Katya Edition: Second Edition

Twenty Sixth Corpse: The Last Time

❝I'm not as scared anymore with you here.❞

+ + +

Twenty Sixth Corpse | The Last Time

+ + +

[Z-day +6 | Apr. 20 | 17:51hrs]

"Why won't they stop coming?!" I growled, tackling a corpse to the ground and smashing its head in with a random brick I found to offer some assistance-our meagre weapons were long since lost in the fray and I was regretting not bringing the o tachi short blades with me but I was in such a hurry to get to Alice that I wasn't in the mood to go looking for it.

"That's what she said," Thomson joked dryly, breathless and sweating out what little hydration he'd managed to get back after the Satan bush screwed us over.

I was no different—breathing heavily, sweating and dealing with aches and pains all over my body. We were in quite the sorry state. But for all the Satan plant had done, we'd still managed to end up tied at sixteen cadavers each taken down so far, with various piles of dead bodies scattered around the area as a result of the last ten to fifteen minutes of cleanup we'd done. I'd say we were doing pretty well for ourselves all things considered.

"That was really sad, Tommy, you're losing your touch," I responded in an unimpressed tone, in response to his crude and sorely overused joke.

"Oh? Missing my touch, are you?" He teased, dodging the swiping arms of a zombie going after him. He snapped the arms off of the corpse, shoved one into its mouth and kicked it back into the others bringing up the rear, sending them all tumbling to the ground and tossing the other arm after them.

I scoffed, sweeping the legs out from under the two trying to double team me while I responded to Thomson sarcastically, "Yeah, like I'd miss an ulcer." The two cadavers slammed into the ground and I crushed the head of one with a brick I found, and stomped the other in the throat until I snapped its neck.

"A man can dream," he said with a pout and I rolled my eyes.

"Save the dreaming for when you're asleep, right now we fight," I told him plainly but I was grateful he was there with me. If it weren't for my competition with him and our back and forth banter, I think I would have given up by now—or died.

"Your friends are taking their merry time," Thomson commented with a flat look and I couldn't blame him. We couldn't keep this up much longer, not without reinforcements. Ten minutes was a long time to be fighting when you weren't in top shape and fifteen minutes were that much worse.

Both flares should have had at least one team here by now. Unless they were in trouble too.

An image of everyone as zombies flashed before my eyes and I flinched, stumbling back away from the next zombie reflexively. Thomson took over and killed it while I stood there, frozen by what I'd seen.

"Fire kitten, snap out of it," Thomson muttered, stepping in front of me. "This is no time to be spacing out or seizing up. The munchkin needs us to keep fighting."

I glanced back to where Alice was clinging to the tree we put her in, Zeke held tightly to her chest with her other arm. She was frowning, her eyes shining with tears. She was scared for us, that much was obvious.

I gave her a tired smile before turning back, my eyes hardening. Thomson was right. If I didn't fight then the vision I'd just seen would be my reality. I'd die before I saw Alice as a corpse.

And the fight resumed against the dead. Thomson and I were forced to take on zombies together, too tired to work effectively on our own. Another ten minutes passed by with us fighting, another ten minutes of fresh corpses replacing the ones we'd put down. We were no longer counting, too tired to remember our competition. It wasn't that long before we were surrounded by the dead.