CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 15

Rose sat atop the truck, everywhere was dead silent save randomly timed sobs from her friends who could not hold their tears in. for some reasons however she noticed that Roosevelt seemed to be the most terribly hit of them all. She was the only one that joined them during the apocalypse and had not even spent a year with them but she was the one having the worst break down.

'Quite weird'. She thought, 'Perhaps she is just trying to deal with the guilt her own way, after all Marvellous got bitten because of her. Anything apart from that and I don't think I want to even imagine it'. Thinking to that point, she stared at the truck's top beneath her as if trying to see through it.

Just then, her eyelids twitched and her pupils constricted as she stared in a direction before shouting.

"Speed up!. . . There are zombies approaching!".

Her whip uncoiled itself from her lower arm and she whipped it towards a rim on the truck. With a whacking sound, the whip coiled around the rim and help fast, acting as a support for her as the car shot forward like a bullet released from a gun. With the speed at which the car was moving, the zombies were naturally unable to catch up, gradually they faded into the distance as tiny dots until they became completely invisible.

Inside the truck, the rest of the teens increased their levels of alertness to be ready for any sudden attacks. While all that was happening, Roosevelt was sitting quietly in one of the trucks - precisely the same as Rose - oblivious to everything that was happening around her, ever since she realised that she actually had an intimate feeling for Marvellous, she had been like that.

'How did it happen. . .?'. Was the question she kept asking her self, 'All this while when he was here I never felt it. Why now?, now that he is gone?. . . Gone for life?. Why did I have to develop such crazy feelings?, worst still for him of all people?. Well I'm damned!', she thought. Slowly different scenarios began to unfold in her head, from the first time she met them - which did not end well 'cause Marvellous had to risk his life for her - to that night when she woke up with the feelings that something was wrong and discovered that Marvellous had turned completely.

The more she remembered, the hotter her anger burned. Killing intent flashed through her eyes and her grip tightened on the handle of her axe. As if in response, the axe gave off a faint glow. As her anger and killing intent increased, the brighter the glow became.

——

Josh was busy watching the surroundings when her suddenly noticed a resplendent glow behind him, glancing back to be sure, he saw an ugly expression on Roosevelt's face and the glow also happened to be emitted by her weapon.

"Hey!. . . . Guys you might want to see this!", he shouted attracting the attentions of his friends.

The trucks came to an abrupt halt and in a flash all of them were gathered outside the truck looking at Roosevelt. As the killing intent seemed to be reaching climax however, it suddenly vanished.

"What happened to her?", Rose asked Josh only to see him equally confused. 'This probably is the answer to the puzzle, why do I feel that she kinda feels for Marvellous?'. Rose thought.

"I don't know, I. . . Uh. . . I, you know just saw her like that and called you guys", he replied.

Truth speaking, Josh saw her and was the first to call the attention of the others, but he wasn't the first to notice that something was wrong with her. The first person to actually notice that Roosevelt wasn't alright was actually Emmanuel, he had a secret crush on her and was always watching her. While driving the truck, he had been watching her from the rear mirror and knew all that happened. Now seeing her so beaten up because Marvellous was gone, he asked himself a question - the same question that was on all their minds.

"Did she like Marvellous?".

Despite thinking of the question, none of them actually said it out, choosing to ponder on it individually. After minutes of thought, without any reasonable answer or theory, they suddenly remembered that they had stopped in an open field. Life targets for malicious people as well as the zombies.

*******

At a car park a zombie stood atop a car eyeing a group of humans gathering supplies a distance away and oblivious to its presence.

*Hungry*

Only a single sentence was being repeated in its head as it stared at them and breathed in the aroma it smelled from them. But it instinctively felt that it wasn't supposed to. Whenever it was about to give in to the temptation, the images of a group of people would flash through its head, stopping it in its tracks. It could not remeber them but it knew they were people it was supposed to be familiar with.

Suddenly the humans started running. Curious it turned to the direction they were running from and with its enhanced vision, it began to search the area. A roar suddenly erupted in the distance and a zombie running on all fours like an animal appeared in its field of view. It stopped and roared again summoning zombies from all nearby directions and continued running towards the fleeing humans as the leader of those zombies when it suddenly stopped, with a sharp look it glanced in the direction of the non-human eating zombie. As if forgetting the humans, it began to run towards it.

Naturally, the non-human eating zombie was Marvellous or the now turned Marvellous. Despite the fact that he was no longer human, his zombie self could not bring its self to eat humans. It still instinctively felt that it was not allowed to. The zombie leader - or combatant zombie as they would come to be known in the future – spread its fingers and made a palms down gesture, before moving its arms down slowly as if pushing something down. The ground surrounding the car the non-human eating zombie was crunching on actually began to tremble, and suddenly. . .BOOM!!!, the ground began to collapse inwards. With a leap, the non-human eating zombie jumped from the vehicle to a nearby building while roaring at the attacking zombie. Normally, since it was a zombie it could only roar as a means of communication. It was trying to explain to

the attacking zombie that it had no interest in fighting for territory, but it wouldn't listen. The attacking zombie clasped its palms shut into fists and raised it slowly as if lifting an heavy load again. Following its gesture sands shaped as bullets slowly rose from the ground, with a roar the zombie made a pushing gesture, causing the soil bullets to fly towards the non-human eating zombie with lightening speed.

*Roarrrr. . .*. Annoyed, it leapt away again.

Clenching its fists, it raised its arms above its head and made a grasping motion as though pulling an heavy load down.

Following its gestures, ominous clouds gathered in the blink of an eye and baby thigh thick lightning bolts fell on the unsuspecting earth powered combatant zombie. The earth powered combatant zombie instinctively felt a life threatening danger as the lightening bolts fell towards it, it took a leap to the side immediately but it was too late. A thick streak of lightening hit it on its head, with a thud it fell unmoving.

"Hmmm?" A confused look flashed across the eyes of the turned Marvellous. With a leap it was standing within arms length of the dead zombie. Slowly and cautiously, it walked towards the dead earth powered combatant zombie and watched.

It was charred black like burnt meat as it laid on the ground. As the lightening powered zombie squatted examining it, a green diamond shaped object fell out from the completely burnt head of the zombie.

Inquisitive, the lightening powered zombie picked it up and was examining it when it suddenly vaporised. It could feel a strange refreshing energy flowing from the point of contact with the object to other parts of its body as the object disappeared. Flexing its partially stiff muscles, it realised that they had loosened up a little and a tiny streak of lightening flashed through its eyes as the energy converged in its head after circulating through its body. Turning around, it sniffed the air and the feeling of hunger filled its mind as it began to run in a certain direction. Running at a speed of five miles per hour, it soon got to a tall building and climbed to the top. Staring at the road below, a few off road trucks could be seen speeding off in the direction of the horizon. Not moving or acting excessively, the lightening powered zombie quietly sat there and watched, it completely black eyes - the most effective indication of a combatant zombie - gleaming with curiosity.

*****

Night came, as usual nobody noticed the purplish gas in the air as they retired for the night. As for the zombies however, they all seemed to be basking in enjoyment. Allowing the gas into their system.