Flesh Eaters

With Death There's Always Life

Chapter 22 - With Death There's Always Life

*Murphy's POV*

I stare intently down at Grey as she looks back. Her soft lips part as if she's going to say something but no words come out. I feel a smirk tug at the corners of my mouth as I watch emotions swim through her clear, brown eyes.

She stares up at me longingly. "Eater," she mumbles.

"What," I ask confused.

"Little help would be great," Baird's voice rings in my ears snapping me outta my daze.

I spin around and reach for the switchblade tucked away in my belt. As I race over to the monster stumbling toward Baird I flip the blade out. I wrap an arm around its chest and plant the blade into its skull.

The monster goes limp in my arms. I yank the switchblade free and look up at Baird. Behind him another eater stumbles out of the the forest. I drop the limp body and race over to it.

Painfully I clutch my stomach and send a kick to its chest. It clumsily stumbles backwards, slamming into the trunk of a tree. Before it can move I sink my knife into its sunken eye socket.

As it slowly falls to the ground I hear shuffling feet moving toward me. I spin around and thrust the blade into the head of another monster.

As it falls to the ground in front of me I suck in a sharp breath. Hundreds of eaters spill out from the forest. Their blood thirsty moans buzz in my ears as they close in.

A warm hand wraps around my ankle. Without thinking I immediately stomp it away only get a response.

"OW! WHAT THE FUCK!"

I glance down and see Baird. Quickly I crouch down next to him. "If I cut ya free your gonna help us get outta here. If you try somethin', anythin', your gonna regret it," I growl.

Without another word I slice through the zip-ties. Baird rubs his wrist for a moment before he nods and races to sleeping Mercedes.

I straighten and scan the stumbling mass of bodies for Grey. Not finding her I race forward. Eaters snap their jaws hungrily as I shove my way through the mass.

A bloody hand missing fingers grabs onto the sleeve of my shirt. I slash at it with my knife and keep pushing forward. Cold bodies slam into me causing me to fall. Eaters hover over me, slowly crouching down to tear flesh from my body.

Quickly I send kicks to the chests of two monsters before I push myself up off the pavement. As I straighten I come face-to-face with a bleeding face. The rotten skin hangs loosely from its thin frame as it grabs at my shirt. The beast bares its rotting teeth before it lunches forward.

I duck down just in time to avoid the bite. The eater stumbles in front of me. Before it can regain balance I stab my knife in the monsters stomach and cut upward. Its intestine and other organs spill out. They splatter onto the pavement with a sickening squishing sound.

I reach the tuff bone in the chest and begin the saw through it. The eater snarls and grabs at my shoulders. Eventually I cut through the bone. Now my knife's blade easily glides through the eaters neck slicing the monsters trachea and jugular.

The knife reaches the monsters lower jaw and refuses to cut any farther. I rip the blade free and force it through the temple, into the brain. The eater's growl cuts short as it goes limp and sinks to the ground.

I turn away from the dead eater as a gun shot rings through the deafening moans. Near the trucks I see Baird pulling Mercedes out of their truck. He pushes her forward aiming a pistol at any eater that stumbles to close.