Dear Reader, these are the previous chapters of this story:
- Chapter One: 20th November
-
One after another, every heartbeat drummed inside me.
Vibrating through my muscles that were not used to run that fast. Including the muscles of my hands, holding the shovel as another part of my body.
My brain was still checking if I was leaving something important behind—not that I could carry too much. First sport clothes I found in my old man’s closet, the one and only tennis I had, my trusty travel backpack with some supplies, and of course, the shovel was the only available weapon I could think of. Running with concrete bricks in hand was not a practical option.
I did not even close the entrance gate when I left, it was always half-opened anyway. I thought that getting out from the front will be more secure as they were busy in the backyard, but more of those things were casually passing by the street, counting four.
And I was casually running towards them.
I was not a social neighbour, but I knew those persons…
A fat and hairy man, shirtless, who was always lying in his front porch’s rocking chair. I used to see him every afternoon in my way back to school. The next one seemed to be his wife, a black haired woman with a gentle face and brittle temper. She was always near him, folding clothes or eating ice cream patiently, as if it would never melt. They kept together even after dead.
Closer to me, there were those two young men from the car’s workshop. The both of them still had engine grease on their skin and wore sleeveless shirts. They were thin but had defined muscles, but with defined muscles. I remembered particularly one of them, the one with the yellow eyes. A nice guy who always showed his teeth when waved at you. Now, after slipping into that teetering state, he revealed his stained and blooded teeth.
It was a second where flashes of those people were projected in the back of my consciousness. Flashes of the times I just saw them passing by, moments that were not enough to acknowledge their names. We all knew that gentle woman because of her tasty home-made ice cream, her daughter used to sell it in their house. Even when you were forced to see the naked and hairy belly of that man, that refreshing souvenir worth it.
My dad sent his car to those man once, before he sells it. Afterwards, the yellow eyes guy always waved at us when he saw us walking over. The other guy always seemed to be focused on his stuff, you barely could be able to see at his face, but the cartooned bulldog tattoo over his shoulder was always looking at you.
They all had a layer of greyish tone painted over their skin. Colourless veins were being marked below the flesh, along a shine by the excess of sweat that I looked before on my dad.
And those off eyes with bloody lines… Deadly stared at me, a prey.
But yeah, it was just a second.
Because in the next one, I did not hesitate to turn my back to them and run.
The terrain all over my neighbourhood was a sequence of ups and downs, little mountains with pavement, sidewalks, and houses. All the roads with no maintenance for too many years, making a good fit with the aspect of my house. And right there, out of the entrance, my two chances were run up, or run down.
So, I turned left, down the asphalted hill. Thinking that, with some luck, gravity will make they to trip over and favour my steps.
I knew I could escape, but that filthy breathing of theirs… something that is not air were getting out of those lungs, a sound like underworld whispers was scratching out of their throats instead. That undead breathing were terrorizing my chest, compromising my pulse.
BOM BOM BOM BOM BOM…
I heard them wild and raged, clumsily running in an attempt to equal my path. The street under my feet was irregular, old asphalt with too many craters, rocks, and sticks here and there. Those things might have been small, but it turned into an obstacles race in my head.
BOM BOM BOM BOM…
My ears were making up images of what was going on back there. I could fall and die right in the act if I turned my sight back just for an instance.
BOM BOM BOM…
One of them stumbled and fell—high possibilities that it was the fat man—, another got distracted, and I think it fell too. The other two kept their hunt without interruptions, they just had a target—An apparently hardy guy who smashed his father’s head last night, panicked running for his life, focused completely on the road ahead.
But even they suddenly braked when it happened.
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
I stopped, they stopped, my heartbeat stopped, and we all fell face-first into the street. I felt that sound wave right inside my bones. Birds and dogs ran crazy in the distance, some cars alarms too. The whole town must to heard that broke clamour in the air. And as a spider sense, I knew where and what it was.
—Bella—… I thought out loud, putting myself on my feet again. That were the only possible place in town capable of an explosion.
Those who were once my neighbours woke up as well and turned their sights on me again, ready to continue the pursuit. The workshop’s men were the ones closer to me. The yellow-eyed guy got up quickly, the other one decided to crawl to me. The bear-man and his wife were behind, walking slow but with firm steps, also in my direction.
I took a deep breath, and stated my first fight-over-run decision.
—Okay, people. I am sorry—. I said, not sure of the purpure, maybe honestly sorry about thinking on smashing more heads.
My hands were ready, still carrying straight that shovel. My pulse returned inside my chest.
The guy with the yellow eyes roared at me as if he had decided to fight, too. I prepared the shovel like ready to hit a home run, with the blade expended to its head. He ran, I hit. The vibration of the metal blade sounded like a gong, floating through the air and passing through my arms muscles. The guy collapsed in the ground, but seem to be not disturbed by the noisy hit in his temple. I took a possibly dangerous second to look at his face, totally out of his friendly gaze… his yellow iris with a white overlay and red veins just like mom’s.
—I-I really sorry—. I whispered, and aimed with the cutting edge of the blade this time.
The shovel got stuck in his skull with a hit. The man, once again, seemed to have no sense of pain. He twisted himself a little, trying to get off the blade for some instances, till the bit of life that was remaining on him just snap away like turning a light switch off.
His partner crawled till he reached my range. I forced the shovel out of the man’s head with one, two, three pulls. He extended his left arm to me, trying to grab my ankle. I literally jumped back and prepared another hit.
The bulldog tattoo gave me a last sight till the man’s blood splashed and covered it. Another switch, lights out.
The undead married couple was approaching; the man gained some energy and accelerated I hurried to remove the shovel out of the mechanics’ head, but after pulling three times, it seemed really stuck in there. Four, five, six… the shaft felt to be lossy to the socket, and I just could think almost like a pray that please stupid shovel, do not break.
—F-Fuck —I looked right at the blanked eyes of that man, my respiration turned heavier.
If I could manage to put all my strength into pulling out the shovel and, even if the shaft came out of the socket, with a hard-enough hit I could just run away. So I did. The shovel came off like the Excalibur, and I brandished it ready to hit once again.
I tried to aim with the cutting edge of the blade for another clean knockout, but slightly missed the angle, and the whole blade flew off the shaft, whirling backwards, and hitting my head instead.
My lights out.
The gong sound filtering inside my ears through my brain.
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Note from the author:
Hi there!
Thank you so much to follow Ken's story into this messy universe!
This week I had limited time left, and could not write as much as I wanted for this chapter, which will be maybe the larger of those first three ones. So I decided to split it into two parts, so I could summit for TWW final deadline and put it the effort it deserves during the weekend to complete a second part.
So enjoy this “light” piece of the story and expect more development.
Let me know your thoughts about the story so far in the comments, and stay tuned!
With love, Ruy.