Chapter 4 – Replay

''Are you sure it was this spot?'', Omar was trying to find an explanation for the situation. Ash nodded heavily as she was too confused to answer properly. The spot was filled with blood, something that looked like a blanket and a prepared fireplace that didn't get lit. There were some inner organs lying around, they seemed decomposed. It stank and Omar hid his face in his hoodie to avoid getting sick.

''I don't remember.'', Ash muffled quietly. Omar looked over to her, his face itself seemed to question what she said. She looked at him and repeated: ''I don't remember. I don't remember if I shot his head.'' Omar seemed to understand what she meant, even if the smell distracted him, he saw what was on the floor and it sure as hell wasn't anything that came from a human's head. Omar put the hoodie down and put on a serious face.

''That means he's still out there, right ?'', he asked, being almost sure that his statement was correct.

''Yes. The only thing that kills them is damaging their brain enough. How did this happen? I never missed a shot before.'', she said, being disappointed with herself. Omar turned around to her, completely understanding where she was coming from.

''Everyone makes mistakes, you were in shock. It was the first time you got attacked, there's no fault to be given at you. You went all the way back here, even if it wasn't easy, just to burry your brother. You're trying your best and there's nothing to be disappointed at. No matter what you want to do now, I'm here with you too, don't forget that.'' Being extremely glad to hear that, a tear slipped through her eyes.

''Thank you. Thank you so much.'' She told him, with strong gratitude. After calming herself down a bit she came to a decision.

''I think we should leave. I don't think we'll be able to find him even if we search enough and we should spare our energy the most we can. Maybe if we follow the road we can find a vehicle in good conditions.'' Ash headed out for the woods again before Omar stopped her.

''I'm glad that you made your mind up. I don't want to upset you, I'll go alone if I have to, but I think we should try to take something to drink with us and other things like food or even some clothes because it could get cold.'' Omar tried to say it as comfortable as possible, with a quiet voice. Ash turned around and sighed a little.

''See the path down there ? It leads to our... my house.'', she looked down, thinking about if she should accompany him or not. She was still too traumatized for it. Omar, they way he is, noticed immediately what her issue was. He approached her once again and said:

''It's okay, I'll go and be back in just a few minutes. People used to call me gladiator in high school, nothing can stop me.'' he said, putting up a wide grin, laughing. Ash was torned by his joke and laughed along but still holding herself back.

''I'll be on my way then.'' Omar said, saluting like a soldier and turning around to start walking.

''Omar?'', Ash added before he was gone. He turned his head around. ''Be careful'', she said, saluting back slowly. He smiled and made his way through a bit of forest.

He started to walk faster as soon as he heard noises. He walked out of the dark forest and saw the house on first sight. It seemed to be flat but long. He assumed it would look bigger than it actually looked.

Just one deep breath and then you go, he thought to himself being very aware of his surroundings. He took the first step onto the twostep-stairs infront of the housedoor. He walked to the white door and tried to look inside the house from the little window that the door had.

Nobody there, everything is fine, he tried to calm himself as the pressure grew. He turned the doorknob and opened the door gently. He took another peek, this time behind the door. The house seemed to be welltreated except that there was blood all over the place. There were a few bodyparts lying around aswell, arms and legs. Again he took his hoodie up to his nose to avoid the smell of it. Couches were smashed over and other furniture was out of place. The kitchen was right nearby the door, he walked into it. Gladly there were no zombieparts lying around in the kitchen. To feel a little safer he closed the brown door, that was very light, behind him. Omar hurried because he didn't want to stay any longer in the house than needed.

He opened the firdge, took all the waterbottles that were in it and checked the dates of other products. The fridge wasn't too full but there was enough for a family to survive atleast a few days. Sadly, not much was left that was still in date. There were some fruitcans and a raviolican. He took them out, put them on the kitchen counter and searched for a plastic bag or something else to put the cans and waterbottles in. He opened all the cupboards when he finally found a cloth bag. With one swing he got all the supplies into the bag and hit his way out, relieved.

When he was about to get out of the kitchen he noticed a shadow lurking around inside of the house. He put his back up to the wall and kept looking at the door slot. Sweat started to poor out of his forehead. He took the tip of his hoodie sleeve and wiped it away.

Taking one last deep breath he decided to look through the door lock. Slowly he placed his hand on the door to not make any noise. He put the bag of groceries on the floor, again slowly to not bring any attention to him. Still scared he looked out of the door lock and to his misery there was a walker. Almost gasping Omar held his hoodie before his mouth. He took a step back and thought for a second what he should do. His heart was pumping so fast that he was afraid the zombie could hear it. To get a hang of himself he closed his eyes, took a breath in and breathed out as steady as he could. He opened his eyes again and they were filled with willpower, he smashed the door open, ran up to the walker and placed his hands on its head. With all his mightyness he crushed it with his own bare hands, blood flooded out of its head. The skull gave in and brainparts spread out. Omar took his hands off and shaked them violently. He was so disgusted by it that he almost vomited. He raced up to the washbasin to turn on the water, but there was no water. He made sure not to touch his face. Almost panicing he ran up to one of the bedrooms, which weren't visited by the zombies yet, took out one of the shirts and cleaned his hands thoroughly, almost no blood was left. After that he took the bag and speeded out of the house, back into the forest and out of it again.

The wind was clashing against him. The air filled his hoodie and the bag so the running became even heavier for him. Ash saw Omar running up on her like a maniac, she attempted to meet him halfway. When he arrived her he was completely out of stamina. Still searching for his breath he tried to say:

''Let's just go, I have everything we need.'', he rushed right into the direction of where they first came.

''Omar, what the hell happened there? You have blood on your hands!'', Ash said, still standing there and being confused but worried at the same time. Omar just lifted the bag, with the waterbottles and cans, up into the air with one hick and continued walking. Ash figured it would be the best if she would give him a little space.

They reached the street and Omar sat down, completely exhausted. Ash walked by his side and before she could ask him something a car was approaching them from a distance.

Vani finished her explaining, Liz and Sarah were completely still. While Sarah was trying to work out the heard in her head Liz tried it outloud:

''You're telling me that, nobody knows where this came from nor how it happened and that we're completely shut off?'',

''Congratulations, you are not deaf.'', countered Vani. Liz, already annoyed by Vani multiple times that evening just rolled her eyes and continued:

''How can that be? And how did a little brat like you survive alone in this?'', Liz asked, a little provocative.

''I don't know, I haven't heard anything since I lost connection to my group. I was on my way with some other survivors and I'm not that of a brat. I'm very mature for my age.'' hearing that Liz laughed out loud, getting a weird look from Sarah. She stopped when she noticed Sarah looking at her like that.

''What? Oh, she was serious?'', Liz laughed even harder after taking a quick break. ''Okay I'm done, please continue'', Liz said still with a grin on her face and making a nearly majestic hand gesture. Vani stayed without any expression on her face and started to tell them her story.

''...that's it, that's my story and how I survived.'' The grin on Liz's face had faded away. Sarah started sobbing uncontrollably, really loud.

''What the hell?'', bursted out Liz, backing a little off of Sarah while sitting right next to her.

''This is so unbelievably sad, don't you think?'', Sarah cried out, now turning to Liz and sobbing into her arm. Liz looked up with staring eyes.

''Is she always that emotional?'', Vani asked, being a little surprised by it. Liz still disturbed, by all that crying and worried about her precious leather jacked, said:

''How am I supposed to know, I just picked her up from the floor a few hours ago.'', while simultaneously trying to tap Sarah's back to calm her down, which only made her cry more.

''Do something'', Liz formed the words with her mouth but without a sound so only Vani could understand it. Vani wasn't sure what to do so she broke out in a little panic. She looked around her and grabbed some tissues and gave them to Liz. Liz took them with a violent swing and left out the 'thank you'. Sarah took the tissues and schniffled hard into them. Awkward silence broke in. Liz cleared her throat while Sarah was still sniveling a bit.

''I'm going to kill all those zombies and will find my revenge, this is my whole life now. I will not fail. If I fail I will lose all my honor.'', Vani interrupted the silence, quietly, in a very serious and tragic voice.

''Jesus, are you always so dark and twisty?'', Liz held nothing back that was on her mind. Waiting for someone to laugh Liz was looking alternately at both Sarah and Vani. Vani had a grumpy look while Sarah hadn't stopped with her ugly sobbing. Asking herself how she had ended up in a situation like this with these two people she just gave up on the situation: ''I'm going to bed, night.''

Still hidden behind the spray can shelves Anita was shivering. Her head buried in her arms supported by her knees. She tried to empty her head to not fill it with paranoia. She was completely alone, the only thing she had was a knife. Not even with a knife she felt safe, she wasn't even sure if she could use it properly on someone.

She looked up once to still see the store in perfect order, nothing changed, everything was fine. She peeked out of the corner from the shelves, what first seemed to be calm mall turned out to be a soon chaos. She heard footsteps. Squeaking footstep noises. But these footsteps were not the only ones, they were soon followed by other disturbing noises. Growling, something similiar to suffocating gargling. Anita kept peeking. The squeaking footsteps started to get faster, when they suddenly showed up infront of the grocery store. It was Lian.

''Anita!'', she was screaming, obviously searching for Anita. Lian didn't notice the zombies walking up behind her. Anita kept silent, in fear of getting their attention, in fear of getting bitten. More zombies kept showing up from nowhere, Lian turned around and finally saw them. She started screaming, but her scream was muffled. She tried to put her hand before her mouth to not get lock anymore walkers near her. She still held her cotton candy in her other hand. It was too late, the floor was filling itself with them.

Lian's mind was unclear, she couldn't think. She acted and made a run for it. Headed to the first floor she tried to reach the staircases, luckily there were no zombies near the path down the staircases. Many walkers followed Lian, the second floor was almost empty again when the zombies decided to catch Lian. It were so many that they bothered even eachother, some even fell down the stairs. All they wanted was Lian. With faces of desire they insisted hunting her. Anita was still looking at all of that, she was paralyzed, full of fear and regret.

What did I do, she blamed herself already for something that didn't happen yet. But it could've happened any moment. She didn't know where Lian went or if she even made it to the first floor. She hid again for some time. There was still shooting coming from upstairs. She could hear Ray shouting something but she couldn't make out what it was. So deepened in her thoughts she didn't even notice the walker coming up on her, it had no legs. She jumped up, tried to escape sideways and tripped. The zombie grabbed her foot, the grip was tight and she could feel the bones nearly ripping her shoe open.

She didn't hesistate any longer, took her knife and stuck it into its head, multiple times. She grunted painfully doing it. She left the knife stuck in the head after stabbing it so many times and run out of the store, not paying attention she ran right into Randi.

''That was definitely a human and not a zombie!'', Kao shouted enthusiasticly. ''Come on, we need to get up there to the top'', Kao said and ran into the building, it wasn't too high and the building seemed to be in good conditions even though red bricks were already showing up. Other buildings were right next to it, connected to the building and even higher than the one the person was on.

Domi wanted to tell Kao that he didn't think of it as a good idea, but he ignored his own instincts and followed her. Kao sprinted up the round staircase that leaded to every floor. The walls were full with mold and the air was thick, but nothing could stop Kao from reaching that person even if it was difficult to breathe. Domi coughed from the dust that came of the staircase that was caused by Kao's heavy running. He walked slowly, checking out the sphere he was in. Finally reaching the top Kao tried to open the door that lead outside. It was stuck, Kao had to put a little more effort into it, she used her whole body weight to open the door, as soon as it opened she nearly fell back the stairs when Domi catched her still on time.

''That was close, thanks!'', she said thankfully and got back to her main object. She walked out to the housetop. The floor of the top was in good condition and seemed to be clean. Kao made immediate eyecontact with the person sitting there, hurt, bleeding. When the person noticed the two she tried to get away. Just standing up nearly made her faint, Kao hurried to catch her and give her support.

''It's okay, we'll help you. Don't worry we don't want you any harm.'', Kao tried to make the person trust her. She looked back at Kao. Kao smiled. As the person recognized that she could let herself in care of Kao, she rest herself against the wall again and let Kao take care of her.

She picked up her machete from the floor. It was raining heavily , it poured out of the heaven like there was no tomorrow. She barely could see anything, but she needed to see something, she had to act, fast. The red grip felt good in her hand. The drops were sliding down the machete, it reflected the storm and the lightning popping up in the back every once in a while. The clouds were as black as one's pupils, they were moving fast.

to be continued