------ Marla Dwayne ------
"Hurry, Sid! Hurry!" Holding the door, I yelled at Sid, urging him to move faster. Looking at his pale face and tear-rimmed eyes when he passed me, made me feel as if my heart was gripped in a vice. The moment he was through the door, I slammed it shut and turned the lock. Only a couple of seconds passed before a loud bang echoed throughout the room, with the door bulging out towards me. After the first bang, several more followed before the noise of the door rattling filled the air. The hinges rattled under the impact as old dust and plaster began falling from the surrounding wall. "The door's not going to hold. Sid, see if the window has a fire escape." Bracing my shoulder against the door, I called out behind me but heard no response. "Sid?"
Spinning around, I pressed my back against the door, as several loud slams pushed me forward a step before I pushed back against it. Just behind me, I saw Sid sitting on the ground only a few meters away, his arms wrapped around his legs with his face covered. I could just barely make out the sound of his soft sobbing over the banging coming from behind me. The sight tore at me, and although my mind was flooded with fear and I similarly wanted to crawl into a ball and cry, but I didn't allow those emotions to take over. I had a promise to uphold.
"Sid? Our little soldier, Sid? Please look at me." I tried my best to use a calming voice, but it was somewhat ruined as I still needed to yell to be heard over the banging and growling coming from behind me. No response. "Sid, please. Your big sister needs your help. Remember what you said about being a soldier?" Just as my voice started to crack under the pressure and rise in volume even more, Sid finally looked up at me. I gave him my most sunniest of smiles.
For a moment, we just stared at each other. His wild eyes appeared to be looking into my eyes one moment and then off at a faraway place the next. The shock of the last two hours had finally caught up with him, and his mind was beginning to close itself off. Who could blame him? It had been one horror after another this night. For an eleven-year-old boy, it was far too much to handle. Even for a sixteen-year-old, I had almost suffocated under the stress of the last couple of hours. It took me the first thirty minutes after arriving in this hellhole to convince Sin he wasn't just having a nightmare. After that, he was surprisingly well-behaved, barely letting out a peep, even when hordes of Zombies tried to eat us, or even when several clawed monsters sliced the one normal adult we managed to find in this place limb by limb.
Looking at his dirty, blood covered tear-stained face, I attempted once again to bring him back from the shock he was falling into. In the time we had been staring at each other, the door's top hinge had finally come completely loose and detached from the wall. The pressure of the door creaking against my back became even harder, but I still kept the smile on my face as I asked again. "Come on, Sid. What's the most important quality for being a great soldier? Sid?"
His unfocused eyes finally gained a little clarity as he gazed into mine. His voice came out raspy and filled with snot from crying, but he still managed to softly squeeze out, "It's... It's to be brave. Uncle James always said it's to be brave." My facade of a smile finally bloomed into a genuine one after hearing Sid's words. "Exactly. It doesn't matter if you're afraid. Uncle James even said he gets scared sometimes, but you can't let it stop you from doing what is needed. Isn't that right, soldier Sid?" I intended to say more, but a more aggressive bang followed by the sound of something sharp scraping against the door interrupted me.
The sound of clanging metal against the door conjured images of the monsters that had killed the woman they had found in the department building across the road. The normal, almost cliché - looking zombies, although horrifying in appearance, weren't overly threatening. Especially if one could attack from a distance and, luckily after braining one zombie with a rolling pin we had found in the large multi-floored store we found ourselves in, I was able to get a rifle from its ashes. Armed with a rifle, I was able to take down several solitary zombies. With the weapon in hand, my confidence in surviving our absolute dumpster fire of a situation skyrocketed — that's until we came up against them. The rifle against them proved to be nothing better than firewood when coming up against those monsters. They moved too fast to shoot, and after missing several times, one was already within arm's reach of Sid and I. With an almost effortless swipe of its foot-long clawed hands, it cut the rifle in two.
The creature then lazily lifted its clawed hand again, and this time I knew it wasn't the rifle it was aiming for. I wrapped Sid up in a hug and let my back face the creature's attack, hoping to God above I could protect Sid until the very last moment. With eyes closed tight, I waited for the inevitable. Luckily, fate had other plans. Just as I thought that creature of nightmare would cut us into ribbons, the loud roar of some other monster came barreling in from outside. After which, the sound of something heavy pounding the ground alongside the sound of screeching metal and breaking glass filled my eardrums. After several low growls to the others of its kind, the creature behind me appeared to listen to the noise of the heavy footsteps before realizing the noise heading in their direction. With a startled wet roar, it turned and disappeared in a flash of movement.
With only one eye open, I couldn't track their movements at all, and before I knew it, we were all alone. The sound of pounding coming from outside only increased though, making my relaxing muscles tighten even more than last time, but once again luck was on our side. The rumbling footsteps passed right by the store and continued on. It then sounded as if it had entered the parking lot next door, going by the almost apocalyptic sound of metal crashing all around the area. After leaving the store, I had hoped the area would be clear, as the other creatures appeared to get scared by the passing of the unknown creature. Brainless zombies, however, didn't frighten so easily; instead, the loud noises must have attracted them, as a swarm of hungry undead came stumbling over only shortly after we entered the roadway.
This led us to our current predicament. The large beast's earlier rampage through the parking lot ignited my curiosity about its quarry and if it was a human, but we lacked time to investigate. We needed a place to hide. After fleeing the zombies on the road, we entered the small apartment building next to the car park. Not bothering with the bottom floor, as I always felt being higher up, it was unfortunate that the moment we entered the second floor we found the hallway filled with zombies and before we could head back down to the first; we saw the front door being rammed open. Several zombies came falling over each other as they attempted to climb over each other to get into the building. With no other choice, I took Sid's clammy hands and ran up the stairs all the way to the top floor.
I checked all the doors along the way until finally one of the ones near the back of the building was unlocked. This is how we found ourselves in our current predicament, with once again nothing but a simple wooden door between us and certain death. This time I didn't even have a rifle; all we had was Sid's pocket knife he had found in the department store. Which was currently in a bone-knuckle grip in my brother's trembling right hand.
Feeling the door giving way under the battering even more, with even my feet sliding across the hardwood floor, struggling to find purchase. I knew we had barely anytime left, especially with the new sound of scraping against the wall. We were like rats caught in a trap; we needed to get out quick. If there were no fire escape, then I would rather fling myself from the window than let any of those monsters slowly tear away at me. Looking deeply into Sid's eyes, I tried my best to instill some courage into the boy who should be of the age where he was being read a story and tucked away in a bed, not running for his life from a horde of monsters. "Sid, please, please. I need you to check the rooms and see if there is a fire escape? Can you do that for your big sister?"
The boys' misty eyes appeared to see right through mine in that moment, and what I saw broke my heart but also filled me with pride. It was as if I were watching him mature on the spot. His gaze hardened, and with one grubby hand he wiped the tears and snot from his face as he stood. Gripping the pocket knife, he swung it as if in defiance at the door and loudly proclaimed, "Don't worry, Marla! You can count on Soldier Sid!" Before he turned around and ran further into the apartment, his dirty runners made squeaking noises along the way.
Another heavy slam against the door almost swept me off my feet as I watched Sid search the rooms of the apartment. The door had almost come out of its frame at that point, with several rotting fingers peeking through the sides, looking for purchase. The sight made me feel dizzy as a wave of despair came crashing down on me, especially when I saw a set of what looked like grey curved knives grab the edge of the door frame as if it was trying to tear off a piece. Swallowing the bile rising from my stomach, I slammed my shoulder as hard as I could against the door, as if I was trying to tackle it. With a slam, the door closed again, even cutting off a few mangy fingers in the process.
The knife fingers, however, were not among the casualties. I could even see four perfect lines cut out of the wooden door at the side. Obviously being sliced through when I slammed the door shut. 'How strong are those claws?' This sight further solidified the fact that I didn't want to be anywhere near those monsters again. Just as I was feeling like I would pass out from the strain of keeping the door closed, Sid's eager voice came crying out from down the hall. "Marla! In here! I found it! I found it!" With no hesitation, I sprinted down the hall and towards the last door at the very back I had seen Sid go into.
The door lasted only until I reached the hallway before the flimsy lock gave in under the pressure and a horde of zombies came tumbling in. Not bothering to check, I slammed the bedroom door closed and locked it. Before dragging what looked like a chest of drawers against the wall in front of the door. Once again, the all too familiar sound of banging coming from the door rang throughout the room. Turning to the far side of the wall, to where Sid was standing, I could see a large window with its rotted curtains drawn back. Behind the window was a set of rusted metal stairs.
"I did it, Sis! See there right there!? I did it!" Sid's voice brought my attention over to him, as I gave him a tired smile and replied, "Well done, my little soldier. Thank you." The little brown hair boy beamed a toothy smile at me after my words, and even though I could still see the fear and worry in his eyes. The set of his brow and upright shoulders told me he was determined, far more determined than a kid his age should be for anything but getting an extra slice of cake. My mind drifted for a moment, thinking about the last time we had cake as a family.
"Marla! Marla!" The sound of Sid's urgent shouts woke me from my hazy state. I even had to catch myself from falling over as I found myself leaning against the cabinet in front of the door. 'Looks like the mental exhaustion of the last couple of hours has finally caught up with me. Not including the fact that I had already pulled an all-nighter the day before.' Shaking my head to clear my messy thoughts, I walked over to Sid behind the window and ruffled his mousy hair gently. "I'm sorry, Sid. What did you say?" Sid replied while tugging at a lock on the window, "I said it's not opening. The lock's all rusty and won't budge."
Seeing the problem, I gestured to Sid to move aside and also tried to tug at the window's locked handle but to no avail, besides breaking the last of my painted nails. With a frustrated grunt at the sight, I let go and flicked my black braided ponytail that had fallen over my shoulder behind me again. Looking around the room in a rush, I spotted a set of dumbbells in front of the bed near the wall. Grabbing Sid by the hand, I dragged him away from the window and picked up the dumbbell.
Whilst lifting the dumbbell over my shoulder I paused to look back at the door, because in a shower f splintered wood, a clawed hand broke through the middle of the door and swung wildly around before retreating back through the hole and repeating in a different spot. Within seconds, the door was filled with holes and grasping hands. Sid squeaked at the sight and grabbed onto my ragged dress at the hip. Looking down at him, I shouted, "Cover your eyes, Sid!" before throwing the dumbbell right at the window. In a shower of glass shards, the window exploded outward, sprinkling down the several flights to rain onto the ground below.
Grabbing Sid's hand again, I rushed over to the shattered window and with tired arms lifted Sid over the window frame and onto the rusty stairwell, which creaked ominously under the new weight. Ripping the tattered sheet off the bed, I slung it over the jagged window frame so as not to cut myself. Several angry screeches rang from the half broken down doorway just as I was about to leap over the windowsill. Looking back, I saw several fanged teeth jutting out from the shadows of what looked like hooded jackets, all screeching in my direction. Staring into the darkness of the clawed monsters' shadowed cowls, I stuck my finger up at them and jumped through the empty window onto the fire escape.
Not bothering with the shaking and creaking of the old metal staircase, I took Sid's outstretched hand and began running down the stairs with careful but quick steps. Halfway down the sound of gunshots ringing out from above, followed by a truly monstrous roar, caused both Sid and me to stop in place. Looking over to the parking lot that was to the left of the building we were currently escaping from; I gazed at the top floor of the lot, which was just above the top floor of ours and where I thought the sounds had come from. To my confusion, after not seeing anything nor hearing anything for several seconds, a loud crash of metal rang out before, in a shower of concrete, the front of a van poked over the edge of the parking lot's roof.
"What in the hell?" The van started to bounce in place and rock back and forth; it was as if an isolated earthquake was affecting just that one van. "If the van's a-rocking, don't come a-knocking." Sid muttered next to me. The odd words confused me for a moment before realising what Sid was referencing. I couldn't help but burst into a small laugh, which soon turned into an almost hysterical laughing fit that, after looking at me weirdly for a few seconds, Sid also joined in on. Our stress-filled laughing fit came to an abrupt end, however, as an especially loud bang followed by what I thought was a man's pain filled shout coming out of the van made me look back at the van that was not half over the edge. Following the bang, the van finally lost the battle with gravity, and its front faced the earth before the rest of the van soon followed.
Watching the van plummet to the hard ground over the side of the railing. I could feel my eyebrows rise at the sight I managed to see through the open doors at the back of the van. Just as the front crumpled in on itself when it made contact with the unforgiving earth, until the van was half its size, the sight of what looked like a tattered and bloody teenager lying on the back of what could only be described as a burnt and blackened, gooey-looking hulk.
When the van's crumpled in on itself after nose-diving from that height, it looked like a wall of warped metal had come slicing through the wall of muscle and flesh that the person was lying on. The sight made me suck in a breath of air before I looked down at Sid, who was also looking at the van now standing upright like a flagpole with a confused and pondering face. "Did you see the person inside the van?" I asked, doubting myself for a moment as I couldn't understand how a person had found themselves in such an odd situation like being in the back of a van filled with flowers falling off the roof of a building.
"Yeah, I saw him too. Do you think his okay?" Sid said in reply, as if to punctuate his question, the van that was standing upright teetered to the left and right before finally falling onto its side in a screeching crash of metal. Sid and I looked at each other, and I couldn't help but shrug. "Maybe?" I took his hand after my offhand answer and began making our way back down the stairs again. I noticed that after the roar of whatever that was inside the van, the screeching growls coming from the room we had just escaped from had stopped. And nothing had followed us onto the fire escape, at least as of yet. It appeared we had shaken off our pursuers.
Once reaching the bottom flight of stairs, I kicked down the ladder to the ground of the alley between the small apartment building we just left and what looked like a restaurant and told Sid to wait for me to go down and check the area first. Reaching the ground after a small drop, I stayed in a semi-crouch and gazed up and down the shadowed alley, brightly lit by the moon, scanning for any movement. After several seconds of nothing but the gentle breeze, I looked up to the waiting Sid and beckoned him down with a hand.
After half catching Sid from the small fall, I took his hand and walked to the back of the alley, where a laneway connected the three buildings to the parking lot and the department store we had first been teleported to. The van that had taken a nosedive off the roof was sitting on its side right next to the bottom-level boom gate entrance, which was only a hundred meters away from where we were standing in the laneway.
Looking down at Sid, I pointed to the van and made a questioning gesture. Sid, being a smart kid for his age, understood I didn't want to make any noise, even to talk. Instead, he gestured to the van and then made a thumbs-up gesture, which I nodded in return. I honestly had no better idea myself. In my head, the parking lot actually appeared to be a decent place to bunker down, considering it was utterly quiet and devoid of apparent enemies. Plus, going off the way those clawed creatures reacted, I was guessing any special type of zombies would have fled the area in fear of what the man had been fighting inside the van. The main reason being though, was that I was utterly exhausted and feared I wouldn't have the energy to survive another chase; I desperately needed rest.
Releasing Sid's hand, I walked over to one side of the laneway that had trash piled up and grabbed the lid off one of the metal bins overflowing with rotten garbage. Holding the metal circular lid like a shield, I returned to Sid, and we both made our way to the crumpled van. Before approaching the van, I patted Sid's shoulder to catch his attention and pointed two fingers at my eyes before pointing everywhere around us. Sid nodded in reply and started looking everywhere around us as he raised his small pocket knife. Seeing the useless but concentrated act put a weary smile on my face as I once again started to approach the van.
Walking up the side of the van towards the back, I could see that besides the damage from the impact with the ground, the sides and top of the van looked as if something had dented them from within. Like someone had been slamming something heavy into the roof and walls from the inside. Leaning against the side of the van, I peeked around the edge and into the back, showing only one side of my face. The doors had been ripped off in the fall, so I was able to see directly into the back. What I saw must have made my already pale and freckled complexion turn even whiter.
Sid came up behind me and also peered around the back of the van, letting out a gasp of what I thought sounded more like awe than the fear I was feeling. Crumpled up at the front of the van was a macabre wall of muscled flesh. Several places looked like something had ripped them completely off the bone of whatever creature it used to be, while large jagged spikes of metal were sticking up through the flesh, as if someone was putting a piece of meat on a spit. Between lumps of mangled flesh and twisted spikes, was a man who also had his share of metal spikes and glass sticking out of him. Luckily for him, it appeared that the majority of the damage was only surface level, as the creature of muscle below him had blunted much of the worst.
He did, however, have a large jagged piece of metal that looked as if it was part of the car headlight inside the side of his stomach. "Is he dead?" Sid's voice whispered out as he stared with wide-open eyes at the scene. I know that in the real world, one should protect a child of Sid's age from such a scene, but considering the night we both endured, I know his future dreams will be nothing but nightmares for months to come. I could only hope he could overcome this night of horrors after we survived, of course. Sid's question also had me wondering about the man's condition. Considering the state of his body and the veritable waterfall of blood seeping out of his many wounds, I wasn't optimistic. However, that didn't mean I wouldn't check, and not because I also noticed the half-ripped backpack on the man's back that looked full of supplies.
"Wait here and keep watch," I instructed Sid before taking a deep breath and climbing into the back of the van. Dodging particularly sharp metal pieces and jagged shards of glass, I reached the man's side. To my absolute shock, I could now see the man's chest rise and fall. "How the hell? What are you, the man of steel?" Shaking my head at the sight, I also noticed that the man's breath wasn't shallow as if he was struggling, but loud and vigorous, as if he was in a deep sleep and not suspended in the air and stuck to the back of a monster.
Reaching out, I first poked the monster's mutilated back? Or whatever part it was and waited. With no response, I let out a deep sigh of relief. I then poked the human man in the same way. Also receiving no response after several moments, which this time made me groan. "How the hell am I going to get you out of here by myself?" Looking at the man, he didn't appear light; by seeing through what was the remnants of his ripped shirt, I could make out a decent-sized belly and love handles to match. This sight of which made me groan again. "Why couldn't you be some eight pack toting hunk. This is how all those stories start, the frail and beautiful girl saves and nurses back to health the strong and handsome but cold warrior. Before melting his icy exterior, revealing a fountain of warmth underneath, before falling madly in love with each other." Just as I was lamenting my loveless heroine fate, a soft tapping on my arm almost made me slam my head on the roof of the van in fright. "Marla, who are you talking to?"
Looking down at Sid's curious eyes, I found my pale face suddenly heating up a little as I berated his presence to cover for myself. "Nobody. What are you even doing here? I thought I told you to keep watch. What if a horde of zombies comes over now? We'll be trapped in here with nowhere to go." Sid hung his head down after I abruptly scolded him, which made me feel awful. But even though it pained me, I needed to stress the seriousness of doing exactly what I told him to do. If we were actually attacked right now, we would be nothing but a free meal. Just as I was about to apologize to Sid and explain why it was important he did what I say, he interrupted me. "I'm sorry, Marla. I was keeping watch, but there was nothing around, so I took a peek into the parking lot and saw one of those trolleys you see at hotels. I thought we could use it to carry the guy if he was alive."
"Oh, that's actually perfect. Sorry, Sid. You did great." Hearing the words, how could I continue to scold him? Sid had basically fixed my problem of carrying the heavy-looking stranger even before I could bring it up. After awkwardly unpinning the man from several spikes and dropping him onto the floor of the van quite heavy-handedly, together with Sid we dragged the man out of the van and put him onto the flatbed trolley. Not forgetting to grab the man's backpack, which I was ecstatic to find out held not just food but bottled water as well. Praying to god above that the rusted wheels would hold out, we pushed the unconscious man into the parking lot.
The bottom floor of the parking lot was basically empty of cars but also any good place to hold up. Deciding higher up would be a bust, and was far too open for my liking, we cautiously took the ramp to the underground floors. Where luckily and much to the relief of both of us, there was light. Besides a couple that were busted, leading to some dark areas, the place was fairly well lit.
Sid spotted what was apparently a moving truck with its back wide open and, after making sure there was nothing in the immediate area, we decided that it was the perfect spot to take a break. Once again with Sid's help we lifted the still bleeding stranger into the back, only dropping him twice before we followed him in. After sitting down for a moment and catching my breath, I tiredly got back on my knees and approached the sleeping man. Brushing the man's shaggy, filth-covered fringe to the side, I grabbed a bottle of water and poured a little on his face before using my sleeve to get rid of the muck and blood covering it.
What was revealed behind the grime and blood was not exactly a man, more like the makings of one, although his face was scrunched up tight, with heavy stress lines that made him appear much older, the chubby cheeks and light dusting of freckles across his nose spoke of his young age. "Probably in his early twenties." I muttered. Leaving the man's ordinary face alone, I pulled the remains of the man's windbreaker off and put it to the side. The remnants of his shirt were like paper in my hands, and I easily tore them in half, revealing the young man's flabby tummy and the jagged fist-size wound in his side.
"Oh no. Is he going to die?" Sid asked between a mouthful of what looked to be half a box of crackers, the sight of which made my mouth water. "I don't know, Sid. It looks like he lost a lot of blood, which is obviously not good. Also, when we were carrying him, I noticed that quite a few of his bones looked to be broken. See the purple and yellow bruising over his ribs. Not including the wound in his side. I have no idea how to stitch a wound closed, even if I had supplies to do it." I didn't try to sugarcoat my words to Sid, whose face dropped after hearing what I said. No point in getting his hopes up when, to my eyes, the man looks close to death's door. It didn't mean I wouldn't try to save him, though. The thought of supplies made me look at the man's backpack.
"Handed me his backpack, Sid." I pointed to the pack next to the now crumb-covered boy, who quickly passed it over, along with a cracker, which I rammed into my mouth as if I were a starving zombie. Roughly upending the backpack onto the truck's floor, I found several packets of dried food, a pack of bullets even though there wasn't a gun in sight, 'maybe back in the van?' not having the energy or interest to check I put the location of the gun to the side and looked at the only other item in the man's backpack. I held up a piece of odd leather that was the size of two pieces of paper and looked at it in puzzlement. "Is this a piece of leather? Why would he have this?"
Staring at the weird piece of leather, I found a system notification appear next to the item much like it had when I focused on my previously destroyed rifle. Not being a big gamer myself, when the floating boxes appeared, it took Sid explaining their uses to finally give at least a little understanding of how the rules of this supposed system world works. Even though it still didn't make much sense at all to me.
[Zombie Skin (Common) (Material) - Can be used as a crafting material by someone with the appropriate skill and recipe. Zombie skin holds high natural resistance to poison and toxins]
Just reading the title made my stomach flip, and drop the horrid piece of supposed zombie skin. "God damn this world!" Roaring a muffled scream into my hands, I waited for the feeling of nausea and goosebumps to disappear throughout my body before I scuttled back over to the pile of apparent Zombie skin. In the time I was having my short meltdown, Sid had also picked up a piece of skin and read the notification afterwards. He apparently handled it much better than I did, as he held up the piece of greenish-brown skin to his face with the wonderment only a child could have.
Looking back down at the pile of skin, and back to the still-bleeding stranger, I sighed and reluctantly picked up a piece by the tip. "I guess this will have to do." Placing the piece of zombie skin over the man's wound, I applied pressure with both hands, making sure the piece covered the wound entirely before I looked over to Sid, who was watching me with curious but sleepy eyes. "Sid, grab his jack and cut it into several strips for me, please." Sid nodded vigorously and made short work of the tattered windbreaker. After getting the strips and thanking Sid. I got him to keep pressure on the skin patch while I tied the strips together and wound them around the man's stomach and over the patch several times before tying it tight.
Wiping the slight blood on my hands on my once olive but now brown splotched dress before sitting back and leaning against the wall of the truck. "Will he be okay now?" Sid asked, I gave him a tired shrug and replied, "Only god knows Sid, I hope so..." A weird itchy feeling came over me at that point, as I looked over to Sid again, "That weird notification feeling has come again, what do I do again?" Sid looked excited at my words and instructed me for what must have been the third time that night on how to mentally bring up the system words. After thinking about it, a system box about a so-called Talent appeared in my line of sight before the familiar and haunting words of that horrid woman's bitchy voice spoke in my mind.
[Congratulations! Achievement Unlocked. ["Don't you die on me!"] - Save any creature Level 1 or above from a life-threatening injury before your first Ascension – Reward: A random Epic level Talent]
[Congratulations! System reward Talent received – Wisdom of the Witch Doctor (Epic) - System Note: Further Information on acquired Talent is found in your Talent menu]
"I seemed to have got a talent for saving him. I guess that means he won't die either?" A bright smile took over Sid's face as I informed him, his eyes shining at my words. The sight of which made me happier than finding out I had been awarded some special talent. Under Sid's urging to check what the Talent did, I mentally pulled up the talent window and read him the description.
[Talent – Wisdom of the Witch Doctor (Epic): Follow in the footsteps of the greatest Alchemists to ever grace the Systems universe. Automatically gain access to the unique profession [Alchemist]. With the wisdom of the Witch Doctors blessing, you will also receive a 10% chance that any of your self-created potions will be upgraded a Tier.]
"That sounds awesome. In all my MMORPG games, alchemists always make the most money." Sid proclaimed after I read the description, I, for one, didn't understand a lick of it. Just before I could ask Sid to explain the man lying between started groaning. "Is he waking up?" Sid got to his feet excitedly and leaned over the man. I jumped to my feet as well and quickly grabbed Sid's arm and warned him, "Don't get too close, we don't know what kind of person he is yet." Sid nodded seriously at my words and pointed his pocket knife up towards the groaning man.
After waiting several tense seconds, the groaning man didn't wake; instead, his soft groans turned into muffled gasping roars of pain. As his body began to shake and sweat. Large veins began sprouting up all over his exposed skin and neck, as if his whole body was tensing up. The sight horrified me right to my core, as it looked like the man was having the most violent seizure I had ever seen. Sid tugged on my sleeve several times to get my attention, which took a moment. "Maybe... maybe his turning into a zombie? That's what it looks like in some of the movies." The words struck me like lightning, as the couple of zombie movies I had watched with my father ran through my head.
"Sho... Should... We?" In halting words, Sid lifted his pocket knife up to me, the sight of which made my head feel dizzy. Looking between the knife and the almost vibrating young man, who looked to be now sweating thick droplets of dark blood from every pore. "Maybe this is his body fighting against the poison. I can't... just kill him." The thought of coldly stabbing an unconscious man just because he might turn into a zombie made bile rise up my throat.
Left with no choice, I packed up the man's belongings in the tattered pack and told Sid to get out of the truck. After he got out, I stood on the edge and grabbed the back roller door of the truck and dragged it closed behind me, before slamming the latch in place so it could only be opened from outside. Turning to Sid, I explained, "We'll find another spot close by to rest for a couple of hours before we check on him, okay?" Sid nodded softly in reply, but the groaning now turned pain-filled roaring cast a cloud over the boy's face. Deflating at the sight, I held Sid's hand as I looked for a new spot.
After searching a couple of cars, we found a large SUV that wasn't locked, which was only a hundred meters or so from the truck, and climbed inside. Sid took the back seat, while I lay down in the boot. I originally planned for us to take turns resting, with me being the first on watch, but before I knew it, I fell asleep and only drowsily woke up due to an incessant patting on my forehead. "Let me rest Sid, I've got entrance exams tomorrow." I mumbled, my head still foggy, before the feeling of someone smacking me in the head got even harder and a voice speaking in urgent whispers became more frantic.
As if someone had thrown a bowl of water on my face, my eyes snapped open, and the previous unclear whispers became as clear as day to me. "Marla. Zombies... Theirs zombies walking around. Wake up, please, please." Forgetting where I was, I hastily attempted to get up to look at my surroundings. In doing so, I managed to slam my head on the roof of the car. Creating an echoing boom throughout the enclosed car park. "Oops." I muttered in a mosquito-sounding voice, as the sight of over six zombies all turning their heads to look right at me simultaneously truly put the fear of god in my veins.
The Zombies surged over like a tide. My still semi-drowsy state had been fully swept away by now as I looked at the zombies coming from almost all directions. Turning back to Sid, who was also looking around with tears filling his eyes, I grabbed his head between my two hands, forcing him to focus on me. "Sid, I'm going to get their attention. I want you to get in the front seat and hide. When I shout go, I want you to open the door and run, okay." Sid's wet eyes were now waterfalling down his freckled cheeks as he tried to interrupt me, but I commanded with the most motherly stern voice I could muster, even as I fought the tears gathering in my own eyes. "Sid. Listen to me. You must do as I say. I'll be fine. But I need you to get somewhere safe first, do you understand? I need you to say it, Sid."
Looking into my eyes Sid couldn't muster any words but managed to summon a nod in reply which at that point had to be good enough, as I commanded in a rougher voice than I planned, "Go Sid, do as I said, do it now." Turning back to the zombies surging towards the car, I searched around the SUV's boot for anything to use as a weapon and, much to my delight, I found a tire iron strapped to the side.
Gripping the tire iron with both sweat-covered hands, I swallowed the fear down and began to bang the roof above me with as much force as I could muster, sending a loud donging noise throughout the underground car park. The zombies that were slowly surrounding the car now all converged towards the closed boot where I was before they started banging at the glass. Seeing multiple milky white pupil-less orbs gazing at me, from almost every direction, as multiple hungry, broken-teethed mouths roared in succession finally brought the tears raining down.
Without being able to help it, I roared out in a choked sob, "Go Sid! Go!" Hearing the front door click open and then close softly finally brought the dam of my emotions down. Wordlessly screaming at the top of my lungs, I began to let out every curse I could at all the rotting corpses slowly battering the windows down around me. The sound of the back window's glass finally splintering made me pause my tear-filled cursing. Looking at the spreading cracks on the glass, I could only muster up one thought, "Shit on me." Then the glass shattered, and my world was a series of grabbing, gnarled fingers and snapping jaws.
------ Sid Dwayne -----
'I have to save Marla. I have to save Marla. I promised Dad before he left that I would protect the family.' The words I said to my father every morning before he left for work had been ringing in my head since the moment Marla and I found ourselves in this horrible place. And now the words were like thunder to my ears, ringing out incessantly as I ran with all my might towards the back of the truck and the closed door.
The sound of shattering glass behind me and Marla's screams following it almost made me pause, but like a brave soldier, I kept moving, knowing I needed reinforcements, as I was outnumbered. Approaching the back door, I swung the latch I had seen Marla close and tried with all my might to lift the doors, but they wouldn't budge. Frustrated and scared, I did the only thing I could do and began to bang on the door with both fists, while yelling, "Please! Help! Please!"
The sound of my fists slamming into the metal roller-down drummed in my head, but I didn't pause until I suddenly found my fists meeting nothing but air. Opening my tightly shut eyes, I looked up to see that the truck's door had been pulled up, as a large, almost giant of a man stood there staring down at me with a confused look on his face. He then asked me an even more confusing question. "So am I a Moth or a Butterfly?"