A New Type of Realism

(19) Conflict - Nerve Meets Bone

That was when I lost it. Every shred of dignity and self-preservation jumped out of the window, hijacked the nearest car and drove across whole continents in an attempt to get away from my rage. I went for him.

...........................

As soon as I lunged for him, noise erupted around me. In my state, as drunk on rage as I was, the deafening roars could have been anything. They may have been the sounds of the infected as they brought both gates and fences to the ground with the astounding strength of numbers in waves. Likewise, it could have been my friends trying to stop me as they tried and failed to hold me back.

In my sudden leap of anger, I had slammed into Slade, forcing him back so that he toppled over the chair behind him. He landed in a position which, if I were in any other emotional state, I would have laughed at. His legs peddled in fast circles in the air as he tried to free himself from the grasp of his four legged, inanimate enemy. I picked up the chair by its legs and threw it to the side, reaching down to grab the collar of Slade's shirt a nanosecond later.

The next few seconds passed in a blur; somehow, I had gone from having my fist barely an inch away from Slade's obnoxious nose, to being held with both of my arms behind my back, watching him run away on legs impaired by fear.

I fought the hand that bound me with all of my strength, and, if you've ever wondered who would win the fight between the couch potato and the nerd who's lived the majority of his life holed up in a darkened room, who had a broken hand...

Well, I wasn't the one who received an elbow to the face, clutching at the pain and staring at my assailant through the slits between my fingers as he sped away from me. That job was left to Cooper.

The dull ache in my elbow had subsided by the time I had reached the door at the opposite end of the room, Cooper's face had been harder than I had expected. I grabbed at the handle a couple of times before I finally got a proper hold on it. I twisted with violent accuracy and flung the door open, racing through it to the world that awaited me beyond.

The icy air did nothing to cool the fire that burned inside of me, though shiver I did, as I stood still, searching the landscape for my intended target. In that instant I heard the grating of a gate and realised with horror that Slade had stupidly sought refuge outside of the compound. I hated him, but I did not want to be the reason that he died. I sprinted for the first gate as it closed slowly while the second gate had just finished opening.

I caught sight of Slade as he tried to break into the truck that I had acquired earlier, but he did not have the keys; I did, and I had locked the vehicle prior to leaving it. I watched him as I approached him. He seemed to realise that his attempts to get into the truck were futile, and abandoned it in favour of running along the border of the base, what he planned to do, I had no idea, but I knew what I was going to do, despite how my mind was screaming at me to calm down. I never really was one to listen to orders.

I heard shouting, and turned to see Maggie and Martin pleading for both me AND Slade to get back inside, that we could argue anytime we chose, as long as we were inside.

I jumped when I caught sight of motion behind me, but relaxed when I saw that it was Cooper, he had followed us out in an attempted to bring us both back inside. I kept up my fast pace, closing in on Slade. Cooper did not stop shouting for us to stop, even trying as he was to catch up with us.

Finally, I managed to catch up with Slade. I grabbed the back of his shirt, dragging him to the ground. He wriggled free of my poor hold and slithered through the mud like the worm he was before he was up and on his feet again. I flung myself from my knees for his feet, pulling him down once more. He kicked at my hands and face viciously, yet not one blow landed on its intended target. The only thing he achieved was to loosen my hold of his booted foot. I had grabbed onto his laces in a last attempt to keep a hold of him, pulling them out of the knot that they had been tied in.

He pulled his foot from out of my grasp, leapt to his feet and began to run again. I did the same. The only advantage I've ever had in life came in extreme handy. I had longer legs. I could run faster, with less effort. I caught up to him just as I had before.

I reached for the fabric of his shirt once more, though he ducked at precisely the right time to pick up a fallen branch from the forest that surrounded half of the compound. Immediately, he twisted as he ran, swinging the branch at my head. I hung back as he ran out of range, only to pick my pace back up again.

The second time he tried to hit me with the branch, I ducked under the arch of it, wrapped my arms around Slade's waist and tackled him halfway to the ground. He would have fallen completely had the fence not gotten in the way. He had dropped his makeshift weapon however. I had him pinned between me and the fence. He was vulnerable, and I knew it. I raised my fist, ready strike.

This time, there was no one to stop me from hitting the bulls eye. Slade doubled over as my stomach shot brought him into a whole new world of pain. I grabbed hold of his head and slammed the bridge of his nose into my upcoming knee. I landed a few more blows before I was wrenched away from him by who I could only presume was Cooper. This time I did not struggle, Slade had suffered, and my rage was satisfied.

Slade stood up straight and breathed in deep as he closed his eyes to the sky. Suddenly, he lunged at me, his head striking like a cannon ball in my stomach. I would have fallen back if Cooper hadn't been there to push me the other way. He jumped between us, holding out his uninjured hand to try and keep us apart. His look clearly signified that enough was enough. All three of us were breathing hard. "This is childish! You two are better than this."

"I am, not sure about him." Slade sneered. I tried to tackle him again, but Cooper stopped me. He gave me one of those withering looks which I thought he had only reserved for Slade.

"Slade. Do you have something you want to say?" Slade stared at him in ignorance. "It begins with an 's'." Cooper hinted.

"Oh, yeah, Dile, you're a stupid, supercilious, self-centred scoundrel and a slimy, snake-like slacker, oh, and just a general fail at life. I'm sorry that you exist and continue to suffer due to your depressing life." Cooper glared at him and pushed him slightly with the palm of his hand. He then turned to me to check that I would not try to make for the psychopath again. I had a hard time to try to keep my anger in check.

"Fine. We can do this back inside the compound. Will you two at least wait until you're past the gates before you try to kill each other?" Slade nodded slightly as I grumbled a vague reply. Cooper turned his back and left us to follow him side by side, which wasn't one of Cooper's better ideas. One tiny comment left Slade's mouth before I was attacking him again.

Cooper once more tried to pull me off of him, but Slade would not let him break up the fight that easily this time. He continued to fight me through the gaps in Cooper's defence. Cooper turned and used his shoulder to push Slade back from me. I remained where I was as Slade's last punch had left me reeling.

I saw Slade grit his teeth and tense up as he prepared to run back to me. He viciously tossed Cooper to the side, pushing him with full force, before the fight began again. Finally, Cooper had gotten the message and stopped trying to separate us.

Shortly after, the fight ended as we realised that we were both as strong as each other; our brawl was going nowhere. We both lay on our backs on the ground after the fighting had drained us both of energy. I'd get my breath back before heading back inside, and I was sure that Slade would do exactly the same.

It was only in our silence that we heard the screams. I turned to my head to the side quickly to share a worried look of shock and realisation with Slade before we both rose to our feet to watch the last hopes for Cooper's remaining humanity, disappear.

After that, we had no choice but to run for our own humanity.

......................

Re-written: 28th May 2016

- and that's the end of the rewrites! Anything beyond this point is new material! Hope you like it all!

-ifindedcake