The Third Breed

Zombie killer

“Max, what’s wrong?” Ariel calls out.

Lance was bothered by what he had heard, so he checked at what was happening. He sees his friend Waving at the man who was now squatting on top of a mound. He noticed their companions piercing gaze that made his whole body shudder.

With just one leap Max was already beside Ariel, and in a blink of an eye the bamboo was already pierced beside Ariel who was now lying on the ground, eyes wide open and shaking at the sight of a zombie that was slouching on the ground. Inches away from taking a huge bite.

“Ariel, Max!” Lance shouts unsheathing his bolo knife as he ran.

Dark reddish goo, oozed out of the pierced zombies head as it lay on the ground. It took a few more second before Ariel was able to roll away from it.

“Di...did you see that, what the hell! I thought the reports said zombies aren’t able to reach this high up the mountain, then what the hell is that!” Ariel screams, his body was still shivering after standing up as if he was dump in ice.

“Where in the mountains, it shouldn’t be possible.” Lance face was white as snow while looking at the grotesque creature on the ground, it’s mouth was still wide open, and it seems to have been crawling on the ground.

“Quiet,” Max hushes them, standing in attention while looking above the tall plants.

All of them were now in a state of readiness, they formed a circle, their backs at each other. Ariel was holding his tactical knife with two hands, Max had pulled out the still stained bamboo that killed the first monster and had another one on his other hand, while Lance gripped his weapon tight while holding his bag as a shield.

A gush of wind passed once more, pushing the tall grass aside. One, two, three and more round fleshy heads started showing up, getting closer and closer as the creatures moved unsteadily from side to side.

“We’re surrounded!” Lance steps backward as one of the zombies were already coming out of the tall grass.

“Ho…how the hell,” Ariel pants seeing several heads popping up from all sides.

“They’re slow,” Max says before charging at the closest ones.

With precise and rapid succession Max stabbed two of the monsters before they could even touch him, zigzagging as he dashes from one prey to the next. It was like the man wasn’t inhuman with his agile motion of jumping, twisting and turning.

Dark putrid eyes looked straight at Lance, raising its bony hands to try and grab his foot, he moves it before the creature was even able to reach it and before the monster could take another step, he lunges at it, pointing the tip of his bolo knife straight into one of its eye sockets and plunging it using the full force of his body.

Max was right, these zombies didn’t move like the once they encountered before, it was as if their knees were bent, forcing the creatures to move on all fours.

“Dammit!” Ariel shouts as he was pinned down by one of the corpse like beast when he missed and jabbed his knife on its neck.

Man and monster were now wrestling as Ariel tried hopelessly to avoid the claws and teeth of the creature.

Lance checks on Max, and sees that there was no way any of the zombies would be able to touch the man with such speed and strength, so he runs to his friends rescue. they manage to put it down when Ariel kept it steady for him to chop off its head.

“Ariel, on the look out, now!” Lance commands, pointing at the top of the supply crate, he realize that it was futile for his friend to fight right now because of the injury. So he passes him his blow gun.

Ariel nods to him before scampering.

“s**t, s**t, s**t!” Ariel cursed at the pain that jolted through his leg. The sprain was still causing him discomfort, as he limped towards the crate.

“Ariel calm down, they’re not as fast as before.” Lance says. Stabbing another zombie that was trying to reach for his friend.

When they were at the crate Lance quickly hoisted Ariel up on the top of the large rectangular iron box, before going back to the fray.

From above Ariel could see the mob of zombies surrounding them, without wasting anytime, he puts a darted vile on the blow gun, points it at the ones nearest to Lance before giving it one strong puff.

The dart hits its target, in minutes it starts to screech and convulse before slumping to the ground. All three continue their attacks as more creatures were coming out from the woods.

The decaying flesh monsters scattered around the place were now slump, motionless and silent, all were either decapitated, pierced or twisted. After almost an hour they had managed to kill the mob of crawling creatures.

“I think that was the last of them,” Max says in a calm voice, wiping the bowie knife on his cape.

Lance and Ariel was still gasping for air, while looking at all the gore and blood that drenched the grass lands

“How did they get up here?” Lance tries to say as he was still panting.

Max looks at him with a somewhat smug face “They’re changing,”

“Does that mean, they’ll be able to climb up mountains too,” Ariel was already grabbing his hair, his legs lost its strength as fear gripped his entire being.

“Ariel, snap out of it, were still not sure of that.” Lance scolds.

It was true that it was unheard of for a horde to reach this high up the mountains, but then again as Max already said, the zombies were changing. He immediately took out his notebook to write everything that has happened.

“We better hurry,” Max tells the two of them then pokes the supply crate with the bowie knife.

The man was trying to pry it open using the weapon.

“Max, that’s not going to work. That things built to withstand almost anything.” Lance can’t help but smile at the man while putting his notes back on his pocket.

Max just nods at him, then sits next to the still shaking Ariel. The man started tapping the worn out Ariel, Lance even heard him say some words of encouragement which makes him smile.

Lance circles the supply crate again to look for its opening, it was one of those special units supplies, it was rectangular and about fifteen square meters and ten feet high.

He stops upon seeing the locking mechanism, he opens it and starts punching numbered buttons on it.

The loud hissing sound and clanking of the mechanism got Ariel and Max’s attention. So the two immediately goes to him.

The insides of the supply crate was like a small room, with several smaller containers neatly stacked, one after another with tags, and basing on the looks of the inside they weren’t the first one to open it.

Max was eyeing the inside like a fascinated little child, while he and Ariel begun looking for the stuff that they needed.

“Here Max, take whatever you need,” He says after pulling out and opening a crate full of spears, swords, axes and other types of weapons.

Max nods, eyes full of delight at seeing the selection of goods in front. The man took out two katanas before climbing to the top of the crate, it seems he has decided to be on the look out for them.

Lance caught Ariel looking at a mirror inside. His friend was now in his underwear examining every part of his body which was now full of gashes and dried blood.

“Hey, its okay, you weren’t grazed, those are just bruises.” He assures him

“Are you sure?” Ariel’s eyes was still showing panic.

“Yes, infected bites or scratches usually leaves a venom like substance that causes the part to go on an instant decay, which usually turns the skin into a purplish color.” He explains gesturing at every wound that he was now checking. “And I don’t see any of it.”

Ariel let out a sigh of relief, before sitting at a nearby container. Hands on his face he lets out a muffled sob.

“I...I thought they said it was now safe to come back here, they said there shouldn’t be anymore hordes. Then what the hell are those things we’ve been encountering, that was already the third time! And it wasn’t just five or six, it was three dozen of em, three hungry ass dozen.” He screams, fist clench and breathing heavily as he looks back at him.

“There weren’t that many before. The first and second time I went on scout, the largest group we encountered was around ten, but the ones in the port, then at that village and now here, it just doesn’t make any sense.” Lance just massaged his temple, he let out a deep sigh, seeing as how things are taking a toll on his friend.

“Didn’t they say that the zombies should already be in a ‘state of decomposition,’” Ariel re-iterates with his fingers, gesturing each of the words.

Lance raises his head again, he had managed to give his friend a much more a calm look.

“Theoretically, that should be the case, since two hundred years had already passed after the pandemic.” he was now in deep thought, trying to come up with a possible explanation as to what exactly is the reason for all this.

“Then, what the hell is going on,” Ariel raises his voice once more, though he was holding on to his tears he can’t stop the dread he feels inside right now.

“I don’t know either, but we should probably get to camp, we need to report this as soon as possible,” Lance just gives his friend a straight face.

“I wasn’t ready for this,” Ariel just shook his head.

The young man ended up slouching, hands on face and again tried to stop the sobs that were coming out of him.

Lance just let out a deep breath before sitting next to his friend. “No one is,” he puts his hand around the young man’s shoulders and gives it an assuring tap.

“Then, why didn’t they just send the purgers,” Ariel lets out a raspy voice from keeping his cries.

Lance receives a weary look from the young man, while tears flowed all over Ariel’s face.

“Because they need to be sure of what to expect, that’s the main reason why the scouts were formed in the first place,” he tries to say in the most sensible way possible.

“I don’t know if I can still do this,” Ariel’s voice let out a squeaky sound while shoving his face on his hands again.

“We have to, the future of our colony and the rest of humanity depend on it,” he said with a strong steady voice. “We need to do this, no matter what, or else its really going to be the end of us all.”

That managed to give a pause to Ariel’s cries, as the young man gave a nod.

“And besides, we have Max with us now, did you see how he took out all those things,” Lance add up but this time with a much more livelier tone.

“Yeah,” Ariel finally smiled remembering it.

“So, pull yourself together, we can’t have him looking down on us now, can we? That’s not going to be good. If we want him to join us, we have to show him that were worth it.” Lance states

“Yeah.”

With another tap Lance stands up. “Now hurry up, we still have a long way to go.”

“I better pack a lot of marshmallow for him.” Ariel chuckles as he too stood up.

“Definitely.” Lance just gives him a good nudge. Making them both laugh.