Wake of the Dead | One

Chapter five

Jasper nodded curtly, "Okay then." Without another word the man walked towards the back door, which was slightly off set from the kitchen. As Killian walked through, his eyes flickered towards every corner of the room. His nerves were completely on edge. Any corner could be hiding a biter. Especially the dark and shadowy ones.

Killian jumped as the groan of wooden furniture on hardwood tiles broke the tense silence. "Are you trying to bring the biters knocking on the door?" He hissed sharply. "Be quiet!"

Jasper's blue eyes flickered towards Killian for a few split seconds, "I didn't make the noise, the furniture did."

Killian's whole body tensed. Anger seethed beneath his skin, boiling in his chest. His fists clenched. How dare Jasper mock his concerns? Did the other man have any sort of sense? "Alright asshole, you're going to make me-!"

"Now look who's being the loud one." Jasper teased. Killian ground his teeth together, his muscles slowly coiling. When Jasper smiled, the other man's smug expression made him want to punch it right off. Instead, Killian punched Jasper hard in the chest, then winced. Jasper raised a brow, "Look man, you've got to have more momentum behind that if you want to hurt me." He said.

Killian's lips parted with disbelief. Jasper was telling Killian exactly how hard to punch him for it to actually hurt? The man definitely had something not right going on; a few screws loose in his brain. Jasper pulled open the sliding glass door to the back porch and walked out. His heavy boots made a pleasant thumping sound on the wooden slats as he descended the stairs. Killian saw no tense muscle in the other man's body. How was Jasper completely relaxed? Was he not scared? That was until he remembered Jasper's statement the previous night. 'If being brave makes me stupid, then I'll take the title gladly,' or something along those lines. The man was an idiot.

Killian began to walk towards the back gate to leave, but Jasper was walking in the complete opposite direction. What exactly was this idiot thinking now? Killian was completely and utterly on edge, his eyes wildly flickering to and fro to scan the yard. He was especially suspicious about the possibility of a biter hiding in the hedges. Killian jumped again as an ear-splitting crack reverberated through the air and echoed off the sides of the neighboring houses. He whipped around to see that Jasper had kicked in the old wooden door of a tool shed. "What are you thinking?!" Killian demanded, stalking across the yard towards Jasper.

The other man let out a soft sigh of annoyance when Killian stormed up behind him. But to Killian's surprise, Jasper didn't seem annoyed with him. He seemed more annoyed with the fact that all of the tools in the shed were gone. "What were you thinking?" Killian demanded again with a hiss, "Are you trying to get us killed? Every biter in the neighborhood is probably-" Killian broke his words off as soon as he heard a loud snarl from behind him. A new biter was...not walking. It was sprinting! He shoved Jasper in front of him. "This is your fault, you take care of it!"

Jasper had grabbed a crowbar from the tool shed, which was the only thing he'd found left inside it. As soon as the biter got close enough, he swung it hard into the side of its head, caving in its skull. The creature flew off to the side and slammed into the wooden fence surrounding the back yard. Despite having caved in its skull and the gore covering the metal of the crowbar, the biter snapped its teeth at him and nibbled on his boot. "Oh, ew." Jasper said. "That's just vile." And promptly smashed its face in with the gory part of the crowbar. He looked down at Killian, who emerged from the shadows of the tool shed and gave the biter a swift kick to the chin just for good measure.

On the outside, Killian's demeanor was cold and detached. But on the inside, he was shaking. His heart pounded against his chest so hard he wondered if Jasper could hear it. Adrenaline rushed through his body, and an unpleasant shudder ran down his spine. "I've seen them move fast before," He said quietly, "But never that fast."

Jasper glanced down at Killian again, his blue eyes suddenly far-off. "I have," He muttered quietly. When he spoke in a quieter tone, Killian could hear the real depth in the other man's voice. It was strong and deep, like thunder in the distance of a rain storm. "When they first attacked the city, the newest turned biters could sprint faster than a trained soldier. Some men were taken out. They could even jump. Anderson, one of the other soldiers with us, was tackled off of the roof of a car." Jasper shuddered. "I used a bullet so I didn't have to hear his screams when he was torn apart."

Killian's whole body went rigid and his stomach dropped. How could Jasper speak so calmly about something as terrible as that? He didn't know how he managed to keep his voice steady but he said, "If this one is so newly turned that it can run like you said, then that means there's a group of biters big enough to take him down." Killian tilted his head to the side and walked around the body, "From the looks of things, he's a pretty big guy. It'd take a lot of them to bring him down."

"Not necessarily," Jasper said. "But we should still be more careful." The two stared at the body for a while longer, and Jasper was the first to break the silence. "We should get moving." He said sternly. This time, Killian didn't argue with him.