-->: Forgive me for not posting sooner. It's been a busy week and honestly, the motivation to write more on this story wasn't there. I'm hoping I'm not losing my focus, but if you see that this is going differently than my normal stuff than I apologize. This chapter is pretty short, mostly because I was lazy, but the next one should make up for it. Have fun, kids.

Chapter 10: Fight Against Death

Toshi and I stood closely together, our knees bent and feet firmly planted, but ready to run if it came to that. I think we both silently agreed that running right off the bat would be suicide. I'm not sure how well dead people can run, but I knew that I didn't want to find out. I observed our surroundings and saw that there was only one way out and that was the way from which we had come. I tried thinking quickly to see if I remembered any fence or obstacle we could easily overcome but leave the zombies helpless.

When I realized there was no such thing, I made a suggestion: "We need to find something to use against them."

"Like what!" Toshi asked quickly giving me a look as if to say I was insane.

I looked around frantically trying to figure something out. Of course this had to be a clean city—the one time I actually considered living in a dumpy area might've been good. There was nothing lying around that would prove useful against these monsters.

"Look," I pointed to our right. "Those garbage can lids…we can use those."

"You mean actually getting that close to those things? Layrial, you're nuts!"

"I know!" I agreed. "But it's our only chance to fend them off, Toshi!"

He agreed, counted to three and we dodged off to grab a lid. The zombies were in fact slow and couldn't maneuver quickly; the unfortunate thing is that by the time I discovered this they were practically surrounding us since they had been working at it since the confrontation.

I grabbed a lid and held it like a shield in front of me. Toshi followed suit, but I could tell he was less assured it was a decent idea—I sort of agreed. "When there's an opening, take it and run."

Toshi looked behind where we now stood and I saw too—we were nearly backed against a wall of a brick building with no door or window in sight. We were, in short, screwed.

"There!" He called and darted to the left between a small cluster of dead men. He slipped through, but by the time I knew where to go they had turned around and blocked my chance of getting out. Many of them were distracted by Toshi's escape; therefore I thought I'd be able to sneak away.

I took a deep breath, held my makeshift shield tightly and plowed my way through. They fell over easily, but they weren't completely useless. One had reached out just in time to hook his rotting fingers on the edge of the lid and yank on it. I, having my hand firmly wrapped around the handle, had been jerked back and forced to turn to face them. Another had come up behind me and grabbed my hair. The only thing I managed to do with clear thought was kick my foot out and ram it into the hip of the one clutching my lid.

The zombie faltered and staggered away, his fingers ripping off from his hand because he had been holding on so tightly to the metal edge. I ignored the fact that bloodless appendages fell to my feet and came around with a mighty swing to slice at the one who held my hair.

Toshi had returned at some point, I realized, and was trying to free me as well. The irksome dead men were at the point of leaping on us and we did everything in our power to fight them off. Toshi was trying some sort of terrible Kung Fu and I was swinging my trash lid everywhere I could with all my strength.

During this, I felt like everything around me had gone silent. Perhaps I felt that it was only a matter of time before a hero would save us…before Cell would return. I kept glancing for a split second at the sky to see if he was there, waiting to see how long we could last without his aid. Every time I saw he wasn't there, I knew I had to keep going because I'd die otherwise. I most certainly didn't want to end up looking like these…things.

My thoughts had gotten the best of me. They drew my attention away from the matter at hand just long enough for me to lose any hope of control I had to winning this little battle. A zombie jumped onto my back wrapping its legs around my waist and its hands clutched my throat. The garbage can lid instantly fell to the ground as I tottered around trying to free myself.

"Layrial!" Toshi cried out when he saw what had happened. He jumped into the group where I was being choked and tried to do anything he possibly could to lure the others away from me.

My hands clung to those that tried to suck away my life, but I was amazed at how strong this brittle creature actually was. Digging my nails into what was left of his flesh was pointless—it just tore away easily to reveal dirty bone. I couldn't take time to think of my disgust at this since the creature knew exactly what it would take to end my life.

Finally I let my legs have their way. I let my knees bend and the weight from the doom on my back made me fall so I'd land on him. I heard a faint choke that sounded like a puff of air escaping a hole and something cracked beneath me. The bind on my neck loosened and I quickly and quite literally ripped off the moldy fingers that nearly killed me.

The moment I started to get up to try and aid Toshi I found myself being brought back down. Another monster had jumped on me and the force of the attack made me fly forward. I attempted to break my fall with my arm, but instead I felt my arm break. Instantly a pain shot up to my right shoulder, my hand folding into a fist and my body leaning over the limb to protect it. I rolled over, the corpse holding my leg and looking at me with rotting teeth and shallow eye sockets. I moaned out in pain and in annoyance as I tried to free myself and get away. Another zombie had come at me and started to fall to its knees—I'm assuming to try to choke me since its arms were outstretched.

I heard Toshi yelling something behind me, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. With one last effort to keep myself from failing, I glanced up and saw that I had landed next to my trash lid. I reached up with my good arm and grabbed it, quickly swinging it back and banging my attackers on the head. They lurched away and I was able to get to my feet.

"Toshi?" I called out looking for him as more zombies huddled around, but I could find him. "Toshi!"

I saw a leg wriggling from a bunch of bare feet and made the assumption he was under the mess of dead people. I swung my trash lid again and again, the banging sound apparently frightening the zombies to back away long enough for Toshi to roll away.

"C'mon!" I called to him, but he clutched his leg with one hand and shook his head.

"I can't," he said. "My knee is broken…they broke my knee!"

My heart thumbed roughly against my ribs and my mouth became very dry. I didn't know what to do. These creatures had nabbed the upper hand and there was nothing either Toshi or I could do to stop it. I couldn't pull him away with one arm. There was just no way.

The monsters started slowly advancing in their limping strut now that the banging noise had ceased. I looked to the sky in dire hope that Cell was there. Even if he were there laughing, I would've been more than grateful. I would've done anything for him if he could just save us.

"Cell!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Tears streamed down my face, but I tried to grab Toshi's hand to pull him away. He tried to help, but he was in so much pain he kept stopping.

They attacked us again. I had no other choice but to get out of there when they all tackled my dear friend. They saw he was the weaker of the two and went after him first—an easy kill perhaps since he was rendered defenseless. I looked back to see them all clustered around one spot and I knew what was happening, though I tried not to think about it. I hobbled away as fast as I could, knowing that a few of the zombies were chasing me in their highest form of speed, which I'd say was a very slow jog.

I spun around a corner, stumbled, and then hurried to an ally where I was finally alone and safe. I didn't hear the guttural moans from those horrid creatures any longer and I knew I could now fall to the ground and catch my breath, even for a few moments.