Chapter nine - The park

Chapter nine.

 We jerk away as soon as the hungry-looking creature leap from the Van.

 It's strange seeing an infected animal, so fierce and brutal. The four feet hairy dog with scars all over its body steps forward, its left eye is missing while the right bloodshot eyes stared at me in rage. Its teeth appear to be disorderly arranged, but looks sharp and deadly. The devilish giant Pitbull growls angrily like it's about to tear something apart, with its sticky liquid dropping from its mouth. I raise my gun slowly then it leans backwards, and slightly bending its thin legs, ready to charge. 

With the corner of my eyes I sight some night walkers down the dark road hurrying towards us, the earlier gunshot must have attracted them.

 “You take the night walkers while I take care of this beast” I say to Mel without turning to looking at her, my eyes are fixed on the zombie dog in front of me.

As soon as I fire my rifle, it charges to me. Mel rolled away from it reach, but it doesn't seem to notice her, its bloody eyes focus to mine. I fire several shot, but it has little effect on it. The dog isn't flinching as bullet riddled through its body. 

As soon as the dog gets closer, it leaped on me, pushing me to the ground with its paws. Immediately back hit the ground, I shove the side of my rifle into its mouth, preventing the beast from biting. Its teeth clenched on the metal side of my rifle while I hold the edge. Sharp claws sink into my stomach as blood oozed out, but I dare not let go of the rifle.

 Though my sidearm is in my thigh sheath, but there's no way my hand is going to reach it without letting go of my gun, my arms are getting weak, with my fingers trembling as the dog struggles to push its way through. Suddenly, it pulls my gun with its teeth away from my grip and spit it aside. In a flash, I reach for my sidearm, and pulls it from the holster in close range I fire straight into its eye. 

 The zombie dog jerks backwards with blood gushing from its eyes, the anguishing growl shows how pained it felt, unfortunately, its eye isn't healing. 

  The dog begins to sniff around but its eyes seems indispensable. Again, the dog lunges forward to me, but this time its blind. I pick up my shotgun and shove the muzzle into its mouth. It clenches its jaws angrily on the gun. Blood mixed with skull and brain matter splatter around as soon as I pull the trigger, rendering it headless.

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

We stand for a while, watching the dog's headless corpse. I wonder how many of infected dogs are out here.

“How is this possible?” Mel asks.

“It got infected with the virus” I manage to respond.

She shook her head in disagreement to my point. “No, I've seen countless dogs bitten, but I've never seen any of them turn into a zombie”, she said as she crouches and picks up a piece of its skull.

“Maybe this is another variant,” I say.

“Deadly variant,” she says as she stood up. “Look at what it did to those men, it's as crazy as the predator”.

 As soon as she mentions the name 'predator', my heart sink in fear. I look around and notice we're alone standing in the middle of Zombies corpses, sooner more zombies will get here, and I don't think we have much ammo left.

“Let's get out of here” I said to Mel, whose eyes are still fixed on the men's corpse torn by the dog.

She turned to me and shook her head, I look around, but there's no better spot to spend the night, the buildings are almost crumbled with windows and doors missing. 

“Let's get away from here” Mel says, pointing at the Van behind us.

The moaning sound repeats, without wasting time we hurry into the cargo space at the back of a truck, then I close the door slowly leaving a small open space in-between. The shuffling sound of the zombies dragging their feet with their animalistic moans trails off after a while, Mel sigh and lower her gun.

 For a moment, We stare at each other in silence; I hope she's not going to talk about what we just experience. Mel detaches a few buttons on her chest and lower one side of her shirt, the right-hand side where her wound is.

“Why is this thing not healing?” She whispers angrily, slamming her hand on the metallic body of the van, creating a loud dong bang without worrying about the Nightwalkers.

 Although, she isn't healing as rapidly as meta. I still think it's better now than it was days ago. A brownish dry scab already formed on it, considering the fact that she's a meta, it's normal to expect quick healing than usual. 

“You have to relax, soon it'll heal up. Besides, you are healing faster than a regular human”. I say to her.

“I'm not regular” she whispers again under her breath then she buttons up her shirt. 

Mel pulls out her knife, slowly she slit her left palm, “See,” she says, showing me her bleeding palm which seem not to stop anytime sooner. 

 I reach for my backpack to get some bandage. Mel pulls her hand away from my reach as I try to help.

“I'm useless” She mutter, clenching her fist. “What if my zombie blood has been mutated not to function again? What if the next bite change me? What if-”

“Nothing is going to happen to you, trust me” I say to her, stuffing the bandages into my backpack. 

After a while of uninterrupted bleeding, Mel walks to me stretching forth her blood clogged hand. “Don't make promises you can't keep”.  

 I gave her no response as I swab the warm blood away from her hand, trying to clean the wound. She sits numbly without flinching, then I wrap some bandage around her hand. 

“Done,” I say to her.

“Thanks” She says as she pulls her hand away and lay back.

After a while of silence in the dark and momentarily disturbing sound of zombies moaning, Mel finally speaks, "Adam, you know the rules, right?” She asks.

“What rules?”

“Don't play hero when next we encounter something worse, now that I'm not what I used to be, it's better to watch over yourself first when shit goes down.”

“Seriously, are we having this conversation” I say, trying to spot her face in the darkness. 

“Yes, we are. I may not make it, but you can, it just a matter of time before I get bitten and turn into one of those.” her voice trailed off as she points towards the door, She lowered her hand slowly, trying to calm down. “If we encounter any worse situation, you have to promise me that you'll save yourself first,” she says.

“No. Eddy made the rules, but he's not here and besides, what's the use of struggling for a better world without you in it?”

 “Boys are foolish sometimes,” she says before yawing to sleep. “Goodnight,” she whispers.

 My eyes feel heavy, but as I try to catch some sleep, a moaning sound touchs my ear. I quickly pull out my gun, waiting for a zombie about to enter, but after a while, the sound trail off. I guess this is not the best time to sleep, it's better to be on lookout. 

I cork my gun slowly with my eyes looking straight at the door, ready to take down anything that tries to come through.

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

 “I'm back!” 

 Mel shouts. Interrupting me from my short sleep. She seems happy and delighted for a reason I'm yet to find out. My blurry eyes turn to the door, the daylight shows that it's already morning, I yawn and rub my eyes.

 “Take a look at this”, She says, showing me her palm.

 I try to figure out what she's trying to show me. She keeps bringing her palm closer and closer to my face until I shift my face. 

“What's going on?” I ask.

Her eyes widen in shock. “You don't see it?”

I shrug, “See what?”

“I've healed up,” She says. 

I find it hard to believe at first, her hands were bleeding last night but, now it's healed. 

“Impossible” I reply, looking at both hands to be certain she's not joking with me. My heart elates, knowing that she's back to what she was. Throughout the night, I'm worried about her survival, I keep wondering how long she's going to survive as a human, but now there's nothing to worry about.

Immediately our eyes met, she moves her face closer and plants a soft kiss on my lips, I feel the wave down my spine as she pulled away. I wrap my hands around her waist, pulling her closer almost immediately, we kissed again and this time it lasts for a while.

“I'm happy to have you back” I whisper to her ear while knelt in front of me.

She giggled as I tickled her ear lobe with my tongue, her hand grapples my shoulders, whispering my name severally as she laughed. 

I stare at the wound on her chest, though it seems to be healing, but I wonder why it's not healing quickly like the wound on her palm. 

Mel kiss me on the cheek, then she stands up. “We have to get moving”, She says.

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

 I push the cargo door with my gun pointing straight, Mel place her rifle on my left shoulder as the door opens slowly. The sun beam to my face almost burning my eyes, I look away as I jumped down from the trunk and a low thud was sounds behind me. My eyes dart around, trying to ignore the lying corpse of the men who were devoured last night, having to spot no moving object I turn to Mel whose eyes are fixed at a corpse on the ground.

 “It was here last night” She says, pointing her gun to the pale skinned female zombie with a ripped chest. 

 I look at the ripped corpse, most of them had their hearts ripped off and a big bore on their chest while insect feasts on their bodies. 

“Adam, let's go” Mel says to me.

 I imagine what will happen if the predator had found us in the trunk last night. At least now we know what we're up against.

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

 Mel and I walk down a grassland, cautiously but carefully. The grasses are brightly green with the few scattered tress, making it possible for one to see what's afar. There are few benches at different corner on the grass land, but they were covered in grass and dust, that one could hardly notice the bench.

 Mel suddenly slow down to look around. 

“I miss normal days. Adam, you know, this place used to be a park” 

“A park?” I say then she nods and smiles.

She turns to a bench close to her, “Those bench” she says, pointing to it for me to see. “Those are what we call love bench, mostly for lovers who come to the park to make out”.

“Make out?”

“Yes.”

I scoff. “Who the hell makes out in the open”.

“I do, a lot of times,"she says. 

Mel drops her bag, then she throws herself on one of the benches, shutting her eyes like one who's about to sleep. I look around, trying to spot any zombie lurking around. Slowly, I placed my gun beside me and sit on the grass covered bench.

 “Mel” I call, but she shushes me.

“Enjoy the moment” She whispers with her eyes shut.

 For a while, I wonder if Mel knows what she's doing, mediating in the open seems stupid at this time of the day when a zombie can appear from nowhere. What if the predator sees us? I look around once more, but there's no danger in sight yet.

“Adam, close your eyes and feel the serenity” She whispers lowly like someone in a pleasant place.

“Hell no.” I look at my gun again, making sure it's not out of reach. I gaze at my wristwatch once more, it's almost twelve PM. “Ok, let's keep moving”

“Not yet” Mel replies.

 This time, I'm not taking no for an answer. I stand up and try to pull her, but she resists. 

“Come on, let's go” I say.

She opened her eyes and sighed. “No, let's stay for a while. Besides, we've been walking for hours. Aren't you tired?”

“Yes I am but-”

 She pulls me and I slump to the bench, almost hitting my head against the wood. Mel hands over two slices of bread placed on top of each other with jam in the middle. I stretch my hand to collect it,, but she smack my right lap.

“I'll feed you” She says, still moving the bread closer to my mouth.

I'm in the mood to play games at the moment, but Mel seems to be serious about it, so I played along. After several slices, she pulls out a bottle of coke, but most of it foams out immediately she opens it. 

“Oh, my bad”. She drinks a little and still fed me all that's left.

After lunch, we discuss for a while until she changes the topic. Narrating how life used to be perfect and fun in the park, I laugh when she told me about an event which occurred to her in the park on a Thursday afternoon. Mel suddenly pause as our eyes meet again, She leaned forward, and I felt my lips stuck between hers for a while, slowly I pull away from her, still feeling her slippery saliva in my mouth. 

 “What's wrong?" She asks, looking concerned, but I look around once more. At first, I almost pull the trigger on sighting a moving figure, but it turns out to be a cat stranded in the park.

 “You are going to get us killed”. I say.

 “Come on, you can't deny it. You love the kisses,” she says, biting her lower lips seductively.

I carry my gun and bag, then I turn to her. “I do love it but remember that we have a mission, besides if we keep on going like this, we won't last”.

“What do you mean?”

“Mel, you are too…. Clingy, and if you don't stop this distracting act, it's going to get us killed. This is not a situation where you play love in the park.”

“Really” she says, 

“Yes, enough of this romantic act and be serious,”

Mel looks at me, slowly her smile fades then she sighs and picks up her bag.

 Without saying a word, she grabs her gun and walk past me angrily. Few short echos and I turn to see Mel firing at some zombies, immediately the last one of them drops, she ejects her magazine and toss it aside before mounting another one.

 *********************

 Mel remain quiet for hours as we walk. We run into several zombies and fight our way through. We proceed further until we hear a distinct footstep. Quickly, I grab Mel hand pulling her down a slope, we laid on the grassy ground to hide from whatsoever is coming. I peep through the scope of my rifle, my heart jump immediately I sight the creature distance away from us.

 “Holy shit, the predator”. Mel whispers. 

 The Predator stops for a while sniffing and growling,, but it doesn't seem to move. My hands were tight to my gun, and I'm ready for whatever is going to happen. Suddenly, A tickling sensation almost blew my cover, but I remain still, Mel holds my hand as I try to move.

 “Don't move” she whispers in my ear, I feel her hot breath against my ear as she speaks. 

 Slowly she places her hand on my back then she lifts a rope-like object from my back and toss it away. As soon as it hisses, I realize it's a snake.

 “Viper, very poisonous” Mel whisper under her breath, but I'm more concerned about the predator in front of us. The snake bite may be poisonous,, but the predator bite is surely going to be worse. Again, I feel another object moving on my back, with the corner of my eyes I sight more snakes darting towards us, hissing and opening their wide mouth to attack. Now we are in a situation of uncertainty as requiring a choice between equally unfavorable options, we can't run away from this and neither is it a good idea to fight the snakes. Still, the predator isn't moving at all, and it's worse now that it's looking straight at us. It's certain that it can't see us. 

 Mel whimpers as a snake bit her lip, another one dart towards her and bit her ear. Suddenly, I feel a sharp perching pain on my neck. The snakes keep biting and biting as quickly as they can, but we laid still. The stab feeling on my skin and the painful shock I feel anytime they bite is enough to go haywire. Certainly, a viper bite can't kill us. More keep coming as every second pass by, it seems like we are in a viper territory, Slowly I'm beginning to lose my strength. Luckily, the predator turns to leave. 

Unfortunately, A small viper wraps itself around my finger, moving close to my rifle's trigger. I wish I didn't cork my gun earlier. Now that the safety is off, any slight touch on the trigger is going to surely lead to a gunshot.

 The venomous reptile bit my arm, impulsively I pulled the trigger, sending several shots to the air.

 In a flash, we sight the predator running towards us. As soon as our eyes meet, it growls in anger. 

Mel and I quickly get up and flee with snakes dropping off our bodies.