Everyone Needs Saving |Day 42 After Virus Release|

Anneka

Deeply in my head, as I run up to the titan, I slowly distinguish the vibration of footsteps from an abstract distance behind me. From the familiar cadence and the current situation, I can tell that it is Lex. I’ve fully considered the possibility of Lex coming to help me fight despite my demanding that he wouldn’t. Always insistent. Always an idiot. I sense that in less than fifteen seconds he is going to enter the beast’s kill range. In this instance, I need to continue until I am close enough to hit the beast so that I can acquire its attention before it is too late. Knowing what I have to do, desperate air fills my lungs. 

Finally, close, I look upwards at the force that stands overwhelming over me. It is here that I can fully process my fighting opponent reigning at four times my height. It stares at me unmoving, almost amused at the fact that I think I have a chance, or maybe it is confused as to why I decided to approach after running for so long. I utilize the pause and swing my long axe using the conditioning in my right hand to exert almost all the force of the movement. I force my shattered left arm to do its job as a pivot to keep the swing steady. I cannot acknowledge it being broken as an excuse to not use it at all. The swing cuts through a couple of inches of its front forearm. Strangely very little blood flows out. Its claws and palms move down to crush me in the dirt. Muscle memory and the empowerment of my battle instinct unveil a perfect spinning frontal flurry of repeating axe movements in a sphere piercing the air and resisting the flesh. The rotations provide just enough opposing resistance to stay its movements from burying me. For a few seconds, there is balance, yet the construct of my axe is worsening, and the creature postures like it is going to make an adaptation.

Unfortunately, I see the image of what comes next and I tense up for a millisecond, allowing it to happen. The zombie monster’s claw goes cleanly through my abdominal region and out the other side. Blood fills my mouth. I don't want to think about what is happening internally. 

The only way to guarantee more time for Lex is by keeping its attention and rendering its arms useless in the quickest way possible. If I hesitate in this plan then the beast is beyond likely to notice Lex and use a rock volley to kill him. With its speed and strength, there is nothing either of us could do in that scenario. I had to first buy time before I could think about killing this monster. Can I still do so from this position? 

In every corner of my body, I am consumed and touched by a haze of nerves and wretched stabbing spreading in my muscles and tissue. It all beckons for me to give up my right to consciousness. What a simple bliss bathed in lies. Given the tiniest of seconds, I have to remember what set me on the path to fight. I don't want lies; I need the truth. In the split second, I need to find my personal fuel to burn throughout all of me. My strength, my drive, my everything. The single choice of a life. If I am ineffective then I will burn out like a smothered flame instead of blazing down this monster with me.

I blink through the moments of my life. There are two yelling and deviant voices that overtake the majority. Which is worthy of embrace? Responsibility to the world or the vastly powerful excitement and freedom of having my final battle. I truly know that I have to save Lex and the world by proxy. However, I find that my conviction is stronger if I allow my thinking to focus on a known figure of someone or Lex. Even though my dream extends much further. I have to use what works better. 

I feel paralysis still and then greed. My only choice is to fight with both in mind. I dump the opposites together in a stubby test tube like a childhood science experiment kit. There is no science, I spill all my art to find the result. I want to see it ignite red reaching new bounds, not foam out before the top. With anger, fear, duty, hatred, joy, delusion, adrenaline, and calmness I regain myself. The revival of my emotions prevents wasteful thinking. Suddenly, I use both my arms to angle my axe to slice its entire claw straight out in a downward attack even with it still extending through the middle section of my body. The section I cut through is a region that is nearby and punctured from the piercing of a spear. I stumble to the ground with a new piece of an arm added as a part of my body. Automatically, I fling into a backflip to dodge the rapid swing of its other arm.

As I’m flipping, time slows down and I can focus on Lex’s face because he is much closer. Unsurprisingly the rapid elevation changes buzz my ears to all noise. His mannerisms, thoughts, and feelings, I understand them from the cumulation of the journey we have been through together since teenhood. As such, I read what my partner wanted to say even without recognizing the words from his throat. I need to open the titan’s mouth. Landing the backflip strains like hell, but I am ablaze now. Inner fire leads my final charge. I jump on top of its left arm once it sets it down in a missed attack. I dodge the other cut arm’s repeated slamming attacks while sprinting. When the flesh titan picks the arm I am on off the ground I wrap myself around the embedded spears for balance. As I climb closer through the spear handholds its attempts are renewed with speed and vigor. I dodge and drop my battle axe into a steady buckle, breaking the wrap on my left hand. I can tell the only way to make progress is by swinging through the last two spears in its body. I'm nervous and physically devastated swinging far in the air with a broken arm, yet at last, I get to its head after passing the onslaught of attacks. Faster than its arm can swat me, using the axe’s top point I spear my axe deep into the mouth. 

The metal restricts the inside making it impossible for the mouth to be closed now. I duck to dodge both of the arms and roll away to the backside of the body. I watch the dim outline as Lex tosses a huge multicolored ball of something I’ve never seen before toward the zombie's mouth. The beast tries to close, but the ball continues into the crevice. It pulses and shakes for five long seconds and slowly falls over with its head to the ground in ten seconds. It’s over. I look at the state of its mouth which is filled with bubbles. I try to stay up, holding the handle of one of my spears, but exhaustion and blood loss tip me to the ground while I watch Lex running closer and closer in my darkening vision.

Sorry, Lex, I won’t be here to protect you anymore. There will still be zombies you encounter here in the city, but they are a risk you can handle. I force a smile on my face even with my body brooding with wounds. Heroes always smile after achieving their victory.