MUTATION: THE FATE OF A SOLE SURVIVOR

Chapter 21: Parasite Versus Host

                Rosemary stared at Zombo with a frightened face. She took one step back, then two, and three. By the time Zombo grinned at her, she immediately broke into a run and ran for her life. Zombo smiled, raised the head of Ananias above him and drank the remaining blood that was coming out. Feeling refreshed, he dropped the head, sighed, and asked himself, "How long will it take to be free?".

He looked at where Rosemary last stood and said, "Oh well, there's still another obstacle denying my freedom. Have to take care of it".

"How much blood will you still spill?", asked a voice in his head.

Zombo looked round and asked, "Joe?". He then looked at the blade of the jack knife and saw me, crying and bearing all the wounds.

"How much more will you continue? When will you stop this senseless killing?", I asked with an anguished face, "When will this madness end!".

Zombo paused, then replied, "Until I've finally claimed my freedom".

"Freedom huh?", I asked as I shook my head, "Is this the freedom you wanted? To kill innocent people without holding back?".

"They are not innocent. They are obstacles denying my freedom. We cannot be free until we've eliminated every obstacle in our way", replied Zombo with a sinister voice.

I looked at him straight in the eyes and commented, "There is no freedom for a monster like you".

Agitated, Zombo barked, "What do you mean by that?".

"It's as I've said. You will never have that freedom!".

Annoyed, Zombo struck the wall with his left fist so hard that it punched through. He was breathing heavily as tension overwhelmed him. He yanked out his left hand, looked at the blade and didn't see me again. He looked at the place where Rosemary had last stood and said, "I'll show you Joe. My freedom is inevitable. Neither man nor mutant can stop it!".

***

Rosemary didn't know how much time had spent since she ran. She just kept running and running, focusing on one objective only: To find Lucy. Her mother was still in the hideout, searching for her after they had gotten separated. Lucy had begged her to find Joe and regroup with her in the control room, where Lucy would probably be browsing through the camera files for clues.

But now the situation was different. To Rosemary, I was now a savage beast killing everyone in the hideout, all in the name of "freedom". She couldn't understand how someone who is the key to the cure is now rampaging like a vicious maneater, slaughtering without a second thought. She couldn't believe it was the same person whom her mother had spoken so highly of that is now a monster. She saw it in my eyes that the person she had exchanged words with earlier was now a completely different person.

Suddenly, she felt the cold jaws of death looming behind her; the grim reaper armed with his scythe rushing towards her. She looked back and saw the immense killing intent emitting from Zombo as the latter was closing the gap between. She screamed and increased her speed, passed an opened slide door, and punched the buttons to close it. She opened fire on the buttons and destroyed them, hopefully blocking off Zombo, and continued running. She then heard a loud noise and looked back to see Zombo bursting through the door effortlessly while keeping his eyes on her. The fear increased her pace as she rushed with all her strength.

A maneater suddenly popped out from nowhere and jumped straight for Rosemary, who saw it and managed to bend down and dodge it in a nick of time. The maneater was then sliced in half by Zombo who grabbed the lower half and throw it at Rosemary. It hit her and made her tumble all the way into the control room, which comprised of a few chairs, a control panel, and a large screen on the wall. She gasped and immediately got back to her feet, knowing that wasting time meant death. She rushed towards the control panel and tried to shut the doors. At first, it looked as if she would have succeeded had it not been for Zombo throwing the knife straight towards the control panel and damaging it. Rosemary had no choice but to open fire at him, while the latter not only broke through the doors, but grabbed them, used them as a shield until he was close enough and hit her gun away from her. He kicked her with such force that her back hit the control panel and she fell down to the floor while coughing out blood. She looked up to see him coming towards her while throwing away the doors. She looked to her right and saw the knife he had thrown earlier. She immediately pulled it out and tried to stab him with it, but he caught the right hand which held the knife and squeezed it so much that she had no choice but to let go. He then grabbed her by the throat and held her high above his head.