10 Chapter 10

I crouch down underneath the nearest car, afraid to draw their attention.

I can smell the fumes of stale gas and what is most likely rotten flesh, but since I've spent most of my time in a sewer, it doesn't bother me too much. Unfortunately, no matter how clean it is, a sewer is still a sewer.

I listen intently to the sound of bodies moving and clothes rustling. The car shakes above me as something attempts to get out, but is unsuccessful. Behind a car in the lane across from me, I can see feet. One foot is wearing an old, battered looking sneaker, but the other is dried-up tan-skin, similar to the color of the bodies I noticed earlier.

A body shambles down the road and into view, its decayed and dried up head is whipping around, searching for whatever woke it up. I peer at it from under the car, noting that its swollen eyes are glowing slightly with mana but are otherwise lifeless.

Are they really zombies after all? It can't be something as simple and mundane as that though, right? I mean every other creature I've met has been a large, mutated, mana wielding version of itself. So what the hell are these things? Can they use mana too? They don't look like they have the intelligence to do so.

More zombies stumble around on the roadway, spurred into action by the evil yellow mouse that woke them. I can't believe I used to be a fan of that mouse when I was younger! Never meet your childhood dreams, they say.

One of the zombies stands in front of my car, and even though I know it can't possibly hear me, I hold my breath anyway. It can't smell me, right? I've been living in a sewer for awhile so I probably could use a bath with soap, but could zombies smell in the movies to begin with? I don't remember.

The zombie starts moving a moment later, heading down the highway in the direction I came from. I let out the breath I've been holding, relieved that I either don't smell or that it can't smell. Either way, I'm glad. Unfortunately, my relief is why I very nearly jump when glass showers down onto the ground next to me. A pair of hands slide onto the ground, and a moment later a decayed body follows it. It fell out of the window! It would almost be comical if it weren't so frightening.

I dash nervously to the car ahead of me, not taking any chances that it might see me hiding underneath the car and alert the rest of them to my presence. No, I'd rather not fight right now. I'm still cut, battered, and bruised from my last fight with the rats, and breaking the barrier blocking the sewers before that. I'm lucky that I absorbed the giant spider's mana core; without it, I'd be dead tired right now.

I crawl underneath the cars, going quickly from car to car while passing the now-active zombie pack. They walk mindlessly, some going towards the city and some away from it. I wonder if they're locals or if they wandered in from somewhere else. I can't be the first one to have passed this bridge and alerted them, right? But if I'm not the first, then how is it possible that the zombies haven't been alerted and left their cars? Perhaps it's a mixture. The one's outside of the cars probably aren't local, and the ones that are either haven't been alerted or haven't managed to leave. I don't see any signs of someone fighting here, so I think my guess makes sense.

I steadily make my way down the bridge and over an island with an old vine-covered university on it. In the distance are the towers of the city and all of its boroughs, which I completely don't recognize. I still haven't seen any more signs pointing out where the so called Sanctuary city is. I have no idea where I'm going to find it, even if they did give a street or building name or something. To be honest, I think I recall that I used to be very bad with directions and with geography in general, so I'm not particularly surprised. It's still annoying though.

The zombies have thinned out in this area, there's only a few roaming around. I don't think the evil mouse woke these ones, they were probably already moving around to begin with. I guess they're done sleeping or something.

Alright Cathan, you're half way to the end of the bridge! When I reach the end, I'll hop off the highway and follow alongside it so I don't encounter any more of these zombie creeps. I feel like they have more diseases in them than a dozen rats combined. Well, maybe that's a little harsh. Half a dozen, perhaps?

I pass underneath another car and emerge from the other side. I'm about to duck underneath the car in front of it when I notice something funny. What's my tail brushing against? It doesn't feel like it's touching the metal of a car... uh oh.

I warily turn to look to see that there's a dirty, hooded figure crouched beside me with a bulging black backpack strapped to her back. A pale, young feminine face stares back at me with a shocked expression. I notice that on the ground beside her is a long spear made of some kind of bone, which her hand is slowly reaching towards as the shock turns into wariness.

My body has completely frozen; this isn't how I imagined meeting my first human since I've arrived here. As her expression settles into one of grim determination, a howl pierces the air as we both turn to see a zombie with a hungry looking expression staring straight at us. Its body launches forward into an incredibly fast charge, and we both dodge frantically to the side as it crashes into the trunk of the truck in front of us, bursting through the glass and toppling inside. Holy crap, they're fast!

The bridge comes to life as glass shatters around us and zombies rise as if from the grave. The girl and I exchange a wary look before we both explode into action. We jump over the struggling zombie that flops like a fish and on top of the car in front of us, frantically sprinting and jumping from car to car to reach the end of the bridge.

As we run, zombies start to chase after us from behind and intercept us from the front. Though they're insanely fast, they have a terrible sense of balance, making it difficult for them to follow us on top of the cars.

As I run at full speed I look over my shoulder to see the girl following right on my heels. She's fast as well, she can actually keep up with me, a cat, despite the fact that my mana core has been improving my body! Actually, as I look at her I notice that her body is glowing slightly. Is she using mana to enhance her physical body? I know that mana does that just by being inside a person, but you can use it actively like that? That's something I should try later on. I notice that she's also looking at me with a surprised expression. Is she surprised because I'm just as fast as her, or is it something else?

But before I can continue that train of thought a zombie running at full speed jumps and crashes into the car we just jumped to. It lifts and starts to lurch onto two wheels, throwing us up and overboard. More zombies close in on our position as we land on the roadway.

A nearby zombie throws her body at us, which we both dodge. It hurdles past us and slides across the road, leaving a trail of shredded flesh behind. The delay costs us valuable time though, allowing more zombies to reach us. I summon my tendrils to whip at another zombie trying to charge at us, sending him launching into the pavement where his head hits the ground, hard enough for it to crack. He doesn't get back up.

The girl uses her spear to easily pierce into another zombie's ahead as it also tries to tackle us. Are they all football players or something? Sheesh!

But the longer we stay here fighting, the more zombies arrive to assault us. Though they're physically powerful, they're clumsy and easy to defeat. But there are more of them than the damn rats, they're swarming from either direction from the bridge. If this situation goes on, it'll be very bad for us both...

I turn my tendrils into massive mauls and sweep them outwards at the growing number of zombies that approach us. As their bodies fly away, I take the opportunity to resume my mad sprint across the cars. If I don't get moving now, I won't be able to later when I get swarmed by zombies. I hear and feel the heavy footfalls of the girl behind me, so I know she followed me. From her reaction, I don't know if we'll be enemies later, but at least for now we seem to have a temporary partnership between us.

More zombies attempt to assail us while we're on the cars, so I do the best I can to bat them away with my bladed-tendrils slicing into them. Any of the zombies that get past my defense I entrust to the girl to take care of with her spear before they can reach us.

Of course, we can't do anything about them doing anything to the cars ahead of us, so we switch to traveling on the road when we have to. Above all, we're as careful as possible to avoid getting cornered and swarmed, which is the main concern when dealing with zombies, though it's harder when they can sprint.

And jump, I realize as one of my tendrils pierces cleanly through the stomach of a zombie. Blood pours down from it and onto the road, and I shake it off my tendril. The body flops to the ground like dead meat. Though it's not dead, or maybe it is? Except it's still moving. It's definitely meat though.

As I focus on using my tendrils to protect us both, I can't help but turn my thoughts towards the fact that I'm attacking humans, or the remains of humans, and yet I feel nothing about it more than the anxiety of being eaten to death. Or skewered, that's still a possibility as I eye the girl running behind me. I hope that doesn't come to pass though. I could use an ally, and I could certainly use a break from the constant action.

As we drawer nearer to the end of the bridge, I can't help but feel more anxiety. This feels too easy... nothing has ever been easy since I've gotten here, so what's going on? Is it the power of friendship, maybe? Like the partnership of an unlikely pair that carries them through all troubles no matter the odds?

The girl glares at me as one of my tendrils zips in front of her and straight into a zombie that's about to leap on our car. I whip its body into a zombie behind it, knocking it over. The girl easily jumps over my tendril which blocked her path, but she gives me the stink-eye anyway. It's not my fault there was a zombie there though!

She returns the favor as she stabs her spear down in front of me as a zombie bursts through a windshield and tries to grab me with flailing outstretched arms. I hiss at the suddenness of her motion and the zombie's nearly-successful grab. Now it's my turn to glare up at her as she smirks down at me, clearly satisfied with herself. Her smirk provokes me, and a spark of blood-lust unintentionally leaks out.

She reacts immediately, pointing her spear down at me while baring her teeth and growling at me. It would almost be cute if there weren't a spear in my face and if the amount of mana I feel rolling off her body wasn't so damn threatening.

But before the situation can escalate, we have much more important things to worry about. There's another wave of zombies approaching us from the front. Except a few of these ones are different from the rest; they have bodies with weird glowing veins spreading across their body, some of which flare violently before bursting into flames that pour out uncontrollably. Others have thick rock-like skin, somewhat similar to the giant spider's armor. These ones plow recklessly through the cars, not even recognizing them as obstacles in their way.

The girl and I exchange one heated last glare with each other before we face the zombies again. Now things are about to get interesting.