Don't Get Eaten

Chapter Forty One

We all disregard the creatures in the buildings that suddenly wanted to be active, but not enough to actually show themselves and race down the street after the others. I barely see Lani turning a right on the next street and I try best to catch up. But let's face the reality of this situation, my foot decided it wanted to have a mind of its own as pain shoots straight through to my lower calf and practically go dead on me.

I almost fell if it wasn't for Zared snatching my arm and righting me as we kept going. Not only did I have to keep an eye out of where the hell they all were running off too, but I had to add extra concentration of the pain that was shooting up and down with each pounding step I was doing to it.

But then we hear the sobs that were loud and hysterical. And I skid to a stop at the scene before me. My eyes widen in horror as Zared curses in complete shock. My entire body froze, and I didn't know what to do or how to comprehend what the fuck I was seeing.

But Christina was sobbing on the ground as Leo held her close to him, looking at the gruesome scene before us all. Lacy stood there in just as much as a shock and horror as the rest of us while Lani covered her mouth with tears running down her face.

My body was shaking from the shock, and I can feel Zared's hand tightly wrapped around my arm, it was so tight of a grip that it was starting to go numb, but I couldn't care less about that as I stared up at three figures that dangled upside down on a street light pole. Their bodies were mangled, faces completely torn off as blood dripped down from multiple lacerations.

I was confused and couldn't understand why something like this had happened. Didn't they eat humans to survive? So, why were these people treated in such a way? I just didn't get it.

"Come on, Cristy, we have to get out of here." I hear Leo whisper brokenly to her.

"No! No! We can't just leave them there! We can't l-leave them like that!" She cries hysterically as she tries her best to push him away from her.

And it soon dawns on me that these people were the ones we came to get. But there were only three of them. Where was the last one? Did they run off? Were they hiding somewhere? They had to be all alone now, scared out of their minds if they were able to escape from whatever happened to them.

I couldn't look at them anymore, bile rising in my throat at the awful stench that was now starting to penetrate my nose and mouth. If I had to guess they had been like that at least a day or so. Which meant this happened not too long after Christina and the others had gone searching for help.

Zared held his hand over his nose, looking just as disturbed as I felt.

Unlike me however, he couldn't seem to look away, horror written in his eyes. I didn't like that look on him. He was supposed to be the stronger of the two of us and seeing him, so fear stricken, made me lose just a little hope of being here. I hated the feeling.

So, I quickly cover my hand over his eyes and came closer where only he could hear me. "Don't. If you haven't noticed, there's a person missing."

I needed to get his mind to focus onto something else.

He gently covers my hand with him pressing it more into his eyes as he begins to tremble horribly. I didn't think he would have such a strong reaction to seeing something like this until the words came flooding back to me.

"What was it? What did you see?"

"They were corpses, not just a few, but dozens of them. The skin and muscles were...like they were completely gnawed off. Some had half their faces gone. They have been there for a while because they were rotting, flies buzzing everywhere, magots..."

I had nearly forgotten that Zared had seen such horror on his first day here. Of course this would trigger him. He was remembering that horrible scene. It also made me realize that those corpses hadn't been eaten either. Just left there like they were some kind of marker or...something.

My eyes widen in pure dread. "We have to get out of here." I sternly say to the group.

"What?" Lacy looks to me looking just as disturbed as the rest of us.

Ignoring her I march right up to Christina and snatch her up, Leo scrambling with a confused look on his face. She tries to fight me, screaming at me to let her go. But I couldn't as I start to drag her away.

"We have to get away from this spot!" I yell in her face, shutting her right up.

"What the hell are you doing?" Leo grits out as he quickly follows me.

"Jinsen, what's wrong? Why are you acting crazy all the sudden?" Zared demands as he starts helping me drag her away as quickly as possible, not once thinking of stopping me from what I'm doing.

"Get your asses moving!" I yell out at the others.

No one bothers to argue as they all follow. "Start making sense Jinsen!" Lacy cries out as she jogs after us, clutching Lani's arm tightly in her hand to be sure she didn't fall behind.

"Run now, talk later." I grumble my heart racing a million miles per second, hoping I was dead wrong on my assumption.

Christina had stopped fighting allowing me and Zared to drag her along with us as I try to find an area where we could at least get out of the opening and from being exposed as we were.

"Over there!" Leo points to a grassy area that was sheltered by shrubs and trees but not close enough to one of the buildings either.

Just as we hit the spot, and I loosen my grip of her, I stiffen as a shiver of uneasiness zaps up my spine when a loud booming voice yells out,

"Aw man! Smart assholes always ruin the fun! You can run pretty boy, but you can't hide!"

A horde of laughter follows right after.