Rotten

Chapter Three

The hand that had secured itself around my mouth was clammy and thin; I could feel each individual bone beneath the slim layer of skin. Whatever this limb was attached to, it wasn't human. I probably had only a few more seconds to act before it ripped into the back of my neck and began devouring me like an afternoon snack! Luckily though, I still had my bat, so I acted accordingly:The hand didn't have a very strong grip on my mouth; in fact, it began to recede (probably to tear open my back). But, I never gave the thing behind me the chance because I spun around, my bat hitting the corners of the small closet, and swung blindly in the direction of which I assumed the cannibal must have been hiding.I felt the hard wood of my bat collide with skin and bone followed by a rough groan of the victim. I didn't want to risk more time than necessary in complete darkness, so I used the extra time to spin back around and twist open the closet door. I prayed to whatever god that was watching over me that the zombies from the hall hadn't made their way inside the bedroom. I was also hoping that Bebe was okay, I didn't hear any of her screams. Yet, at the moment, I had my own problem to deal with. Awaiting the monster's reemergence from the closet, I held the bat securely in front of myself in the darkness. I knew I had only injured the creature; I had swung too low for a clean headshot and chances were I had only struck it in the side.My grip tightened around the base of the bat; knuckles blanching a stark white. I saw a shadow appear from the back of the closet, and I held my weapon tightly enough that I could feel the rough texture of wood through the thick hide of my brown gloves. I was ready to decapitate the thing as soon as it showed itself and came fully into the light. I raised the bat above my head, positioning for the fatal blow, about to kill this fucker... but I hesitated.Hesitating is stupid, hesitating can get you killed. My emotions are already shot to hell, almost impossible to control, so when I saw him crawl out of the closet, gurgling thick black blood onto the carpet, I couldn't bring down the bat. I couldn't crush his skull. I knew this kid. Jesus Christ, I knew him—!"Craig?" My voice caught in my throat, before bubbling out of my mouth. I probably sounded more dying animal then human, my voice cracking on the single syllable.When Craig raised his head and looked up at me, I was sure of one thing. He was a zombie, alright. Though, he wasn't the worst I've seen by far. He looked newly turned, his flesh still hung on his bones, there were no missing chunks of skin on his face, and he was still in possession of all his limbs (and he still had his ratty hat on— how he managed that feat, I'm not sure).There were marks of the change marring his features. For one his skin was so pale that it was almost translucent, a taunt blue stretching over his cheekbones. He had injuries on his arms, cuts and slices that crusted over with the same black blood that he was retching moments ago. His trademark blue jacket was torn, and his irises which used to be frost blue— in contrast with his jet black hair— were now completely swallowed by black. His pupils had dilated like those of the deceased, and the color was now only a fond memory. And the smell, Jesus, even at my distance of a couple feet I could smell it.There was a resemblance to the guy I'd known before, but the Craig kneeling in front of me, groaning and rubbing the layered blood off his forearm, looked like an entirely different person (ugh... well... zombie, I should say).I needed to kill him. I had to kill him! What if he sprung up from his crouching position and decided to slaughter me? I can't let my stupid emotions spare him, he's just another zombie, he's just another zombie. Think of all of the times he ridiculed you, hurt you! You hate him! You hate him! Kill him!I lifted the bat back for a second time, my intention to kill him and then forget this whole ordeal... but I hesitated, again."Fuck." Craig sputtered while wobbling to his feet. I jumped back, keeping a large gap between the two of us. My focus was on Craig, and Craig only, the threat posed from outside was somewhere back in my mind where I couldn't reach it. I knew that I should be taking this chance to clobber him, spatter his brain on the ground, but a part of me wanted to hear him talk. Briefly I was surprised he could even speak at all, his brain should be rotted to the core by now leaving all but survival instinct which told him to hunt. Hunt me.Craig's sunken black eyes found their way to my horrified face and lingered there for a moment before speaking, his voice rough from ill use."Tweek." Speaking as though he were seeing me for the first time, he recognized who I was. If I wasn't certain before, I knew now that I couldn't split his head like a watermelon. He shouldn't be talking, even less remembering.I held the bat out in front of of me as a warning, stretching my arm horizontally until it was like I was pointing at Craig with a large wooden accusing finger."You're a zombie." I snarled—at least I tried to, but my voice cracked, so that didn't really happen. I guess I more…whimpered."Is that why my breath smells like rotten kitten shit?" Craig spat.I didn't have time to appreciate his sarcasm. My mind was reeling. I've never encountered something like this before. Craig's supposed to be doing zombie things: moaning nonsense, grabbing for my delicious flesh, or at least eating his own hand or something. Instead, he's beingsarcastic with me?Despite this, I was not about to let my guard down. Craig was a zombie, so I had to shove any personal feelings aside for my own safety."How long has it been since you've been infected?" I demanded waving my bat at him. Craig eyed it wearily before responding."A few days after these fuckers showed up." He said truthfully, keeping his black eyes glued to my lifeline. "Holy shit dude, I can't believe you're alive."I ignored his last comment, to concentrate on the first that left his blue-tinged lips— he'd been bitten when the zombies first came. That must have been months ago, if I was keeping track of time right. There must have be something different about the way Craig's body worked, or a mutation of the virus that I'm not aware of; by all accounts he should be a pile of rotting mush. He's not decaying, not at the rate he should be anyhow, and that can be dangerous for someone like me."What—ngh—are you doing here? You hunting?" I asked, taking a step in Craig's direction."This is—was—my cousins house, we fled here after South Park went under." Well, didn't seem like the best decision. Curiosity struck me with its annoying little hammer (or whatever the hell it has) and I found myself anxious about what he did that awful day. But again, I shoved that to the back of my mind; I had bigger if I were less stressed out I would have gone into the topic of fate with the whole, "what are the chances we'd run into each other here", and all that nonsense. This wasn't the time though, I could have a chance to reflect on that later."You never answered my question, are you hunting?" I asked again."Well I—""H-have you hunted?" The million-dollar question."You see—""Who have you—agh—killed?" I took another step forward. "How many people did you eat to stay alive?" With each question, my shaky long legs brought me another step closer to Craig, and he began to look more and more nervous. I liked this, being in control…something that rarely happened to me (and maybe it just felt sweeter because of who I was in control over). "I'm going to kill you." I informed him. Craig's eyes widened and almost popped out of their sockets. But before he could even speak, or I could even raise the bat a third and final time; all hell broke loose.The bedroom door swung forcefully open, almost ripping from its rusty hinges. I screeched in alarm and immediately swung around to catch sight of the same animated corpses I'd come across on the stairs.I backed myself up against the far wall of the bedroom quickly, the last thing I needed was a zombie to catch me off guard from behind. Bebe wasn't here to save my ass like other times, so the wall would have to do. My eyes widened to the point where they were in danger of popping right out of my head! My hands trembled as I clung to the bat desperately, waiting for the zombies to get close enough so I could try and plow my way through them.Then I remembered just who was in this room with me, and my eyes darted to the area of which we'd been talking. Craig was watching the zombies with a strange expression I didn't bother to interpret. The monsters, having no interest in him, trudged past his still figure. My suspicions were that Craig would only watch as the zombies tore me limb from limb and then see if there was anything to pick at from mydestroyed carcass. Jesus fucking Christ, not today!An incredibly decayed zombie— jaw unhinged, with only one eye, and putrid flesh slipping of yellowed bones— reached me first and I propelled into action, bringing my bat forward an smacking the wood right into the zombie's cheek. The skin holding it's neck to it's head tore easily, almost like paper, and the head popped clean off. A thick wave of black blood spattered onto my front, adhering to the lens of my goggles. No not now, not now. I needed complete visibility.It'd take more than just one good swing to kill the rest of the horde. It just so happened that this crew was in bad shape, so picking them off was easy. I got to work, running on strength boosted with adrenaline. I had several close calls, zombies ripping at my clothes, and some making as close as a mere foot away. My heart was pounding in my chest, a deafening thump in my ears, it wouldn't matter if I could defeat all these zombies because I'll probably have a heart attack first!Headless bodies began to pile up at my feet, and I decided to use them as a makeshift barrier like I did with the first one I had killed out in the hall. I shuffled forward, and pushed the bodies with my legs. Without my back against the wall I felt exposed, bare without it's protection. I just had to keep my guard up. I can do this.Swing.Swing.Swing.Kill.Swing.Swing.Swing.Kill.After only a few minutes of this routine, I could feel my adrenaline push waning, and my swings becoming progressively weaker. There were too many of them, I was swamped, surrounded. Whenever I managed to kill a zombie, immediately another would rise to take its place.Black blood dripped down the front of my goggles, obscuring my vision. I shook my head from side to side in a desperate attempt to dislodge the cloying liquid. My arms felt like noodles, my breath escaped in exhausted gasps, and my legs shook so violently that I had begun to believe they'd snap and give way at any moment. My swings didn't carry enough power anymore, they barely did any damage, not enough to kill a zombie only enough to stun them. I was too beat to think the paranoid thoughts that plagued my mind constantly. I was too beat to worry about when I lost my footing, and fell back against the wall while my bat rolled away. I was too beat to do anything when I saw the rotten cannibals rush toward me; all I did was close my eyes and wait.I hope Bebe got away.But nothing happened.I waited to feel my skin get peeled from my body, soft rotten teeth dig into my flesh, and gnarled hands rip at my clothes. I knew the zombies were still here; their groans and awkward footing still filled the room with horrifying volume. I didn't want to open my eyes though, because what if the simple action was keeping them away? What if I had super powers to repel zombies whenever I shut my eyes? God, it would have been really convenient to know that beforehand!However, once the noises started, I had to reevaluate my previous notion. The moans from the monsters changed pitch to an almost screech-like sound. I also heard the repulsive swish of limbs being torn from bodies. It sounded like someone grabbed the leg of a moist rotisserie chicken, and was twisting it experimentally before finally popping it off. If I'd eaten, no doubt my food would have spewed out of my mouth. I also heard chewing, the loud gum-popping kind, like whoever was doing it had too much food in their mouth.So now I had two ideas of what the fuck was going on around me. The first was Bebe finally got herself up here and was kicking some zombie ass; the strange sound just a side affect from my exhausted delusions. The second idea was that the zombies suddenly turned on each other and began eating themselves, which resulted in the sickening noises I continued to hear.As I slowly opened my eyes, I hoped desperately for it to be the first. However, what I saw was more close to the latter.Several more corpses littered the floor than before, some of them had large chunks missing from their body. My gaze panned upwards, and no matter how much I wanted to stop staring at the disturbing scene in front of me, I simply couldn't.Craig was among these zombies, black blood spilled down the front of his jacket and pouring from his mouth down to his chin. But the blood wasn't his: because he was eating the other zombies. His pale hands shot out to attack his next victim, twisting the monsters arm until it cracked right off. He took a hardy bite of the fleshy arm (which made me want to vomit again) before casting it aside and grabbing the zombie in a headlock, squeezing the soft decaying skull until it cracked open and eating the gray gooey brain matter inside like ramen noodles.I didn't recognize the look in Craig's eyes. It was like he wasn't Craig at all-certainly not the confusing zombie that I ran into in the closet. No, now he looked like a predator. Moving from zombie to zombie, eating chunks of his own kind at the speed of a hungry lion. He only stopped once the last zombie fell.He's going to eat me now!My body still ached with exhaustion, but I'd be damned if Craig Tuckerate me in the end. So, with the strength fueled from my pathetic emotional past, I stood on my shaky thin legs and immediately began looking around for my baseball bat. Luckily, it hadn't rolled far and I soon spotted it underneath the headless corpse.I glanced back at Craig carefully, where he was still munching on an unidentifiable part of a body. I didn't let my gaze waver as I slowly crouched, carefully grasping the end of my bat and rising up to stand once again. I lifted my bat slowly, and then swung with all my might at the back of Craig's head.I was actually proud of myself for not hesitating this time; however, it didn't really matter because Craig dodged the damn swing."What the hell?" Craig growled as he spun around to face me."Erg—stay still!" I snarled, using my bat again. Craig's black eyes widened and he jumped to the side quickly."Dude, what are you doing? I just saved your ass!" He called, taking another fast step back when I tried to hit him a third time."Just so you can eat me!" I hissed, lunging toward him and this time barely hitting his side."Ow fuck!" Craig seethed, grabbing at the area I'd hit him with pale, blood stained hands. "If I wanted to eat you, I would've done it in the closet."Valid point. But, not valid enough for a paranoid fuck like me."You want to," swing, "take your," swing, "sweet time," swing, "to finish me!""Don't flatter yourself." Dodge. "Listen," dodge, "I'm not going to," dodge, "eat you." Dodge. "You should—ouch—" Ha, nice hit, "be thanking me for saving your life!""I don't believe you!" I felt my energy draining again. Jesus, Craig was fast. I never remembered him moving so fast before. When we had gym class together his slow ass finished the mile in twenty minutes! "You crave flesh!""I just ate all those motherfuckers!" Craig spat irately."Doesn't matter! If zombies could eat other zombies, then this wouldn't be the end of the world, would it?" I swung the bat weakly, and wasn't too surprised when Craig managed to catch the end of it, holding it firmly in his grip. He narrowed his eyes threateningly."Brains are brains, flesh is flesh. Whether you're a zombie or not, nothing changes that. The difference is," Craig leaned in toward me and I crinkled my nose while leaning back in disgust, his breath really does stink, "one is less satisfying and tastes like shit, while the other doesn't. I'll let you guess which is which.As long as there are living people left, they'll do anything to eat 'em instead."I pulled at my bat weakly and Craig let it go confidently, crossing his arms across his dirty stained jacket. I eyed him wearily before questioning, "Then why aren't you in this 'race' to eat everyone?" Craig's eyes narrowed again when he answered me."I had to watch my family slowly become these damn things, waiting for the same thing to happen to me. I don't know if there's something wrong with me, but for whatever reason I never fully turned. I'm not going to bullshit you, it's fucking tempting. But, I'd like to think that I'm above," Craig's gaze darted to the corpse ridden ground, "them."I let my arm drop to my side and pursed my lips contemplatively. "I don't remember you being this noble." I finally said."I don't remember you being such an asshole." Craig scoffed.I probably could have brought up a number of reasons for my behavior toward him, but I still had other stuff on my mind."I'm going to—ngh—let you join us." I said. I figured this action could result in more security for Bebe and me. Plus, if Craig turned on us, Bebe and I could probably take him together and kill him. The shit that had happened between us was in the past, I wasn't about to be a pussy and pass up a nice opportunity."Us?" Craig inquired."Bebe and me.""Bebe? As in Bebe Stevens?" Craig sighed dramatically. "She's with you?" Hm, some things don't change, I suppose."Yes. And s-she might need us right now!" I left the bedroom quickly and began descending the carpeted staircase.I heard Craig's hesitant footsteps behind my own, and was unsure of what I would find on the floor below.