Darke Night

Day 11

There were screams! Terrifyingly so. It seemed like they came from everywhere. Over and over again, wretched sounds that pulled at your gut, and begged for deliverance. We rounded the corner, the dense and thickness of the trees, providing coverage to the scene we were preparing to witness. I knew that I should be feeling fear, know that the screams should want me to go the other way, flee and save myself. Instead, they pushed me on. I no longer knew what fear was, it did not affect me.

It was gruesome. Blood and...stuff was covering the clearing, it was all that was left of...people. Bones were littered on the ground, and it was fresh. The smell of blood was oxidized, like rust that had come loose on old iron tools. We could see "them." Two of them, stalking around the base of the ancient oak tree.They were treating what was above like sport.

The closer we got, the more they "danced," played with whatever was up in that tree. But they didn't seem to notice us. It was like we were invisible. It made a sense of invincibility surge through me. I knew better than to rush in though. We had no idea what we were in for, but we knew, that whatever was up in that tree, needed us.

Sasha crept up into another tree, as my mother urged her on. She signaled me to be quiet, and we circled the zombies as best we could. One on one. But were we strong enough? We would know soon enough.

They made a move to climb into the branches. The terror, the sound of fear from the upper branches made the decision to advance for us.

"Now!" Mom commanded.

We rushed in. It was time. They swung around quickly, almost in unison. Fleshy lip pads peeled back, stubs of teeth, feral in their slashing motion. You could see the blood, all across their faces, arms and chests, from their recent victims. They snarled, before renting a feral high pitched scream, rushing into us as they realized we were there. They were dense, their musculature thick and heavy. With our lite limbs and agile muscles, we were able to virtually glide over their heads. Applying force as I punched at one of their temples.

As we landed on our feet, they went down, but were back up quickly. "Mom, I think that if we can manage to damage their temples or literally break their necks, we should be able to stop them."

"We need to be able to get above them again." She said. I nodded in return. We pushed forward, as they danced backwards. We'd done some damage afterall. They squatted, eyeing us in unison as they decided what to do. Their eyes were feral, cold. The humanity, the spark, was gone, but what replaced it was savagery. They tried to assess us. You could see that we were an unknown. Humanity may have been gone, but some type of savage consciousness remained.

"Now!" I screamed as they leapt, we ran and slouched down to slide underneath their airborne bodies. Twisting back quickly, I was able to spring forward and land on the one closest to me. Tightening my arms around its neck, I applied pressure as Mom kicked its body in the opposite direction. I could feel a tightness, heaviness and a loud crunching sound rattled through my body from the zombies now lifeless form as its neck gave way under my pressure. Mom swung back around quickly, as the other zombie came back in full force. It slammed into her and they flew backwards. I dropped the slack form from within my grasp. I could hear as its limp body made final contact with the ground as I jumped on the back of the zombie that Mom fought with. Its teeth gnashed as it tried to take chunks out of her flesh, over and over again.

I could feel its flesh through the soles of my feet, and as I applied pressure to its upper spine, I gripped each hand alongside the meaty flesh of its neck. We worked as a team again, as we forced the zombies body into a compromising position and twisted its neck. This one was stronger, fought harder. But Mom worked her arm free and delivered a solid punch to the temple. It was all that I needed. For one moment, the body slackened and I used the advantage to twist. Within moment's all was done and I shoved the body off of Mom as I pulled her up from the ground.

I shook my head, looking at the blood on my hands. Blood that had come from the victims of the monster that I had defeated. I felt a thrill. I buzzing rush as I realized what I'd been able to accomplish. We were strong. We were deadly. And I liked the way it felt...

"Good?" Mom asked. "We did that pretty good."

"Yeah...better than I could have imagined. We...?" I paused, understanding was dawning in my mind. "We were created for this." I stepped back and looked around.

"I think you're right." She said. "Now, let's see what's up in that tree."

We walked over, only to see that Sasha had already made it there before us. It was with surprise that she sat on a lower limb, another young child wrapped in her arms. He was probably the same age as her. Tear streaks were blazing through the dried blood that covered his face. He should have been afraid of us. Monsters that we were. Instead he, still human, reached forward and fell right into the arms of mom. She cradled him close as Sasha jumped down and into my arms.

Heading back to the loader, we knew what our purpose was now.

© 2014, Aelfwynn MacGregor, AMB