La Mort et ses Merveilles ✔

29. I Don't Believe in Fairytales

We passed through a few towns along the highway, all of them abandoned and empty, save for the occasional straggling zombie. Sometimes Leslie had to take a detour because of a rubble or a group of zombies had blocked off the road. It had been a while since I've seen a zombie, what more entire groups of them. I remembered an instance where Isabella and I nearly got trapped in a store with a whole bunch of zombies outside. I nearly thought we were done for, when a few gunshots nearby took the attention of most of them away from us.

Either way, Leslie and I made it to the old motel in one piece.

"This is it," he said as he pulled up into the parking lot. "Back here."

"It's been a while," I said, as I stepped out, grabbing my hammer just in case of any unexpected zombie.

I could hear a few grunts from the distance. Our entrance seemed to have attracted a few of those creatures, as they stumbled towards us with their tattered clothes and flesh rotting off their arms in chunks.

"You gonna be alright?" Leslie asked as he took out his machete.

"I'll deal with the ones coming from the right," I told him. "If there's anything I'll shout."

"Be careful alright?" Leslie reminded me, as he rustled my hair. "I'm the only thing that you should let chew your face off. Don't break my heart, cutie."

With a mock pout on his lips, he made his way to the pack of zombies coming in from the left. Even at times like these he was teasing and joking around. Taking a deep breath, I approached the nearest zombie, hammer in hand. As much as I was grateful that I haven't seen a zombie in a while, my skills with the hammer sure needed more practice. My handiwork was getting shoddier, but soon the motions came back to me naturally. The hammer nearly slipped out of my hand, but I managed to smash the zombie's skull, bagging me my first downed zombie for the day.

My heart racing, I kicked the creature in the shin. As it dropped onto its knees, I landed the executing blow. I hit the third with another quick smack to the head, and it fell just as quick. It was then when the last zombie, tripped over the corpse of one of its fallen compatriots -right onto me.

I had fallen onto the ground, the weight of the zombie pinning me down. The rotten creature was mere inches away from me, its open mouth drawing closer and closer to my face. With my left hand I tried to push it away, while my right was going to -where was it? To my horror, my trusty hammer was no longer in my hands. It lay there on the ground, just slightly out of reach. I struggled as I inched my way for it, desperately trying to grab the handle.

"Les!" I cried out loud. "A little help here!"

As I struggled to keep the hungry jaws from me, I heard the young man's footsteps approaching. My heart thumping in my chest, I tried to elbow the creature in the chest, to hold it away from biting me.

The next thing I knew, the zombie stopped moving, slumping itself on top of me. Pushing the corpse aside, I found myself staring into Leslie's blue eyes. I was more than happy to be able to look into those eyes again.

He extended his hand and I took it, pulling myself up. I was still rather shaken from the whole thing, but I was glad that I was still alive.

"You okay?" Leslie asked me.

I only nodded my head as I picked my hammer from the ground.