Chapter Ten - The departure

Chapter ten - The Departure.

A root tip me again, but Mel quickly pulls me before I hit the ground. We with our hearts in our mouth, the predator isn't stopping either. 

“Ready to jump” Mel says as we approach a small stream in front.

 At once, we jump and land at the other side, the predator growl fuels up my strength and will to keep running. 

 I pull Mel's collar as she almost falls off a cliff, I guess she didn't see the signboard miles away.

“Oh Jesus!” she shouts as I squeeze my fist on one side of her collar.

 We both stand close to the steep. The cliff is distant from the ground, with rocks at the bottom. Jumping is a wrong choice, though it's the first option that comes to my mind.

 “This is too deep to jump,” Mel says as she watches a piece of stone fall from the cliff.

 “It's either we jump or the predator kills us,” I say, but deep down Mel knows I'm bluffing.

 “It'll be easy if there aren't rocks in the bottom,” she pauses and turns towards the forest, “We have to fight this thing.”

 I crack my shotgun, but I have another plan in mind. The Predator seem to be tracing our footsteps and in no time he'll get to us, the least we can do right now is to buy ourselves some time. Jumping won't kill us, but it is more likely to cripple our bones for a while, it'll take almost five minutes to heal from such injury, but I'm sure the Predator will heal in less than a minute.

 “You jump,” I say, on sighting the Predator. “Mel! Jump.” I shout to her but she remains still.

 “No, It's either you jump or we jump, but I'm not letting you do something crazy, I know you don't love your life but guess what?....... I hate my life too” Mel gasp as the predator jumps out of the forest. He growls and points his sharp nails at us. There's one thing for sure; he's not going to stop until we're dead.

 “Get ready,” Mel says as she moves forward, suddenly she turns to me.

 Mel instantly jabs the butt of her gun to my head. I stagger, and struggle not to fall,, but she points her gun to me and lodge a bullet in my chest.

 The next thing I remember is slamming my back against a hard surface before passing out.

 **********************

 (Mel's POV)

 The Predator smirks as I turn to him. Already, I timed my wristwatch to beep after five minutes. Shooting Adam off the cliff is the only way to save him, he's too stubborn to leave me.

“Let's dance,” I say as toss my backpack aside and pull my knife.

 The Predator growls and lunge to me, but I gave him a drop-kick in the chest which makes him stagger backwards for a while before regaining balance. 

 I can't let him fall or else he'll kill Adam down there, my heart aches as I hear Adam voice echoing from below, but one thing I find strange is the Predator- laughing.

 “You are as dumb as your boyfriend,” he says, instantly, my heart drops. 

Did he just talk? I never imagined zombies talking.

 He rush to me, flicking something at me, but I dodge it, then he lands a blow on my head which seem fatal, but I still have some minutes to go. I stab him in the leg and sweep his feet, making him fall beside me. Quickly I get on my but this time I feel a sharp pain on my skin, instantly, my knife drops.

 A black pointed object hangs on my skin, I pull it out with my right hand and throw it aside, my right hand still feels numb, but I'm not giving up.

 “That's the power of evolution,” The predator says as he stands.

 I try to pick up my knife using my left hand, but he fires another sharp pointed object to my knee. I immediately feel my nerves dying as I drop to the floor. In less than a minute my back is fill with puncturing object, the Predator stands in front of me while I lay with my stomach on the wet ground. Suddenly, my wristwatch beeps and a witty smile appear on my face knowing that Adam is up by now escaping.

 The zombie seems surprise as I laugh, but before he finds out what I'm about to do, I let go of the grenade.

 ****************************

 (Adam's POV)

  The loud explosion gives me more reason to get Mel. I hastily pick up my shotgun and tuck my Ak-15 beside my backpack as numerous zombies shuffles to me. 

 A zombie lunges to me, but I repel it with a shot in the head. I shove my gun into another one's mouth and blast off his head, then I stab a female zombie in the neck, her blood squirt to my eyes. The shotgun seems to have lesser ammo than the AK, then I begin to substitute both, AK for long rage and shotgun if any zombie gets closer. 

 The zombies seem endless, and I'm also relentless. I run up the hill, firing every zombie in my path. Quickly, I shove my AK's bayonet to a zombie's forehead, while I bore a large hole in another zombie's chest with my shotgun.

 I shove both weapon back to my backpack and this time I make use of my handgun. The thoughts of Mel's situation makes me fight like a beast, gunning accurately to the head of any zombie that gets closer than ten feet. I'm not concerned about my ammo, fiercely, I get to Mel with blood all over my body.

 “Adam, gosh, Adam you….fool,” she mutters. 

 I look around, but the Predator is nowhere. Mel's body looks messy, as I rush to her. My heart aches seeing her in such a situation. She isn't healing at all.

 “He evolved” she manages to speak, with her blood spurting to my face. 

 The blast really had a serious effect on her, her stomach is torn apart, with her intestines exposed and half of her face appears to be half burned by the blast. The Predator seem to have pinched her with its nails hanging on her skin like a hedgehog spine. 

 “Shoot me,” she says.

 “Never”

 I stand on my feet, fighting some zombies heading towards us. The blast must have attracted them here. After squashing the last zombie's head with my boot, I return to Mel.

 “I'm in pains, Adam, kill me,” she begs as I knee beside her.

 “No” 

 “Come on, you are tired and weak, how long can you fight? Few hours to nighttime and the aggressive night walkers will be here in hundreds,” 

“I'll fight them. No matter what,” I pause as tears drop from my chin. “You will heal up”

 “You know that's going to take months, judging from the last time, it took up to forty-eight hours for me to heal from a single nail wound but how long will it take for me to heal from more than fifty shot?” she asks but still, I'm willing to fight for her. After almost an hour of fighting zombies heading towards us, I sit on the muddy ground with my hands buried on my face.

“Adam, can you die for me?” she asks, but I say nothing. Looking at her current state saddens me, so I try as much as I can to pretend that she's ok.

 Mel coughs. “That is easy, ok I'll ask again, Adam can you live for me?” she asks. “I want you to live for me, fight for me, kill for me, slay for me, make sure this whole bullshit stops,” she coughs and sighs afterwards. “Can you do it for me?”

 I shook my head in response.

After a while of silence, she finally speaks.

 “Adam, I'm thirsty” she says. Immediately, I stand up to search for her backpack.

“I already toss my backpack down the cliff," she says. “Can you help me go get water? It's inside my backpack.”

 I pause for a while, thinking of what to do. If I leave, the zombies will attack her, if I stay, she may die of thirst.

 “Give me your handgun, I can still move my hand, at least I'll be able to fight off zombies until you return,” she says.

 I turn to see her fingers still flinching. She raises her hand and move it slowly to be able to convince me. I pick up my AK and points it to her. Mel laughs and breathe heavily before speaking. 

 “Come on, I can't use a big gun now. Give me the handgun”

 I recheck the handgun to be sure it's loaded, seven bullets should be able to take down some zombies until I return. Her fist clamp around the gun's handle, and she smiles, her fingers are still shaky, but she manages to place the gun on her skin peeled chest, I doubt she can still shoot.

 “Go get me water,” she says.

 I hurry down the hill, making sure I get to my backpack quickly before any zombie gets to her. My hands swiftly tore the zip. Quickly, I pull out the water bottle, which seem half filled. Instantly, I sight a zombie heading towards the hill. Skillfully, My knife lodge to his head as I fling it. Looks like I'm getting better at knife throwing.

 My legs start to ache as I climb the hill, deep down I feel tired, but I have to be strong. 

“Mel I-” my voice trails off and the water bottle drops from my hand as soon as I sight Mel.

 “Don't do it,” I say. 

 “Please, just let me go” she begs.

Tear drops from my eyes again as Mel place the handgun to her head, her finger hook slightly on the trigger.

“It's not worth the stress, Adam, it's not,” she says as she sniffs.

“Mel, please. You can't give up now, think about your brother”

She laughs, “Rick is dead, I don't deserve to live anyway.”

 I try to get close to her, but she tightens her finger on the trigger.

“Don't come close” she warns, and I obey like a robot, then she continues “I love you Adam, but I can't watch you put your life at risk because of me.” Mel pulls the safety and push the gun close to her exposed skull.

 “We can fix this, I can protect you, please, for the sake of -"

“Bye Adam”

That's the last sentence I hear before the gunshot echo. Mel hands drop as blood, bone mixed with brain matter spurt out of her right ear. My legs weakened and my heart stops. 

I move towards Mel corpse with my tear filled eyes, my face bury on her chest. In less than a week, I've felt scared, happy, stressed, loved and now I feel miserable. The only person that matters in my life is gone, and now I'm left with nothing. 

 I hear a low gnarl, surely, the gunshot must have attracted more zombies. My fists tighten as I turn to the few day walkers shuffling to me. There's a chill feeling of anger running down my spine at the moment I felt like a beast, aggressive like one of those cannibals. 

 A zombie's head burst open like a smashed watermelon as I slam it's against the tree beside me. The one behind got its neck ripped off as I pull out a chunk of flesh and bones off its neck. A female zombie plunge herself to me, but I grip her by the neck, lift her off the ground and shove my hand into her chest. Brown congealed blood splatter to my face as I shove my right hand in between her breast, pulling out her heart. She drops, and I squeezed the heart between my fist.

Another fat zombie rush to me but I land a hard blow on it chest, the zombie thuds on the ground and I quickly got on top of him. He pierces his finger into my ribs, but I feel numb at the moment, not minding how much blood I'm loosing at the moment.

 The zombie squeal as I sank my teeth into his neck, he let go of me, but I can't stop at the moment. Zombies blood smell horrible, but that doesn't matter to someone who lost it all. I also want to feel like a beast. Having Drained the blood of the rotten creature, I feel like a tortured lion who break free from its cage.

I look at the surrounding zombies with blood dripping from my mouth. I realize that I've lost it all…. Not only that, but I'm lost and alone.

Watch out for #2