Under Zenith (5 page)

“Sure, we can call it a zombie. I’m sure it wouldn’t mind eating your brain,” he said with a laugh, apparently finding the whole situation very amusing.

“You watch too many sci-fi movies,” I told him, still not running.

Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t
that
tough. The zombie-like thing definitely scared me. But it also intrigued me. It was fascinating to see something up close that looked like a special effect in a movie.

“It won’t really kill me
, will it?”

“You’re already dead,” Hayden pointed out.

“True,” I agreed.

“But that
doesn’t mean it can’t hurt you…a lot.”

My eyes widened at this statement
, and suddenly I had to wonder what kind of place this was. What was the point of having a zombie chase me through the woods to a cabin? It made absolutely no sense unless you were on the set of a reality TV show.

“Are you going to help me or just stand there and laugh while this thing eats my brain?” I asked him incredulously, wondering if the corpse would make a move to chase me.

Luckily, every zombie movie I’d ever seen suggested that the creature would be a slow moaning mess.

Still, I didn’t really have a way to defend myself against it.

I wasn’t a naturally queasy girl, but I didn’t think I could bring myself to kill something that looked like a human. It just didn’t feel right.

“I can’t help you
, Isla. You have to do this yourself,” he said with a shrug, not really sounding like he felt all that bad about this fact. “And I suggest you run.”

“Zombies. The great motivator,” I joked, keeping my eyes trained on the corpse.
“It’s just standing there. Why isn’t it moving?”

“I think it’s trying to be a good sport and give you a head start maybe,” he said, looking over at the corpse who, in turn, turned its head
with a loud crack to face Hayden.

He shrugged at the thing.

“I say you just get to it, mate,” he said.

At first I thought he was talking to me. Then, as the corpse turned to look at me with the black holes where its eyes should have been
, I realized he was giving the zombie motivation.

Some Guide.

“I hate you,” I said to him as I instantly turned on my heel to finish crossing the river.

One of my boots slipped on a moss
covered rock, twisting my ankle and sending me sprawling into the icy cold water. My knees and palms painfully made contact with the rock lined river bottom, and the water forced its way down my throat, rushing over my head for a moment until I pushed myself up.

I turned around to say something my mama wouldn’t
have approved of to Hayden, when my vision was suddenly blocked by the corpse. I screamed in panic, not expecting it to be so close to me already, and I threw up my arms to defend myself.

Apparently I wasn’t as agile as I’d expected because the creature grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me back into the water, hitting my head
agonizingly on the rocky bottom and causing stars to spring to life in front of my eyes.

I thrashed against its weight, sputtering for air in the water that was quickly robbing my body of heat.
I could feel the bony fingers closing around my throat when I kicked out with my boot, hitting the (for lack of a better word) “zombie” in the place where its stomach should have been.

It released me momenta
rily, and I took the opportunity to scramble to my hands and knees, crawling out of the water desperately.

“Hayden!” I screamed, looking back over my shoulder to see an empty space where my Guide had once stood.

The creature didn’t waste any time getting back to the task at hand, and soon it was crawling out of the water after me at an alarming pace. Really, the sight of a running corpse was all the motivation I needed to get to my feet and run at a full on sprint in the direction of the cabin with water sloshing in my boots.

So much for slow, moaning movie zombies.

The involuntary dip I’d taken into the river was enough to turn me around, but luckily the sun was setting through the fog and Hayden had so kindly pointed out to me that the cabin was to the west. Still, as I ran toward the setting sun, I didn’t know that I’d be able to outrun the creature for a full mile. I was a slow runner and it was quickly gaining on me.

Of course, t
he cowboy boots in thick mud probably didn’t help my situation much.

“Hayden!” I yelled again, hoping this time he’d offer me something more than a few sarcastic comments.

Didn’t he care that this thing was trying to kill me?

Okay fine, so I was already dead. But it was definitely trying to hurt me and Hayden was showing a serious lack of chivalry by ignoring that fact. He would
not
make it in the south with an attitude like that.

“Help me!”

“You’re getting closer,” I could hear him yell far ahead of me.

I wasn’t sure how he’d gotten in front of me without my knowledge, but somehow he was already at the cabin.
Now I was definitely unimpressed by his manners. He couldn’t have just waited for me?

“I don’t see the cabin,” I yelled into the fog that was quickly growing thicker and thicker.

A cold sensation shot through my arm and I slowed down to grasp my wrist, just for a second.

Big mistake.

I screamed once more as dry, bony fingers clasped my shoulder and pulled me backward onto the ground. My white blonde hair flew up around my face, clouding my vision and the awful smell of decay instantly hit my nose.

“Help!” I screamed again, kicking out at the creature to keep it at bay.

“I can’t,” was Hayden’s simple reply, much closer than he had been before.

Knowing I was the only one who could get me out of this
, I closed my eyes tight, brought my knees up to my chest in a gesture that was very unladylike in the knee length dress I was currently wearing, and kicked with all my might at the corpse that was quickly descending upon me.

I heard a sickening thud as my boot made contact with the creature, but I didn’t open my eyes until I heard it hit the ground a few feet away.

“Not bad,” Hayden said, now standing over me and looking amused.

“You were going to…
let me die,” I sputtered between deep, panicked breaths.

I couldn’t seem to stop the hysteria that was building within me.

“Already dead,” he said again.

He just loved to point that out to me.

I didn’t say anything, but stared at him incredulously. How could he be so callous about the whole situation?

Laying my head back against the loamy earth, I closed my eyes and tried to catch my breath again.

“I wouldn’t just sit there if I were you,” he informed me.

“I just need to rest for a minute. I feel so heavy all of a sudden.”

“The longer you’re stationary, the more likely it is that more of those things will show up,” he stated.

“Great. That’s just what I need,” I answered with a deep sigh, heaving myself up off of the ground and hoping the cabin wasn’t too far off.

Only moments before, I had been amazed by just how much stamina I had; it was like I’d taken some sort of miracle drug. But now, it took all of my will power just to put one foot in front of the other.

“What’s wrong with me
, Hayden?” I asked, feeling completely exhausted.

“Wait,” he began gravely. “That zombie didn’t bite you
, did it?”

“I don’t think so,” I answered, my eyes wide with fear. “I mean I guess it could have. Why? What does that mean?”

“Nothing,” he replied with a laugh. “Just wanted to scare you.”

“You’re the worst Guide in the world. Are all Guides like this?”

“Like what?”

“Mean and awful to their…
people?” I asked, unable to think of a word to describe what I was to him.

“I don’t know. I guess,” he answered distantly.

His eyes were trained on some unseen spot in the distance and I instantly quieted myself, wanting to know what he was focusing on.

“Footsteps,” I whispered.

Hayden nodded, looking at me with raised eyebrows.

“I guess that’s my cue then?”

“I’d say so,” he answered.

“Ugh. I hate being dead,” I told him as I forced myself to
resume my run toward the unseen cabin.

My legs still felt as if they were filled with concrete
, but anytime I felt like stopping, I’d conjure the image of the zombie attacking me and that motivated me enough to keep going. It wasn’t long before I could see the hazy outline of a small structure in the distance, and suddenly I had hope that I might actually make it out of this thing alive.

No pun intended.

As I neared the cabin, Hayden stuck his head out of one of the windows, looking as smug as ever and nodding behind me.

“You should probably watch your back,” he called.

I didn’t bother looking behind me. I already knew what I’d see. Instead I pumped my arms harder and ran as fast as I possibly could, hearing the crunching of leaves getting closer and closer behind me as I neared the door.

As much as I wanted to deny it, I knew I wasn’t going to make it to the cabin door before the creature caught up with me.
The only problem was, I wasn’t sure what else I could do. It was quickly gaining on me and there was no place to hide.

I knew my brother Tuck would have
been able to simply overpower the thing, but he was bigger and stronger than me. It was just like when we were kids and he’d chase me around the yard, trying to ‘wrestle’; which just meant he wanted to be able to playfully beat me up without getting into trouble. The only defense I’d had against him was the fact that I was small and agile. I could climb trees like a squirrel.

Glancing over my shoulder for just a second
, I wondered if the corpse would be able to climb a tree without any muscles. It was certainly doing a good job of running without muscles, so it was very likely the thing could follow me right up a tree, though at that particular point in time, I didn’t really have many other options.

It was either
climb a tree and maybe get attacked by a reanimated corpse, or keep running to the cabin and definitely get attacked.

Without another thought
, I ran straight at a nearby tree, used my foot to propel myself upward, and grabbed the lowest branch I could. After that it was all a matter of simple muscle memory to pull myself from branch to branch, trying to ignore the persistent tingling in my legs.

“That’s not the cabin,” Hayden called, having seen my entire ascent into the
foliage.

“I couldn’t outrun it,” I answered quite obviously.

The corpse came to a stop under the tree and turned its head skyward with a slow creaking movement. It didn’t make any move to come after me, but it didn’t leave either. It simply stared at me with those dark holes where its eyes should have been.

It was bizarre that I was so out of breath and yet this monster didn’t seem fazed at all by the run. He didn’t take a single breath as he stared at me.

“I am ever so curious to see what the next part of your brilliant plan is,” Hayden said with a smirk.

I ignored him. Figuring that if all he was going to do was make fun of me, I was better off without him.
I had died after all. I was being chased by a psychotic zombie through some task I didn’t understand. It wasn’t like I was whining just to whine. I had a very legitimate reason to be upset at the moment.

The space between the tree and the door wasn’t very far. If I hadn’t been so high up
, I might have been able to jump down from the tree and try to outrun the creature. But unfortunately, I was almost positive that if I jumped from this height, I’d break my ankles and be zombie dinner for sure.

Looking to the cabin
, I realized that this wasn’t as overly complicated as I was making it out to be. If I took the cannibalistic corpse out of the equation, I was just left with a puzzle that I needed to solve. The whole ‘fear of being eaten alive’ thing was clouding my judgment and making me too scared to make an intelligent decision.

Why try to outrun the zombie to the cabin when I could just jump from a branch overhanging the roof?

It seemed so simple now that I realized what I should do that I almost laughed at myself for not having thought of it before.

“You seem happy,” Hayden said, still sounding arrogant as usual.

I didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response. Really, he’d probably just make fun of my idea and tell me I was going to get eaten for sure. So instead, I pulled my boots off to get a better grip with my bare feet and walked carefully along the tree branch until I was standing just over the roof of the building.

I’d jumped off enough swing sets as a kid to know that a hard landing could be a
n unpleasant thing on your legs, so with that knowledge, I braced myself as I jumped from the branch to the roof. The landing wasn’t exactly graceful and I ended up rolling so far down that I almost fell off completely, but I managed to right myself in time to see the corpse running toward the cabin.