TBWL#10: How many will die?
1283 Words
Things will happen if you expect it least.
Meeting people by chance is the best.
Let’s breathe while the air lasts.
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Calixto’s Point of View.
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If they continue banging the glass, it would break any moment from now. I cannot use the grenade since the blow would only amplify on the glass. It would not harm the zombie directly instead it would serve as a catalyst for the glass to break. “Let’s find an exit door. I’m sure this convenience store has an escape route,” says I.
This convenience store is quite big since this is the main source of goods in this area. Right now, we are looking for the fire exit.
“I found it!” Lore shouted, hence we circled around her. I held her hand to stop her from hastily opening the door.
“What if there are more zombies from the other side of this door?” I was thinking of the worst-case scenario. What if the moment we open the door, only death would embrace us? In the same sense, we ought to die once the zombies break the glass and enter this store.
“Don’t even hesitate. We have to gamble… open that f*****g door,” says Alice.
In the end, we decided to put our life on the line. Luckily, the road was empty and we hurriedly ran outside because we heard a loud crashing of the glass. It only means they are now looking for us. We barely made it outside, I thought we were going to die that very moment. If only we had not trapped them in that store.
“We have food now; the next agenda would be a place that night-walkers would not dare to enter. A place that has a light and so much electrical power. Nightwalkers are afraid of fire and direct light because they will explode.”
“Explode?”
Why would a light make formidable nightwalkers explode?
“We don’t exactly know why, but I think it has something to do with the chemicals their DNA contains. I heard they are the product of human greed in pursuing ambitious creation in the name of discovery.”
So, there’s actually a weakness for those monsters. If it was that easy to destroy them… why has Luzon not burned into ashes? The government could blow this entire region if they really wanted to end this farce. But they simply abandoned this place? Or maybe they did not abandon it because this place still has a purpose to his excellency? Will something worse than this happen, or perhaps the government is trying to find another solution aside from annihilating this land?
“Why are you so quiet?” says Lore.
“Nothing, I’m trying to compose myself after multiple threats bestowed on me.”
I heard Lore giggled. I can see her bright smile, which later on turned to be a laugh. “I see you have changed from a cowardly guy to a brave one. You told me this ‘keno’ whatever phobia, what exactly is it?”
She might laugh again, but I had to explain it to her. “I have Kinemortophobia, it is often considered a joke where, in reality, it is a very real phobia. Kinemortophobics are terrified of zombies or are afraid of turning into zombies. The word is derived from Greek “Kine” which means “to move”, Latin “mort” meaning dead, combined to form Kinemorto which means the “Walking dead”. People like me who have zombie-phobia are so terrified of “the walking dead” that even if someone does an imitation or impression of zombies, we often experience a full-blown panic attack. Most Kinemortophobics lose sleep over this fear and fail to understand our cultural fascination with zombies.”
“I see that is why you look stupid back then. I thought you were simply terrified or a coward. But how did you end up having that phobia?”
“My sister and I got stuck in the horror house, and a zombie appeared. I was too young at that time to handle such a scary thing. Since that day I have never gone to any horror houses, neither read nor watched movies about zombies.”
“Did you lose her because of them?”
Lore lowered her gaze; she was now watching her feet as we walked on the empty street. I patted her head and smiled. “I can feel that she is alive.” I heaved a heavy breath. Lore must have realized that it was not her place to ask that kind of question. “My father took him somewhere safe 20 years ago,” I murmured, hoping that she didn’t hear it. I don’t want to explain further about my complicated situation.
“I was left alone; my family was devoured by the nightwalkers.”
I did not expect her to tell her story. Now, I realized why he was mad that time when I kept on nagging her about the nightwalkers. She must be reminded of that bloody past when I asked if she had seen one. It was an honest mistake, back then I did not know she had such a terrible memory of nightwalkers. “I’m sorry,” I uttered.
“Their death has nothing to do with you, what are you sorry for?”
“Well, I felt bad when I asked you back then if you had seen one. I was ignorant of your emotions, so please forgive me.”
She smiled the sweetest smile, it was a contagious smile, and before I could hold my lips, I found myself smiling too. But it did not last long when something came across my mind. I feel so guilty. I may not be the reason for their death, but if this is my dad’s evil plan… partly, I am still Dalton, and I should take responsibility for my family’s wrongdoing.
“It has been a long walk; however, we still could not find a safe place to avoid encountering nightwalkers. It would not take long for the sun to vanish. The darkness will replace sooner, and it means our death will come with a blink of an eye,” says Romer.
“It would be meaningless to go back to the forest to spend another night on the trees. We are already far from the forest, it’s futile to go back there,” says Anya.
This is extremely dangerous, there is no place to hide here. The nightwalkers are sensitive and could easily detect humans. Our wound had stopped bleeding, but it does not mean the nightwalker could not find us. Disguising our smell with zombies’ blood would backfire since they can distinguish the smell of beings. Our blood would overwhelm the blood from a zombie. I am sure their abilities have a certain limit, how about the parameter? Their ability must have a certain length. If we lost them at a great distance, would they still recognize us?
What am I thinking? None of them make sense.
I looked around the area only to see houses with ruined windows and doors. There is no way we can be safe from those houses.
Shit! The sky is turning red-orange, we all know what comes after that color —darkness!
We have nowhere to hide!
“N-night walker,” says Lore, her finger pointing at the three nightwalkers from the distance, behind our backs.
They are the fast type of zombies…
How many will die from our group tonight?
Will I be a corpse this time?
- Writer
