บท 16: Past 9 - Lost Arm
We three ran together. Sheila on the left, I in the middle, and Toshi on the right. Right behind us ran twenty zombies and behind those twenty, came the never-ending horde of zombies.
Right ahead of us at some distance, there were large containers. Chain-link fences were placed right in front of the first row of containers. The only option we had was to climb on those containers by the fence. But these twenty zombies were too close to us, climbing the fences was about impossible.
So we decided to kill those twenty zombies and move ahead before the big horde behind could shorten the distance.
"3,"
"2,"
"And,"
"1…"
We three turned around at the same time and swung our weapon to the right. Several heads flew away. Both mine and Toshi's sword was stained with red blood, same with Sheila's machete.
We used our momentum to back off. The next layer of zombies was on us and we sliced their heads with our blades. Same with the next bunch of zombies.
Twenty heads rolled on the ground. We whipped back and started our run towards the containers.
The big horde behind us had shortened the distance but it was good enough for us to climb over the fence.
Toshi and I had drawn back our swords but Sheila ran while holding both the machetes. She usually put her machetes inside her bag but there was no time to waste in this situation.
We came running down to the containers. Toshi and I directly jumped and held the fence at some distance above the ground but Sheila had to threw her machetes up on the containers first so she could climb and then she jumped.
We climbed up. The container was at least twelve feet tall so fences were of the same length too. We climbed up, holding the chains of the fence. Zombies came running with incredible speed.
We almost reached the top. Zombies also reached the containers. They clashed against the containers and struggled in climbing the fences.
We made it quite far that no zombies could reach us by simply standing on the ground. For a split second, we relaxed ourselves because what we had seen in the one month was that the zombies couldn't climb the fences, walls, or any other thing. We were assured that no zombie could make it ahead of this. But we weren't sure about this anymore after seeing the zombies in the mall climbing those ladders.
We three reached so far that now the top of the container was visible. But… one hand reached out to Sheila's left leg. She looked down and now two more hands grabbed her legs. Surprisingly three zombies had climbed up.
She jerked her leg to lose their tight grip but it was of no use. Those three zombies moved up, close to Sheila's foot. She kicked them with every ounce of her strength but they didn't lose their grip. Sheila only saw one option, she dragged her remaining body up the platform and her left hand reached to hold one of the machetes. She picked it up and pierced the hands of those zombies holding her leg.
She was free. She tilted her left leg upwards and was about to land on the top of the container but she felt an immense force dragging her downside.
She made a grip on the top with her right hand and looked to the other side. A zombie had held the other side of her machete. She could easily slice through its hand but before she could do that another hand came from between the crowd. Now, her wrist was grabbed. She could only feel the immense force of zombies surpassing her grip.
Several mouths arose.
I successfully reached the top and stumbled a little but gained my balance immediately. I turned around to check things down there. But all I could focus on was Sheila getting pulled down there.
It was a horrible scene. The thing I never wanted to happen took place. Several teeth embedded themselves in Sheila's left arm. It was hard to tell how many zombies attacked her hand but I could at least see four or five zombies chewing on her hand.
They ripped the flesh apart. I could even see her bones now. Every one of them struggled to get a bite from it. And, Sheila's horrific scream filled the entire area. It was even louder than all the groans of the zombies.
Toshi also reached the top and he was frozen by seeing Sheila's flesh ripping apart.
My body went numb. My mind got empty. I couldn't believe what was happening, was it because she got bitten? Or that she didn't even shed a single drop of tears as her arm was ripped apart.
She didn't give her tears to the pain but when she looked at me tears welled from deep inside and coursed down her cheeks.
She closed her eyes and loosened her grip. She held her right hand towards me as if she wanted me to pull her out from all the pain she had.
My hands automatically moved towards her. I wanted to hold her, protect her, take her all pain away. She was slowly pulled down and I tried to reach her. My hand was so close to hers now, I was just about to grab her.
"Raiden!!!!" Toshi shouted.
I snapped out of my subconsciousness. I held back my hand and took out my sword then slashed through Sheila's left arm. It was just a hope that the virus hadn't reached any further from the arm.
Sheila fell on the top of the container. Now, screaming even more loudly. Blood flew out from her. She was tormented with more pain.
Seeing Sheila in that condition made me lose my cool. Anger took over me. The faces of zombies who bit her flashed before my eyes. I couldn't do anything but hate them, those zombies!
I stood up, looking down at those zombies. Those who had climbed up seemed to have fallen again to feast on Sheila's arm. I clenched my fists and teeth. I wanted to kill every one of them. I hated them. I cursed them. I wanted them to disappear. I wanted them to rot in hell.
"Toshi, stop Sheila blooding and take her out of here," I said as I glared at the zombies who were still fighting over Sheila's arm.
Toshi was already on it. He cut a big piece from his shirt and tied it across Sheila's cut portion.
"Let's go, Raiden," he said.
"You go, I will hold them here. These zombies are still making an effort of climbing the fence. They will be up here in no time and considering Sheila's condition we won't be able to outrun them" I said, not shifting my gaze from those zombies at all.
"Hold them here? Have you gone nuts? There are more than 100 of them, you will just die here."
"Listen, I'm not gonna fight them or something, I will just lure them to somewhere else and will slip past from them," I insisted.
"No way I'm leaving you here alone, you are coming along."
"JUST GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE OR I WILL END UP KILLING YOU TOO ALONG WITH THESE MOTHERFUCKERS."
Toshi was shocked. It was the first time he had seen my behavior like that. He could hear the killing intent in my voice. He stood up holding Sheila by her one hand and jumped off the container.
I had my cold gaze still fixated on the zombies who tried to climb the fence little by little. I just stood on top of the container glaring at the zombies making an effort of climbing the fence.
I picked up the machete on the container which was inside the pool of blood. I moved forward towards the zombies.
.
.
.
.
.
Toshi somehow made it to the base along with Sheila. Everyone was terrified upon seeing her in that situation. Toshi called out for the only nurse we had in our base. She immediately took Sheila into custody. She had lost too much blood so everyone was in great tension. But they all feared something else too. The turning. It was around the time when someone who had bitten would take 2 long days to fully turn into a zombie. So it was a gamble if the virus entered Sheila's body before I cut off her arm.
Everyone stood outside a room that was supposed to be a nursing room. Mostly were silent but few asked about me to Toshi.
Toshi told them that I was being a diversion.
And then the silence again filled the building until a boy came running down to them. His face was truly terrified as he had seen a ghost. He gasped for air before saying anything.
"R- R- Raiden.....at the…door," his voice sounded was full of fear.
Toshi ran out from the hallway towards the main door, followed by other members.
When he looked at the door from some distance. His moment froze. His body denied taking a single step ahead. He shivered as chills went down his spine. Other members were on the same boat. Shocked. Completely.
Well, of course, they would be. As I stood at the door, holding both of Sheila's machetes. Blood dripping down from them, not just from the machetes but from my whole body.
My face, hands, legs, chest, back, my whole body was covered in blood and anyone could tell it was certainly not mine.
The only thing which was not red was my black eyes from which I glared at all the members. I looked like a beast who had just finished feasting with the blood of his prey.
Toshi broke his frozen moment and walked up to me. He took a glance at one of the machetes which had fallen to the zombie's side when they took Sheila's hand. He couldn't help himself but ask.
"Raiden, what happened there? What happened to all those zombies?"
"I killed them….every last one of them…I killed them brutally…sliced their hearts, ripped their intestines apart, crushed their heads. It was fun… so much fun... I enjoyed it..a lot," I said in a cold voice as quiet laughter filled the room with the sound of thunder bursting outside.
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