Second Chapter
She had been following the tracks of her fellow non-dead humans for a week now. They were fast, moving swiftly and efficiently. Sakura was proud of her tracking skills, being able to find a deer heard in the middle of the forest in summer, but really these guys just made it way to easy. All she had to do was follow the decapitated, dismembered corpses. Judging from the bloody tracks leaving from the scenes and the different styles of killing she saw...she guessed she was following three men. Two liked to go into the fray of things, killing their prey up close and personal while the third one hung back and gave support from afar. She loved going up and inspecting the rotting corpses and seeing who killed what and keeping a mental tally for each person she personally name Sharpy, Quick and Blade.
She really was a different person than who she had been six months ago, she realized inspecting half a head that was sliced right down the middle, the things liquified brain leaking out over it's face. She had been a giddy young girl who couldn't wait for the next dance at school or party at her best friends and who hated horror movies or watching her father cut up his kills for her mother to cook. Yeah she had hunted and skinned but that had been from a distance and had little blood. Now look at her, eagerly inspecting a rotting corpse, cut to pieces as if the blade marks were left by an old friend. The only connection she had to fellow human beings. Yeah she was fucked up. But She supposed anybody who survived in a world like this was...had to be. She was getting desperate. She had been alone for almost seven months and she was craving the company of other humans, she needed it after the horrors she had done. She set her mouth in a grim line and stood up and moved away from the latest batch of 're-dead' as she called them. You can't kill the dead cause they're already dead so she came up with the term re-dead. She looked around and found the tracks and followed. It seemed that they were leaving the city.
"Strange," She muttered to herself. She had gotten into the habit of talking to herself just to keep company when she was alone, and it also helped her work things out when she was stuck and wondered what to do next. That was how she decided to come to Tokyo after her home town...well she wasn't going there. "The city has more resources and protection, anywhere else would leave them exposed and vulnerable not to mention short of food and supplies." She stood there for a few moments thinking. The desire to follow and meet them, these strong fighters who would risk the open for whatever goal they had, was overwhelming. She was so tired of being alone. So tired of fending off the dead by herself. Sakura shifted her rifle on her shoulder and her bags on her back and side and set off once more, her boots crunching on the cracked asphalt in suburban Tokyo.
XXX
It was cold and dry. Like every other day, same cold air, same thick cloud cover that didn't let the sun through. Made Sakura think that more was going on than a simple Zombie epidemic.
"Maybe this was planned by God as punishment." She thought out loud looking up at the sky. She was in the middle of a community square, a playground to her left, apartments to her right, front and back. Once more she was looking for a place to stay for the night. The wind picked up and brought with it the stench of rotting flesh. "Or maybe the Devil is having fun fucking with us." She continued turning slowly as her abnormally accurate intuition warned her of danger. Behind her was a child. Arm missing, eyes white and blank and sundress stained with the blood that probably belonged to what had been her family. Images flashed through Sakura's mind at that thought. Her mother tending to her father, a wound on his arm. Waking up in the middle of the night to horrified screams and begging. Panting, terror, the sounds of flesh being ripped off bones. Her fathers' rifle above the mantle. Loading the gun. Pulling the trigger. Her fathers' face contorted and revolting, dead on the floor in front of her. His blood on her face. Her mother and brother torn apart in their beds. Blood on the walls. Screams from the outside and fires illuminating night sky. Shooting her mother and brother just in case. Gathering her things and running out the door, seeing the chaos as neighbours were attacked by relatives. Sakura shooting her best friend in the head as she leaped at her blood pouring from her mouth, eyes white and teeth bared. Tears fell from Sakura's eyes as her memories invaded her. This child brought it all back as nothing else had. Brought back what she didn't want to remember, and what she did only in brief moment of consciousness. Sakura had cut her hair that night when she had run far enough to escape the chaos. She hadn't known what she was doing, she was totally in shock. She had grabbed her hair and a sharp knife she had taken and begun slicing her hair completely, automatically before she realized what she was doing and let it all sink in. Over time she came to see it as an advantage and that long hair would have just gotten in her way so she kept it short around her chin. The girl in front of her reminded Sakura of what could have happened to her how she could have ended up if hadn't let instinct take over. The child Zombie looked at her quizzically. It didn't immediately attack her which was new. Even her own father had attacked her without hesitation. It seemed to be sizing her up, wondering if she was worth the risk.
"Yeah, definitely fucking with us." Sakura concluded staring at what had probably been a sweet little girl. Staring at herself. The girl stared back and grinned wickedly wide.
'Do the undead have emotions?' Sakura wondered for the first time. This little girl was confusing the hell out of her, it seemed...intelligent. Is it because it is a child or is there something different about her. A new mutation in the disease maybe?
"Oh great," Sakura said stepping back, clearing her head as she did so with this new realization and aiming her rifle at the child's forehead, "They're evolving." She fired and killed the girl, a punch in her stomach when she saw the girls head explode. The death of her past as she finally let her family and the life she once had go. Another tally against her for when she goes to meet her maker, zombie or not...She decided to keep moving and not stop for the night. She was catching up to her quarry and she didn't want to stay in the area. The gunshot would have alerted every undead thing in a five kilometre radius. She took off with the light fading, zipping up her sweater and pulling down the sleeves to preserve what heat she could. Heading towards a distant hill rising above the area, where she knew her fellow humans were.
XXX
Sakura climbed for what felt like an hour, the dead grass beneath her feet was dry and crunchy. It was hard to see with no light. The moon and stars hasn't been seen in six and a half months. She was staggering and she breathed heavily.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow,ow..." she muttered under breath clutching her ribs where she had a nasty stitch. She tied her sweater around her waist as she had gotten hot and sweaty. Covered in grime and blood she looked like the monsters she killed. The cold breeze that tormented her for months actually felt nice. Amazing. She crested the hill and groaned in relief. Thank God that was over!
click
She looked up, startled…
… right down the barrel of a gun.
End of Chapter