To Be A Champion

Chapter 3: Big Mistake

Rolling thunder hits my ears as the sky flashes white with lighting. My eyes burn, the rest of me completely numb as we keep trudging through the cold, freezing rain that pours through the night.

"I really can't decide what I like best about this storm," Jody says, a sneer in her voice as a sarcastic smile etches across her face. "How dark it is, the way it's whipping the rain around us like a rain duvet, or that it's actually pickin' up pebbles and hurling them at us! Maybe it's that it got our friend killed because of a stupid accident in the dark! A stupid accident!"

Gunshots follow her words, none of them close to hitting us, but too close to be comfortable.

"Well, I like how Jones, a homicidal maniac, is at large and the people who shot and killed Ellie are still chasing us!" Sam shouts. "Not to mention that fact that they shot Callista and she's bleeding out!"

"I'm-I'm fine," I say. "If it had nicked an artery, I'd already be dead."

"Oh, you'd be dead, yeah, because you're mortal now," Nicole states. "You know, because of the fact that we've been catapulted into this situation, we still haven't been able to talk about how you lied to all of us for years and didn't bother to tell any of us the truth until afterwards!"

"What?" Shona asks in shock, and Nicole shoots her a dry look.

"We'll explain later."

I scowl. "I'm fine. And just like you can explain to Shona everything later, you can all be mad at me later."

I notice Tom glance at me for a split second when I say 'all'. Because of Janine, very few people have asked me about my immortality, who all knew, etc. I said the only people who knew were Veronica, Sage, Sam and Peter. I left out Tom because I didn't want Jody to be upset with him for keeping a secret from her because I asked him to.

I wanted to be able to lie and say that Peter didn't know either, or Sam, since it might strain Peter's relationship with Janine and Sam's with Maxine and Paula. Unfortunately, Peter was the one who gave my secret away, and Sam made it pretty clear he knew beforehand when Maxine and Paula questioned him about it.

"It's just a flesh wound," I tell her.

"But you can still faint from blood loss," Paula says. "Tell us if you start feeling dizzy or seeing black spots."

I roll my eyes. The entire sky is black, save for the lightning that strikes every few minutes, so I can't see if the bleeding gets worse. And even if I did start feeling dizzy, it's not like we can slow down since there are people still trying to shoot us.

"Shona, are you sure this was an accident?" I ask as more gunshots ring in my ears. "Can't you make them stop?"

The brunette shakes her head. "We've no flashlight signal for this. We havnae needed one. No people ever come onto the island the way you did. Boats always land on the north, on Bas Sands."

"Where Jones' boat is," Janine says, and she nods.

"Aye, that's right. The island has perfect natural defenses. The north side has deep, strong currents that pull away any zombies walking on the seabed, so it's safe for boats. The south side is all rocks and caves. We wait there and shoot the zoms as they come up. It's like the island was built to fend off zombie attacks."

She laughs, but Nicole purses her lips.

"Oh, yeah, that's great. Unless you happen to be coming in via zombie alley."

"They're chasing us because they still think you're zombies. Believe me, they won't rest if they think they're letting a zom roam free on the island." She pauses for a moment. "Okay. I've no walkie-talkie. I'm not on duty tonight. Jones is on Bas Sands. We'll take the hill path and then head through the ruins of Gaisgeach Village. There's an emergency call point there I can use to call the chief, but we'll have to hurry. The storm's barely begun."