Becoming Them: A Zombie Novel

Thirty

     "Are you okay?" Ava asked as she rushed over to me, worry taking over her recent bouts of laughter and enjoyment. She made sure not to laugh too loud.

     "I'm fine. I think it's just a bruise." I pushed the bike off of me and Ava held out a hand to pull me up.

     "Well, I did tell you not to go too fast on your first go," Ava reprimanded.

     I glared at her. "You couldn't save the 'I told you so' for later, could you?"

     A bright, innocent smile grew on her face. "It only makes sense to use it up now!"

     I shook my head. When I attempted to walk, a faint pain shot up my calf and I ended up limping.

     "I think you need to sit down for a bit." Ava sidled up beside me, one hand around my waist and one on my arm as she led me to the side of the pavement.

     When we got there and I sat, I rolled up my pant leg and saw a dark bruise. "It's just a bruise."

     "Yeah, rest should do it."

     Looking past her, I noticed looming figures in the shadows of the next building.

     "I don't think I've got much time to rest," I said, pointing to the group of zeds that we had seen before. Their mouths and hands were covered in blood.

     Ava froze up. "They're ... they're coming right toward us. They've seen us."

     "It's okay," I said as I slowly got up. "I can deal with them."

     She placed a hand on my shoulder. "No, you can't. You've got a bad leg—"

     "I can—"

     Ava placed a finger on my lips to stop me from talking. "I should do this."

     "You don't have to."

     "I've never killed one before. I think I could do with the practice, don't you think?" she said, chuckling, giving a small smile. It was half-hearted, her lip quivering and eyes darting back and forth between the zeds and me, but it was nice to see her try to be brave even though I never asked her to be.

     "Give me a run-through of what you're going to do," I ordered her.

     "Uh, well, I'm going to use my knife for this. I'm going to get the one at the front because there's a bit of a distance between him and the ones at the back." She hesitated, not knowing what words to say. "I'll try to, um, trip him and when he falls, I'll stab him in the head."

     They were dangerously close now, arriving at the other end of the row of shops we were near to.

     Ava's hands were shaking as she took a knife out of her pocket and held it up. She began to walk over to them, and I thought I should have something ready just in case things went wrong.

     Standing up as quietly as I could so as not to distract her, I got three blades of my own out. I held two on my left hand while I got the third one ready in my other, holding it tightly. I stayed ready for anything.

     Seeing her so scared brought back awful memories of me trying to kill my first zed, and I had failed. I needed Joe to come to my rescue.

     As Ava edged closer to them, I couldn't help but wonder that if something happened, what if I didn't react as quickly?

     Before Ava could stab at the male zed, I had thrust my own blade into its forehead, making it drop to the floor. A confused Ava stared at it, then behind her where the blade had come from. I only gave her a look of urgency to retreat and she listened. She didn't say anything until I had made all of the zeds drop like flies one after the other.