Undead Conscience (LTU Rewrite)

#12: Sacrifice

I groggily opened my eyes...hearing flames crackling a bit away from me. I attempted to sit up but felt sore on my arm, which it difficult to sit up.

Immediately someone came to my aid but my vision was still foggy.

"Easy there, I got you."

I finally sat up and held my head with a groan, struggling to balance my thoughts.

My head stinged a bit but it soon faded away and I was able to open my eyes again with my vision clearing.

The first thing on my mind was to check my arm. It was wrapped in bandages, where the center already turned a crimson color.

Then I remembered...

Ryder's insanity...The zombie crowd inside the cave...Getting bitten.

How...did I survive this?

Then I looked to my left and...

There was Ryder, looking down at me with sorrow present in his eyes.

"Ryder?"

He sighed and and looked down, seemingly thinking about what to say before pulling his ninja mask off and showing, how scared he was.

"Y/N, I-I'm..."

"It's alright..."

"I can't really say what happened. I suddenly got the urge to feast on something and I knew that this wasn't the ordinary need of hunger I am familiar with. I never felt like this before, I..."

"It might be your fatal flaw being a zombie..."

I looked down before continuing.

"As a zombie you're still able to act like a human but I guess you can't escape these urges a zombie feels. That's why you crave the feeling to feast on something..."

"Y/N...I'm..."

I shook my head before I turned to him with a smile.

"Ryder, you're strong and your will is strong too. I know that you can fight these urges because of your clear conscience. What happened back there was probably an outburst of these urges since they reached an irresistable state."

He looked at me. The terror visible on his face made me frown. He was terrified about what he did.

"Y/N...I'm...scared. I don't want to hurt you because of this..."

"We will find a way to fix this, Ryder. I'll help you."

"After what I almost did? I don't want to hurt you."

"You didn't hurt me, Ryder. I was able to escape without any harm. Trust me, I'm okay except that zombie bite on my arm."

He gently grabbed my arm, sighing in relief when he saw it's state.

"At least it's not infected...I was so worried about you."

"Hey...Ryder. I'm alright. You don't need to worry about me."

"I know but...I need to protect you. I failed to protect my brother and I don't want to lose you too."

"You won't lose me, Ryder."

Suddenly I heard voices come from somewhere...Voices that sounded like...humans?

"Keep looking! She must be here. There's a motorbike parked at the entrance of the woods."

Then it hit me...This was the rescue squad looking for me...

"No....They're here...

I stood up looking towards the voices before looking back at Ryder, who already put his ninja mask back on.