The Third Breed

To the mountains

Hearts racing, they can feel its loud pumping, as blood rushed through their veins. But the two did not stop running.

Even with branches slapping them and bushes hindering their way, it was not enough to slow them down.

They cared less that they could not see anything in front of them because of the tall spikes of grass. All that was important right now was to reach the higher paths of the mountain and get as far away as possible from horrors that were running after them.

They could hear the screeching and growls from behind, along with the snapping of twigs and rustling of bushes. It wasn’t even a matter of minutes when several naked mob of wobbling, rotting flesh of human like creatures can be seen closing in on them.

The stench of mix rot, dried blood and feces kept getting stronger as the creatures were getting closer.

Skeletal like, skin barely holding on to their muscles, the creatures were still able to move in jog like speed, not slowing down as the things did not feel any exhaustion.

At first it was just three zombies that had notice them as they entered the forest, thinking they could out run it, they continued, only to encounter a few more stragglers on the way. Now there was at least two dozen of the hungry monster viciously at their backs.

Ariel readied his bow, when they reach a field in one quick motion he turns, aim and shoots and runs again. Lance kept phase, stopping when needed in order to cover the young man’s back.

One zombie falls down from a head shot, but another one immediately appears behind it, it was like a never ending game of hit and run between them until Ariel ran out of arrows.

When they finally reach the foot of the mountain, there were only eight of those things behind them.

Even few in numbers Lance knew they were still no match for the shear strength of the zombies, all he could do was pray and hope that the mountains terrain had enough uneven slopes to hinder and stop the monsters advances.

Ariel was already gasping for air, his movements had started to slow down and was now slouching as they started ascending.

Lance knew his friend was already tired, the weight of their baggage was also beginning to wear them down, making the uneven earth a true challenge to their strength.

Not even their rigorous scout training could compare to what they were experiencing right now.

“C’mon, were losing them!” Lance shouts to his friend.

The eight zombies pursuing them was no near as tired as them, but as he had expected the rough terrain of the mountain was too complicated for the monster to run to.

Though it was no laughing matter the zombies somewhat looked stupid and funny, like babies trying to properly walk on slants of earth, slipping, crawling and tumbling down but never stopping.

Sheer relief and excitement etched on both Lance and Ariel’s faces as they call on every remaining strength they had to increase their gap from their pursuers.

“s**t!” Ariel shouts as he falls down when his foot got caught in a root. He screams in panic as he slides downward.

Lance immediately notices and stops, he chases after his friend. jumping from one mound to another while trying to balance himself as he sped down in pursuit of his friend.

Ariel manages to grab unto a young tree, stopping his slide towards certain doom. “f**k! f**k!” His eyes grew wide when he see’s one of the zombies crawling just below his feet.

He tries to pull himself up with his remaining strength, because his legs was already screaming in pain.

Before the zombie could reach Ariel’s legm Lance lunges at it. The creature shrieks in agony as Lance lands his bolo knife straight to its head, it felt like the weapon was going in a slab of gelatinous piece of meat when he managed to pierce through its soft skull. Kicking its shoulder he was able to pull out his knife.

The creature slumped, no longer able to move as it begun to roll like a piece of log, hitting and abruptly putting the other zombies to a sudden halt.

Lance pulls Ariel’s hand and puts it on his shoulders forcing him to stand up. He was not going let him be eaten alive.

Ariel wince as a stabbing pain shots through his foot, they try to hike again, grabbing small tree’s and branches as they pull themselves up the mountain.

“Their moving again!” Ariel says seeing as how the tireless zombies has started to continue pursuing them.

“Just keep walking,” Lance scolds as he carried both their weight.

He could feel his knees and joints already giving up, as each of his step was becoming heavier by the minute. But the thought of the monster munching on their skin and bones made each of his parts move.

“Just leave me, I’ll buy you sometime,” Ariel shoves him.

Falling down on his butt, Ariel faces the monstrosity that were now just a few meters away from them. He takes out his tactical knife shaking as he looked at the rotting faces of the creatures.

Blood shot eyes were looking at them, with uneven blackish grimy teeth. The zombies let out growls stretching their thin muddy arms to reach Lance and Ariel. Greenish saliva were dripping from their mouths as if craving for the warm bodies.

“No, you’re not,” Lance shouts as he grabs on to Ariel’s bag and starts pulling him inch by inch, all the while trying to hold on to the nearby branches, trees or whatever was there to keep them from sliding down again.

A few more minutes of extreme effort, Both men finally reach their limit, panting and barely able to move anymore, they end up stopping at the roots of a young tree.

“I can’t, I just…,” Ariel gasp as the monsters were now getting closer.

Lance sits beside the wounded Ariel, bolo knife on one had for defense, he starts rummaging through his things, remembering something he had pack for cases like these.

“What are you doing?” Ariel sobs, he was angry at himself. If only he had not sprained his ankle they would not be in this situation. But because of his mistake they were both going to be killed. He couldn’t accept the fact that he was going to be the reason for his friends death.

Though they were in a pinch, Ariel could not see any worry from his friend, the man remained vigilant while frantically throwing things out of the bag.

“Here!” Lance shouts in triumph as he took out a six inch black tube.

Two zombies were already at their feet, their mouths made snapping like sounds while gnawing.

Lance was now panicking trying to open the tubes top seal but ended up frozen in place as a shadow suddenly loomed over them.

They imeediately duck, raising their hands over their head to protect themselves from what was about to come.

But they just hear the loud and nerve racking screech of the two creatures along with a loud stump and crunch.

When they both looked, a huge black caped figure was now in their face. Its back was facing them, but they can see two poles made of bamboo coming out of the cape, it’s ends were lodge into the zombies heads.

The hooded figure jumps towards the remaining six monsters, Lance and Ariel gaped at the sight, amazed at how high the mysterious being had leaped.

It was as if they saw a huge bird of prey going on for a swoop, the black cape flapped and danced to the winds as the mysterious being dashed towards its victims.

While in the air it swiftly turned like a ballerina doing a roundabout motion, before making a swift stabbing move at the two closest zombies. The remaining four creatures race towards the being and just like before it immediately pulled out it’s weapons, one after the other with quick succession it pierced the two closest zombies once again, but before the being could pull it out, both bamboo’s broke and two more zombies were already beside the hooded figure.

“Look out!” Lance shouts as he was able to find strength to stand again. Bolo knife at the ready he prepared himself to come to their saviors aid, only to be dumbfounded once more.

He barely saw it, but their saviors hand did a quick hold on the two zombies chin before forcing each of the creatures head in an odd angle, with one quick motion of palms, the being had managed to twist the zombies head in a three hundred sixty degree manner, making the creatures swirl before slumping to the ground, no longer able to move.

“Whoa,” Ariel’s mouth form a smile as he gaped.

While Lance just stared, eyes wide in full surprise and amazement. They have never seen or heard of anyone being able to take down a group of zombies like that, rather he never saw anyone fight like this person before.

The being turns to them, eyes squinting as if in disbelief upon seeing the two of them there.

Upon looking closer they could clearly see the figure was a man, a scarf was covering his face, showing only his sharp glaring eyes, arms wrapped up to the elbow in some kind of grayish cloth, biceps built like that of a tree trunk, his sleeveless shirt was tightly fit, showing a bulky chest.

The black hooded cloak managed to hid all of those before, but they could now properly see that the man was also wearing black army boots and tactical pants.

Even in their group there was no one as buff and well sculpted like the person in front of them. He was like an ancient warrior which they would only read in books and see on school shows.

“We...were saved!” Ariel sobs, as he leaps to his feet in sheer joy, not giving a care on the throbbing pain on his foot.

“Who are you?” Lance blurts out, yet it was like a whisper as he was still unable to take in all of the things that had happened.

The hooded man faces the two of them, forehead creased, arms crossed with a sharp look in his eyes. He stood in front of them like an unnerved statue of judgment.