The End Of Life

Mark's eyes shrunk, seeing the zombie clutching his feet. The zombie was going for his feet with its mouth wide open. He immediately took out his gun and shot it in its head, killing it. He looked back and saw the rest of them are very near and shot at the elbow. 

The body detached itself from the elbow and he pulled himself up. Jumping over the wall, he immediately kneeled down, catching his breath. He looked at his leg and could hear his heart beating. David's face was full of shock when he saw the zombie hand attached to his leg. 

He slowly reached out for the hand and pried it open. He threw away the hand and closely examined the ankle. He had a bruise because of its tight grip, but his skin was not cut. He exhaled in relief and slowly stood up. It relieved David when he saw nothing happened. 

"Mark, what just happened in there? Didn't we see the zombies making their way towards the parking lot? How were they back so quick?" 

Mark had the same thoughts as David. His plan was perfect based on the data he had on the zombies. But the incident just now woke him up. His data was either not complete or was wrong. He needed more information on the zombie's characteristics. 

"Let's go back to the jeep and think about what to do next. We can't stay here any further." 

They made their way towards the underground parking lot as quietly as they could. Mark was limping because of the bruise on the ankle. Reaching the parking lot, he looked at his watch and found it was already 3. 

He needed another plan. If Mark did not see the people behind the museum or David did not notice the zombies in time, they would have died. Taking another breath, he decided to have some lunch first. They had nothing after breakfast and he was hungry. 

"David, let's have lunch and think of a plan." 

David nodded and brought out the things and cooked breakfast. Suzie was already inside the jeep waiting for food while Mark was still deep in his thoughts. After having lunch, Suzie fell asleep, tired. Even if her body was fit, she wasn't mentally stable. 

David and Mark sat on the ground, leaning against the jeep. Mark had a frown on his face, thinking how he failed. The zombies were too unusual. 

'Noise attracts these things and they swarm towards the source. But what happened today? They came back. I was still able to hear the noise from the parking lot. So what made them return. It's almost like a trap laid out for us.' Frowning at his last statement. The zombies can not have intelligence. The virus directly attacks the brain, so they should not have any.

But what he saw on the lawn told otherwise. As he was thinking he heard David, "Don't think about it much Mark. It's general to fail-" but before he could finish his sentence ' once or twice.' 

Mark burst on him with a very dark and cold voice, "Are you saying I am failure David? I do not want to hear that sentence ever again in my entire life. I am not a F A I L U R E." as it dropped more in the end. 

David was taken back at his sudden outburst. He only wanted to cheer him up as it's common for humans to make mistakes. But Mark did not even give him a chance to complete his statement. His voice was strange compared to his normal cold voice. This time it had a tinge of blood-thirst in it and he felt goosebumps. 

As a doctor, he was interested in the situation. He knew nothing about Mark, which sparked him to give out such a reaction. Mark on the other hand was raging inside. 

'How dare people call me a failure? I will show it to everyone who says so. I will prove it to those three that I am not one and they will die in my hands.' as three figures flashed in her mind. 

"Mark, cool down. I don't mean like that at all. You know that I won't say such a thing about you. So tell me, what do you plan on doing next?" trying to appease him. David did not want a raging Mark to make rash decisions. 

Mark clearly heard him and cooled down. He knew David was right. The situation was dire. His friend Kevin might be inside that museum, and he did not have a way to cross the gigantic swarm of zombies in the way. 

As he continued to think, he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked at David. David had a cigarette in his mouth while passing one to Mark. Mark took the lighter and the cigarette from him. Keeping the cigarette in his mouth, he lit it up. This was a great relief for him. 

He started smoking after his mother's death, same with David, but after his wife's death. Taking a huge puff in, he played with the lighter in his hands. Seeing the fire, he thought of a crazy idea. Anyone who knew it might run away immediately.

He looked at David and said, "I have an idea. It might probably work." with a nasty grin. Seeing it, David felt something wrong but still probed him to continue. 

"How about we create an explosion and kill all the zombies inside? That might work." 

David felt his spine shiver hearing the idea. But as he thought about it, he felt it might be a success. But where could they get an explosion from?

"Do you have a bomb to create an explosion?" 

"I do. But we won't be wasting a bomb for this. Let's go and search for a nearby petrol stop. If we are lucky, we might find a tank of petrol and we could use that instead."

David nodded and got up. They got inside the jeep and drove to find a nearby petrol bunk. After searching for a few minutes, they finally found the petrol bunk. But there was also a problem. There were quite some zombies surrounding it. They could see three bloaters too. 

But Mark wasn't scared of them. There were only 20 regular zombies aside from the bloaters. Getting down from the jeep, he took out the gun and began shooting. He treated them as an outlet for the previous frustration he felt. 

After four of them fell, the few biters in that group were already halfway towards him. He kept the gun back and took out his sword instead. He ran towards them, not worrying about any damage. David was covering him from the back, shooting towards the group. 

Mark quickly went for the nearest zombies. Slicing its head off, he jumped back, feeling danger and noticed the zombie after it jumping towards him. He didn't waste anymore time killing it and the rest behind it. 

After the biters were done, he killed the normal zombies, and then the bloaters were only left. Keeping the sword back in its sheath, he took out his gun. Changing the empty magazine for a new one, he aimed at the closet one and shot. After one fell he moved on to the others. 

As the last bloater fell, he exhaled in relief. They made their way towards the petrol station. He looked around and found the oil tank trucks parked on the side. He quickly checked if any one of them is full. When all of them were empty, he could only sigh and go inside the management room and take the keys from a hanger. 

Starting the vehicle, he drove it up to one of the nearest booths and filled the huge tank. He was happy that the petrol was still available for them. David drove the jeep and also filled its tank. After the long journey from Loshin, their petrol was almost done. 

Filling the tank took a lot of time, then expected, and the sun was slowly going down. Mark decided to go with the plan early tomorrow morning. They slowly drove back the two vehicles to the same underground parking lot. Mark parked the truck outside in an alleyway. 

The parking lot was completely dark, so they went upstairs to one of the houses to rest. Mark cooked up a simple dinner and everyone had their share. As they retired to separate rooms, he made Suzie sleep on her own. He could hear David's snore from the other room. 

He couldn't fall asleep because of two things. One was the bizarre behaviour of the zombies he experienced, and the next one was his sudden outburst after lunch. Hearing the word 'failure' made him think about the one guy he wanted to torture and kill the most. One of the major reasons his mother died early. He clenched his fists thinking about him and slept with a mind full of resentment.