of dirt and rubbish. I cover my nose immediately the pungent smell runs down my throat, puking won't do me any good. The hoard of zombies seem to be smaller than four feet and younger.

 "They are kids," Eddy mutters.

 The thoughts of what these children in similar uniform must have been through weakens me. Their uniforms looks tattered and they seem malnourished while they scavenge for corpses to feed on. Slowly we creep away from the hungry zombie kids feasting on a decayed body.

 As soon as we move a little bit away from the young zombies, my stomach begins to rumble and my knees feels heavy and stiff to move. I crouch down and throw up what's left in my stomach. Eddy helped me adjust my hair then he hands me a bottle of water to rinse my mouth.

 "I'm ok" I say to him. It's no use wasting water at this time of the world.

 "They are just kids," Larry says,

 "Green Virus knows no kid." Adam says and keeps moving.

 It somewhat strange that Adam isn't moved by anything anymore, it's like his emotions shut down after the death of Mel.

 We keep walking for hours without enountering any zombies until we hear a loud growl from afar, at first we try to ignore it until a high pitch scream follows.

 "Someone is in trouble, we have to..." I say to Eddy but Adam cuts in.

 "Don't be fooled, it may be a trap,"

 "Trap or not someone needs our help." I say without looking back I bolt down the desolate road.

 Eddy and Larry joins me while Adam walks behind.

 As soon as we make a quick turn, a zombie in red tattered jean short jumps at me but I slice off its head before it lands. Another few takes its place and in no time we are all surrounded by Zombies. My eyes darts ro the kids on the tree screaming for help.

 My heart jumps as one of them fall off the branch. He grabs a sick and tries to fight off the bigger and hungrier Zombie. What are young kids doing out here and how did they make it this far. Without wasting much time I grab my sword and shove it into the skull of a female ex nurse zombie. Pulling the throat of another zombie I finally have a clear path to the fat zombie who's about to devour the child. Like a light pillow, I throw the fat Zombie aside and he lands on his fat belly. As soon as he gets up, he drops to the floor.

 At first I don't know what's going on until something swoosh past me and a thudding sound echoes behind me. I turn to see a lanky zombie with an arrow hanging on its skull.

 "Thank goodness," A female voice says and I turn to see the white skinned redhaired lady in black behind me. She seem older than the kids but way younger to be a guardian. Strapping her bow on her shoulder, she rush to the kids and they jump down from the tree to go meet her.

 The zombies are all dealt with and everyone seem exhausted.

 "Sorry, my bad," she says as she turn to look at me. "I'm Bella and this is Joan and Mike. Thank you and your crew for saving them, I really owe you guys."

 "Nah, we are glad to help." Eddy says as they shake hands. "This is Xiao, Adam, Larry and I'm Eddy. We were just passing by."

 Her eyebrow raised, "Wow! really." she turns to the rough looking kid beside her. "Say thank you to Uncle Eddy,"

 The boy turns to Eddy with a witty smile exposing his missing front teeth. "Thank you sir." he says in a low pitched tired voice.

 Eddy taps his head and turns to Bella, "It's nice meeting you, be careful out there." He turns to me and taps my shoulder, "Let's get going."

 "Wait, are you leaving already."

 "Yes, Eddy nods without looking back."

 "Well, I have a place you can camp for the night," Bella says. "There's plenty of food for you all.'

 Her suggestion calm my nerves. Aside the fact that my stomach crumbles on hearing the word food, I'd also love a goodnight sleep.

 "No thanks," Eddy says from afar. He seem to be the only one moving, just as me, Larry and the Adam appear to prefer Bella's offer.

 "I'll go with you," Larry says, walking towards Bella. Adam follows and I hold the little black boy's hand who seem to like me.

 "Seriously? Guys, come on we have more serious task at hand."

 "Yeah, but food and shelter also sounds good," Larry replies.

 Eddy stare at us for a moment and I can see tiredness written all over his face, he sighs and nods. "Ok, just one night."

 A smile forms on my face as Bella leads the way, finally, a better place to spend the night.

 "How far is your place?" Larry asks.

 "Just behind the mountain." Bella says pointing at nothing in particular.