Part 13 (1/2)

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.