Chapter three - Meet the predator

 I eject my empty magazine, my hands were shaking, and my palms were sweaty as I reach for my pocket to get more magazine. The splattered blood on my face made it difficult to mount the fifteenth magazine, as I couldn't see clearly. As soon as I shove the magazine beneath the handle, I aim my gun at a zombie dashing towards me, it dropped as soon as it got closer. Eddy shoots it in the head.

“Don't be floppy, aim for the head!” He shouted before turning to shoot another one.

I turned left and shoot at a shabby looking female zombie repeatedly trying to aim for her head, with every bullet fired at other spots seems less effective, until my bullet finally lodged in her skull. The Zombies didn't stop coming, despite killing them, they don't seem to end. 

The banging at the door become intense as time pass by, the door isn't going to hold on any longer, the concrete walls around it are beginning to crack. 

“Fuck!” Mel shouts as she reaches for her pocket, but there's no magazine left.

 She pulls out a knife from her thigh sheath, waiting for the thin zombie in front of her to make a move. It growls and plunges to her but as soon as it landed on her, tainted blood squirt out of its right ear, with a knife shoved into its left ear.

In less than a minute, I already exhaust my bullet, then I decide to use my knife. As soon as a fat zombie facing me gets to arms length, I struck it in the chest, it paused and widened its eyes then moan angrily, I missed the heart. 

Quickly, I pulled out my handgun and shove it into its disfigured mouth preventing it from biting, it heads burst as soon as I pulled the trigger in close range, the bullet struck the eye of a zombie behind, they both dropped instantly.

“Mount it boys, another wave incoming” Eddy said as he cocked his gun.

 It's been almost two hours of unlimited shooting, bodies of zombies shattered around, empty cartridge and blood pool the floor. 

We had our backs close to the wall. Larry is taking much longer than expected, it's starting to be uncertain if we're going to survive this night. Certainly, we can regenerate, but I don't think regeneration is possible if our bodies are ripped off. I thrust multiple magazine into my pocket, cocking my gun after ejecting another loaded one.

“Remember, aim for the head”. Eddy instructed again.

 Sweat drip from my chin as the moans from outside grew louder, the door shifted to the side a little, the dry, soft fingers of zombies tucking their hands through the small opening. Their angry moan sends a shiver down my spine.

“Mel, Xiao, aim at the window. Adam, I want your gun positioned towards the door, anything comes in from that door; gun it down!”.

I shook my head slowly in response, waiting for the next line of action, the open part of the door becomes larger as the zombies begins to dig their hands through. Mel and Xiao shoot at the few zombies approaching through the window, while Eddy and I aimed for the ones trying to break down the door. I said my prayers silently, hoping that a light from above will save us.

 “Shit!" Xiao snapped as she pulls the trigger, her gun jammed, making a ticking sound; this is certainly a bad time to have a faulty gun. With the corner of my eyes, I spot five zombies heading towards her. 

"Concentrate", Eddy whispers in my ear.

Xiao pulls out her sword carefully and dashed to the zombies. She slit the throat of a zombie then slide between its legs, Mel took it down with a headshot. Like hot knife cutting through butter, her sword decapitated a fat zombie easily, then she flings her small knife to a zombie struggling to get in through the window. The zombie froze, and slowly it falls.

“Here they come” Eddy drew my attention to the door.

 A lanky zombie push it's way through, but its actions is cut short when the whole room suddenly brighten. Like ants when you lift a rock, the zombies fled in seconds. 

There's a feeling of peace and silence as they all move away from the light.

 I sighed in relief, then I hear a thud. Mel lay flat on the floor, not minding the blood splattered on it, Xiao sat her. Meanwhile, there's a zombie on the floor still groaning in pains trying to avoid the lights, a light yellow sticky fluid trickled down its eyes as it struggled to get out through the door. Now I understand why night walkers are afraid of the light, I imagine the pain it's going through now. 

 I aimed my gun at it. Suddenly, the zombie head popped after a gunshot.

“Yeah!" Larry said, happily ejecting the empty cartridge out of his shotgun.

"What took you so long?" Eddy asked, shoving his handgun into his waist sheath.

“Spark plugs” Larry said as he looked around. “You guys had a lot of fun behind my back”.

“Yeah, fun indeed”, Xiao said as she tosses a zombie's head rolling towards her.

Eddy pull his bag closer and lay on a narrow dry space. “Everyone gets some sleep” he said then he turned to Larry “you're you're on night duty, your shift ends in two hours then I'll take it from there”. Eddy placed his gun on his chest, then he shut his eyes.

 In a matter of minutes, Xiao begins to snore, placing her head on Mel's chest. Larry plugs in his earphones as usual, tilting his neck slightly responding to the music, he seems to care less about the surrounding bodies. 

It's a miracle I didn't vomit earlier, maybe I'm getting used to it. However, sleeping is the last thing on my mind now, the horrible sight in front of me sent loads of thoughts to my head as I tried not to look. 

The corpse in military uniform and the shattered zombies made me wonder if earth will be back to whatever it was in the past. These people used to be the normal people you come across every day until they become flesh eating monsters. I lay my back to the wall, trying to catch some impossible sleep and hoping for worse days ahead.

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

 “Wake up, sleeping beauty!”

 A familiar voice shouts into my ear, interrupting me from a peaceful dream. I turned to Larry who spit out foamy toothpaste mixed with saliva from his mouth, then he sips a little amount of water to rinse his mouth. He sighed and turned to me

“Another day in hell”.

 Still laying, I look at my wristwatch. Ten minutes past nine, I really slept for too long. 

 I stood up to do some little cleaning in the midst of dead smelly bodies.

 After a while, we assembled around Xiao. 

She places her tablet on a center table, then a map appeared on the large screen. The map on the screen looks smaller than it seem until she made a few taps and zoomed in.

“This is our current location”, She said, pointing at the blue icon on the screen. She scrolled to the top, then she paused, “This is the facility where the remaining samples are”.

“How far is it?” Mel asked.

“Three hundred and thirteen kilometers" she replies.

“That's a long way, how many hours by foot?” Larry asks.

“I can't say, there are other factors to consider, zombie attacks, routes, and supplies”. 

 “That shouldn't be a problem, there's got to be some sort of store around to stack up” Larry says.

“What if we don't find any” I say. To be honest, getting hungry is what I fear the most.

 “We'll make do with the ones we have” Xiao replies.

 “And what if we don't? How long can our supplies last?” Larry asks.

 “Then we Ramadanize” Mel says.

We all pause and turn to her, I guess no one understands what she meant

“What Ramadanize?” I ask.

“The holy ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, during which Muslims fast between the break of dawn until sunset,” Mel explains.

Eddy lifts his bag,”Then I guess we should start moving”.

 Xiao toss her tablet into her bag and straps it, Mel hands me my bag then we head to the door.

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

 After hours of trekking, I feel tired and exhausted. I haven't eaten, and now my stomach is crumbling. Moreover, I didn't get enough sleep last night. Anytime I think of those bodies, I lose my appetite. 

The others seem not to be bothered about the scorching sun, it makes me wonder if they are poikilothermic. 

We've walker for hours, and it's less likely were going to stop to rest anytime soon, my knees ache, and I can feel the burning sensation in my waist. Ever since I got up from coma, I've not been used to walking for long distance.

 Eddy pause to glance at me,”We'll rest when we get to the nearest city”.

 I dropped to the grassy walkway.

 “Ok, we'll rest here, forty-five minutes, then we'll hit the road”.

We all dropped our bags and sat under the trees. Mel sat beside me, breathing slowly as sweat drips from her chin.

 “You good?" She asked after she gulps a small amount of water. I shook my head and reach for my bag.

 Finally, I'm able to eat something. The sausage tasted stale, but there's no option left. 

I laid my back to the tree and sigh in relief, the whole place is quiet, cools breeze touching the skin as leaf falls momentarily. The chipping sound of the birds as they fly from one tree to the other, it felt peaceful until a moaning sound echo from afar.

 “Behind you” Eddy says before pulling the trigger. 

A zombie drop on my bag beside me. Quickly, we all got up and mount our guns, I push the zombie aside and lift my bloodstained bag.

Mel sigh, “Daywalkers”.

 Unlike the nightwalker, the daywalkers seem easy to kill. They are slow, weak and lack the sense of teamwork. Seven of them shuffled towards us, dragging their feet.

 Eddy shot three in a snap while I aimed for a headshot, but my bullet hit the shoulder instead, the zombie jerk, but it kept dragging its feet.

'Don't be a newbie' - I said to myself then, I took my time before pulling the trigger again, the zombie drop immediately the bullet lodges into its forehead.

“Incoming” Larry says. 

I look towards his direction, and my jaw drops. Lots of daywalkers shuffle towards us, they looked shabby and hungry with their loud moaning sound. We tried all we can, but they keep coming from different angle.

“Save your ammo, run!” Eddy says. 

We drew out our blades to clear our path. Slashing, stabbing, and cutting any zombie within our reach. We managed to pass through some weak zombies as we headed to the city outside the forest. 

As soon as we step out of the forest, more zombies scuffles towards us, their moaning noise attracted the others.

“Head to the mechanic shop” Xiao said, pointing at a nearby shop. The door is open, but the inside is very dark, for a moment I disagree whiting myself, what if we run into another group of nightwalkers? Nightwalkers mostly lurk in dark places, waiting for sundown.

Xiao rush in quickly then Mel followed, Larry hurried in, and Eddy rush past me and also made it, but I'm the slowest. 

I feel the zombies behind me getting closer. The others stand at the door waiting for me, while I run with every energy in me, but unfortunately, I tipped over a small tire and crashed to the ground. Immediately, I try to stand but a fat zombie from nowhere descend on me. 

Quickly, I tighten its neck with my left hand, while I try to reach for my rifle beside me. The slimy saliva of the fat zombie drops on my face, its shapeless mouth is getting closer to my neck. Getting to my rifle seem useless at the moment, I quickly pull my handgun from the holster and blast off it's head. The zombie falls on me and I push it aside.

Hurriedly, I got up again, only to find out that I'm surrounded by hungry zombies ready to tear me up, almost twenty of them. 

  I try to grab my rifle, but a zombie already kick it aside while shuffling to me. The zombies flooded around me, though I kill some with my knife, but it's not enough. Soon, the zombies overpowered me, dipping their nails into my body then a rough, tiny zombie lady sink her teeth into my neck. In a matter of seconds, my whole body is covered in blood as they feasted on me, Zombie bite is a mix of extreme pain and irritation.

 Out of the shadows, Eddy appears. He pulls the zombies away from me, shooting his way through, then he drew out his small double-edged axe and slash the head of the lady zombie feasting on my neck, he pulls me away and carried me on his back.

“Cover me!” He shouts.

Bullets dart beside us, as Larry and Mel shoots at the zombies which tries to come anywhere closer.

 Xiao quickly shut the metal doors as soon as we step in, Eddy dropped me. I groaned in pain. Unlike the Nightwalkers, the Daywalkers won't bother to struggle with the door, they left as soon as Xiao shut it. My skin still burns in pain as the bite mark begins to heal slowly. Eddy sits on a stool and lean against the wall, his bleeding arms healed slowly.

.

“Are you ok” Mel asked, as she sits beside me.

I shook my head then she hands over a bottle of water to me. “Thanks,” I muttered and drink to my satisfaction.

“How does it feel?” Larry asks, as he looks at me, waiting for an answer.

“What?” I manage to reply.

“The bite, how did you felt when you were bitten?”

I turned away trying not to recall the traumatic experience, the pains are gone but the memories remains. Eddy breaks the silence.

“When a zombie's teeth sink into your body, you forget everything that had ever happened to you, you'll be helpless, weak, your brains will shut down. As soon as it pulls away you'll freeze, your nerves will go numb, and you'll cripple. Nothing will matter to you at the moment, food, water, money, sex, nothing. You'll begin to see all your life event playing right in front of you, rush of emotions. 

“Gradually it'll fade away, then, the monster in you emerges”.

Eddy is absolutely right, but the only memories I have is the trunk only. He throws and it lands in front of me. "Next time you may not be lucky".

“Thanks.”

We all sit in silence, unlike the Nightwalkers, the daywalkers are less aggressive. Finally, I can rest for a while, I lay back and placed my head on my backpack, I sigh, and hopefully, I'll get a nap, after all I've been through today, really, I deserve it.

“We can't stay here, we need to keep moving”

Eddy slammed his boots to the floor, interrupting me from my short nap. I turned to see him snapping his fingers, thinking of what to do.

“They are still out there, hundreds, if not thousands waiting at the door”, Larry says.

“And what? If we stay here, we'll be dead soon by nightfall, don't you guys get it. Nightwalkers won't stay put, they'll break down this door if they have to".

 Eddy sounded enthusiastic but fruitless, we can't take on a hoard of zombie, they'll feast on us. However, it'll be worse by sunset, the nightwalkers won't take it lightly.

“What do you suggest we do now”

 Mel asked with her legs and arms crossed. Eddy mute for a while, he's lost. I looked around the room which seem like a mechanic workshop with spanners, bolts and nuts all over the place. Carbonized oil spilled on the floor, spanners, a screw jack at the corner, a red jumpsuit hanged on the wall, few tire rims and scattered metals all around. I'm sure the owner of this workshop didn't survive the apocalypse. There's nothing useful here, no weapon of any sort, but the good news is; there's only one way in- 'the door'.

 “AHH!!!”

 The sudden noise from outside sent a shiver down my spine, the zombies outside begins to growl in pain. The noise goes on for a while as we all grab our weapons, but still, we're clueless of what's going on.

“Hey guys”

Xiao called our attention as she pointed to the thick tainted blood flowing into the workshop through the narrow space under the door.

 Mel eyes widen as the blood flows to her boots “Is that-”

“Yes, zombie's blood”.

“Get ready boys” Eddy warned.

 In a jiffy, we all point our guns to the door while we wait for what's going to happen next. After what seem like an hour, the tension in the atmosphere subdue.

Eddy turns to Larry, who's closer to the door. “Open the door”

 Larry held the door handle then he slides it slowly, staying away from the open parts. We all aimed at nothing as soon as the door opens. 

 Xiao is the first to step outside. “Oh my goodness!”

 Lots of zombies laid in a pool of blood, some are decapitated while others are torn apart with their body parts shattered around. Eddy slowly moved closer to the body of a horrible looking zombie and touch its body.

 “What happened here?” Larry asks.

 “They seem…” Mel paused and look around, “… butchered.”

 “But, what the hell did this,” I ask, but as expected, I got no response.

 I find it hard to believe the horrifying sight in front of me. All the zombies around had their chest ripped open with a fist size hole, and their hearts are missing.

“Who the hell did this?” Mel asked, looking at the bodies.

“I don't know” Eddy responded, weakly.

“This can't be the handiwork of a human” She flashed a torch at the body in front of her, then she swayed her head in doubt.

Eddy points to a distance zombie. “Guess we've found the killer.”

A bigger male zombie, seven feet tall, hefty, bald and very fierce, dash to another female zombie, sinking its teeth into her neck immediately he plunges her to the ground. She screamed, then he turns to another zombie and knock it to the ground. We watch him shoving his hands into the zombie's chest.

  “I think you guys should come see this,” Eddy says to Xiao and Mel, who weren't looking. The moaning of another zombie gained our attention as blood fizz out of its chest, it tries to run, but the predator zombie caught up with it.

 It turns to us as soon as it's done feasting. We all pull out our guns, it smiled, showing his sharp pointed scattered dentition. It had black veins all over it bald head, its eyes are dark scary blue, unlike the other variant; it's able to stand straight, also look straight at us. At that moment, I sight a red bleeding ball shape of flesh with it's stained hand.

“Is that a -”

“Zombie's heart” Mel replies.

“A zombie predator, fantastic,” Eddy says as he points his gun forward.

“Be careful” Larry says.

 Eddy stepped forward holding his hand gun, he aimed for the head and fired, quickly; the zombie slightly move its head. Eddy missed.

Mel gasp in shock. “Did it just dodge a bullet?”

“Impossible” Larry says.

 Eddy shoots again, like a mind reader, the zombie dodge the bullet again, almost lodging in its head.

 Finally, after several failed attempts, a bullet lands on its chest. The zombie stands without flinching, it tighten its fist, squeezed the heart its holding, bursting it violently, as blood splattered around with few staining its blood soaked tattered clothes. There's rage written all over it face,as it growls and rush towards us.

“Take him out!” Eddy ordered.

 Without hesitating, we shoot straight at it, with bullet ripping off it's body, eventually it dropped.

We stop shooting, then we lowered our guns.

“Is it dead?” I ask, but the zombie on lying on the ground gave me the perfect answer by moving its body.

“Did it just…flinch” Larry asked with a shocking expression on his face. Normally, there's no way anything could have survived such a heavy shot. After what seem like a minute, it stood up again as bullets drop from its head. I can't believe it survive three headshots.

 “No way”.