She held her breath as she crouched behind the trees. She listened to the footsteps of the undead pa.s.s by. She knew this was a perfect opportunity to start luring them in another direction. Risky, but perfect.
But then, what did Melissa really want?
What did she want more?
Did she want to die in action out here?
Or did she want to do what she had to do?
She heard the footsteps stop right at the other side of the tree, and she wasn"t sure she"d have much choice anymore.
She kept still. She pulled the long knife slowly out. She was better with a bow and arrow than close-range combat, but if she had to use it, she would.
She listened to the footsteps start again.
She heard a groan right behind the tree.
And then she heard the zombie hit the ground, landing on its knees.
After a moment"s silence, she heard the tearing.
She heard more of the undead joining the first one. They all walked over to the other side of this tree and started joining in the feast.
And as Melissa listened to this feast, as disgusting and putrid as the smells were, she wanted to turn around and look.
Not for any self-sabotage reasons.
But because she had a bad, bad feeling that it might be someone she knew they were feasting on.
She edged slowly towards the left side of the tree. She didn"t want to make a scene. Just a look. A quick look, then away.
She glanced at the scars down her arms.
Then she took a deep breath and peeked around the edge of the tree.
When she saw the man lying there, she nearly let out a sound.
She pulled herself back around the tree. Her heart raced, her chest tightened.
The man had dark hair, just like Riley. He was built just like Riley. Wearing a black jacket, just like Riley.
But this man wasn"t Riley.
She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She gained her composure, accepting that she hadn"t seen Riley and therefore everything was okay. There was still a chance he was out there. It might be a small, minuscule chance, but it was still a chance nonetheless.
When she opened her eyes, she saw there was a zombie standing right in front of her, flying towards her.
Melissa threw herself to the right. She rolled over, watching as the zombie landed face first against the tree. She pulled back the knife and stuck it into its head.
She just had to hope that the zombies distracted by the corpse were still...
Her stomach sank.
Her hope slipped.
The zombies around the corpse weren"t looking at the corpse anymore.
Blood and flesh drooling down their faces, their darting eyes were looking at her.
Right at her.
She thought for a moment that some of those zombies looked sad. Like they actually had emotions. That behind those darting eyes, there was something going on in their dead skulls-at least what was left of their skulls.
And then the zombies stood up and rushed in Melissa"s direction...
Chapter Five.
Kane watched Riley struggle against the ma.s.s of zombies surrounding him and he was torn over what to do.
Torn probably wasn"t the best choice of words, in all truth. It just made him salivate at the thought of watching Riley get torn to pieces right now, and that was distracting.
Distracting, because he had greater plans for Riley.
Plans that he wasn"t ready to bring to fruition just yet.
He saw the zombies closing in around Riley. There was a ma.s.s of them. Nine, ten, eleven. More of the crowd they"d just run through to get to where they were also closed in, which made Riley"s odds of escaping slimmer by the second.
The zombies were also closing around Kane"s position, though. And soon, there wouldn"t be any option but to run away from here, leaving Riley behind.
But Kane had no intention of leaving Riley behind.
He at least wanted to enjoy watching this imbecile suffer for everything he"d done to him.
He looked at the pistol in his hand. He didn"t want to help Riley out. He didn"t want to waste any ammo. But he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Emotions, G.o.ddammit. Better to avoid them in future.
Riley was right, d.a.m.n him. He had half a hand. And two of them surviving here gave the pair of them better odds of survival.
He lifted the pistol and pointed it at the back of the head of one of the surrounding zombies. Further ahead, he saw the crowd of these monsters was getting thicker. Kane knew how this was going to go. The crowd would keep on growing until eventually, there wasn"t a patch of free land left in this woods.
And judging by the current direction of things, these zombies would swallow up everything they hadn"t already swallowed up, and Kane and Riley would be nothing more than a part of this crowd.
He tickled the trigger of the pistol. Ahead of him, he could still see Riley swinging that knife wildly. He could see blood being splattered up all around him. He could hear gasping and grunting. He didn"t think Riley stood much of a chance of getting out of that crowd, at least not without a bite.
But then again, there was something tough about Riley. Something which, dare he say it, Kane admired in him.
It was part of why he hadn"t killed Riley yet. Admiration for how a man from such a straight background could turn towards darkness so rapidly.
But not just that turn towards darkness. That wasn"t the only thing. After all, anyone could turn towards darkness. The odds of turning towards darkness were surely greater in this world than sitting around and accepting the way things were. Sticking to failed morals and ideas of what const.i.tuted "goodness."
No, the thing that fascinated Kane about Riley was his ability to channel that darkness to do good things.
That wasn"t an energy like any he"d experienced yet.
Riley came to view, just then. Just a flash of him, as he kept on kicking out and punching at the zombies around him. He was covered in blood from head to toe. Bits of rotten flesh dangled from his body. Kane could see the rage in his eyes. That primal rage, like this was his world after all, just as much as this was Kane"s world too.
He thought about doing his a.s.sociate a favour, right then. Putting him out of his misery and ending him in his tracks.
And then he heard a groan right behind him.
Kane swung around, went to fire at the zombie.
But it was already too late.
He felt the teeth sink into his back. It was a more painful sensation than he remembered last time. Of course, that whole incident was shrouded in shock, so that was a little different. He"d lost half a hand after it"d happened. The pain of having that cauterised was a stark memory, for sure.
He felt the teeth getting deeper and deeper, like hot needles pressing into his skin and muscle. He struggled down onto the ground, trying to shake the zombie free of him as it clung on by its teeth.
He turned the pistol over his shoulder and he pulled the trigger.
The blast was deafening. He felt a cold flood of liquid cover his back. He felt like the zombie was still holding on to him, but he soon realised it was just the weight of its falling body.
He turned around and he saw the blood dripping down his back, his jacket torn.
Further behind, more zombies. Another crowd.
He looked ahead, his vision blurring. Riley. He had to get to Riley. Especially now he was bitten. He didn"t have long. He had to...
Riley was standing right in front of him.
The zombies around him had fallen. And sure, more of them were heading his way.
But Riley was on his feet.
Covered in blood, as red as a demon.
But free.
"Please," Kane said. "Take me back to-"
"I don"t need you anymore," Riley said.
He pulled back his foot and kicked Kane into the dirt.
When Kane hit the ground, he felt a searing pain split through his bitten back as the deafening song of the zombies got closer.
When he looked up, he saw Riley standing over him, Kane"s dropped pistol in hand. There wasn"t a look of sympathy in his eyes. There wasn"t a look of mercy.
There was just pure, cold-blooded ruthlessness.
Kane kind of liked that, if he wasn"t on the receiving end of it.
"Good luck," Riley said. "But I"d get on the move fast, if I were you. Those creatures will be onto you in no time."
"You won"t leave me," Kane mumbled. He didn"t want to sound in pain, but that was to no avail. "You need me. You-you"re too attached. You"re too f.u.c.king good."
"No," Riley said, shaking his head. "No, you"re wrong."
He turned around and started to head towards another gap that had formed just before the impenetrable wall of zombies.
"Good luck, Kane. You"ll need it."
Kane staggered to his feet. "You"ll regret-"
It was at that moment that Riley turned around, out of the blue.
It was at that moment that Riley cracked Kane across the face with the b.u.t.t of the pistol.
It was at that moment that Kane went falling back into the sea of undead, and his life flashed before his eyes all over again as Riley ran off, into the distance, out of Kane"s line of sight.
And as the zombies surrounded Kane, there was only one thing he could shout.
"You"ll regret it!"
And he believed it.
He truly believed it.
Chapter Six.
Amy saw the ma.s.s of creatures emerging from the woods ahead of her and she knew it was time to hide.
She ran down the ladders right away, being careful to be as quiet as she possibly could. The rain was lashing down heavily around her now, drenching everyone who hadn"t yet gone into hiding. She could hear both the footsteps of the undead and the groans. Both of them made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.