BEYOND THE DEAD ZONE | COMPLETE

Seventeen |

Seventeen |

"Don't you ever wonder about things?" I ask Rose, dangling my feet off the port.

We sat together looking off into the distance where the city once stood. The buildings are blurs of grey and green—nature took over since the ends, really showing what twenty three years would do to civilization. But at night we can see the lights from the Sky City and sometimes we can almost hear them clearing the safe routes through the city.

"No, I don't," she replies, licking at her popsicle that Mrs. Goldburg had made.

They were honey flavour, I found them quite disgusting.

"You never want to go beyond the towns?" I demanded, "Beyond the Town of Roses?"

"You don't know what you're saying," she snapped, "We're safe here."

"We're trapped."

"You don't know what being trapped is," she hissed, her face deforming.

My eyes widened, "Rose?"

She stood, the popsicle falling into the lake, "Get up."

"What?"

"I said—Eero get up!"

My eyes flung open and I let out a loud scream. My heart pounded in my chest as I stood in the river, my attention wide as I scanned the area. Cerci had pulled me out of the water, Flash moved through the water and apparently had pulled Maria off of me but she was now fighting back—that was impossible. Zombie's weren't supposed to fight back.

"Oh god," she whispered in my ear, "Oh god, oh god. You're ok."

"Where's Valen?" I demanded.

Her eyes widened, tears dripping down her already soaked face, "I-I don't know! He grabbed her off you and they both went under and then Flash grabbed her."

I looked across the river, through the darkness of night I could see no other movement aside from the dire wolf and Maria. Flash let out a whine, and I could see through the darkness—she had bit the tip of the wolf's tail. I pulled away from Cerci, my eyes flickering across the way. My foot hit a rock, I lifted it, grasping it in my fingers before whipping it as hard as I could towards her. Luck was on my side, it hit her in the side of the temple. She fell back into the water, Flash took off in the opposite side.

Then she rose again, this time I had already reached her, my anger boiling in my veins. I grasped her by the hair, yanking her body out of the water. She let out a wild shriek, and I willed myself not to see her as a person. Whatever she was, she was still a zombie. This only meant that they were evolving. I stumbled at that thought. They were evolving.

She dug her heels into the ground, a growl tearing from her lips as she pulled away from me. Horrified, I watched a chunk of her scalp come away. She grinned, blood dripping down her chin as she hunched over. I could feel the adrenaline fading and the exhaust setting in.

"I got you," she cackled, "We're one and the—"

BAM.

The crack of a gunshot went off and so did half her face. I looked past her where Valen stood panting for air and holding my father's gun. My eyes moved back to the sight in front of me, I could see my father's blood bullets begin to melt her entire head away. I nodded, feeling bile slipping up from my throat.