Chapter Thirty-Nine

We heard the girl scream as she started to chase us. We didn’t see any arrows, but we kept running, knowing that someone like her had more than enough to keep going. Nina kept looking around, trying to find something that would give us cover from the flying arrows, but nothing stood tall enough. There were few tree husks scattered around, none of them could cover both me and Nina, and the rock piles and broken walls were nowhere to be seen.

“Right now, we just have to keep running,” she said, lowering her head and switching between looking at me and looking ahead. “We’ll find something to help us deal with this situation. We just have to–” I heard Nina stop and saw her eyes widen. I looked to my side and saw dark walls rising all around us. I saw my body drop underneath us, hitting something below. Nina landed on top of it, causing the limbs to fly in different directions. I turned to look at Nina.

“Okay?! Hurt?!” I said to her.

“I think I’m alright,” she said with a grimace. “I feel a little bruised, but I think your body took the worst of it.” She stood up and leaned up against the wall next to her. My torso flipped itself over and one of my arms moved over it as my other limbs connected themselves to it. It stood itself up and placed its hands on its hips, facing Nina. She let out a nervous laugh as she tried to hide behind my head. “I’m sorry, and thank you.” My body wasn’t expecting those words and backed away, her hands now behind her back. Nina and I shared a quick laugh before hearing footsteps over us.

The girl looked down at us, the confident expression no longer with her. She hid behind her crossbow and eyed us through it. Her movements were slower, and she started to walk around the entrance of the hole we found ourselves in.

“I caught you again,” she said, stammering. “There was no way you’d flee from the great Agnes.” The shakiness of her voice was unable to convince us, and we saw her eyes narrow. “I can shoot you right now and there’s no way you’d survive! Understand the position you are in!”

“You wanted what was in my pockets, correct?” Nina said looking up at her. “If I give you everything, will you let us go?” The girl named Agnes stopped and looked away, trying to figure out her options. She turned back to us and lifted her crossbow.

“That’s not possible anymore!” she said, shaking the crossbow. “Now that I see that there’s a zombie with you, I have to finish it off before I can do anything else.” She shifted her gaze from me to Nina. “But you aren’t normal either. Why hasn’t that thing eaten every part of you? What’s wrong with it?”

“She has a stomachache,” Nina said, trying not to laugh. “I was helping her get over it so she could enjoy her meal better.” I looked at Nina, furrowing my brow.

“Worse!” I whispered. “Will hurt me!” But Nina looked back at me with a wink before turning back to look at Agnes. I followed her gaze and saw Agnes lower her weapon and widen her eyes.

“Zombies aren’t always eating?” she said. “This stomachache prevents them from eating? “How? How do I give a stomachache to a zombie?”

“Easy. By eating you,” Nina responded looking away to hide her devious smile. My body put both her hands on her stomach and started to roll around as snorts and short laughs escaped my mouth, winning over my fight against them. I looked up and saw Agnes’s face return to anger, but not before catching the last few specks of a smile flying away.

“Stop!” I said with a louder whisper. “Even worse!” Nina looked up and watched as Agnes once again pointed her crossbow towards us.

“I’ll shoot at you right now! And you don’t even have to believe it!” Agnes said.

“Everything is easy from up there looking down,” Nina said, her facing changing to the one I’d see while wandering out here. “But you would match rather shoot us standing level with each other.” The girl lowered her crossbow somewhat, trying to getter a better view of Nina. “I know that someone like you wouldn’t be happy shooting something that couldn’t fight back. So let us be something that can fight back.” Agnes’s expressions shifted from one to another, fast enough to make them unreadable. But I knew that Nina had said something right because Agnes was silent. I looked up to watch her disappear from view and for a rope to descend from where she was.

“You better not run when you get up here,” she said walking away. “Because I won’t be giving you a second chance!”