shots in the dark
XIII: Jinora
and if you say it'll be alright
Their captors are all men, greasy haired with curly beards, alcohol on their breaths and grimy fingers laid over the triggers of their guns. Jinora glares up at them murderously, and wishes that the man who seems to be the leader - Ganbat, or something like that - didn't have a pistol pointed at Kai's head. Her arms are pinned painfully to her back by one of the men. His breath is stale and warm against her neck amid the cold air as the night is slowly burned away by the sun.
"Ain't you a pretty one, bet we could get good money for you," the man breathes in her ear, and Jinora shudders.
"Don't touch her," Kai snarls, and Jinora cries out as though she's the one being punched in the gut. Kai's green eyes meet hers and she begs him not to do or say anything stupid. As much as she hates it, they're at the men and Ganbat's mercy now, their weapons having been confiscated. Kai's reluctant frown tells her he's taken her message to heart and some of the tenseness in her shoulders falls away.
"So," Jinora tries to sound more confident than she feels, "what are you going to do with us? Sell us?" Somehow, she didn't think a prosperous slave trade was possible with the world falling to pieces, but Jinora also sees how slaves could be valuable to the cruelest of people.
"We have something much better in mind," one of them smiles. "It's a little something called-"
"Shut it you," Ganbat snaps. "Wait til we've tied them up first."
It's almost a relief when they stop walking and she's shoved next to Kai. "You okay?" she whispers. Their hands are bound together, linking them to each other. The rope is rough and cuts into her wrists painfully, rubbing every time she moves. She tries to, but Kai's struggling and every time he shifts it hurts her as well. She doesn't say anything though, and once he realizes it's futile, he stops. Instead, he presses her fingers into her palm, and she finds a fragment of comfort in it. At least they're together.
"Now," Ganbat continues. "Have either of you heard of a little something called zombie bait?" Jinora's eyes widen. "You see, all those zombies are over there," he points a dirty finger down a street that leads to a large grocery store. "And we want the food there. And what better thing to use than a distraction?"
Comprehension crashes over her and a lump forms in the throat. No. Kai digs his fingers into her palm and she can feel the slightest shaking of his hands. "You're just going to throw us to them?" Kai says angrily. "Because-"
"Oh no," Ganbat chuckles. "No, you'll get your weapons. You'll last longer that way. Assuming you can cut yourself free first, though. Some of those zombies are pretty darn fast."
Jinora swallows hard. They can do this. They have to do this. Somehow.
She whimpers as the knots of her hands are undone and then tightened again, as Kai is dragged away; the men must be dropping them off at different points for the maximum distraction. Jinora stares at his face, his scared eyes and hard-set mouth until he's forced to turn away, and she tries not to think about how she may never see him again.
Her knife is pressed into her hands and she wants to grab it and gut the man behind her, but her hands are too tightly pressed together. She'll have to saw through the rope first. She nearly trips as one of the men shoves her forwards roughly, eyes gleaming with a sadistic pleasure of the cruelty being inflicted. Zombies, at least, are predictable; humans aren't. Zombies killed because they were mindless. Humans killed, perhaps, precisely because they could remember it.
Jinora regains her balance and is forced to walk a little while longer until they reach an alleyway. There's a large, chain-mail fence. There's a hole blocked by a large, abandoned trash can. It's two of the men to push it away, and then they shove her through the hole before closing it again. The grocery store is only a block away and Jinora's never seen so many zombies congregated in one place.
She feels bile rise in her throat but swallows it down, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. She grips the knife tightly and wedges it in between two pieces of the robe and starts cutting. It's hard and she cries out in pain when she accidentally slashes herself across her palm. Drops of her blood hit the ground. Zombies are slowly inching towards her, mouths gaping open. She has to hurry. Mottled, bloodstained hands are reaching for her.
The knife cuts through the last of the rope and she wants to cry with relief. Instead, Jinora stabs the closest zombie, aiming as close to the ribcage as she can. The zombie goes down in a flail of limbs and an angry cry and pulls the knife out, its black blood staining her fingers. She'll need more than one weapon, there has to be something...
Bingo.
She grabs the lid off a smaller garbage can and smashes it into two zombies skulls. It'll knock them out temporarily, and that's good enough for her. She stabs a few more, bolting for open pavement as soon as she's at the edge of the alley. The last thing she wants to be is trapped. She realizes she's still bleeding, but can't find it in her to care. Only two things matter: Kai and survival. (Some part of her is scared that he's the first one.)
More zombies are lumbering towards her, and she thinks, her stomach dropping, she can see some Speedsters. She tightens her grip on her knife. She watches as the Speedsters break through the horde of Commons, coming to a halt as their dark eyes look for her, gray flesh pulled tightly over bones. Their gait is strange, uneven, but effective as they suddenly rush at her, their long limbs outstretched.
She bangs one in the head with the garbage can lid and the head pops off in a burst of black blood and rolls away. The body hits the floor as she brings the lid back to herself just in time as the second Speedster throws itself on her. Her head snaps against the ground and there's blood in her mouth, the zombie's stench in her nostrils. It's suffocating as it's body weight presses on her chest, its hands trying to claw her. She wiggles her knife arm free and stabs it in the armpit. It rolls off her in pain and then she stabs it again in the neck, and it rolls over onto its side. She thrusts her blade into its chest: the final blow.
Jinora wipes her bloody nose and turns around to face some more zombies. There's ten, at least, and while she unleashes her rage - her desperate want for survival - she keeps hoping Kai will show up, miraculously alive, and help her finish them off. But he doesn't come, and she's surrounded by bodies. Her boots are soaked with black blood, and it's smeared all over her face.
Jinora feels tears pool at the corners of her eyes and stubbornly wipes them away. She has no time for that. Kai. She has to get to Kai.
Some of the zombies are still around the grocery store, and she can see one of the men get tackled on the rooftops by a Speedster. She almost smiles. Bastards getting what they deserve, although some small part of her still feels bad. On the other side of the large store there's a pack of zombies, and some of them are dead.
Kai.
Jinora's never run faster in her life, the adrenaline coursing through her veins allowing her to ignore the way her muscles are screaming. She stabs a zombie in the back and when it falls she sees Kai staring at her, awestruck. Relief crashes over her, and she breathes for a moment, but she also knows they're not out of the woods yet.
Kai's gun makes quick work of its bullets, a constant pouring down. Slowly, they're gaining ground, the zombies are retreating, and Jinora thinks hopefully, they might actually survive this. Kai catches her eye, and together they bolt into the grocery store. If they can get to the back entrance, they can make it home free while grabbing whatever they can to try to make up for their lost supplies.
Jinora screams as a hand grabs her arm and throws her to the ground. "Not so fast, zombie bait," Ganbat grins. "You guys are good, we could use you again."
Kai has an expression of deadly calm as he raises his gun, and before Ganbat can blink, the man's dead. Jinora yelps as the gunshot goes off and Ganbat's body falls beside her.
She crawls away as a stream of blood spills onto the floor and tries not to tremble.
Kai gathers her into his arms as Jinora tries not to cry. "Are you okay?" he asks worriedly. He's covered in scrapes and blood too, some of it his own. She nods stiffly, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Okay, we have to keep moving."
Her hands are shaking as she grabs Ganbat's knapsack, full of their stuff and a bit more, and slings it over her shoulder. She feels old as she leaves the body behind - the man Kai killed for her - and realizes she would've done it too. She grabs Kai's hand and gives it a squeeze, more to reassure herself than to reassure him, but lets go quickly.
"Are you sure you're okay Jinora?" Kai asks.
She takes a deep breath. "I will be." She swallows hard. "Let's just get somewhere safe."
It takes them only a few minutes to leave the store, the zombies and the madness, behind. Jinora can hear the men screaming as they're ripped apart - the plan hadn't worked properly. It takes five blocks for Jinora to stop feeling like the world is spinning. And once it does, she keels over and vomits on the sidewalk.
Kai watches with pity, putting a hand on her shoulder once she's done and handing her a bottle of water. She drinks it slowly, yet grateful for the cool taste. Her throat feels scorched. She stands up and Kai pulls her into a hug. "We're gonna be okay," he murmurs. Jinora's shaking and exhausted, yet she can't help but believe him.
"Okay," she nods, testing out the way the word sounds in her mouth. "Okay."
They set off down the sidewalk, intent on finding some shelter, and Kai holds her hand.