AN1: Holy crap this is the longest chapter yet coming in at 10k words. Like I said previously this chapter is very different than the ones before. In this chapter the story earns its M rating because of violence, mostly against zombies. Hope you enjoy it.
AN2: This was another fast update in less than a week. I'm on a roll. Don't expect chapters to always be updated this fast but for the time being I almost can't wait to put what's coming next on paper.
AN3: I'm thinking about from time to time recommending stories I find especially amazing in my author's notes. Please let me know if you feel one way or the other about that.
Enjoy!
00
"Edward, we can't fight here with all these people around. We need to get out of here," said Bella in a rushed voice.
He spared her a confused look before turning his attention back on the approaching zombies. "Bella if things get ugly don't worry about doing anything. You'll just get yourself hurt. I'll protect you no matter what, I swear."
Crap, of course he thinks I'm going to be a helpless human in this situation she realized. Her instincts were telling her to run. When facing an opponent of unknown strength you could try and fight but the smart thing to do was to get the hell out of dodge. However Edward was the X-factor in the situation. She had no idea how he would react in a crisis so she hesitated as indecision tore at her about what to do.
Bella felt a prickle of magic in the back of her neck and turned around, only to see two more figures in ill-fitting hoodies appear from around a corner and start moving her way. The crowd was still largely oblivious but the group of strange men in similar clothing was starting to draw some looks. With four of the creatures, Zombies, in front and two behind they were allowing themselves to get boxed it. A family walked right past her and she noticed with some dismay they had three small children with them.
That decided it for her. Allowing yourself to get surrounded was about the worst thing you could do in a fight and she couldn't risk any of these people there getting hurt. They needed to move. Now.
"Edward, we need to leave," she said, looking around for a possible way out.
"Don't you get near her!" she heard Edward hiss angrily. Looking back at Edward she saw one of the zombies had gotten within arm's reach of him much faster than she had expected. With a growl Edward pushed the thing on the chest like you would a schoolyard bully. The zombie went flying backwards, clipping an older man on the shoulder and skidding along the ground ten feet before coming to a stop. The zombie immediately moved to stand up as if it hadn't been inconvenienced in the least. Now every human around had stopped and was staring at them.
Shit thought Bella. Having Edward around was making her hesitate and hesitation could get you killed. She needed to act.
"We need to get out of here," she hissed at him under her breath before she turned and ran hoping that he would take the hint and follow.
She ran into the nearest store which happened to be Abercrombie & Fitch. Ignoring the surprised looks she got from everyone inside she made a beeline for the back of the store. Risking a look behind her she saw Edward was close with an angry and bewildered look on his face. The gaggle of zombies had also walked into the store after them. At least the zombies weren't running after them yet. Probably whoever controlled them wanted them to blend in but six pale as death men in hoddies walking into a store was going to draw attention no matter what.
Pushing her way past a surprised sale clerk Bella found what she was hoping for; many times stores at malls had doors in the back that led to service and staff corridors that were not open to the public. Bella opened the heavy metal door and entered an unremarkable brown colored hallway. Not knowing where to go she randomly picked right and headed that way hoping to find an exit out of the mall.
She hadn't gotten more than thirty feet down the hall when a vice like hand grabbed her shoulder and stopped her cold. Bella whirled around expecting a zombie but it was only Edward who had brought them to a halt.
"Edward, what are you-"
"Get in there, quick!" he said pointing at an unmarked steel door in the hallway. It didn't have any exit signs or anything suggesting it was an exit so Bella gave him a questioning look.
He apparently didn't feel the need to answer her unspoken question. Edward grabbed her arm surprising the teenage girl and dragged her over to the door. She was too startled to protest as Edward opened the unmarked door and shoved her inside, closing it firmly behind her.
Bella looked around and it took her a moment to register what had just happened. She was in a janitor's closet. They were being chased by what were most likely murderous zombies and Edward has just thrown her in the janitor's closet.
Bella turned to the door and tried to open it. However the handle and locking mechanism felt like they were grinding together. The witch could deduce what that meant. The door had no lock so Edward had crushed the door knob on the other side so she couldn't open the door.
"Edward!" she yelled through the door, angry and scared "What the hell?! Let me out of here! What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm sorry but you need to trust me that it's better this way," he called back through the door, "this way I know nothing will be able to sneak up and grab you from behind. If those things are really after you they'll have to get through me first before they can come after you. I swear to you I won't let that happen."
Bella was shocked into speechlessness for a few moments before she exploded. "What the fuck?! That's your brilliant plan? There's no way out of this closet! We're trapped. What kind of idiot let's themselves get trapped into a corner as plan A? This plan is beyond bad Edward. Let me out!" she screamed, pounding her fist on the metal door.
"I'm a vampire Bella. I'm practically invincible. There's nothing to worry about. I know you're scared but I promise I'll keep you safe," he called back through the door.
"You're an idiot Edward Cullen. Open this door right this instant!" she yelled through the door, furious and beyond stunned at the sudden inexplicable turn of events. There was no reply from the other side of the door. Bella banged her fists against the metal frame and yelled angrily in frustration.
You're better off alone than with somebody you can't trust to watch your back or with someone who's going to panic and do something stupid in a crisis. Good chance they'll end up being an even bigger danger to you than the guy you're fighting. She remembered that lesson from Victoria years ago when the redhead had first been teaching her how to survive. It had never been something that had applied to her before until now.
The Volturi knew she had a vampire protector. Whoever they sent after her would have to be confident they could deal with one. While vampires were practically unkillable without fire they weren't invincible. Even their strength and speed had limits and there were bigger and scarier things than vampires out there in the world.
Bella found herself wishing it was Victoria out there on the other side of that door instead of Edward. Someone who never in a million years would think it was a good idea to lock her in a storage closet when an unknown number of enemies who could apparently track her were looking for her. Since she was in danger it was probably only a matter of time until Victoria showed up.
Then she remembered she had ordered the redhead to stay five miles away while she was out on her date. Bella closed her eyes and if there had been something heavy at hand she might have been tempted to hit herself over the head with it.
How could she have been so stupid? Victoria had warned her that something would happen but Bella hadn't listened. Now she was trapped in closet with zombies and who knew what else after her and she had even prevented Victoria from coming to her aid. If she got out of this alive she was going to deserve every single disparaging and cutting remark the redhead was sure to send her way.
Earth and sand I wish you were here Tori. By God I wish you were here.
She needed to get out of that janitor's closet and she needed to do it fast. Bella looked at one of the rings on her fingers, the one done like the stylized face of a lion. She could probably activate the enchantment for only a few seconds and not drain the ring completely. Something told her she might be needing it again later.
Bella heard what sounded like a challenging hiss from the other side of the door and knew it had to be Edward. As she listened sounds of fighting started. She could hear sounds of flesh hitting flesh at more than human strength and the vampire's hisses of anger and rage. Something heavy hit the metal door hard enough to dent it, startling Bella and making her jump back a step.
Edward might win but for all I know there are enough zombies to overwhelm him. I need to get the hell out of here. If the door hits you, sorry Edward, but you kind of had it coming.
With a thought Bella activated the enchantment in the ring.
00
Edward heard Bella pounding at the door, yelling at him and demanding to be let out. But he couldn't do that. Didn't she understand? Whatever these things were, they were dangerous. Worse they seemed to be after her. Edward didn't know how or why but none of that mattered right then. Bella was both his mate and an incredibly fragile human. He needed to keep her safe. He would keep her safe.
He'd put her in the closet because he didn't think he could fight and protect her at the same time. Whatever those things were weren't human and he wasn't willing to take any risks. With Bella behind that door there was only one way for them to get to her. He would stand in front of the door and defend it against any creatures that came. Then, when they were all dead, he would take her home and she would be incredibly grateful for rescuing her like a gallant knight from the stories. It would just make wooing her to be his all the easier.
Of course he would come out on top of whatever scuffle was coming. He was a vampire after all, at the very top of the food chain. They were essentially invincible. Edward didn't know why what seemed like walking corpses seemed to be after Bella but they would be no match for him. His only concern was that the aftermath hopefully wouldn't create too many problems with the human authorities.
Edward turned to watch as the shambling corpses entered the deserted hallway. It was the same six from before heading towards where Edward stood with long awkward strides. He drew himself up to his full height before addressing the group.
"I don't know what you are or if you can understand me but I'm going to give you one chance to walk away. If you insist on going after the girl it's not going to end well for you," he warned them, using every bit of his natural vampire intimidation.
Perhaps predictably the walking corpses did not seem impressed.
When they got close enough the first of the hooded figures rushed Edward. It wasn't much faster than a regular human and Edward was easily able to sidestep its lunge and punch it in the face. He heard a satisfying snap as the thing's spine and every bone on its face was completely smashed by his fist. The thing flew backwards into it's companions and fell to the floor.
Edward didn't have time to look further as three of the others fell on him at once. He threw one easily over his shoulder and punched another one in the chest completely caving in it's ribs and sternum. However the third one managed to get close enough to throw it's arms around Edward in a sick parody of a hug while at the same time trying to bury it's rotten teeth in his neck. Edward almost gagged at the foul stench emanating from the thing's mouth as he held the thing's head away from him and tried to pry it off. To Edward's shock he wasn't able to immediately pry the disgusting deceased body off him. It clung to him with a strength that was far, far beyond that of a regular human being.
It was a struggle to get the thing off him. While it wasn't as strong as a vampire it was strong enough that fighting six at a time suddenly didn't seem like such a walk in the park. With a hiss of anger and effort Edward forcefully removed the thing from himself ripping off one of it's deceased arms in the process.
His enhanced senses suddenly told him that there were more figures in the hall behind him. Turning quickly he spotted the one creature he had thrown over his shoulder had been joined by four more. Looking back towards the front both the creature he had punched in the chest of and the one whose neck he had broken were on their feet, neither looking particularly bothered by their injuries as they once again started moving towards him. Edward suddenly found himself trapped with five of the disgusting creatures in front of him and five behind.
Despite the sudden spike of doubt he felt Edward reminded himself that he was a vampire, that he was much faster than these things who moved at regular human speeds and if smashing their bones wasn't enough he'd start tearing limbs off until they stopped moving. With his eyes black and his teeth bared Edward roared a challenge. He was going to protect Bella from these disgusting things or he would die trying.
At some unseen signal all ten creatures around him made low, guttural inhuman sounds and charged him intent on tearing him limb from limb. He watched their decaying faces and decided that for this occasion he might need to let his vampire nature loose.
Edward grabbed the first one that reached him and threw it as hard as he could into the metal door, pulping it's head and leaving a sizable dent. Next two reached him at almost the same time and he grabbed one and used it as an improvised club to batter the other one away knocking a few more of the creatures over. A fourth one tried to tackle him and he grabbed it, wrapping his arms around its head intent on ripping it right off its body.
Unfortunately adjusting his grip took a moment too long. One of the corpses tackled him from behind bringing Edward crashing onto the floor. He rolled and kicked the thing off him with all his strength sending it flying thirty feet down the hallway like a missile. Edward felt a momentary thrill of satisfaction at how he could throw these abominations around like ragged dolls.
He sprung to his feet as quickly as he could but now the creatures were crowding him and they had the initiative. Edward lashed out wildly, flinging the foul smelling corpses off him but it seemed that every time he flung one away from him two more would try to latch on to his arms and legs and bring him to the ground. The vampire very quickly became aware that he wasn't making any headway and no matter how hard he hit them the things didn't seem to stop or even slow down at all. Only the one whose head he had smashed against the door had remained unmoving.
On open ground Edward might have been able to make short work of them but in a cramped, narrow hallway and being attacked from both directions the vampire quickly realized he was at a terrible disadvantage. His superior speed did him almost no good in these conditions. As they continued to try to pile on him Edward found himself slowly being less and less able to keep them off him, their aggression too intense to properly destroy their heads as the creatures continued their relentless assault. Edward began to feel panic as he realize all it would take was one mistake and the inhumanly strong creatures would be able to swarm him.
Almost immediately after having that thought it happened; one of his strikes was just a bit off target and didn't send the attacking monstrosity away from him like he had intended. It pounced on him and latched on to his arm. Before he could wrench his arm away from it another creature tackled him and another dove at his legs. He went down to the ground hard and the disgusting creatures were suddenly swarming all over him.
As he struggled under the pile of fetid corpses Edward realized with increasing fright they were literally trying to rip his limbs off, the creatures grabbing hold of whatever arm or leg they could and starting to pull. While he was much stronger than them individually collectively they might just be able to do it. Being dismembered wouldn't kill him but he didn't relish the prospect of letting these inhuman hell spawn do that to him. With that thought Edward furiously increased his efforts, pushing his vampiric strength as far as it would go.
It wasn't enough. Even though he could pulverize brick walls with his fists for the first time since being turned Edward was finding that his inhuman strength just wasn't enough. He began to panic as the mindless creatures seemed to almost on accident discover that two of them at a time could hold down one of his arms. He found himself pinned under a mass of bodies and as much as he bucked and struggled he could not get the superhumanly strong creatures off him. The ones that could started biting anything they could on him, tearing at his flesh with their blunt rotted teeth. Though it wouldn't cause any serious damage it was a singularly unpleasant experience to have those disgusting things tearing at him with their teeth. He cursed himself, wondering how he had let himself get in this position when they were barely faster than a human and he was the fastest vampire in his whole family.
It was when he felt cold diseased arms wrap around his head from behind that fear truly set in. Though it wouldn't kill him he still didn't want to be decapitated and rendered helpless by these creatures. Edward tried desperately to think of a plan, any plan, as the creature behind him began trying to pull and twist his head right off his body. The Cullen screamed as he felt joints in his diamond hard cervical spine begin to strain and give way.
That's when the door to the janitor's close flew off its hinges as if a freight train had hit it from the inside.
The heavy metal door smashed into half the creatures laying on top of Edward knocking most of them clean off. Edward didn't miss the opportunity to free his arms and wrench himself free of the creature trying to rip off his head. He tried to stand up but only made it to his knees before his dead assailants grabbed him and began trying to drag him back down to the floor again.
As he fought he caught sight of Bella examining the scene before her with wide eyes from the doorway. She turned and locked eyes with him, her face frightened but determined. Then she said the most peculiar thing.
"Don't worry, if I leave I think they'll follow me."
Then she turned and ran down the empty hallway. Edward momentarily stopped struggling, shocked by her unexpected and rash actions.
"Wait, don't go Bella! You need to stay close so I can protect you!" he yelled desperately after her.
He didn't have time to say anything else after that because while he had stopped for a moment his assailants had not. Edward screamed in frustration as his mate ran away and once again the foul corpse-like creatures fell on him determined to rip him apart limb from limb.
00
Bella ran. When things were trying to kill you there always seemed to be a lot of running involved.
She hated leaving Edward there but against that many zombies there really wasn't anything she could have done to help him. Bella consoled herself by remembering that Edward wasn't in any real danger. Even if a vampire was ripped to pieces they would still recover, fire being about the only thing that could give a vampire a true death. While she wasn't an expert on zombies she was pretty sure they weren't smart enough to set someone on fire.
Besides they would probably start to follow her once she got far enough away. Though she did want to help Edward the thought wasn't exactly a reassuring one.
Bella ran down the hallway and to her relief came upon a sign marked EXIT before very long. She pushed the door open and found herself in a poorly lit underground garage. The girl slowed for a moment to take stock of her surroundings.
It appeared to be free of people though there were a fair number of cards parked. She frowned at the cars in frustration. The best thing to do would be to get far away from where she was and to do that she would need transportation. Here they were, all these cars and she had no way to take one. Bella had no idea how to hotwire one and she didn't think she'd have the time even if she did. It was a good bet more zombies were already headed in her direction.
The most aggravating thing is when my own kind, witches and wizard try to kill me on behalf of vampires she thought bitterly as she scoured her mind for a plan of action. Bella began to move again eager to get out of the creepy car park. Staying in place was not a good idea.
She needed to find transportation but Bella also realized she needed to find a safe moment where she could use her phone. Bella needed to call Victoria so she could lift the order about her staying away. No doubt the vampire already knew something was going wrong and was driving herself crazy not being able to do anything about it. Getting in touch with Tori was her priority but she didn't feel safe enough to stop and make the call in that eerily silent car garage.
As she jogged up the ramp towards the waiting street level she spotted them; two figures wearing what she now thought of as the standard zombie uniform, ill-fitting clothes with a hoodie covering up their faces. The two of them were still a ways off when they spotted her. It seemed that this time the zombies were allowed off their leash since they weren't surrounded by other people. Both figures began to sprint at her full tilt, only running at human speeds but still eating up ground at an alarming rate.
Bella lowered her stance and shook loose the bracelet of charms on her right wrist. She poured her magic into the bracelet powering the spells inscribed in the charms like rushing water powering a hydroelectric plant. The witch held her fist out in front of her and extended her will through the charms.
A shimmering half-dome of translucent green light sprang to life in front of her. Bella watched as the zombies did not even slightly alter their course and continued to run right at her. The teen couldn't help but feel giddy as well as terrified as the two figures ran straight into her shield.
The shield did its job of absorbing kinetic energy, amplifying it by a factor of twenty, and sending it back along the same vector it came from. The two zombies crashed into her shield and were bounced off at high speed like they had been shot out of a canon. One of them flew through the air and crashed into the front of a parked SUV hard enough to crush the metal bumper of the vehicle. The other hit a concrete pillar, making a sickening crunching noise as he collided with it and bounced off into the darkness.
Bella dropped her 'bouncing shield' and found herself breathing a little hard, both from the excitement and from drain using magic placed on her reserves. She wanted to run but she watched the figures carefully to see if being tossed around at high speeds had been enough to take them out for good.
It wasn't a surprise when the two zombies began to pick themselves up from where they had landed but it was still a terrifying sight and a bitter pill to swallow. Bella knew the fastest way to stop one of those creatures for good was either to decapitate them or to completely destroy the brain. She knew being tossed around like that would have been more than enough to severely harm a regular human brain but apparently zombie brains needed to be more thoroughly destroyed and not just bounced around in their skulls.
At least the zombies seemed to be getting up and moving more slowly than before. Even if it didn't kill them or stop them smashed spines and pelvises would probably still hobble them when they tried to run after her. Hoping those two had been slowed to B-horror movie shuffling walk levels Bella took off running up the ramp that led to out to the street.
00
Bella came out of the parking garage into the crisp night air and saw she had emerged on the back side of the mall. None of the large entrances to the mall were nearby so there weren't a lot of people around. However there were a few stragglers here and there going to and from their vehicles. Bella could hear sirens in the distance. Apparently somebody had called the police.
The teenage girl decided she needed to get away from the mall; somehow someone had tracked her there. Since she was confident long range spells couldn't track her it must have been something set up locally. How someone knew to set up a trap for her in Port Angeles she had no idea but that was something to worry about later. If she could get far enough from the general area whoever was after her shouldn't be able to follow her with magic anymore.
She lifted the collar of her enchanted leather jacket and tried to look unconcerned as she took off walking. On the inside however she was deathly afraid and wound tighter than piano wire. Looking around she didn't immediately spot any suspicious figures wearing hoodies looking out of place. Feeling it might be safe for the moment Bella reached into her pocket to pull out her phone.
Bella heard a faint moaning sound behind her in the mostly quiet night and she whipped around. Out of the underground parking garage the two zombies she had tossed around earlier were walking out not looking nearly as impeded as she had hoped they would be. They quickly zeroed in on her and began running after her just as fast as before.
Son of a- she thought before she took off running. If smashing them against hard things at high speeds didn't work the first time she needed to try something else and hope it worked. Bella risked a look back and while she couldn't be sure she thought the two sprinting zombies were steadily catching up to her.
As she burst through the hedges surrounding the mall she landed heavily on a sidewalk. On the street corner she spotted two more figures in hoodies standing around like sentries. They both turned to look at her, faces concealed like all the others in the dim light. With only a scant second of hesitation the two new zombies began to run after her at a dead sprint.
How many of these things are there? She thought trying to keep from panicking. Bella ran across the deserted street as the two pairs of zombies began closing in on her from different directions.
I need somewhere where I can bottleneck them. Bella had one more trick to try but she had to make sure they didn't surround her and came at her from different directions. She had been sprinting for more than a city block and she could feel herself tiring and slowing down even with all the adrenaline running in her system. She knew her pursuers had to be a lot closer now. Bella desperately wanted to look back and see how close they were but she dared not. Turning around while in a dead run would only slow her down.
The buildings around her were a sharp contrast from the clean and modern mall she had just left behind. They were mostly abandoned and for some reason there wasn't a soul in sight which for Bella was both a blessing and a curse. Running through the urban decay of Port Angeles it didn't take long for Bella to spot what she had been hoping to find; a narrow alley between two old buildings.
Bella turned down the mouth of the alley and ran in a few yards before stopping and turning around. Gasping for breath she shook free the bracelet on her left wrist and began to furiously pool her magic into it. Just as the zombies turned the corner of the alley she erected a new barrier shield in front of her.
This shield, unlike the previous general purpose one, had been designed with one thing in mind: vampires. A translucent orange half-dome sprang up in front of Bella completely spanning the width of the narrow alley. With reckless abandon the zombies threw themselves against the barrier.
This barrier wasn't nearly as effective at dealing with direct attacks and it put a great strain on Bella's magic and mind when the four supernaturally strong zombies crashed into it running at full tilt. Nevertheless the shield did its job. The zombies that touched the orange barrier lit up like roman candles, their bodies quickly becoming engulfed in orange flames as if they had been drenched in kerosene.
The zombies screamed and it was a shrill sound, inhuman, like the wail of a banshee. It seemed they didn't like the flames but it didn't slow them down or stop them. Bella watched as a few feet away from her four flaming human bodies continued to pound on her shield over and over again with their fists. They wailed their cry and continued to attack her shield unabated ever increasing Bella's mental strain. The teenager felt her barrier begin to buckle and weaken. Bella couldn't just stand there, it would only be seconds until she was forced to drop her shield and then they would be on top of her.
Bella hissed with effort as she poured even more of her magic into the other bracelet on her right wrist. After preparing herself she erected her bouncing shield behind her fire one and let the latter one drop. When the zombies next struck at her they were blown back in dramatic fashion as the green shield multiplied their strength and sent it right back at them.
The teenager turned and ran down the alley, now truly gasping and struggling for breath. She had used a good deal of magic and all the running wasn't helping. Her lungs burned and her legs felt like rubber but Bella forced herself to keep running. She didn't think the zombies would stay down for long, flaming or no, and they were bound to attract attention.
She risked a quick look behind her and it was nearly as bad as she feared. Two of the zombies still completely on fire were chasing her again. She didn't know what had happened to the other two but she hoped the fire had taken them out for good. Bella was feeling exhausted and she didn't know what else to try against the zombies. Her situation was dire and it only looked to be getting worse.
As she spilled out of the alley and onto the road she saw the street was deserted except for one thing; there was a giant semi-truck making its way down the street towards her. A monumentally stupid idea suddenly struck Bella but she was fresh out of ideas and out of options.
She slowed down just a little, enough to allow the flaming zombies to catch up to her just a little bit more. Bella used the tiny bit of slowing down to gather her strength for one last exertion of effort. Running she angled herself to run across the street directly in front of the passing semi-truck.
The giant thing came barreling towards her but she was already much too committed and couldn't stop. Praying she wouldn't end up a pancake on the street Bella gave everything she had to put on one last burst of speed. She could literally feel the heat from the flames on the back of her neck, the zombies now barely an arm's length behind her.
The driver must have seen them as he tried to slam his breaks which probably saved Bella's life. She cleared the front of the truck with barely a foot to spare. The zombies behind her weren't so lucky. The truck slammed into them going at almost forty miles an hour. Multiply the speed by the mass of the truck and the force which struck the flaming bodies was incredible. They were thrown like ragdolls with much more force than Bella's own shield could have hoped to do. Their brains, along with pretty much everything else inside their bodies, were horribly ruptured and destroyed by the impact. The fire did the rest and made sure those two would never be getting up again.
Bella slipped into an alley and leaned heavily against a filthy wall as soon as she was concealed in the shadows. Her heart was racing and she took big gasping gulps of air after all the exertion she had just done. Nervous laughter escaped her lips, a nervous manic laughter that said she couldn't quite believe what she had just done and escaped with her life.
Her hands shook as she rubbed her face, trying and failing to get her brain working in some kind of logical order. She knew she couldn't stay where she was but she was already feeling exhausted and couldn't get her mind to come up with any plans. Bella only knew one thing; there were definitely more zombies still out there. If they found her again she most likely wouldn't survive it. Nothing in her arsenal was really the right tool to deal with these zombies.
For the second time that night Bella cursed herself for her own stupidity. She shouldn't have left her wand at home. Her worry over what Edward would think if he saw it suddenly seemed like the dumbest thing in the world for her to have been concerned over. With her wand she could probably improvise some way to deal with the zombies. Without it she was down to bouncing them or burning them neither of which seemed to doing her a great deal of good.
Bella took a peek out onto the street. The truck driver had gotten out of his truck and was standing next to the remains of the zombies, talking on the phone and gesticulating wildly. He was hopefully calling the police which might make whoever was controlling these zombies decide to back off. It was a long shot but she wasn't going to discount it. Bella took a look up and down the street and her heart froze at what she saw.
In both directions of the street were figures walking around as if looking for something, all of them wearing those hoodies she was now starting to hate. Bella quickly ducked back into the alley as her panicked fear returned full force. She had barely survived four zombies chasing her and now she had maybe ten altogether combing the street for her. If she'd had any doubt before now she was sure they could somehow sense her. All of them seemed to be moving more or less in her direction.
Bella shut her eyes and forced her mind to concentrate. Think Bella, think! What do you know about zombies? There has to be something, anything you can use.
Victoria had always told her it wasn't the strongest who won the fight, it was the smartest and most prepared. She wasn't very well prepared so Bella knew she was going to have to use her brains to get out of this one. The witch knew she couldn't hide from the zombies and there was no way in hell she could outrun them for long. She was already feeling exhausted and she was sure that zombies never tired. What did that leave her?
The only thing she had going for her were that zombies were dumb. Really dumb, as in they could make a golden retriever look like Thomas Edison and Isaac Newton rolled into one. From what she knew you could only give them general directions but they were incapable of following orders much more complex than 'kill this', 'don't kill this', 'destroy that', 'don't destroy that'. Beyond that they had to use their own pathetic intelligence to complete their tasks. It was supposedly one of the major weaknesses of this type of magic. There had to be some way she could exploit that. But how?
Bella looked around her and noticed that the old abandoned building she was standing against was at least five stories high and had a rusted service ladder in the alley that went all the way up to the roof. A plan started to form in her head. Bella let a hesitant smile crawl its way onto her lips.
If this idea didn't work she would most likely be dead. But if it did work… hot damn. This would be one for the books.
00
"Hey you zombiefied sons of bitches! Come get me, I'm over here! Dinner's served!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
The truck driver had apparently never called the police but had instead just driven off after running over two flaming people. It made him a horrible bastard but in this case it worked for Bella. She wouldn't try something this risky if there were innocent people around.
"I bet I taste like chicken! Don't you want a taste? MMMhhmmm better than KFC!" she yelled out onto the street. She was standing by the front door of the building she had been leaning against ten minutes ago.
"Come on you hooded freaks! This witch is gonna take all you homies to school!"
She was just yelling to get the attention of every zombie she could though in truth it wouldn't have really mattered what she yelled. The ridiculous things she was yelling at the top of her lungs just helped to prop up her courage. It didn't take long for every zombie looking for her up and down the street to turn in her direction. As if some unseen signal set them off they all simultaneously began to run straight towards her, growling and making noises that were remarkably similar to those of their movie and television counterparts.
Bella counted over a dozen before turning, opening the door to the abandoned building and dashing inside. The mass of zombies closed in behind her and something must have been different because now they were literally howling for blood. Bella ignored them as best she could as she sprinted for the stairs with the pack of cannibalistic corpses closing in on her heels.
The witch raced up the stairs at a frantic pace, adrenaline fueling her desperate flight as she ran towards the roof. It was only five stories but she was already exhausted and it was a monumental effort to sprint all the way to the top even with the gang of zombies hot on her heels tripping over each other to get to her first. It was only due to them getting in each other's way that they didn't overtake Bella well before she managed to make it to the roof.
Bella ran through the door of the roof which she had propped open ahead of time so it wouldn't slow her down. The zombie horde spilled out onto the rooftop at almost the same time spreading out and attempting to run her down. The teenager made a beeline straight for the other end of the roof where her destination and salvation lay.
Unfortunately for her the zombies were catching up.
Bella threw herself onto the service ladder on the side of the building so hard she almost faltered and fell to her death. She climbed down as fast as she could and in one of the most terrifying moments of her life felt the fingers of a zombie brush against her scalp. Nevertheless it didn't manage to grab her. Bella climbed down the ladder at a pace that was entirely too fast to be safe, almost slipping and falling more than once on the way down.
When Bella reached the bottom she was shaking from the adrenaline. She looked up just to make sure and she had been right; zombies were much too stupid to know how to use a ladder. Now it was time to see if her gamble about how stupid they really were was going to pay off.
"Hey!" she yelled out the zombies she could barely make out at the edge of the roof five stories above her, "What are you waiting for? Here I am. Come get me!"
For a long moment Bella thought her plan wasn't going to work. But then an intrepid zombie clearly intent on getting to his prey took the shortest route between him and his dinner; he jumped straight off the roof to get at Bella. After the first one did so the other dozen or so zombies on the roof moved to follow.
Bella ran out of the alley to avoid the rain of falling zombies but stayed to watch. They didn't even bother to try to land feet first, most of them landing on their backs or stomachs breaking open their skulls when their heads hit the ground. Bella watched as over a dozen zombies committed suicide by jumping off a roof.
Watching the gore in the alley Bella began to giggle, a nervous release of pent up tension. Her plan had worked. The zombies had been much too dumb to use the ladder or to realize they could go back down the stairs to get at her. They simply saw her and followed the most direct route. Resilient and strong they may be but they had intelligence and survival instincts of a moth drawn to a flame. Bella leaned against a wall and giggled as relief flooded her body.
Bella began to walk away from gore filled alley in the general direction away from where the mall was. It was possible there were still a few zombies here and there but she was sure her yelling had drawn all the ones in the immediate area to follow her to the rooftop. This was her chance to get as far away as she could.
Feeling relatively safe for the first time since all the zombie insanity started Bella pulled out her phone. She still needed Victoria to come pick her up and get her out of this stupid mess she had gotten herself into. Dreading how the conversation might go Bella began dialing Victoria's number.
That's when something hit her from behind like a Mac truck, hard enough to kill her several times over.
Bella was knocked across the pavement, bouncing several times off the sidewalk and clipping her head on the curb before coming to a stop. The young witch lay on her back, stunned, momentarily unable to move. The spells on her enchanted coat had protected her from the worst of it but it still felt as if someone had hit her with a sledge hammer right on her spine. Her head swam and her limbs refused to move for several long terrifying moments.
The teenager's vision cleared just in time to see a gangly zombie in a red hood appear in her line of sight. It wasn't much of a mystery at that point what had hit her from behind.
The zombie threw itself on top of her landing heavily and knocking the wind out of her. Driven by fear Bella managed to get her arms up to cover her face and neck. The foul creature hissed at her face and tried to use its superhumanly strong hands to claw and rip away at her. Again it was Bella's coat that protected her, if not the thing on top of her would have killed her instantly. Still it wouldn't take the thing on top of her very long to figure out a way to kill her even if completely by accident.
Bella activated the very last resource she had; the lion headed ring on her left hand. The witch felt the familiar magic flood her body momentarily making her as strong and resilient as a vampire. Even fully charged it only lasted for a handful of seconds and she had already drained more than half of it escaping the closet Edward had locked her into. But it would have to be enough.
As strong as zombies were they didn't know how to fight; they just mindlessly attacked with all the grace and skill of an elementary school catfight. Bella only had a little training in self-defense but it was enough. She turned the zombie's arms to the side until it was overbalanced and knocked it off her by bucking her hips as hard as she could.
The zombie fell off to the side and Bella quickly scrambled to her feet. She prepared to run only to hesitate when she saw two more zombies further up the street ahead of her. That hesitation cost her. The zombie she had just knocked off her tried to grab at her feet and while it missed it was enough to trip her and send her crashing to the floor.
Bella tried to get back on her feet but suddenly the zombie was on her again, straddling her waist and furiously clawing at her arms. She felt an indescribable surge of panic when she realized the few seconds of strength of her lion ring gave her had already worn off. A supernaturally strong creature was sitting on top of her and she had nothing to fight it off with.
It tried to bite her neck and Bella was able to get her arm in the way. The zombie bit into her arm and Bella screamed. Even though it didn't rip a chunk of meat off her arm because of her coat it still hurt like hell. Bella struggled to come up with something, anything to get the zombie on top of her off when she caught a glimpse down the street behind the zombie. The witch made out five more hooded figures in the distance closing in on them fast.
Oh my God, thought Bella in panicked realization I really am going to die here.
The zombie straddling her gnawed at Bella's arm like a dog with a bone while it used its hands to hold and squeeze her shoulders with bone crushing force. The pain was immense and Bella screamed yet again unable to hold it in. She yelled in frustration as she once again tried to push the creature on top of her off but she couldn't even make it budge an inch.
Though she couldn't see them she knew the other zombies had to be almost on top of them now. Her coat wouldn't save her against something like that. Tears began to stream down Bella's face as she realized what was about to happen to her.
I'm sorry Tori. I should have listened to you. I should have taken the collar off years ago. I'm so, so sorry.
Bella resolved that her last thoughts wouldn't be about zombies ripping her apart. They would be about her parents, and about Victoria. Maybe she would get to see them on the other side.
Out of the corner of her eye Bella caught sight of movement on the rooftop across the street. When the faint moonlight caught the outline of the figure on the rooftop she couldn't believe what she was seeing. The girl thought she must be hallucinating since it should have been impossible for that person to be there.
Victoria jumped off the rooftop towards Bella like a hawk diving for prey. She crashed into the zombie on top of Bella like a comet, sending the both of them sprawling against the sidewalk leaving Bella untouched. The witch watched in wonder as Victoria was almost instantly on her feet again holding the struggling zombie in her hands. Victoria had the zombie that had been attacking her by the throat and by one arm. The look of such intense rage and primal ferocity etched on her face made Bella wonder if the vampire could somehow scare of Death itself. With straining muscles she pulled intent on ripping the zombie's head off. Instead of ripping off the head however the arm was ripped off at the shoulder joint with a sickening meaty sound instead.
The vampire roared, enraged that she hadn't ripped the head off Bella's assailant and instead slammed the struggling zombie's skull against the concrete sidewalk completely smashing it to pieces.
Bella watched in awe from the ground as another zombie reached Victoria intent on attacking her. Victoria used the severed arm she was still holding and swung down at the zombie's head with all her strength. It brought the creature to its knees but didn't kill it. Enraged Victoria grabbed the zombie's head in her hands and with no ceremony crushed it's skull in between her fingers.
It was then that Victoria turned to look at Bella and their gazes met. Victoria's eyes were black and her fangs were bared. Her hands and white top were splattered with gore from the zombies she had just torn apart and there was even a thick streak of blood across her cheek. In that moment Bella thought she looked like a Goddess of Carnage, terrifying and beautiful all at once.
"Here," she said in a voice so thick with barely suppressed emotion it was almost unintelligible. Victoria's hand blurred and she threw something at Bella. The witch tried to catch the object on reflex and almost dropped it a few times before getting a firm grip. Her eyes widened when she saw what it was.
It was her wand.
"Behind you," she said in that same thick, almost guttural voice. With that the vampire turned her back on Bella. When she looked the girl noticed why. There were at least a half dozen hooded zombies almost on top of them.
Victoria dove into the pack of zombies with a fury and that's when Bella snapped out of the daze she had been in since the vampire had so dramatically showed up. The girl remembered her training. They had to watch each other's backs. They had always done that.
Bella pushed herself to her feet and turned around to look behind her. Two more zombies were maybe half a block away and were closing the distance to her fast but it wouldn't be fast enough. Bella wielded her wand confident that she more than enough time to cast a certain spell.
As she channeled her magic into her wand runes carved all the way up and down its length began to glow a faint neon blue. She pointed her wand menacingly at the closest zombie and uttered the spell she had prepared in her mind.
"Sine Attritus!"
The zombie stopped running and crashed into a heap on the floor. Bella didn't spare it another glance before she leveled her want at the other approaching zombie.
"Sine Attritus!"
The second zombie also lost its footing and fell on the ground. It struggled and moved all its limbs frantically but didn't budge an inch from where it lay on the ground.
A wave of exhaustion suddenly overcame Bella and she found herself falling to her knees. She realized her heart was pounding frantically in her chest, beating as hard as if she had just run two marathons back to back. Using a wand was incredibly more flexible than using pre-constructed magic but it came at the price of being dramatically more draining. Having exerted herself so much that day already Bella felt that she was at her limit. She didn't think she could do any more magic after what she had just done.
Still what I just did was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.
Bella watched with satisfaction as both zombies struggled to move but were no more successful than fish out of water. Far less successful than that actually.
The spell had trapped them in a bubble that removed all friction from a target area. No one can move anywhere without friction, it's the reason people's feet stay on the ground and don't slide out from under them when they try to walk. As much as they clawed and kicked the zombies were completely unable to move. Bella knew the frictionless bubbles wouldn't last very long but it would be more than long enough for them to get away.
As she watched the street though more figures began to appear. First two, then three, then five and then more than a dozen. Bella gaped as she felt dread build up inside her. More zombies. Just how many of those things did they send after her?
Bella realized that this must be the witch or wizard's tactic. No matter how strong you were enough zombies would eventually wear you down and take you out. Bella was completely exhausted and she didn't think she could do the magical equivalent of lighting a match. What were they going to do now?
Suddenly Victoria appeared in her line of sight. She was a mess, her clothes torn and she was covered almost from head to toe in gore. Bella risked a quick glance behind her where Victoria had been fighting. There were at least half a dozen zombies completely torn to shreds. However beyond them even more of the undead were showing up out of the woodwork. If this kept up they would soon be surrounded by dozens of zombies.
"We need to leave," said Victoria in that same strange voice she's had since she'd arrived, "hang on to me."
Before Bella could ask what she meant Victoria effortlessly picked her up bridal style. Bella almost instinctively wrapped her arms around Victoria's neck.
"Hang on," Victoria repeated again before she took off running.
While zombies could run at near the human peak of twenty five miles per hour a vampire could easily run close to a hundred and few were as agile as Victoria. Bella watched in a near blur as Victoria ran with her down the streets, dodging and weaving around zombies with such ease they might as well have been standing still. In a few streets the mass of zombies gathering was so thick Victoria had to jump over them easily reaching heights of more than fifteen feet in the air.
Bella clung for dear life irrationally afraid that if she didn't she'd somehow fall off. Still that was kind of silly. Victoria would never drop her.
Before she even noticed the transition they were out of the city and running through the woods. Bella clung to Victoria as the wind battered her and chilled her but she was much too relieved and exhausted to complain. She unashamedly clung to Victoria and buried her face in her neck craving the contact and comfort. She desperately needed it after the disturbing number of near death experiences she'd just had to live through that night.
Victoria held her as they ran through the forest in silence. After a while though the battering wind started to make Bella a little too chilly for comfort. "Victoria?" she said tentatively into the wind, knowing the vampire could hear her. "Could you slow down a bit? We're safe now and the wind is making me cold. Please?"
Victoria didn't answer but just wrapped her arms tighter around Bella. Not that the girl minded but it was unusual not to get any answer from her protector and the vampire wasn't slowing down. "Tori?" Bella asked cautiously.
When she didn't get any response Bella pulled back slightly to look at Victoria's face. The vampire sensed her movement and turned her head until their eyes met. What Bella saw made her gasp in surprise.
Victoria's eyes were still pitch black but more disturbing than that was that it seemed like no one was really home. Bella had seen this before but only to a lesser extent. The girl realized that Victoria was still completely lost in her vampire nature and she knew right away that this was worse than she had ever seen it before.
This is my fault, she thought angrily at herself, if I hadn't been so stupid none of this would have happened. Everything that has happened, keeping her at bay when we were in danger, the fighting between us, almost seeing me get killed, it must have pushed her over the edge.
Bella was suddenly extremely worried. In this state Victoria was dangerous and extremely unpredictable. Bella herself was safe but she wouldn't put it past the vampire to go on a killing spree to work out her frustrations while she was like this. If Victoria went out and killed anyone innocent while she was in this state it would be all her fault.
Victoria would probably want to go out and feed after she made sure Bella was safe. Bella knew she couldn't allow Victoria to leave the house again that night when she was so lost in her primal vampire side. The chances of something going horribly wrong were entirely too high.
I have to keep her in the house, but I refuse to use the collar again to do it. How am I going to pull this off?
The long night was far from over.
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Next chapter will have some intense Bella/Victoria action. I must admit I was a little nervous about this chapter. How did you like it? As always more reviews will just encourage me to write even faster ;).