The Undead Ruined Me

Chapter 6

For all I know Miss Yez could have just turned around, taken my sister and left me here. I mean, I don't even really know the woman and I just opened the door and left without my defenceless little sister.

'Don't let the new world ruin you' she said, I didn't just let the world ruin me; I let it take all of my senses, hand them to Satan and then return them to me. My mum has been dead for just over an hour, and I've already screwed everything up.

I start to panic about the whole can't see anything ahead of me, including my future, idea and just wish I had some sort of moonlight to turn to... still nothing. I then start to feel all of the guilt and regret about leaving my whole family to die, and then strangely enough, I think of Dad. About how disappointed he'd be. Mum always said that he was proud of me, and most of the time, I believed her, but now, not so much.

Well, if I have to do this alone, first place to start is to clear my head. I need to calm down and relax for one second.

I sit down on the grass occupying the right side of the road and close my eyes. I breathe deeply, in and out, I let the darkness surround me like a warm blanket and erase my thoughts.

"This is great." I say quietly to myself. "You're doing fine."

And all was going fine until I hear a faint grunt from behind me. This wouldn't have been a problem before, but now seeming there are immortal, flesh eating monsters roaming around, this worries me.

I emerge from my calm state and attempt to look around for any sign of movement.

Nothing...

I begin to move away from the sound, but it is following me. By the pace of its feet and the ridiculous gargling sound in its throat, I already know it's the undead, but where it is, is the problem.

Now panting heavily and my feet shuffling along the ground, I am obviously making this thing completely aware that I am here. I need a weapon or something, I think...

I search around the best I can in the pitch darkness to look for a weapon or at least, something sharp. I find nothing sharp, long or a weapon of any sort but I do pick up a large piece of orange safety fencing. I realise that this won't harm the undead in anyway, unless he's allergic to the colour orange, but hopefully it will buy me some time. I throw the net-like fencing over the monster, but there is no way to be completely sure that it trapped him, but by the way that his feet are shuffling around, and the way that he is grunting like a skinned pig, I'm pretty sure I got him.

I frantically start running laps around the area, the gargling now becoming louder than it was before. I stretch my arms out to try and find something else to use, or even hide behind.

My hand runs across a rough surface, and I know exactly what it is, a tree, just like the one back at home. I run my hands up and down the jagged tree bark, until I find a good grip and attempt to pull myself up it.

I used to climb my tree all the time when I was younger, so you'd think I was a professional by now, nope, apparently not. Not only was it difficult to pull myself up the damn thing, I couldn't even see a glimpse of what this tree looked like, how tall it was or how stable it was. In other words, I would be the only human on earth right now that has the chance of dying from falling out of a tree; but, I'm doing well so far, so everything should be fine.

After climbing up, high enough to be out of reach of the flesh hungry man below me, but not high enough to die if I fall, I finally feel a small branch that is easy enough to break off the trunk.

With my right arm and both legs wrapped tightly around the tree, latched onto the holes and ledges fitted into the twisting wood of the trunk, I stretch out my left arm and reach for the branch.

I tug on the weak, oak wood, but nothing happens, maybe this thing isn't as weak as I once thought it was.

The constant noise from below me is infuriating. It is fuelling the fire within me to move forwards, but most importantly, to survive. I tug one more time at the, quite impossible-to-break branch and highly consider giving up and just running away from the undead man below me.

But then the most beautiful thing happens.

Moonlight shifts though like high beams from behind the clouds, revealing the rough terrain of asphalt below me. I look around the tree and surrounding area a little bit more before I try to find another escape route for the second time tonight, seeming this branch is obviously not going to budge.

Something finally catches my attention and the best idea I've ever had strikes my mind. I spot another branch reaching around the other side of tree. The extra wood sprawling out, to my luck, looks significantly snap-able. The only problem is it is around the other side of the wide tree of sudden death, and is a lot higher than the branch that I am at now.

I start to shimmy up the tree with great difficulty, but I'm getting there; slowly but surely, and I begin to think that maybe things will finally go my way, for once.

But not too long after my stroke of luck, the cross-grained bark is scraping at my arms like barbed wire, and the pain is starting to get to me. I am at least, one arms-length from my only hope of killing this thing, and I am about to slip and fall to my feasible death.

I can feel the movement of my body, slowly sliding down the tree. And all at once I can hear the horrific groans again, not just one or two; there is a lot of groaning.

The horde is coming back.

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