Chapter Nineteen

“Where’s the headshot on this on?” he asked with a changing voice. Nina’s eyes widened as she tried to find something.

“It’s in the back of her head,” she said, keeping herself from stammering. “I can show you.”

“Her?” he said as he stopped. He turned to her with deadly eyes. “When did you have the time to see if this thing’s a woman?” I could feel the heartbeat from my body as it matched rhythm with Nina’s own heart. I could see the man’s expression switch to a narrow stare, directed at me. “You’re staying here.” He turned back to the crowd. “Tender, go and check that thing’s head for us.” A woman, taller and bigger than both me and Nina walked began walking towards my body. She stopped when she reached my legs, taking her time before she reached for my waist and started to lift my skirt. I saw my body get tense, trying its best to discourage the woman from reaching under there without moving. It was uncomfortable, and I thought I could power through it, but it felt as if my body was ready to stop this, by any means necessary. Nina shook her head, getting ready to scream, but before she could say anything, the man spoke first.

“Not that one you idiot,” he said putting his other hand on his forehead. “The other head.” The woman nodded and stood up, walking towards my head. I didn’t know what to do. They weren’t going to see anything on me. The man had Nina in his arms. I thought about biting the woman the moment she grabbed me, but I remembered that I might be infectious. Would it have been okay to doom someone to a life of a zombie just to save myself? I felt conflicted asking that question. These people would do awful things to us if they knew what was happening, and here I was trying to justify not defending myself.

The woman extended her arms, inches away from head. Before she could get a hold of me however, Nina elbowed the man with enough force to make him scream. The woman in front of me turned to him and at that moment, my body jumped up. It grabbed my head and began running, with Nina taking advantage of the stunned woman and catching up to us without delay. My body tossed my head into Nina’s arms, and they both sprinted into the forest of statues.

“Shoot them, kill them!” the man shouted. “That one right there is one of them zombie lovers!” We rushed through the statues, still trying to avoid touching them, and trying to navigate a path out of here. We heard arrows whizzing by us, striking the statues and waking them up. Our steps and breaths were being drowned out by the rising screams around us, as every statue that was hit jerked from side to side in pain. The screams also reached the untouched statues, who began to make slow movements, trying to see what was around them. Avoiding the people that were chasing us meant that we would have to enter deeper into the circle of statues. My body and Nina turned to each other before nodding and running straight it. I could fee little scratches on my head, and I watched as Nina focused on running through whatever discomfort the statues were giving her.

The group of people chasing us started to fall behind. They started to focus on the moving statues around them, trying to slice and shoot them down. I listened as a piercing cry arose from the sea of yells around us, followed by a ‘Lisa! No!’ I was afraid of them, but I didn’t want to hear that tone in their voice. Soon after, more and more cries shot through the statues’ yells as one by one, they faded into the background noise of the pained black figures. I turned to look up at Nina, hoping she was still okay as my body broke through the last wall of figures and landed on the side of a small hill. Nina followed afterwards and dropped beside my body, out of breath and out of energy.

She held on to my head with her left arm as she rested her right arm on her forehead. We were out of reach of the statues, but we could still see them moving and crying, unable to remedy their pain. My body rested her left elbow on the ground, moving her fingers around to let us know that she could still move. Nina turned to her and nodded before sitting up, placing my head in between her torso and legs.

“You, okay?” I asked, finding words in a sea of uncertainty. “Hurt? Bitten?!”

“I’m fine,” Nina said with a smile in between breaths. “No bites, and only a few scratches.”

“Scratches, bad! Infected!”

“That’s not how they get you,” she said, putting her hand on my head. “That’s what one of the papers back at my place said. Dr. Sayako wrote that she saw first-hand how only bites would infect others and change them into zombies.” Nina could feel my furrowed brow. “And the last person I talked to said they survived a zombie attack, and that the gashes they inflicted on him healed like normal, and he turned out fine. They told me that the transformation is very quick, and the moment you’re bitten, you’re done. If the scratches worked the same way, wouldn’t people turn as fast as they do when they’re bitten?” I felt Nina’s hand caress me before tensing up and squeezing me closer to her. “The people we just saw were most likely bitten.” She gasped as she stood up, almost falling, forgetting about her recovering legs. My body also stood up, matching Nina’s stance.

Over the wall of black statues, we saw 10 purple figures moving around. The tumbled around, bumping into each other and into the other statues, unaware of where to go.

“Fast,” I said staring at them. “So fast!”

“I’ve never seen it happen, but it’s just as other people described it,” Nina said, not taking her eyes off of them.

“Hide? Walk? Run?” I asked turning to her.

“We can’t do much of anything up here, and I don’t think I’ll be ready to run for a while.” My body tried to show readiness, but it tripped and caught itself before falling down.

“Shoot, with crossbow?” I said, keeping my eyes on her. Nina kept looking at the group of moving zombies, unsure of what to do.

“I’d be able to do it,” she responded. “I’ve hit smaller targets from further away. I should be able to get their head, but…” She stopped and turned to me. “But I’ve never hit a zombie before.” My body pointed to the center of its chest, stamping her foot down. “That’s different!” Her words were more relaxed. “I’ve been feeling strange whenever I think about hitting a zombie. Before, I would’ve had done it without issue. My life is in danger, and I have to respond in kind. But since meeting you, I stop…and think.”

“Those people, zombies, bad,” I said without hesitation. “You think, zombies, maybe people. Good zombies, possible. But, zombies hurt, always. I bite you, what happens?” Nina narrowed her eyes and tried to find an answer to a question I considered simple. “Bad zombies, probable. Hurt others, don’t care.” I looked at her. “Power to stop. No more bad zombies.” Nina lowered her head and stared at her crossbow. She looked towards the walking zombies, avoiding eye contact with me.

“It’s okay. Hurt other zombies. No problem. Not related.” Nina’s face couldn’t stop the laugh that came out.

“How did you manage to make me laugh after all this?” Nina said, holding me close to her smile.

“Made me smile, when hurt,” I said, feeling my face warm up. “You hurt. Want to make you smile.” Nina lowered her head, but she still couldn’t hide her reddening face. She placed me back on my body and readied her crossbow with both hands.

“I’m holding you to those words,” she said as she pointed an arrow to the farthest zombie away from us.

“Not wrong,” I said with a confidence I hadn’t felt in a while. I watched as Nina readied her shot. Her eyes narrowed, and her breathing became slow. She tilted her head towards the crossbow and focused into the sight on top. She held her breath, and with her finger’s motion, she let out a shot. Her breath harmonized with the whizzing of the arrow, and I followed it as it pierced the sky above the sea of black. I watched as the arrow reached its target, shooting right through the skull of a short, stout man. It stopped before falling to the ground, without a sound. I looked at Nina with stars in my eyes.

“Incredible!” I said, trying to hold my excitement in. “Perfect shot!” Nina tried to keep her excitement in control as well.

“I’m not done yet,” she saw, trying to hide her smile. “We can celebrate after I finish.” I followed every single arrow as each, and everyone found the head of a moving zombie. When she fired shot number 10, and the last zombie fell down, I walked toward her and gave her a hug.

“What’s all this?” she said with excitement in her voice. “Hugging me instead of me hugging you?” I laughed at her words.

“Too happy,” I said. “Proud of you.” Nina tried to play it off, while also placing her hand on my back.

“I told you this wasn’t hard. It was never going to be a problem from here.” I felt her warmth transfer to me, and I didn’t want to let go. But I knew we were still out in a dangerous situation and so I stepped away, regaining my composure. I turned to look towards the top of the small hill and remembered where we were. The dim pillar of light from before stood behind the top, calling us to reach out and head to it. We looked at each other and mirrored each other’s smile. We started to climb up the hill, not realizing that the two of us were on all fours, trying to reach it as fast as possible.