Page 53 of Rising

From what I’d seen the two couldn’t be in the same space for more than a few seconds without tossing an insult towards each other. Why she wanted to come, I couldn’t guess. Just knew I was sure as hell glad I didn’t have to suffer through their bickering.

I listened for any signs of life near the edge of the trail and woods, noticing the remaining men doing the same. A sense of uneasiness had fallen over the group. No one had spoken up, but I knew we all felt that creep up our spine under the pressure of being watched. Quiet woods were always a bad sign, no matter the situation. Still, we saw nothing and heard even less. Soon finding ourselves back on the trail headed towards our final stopping point for the day.

Cautiously, weapons at ready, we made our way down the narrow trail, no longer waiting to fall victim to whatever was causing the eerie feeling on the back of our necks. The years had taken a toll on the once-beautiful path, nature claiming back what rightfully belonged. Brush and branches now made the comfortable stroll a series of ducks, crawls, and climbs. We moved as a unit, when one man was down and crawling, two more guarded their six and their twelve. Instincts making it clear we needed to stay vigilant. Alert.

A figure blurred past my peripheral as I covered for the man at my rear. If I was untrained, unaware, or anything alike Amaia, I’d likely think I was seeing shit. But I wasn’t any of those things, and neither was the man at my side. His brown hair whipped to the side, head following the movement.

“Move, move, move!” he urged, dragging the man on the ground to his feet and encouraging those ahead of us to take off down the trail.

On my left, savage growls echoed, prompting me to sheathe my knife and brandish my pistol, a more fitting choice for the chaos that surrounded us.

“Seth, there’s going to be a small breakaway on your right a few feet ahead. If we can get towards it, there’s a parking lot. At the very back, there’s a red pickup truck behind a tree. Can’t miss it. It’s loud as hell. It’ll draw unwanted attention, but it’ll get us out of here.”

I felt his eyes on my back, inevitably questioning why I knew that.

He was hesitating, questioning if he could trust my words. “Go!” one of the men screamed.

The urgency in his voice pulled my attention in his direction. Five more undead came at us, freshly fed and coming at a pace we couldn’t outrun. We were surrounded, and they were closing in fast. We’d have to fight our way out first.

Quickly forming a circle back-to-back, we readied to defend ourselves. A man at the forefront clearing as much space as possible, giving us enough space to move about. His movements were quick and efficient. He was like Seth. I hadn’t noticed at first. He was tall, sure, but I hadn’t had a chance to take in his features. His hat had stayed on his head, only moving it slightly forward to cover his face when he slept.

A couple of the men harnessed their weapons, one with water swirling in the palms of his hands. Pieces of earth floated up towards the hands of another. The other two kept their weapons drawn, while one without other gifts, possessing nothing elemental, I saw the flames burning behind the eyes of the other.Fire. I was willing to bet he didn’t want to cause an even larger problem with his flames, surrounded by dry August air.

Good choice, one I’d be making as well.

Seth stepped forward, firing his shotgun at the closest rotting creatures near us. The rest of us followed suit, shooting, and slicing our way through the throng of flesh. The more we slaughtered, the more that came. We held our ground. Branches flying through the air and pinning creatures to the stumps of trees as others used the might of their water to pressure the heads of the undead, popping them open and chunks of gray brain matter splattered through the air.

As the assault waned, I slipped on a fallen branch and icy, clammy fingers tore into my flesh, ripping skin as a shrill cry erupted from my lips

I met the eyes of what was once a woman. For a moment, the cloudiness in her eyes cleared, and she looked at me. I blinked; her eyes clouded back over. The dainty facial features now drooped, undisciplined across her face, jaw loose in uncontrolled snaps with caked dried blood in the corners of her mouth. She snarled savagely, hungrily as I kicked at her chest with the full weight of my body going through my boots. It gave us some distance, made my limbs safe from her snapping jaws, but not enough for her to stop her attack. A shot rang out behind my ear and I flinched, waiting for the blistering pain of a bullet to flare up somewhere in my body.

I waited, welcomed it secretly, but no pain came. The undead fell. My ears rang and everything around me slowed down. Three more rotting shits headed straight for me then stopped in their tracks, eyeing something behind me in the distance. They faced each other and one snarled, yelling.Their eyes, something about their eyes was off, different, but I couldn’t place it.

A scream pierced the air, and time resumed its flow. Seth’s man bled profusely as a zombie clamped down on his wrist. I locked eyes with Seth briefly holding his intense gaze, before he tilted his head, trying to read something off me before springing into action. Another of the undead emerged from the woods just as Seth moved out the way. I plunged my knife into its foot, securing it into the ground before pointing my gun at it and firing.

Another shot rang out and the creature who’d bitten Seth’s man fell to the ground, the rest fleeing back into the woods. With incredible speed, they bolted from our line of sight, leaving us behind in a hail of dust and debris. We stood firm, determined to hold our position to the bitter end. Only when the last of them had vanished from view, did we dare to let our guard down, hurtling towards the parking lot at first chance.

The truck is where I said it’d be. Seth’s guys hopping in the back, dragging the now passed out soldier into the bed. Wrapping a tourniquet around his wrist to slow the blood loss.

“How do I start this shit?” Seth growled in a frenzy.

I edged him out of the way, urging him to scoot to the passenger side. “Move.” I reached down, flicking the switch near the ignition.

“What the—”

“Solar powered. Tinkerers,” I answered, knowing the next question, addressing that preemptively too. “Stole it. How do you think I know about the pissy community down the road?”

He gaped at me, and I threw the car into reverse. Not knowing where else to go, I headed back the way we’d come.

* * *

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”Seth yelled, slapping his hand against the dash, hopping back in the truck.

His men peered in from the rear window, concern clear over their faces as they removed items from their pack to keep their friend comfortable on the bumpy road.

We’d been driving for thirty minutes, but the road was blocked by a fallen tree. Seth attempted to move it, to no avail. Too old, too heavy. With the only other man strong enough to help out severely injured, we’d have to try the rest of the way on foot from here. Which meant carrying a grown man who was now dead weight, despite the last bit of life he clung onto.

“You can’t tell Amaia what you saw,” he said simply, checking what remained of his pack before we got out of the car to descend on the remaining trek back to the cabin.

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