Taking another leap Josh landed on a tree limb then used his momentum to push him off again and leaped onto the roof of a shed at least twenty feet away. Taking in a deep breath I pounced up into the tree, but unlike Josh I was stupid and just sat there. An earth shattering crash latter and I was on the ground with a branch the size of my wrist under me. A deep rumbling chuckle came from where Josh was at on top the shed. " Try again tender foot." Twisting around I glared up at Josh. " What the hell did you expect? I never learned to swim and jumped like a pansy. Do you expect this to be cake?" Josh laughed again looking down at me. " Do it again. Pretend your a frog and push. It's not like your running the mile."
Turning round I pushed myself up off the ground mentally cursing out Josh. Crouching down I pushed down forcing my body up. As I flew through the air I head a voice. " Tuck in now!" without thinking I listened and tried to get as scrunched up as I could. I landed and rolled on to the roof. Well I did it, do I get a break now? Letting go I stood up and turned to look at Josh who was shaking his head. " Kid you need to land on your feet or roll and be ready to go again. Come on, don't you know anything about parkour?" I growled low in my throat. " Yes I know about fuckin parkour! I had a freakin hunter teach me in New San Francisco. I mean hell this isn't like parkour this is a bunch of leaping and pretending to fly. I mean what the fuck?" Josh chuckled, " Again rookie and stop your bitching. Try and go with the flow, pick out targets before you get to them just like parkour."
I glared after Josh as he jumped off the building and landed on the ground before bounding off into some trees, using it as a spring board, landing on the ground, then pushing off that and onto a house across the way. I let loose a snarl and jumped off the building after that snarky bastard. Using the ground like Josh did I jumped and propelled myself so the soles of my shoes faced the tree, using my momentum I kicked off it as hard as I could. Reaching out like I was super man I slowly relaxed into a ball and rolled as I hit the ground, pushing off the ground as I finished the roll. Maybe the bastard was right, maybe this was like parkour after all. As I landed on the houses roof I felt shingles dig a bit into my wrists and my shoes slide.
Glancing up I looked right into Josh's smirking face. " Come on tender foot we have more practice to do before I let you go home." Josh jumped down off the house next to the garage and started climbing the gravel road up the hill. Sighing I followed him and dropping down off the roof.
A wave of emotions swam over me as we walked, rage at Josh for being so inconsiderate, embarrassment at how bad I was, then there was a bit of pity for no longer being human. Almost as soon as they came they were gone. After walking for a few minutes a thought popped into my head at how weird that was. Emotions just appearing and then rolling away as if it never happened. Maybe it was an infected thing
As we stepped onto the pavement I noticed the few zombies nearby. A female boomer sat in a chair and seemed to glance at us before loosing interest. A few common stumbled farther down the street. It was expected but it also hit me how many infected weren't really here. I was about to voice my revelation when Josh just took off.
Josh ran for maybe a foot or two before crouching down and leaping up onto a roof of a house to my right and then jumping from roof top to roof top. Feeling confused I crouched down and chased after him by jumping up onto the roof top and then attempting to follow.
When he came to the end of the street he stopped and sat there crouched. As I hopped from one roof to the ground, back to a roof, over to the shorter houses roof ground, tree branch too the face. Ow, ow... Okay that hurt. Covering my face I stumbled back from the tree and wobbled around for a second. After getting my barrings I shook my head and tried again to reach Josh. Hopping up onto the nearest house I aimed high to reach the one Josh was on, hoping I either over shot or landed perfectly, I mean missing it by an inch just hurts the ego a bit.
Hopping up onto the building I crawled over to where Josh sat hunched over, on the peak, gazing at the street and town below.
Memories swarmed my mind as I noticed the house across the way. An older woman had lived there and preferred her paper on the inside of the door. The house now was most likely abandoned and the fate of the senior... I shook my head and glanced at Josh. " So what got you so serious and hopping away suddenly?"
Josh glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Smelt something on the wind." Josh glanced over the town. Frowning I sniffed the air for a few minutes. After a few good whiffs I finally smelt it, thick and musky but kinda like that savory steak you smell on the grill. It was disgusting and alluring at the same time. Without thinking I took another deep whiff and started leaning toward it. Josh growled at me but before I knew what was happening I was flying through the air after that smell.
A loud obscenity behind me tried to drag me to the surface but I was so far gone smelling this weird smell. I ran on all fours across the grass and jumped over a fence and onto the house's roof. From there I pounced across the street onto another houses roof. Opening my eyes I vaguely recognized the large structure of the old school turned museum a few large leaps away. Closing my eyes again I leaped from the roof onto a fence and from there up onto another house.
The smell was getting stronger the closer I got to the museum. It's four large white columns stood out as I opened my eyes and leaped down onto the sidewalk in front of it. The two lamps on either side of me sat in waist high concrete, stone covered, blocks. As I started to walk toward the school I noticed the old log house to my right that was brought in for the museum and the old one room school house to my left also brought in for the museum. As I got closer individual red bricks started standing out from the town's largest structure. As I got to the stairs leading up to the doors I took another deep breath inhaling the scent.
Faintly I heard the landing of old tennis shoes on the sidewalk behind me near the street. Without thinking I turned left and started heading round to the side of the building. I picked up the pace as if I was being pursued which in the back of my mind I realized I was. Taking another breath as I passed the door leading to the gym I realized it was getting even stronger in there. Without thinking I ripped open the door. The old metal door didn't stay on it's rusty old hinges and came off in my hand. Letting it drop to the ground I stepped into the building. As I walked down the hall I noticed a few CEDA infected and a few normal and Military clothed commons staggering around.
As I passed a large metal door that would of lead to the gym seemed welded shut. As I kept walking I passed the more and more common infected. They didn't even blink as I passed, something I was still unused to. About halfway down the hall I passed some stairs leading up into the museum. Sniffing again I realized the smell was faint but was coming from down the hallway I was in. Turning my head I kept walking down the hall searching for the what I had decided was delicious smelling.
Again faintly I heard footsteps behind me on the carpeted floor. At the back of my mind I heard a panicked growl at being followed and I started almost sprinting down the hall searching for the smell. Passing another doorway leading to the gym I noticed out of the corner of my eye that it seemed to have become a temporary hospital for CEDA. Pushing a military common out of the way I jumped over the stairs and rolled before stopping and taking another sniff. It was to my left. Snapping my head I turned and headed for the thick metal door that covered what had once been the game room.
As I neared the door I kept sniffing and the smell got stronger and stronger. A smirk crept across my face. What ever smelled so delicious was in there. Using my claw I broke the lock in the door. Turning the knob I opened and stepped into what seemed to be a special room for supplies. Food, and ammo was scattered across the floor on the far right. Closing the door behind me I nearly freaked out at the sound of a cocking gun behind me. Slowly raising my hands above my head and curing my claws into fits to hide their abnormality I turned around and looked into the brown eyes of a blonde, around sixteen years old, female.
I coughed for a second and tried to remember how to speak English, already the infection was wiping away that part of me. "I need help... I was being chased by a hunter... Can I hide out here?" The female quirked her head and stepped forward lowering her gun. "That'll teach you to not carry a weapon with you. What the hell are you doing here by the way?" I smirked and stepped forward. "I was following my nose. I thought I had smelt some steaks and went out for food. Then the hunter chased me." The girl made a clicking sound at the back of her throat. "This is a zombie apocalypse what did you expect?" I smiled and laughed before said laugh turned to a cough. Bending over I coughed myself into a crouch. I could feel the concerned eyes of the girl on me. "You okay? That's a pretty bad coughing spell."
Without thinking I felt myself spring forward and pinned her to the ground. I put my claws on both her arms to keep her down and pinned my knees to her legs. Leaning down I took a deep breath inhaling the mixtures of musk, perfume, and meat. Smirking I looked into her eyes. "If you would live I'd tell you to watch who you trust, but I doubt you'll get rescued." The girl under me gasped and screamed as I lifted my right clawed hand and thrust it into her stomach, then raising my left claw and doing the same. It was almost as if it was in slow motion as I started ripping into the female below me. All I seen was blood spraying across my view and sometimes feeling something rather squishy or hard under my claws.
Suddenly there was a clawed hand on my shoulder bringing me out of my blood frenzy. Slowly blood dripped from my eyes and the feeling inside me of wanting to rip her apart died down. Without thinking I leaned down and bit into the tendons and started chewing. Behind me I heard a chuckle. " If only you could see yourself right now." I turned around, mouth full of tendon and looked at Josh slowly chocking my head to the right. His deep chuckle vibrated around the room as he looked onto me. " At least leave me a piece and some for Brittany." I growled deeply in my throat voicing my displeasure at such a thought as giving up my catch.
Josh raised his hand and backed away but the smile only got wider. His slightly red sharp teeth shown in the dim light of the battery operated lantern. Turning back around I finally got a good look at my catch and what I had done. Realization that I had just murdered a girl, and then ate her made me a bit woozy but it was over soon enough as I rationalized this is what I've become. This is who I am. Glancing down at the now blood soaked blonde hair. I questioned myself, was I really okay with this? Was I just being irrational when trying to rationalize? Was I really that fucked up to not care I had just murdered this girl and ate her when she had been trying to survive as I once had. Sighing I stood up and started to walk away.
Josh smirked at me knowingly. " It's hard the first few times. You keep trying to tell yourself this is normal, but then you realize that, they were human just like you had been. Try not to feel too bad we survive on meat and sadly I couldn't of stopped you if I tried." Hanging my head a bit sadly I stepped over to the door and stepped outside. Back inside I could hear Joshing going to work and gathering us some food for the next few days. I slowly stepped up the stairs and sorta mind numbingly started the walk home, trying my best not to think at all. It was better to just walk and not think at a time like this.
A/N: I have mixed feelings about this chapter but I do know that with it I do show this town is the home for another two or three before the group moves out. Yes the language of Infected and English has switched places with English being italicized and Infected being normal. This is also probably the only chapter to have a true authors note. I will try to update more but trust me anything sooner than a month between updates is rare. I would also like to say that I'm so happy to see all of your favoriting and adding this to your watch list. I appreciate reviews and I would love to hear what you all think of my story so far. Good, the bad, the ugly I take it all.
