Chapter 3: Road to the City

The group began to make their way back to the trailers in the hill nearby above the laboratory. Rebecca paused halfway up and stared at the edge of the forest.

"Something wrong?" Leon asked.

"I thought I saw someone." Rebecca replied. They continued to follow the road and reached the research trailers. "

Heeeelllloooooo!" Prishe called out excitedly.

"Knock it off, you know that those zombies follow loud noises!" Sam exclaimed.

"I don't think we need to worry about that, we already cleared the area and closed the gates when we left." Xian reassured him. They made their way over to the trailer where one of the surviving scientists took refuge.

"Hey, you still in here?" Leon called out.

"Yeah I'll be right out, I'm grabbing some of the research equipment we might be able to use it." The scientist replied." There was a series of loud noises that hinted at how thoroughly he barricaded himself in. Finally the door opened and the scientist stepped out. "Feels good to go outside again." The scientist exclaimed. Just as he began to breath a sigh of relief, a horde of zombies pushed through the gate.

"I TOLD YOU SO!" Sam shouted. Everyone raised their weapon to shoot, but stopped when Prishe ran straight into the horde revving the chainsaw bayonet.

"Get her out of there!' Leon shouted. Xian ran in but by the time she the third zombie, Prishe had taken down 17!

"Prishe what the hell!" Rebecca exclaimed, "Are you trying to get yourself ki-" her voice fell short when she saw that Prishe began to tremble. Rebecca went to grab her med kit in case it was necessary. As Rebecca returned to Prishe she stopped short, there was a man standing near Prishe with a gun aimed at her head.

"Hand over your weapons or the girl dies!" the man shouted. Leon ran up to disarm him, but the man saw him come up and shot him.

"LEON!" Rebecca screamed. Leon fell back and hit the ground hard. Prishe was conscious long enough to hear something snap then….darkness.

Rebecca ran up to aid Leon, as she arrived to him she heard the gunman scream in pain. Prishe had knocked the gun away from the man's hand, grabbed him, and sunk her teeth into his neck. The man struggled to get her off, but only succeeded in helping her tear off a small chunk of his flesh. The man let out another scream of pain and fell back. Prishe kneeled on his chest; blood dripping from her mouth and a small giggle began to emanate from her.

Eventually she began to laugh like a kid having fun in the park as she revved the chainsaw bayonet again and began to make the man squirm and twitch from the small cuts she began to inflict on him. Prishe began to cut his arm off and the man could only let out screams of pain and terror. The others stood frozen, watching as Prishe dismembered the man like a doll. The man began to lose consciousness and death was ready to take him, but before he could die Prishe brought the saw to his chest and very slowly began to push it into him. The man had just enough life left to hear Prishe still laughing, enjoying her work; he could feel the pain and let out the most horrifying scream you could ever hear.

Prishe's laughter began to die off, still kneeling on the man Prishe shut off the bayonet and stood up. Silence fell on the research camp; Prishe did nothing but stand where she was and said nothing as if her life was sucked out of her. Xian was the first to approach her, reaching for Prishe's gun but stopped surprised. Prishe had a completely black look on her face. Xian waved her hand in front of her, but no response. She began to push her back to the group and Prishe let herself be led. Rebecca helped Leon sit up.

"Glad your ok, a little more to the right and you'd be dead." She said while letting out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks" Leon replied with a smile. The bullet had hit his shoulder but missed any artery.

"Rebecca," Xian called out, "can you examine Prishe? Something's not right with her." Rebecca approached Prishe and began to examine her.

"From what I see…she seems fine. No bruises, but I can't tell if any of the blood on her clothes belongs her." She replied.

"We should get to the city, there is a church there that would make a good rest stop," Sam explained as he saw though a pair of binoculars, "and we should go now, there's quite a few of them coming."

"There is a jeep at the laboratory," the scientist replied, "I'm pretty sure it still works." With that the group began their way back to the lab. Upon reaching the lab a roar of anger could be heard. A thug came in around the corner threatening to K.O. one of them.

"Oh, FUCK NO! Now I'm pissed!" Sam shouted angrily. He pulled out his brass knuckles and swung his fist onto the thugs head knocking it clean off. The thug fell to its knees then hit the ground with a thud. "Alright, let's go." Sam said with a grin. They boarded the jeep and sped off.

After navigating through the jungle for a while they reached the bridge that led to the city. "Be careful, the bridge built on a very high cliff." Xian warned Rebecca. As they approached the bridge, Rebecca spotted a Suicider to the left and tried to avoid it but the force of the suicider's blast was too strong and almost sent them off the cliff. The car door broke loose and sent Xian, Prishe, and the scientist out of the car. Prishe fell from the cliff and hit her head on the way down knocking her out, Xian managed to grab her hand before she fell to certain death. Rebecca, Leon, and Sam got off the jeep to help, but just then another horde of zombies came out of the trees.

The area became a battlefield as shots from their weapons rang. The scientist was trying to help Xian pull Prishe up when a zombie came out of nowhere and bit into him. The scientist let out a scream of pain as more zombies crowded him and dug in. Xian pulled out her sidearm and planted several bullets into each of the zombie's heads. Xian fired the last bullet knocking down the remaining zombie near her and turned her attention to Prishe. Prishe began to regain consciousness and realized her situation; she knew there was only one way to avoid having both of them die.

"Xian, loosen your grip!" she yelled, "Then swing me over to that ledge!" Xian was confused at her plan since the ledge she indicated was at quite a distance, but she didn't argue and loosened her grip and was about to swing her, when Prishe suddenly let go.

To Xian, time had slowed. She tried to grab her again, but Prishe was already out of reach. Xian watched her disappear into the bottomless fog and she could do nothing about it.

"Xian!" a low voice called her at a distance. Her senses slowly returned to normal and so did the voice. "Xian!" Sam called out. Xian looked around and realized that she was about to fall. Sam quickly pulled her away from the edge and guided her past the bridge. Leon and Rebecca followed as they broke into a run and headed for the city.

When the group reached the city, they found themselves fighting off more zombies than they ever encountered before.

After fighting their way through for about 30 min a voice called out to them, "Hey! Over here!" A man was at the church balcony signaling them. They reached the church and closed the gate behind them. Leon took a seat against the wall of the church and Rebecca stood nearby. Rebecca decided to sit down to rest and let herself fall backwards without giving it a thought and fell on Leon.

"Comfy?" Leon asked playfully.

Rebecca nearly jumped into the air, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you!" she apologized quickly.

"It's ok." Leon replied with a smile. He made some room for Rebecca and she sat with him.

"Say, Xian?" Sam asked, "Where's Prishe?" Xian simply let her head hang as she replayed the event in her head.

'Did she really let go? Or did I?' she thought to herself.

"We'll rest here for a day, and then we'll call in an evac chopper for the survivors in the church.

The next day Leon called for a helicopter, "It's on its way. It'll be about a few hours before it gets here so we should have enough time to find clear an extraction point. Everyone nodded in agreement except for Xian who was still lost in the events of the previous day. They split into teams of two and set off. Leon and Rebecca went to look deeper in town, while Xian and Sam headed for the resort. On the way Sam tried to help Xian concentrate.

"How many people do you think are still alive? Sam asked.

"Not many I suppose" Xian responded. It was the worst question to ask but it got Xian to respond. Sam was about to ask something else when Xian broke into a run.

"Xian, wait!" Sam called out, "What's wron-" He cut himself off as he saw what she was running to. In a ditch near by filled with water there was the body of a girl with purple hair.

Chapter End