Death From Below

Chapter 24

I continue to hit the dead one in the head until I could inhale the metallic scent and feel it seep through my pores as it splattered across my face. I let out a sob as I forced myself to stand, feeling the weight bear down on the wound. I scuffle across the living room, using the back of the couch as a crutch. I make my way toward another one dragging in front of me and slash my blade along its neck, watching it sling forward and hang down its chest. I hear a scream come from my right and turn just in time to see a death grab a girl and jerk her back by her hair.

I try reaching for her but am too late when it bites into her face-ripping the skin and her right eye from its socket. She starts screaming and begs me as she reaches for me. I swing my blade, cutting into its head as it rips her arm from her body and blood paints the room red. Crying out, I give her mercy and make my way into the hall where I can hear more shouting. I cry out, grinding my teeth as someone running by knocks down a picture, hitting my wound, causing it to gush out more blood.

I see a kitchen to my left, make my way to the towel on the handle of the stove, and rip it to tie it around my leg. "Dante,?! Garret?! Josh?!" I scream out as a mangled body flies across the counter in front of me as its dead eyes stare deep into mine. I scream, seeing that it was a nice lady that helped me with my cravings from a while ago. I let out a battle cry and run forward, stumbling from the pain and impaling the dead one in the face with my sword shoving it into the wall behind it. I sling the blood off and, in what felt like slow motion, began swinging and dodging down the hall of the dead like it was my final dance.

I spin under one and over the back of another. I land swiftly on my feet to spin while twirling my blade and slicing through two heads at once. I am shoved to the side as two people came falling down the hall trying to wrestle off three death. I slash them behind the knees, and they tumble to the ground, where I swing my blade and cut through like a red velvet cake. The smell is so strong I can taste it and sling the blood from the sword with a quick flick of my wrist.

I continue down the hall to check the next room. I turn to see Josh and Garret fighting off six of them when one of them bites into Garret, making him cry out, and flashbacks fill my eyes along with my tears. I let out a scream that causes everyone to freeze and dive over one to grab the one that bit him, and I lift it off the ground by its throat and pin it on a coat rack as I use my bare hands and begin to tear through it as I scream out my pain of everything I have gone through. "Don't you fucking touch him!" I scream as I continue to dismember it bare-handed, throwing its body organs and parts over my shoulder. The house falls silent of both dead and living.

The only sound that remains is the slick squish of my hands in its body. I become numb from everything and don't realize that I have torn a hole through its head and abdomen until Garret pulls me away. I begin to back away from the body, the adrenalin fades, and head to the living room to see the girl who begged for my safety. I fall next to her on my knees and let out an agonizing scream of pain as I cry over her mangled corpse. I can't stop seeing her reaching for me as she begged me to save her, she couldn't be more than ten years old, and I failed her.

What if I fail to save my child or the girls. Standing up, I begin to hyperventilate as I cry out. "Girls, where are my girls?!" I cry. "Please, please don't let them be dead. Where are my babies?" I wail. With blurry eyes, I trip over a dead body slamming face-first inside the stomach of another.

I begin to throw up as I slowly push myself to my hands and knees and spew over the bodies and floor in front of my face. I began to lift myself to my feet when I hear a faint cry and spin towards a door, being blocked by a loveseat. "Babies? Are you guys okay?" I call out, feeling like I'm on the brink of death myself. I flip the couch over with one hand and jerking the door from its hinges, making the people on the other side cry out in fright. I first see Torrie and Angel then notice them using their bodies to cover the three babies hidden in their car seats with the covers zipped up.

I slowly step inside to see Torrie stand up, but Angel stands protectively in front of her until I spoke. "Are you guys okay? What happened?" I ask, seeing him relax. Torrie cries out, throwing herself into my arms, and begins to cry as if I had died. "Where were you?" she asks, hugging me tighter. "I'm okay. Garret saved me." I tell her, and they both look at me strangely.

"Are my babies okay?" I ask, and they nod. "Have you guys seen Dante? Is he okay?" I ask, and that is when I hear his voice. I spin around, throwing myself into his arms and begin to cry out all my pain and leaving kisses on his cheek repeatedly while chanting, "Thank God you are still alive." I couldn't even hear the others just focusing on Dante's beautiful brown eyes.