Head Full of Ghosts

Chapter 12 - Flashback

Eli could feel the creature's hot breath as its mouth moved closer and closer. He was weak from hunger, exhaustion, and blood loss. His arms were shaking visibly under the strain as he summoned up the last of his strength to keep the creature at bay, but it was all for nothing, and he knew it. It would be only a matter of seconds and the thing would be on him, it's teeth ripping through his flesh, and then... and then...

And then he would be one of them.

A roar like thunder split the air and the creature pulled away from him, dropping back and holding the side of its head.

There was the sound of running footsteps, and then hands were grabbing him, pulling him, lifting him away. In the distance, the tip of the morning sun crested the tops of the trees, blinding him from seeing his rescuers. He turned away from the brightness, facing back to the mountain, and could just barely make out the cave he had come out of the night before, searching for his friends.

Searching for Amber.

"Were you bitten?" a voice asked, hushed but frantic.

"What?" Eli answered, numb. He was too confused by the bright light and being jerked around by unknown forces he no longer had the energy to resist to be able to understand the question, let alone answer it.

"Were you bitten? Did it bite you at all?"

"What the hell?" someone exclaimed before he had the chance to answer.

Eli turned away from the sound of the first voice and saw two men holding guns - long rifles or shotguns, he didn't really know - and beyond them, the creature that had just been attacking him.

Except it wasn't a creature. Or not just any creature.

"What the hell is it doing?" the other man that hadn't just spoken asked. He was referring to the way the creature was shrinking from them, but then every few seconds it would lurch forward and then let out a cry that sounded suspiciously like pain, and shrink back again.

"It's trying to stay out of the sun," explained Eli, his voice toneless and dead.

"Why would it be doing that?" the man nearest him asked.

"Because the sunlight can kill it."

The men both risked a suspicious glance at him at that. "What are you talking about?" the further one asked. "Zoms aren't hurt by sunlight."

"No," Eli agreed, "but vampires are."

The vampire lunged for Eli, risking the sun, but one of the men reacted quickly and slammed the butt of his gun into the side of it's head. The blow would've sent a normal person crashing to the ground, but the vampire barely stumbled. Still, it caused it to remain in the light for long enough that its flesh visibly started to smoke and flare, and that was enough to make it retreat back to the shadows.

"Put it out of its misery," said the second man.

The first man nodded and raised his gun, but Eli shouted, "No!" and lurched toward him. He didn't have the strength to do much to the man, but his weight was enough to just throw off his aim.

The shot went wide, but the creature hissed angrily, turned, and fled into the bushes, vanishing from sight.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" the man who had tried to fire demanded.

"I told you. It's not a zombie. It's a vampire. You won't kill it, just make it mad."

Eli's breath was coming hard, and he stumbled a bit as he spoke. The others eyed him suspiciously, backing away a little from him.