MUTATION: THE FATE OF A SOLE SURVIVOR

Chapter 4: My Adversary Strikes Again

     It was a bright sunny afternoon, where the birds sang happily on the trees and the children giggled in excitement while their parents took them to the amusement park. Someone knocked on my door and I answered, beholding the lovely pair of eyes from Ana. She smiled while giving me a hug, added a kiss on the lips and exchanged greetings with me. I welcomed her in while she gave me a brand new phone as a birthday present. She decided to stay at my place for the day and we had much fun. Night fell and she prepared a wonderful dinner, which we enjoyed very much. It wasn't long after we finished our meal that we fell into heat and made love.
     I woke up that night and looked to my right. She rested her head on my right shoulder while making a lovely face while asleep. I smiled and kissed her forehead, which made her wake up and met my lovely gaze. She smiled and leaned forward to give me a kiss on the lips.
     " Thanks Ana", I said while using my right hand to play with her hair.
     " No problem Joe. After all it's your birthday", she replied and gave me another kiss again.
     " Does your father know that you're here?".
     " Yep. I told him I was gonna stay at your place".
     I sighed," And he was okay with it just like that?".
     " You know my dad. Gave me a long look before saying,' You better not get pregnant' ".
     " That means I'll be dead when we meet".
     She giggled," Try to survive then".
     " Why you little..", I replied and pounced upon her, enveloping her in my arms while she laughed and kissed me.
     Suddenly we heard the sound of a barking dog outside our house. Before I got out of bed to see why it was barking, one of the windows in the living room broken into pieces as something invaded the house. Alarmed, I told Ana to stay on the bed while I took out a rifle and headed downstairs to the living room. I saw the broken glasses on the floor and a bloody footprints of a dog on the floor. Following the footprints, I found the dog on the kitchen table, heavily injured and on the verge on death. Most of it's body was either bitten or chewed or torn apart from it's body. The sight of it astonished me and made me act more defensive. I walked cautiously towards it while my gun was aimed at it's head. Then it began to move slowly until it stood on it's paws. All the while I took a defensive stance and watched it. The more I observed, the more the dog became strangely familiar to me. Slowly, I lowered my gun when i discovered what it was.
     " White Fangs?", I asked in a hoarse tone.
     The dog whined in pain while making frantic efforts to move. As I increased my pace, I heard footsteps from behind. I looked over my shoulders and saw Ana rushing it.
     " Ana it's okay. It's just-".
     " Kill it!", She screamed the order while pointing at White Fangs.
     I didn't understood what she meant by that. I felt a menacing presence in front of me and turned back to see White Fangs in mid air, diving for my throat.

***

     I jerked from my sleep and fell chest first to the floor, pulling the blanket with me. White Fangs, who usually shared the bed with me, woke up as well and jumped down to meet me. My behaviour however shocked him. Immediately I saw him, I reached for my gun, aimed it at him and nearly pulled the trigger before coming back to my senses. White Fangs immediately reacted and ducked away to a corner, frightened to the bone. I slowly dropped the gun and breathed heavily like some asthmatic patient.
     " I'm very sorry White Fangs", I apologised while beckoning him to come with my right hand." I will never do anything to hurt you".
     White Fangs hesitated at first, but later summoned up courage and cuddled himself in the open hands of his master. I had to relax and take things slow, not exposing my weakness to White Fang. The dream however was still fresh in my mind. I knew what it meant, and I had already decided that nothing will make White Fang be in that horrible state.

***

     We drove right into the city, heading straight to a Grocery store I became fond of. There were many provisions that could last for months, mainly because there were no other human beings available to seize the loot. White Fangs exposed his head through the passenger window while letting the wind have it's way with his tongue. He enjoyed every minute of it, wiggling his tail in excitement. I knew he wished he could bark too, but that will attract unwanted predators.
     We arrived first in front of the mall. The building itself was huge but looked like it would collapse soon. Most of the windows were shattered into pieces during the crisis, with the doors torn apart, giving an easy assess into the store. Everytime I came here, there were always zombies to kill, and their numbers decreased each time I came. The last time I came here, I only found one zombie, so White Fangs took care of it while I gathered what we needed.
     Still, I didn't wanted to take chances, so I brought out my rifle and proceeded towards the building with White Fangs. Before we entered, a ringing tone was heard to my right, and I turned to find the sound coming from a phone booth. White Fangs barked fiercely at the booth, indicating that I should check it out.
     I hesitated before obeying. I entered the booth and answered the call." Hello?", I asked kerping my eyes open for any danger.
     There was no reply, so I asked a second time," Help? Anyone there?".
     " We meet again Joe", came the reply.
     My heartbeat increased once I heard the voice. It was the voice of the one who had been tormenting me ever since we came to Mexico. The same voice that took away my best friend. The same voice that was responsible for this pandemic.
     " What the hell do you want?", I asked in an angry tone, trying as hard as I could to hide my fear.
     " Don't hide it Joe. I can feel it. The fear. The shock. Every single expression you are making, I feel it".
     " Then rest assured that when I find you your death will be far more worse than you imagined".
     There was laughter at the other end," Yes Joe. I really want to meet you and see what you will do to me".
     " Then tell me where you are so that I can give you a befitting death".
     " There is no need to rush Joe. The way you are right now will give me no pleasure to fight you. Think of what all that is happening is as a training process to make you fit for your revenge".
     " Training process?!", I fumed." Does this look like some joke to you? You are going to pay for what you did to the others".
     " Does that include what I'm gonna do to your dog?".
     " What?!".
     Just then, a loud howl echoed from the building. White Fangs, hypnotized by this howl, returned it with his own howl and rushed into the building with breakneck speed, something I've never seen him done before.
     " White Fangs!", I yelled while bolting out from the booth to chase after him. However, I tripped over something and fell chest first to the ground. I wasted no time getting back to my feet, but by that time White Fangs had already disappeared into the building.