-WILL'S POV-
The beast sent one question pulsing through Will's mind: would it find him?
The group stared in complete terror as they witnessed what was going on nearby. Some sort of decaying creature was leading the undead, screeching at them in an unknown language. It was gigantic, its head rotated in almost every direction, its clawed hands were smothered in thick, pitch-black hair, skin drenched with blood and an arm reduced to bone.
"What the fuck is that thing?" Sean muttered. "Will, you've been out there tons of times, got any ideas?"
"I-I've never seen that thing before in my life. It could be one of those mutants," He responded. "But whatever that freak is, it's with them."
The troop had taken refuge inside the ruins of an abandoned building. They were outnumbered, but they had plenty of ammo in case they were detected. They'd been ambushed and had watched as several people they knew were ruthlessly slain, no matter how hard they fought.
"Shit," Mark sighed to himself. "Seven dead already. If they find us, we're done for."
"Don't think like that!" Lewis hissed in response. "We're armed. We can still fight."
"Rrrrghhh...."
At that point, everyone snapped into silence. Freezing, as if they were rooted on the spot. The undead were near. One wrong action wound send a genocidal pack towards them.
Will's eyes were wide open, bloodshot, frantically scanning the area. No sign of movement over than the stomping footsteps growing fainter as the pack left. But something inside him denied it. Something was here. Something was going to leap at him any moment. He could sense it. But at the same time, he questioned it.
Minutes passed before disaster struck. Somehow, they'd been noticed. A rotting, animated corpse crashed through the rubble, only to shot in the throat by Mark without hesitation. But many more had followed, surrounding them.
Whilst the crew started shooting the undead freaks down, Will noticed one getting close to Lewis and fired at it instantly. Seconds after, Sean screeched, a zombie pulling him backwards from behind. Will and Mark automatically fired at it, smothering the carcass with bullet holes until it let go.
Minutes that felt like days passed but the number of assailants were shrinking unbelievably slow. When Will reloaded, however, something smashed into his side, the force of the impact knocking him away from the others. Sean tried to aim at what had struck his ally, but several more animated cadavers ambushed him, desperate to barricade him from his struggling friend.
The creature that knocked Will down was no ordinary zombie. Is was one of the rare beasts that were occasionally seen, like the mutant leading the pack. They were all more feral than the rest of the dead.
This one's appearance was petrifying. Whilst it narrowly resembled an adult male, the beast's left eye was missing, the left hand was also gone, but with a blade roughly impaled into its place, as if it had already fought someone. Its right ear was hanging by a thread and some sort of peculiar mould was growing off part of its lower right body.
Will reloaded as the beast charged at him and shot twice, but the beast didn't fall. It leapt upon him, ravenous, jaws snapping, pinning him to the ground. Will yowled in terror, desperately trying to force it away from him, but the cannibalistic corpse was stronger than his grip and darted its head forward.
And then it bit him.
It chomped down, teeth sinking into his shoulder. Will screamed at the top of his lungs. This pain was something he had never felt before. It was like being stabbed and burned at once, the agony shooting through his body like lightning. The vicious soul then lurched its neck back, tearing skin and scrapes of flesh from its victim.
The pain was excruciating and Will couldn't fight back another howl. Warmth begun to trickle down his upper body. Blood. It was streaming like a waterfall. Will mercilessly kicked his attacker in the stomach, which successfully seemed to harm them, as they groaned in pain before slashing at him furiously.
The duo wrestled viciously before a deafening bang filled the air. The aggressor wailed and jolted away from Will. It writhed before flinching twice again - Will realized the sudden noises were gunshots - and then went limp. Deceased for good. Soulless.
Will gazed up to see the rest of the zombies had retreated, thankfully. Mark and Lewis had their guns pointed directly to the shaggy mass of flesh and bone, whilst Sean ran over to his wounded companion.
"Are they all gone?" Will asked, slowly getting up and placing his hand over his wound in attempt to stop the blood flow. "That thing- aghhh!"
"Careful. Take it easy," Sean commanded, before examining the injury. "Oh, shit."
"What?" Will responded, unable to hide the anxiousness in his voice. "Oh god, this bite isn't going to turn me into one of them, is it?"
Every mutant's bite was different, but no one knew why. It was as if they were experiments, someone programming their bites to each have different effects. Sometimes you turned into a zombie, too. Sometimes it gave you an agonising death on the spot. But, there was the chance you could live. But avoiding pain was not an option.
"I can't answer that, bud," Sean replied, shrugging. "I'm sorry."
"You can't?" A voice came from nearby. "But what if he turns? For fuck's sake!"
Sean turned round and realized the voice was Lewis, who looked like he'd seen a ghost. Mark sighed and shook his head, murmuring to himself.
Then terror hit Will full force, but also as swift as a gunshot through a zombie's head. His eyes widened, tears pricking his eyes. No. It couldn't be true. Or could it? His mind was spinning with thousands of questions.
"Wait!" Will stuttered, but it was also a mix of a whisper and the sound of choking. "It can't. You don't fu-"
"It's tough," Sean interrupted. "But I can't be certain if I can stop you from turning."
