11.

The scream pierced the morning air through the dense array of trees.

A second later a surprised shout followed it.

"What the—"

"Billy, let's go! Put me down!" Rebecca demanded frantically, struggling against Billy's arms. He obeyed wordlessly. As soon as her feet hit the ground, Rebecca took off running. She wobbled at first and almost stumbled to the ground. Just in time, she caught herself and kept running. 'I guess I haven't regained my balance yet after being carried for so long….' Rebecca concluded. Billy was at her side in an instant.

"Hey, don't push yourself too hard," Billy warned in between breaths as he jogged up beside her. "It might be nothing."

"But it might not," she replied. They entered a clearing, and Rebecca abruptly skidded to a stop. "Is that—…? Oh my God… B-Billy…?" she stuttered, trembling. Rebecca blindly reached back behind her until she found his hand, which she held and squeezed tightly.

Posed near the center of the small clearing, not too far from a heap of fallen trees, crouched a hideous adult zombie bobcat. As soon as the beastly cat sensed their presence it flashed its head over to face them. The creature hissed at them, flaunting every single one of its sharp, jagged teeth while its pitch black eyes brimmed with bloodlust. Despite its menacing body language, the bobcat remained motionless as if waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Chris stood a few feet in front of them, paralyzed with fear—fear of both of the bobcat and for his girlfriend's life.

"Chris!" Rebecca whispered. She watched the bobcat carefully, then decided it was far enough away that she'd have time to take out her gun if it decided to attack. Taking a few slow, hesitant steps, Rebecca crept forward to stand beside her friend. Billy followed her like a magnet, eyes glued on the bobcat.

Chris remained silent and made no movement to show he had heard Rebecca.

"Chris!" she tried again, shaking his shoulder lightly. "Where's Jill?"

"Jill…" he whispered, echoing the only part of Rebecca's words he had heard. His eyes glazed over with a pain he was trying to hide.

"Where is she?" Rebecca repeated.

Finally, Chris seemed to come back to life. He blinked to clear his head, took a deep breath, and suddenly he was all business. "Jill… We have to save her. We have to kill that bobcat." He took his magnum from his hip holster and cocked it.

Rebecca grinned lightly to see her friend back to normal, but the smile quickly died on her lips. Where was Jill? Rebecca swept her eyes around the clearing, but saw no sign of her friend. She did notice, however, that the bobcat had removed its attention from them, instead focusing on the leaves of a few fallen trees nearby. The creature seemed to be searching for something hidden there that only it could smell.

"We should hurry," Rebecca whispered. If Jill was there, she was running out of time.

After exchanging a single glance with Rebecca, Billy took his shotgun off of his back, aimed, and fired.

He must have hit, because the bobcat let out an infuriated snarl and spun around in an attempt to find the source of the attack. Within moments, its black eyes locked on Billy. The bobcat crouched low to the ground, then leapt forward and scampered in their direction, faster than any of them could have anticipated.

Billy dove to the left and Chris and Rebecca leapt to the right as the bobcat whipped past them. The bobcat's attention was still concentrated on Billy. It slid to a stop and turned to chase Billy again, its mouth wide and its claws unsheathed. Again, Billy rolled out of the way seconds before the bobcat's claw smashed into the ground, leaving a deep imprint in the forest floor.

"Go help your friend!" Billy called as soon as he had a chance. "I'll keep this guy distracted!" He gave her one quick thumbs up before returning his attention to the ravenous bobcat.

Rebecca bit her lip, worried for his safety, but returned the thumbs up. She'd have to trust him to not get killed. She ran to catch up with Chris, who was cornered against the fallen trees by two small bobcat cubs. They were still immature enough to depend upon their mother, but their young age didn't make them any less dangerous. The two slunk closer to Chris, their eyes gleaming with thirst. He fumbled with his gun for a moment, and then finally managed to shoot one of the cubs in the chest.

The small creature's squeal of pain was echoed its sibling's cry of fury. Together their cries alerted their mother, who was still attacking Billy nearby. Enraged once again, the large bobcat forgot about her old enemy and ran to save her cubs.

"Rebecca, watch out!" Billy shouted. He fired his shot gun at the bobcat again in an attempt to revert its attention back to him.

This time though, the bobcat either wasn't hit or didn't notice the bullets fired into her back, and ignored Billy completely. She lunged at Rebecca and Chris, the motherly bond she shared with her cubs temporarily overpowering the T-virus she was infected with.

But little did that Bobcat know, Rebecca was not about to be caught off guard again. Rebecca was ready for the feline as she approached; her body was tensed and adrenaline pumped through her veins. In one fluid movement she raised her handgun and shot repeatedly at the bobcat's head and chest before the cat even knew what was happening. It mindlessly continued forward towards its prey.

"Get Jill out of there!" Rebecca managed to shout to Chris, her teeth gritted in concentration as she began running towards the edge of the clearing to keep the cat from getting close to Jill. Before Rebecca could listen for Chris's reply the zombie mother hovered right above her, claw raised and ready to slice her in half.

Rebecca spun to the side with hardly a second to spare, and the bobcat collided with the hard forest floor. While the cat prepared to strike again, Rebecca leapt at the chance to fire a round of bullets straight into the bobcat's head. Warm blood splattered up onto Rebecca's face, and the cat fell limp.

She turned just in time to see Chris finishing off the last cub. The exhausted Jill hung on his arm, standing awkwardly on one of her feet. Chris seemed to support most of her weight despite his own exhaustion. From Rebecca's view, she guessed that Jill's leg was either broken or very badly sprained, and so she started moving toward Jill to take care of it. It needed care soon, before the damage became permanent.

"Guess that's it then. It's getting brighter outside," Chris observed. "We just need to call the copter and—…"

Chris words were suddenly cut off by a low, menacing growl from behind them.

"Rebecca, I hope that was your stomach because…" Chris's voice trailed off as he slowly turned around. "Oh shit."