Chapter eight - The Beast

Chapter eight.

Blood sploshes out of the thin tattered zombie's chin, it froze immediately I push the knife into its head. Congealed blood flush out as I pull out the knife, it lumbered to the ground with its face bury into the soft soil. 

Mel grunts as she pulls out her dagger out of a zombie's throat, blood squirted out of its throat as it groan in pain. Quickly, she snapped it neck in order to get it out of its misery. 

It's been hours since we left the cabin, and we've encountered some handful of daywalkers. One thing that baffles me is how the nightwalkers manage to hide quickly away from the sun, one can't mistakenly run into them during the day. I pulled out my knife, wiping off the blood using the zombie's tattered suit, carefully, sliding my knife into my waists sheath.

“We have to find somewhere to spend the night” Mel says as she walks past me.

The day seems to be getting darker than usual, nighttime isn't the best time to roam when you have limited ammo. We walk through the forest for almost an hour before we got to the nearest city. It's obvious that the apocalypse really affected the city, bodies littered around with the remains of burnt cars, the walls are bullet ridden, most of the streetlight had their bulbs stolen. 

“Jesus” Mel mutters as she sights a hoard of Zombie struggling to get out of a bus. The zombies begin to slam the doors and windows as soon as they sight us, but the windows seem to be very thick.

“They are prisoners, this bus is used to convey prisoners,” Mel says, then she taps my shoulder. “Let's go.”

We walk around the quiet street with our hands close to the sheath, you can't tell when you'll encounter another one. 

The moaning sound of zombies echoed from the corner of a shop, Mel and I quickly hid behind a car with our back against it, I spot another hoard of zombies through the car's side mirror heading towards our direction. Though they were miles away from us, but it's a matter of time before they get to us. The group of Zombies we were hiding from trudged past us, they wore the same blue ragged jumpsuit, some still had their yellow helmet on, one could tell easily who they are. 

Mel watch the ones behind us who seem to be getting closer, the one's in front were miles away from us, but we still have to wait until they are far gone. I look around in case we'll have to make a run for it, Mel tapped my shoulders, diverting my attention away from the zombies.

“Look at that store”, She said, pointing at the open bookstore in a few blocks away. 

A dozen zombies stood weak and idle at the entrance of the ajar sliding door, staring at nothing. Though they seem few, but approaching them isn't a good idea considering the number of zombies who's going to get attracted by the slightest noise. The ones behind us are closing in, it’s still surprising that we haven't been spotted yet, their rough foot dragging sound can be perceived as they get closer. 

 “How do we distract them without being spotted?” I ask.

 Mel looks around for a while then she snap her fingers. “I got it” She says, sounding positive. “Ok, Adam, I need you to distract them”.

“Distract what exactly?” I ask. “The ones at the store or the helmet zombies? I hope you haven't forgotten that there's another group heading towards us”.

She shook her head and sigh. “Yes, but that store is familiar, I've seen such building structure before” She says, pointing at the store with an ajar door. “There's a ladder inside that leads to the rooftop, zombies can't climb ladders. This is what's going to happen,” Mel face me, this time I'm beginning to feel confident with her plan “I'm going to get in through the door, you'll distract the zombies while I'll get in. While I'm inside, I'll climb the ladder, so when I get to the rooftop I'll be at the corner below that yellow taxi car, you'll climb the car and jump while I grab and lift you up” She pauses and turned to me, narrowing her eyes. “Can you jump really high?” She asks.

 I look at the distance from the car to the rooftop, it's something I can do. “Ok then, let's get it done,” I say.

Mel crept towards a Toyota Sienna parked close to where we are, she pressed her back against the car facing me, as soon as she nods I stand on my feet, looking straight at the Zombies approaching. 

The zombies increase their pace as soon as our eyes meet, I focused more on the ones in front of the store. For a better view, I climb the bonnet of a car behind me then I point the shotgun in my hands towards the sky, as soon as I squeezed the trigger, the gunshot echoed and in a blink of an eye, all the infected surrounds me. Zombies from different angles hurried to me, but my eyes are glued to the ones in front of the store still fail to succumb despite the hoard of zombies heading towards me. I jump on one of the zombies closer to me, my gun blast its head but more of them keep coming, I shoot as best as I can, trying to prevent them from crowding me. 

With the corner of my eyes I sight Mel sneaking behind the idle zombies at the entrance, a zombie bit my hand, forcing blood out of it. I shove my knife into it stomach and kick it away. I climb the half burnt car beside me to escape. 

 “Adam!” Mel calls.

 She stretch her hand down from the rooftop for me to grasp. The height of her hand to the car below is not too high, but I'd have to jump really high to be able to grab her hand. The store door is locked, thankfully that'll keep the zombies from getting to the rooftop easily and even if they get in, they won't be able to climb the ladders. 

I eject my magazine, but I had no time to mount another one. Quickly, I draw out my shotgun and fired heavily at the zombies in front of me, in order to create an open  escape space. The shotgun ripped off their body parts, a zombie tried to yank my gun off but I jerk backwards and squeeze the trigger making a large bore in it chest. 

 I force my way through, jumping from one car to another  trying to avoid the hungry monsters. I thump on an SUV and tuck my gun back into its position, with every ounce of energy in me, I jump with my hands stretched. Luckily, Mel grabs my left wrist. Immediately, I clench my hand on hers. She grunts as she pulls me up slowly. The moaning sound of the zombies below gives Mel a reason not to let go. Finally, I sighed as my stomach got to the edge and I pulled myself up immediately. Mel and I laid on the rooftop breathing heavily, the bite marks on her hands shows that she didn't get to the rooftop easily.

 The zombies suddenly turn aggressive, they banged the entrance door violently. The eyes of the zombies on helmet looking at me suddenly changed from white to black, their rampage behavior increased as they tried to jump to the roof. Their moaning sounds deadlier than normal; this gives a clear explanation to what I was thinking earlier, daywalkers are nightwalkers during the day, no wonder it's impossible to find a Daywalker at night, they are all the same. 

“Darkness makes them more aggressive” Mel says then she tapped my shoulders. “Move away from the where they can see you, they'll keep on going crazy knowing that they can't get to us, and that will do us no good.”

 I sigh in relief as I drop my bag, Mel shoved her hand into hers, one by one she places the canned food on the floor, counting them again. My eyes dart around trying to observe the surrounding ruins, most houses had their windows broken, shops and stores were emptied probably by humans who were finding any means to survive. The moaning sound of zombies shuffling around, this used to be humans who had a life before this whole destruction. A dog bark gets my attention, I face to the direction of the bark. 

A small black gaunt dog standing few blocks away, trying to scare the zombies away with its weak trailing bark, but they keep coming closer to it, all they see is food.

 The dog hurries away probably tired of barking, but it eventually runs out of luck, as another hoard of zombie in front got hold of it, I look away to avoid the horrible sight of a poor dog devoured into pieces.

“Not even animals are spared" Mel says, I turned to see her holding two small plastic plate dishes. 

We sit down to eat after walking for miles. We have to manage our supplies, one can't tell if were going to find more supplies in days to come. I toss the plate aside as soon as its emptied.

“Here you go” Mel says d as she shoves her hand into her bag and take out two bottles of water.

I grab one from her and swallow almost half of it, keeping the rest for future use. 

“How much food do we have left?” I ask.

“Enough to last us for a week or so” she replies, zipping the bag and placing it aside.

We stare at the white bright moon in front, moments of silence is the only time when you speak to the second you inside you.

“What if the others are dead” Mel ask.

“I don't think so, remember we're the pure ones. Besides, only the predator stands as a major threat, but soon we'll defeat it, nothing is immortal”.

Mel smile faded almost immediately it begins. “What if the predator is indestructible? What if the daywalkers and nightwalkers mutate to predators? How sure are we that this so-called cure is going to work on predators?”

Mel questions make my hairs erect in fear, but that's not a good thing to do now. I tap her left shoulder then she turns to me, our eyes meet again, and I feel safe. “Everything happens for a reason, I know God has a reason for everything.”

Mel sighed and avert her gaze towards the moon. “You sounded like my brother, always on high hopes on some God who may or may not exist.”

Arguing with her at this moment seem pointless, I decide to avert her attention by asking the question I've always wanted to ask. 

“The butterfly tattoo on your back, how long has it been there?” I asked.

She scoffed. “Since high school, just like my brother, my parent are very religious, and they'll kill me if they find out that I got a tattoo”. She laughs, “Actually, Sally drew the tattoo. She used to say; butterflies are God's proof that we'll be….”

“..... Given a second chance” I interrupt impulsively, it feels like I've heard such before.

“Wow, you remembered” she says with her eyes widened.

I shook my head slowly, still trying to recall where I learned it from, there must be a memory linked with it. After a while, I gave up. 

“I must have heard it somewhere, but I can't recall” I said.

“It's ok” She says, then she turned facing the moon. “My mom used to say that; if the caterpillar is told that one day it'll be able to fly, it'll never believe it, but God does things in miraculous ways."

"I thought you don't believe in God" I said, teasingly.

She sighs again and lay on the floor, resting her head on her bag, still staring at the moon. I guess she has no answer to my question.

“Adam” She called, still staring at the moon. “How do I have faith when there's no hope. My parents are gone, my brother is gone, and those who believed never made it. I've heard about the apocalypse ever since I was a kid, but I never imagined that'll it will be so brutal to this extent” She paused and sighed. “The bible didn't describe it like this”.

 She shut her eyes almost immediately trying to get some sleep, with the looks of things, I don't think any Zombie is going to get up here, we're safe and there's no need to look out. I laid close to Mel, placing my gun beside me in case of emergency, these days one can't be too careful. 

***************

 “Wake up, Adam, wake up”

 I felt a slight tap on my shoulder, my eyes are still shut, but now I'm far away from my peaceful sleep. I open my eyes slowly to see Mel holding her rifle, the sky is still dark and with the look of things, my sleep is cut short.

"What's wrong?" I ask, weakling, still trying to get back to sleep.

 A loud bang startled me, quickly I pick up my gun, my eyes widened immediately ready for the unknown. 

Several gunshots and moaning sound echo from a distance. More shots echo every second, giving us a clear direction of where to go. Yet, the gunshot will do nothing more than attracting more Zombies. I stand up to look around, as expected, the zombies hurry to the direction of the noise.

“We have to go check it out” Mel says.

My eyes are still fixed on the zombie down the building. "I doubt that's a good idea, we're safe here, and we shouldn't risk it.”

“There are people nearby who needs our help,” Mel says.

 Here we go again.

She doesn't need to tell me that, helping isn't a good idea at the moment considering the risks and our ammunition can't go on forever. Another loud bang echo again and this time it seems louder than the preceding ones.

“Are you going with me or not,” she says, standing at the edge of the building.

 Mel already strap her backpack, her hands were tightened to her gun waiting for me to decide, either way, she's not backing out for sure.

"Alright," I grab my bag and stand on my feet.

*****************

Mel and I hurry down the dark road to reach the source of the shots, we avoid countless zombies on our way. The intensity of the sound increase as we get closer, we round a corner, and finally, I spot a bright light from afar. We hide behind a truck, then the gunshot suddenly stop, we pause for a while, wondering if it's a good idea to walk up to the strangers, or we back out.

 “Get this thing into the trunk, make it snappy” A masculine voice says.

I peep through the trunk glass to see what's going on as I try not to be spotted. Despite the low taillight, I still see the men standing behind the truck, they ate armed and seem to be getting everything under control. 

Three of them are on the lookout while the others stepped into the light, they fired at a short female zombie who's trying to crawl away from the light. She groaned in pain as yellow slimy fluid dropped from her squinty black eyes. 

One of the men covers the zombie eyes with a piece of clothing, she struggles to bite him but the man beside him quickly restrained her by tying her hands and legs, still shaking violently, they lifted her.

 I wonder what these men are up to, they seem to be rushing to get out of here, it's a bad idea to take a Zombie along.

“What are they doing?” Mel whispers.

“I'm not certain, but it seems like a kidnap” I reply quickly. 

My eyes are still fixed on the men in front. Unfortunately, One of the men looks straight at me, I'm sure he didn't see me at first, the whole place is dark and considering the distance it'll be difficult to spot someone in black. Not until he cocks his gun and points it towards me.

“Hey!” The barks, alerting the others. “I can see you! Come out with your hands in the air”. 

I pressed my back against the van, Mel and I looked at each other trying to decide what to do. 

Though we heal from bullet wounds but getting shot is not a good idea either. I cocked my gun slowly, while Mel tightens her fist on hers with her gun slightly raised, after seeing what those men did to the zombie, I'm certain they are up to no good. The thudding sound of their boots increase with every step which shows how close they are.

 I'm also ready for whatever is going to happen, after my encounter with the men who abduct Mel the other night, I've come to realize that the world is filled with bad people taking advantage of the present situation.

"Ready?" I say to Mel.

Mel shook her head then the gunfire begins, but this time we're not the ones being shooting at. 

We stand in confusion as the men begins to scream and groan. One of the men hurried towards our direction, his back hit the van and his gun dropped close to me, my blood run cold as he yells in pain. Something drags him from his feet, and we hear his bones cracking.

 The whole place suddenly goes quiet as a graveyard, with blood flowing from the bottom of the van. 

Mel and I stick to our guns, at that moment I regret following her, we should have stayed on the rooftop.

A loud thud from the top of the van startle me, my body froze as my heart begins to beat quickly. Whatever just killed those men is right on top of us, the growling sound from above send a shiver down my spine as slimy saliva dropped on my left shoulder. My heart race faster due to the fear of the unknown, the growl sounds more animalistic than what I was thinking.

 There's only one variant of zombie capable of killing so rapidly, I just hope it's not what I'm thinking. I look up slowly, with slimy saliva dropping on my face.  The horrible sight almost causes me jump out of my skin. Thankfully, it's not what I think it is, but nevertheless this one looks very  dangerous.

“What the hell is this” Mel mutters.