Hunter

Chapter 16

        It was rather cold for this time of year. The moon had just shown up and the temperature had already dropped. We were waiting in a circle about one kilometer wide around the cemetery, equipped with axes, machetes and other cutting tools. The living-dead could not have gone farther being summoned at midnight. They were, no argument there, terrifying but awfully slow. When you knew how to handle them, the threat was minimal.

"Will we have to hang around much longer?" Gaspard grumbled.

My colleague was not a patient man. Nonetheless he was no hyperactive either. When the chance for a nap presented itself, he would take it, there was no stopping him. Him and I were partners for the night.

Little time after he had complained again, in the threatening shadows of the houses, specters of dust rose up to form new bodies. Soon, a putrid smell of decaying flesh filled the street.

"Oh hell! That stinks!" Gaspard said pinching his nose, waving his hand before him to push away the smell.

I walked forward with determination. He followed me.

"Remember, they won't let us rip off their skin! And when one of them complains, the others come to its rescue. That is when it will become perilous."

Pale, he nodded. For a moment, he was so white, I thought he was going to throw up. The putrefaction smell was growing with every step we took. As the space between us and the living-dead decreased, the more their figures appeared clearly, unveiling rags through which pieces of flesh barely holding on bones, themselves visible here and there, were showing. Their faces were no longer that. Their eyes were wide open since the lids were no longer there, sometimes even, there was one missing, or both.

Grabbing a knife attached to my belt, I got close to the first zombie, ready to cut him. It turned and let out a guttural and morbid complaint. I grabbed the sleeve of its half decomposed shirt and tore it. It let out another complaint, angrier this time, and rose his arms above its almost unfleshed skull, showing the only three teeth on its jaw.

"Now!" I yelled.

Gaspard reacted quickly, he brought the arms of the monster down and held him with all his strength, pulling a disgusted face. With light speed I firmly caught the sleeveless arm, cut a piece of flesh and shoved it into a small glass jar which I immediately put away in the purse attached to my belt.

Our victim fought back yelling with strength, forcing Gaspard to let go. The monster walked forward with a fast jolting walk, furious. Soon we found ourselves surrounded by four or five of the resurrected.

"Back to back! Quickly!" I yelled. "Take out everything that moves!"

He did. I could feel him shaking in my back. It was the first time he was facing this kind of creatures and the simple smell made him sick. Even I was beginning to feel ill. The smell was so powerful it suffocated us. The circle was shrinking and the macabre laments were getting closer.

Gaspard let out a scream, not of terror, but the scream of a man launching into battle, pretending not to care about his fate, but from whom you can feel the furious will to live emanating from the rage pushing him to act. I launched too and we attacked our assaillants. Behind me, Gaspard had started to cut down the monsters, I could hear him. I grasped my knife more firmly, stabbed our donor in the face who stumbled back, holding his head. I attacked him a second time and the zombie's head staggered, his eyes rolled backwards then he collapsed. Because of the shock, the head severed from the rest. I wheeled, ready to massacre a second one, but I did not have time to for it was already falling down in pieces at my feet. Surprised, I looked at the ground around me. Several bodies covered it. My knife still in my hand, I turned to look at Gaspard. Out of breath and covered with doughy blood, he was panting, machete in hand. I was speechless and stood there, staring at him without a word.

"Come on! Let's go back."

I followed him in silence and we went back to the office.

I hoped with all my  heart our teamates had succeeded in collecting a sample too, otherwise what we wanted to do next would be impossible.