Chapter 5

The knight continued running away from the bridge ignoring the multitude of zombies walking around on the streets and the sidewalk. At times he would even mow down a couple zombies that were in his way completely tossing them to the sides. His plan was to run past the home of his friend's the old man and the twins just to see if they would confront him in the same way they did last time which just occurred to him was weeks if not months ago now.

"Goddamit I miss my friends I can't wait to tell them about my adventure being kidnapped and treated like a science experiment. Ooh maybe I could show them how zombies don't affect me at all or uhh maybe not that tidbit of information it is pretty important I guess and would be very bad if it got into the wrong hands." The knight monologued to himself and the zombies around him.

The knight slowed down his running to a walk as he looked around his area to see where exactly he ended up due to not paying attention while he was running. He saw he was on Madison Avenue and 107th street where surprisingly there were little zombie presence around, there were however a lot of dead bodies. Without The knight noticing a figure was sneaking around the street behind cars and underneath them to avoid zombies if there were any in the area. The figure stopped underneath a car closeby to The knight noticing him standing there looking around as if he was a tourist.

"Wait a minute isn't that the same cosplayer I saw months ago down in Chinatown? Huh so I guess they survived after all. What a small world nyc is." The figure whispered.

The knight walked forward a couple of feet before stopping just underneath a building that was surprisingly incredibly intact. A man can be seen by The knight smiling wide from one ear to the other while looking up at the sky. The man saw The knight standing there as he looked down and waved.

"Well hello there stranger, what a wonderfully nice evening it is to have met you. My name is Harold what's yours? And before you ask I'm just up here enjoying the nice breeze." The man stated, the smile not dropping for even a second as he spoke to The knight.

"Well my new friend, you can just call me whatever you want. Come down here so we can talk like true friends face to face because boy do I have a story to tell you." The knight yelled out to the man.

What transpired next was the hidden figure watching and listening as The knight once again retailed the stories of his unfortunate kidnapping and sudden release by his kidnappers while inadvertently revealing that people not only still exist outside of nyc, but they're prospering without zombies. The hidden figure was shocked by what they heard, if it was true that meant there was a safe haven out there just waiting to be reached and if it was a dirty rotten lie then it would be a spirit breaker. The hidden figure wondered who the strange cosplayer had been talking to this whole time and a subtle fear creeper up on them as the thought that they had been caught long ago started to appear.

"Damn Harold, that very heroic and compelling story still wasn't enough to convince you to come down here to chat?" The knight said startling the hidden figure out of their thoughts.

Taking a peek from underneath the car the hidden figure saw The knight talking or more like screaming at a dead body as if they were having the most interesting time while gossiping about how mundane life was before them. The dead body was laid out half outside of the window with a pistol hanging on by a thread of a skincell on his finger, a name tag can be found in the right side pocket of his jacket reading Glindwell. The roof looked mangled up and broken with bits of old red stains covering the top. A hole can be seen in the forehead of the dead body signaling a very tragic end. The hidden figure covered their mouth at the sight so as to try and not make a sound since that would attract the plentiful of zombies that are in the area. Looking back to The knight they confirmed that he was infact talking to a dead body as if it were alive and well.

"This confirms everything I thought before, that cosplayer is mentally insane. I mean who in their right mind would converse with a dead body pretending as if it were alive." The hidden figure whispered.

Frightened by the prospects of The knight's insanity possibly being a threat the hidden figure snuck away from underneath the car and left the area without being noticed by The knight who was still in deep conversation with "Harold". After the conversation circled around a couple of times, he grew bored of it and bid fair well to his new friend. The knight began to travel down the streets once more reminiscing on his journey and the end of it, but at least he made more new friends along the way. Going down to the top entrance of Central Park, The knight walked with a mission to surprise his friends at the library and announce that he not only survived he succeeded in his mission and found out that people really do live without fear of zombies past the city. However, there was little doubt in his mind that he would be thought of as a liar, but welcomed back with open arms regardless. Walking through Central Park even though he was a born and raised new yorker was difficult as he got lost in the plants immediately. Soon enough he was surrounded by trees and rocks with no real path ahead of him as he wondered how he got to this point.

"I am lost, I am lost, I am nowhere, oh I'm nowhere, I am lost, I am lost..." The knight began to sing as he continued walking forward with occasional spinning like a musical lead.

Behind the trees, rocks, and inside the bushes were people with a crazed look of hunger all staring at The knight as he walked and walzed in what was perceived in their mind as their territory. Sensing the bloodlust aimed at him and the stares, The knight stopped singing and moving as he looked around the area. When he finally spotted an inconsistency in one of the bushes, The knight was attacked by the huge group surrounding him as they all came out of their places of hiding with thick branches and metal poles that look like they tore it from the fences outside of the area they were in. The first to attack The knight had their weapon caught and thrown away before catching a metal covered fist to the gut dropping them. Two others came running from behind The knight with no weapons of their own grabbing hold of his arms and pulling him to opposite sides as if trying to rip him apart. This kept The knight occupied for long enough that gave a fourth member the opportunity to smash a metal pole into The knight's armor protecting his stomach. The blow although blocked by the armor caused damage as The knight slumped over a little bit before trying to disengage his arms once again. This attempt proved futile as another member came from behind to attempt a choke hold on The knight with the member in front of The knight continuing their assault with the pole.

"Ughhhh oh fuck that shit hurts. Hey listen guys can we just talk about this, you see I just got done being kidnapped not even a couple of hours ago. Could you just tell me why I'm being kidnapped a second time? Oh and please stop hitting me it really hurts also tell the person behind me I appreciate the hug, but why are they giving me one?" The knight coughed out with exhaustion and pain in his voice while slumped over practically being carried by the two members holding his arms and the member giving him a "hug" as he put it.

"Now you listen here, I don't quite care for your pleading and bitching. We already caught a fresh appetizer earlier so you'll have the distinct honor of being our main course, of course it's whether you want to be or not doesn't matter to us. That metal suit you got on, well it's gon help us turn you into a fine barbecue, woooweeee I'm salivating just at the thought of it. Boys! Tie em up and bring em to that girl we caught earlier, we still have time to prep our meals so might as well give em company in misery." The man stated extremely pleased with himself and his group.

The man who spoke to The knight rested his weapon on his shoulder as the only member of the group that The knight had gotten a hit on got up and grabbed some rope that they brought on their excursion. The knight was tied up tightly giving little to no space for movement of his limbs and joints. The group carried The knight through the park to a spot underneath a bridge where more members can be seen laughing, talking, and all around waiting for the rest to join them. In a small corner underneath the bridge was the same hidden figure that had seen The knight on a numerous of occasions although not so hidden anymore. She was tied up just as tightly as The knight was, but although fear can be seen on her face a rare determination was hidden within as although she was captured earlier than The knight she continued her attempt at struggling with the ropes while The knight seemed to have surrendered to his fate. What was most surprising was the fact that on the journey to the current location The knight stayed silent almost as if contemplating the horrors that would befall him and his new partner in misery. At least that thought was what the man who brought him here had running through his head as he lead his group back to their home under the bridge.

"Hmmmmm I'm guessing these guys are cannibals, so it's quite possible that I'm going to get cooked up along with that girl over there. Poor thing still struggling like a fool against those ropes, I mean I've gotta hand it to these folks they're fucking insane, but at least they're damn good at tying knots. Now i wonder what dish they're gonna turn us into, maybe human steak tartare, or ooh probably a simple barbecue like that guy said before, nah that's way too on the nose maybe a nice human meat stew. Damn if today is my last day to live I hope I at least get to see one last cool thing before kicking the bucket to end up in the stomachs of these crazy people. Shit who am I kidding, ain't nothing gon happen, so oh well I guess this is goodbye cruel world I survived the first kidnapping this is just the world correcting the balance by killing me off in the second kidnapping." The knight thought rapidly while being carried closer and closer to the others.

"Heyyyy and look what the big bad Colin dragged in, I'm hoping that whatever or whoever is inside that metal thing will be dinner for tonight right? Does that also mean that we can keep the girl alive a bit longer cause my minds been racing with ideas since we brought her in." One of the waiting members said to the man who had brought The knight with the help of his team.

"Christine Christine calm yourself you're gonna blow a vessel with how excited you're getting. This large present wrapped in metal will be our dinner tonight, but only a piece of it we have to ration out our food along a number of days after all we wouldn't want to have to go hunting again so soon like last time." Colin said after giving the signal to just drop The knight next to their other captive in the corner.

With everyone in their group reunited after a pretty short day of hunting for the group of cannibals they sat down with eachother to tell the tales of how each group had done on their hunt starting with Christine's group.

"So there we were up toward the edge of the park just resting, I'm not gonna lie we didn't really do much up to that point since we got pretty lazy and all knew you were definitely going to bring back food either way. Anyway we were all just sitting around when we heard a branch crack as cliche as it sounds and turned to the noise to find that one over there attempting to sneak past us to the other side of the park. It seems like she knew exactly who or what we are since she took off sprinting like a mad animal that has been trapped in a cage for a decade. Of course we pursued her cause you know how much I love a good chase and also I wasn't about to let food go to waste by letting it run away from me. Anyway we definitely weren't as fast as her, but her mistake was thinking she could lose us by heading deeper into the park, what she didn't know was she was running straight here. This is where my genius mind came into play, you see before the hunt I left the two big ones Rufus and Doofus here cause they just wouldn't wake up and I ain't wanna be late for the hunt, so she was running straight here we were on her tail and these two big, dumb, idiots were still sleeping this time they managed to take the blankets mid-sleep and wrap themselves up like two burritos. Anyway I don't know what possessed her to commit this quite stupid action, but she turned around to see if she had lost us while still running just to trip over both Rufus and Doofus getting trapped by them in the process allowing us to catch up and tie her up how you see her now." Christine accounted.

The story had the entire group laughing while their captive felt the heat of anger and embarrassment rise in her as she struggled with the ropes more ferociously in an attempt to make a quick escape out of the park to where it's debatably safer. Although she would have to deal with the zombies outside of the park, inside of the park were groups of cannibals capable of emotion and critical thinking even if it seemed more as if they relied more on pure luck than thought. The knight stopped himself from laughing at the story although it didn't escape the notice of his "partner in misery" who glared at him with contempt for a second before returning to her struggle. The more time passed with her struggling to escape and The knight simply sitting there calmly the more she became confused as although they were both in the exact same situation stuck and about to be cooked by savage cannibals they were acting as if in completely different situations. The knight seemed in control, the situation not bothering him one bit while she was panicking in her failing attempts at escaping.

"Hey you, weird guy how are you so calm in this situation we're in. Do you just not understand that we're about to be dinner to those people right there. I don't understand how you're not panicking right now like I am and attempting am escape unless...wait do you happen to have a plan for an escape?" The knight's partner asked him after pausing her escape attempts for a second.

"Hmm? Oh you're finally done uselessly struggling now? OK since you're done with your fucking childish tantrum loosen up the rope on my wrists will you oh and what the fuck is your name?" The knight asked curiously, however it came across as mocking to her.

"If you want me to loosen those ropes you have to get closer, I can't reach you from here also for your information my name is Lili whats..." Lili said before getting interrupted by The knight shushing her to hurry.

The knight inched closer to her till they were within eachothers grasp. This allowed Lili to begin loosening his ropes little by little while the group of cannibals were still distracted by eachother with their story time of how they caught the two of them. After an unknown amount of time passed Lili finally got The knight's ropes loosened enough to the point that he could wiggle around, move, and remove the ropes himself. The knight instead of removing his ropes began to loosen Lili's ropes since it would be an easier escape with both of them rather than just him. While The knight was finishing up on loosening the ropes the cannibals finished their story time and began to grow hungry.

"Well I guess this is a perfect time for a snack, so let's prepare now!" Colin stated to the cheers from the group.

As the cannibals all stood up and began to walk slowly toward The knight and Lili fear grew in her heart as The knight finished loosening her ropes in the nic of time. When Lili was about to standup and run The knight grabbed her by the wrist indicating that it wasn't time to run just yet confusing her as this gave off the impression that he had a plan all along. It was either that or he was gonna betray her last second and throw her to the wolves as a sacrifice while he ran off. Trusting her instincts and trusting in him Lili stayed put and waited for whatever The knight was waiting for. Walking right up to The knight Colin smirked mocking him with hunger in his eyes. With Lili waiting next to him and Colin about to speak The knight finally acted by quickly standing up the ropes falling to the ground and kicking Colin straight in the nuts dropping him. Silence followed the hit as everyone looked at The knight with surprise written on their faces. The knight waited for Colin to slowly stand back up before once again kicking him in the nuts, only this time the pain kept Colin standing although slumped over a bit allowing The knight to kick him in the nuts a third time to drop him before unleashing a barrage of kicks to the nuts of the downed cannibal.

Slumped over on the ground Colin began to mumble before screaming out "Why.... Why does he keep kicking me in the dick?" To Christine who walked up to help him up again.

This action brought anger to the other cannibals as their pride, their leader was disrespected in front of them by what was supposed to be the food that they had already hunted down. All of them stared at The knight and Lili, readying their weapons for a fight or another hunt for the food attempting to escape them. Meanwhile Lili slapped the back of The knight's helmet for his actions in causing the cannibals anger to be pointed at them for vengeance. As the cannibals got closer to The knight and Lili ready to capture them and hurt them a pebble fell from the top of the bridge behind them. The sound caused everyone to turn around for a few seconds before laughing after nothing came of it, hope surged in Lili as she thought that they were about to be saved, but the hope diminished with the cannibals laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAH did you really think that you were going to be saved you dumb bitch?" Christine laughed at Lili seeing the hope in her eyes.

"No, but I wouldn't tempt the universe like that you never know, that exact plan might come to fruition." Lili responded smirking back at Christine.

Another couple of pebbles dropped from above the bridge right behind the group of cannibals startling some of them due to Lili's words as they worried about a potential incoming attack. Christine snapped them all back into shape however with a fierce glare at those who jumped at the noise promising pain if the group became cowards all of a sudden after numerous hunts and battles for food.

"Hey! What's the big idea jumping around like a bunch of pansy ass rabbits. Ain't nothing gonna happen, we have our food trapped and surrounded what's the worse that can happen anyway." Christine mentioned to the group before turning back around to Lili whose smirk just grew after hearing the riveting speech that was meant to empower the group of cannibals and ease their worries.

A chill ran through Colin's spine as worry kept etching itself into his mind inch by inch till it burrowed deep enough to call it its home. The sky grew gray as the clouds covered the sun above them darkening the area slightly as the group's mood took a hit from the change in scenery. Droplets of water crashed to the ground along with more pebbles although due to the sound of hundreds and thousands of drops of water hitting the ground the sound of the pebbles went unnoticed by the group. The members in the back started looking around becoming more and more cautious as time went on with even Colin growing a little bit afraid and Christine growing a tiny bit of worry. The knight seemed calm as his body was completely relaxed feeling the vibrations of the water hitting his armor, this calmness spread to Lili as her smirk never left her face.

"It's coming" The knight whispered while giggling to himself with a wide smile covered by the helmet he wears.

The giggles and laughter coming from The knight echoed due to his covering making the scenery seem more ominous than it should be. Anger started to rise in Christine as the laughter and giggles of The knight combine with Lili's smirk made the group of cannibals out to be jokes despite how much they outnumbered the two they saw as food. Covered by the sound of the pounding rain a growl could be lightly heard above the group which was the last straw for one of the more cowardly cannibals as he ran off into the distance after grabbing a random bag on the ground. A separate member was about to give chase before being stopped by some of the others.

"I predict we'll be meeting some resistance soon, potentially a third party group or one attempting a rescue of our food here in front of us." Colin stated smoothly to the group taking his time with his words.

Feeling better after the onslaught he suffered earlier Colin walked up to The knight glaring at him, trying to intimidate him for the slightest sense of control over him. Colin began slightly pushing The knight back with The knight returning to his previous spot every time while listening to Colin goad him into making a mistake.

"Do you know where you're standing right now? You're in my house, in my land, I own you. You are food to me and I will consume your flesh whenever I please." Colin whispered so that only The knight can hear him, a crazed look in his eye as he stared into the dark hole in The knight's helmet.

"You're house? You're land? You think you can control me? Huh you big dumb fuck. I do not care about your shitty diet nor can I give less of a fuck about you. You wanna know where I am? THIS IS HARLEM!" The knight said slowly growing in volume from a whisper to a scream simultaneously giving a stiff front kick straight to Colin's nuts sending him flying into some of his fellow cannibals which enraged the rest of the group.

"Wait Harlem? This is Central Park not Harlem." Lili corrected The knight briefly.

"Ehh doesn't really fucking matter does it, it's close enough anyway." The knight responded, the pair of them completely ignoring the cannibals ready to jump them any second now.

Being ignored only made the cannibals' anger toward the two grow exponentially higher. Unable to contain their anger two cannibals lept from the back toward The knight hoping to restrain him only to be met with a dual lariat to both by The knight dropping them to the ground instantly making them clutch their necks from the pain. The knight proceeded to deliver a punt like kick to each of them toward their fellow cannibals who caught the two and brought them to the back where they previously were to rest and get checked over. More cannibals began to advance on Lili and The knight surrounding the two on all sides to prevent any attempt at escaping. The knight grabbed one of the cannibals getting closer to him, pulled them close and hit them on the top of the head with an elbow dazing them and causing them to stumble backwards as another took their place. This chaos all happening so quickly made the cannibals forget their earlier fear of the sounds and the scenery which would prove to be a mistake as a very large man with ginger hair and a pair of brass knuckles dropped down from the sky knocking out two of the cannibals that were beginning to recover as he dropped down to a squat before delivering an uppercut to the chin of both cannibals.

"Wooo hoo! The calvary has arrived motherfuckers!" Knuckles screamed out with his fists raised to the air as if he was being crowned champion of the world.

As some of the cannibals turned around to face Knuckles a large group started appearing slowly behind Lili and The knight with a short figure leading them. The rain cleared up with the clouds parting slightly to reveal that the short figure was Ezekiel 'The old man' and his group there to rescue The knight and fight off the cannibals who captured him.

"Hello brat! And Knuckles what did I tell you about going off ahead of the group alone!" The old man yelled out after greeting The knight while keeping his eyes locked on Colin.

"But who says I'm alone?" Knuckles responded while punching a cannibal in the gut and picking them up over his head to launch at two others.

Right when Knuckles was about to be attack from the side with no time to react a sound of a bottle breaking can be heard as a drunken fool appeared behind the attacker holding the top of a broken bottle. Anger can be seen from his face as his body shook uncontrollably.

"You fucks! You made me waste my last bottle of sake!" The drunken fool screamed to the air while throwing what remained of the bottle at the same cannibal he hit.

Charging forward Knuckles and the drunken fool tackled a small group of cannibals each launching fists randomly and rapidly. The numbers began to prove too much for the two as some of the cannibals in the group jumped on their backs to attempt a choke hold. This move proved futile however as the drunk's sister dropped in on top of the cannibal wrapping her legs around his head and flipping over driving his head into the ground to help her husband. Their fourth friend came out of the bushes with a war cry so deep it sounded like a viking invasion. He ran up to his drunken friend with a taser shocking everyone in that pile including his friend.

"You're welcome you drunk fuck. That was for cheating at our last poker match." He stated as he dragged his drunk friend from the pile to deliver him to his sister for her to deal with.

As this was going on the rest of the cannibals were fighting on equal terms with the rescue party neither group willing to give an inch in the battle. Branches were used and broken, leaves were thrown as distractions and weapons combined with dirt, and The knight was delivering headbutts to anybody who came close to the old man. Lili was holding her own using her speed to her advantage as she dodged hits from Christine to deliver her own small potshots at the not surprisingly strong cannibal. The only two people not fighting were the old man and Colin as they simply stared at one another with hatred glowing in their eyes. Lightning can be felt between them as the intensity of their stare at eachother only grew.

"So Ezekiel how splendid of you to join us just as we were about to prepare dinner, although I do find it rude of you to break our three way treaty of a ceasefire to steal our food." Colin stated as if he was spitting venom at the old man.

"Colin you know as well as I that this fellow wearing armor is a friend to my group and was not to be harmed. If anybody broke the treaty here it would be you!" The old man responded back with just as much venom in his voice.

"Wait hold up, treaty? Ceasefire? What? I'm confused as fuck right now." The knight said inbetween headbutts.

"What was confusing about anything they said? It's very clear words. Don't tell me you got brain damage from all of those headbutts you gave out." Lili responded before continuing her seemingly non ending battle with Christine.

"Colin let's stop this nonsense now, allow me to take my friend and his friend to bring back the ceasefire. I don't want a war for the sake of the lives in our two groups, but if you persist I will bring the full might and force of my group onto yours." The old man said giving an offer to Colin.

"Hmmmmm I'll allow just this once, only because you haven't done anything like this unlike that other fool who seems to make it his life mission to disturb my group and attempt and depriving us of food every time we hunt. I was honestly surprised it was your group here today for this rescue and not his." Colin responded agreeing to the offer with his hands behind his back in a very formal stance.

Hearing the words of both leaders caused most of the fighting to stop the only exception being knuckles who continued fighting and only paused after seeing a very large, dumb, and strong cannibal.

"Yes finally a worthy challenger! Our battle will be legendary!" Knuckles screamed out before charging at the large cannibal starting a slugfest with him.

The rest of the two groups simply watched as the two giants duked it out each group cheering for their respective champion in the fight. The knight just grew more confused and Lili joined the audience enjoying herself after what she would describe as a pretty long day. Soon both fighters grew tired and their punches slowed as they became sloppy, the cheering died down as well since the fight was pretty repetitive with both fighters just trading punches. In the end both fighters tired out and stopped punching ending the fight in a tie. With the fight over Colin led his group of cannibals back underneath the bridge while the old man led his group with The knight who was still confused about how this all played out back to their base in the library.