Chapter 8- Zombie Follower (Part 1)
*The Next Day*
"Asher… Hey! Asher. Wake up."
As Edward was sleeping, a voice whispered in his ear and made him frown slightly before cracking open his eyelids to check what it was.
Slowly, Sali's silhouette appeared in his vision and made him squint slightly as the light of the morning's sun was too strong.
"Ugh, what?"
"We need to leave now." She said with a serious tone.
"Huh? Why?"
"A Zombie Legion is approaching this area."
"A Zombie Legion?" Hearing that word, Edward was instantly awake.
A Zombie Legion is a term used in the story to indicate a huge group of Zombies that always moves in union for unknown reasons. Nobody could understand why these Zombies would be conscious enough to form distinct groups they belong to, almost like a tribal system.
The Zombies weren't animals nor humans, they were a mindless bunch that moved simply according to instinct and had no awareness of neither their surroundings nor what could be potentially harmful or not. Yet, they somehow show these bits and pieces of behavior that was far from being simply instinctual but could be considered a form of… intelligence?
'I didn't know I will ever say that Zombies could potentially be smart. But, here we are.' Edward thought as he stood up and walked to the window.
Since they were on the second floor of an abandoned house, he could clearly see far into the horizon. It didn't take him a moment to notice the silhouettes of countless Zombies walking in their direction.
"Thankfully, we aren't moving in that direction. But, we can't stay here either as they will eventually reach us." Picking up everything, Sali put her sword on her back and then grabbed Edward's hand.
The latter nodded and followed after her. Quickly, the two were back on the road.
"I'm sorry we couldn't eat breakfast. Here, eat this for the time being." She said as she handed Edward a chocolate bar.
"No, I'm not hungry."
"Eat. You need energy for the trip." Sali repeated her words sternly like a mother scolding her son.
"Fine."
Taking the chocolate bar, Edward started nibbling on it as he looked back at where they came from.
"How long would it take for the Zombies to reach that place?"
"Hmm, considering their speed. Maybe an hour or two."
"I see."
'Dammit, I really would've wanted to experiment with the Zombiemancer skill I have. I couldn't find a single zombie yesterday and neither could I today since Sali won't let me fight one.'
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, an ear-splitting shriek echoed in the whole place. The moment it reached Edward's ears, he felt a shiver run down his spine.
"What the hell was that?!" He asked with clear confusion written all over his face.
"No, this is bad…" Sali, on the other hand, had a strong frown on her face.
"What is bad?"
"It's a Shrieker! Hurry, we need to leave this area immediately!" Grabbing Edward's hand, Sali dashed at full speed.
"What?! A Shrieker?!" Edward's memory came back slowly as he repeated that name in his head.
To understand better how the Zombie race worked, Zombie Highschool dissected them into multiple species akin to animals. These species are: The regulars, The Shriekers, The Hunters, The Crushers, and The Scavengers. Each type had certain traits that differentiated them from the others.
The shriekers, as the name suggests, are Zombies that use sounds as their one and only weapon. The role of the shrieks they emit is to simply catch the attention of every single Zombie in the vicinity and make them go there. Basically a noisy alarm.
These monsters like to hide and they don't try to attack humans instead would call for backup and watch as the humans get shredded to pieces by the hordes of zombies.
'Shit! This is the worst time to meet a shrieker! We are already very close to a Zombie Legion!'
Hurrying their footsteps, Edward and Sali moved from one street to another, trying to make it as far away from the Zombies as possible.
However, as they ran, the sounds of Zombies grunting got nearer and nearer. They weren't creating any distance and the reason for that was Edward's horribly bad stamina.
'Fuck! This body didn't exercise in years and now I have to use it to run long distances! I'm slow as fuck!' Cursing his bad luck, Edward tried to hurry his steps.
"I'm sorry I'm too slow." He apologized to Sali knowing fully well that she could easily escape the legion if she was alone.
"Your safety is my highest priority. Don't think about nonsense and just run." She said.
After moving through small alleys and passages, the two ended up in the middle of a huge road… one of the main ones in the area. It was completely desolate of anything except for broken cars and rubbish.
At that moment, the two heard another sound other than the grunts of regular Zombies. It was the sound of heavy and quick footsteps approaching them.
*BOOOM*
Then, from a wall nearby, a huge silhouette broke through like a rushing train, throwing debris and rocks everywhere.
'What the in the fuck is that?!' Feeling alerted by the sudden newcomer, he jumped back.
As for Sali, she simply stood in front of him and held her great sword.
"A crusher… And here I thought things couldn't get any worse."
The creature that appeared was a towering Zombie that looked twice the size of a normal Zombie with an extremely muscular body and intimidating presence that made anyone fear it at first glance.
The monster then turned around and looked at Edward and Sali with its dead, emotionless eyes. Then, it growled loudly like an angry beast.
"Edward, on my sign, run away, understood?" Sali whispered.
"But…"
"What did I tell you before? You must run."
"I understand."
"On three…" She whispered as the monster took one step forward.
"Two…" The monster glared at them with its hungry eyes.
"One… Now!"
Then, Edward turned around and ran away as fast as possible. To be truthful, he felt ashamed that he couldn't help Sali at all and he was basically a dead weight that she could live better without. But, he understood that by running away, he was allowing her to fight freely without worrying about him at all.
Well, that would've been the case if Edward wasn't immediately faced with a huge problem. The Zombies that they had been avoiding for the past hour or so had shockingly taken a detour and come from the other side, basically closing the only way out of the main road.
As he tried to run across the main road, a huge Legion of Zombies met him the other way.
"You gotta be kidding me." He murmured with disbelief in his eyes.
On one hand, Sali was now completely occupied with The Crusher and couldn't protect Edward. On the other hand, Edward felt crippling fear crawl into his heart as he felt his legs freeze completely.
'Shit! I need to move! Come on, move!' Clenching his teeth, he tried to quickly run away anywhere.
"Asher!!" Noticing the abnormality, Sali tried to rush toward him. However, The Crusher quickly tried to grab her.
"Dammit!"
"D-Don't turn around, Sali! I can deal with them until you kill that thing!" Edward said suddenly with a scared look.
His words completely contrasted his expression and yet, he had no intention of backing off. There was nowhere to run and his sole protector is occupied by another monster. So there are only two choices: Either he fights or dies.
'I won't let my story end before it even fucking started! So, come at me, you fucking bastards!!!' Picking up the wooden sword he had with him, he pointed it at the Zombie Legion with shivering arms that couldn't even hold the sword properly.
"I won't fucking die here, you hear me!"