Survival of the mortalists [ONC 2021]

Chapter 4- Fighting for their lives

The undead must have heard us while we were busy arguing because I'm sure at one point we both forgot to keep our voices down. That's exactly why I prefer keeping my emotions to myself normally. Arguing with Kai made me lose control.

Ever since I was a child and the world wasn't as wrecked as it is today, I would often observe people.  Sometimes, building up excessive emotions inside you brings out an ugly part of yourself that you tend to not show. You keep them hidden; at least you try. Because deep within, everyone has a dark side, everyone tries to stay nice and calm on the outside. But, once these emotions get the better of you, you ultimately lose all control over them, leading to the entire situation getting out of hand.

More than a dozen of the undead enter the bar, completely blocking the door. Dread washes over me when I see a variety of them, each eager to be the first to eat us alive.

Unable to think properly, we all stare at them in utter silence. The only sound is the rasping these creatures make. They come forward with each step that we take back. Bound together, we dwell in a room filled with zombies.

"Fuck..." Jin mutters under his breath, but loud enough that we could hear him.

"Jiushi zhege. Zhe jiushi women bian de xiang tamen yiyang di difang." If I ever thought before that Juan sobbed like a baby, I was so wrong.

(This is it. This is where we become like them.)

"You talk so toughly, Bee. Let's see what you've got." Kai mumbles.

"It's Vee." Gritting my teeth, I shift my focus to the dead. I never pictured myself being crowded and stuck in a bar with a dozen zombies and a bunch of inexperienced people like me.

Like our unrefined and imperfect group, this one too looks very flawed. One big zombie, who I assume broke the door down, stands in the middle, facing me and Kai. With black, decayed teeth and no nose, it drools at the sight of us. Rotten corpses, tall and short, who now stand before us.

"Okay, Zhen, you hack into that laptop, Juan and Jin can watch out for you. The rest of us will take care of this." I instruct.

"No offense but I haven't even hurt a fly before," Audrey tells me.

"Neither have I."

As soon as I say that, I jump towards the table with my bag on top. Grabbing the kitchen knife from inside it, I run towards the first zombie I find near me.

The next hour or so leads into a frenzy of smashing, kicking, punching, cutting, and smacking. But no matter how hard we try, they always managed to outnumber us.

Kai, with his long sword, slices through their bodies, cutting them in half. Audrey struggles with her choice of weapon, but once stuck with a zombie, she hits it with her baseball bat so hard, that the bodies go limp after each blow. Bo shoots rapidly at the incoming zombies. At this rate, I'm afraid that soon enough he might be stuck with using a barstool unless he has extra bullets. While Cheng quivers behind a chair, his back against the booth table, at the other end of the bar.

My vision blurs as adrenaline pumps through my veins, making me faster, stronger, and unemotional. Stabbing and slashing through I don't know how many, I scream and take down all of them. By the time I come to my senses and the chemical rush ceases, I am exhausted. Breathing heavily, I step back when I realize we haven't even killed half of these things. All the bodies that I was sure I got rid of, start moving. Their bones crack as they start getting into shape.

The upper half torso's of the sliced zombies start crawling towards us, while the rest just stand back up as if nothing ever hit them.

I stop as soon as my back hits something hard.

"These things won't die." Kai grits his teeth. We're all stuck back to back in the middle of the bar, surrounded by hungry creatures.

"I'm out of bullets," Bo mumbles.

"They never stop. Not even without limbs," Audrey adds in awe.

Defeated and exhausted, we stare back at the monsters approaching gradually on all sides.

Swiping the black, gooey blood from my face with the back of my hand, I say, "Well, pulling the heart out doesn't help either. I guess we need to cut off their heads then."

"What if that doesn't work either?" Audrey asks.

"It will work. It's got to." Rolling my shoulders, I once again rush forward.

We attack again, this time aiming for the head. But all I manage to do with my kitchen knife is make a small cut on the zombie's neck. It grabs at me at my attempt and I jump back just in time to avoid being scratched.

Before I know it, Kai calls out to me from behind, "Duck!"

Instantly complying, I fall on my knees and watch him as he runs towards the chair Cheng has been using as a shield. Before I know it, Kai climbs on it with a foot and jumps in the air turning towards my attacker. With a smooth flow, he cuts right through its neck making the body fall on the floor with a loud thud.

The head rolls around in a circle, coming back towards me until it touches my right knee. I stare at the face for a couple of seconds, fully prepared for it to jump right at me any moment.

When it does not budge, I feel unease wash over me as I wonder how this once used to be the face of a normal man. What would happen if I end up like one of these things? Suddenly those hollow eyes open up staring back at me. It opens its mouth and instantly starts shrieking so loud that it hurts my ears.

On impulse, I raise the knife above my head with both hands. With a loud frustrated cry, I stab the face right between its eyes over and over, until the knife is cemented there for good, finally silencing the thing.

I heave and pull out the knife. When it doesn't come out easily, I stand up and step on the face, forcing the knife out. Facing everyone else staring at me, even the monsters, I say in a hoarse voice, "I think I figured out how to kill these things."

The eyes of all the undead unexpectedly turn red. They bare their rotten teeth and start hissing coherently at us.

"Looks like you pissed them off!" Kai exclaims.

"They pissed me off first."

In a trice, I am faced with the biggest zombie, with red angry eyes. It runs at me with a loud roar, ready to tear me in half. No matter how hard I try, the kitchen knife seems to be useless at this stage. And aiming for the head is the hardest part.

But then Kai once again saves my ass by turning around and slashing through the huge thing's back. Taking this as my cue, I step on a chair, mimicking his previous move, and jump towards the nemesis. I stab it right between its eyes. To my utmost surprise, it holds the stuck knife with a hand and pulls it right back out.

With a screech, it grabs for me and before I know it, I'm pinned to the floor by the biggest zombie. With its mouth wide open, it lifts its face in the air and then leans into me ready to bite.