"What was that!" Sarah jumped from her sleep, trying to find her gun in the dark. The other survivors also woke up to the sound of JC's shotgun fire. David stood up but ran into a tree from the confusion, scratching his face up as he fell backwards.
"Where are the zombies!" Mel asked JC brandishing a knife. Jiko stood next to her with his 10inch serrated hunting knife ready to attack. But there was only silence as they looked at JC's stunned face.
"I shot something." He said shaking slightly.
Mel ran over and noticed the body lying on the floor. "It's a zombie." She turned to everyone. "We need to get out of here now. The noise and light will attract more of them."
"Way to go." Jiko said as he passed JC. David, who was usually the one who messed up, just walked past JC without a word. The survivors began to clean up the camp but JC was standing over the dead body observing it.
"What are you doing?" Mel asked as she was quickly packing her things.
"There's something not right here..." JC said. She walked over to him.
"What do you mean? We need to get out of here." She said. JC reached his hand for the body. "Quit that! You don't want any blood on you."
"It's warm..." JC said.
"What?" Mel asked, her eyes focused to see better in the dark.
"The body, it's warm...zombies don't radiate heat. We've learned that from all the other ones we've killed. Why is this one warm?"
"How am I supposed to know but we don't have time to think about that. We need to go."
"There's something wrong here Mel!" JC pried the eyes of the dead being open and lit a flashlight into it. "Blue...his eyes are blue...there's still life in him. This man isn't a zombie..."
"What are you talking about? Of course it's zombie. It looks exactly like one!" Mel said getting frustrated.
"It doesn't smell like one." Jiko said suddenly appearing. Mel and JC looked up at him. "I know...I've been around them plenty to know they smell like rotting flesh. He looks like a zombie...but doesn't smell like one."
"Then what? He's a human that looks like a zombie? For what reason?" Mel asked.
"I'm not sure..." JC said scanning the body. He lit his flashlight over the body and noticed a small black mark on the body's arm. Curious he rolled up the sleeve and was taken aback by what he saw.
"What the...?" Mel began. A series of about 15 symbols ran up and down his arm. It was nothing the group had ever seen. By this time Sarah and David had joined the rest of them.
"Maybe it's Swahili...you know maybe that one means you click your tongue." David said demonstrating his ignorance by clicking his tongue between each word. "It's...click like...click this."
"Why do we keep him around?" Jiko whispered to Sarah who just shrugged her shoulders.
"What do you make out of it?" Mel asked JC.
"I don't know but I'm going to copy the symbols down." He took a pad of paper and a pencil and began sketching the symbols. He took great care to copy each one correctly as a few of them were extremely intricate.
Jiko stood up and began sniffing the air. Instantly he knew what was happening. "Guys you might want to back up." Everyone looked up at him. "NOW."
The dead man's body reanimated and lunged up at JC who was closest but Jiko had run behind the zombie and stabbed it straight through the skull with his hunting knife. The zombie made a gurgling noise and fell to back to the ground.
"He was human??" Mel asked shocked.
"I don't think completely..." JC responded.
"We have to get out of here now! There's probably more of these...these...human zombie hybrids...whatever they are!" Mel said. The rest of the group agreed and they got out of there quickly, making sure they covered their tracks. They traveled through the woods, following the stars (Mel learned from books at American University) as they headed east in hopes to get out of the woods and to somewhere familiar.
Dawn was breaking and the group was still meandering through the dense forest.
"Can we...take a break?" David said huffing and puffing behind them and tossing his bag on the floor.
"I don't think it's safe yet." Sarah said looking behind her periodically. "Mel do we keep going?"
The stars were fading fast but the rising sun continued to offer the group their bearings.
"JC, what do you think?" Mel asked.
"I think we can finally rest a bit. I don't think anything has been following us this entire time."
"Seriously, I'm tired." David said falling to the ground.
"Get up!" Sarah demanded. "I hear trickling water over there. Go get some fresh water for the camp." She tossed the empty canister at him. He begrudgingly got up and sulked away from the group.
The leaves were crunching beneath the group as they all sat down. JC pulled out his pad and began studying the symbols. They looked alien, nothing he had ever seen. He knew that looking at them, no matter how long, wouldn't make them more understandable so he shook his head and put the pad away.
Jiko was busy putting away his tools when he looked up. He drew out his knife immediately and was prepared to attack.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A man said. David was on the verge of tears and Jiko knew there was a gun pointed straight into his back.
The rest of the group heard the man and looked up at the same time. Mel, in a flash, tossed a knife in the direction of the man, but a female right by him swiped it out with a sword causing the throwing knife to ricochet into a tree.
"Put the gun down." The female said speaking to both JC and Sarah who had their fingers half way down on their triggers. They didn't budge. The female chuckled. "I guess you're not that important to them are you?" She said to David. "They won't even let their weapons go...you must be, what....the fifth wheel?"
"Who are you and what do you want?" Mel asked the strangers.
"We should be asking you the same question." The female responded. "This is our territory. We own this land."
"What are you talking about?" said Mel.
"Are you an idiot? Do I have to repeat myself? This is OUR land. You're on OUR land. Now get out or we kill you."
"What's so special about this place?" JC asked. "It's in the middle of no where."
The female looked at her partner agitated. "I've had enough of this. Kill him."
David squealed and closed his eyes shut.
"WAIT!" JC screamed. "We'll leave! We didn't mean to trespass. We were running away from a zombie."
"A zombie?" The female asked.
"Yeah, you know...the walking dead..." JC said.
"I know what zombies are...but there hasn't been a zombie in this area for months."
"Well..." JC began "It wasn't really a zombie."
"What do you mean?" The female asked.
"It's hard to explain...it was as if he was part human still...and he had these strange symbols on his arm."
The two strangers looked at each in recognition of what JC was talking about. The male let go of David and pushed him towards the group. He fell to the floor and crawled frantically to Mel.
"Come with us." The female said. "You'll need to show us these symbols." The two strangers began to walk ahead. JC looked back at his group. They all nodded and begin to pick up their things. JC ran up to catch up to them.
"I'm JC, by the way." He said. The female remained silent. "Okay..."
They walked further until the female stopped.
"Breanna."
"Excuse me?" JC asked.
"That's my name." And for the rest of trek, the group walked in silence.
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