Chapter 5: Wings of an Angel

Mike walked in front, rifle at the ready. He refused to let the other two walk in front, not after what happened to Danny. They walked in silence, not from any real emotional reason, but because no one had anything really to say. Silence, like Death itself followed them close behind, his great scythe poised to swing and pluck another living soul from a nightmare turned real.

"The marina isn't that far now, just a few more blocks." Kyle broke the silence.

"You said that a few blocks ago." Anna responded. Mike all of a sudden stopped and turned to face the two, his piercing gaze making them completely shut their mouths. He looked at Anna, then Kyle, then Anna again. Finally, he faced forward, and continued to walk. It was obvious he didn't want any talking. And so they gave him the respect of not making a sound.

Anna could see something was going on with Mike, this wasn't his usual self, she would expect him to remain calm, cool and calculating through hell like this. But he was different. He seemed to be turning bitter towards things, not talking much. He almost didn't even care about Kyle. His stance seemed more relaxed then normal, as if he didn't care. But his eyes told otherwise. His normally beautiful, innocent blue eyes were cold as ice. Watching this new world not with horror, but more of an adventure. He was changing, and it might not be for the better.

"There it is." Kyle said aloud to the party as he pointed out the marina entrance. The 3 living souls approached the marina making was little noise. But Kyle held up his fist, like when a biker is signaling a right turn.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked. Kyle just peeked around the corner a little and shot back into his original position. He faced the other two and held up five fingers, then moved his middle and index fingers in a walking motion before pointing with his hand vertically inside the marina.

"What?" was all Kyle could say.

"5 fucking zombies in the marina dumb ass." Mike said, quite annoyed at Kyle. Kyle just looked back with narrowed eyes, as in he didn't take kindly to the remark, but was powerless to do anything about it. He quickly moved in a killed the first one with his knife by stabbing it through the ear into the brain. He was upon the second when the third one noticed him and lunged at him. Mike was too fast, killing the second one and flipping the third over his back and driving his knife into a weak spot in the creature's skull. He then spun around and grabbed the next ghoul's jaw, and snapped it in one direction, breaking the neck and ending the undead's existence. The last he kicked in the gut, spun around with a roundhouse kick that landed on the side of the zombies head, causing it to lose balance and fall, he then shoved his knife into the back of the creature's head, where the spine meets the skull, bringing a merciful rest to a tortured soul.

All of this occurred in under 30 seconds.

Anna and Kyle just stared at Mike's killing prowess. He truly was a master at his art. For a while he just stood there, the wind blowing around him. He crouched down and cleaned his blade on a clean part of the zombie's clothes, then sheathed his blade. Standing tall he looked out to the docks, and saw a few boats still there and made his way towards them, signaling the other with a more universal hand gesture of "follow".

At the boat, Kyle started untying the ropes while Anna looked for keys to the boat. Mike stood watch with his M4 at the ready. He just watched the marina entrance, unflinching, even with the cool wind off the river kissing the skin on his face.

"The keys aren't here." Anna said, slightly panicky.

"They're probably inside the building. Kyle, go with Anna to find those keys. I'll continue to stand watch." Mike said. He said it with a commanding authority, all though the tone really didn't seem like it. Kyle made no protest and went with Anna inside the building. Mike watched them go inside, he heard two shotgun blasts while they where in there.

Then the smell hit him. A flashback from Iraq came to him, when he came upon a burning body after a suicide bomber blew up in a market. He looked ahead and fired off a round, catching the ghoul in the forehead, dropping him on the spot. Anna and Kyle must have heard the shot cause they ran out of the building. Mike noticed something glinting in Anna's hand, he figured it was the keys.

"Get to the boat! I'll hold them off!" Mike yelled as he took up a firing position behind a car. Anna and Kyle ran to the boat. They reached it when Mike turned and started running after them, only to notice that somehow, zombies have broken through a chain link fence and blocked his escape. He looked at Anna, who had her hands over her mouth and was crying. Kyle was holding onto the ropes, on the dock, waiting for Mike.

"Go, leave me! I'll find another way!" Mike screamed as he fired into the hordes of zombies pouring into the marina. Kyle wasn't moving. Mike yelled out at them again. "Go god damn it!"

With this, Kyle finally threw the ropes into the boat and pushed off. Anna continued to cry as Kyle drove off. Mike watched them go for a few seconds before turning his attention to the things surrounding him. Before he died, he would kill as many of them as he could, he could die peacefully now, knowing that he saved her.

"Get some mother fuckers." Kyle called to the overwhelming hordes.

Tears streamed down Anna's face, as her small form jerked from crying as she watched her old friend disappear into a mass of rotting flesh. Kyle looked ahead, across the river to the buildings on the other side. He dared one look back at where Mike had stood where weaker men have broken. He was a good soldier, and a good friend.

Kyle dropped the anchor in the middle of the water. He was tired, and Anna was already asleep, with the tears drying on her face. He thought it would be the safest place to sleep. He thought to himself now, he was no leader, and Anna was now emotionally distraught, what would become of them now. He started to feel hopeless, like an ant staring at a kid with a magnifying glass. Like all he could do was run from the inevitable.

It took Kyle an hour to fall asleep. Anna woke up to a full moon, she looked at it and remembered something that her and Mike shared when they were still in high school. That if they looked at the moon, the other was looking at that same one. It helped them feel closer when they were apart. She started long and hard, and she thought she saw his face staring back at her. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she smiled. She felt hope, that Mike had somehow survived, and they would meet again.

She imagined that one time when they left the building that once belonged to that crazy woman. When she thought she saw Mike, with the wings of an angel. He truly was her guardian angel through this. But he wouldn't be close enough to protect her, she had to do it herself, until they met again.

She walked through the alleyways that she scoured as a child. Carrying her authentic short sword at the ready, she scanned the area around her with her one good eye, the other scarred shut from an accident in her past, but not the same that twisted her right leg, which was shorter then the left. In spite of this, she still moved easily.

She swung around a corner and saw a zombie. Instead of charging and stabbing the damned thing, she pulled out a knife from her boot and threw it, impaling the ghoul right in the eye, causing it to drop down, and not get back up. She looked at it, no one she knew. She didn't think she would ever see another familiar face, she was pretty sure she killed them all, and mutilated their faces so she would never have to look at them again and bring back old memories.

She walked over and recovered her knife before walking out into the street. She would pass through the park and go through the hole in the chain link fence that's been there for years. As she walked through the park, her right leg seemed to tingle, as if it remembered that accident so many years ago, the one that twisted her leg. As she continued to walk, the sound of the living dead became louder and louder. And that's when she saw the horde lingering through the front of the marina and around the hole in the fence. There were so many of them, she would probably have to wait a few hours, or days. Whatever it took, she had to get to her boot and escape. She looked over to where it had been docked, and was overcome but frustration, fear, and surprise. It was gone. Someone else had come and taken her families boat.

She turned around to go back to her home when she heard shots ring out. They must have been from that soldier she encountered yesterday. She had some questions for him, and maybe her blade did too. Like where her boat went, and why he raided her home.