I lift my face after the pressure in his veins subsides and draw a long and heavy breath. My eyes close and I feel my chin tremble.

I felt satisfaction.

My thirst had subsided, and I felt more ‘me’. Not like a caged animal that was trapped and docile. I felt free.

I began to laugh; My body slumped over the body and hugged the corpse tightly.

I FELT FREE!

The corpse beneath me cracked as my newfound strength snapped his arm bones. I shivered as I felt the crack echo within me. I could only guess where this power originated, but I accepted it.

It suited me.

I took a lick of the blood smearing the corpse. It still tasted like blood, a heavy taste filled with metal. Yet there was a slight, almost hidden taste of sweetness.

I rose and let the rush of dopamine take its course. In the meantime, I checked over where I had been shot and saw that they had already clotted despite the rather gruesome wound in my left shoulder. I flexed it and listened to the bones grinding against each other whilst barely sensing any pain.

It would seem I did not have instant regeneration. Pity.

I kept moving the stiff shoulder around as I turned my attention to the passed out figure. My legs almost moved on their own as I walked to him.

He was lying on his back, struggling to breathe. The goon had puke around his face and was now slowly suffocating in his own vomit. I kneeled down and watched him unconsciously struggle. I glanced around to see if I had the time, or had anyone heard me. But there was no erratic movement nor shouts.

I keened my mind to focus on hearing.

A slow whirring of motor was audible from a corner of the asylum. I turned towards it and saw a camera turn to me. I smiled and stood up from the slowly dying man and waved at the camera before moving to the dead corpse and taking his rifle and a couple of magazines from the mag pouch.

I dropped the mag on the rifle and replaced it while running away and ensuring the safety was on.

My face couldn’t help but have a playful smirk as I rounded the opposite corner from the camera. The extra mag went into my pocket.

I quickly noted I was in the open backyard of the asylum. Still fenced off but more of a buffer zone area between the courtyards and non-patient areas. It was already night, but it was late spring so it wasn’t too dark so visibility was still good.

My way forward had been fenced off around 25 meters from me. The top of the fence had been covered in barbwire.

Beyond the fence, another smaller courtyard had been built.

I heard footsteps from where I came from. I had alerted three enemies based on the pair of jogging steps moving almost in unison.

My grin widened as I hoisted the rifle to rest on my shoulder and ran for the fence. No point in ending this chase so soon, right?

The asylum walls zoomed past me and I reached the fence. I jumped mid run and reached out.

My landing on the 4 meter fence reached to the upper part, and I quickly climbed up with ease. As I came to the top, just below the concertina wire I leaned downwards and leaped up towards the smooth building wall above the fence.

I pushed myself off of it towards the other side of the fence and barely missed the razor wire thanks to applying some rotation to my push. I landed on my hands and legs.

The pain was significant as my body came on to the ground. My limbs groaned and I let my body keep up the movement by rolling on the ground.

A groan escaped my mouth as I leaped up and hid behind a corner and let myself slump down whilst taking the rifle and taking the safety off. I listened as two separate yet uniform rhythms of foots steps stopped at the corner on the other side of the fence where I had come from before continuing. Probably checked the corner.

I caught my breath and listened as the footsteps reached the fence, the were around 5 meters away from me on the other side.

‘I missed this’

I took a knee and leaned out of the corner and planted two shot at the chasers. One of them fell to the ground as I leaned back in and began retreating into the inwards spanning courtyard. I couldn’t help but laugh as I heard muffled gunshots from behind, along with cursing.

I heard the guy drag something away from me as I calmly jogged through open doors into the asylum.

My laughter echoed in the forlorn, eerily lit corridors as I entered.

I composed myself and kept low, creeping through the empty hallways with the rifle on high ready. My steps were light, yet my dirty dress shoes sent out weak taps echoing in the hallways despite my best efforts.

Tap, Tap, Tap

Tap.

Tap.

Every once in a while, I stopped to listen for other footsteps and the sounds of cameras whirring around.

I had no clue how many I was facing, but I liked my chances.. One confirmed kill, 2 potential casualties inflicted. I didn’t think there would be a full infantry squad of two teams of five. If it is a half there would be two fully operational hostiles remaining. Potentially three if the guy I talked to was not part of the squad.

I liked my chances a lot. Enough to begin to sing. A song fit for a funeral.

“Zamuchen tjazheloj nevolej” I wept with a mournful quiet voice as it echoed in the halls.

“Ty slavnoju smert'ju pochil...”

I paused and took a breath and sang louder

“V bor'be za narodnoe delo-o-oh

Ty golovu chestno slozhil...

Ty golovu chestno slozhil...”

I ducked behind a couch in the hall as gunfire sprayed in to the corridor. I sang louder as the bullets flew towards me.

“Sluzhil ty nedolgo, no chestno

Dlja blaga rodimoj zemli...

I my, tvoi brat'ja po delu,

Tebja na kladbishhe snesli.”

My voice echoed loudly in the empty halls filled with flying bullets. I ducked out and exchanged fire with two figures at the end of the corridor. There was a gap of around 10 meters between us.

I hushed once more and repeated the last verse.

“Tebja na kladbishhe snesli.”

I heard one of them groan as I hit him as he leaned out of cover. “Fucking Russian cunt!”

I only sang louder as I left my cover and jogged towards them.

“Nash vrag nad toboj ne glumilsja...

Krugom tebja byli svoi...

My sami, rodimyj, zakryli

Orlinye ochi tvoi.”

“Crazy fucking bastard!”

“Orlinye ochi tvoi.” I sombrely repeated before continuing once more loudly and proudly as I rushed them. They began to spray the hallway, so I tackled my way into one of the doors on my way to take cover.

“Ne gore nam dushu davilo,

Ne slezy blistali v ochah,

Kogda my, proshhajas' s toboju,

Zemlej zasypali tvoj prah.”

“Zemlej zasypali tvoj prah.” As I somberly sang the last part again as I charged out. As I yelled the last verse.

“Net, zloba nas tol'ko dushila!

My k bitve s vragami rvalis'

I mstit' za tebja besposhhadno

Nad prahom tvoim pokljalis'”

I jumped into a slide and slid past them while spraying the one who was not wounded as blood splattered around as he was hit multiple times.

”Nad prahom tvoim pokljalis'” I mournfully said, as I cancelled my slide and rose to my knee and shot the last one who was applying a bandage to his arm.

He slumpted to the floor with a face filled with disbelief.

I stayed a second in position, ready to fire, before standing up and glancing at the two bodies and switching mags.

Neither of them was the fucker who had stabbed me. I switched out my empty one with one of theirs and limped forward as my leg wound slowly clotted up.

‘Hopefully there was one left’ I thought to myself as the pain in my leg began increasing with every step I took, the adrenaline slowly leaving my system.

I wandered slowly through the asylum hallways aimlessly, passing dried blood and tracks of smeared blood and ichor. I followed them and reached outside in the front of the building where the mass gave was.

I hid myself at the corner of the open doorway leading outside a peered out.

The brightness inside was hampering my dark vision, but I saw nothing from the doorway, so I limped outside and hugged the outer wall, leaving a thin bloodied smear behind me. The blood that I left behind was murkier, darker shade of red that I attributed to whatever happened to me.

I felt fine despite being shot thrice. A did feel pain and my movement was affected but beyond that I was relatively fine.

I reached to the mass grave and saw two bodies lying there, one that I had ripped its throat out and one that had suffocated in his own refuse. It was relatively confirmed now that there were two people remaining and one of them was wounded.

I felt a feral urge to rip into the corpses, but I resisted it and moved on. My path led me to the security checkpoint building they had almost killed me. I stalled as I saw an upper part of a silhouette in the broken window before a faint muzzle flash lit up from his position.

My body fell as I free fell into prone firing position as a bullet whizzed over my head. The gravel underneath me dug painfully in to my stomach as I returned fire with single but rapid shots.

There was around 100 meters of enclosed fenced off path to go with no cover to go before I could reach the small building.

My target was not too accurate as his shots ricocheted around me but my own shots failed to strike true as well because of his more secure position under cover.

A few rocks ricocheted off his shots and struck my face.

I switched between crawling and returning fire as I painfully slowly moved closer to the building. I had to occasionally rise and do a quick dash when the shooter began to zero in on me and his shots became more accurate.

I managed to half my distance after a lengthened engagement but I was unable to move forward anymore and had to erect a barrier out of gravel as the fire had become too accurate. Shards of sharp gravel and gravel itself peppered my hand I used to cover my face.

My magazine had run dry, I removed my hand from covering my face and switched to my last magazine and waited.

After a few minutes of continuous fire there was a pause, a pause that I had been waiting.

I switched to full auto while rising up and firing a salvo before dashing forward. I continued to fire as I ran to suppress the other shooter. None of my shots now were accurate, but I successfully suppressed the enemy.

50 meters turned to 25.

25 to 15. I ran out of ammo and threw the gun away.

My assailant peeked out of his corner of the window as I was 5 meters away, dashing full speed at the window.

“Fuck.” was all I heard as I leaped through the window and the already broken window shattered into shards that went flying everywhere.

The shooter in military fatigues and wrapped in bandages, covered his face from the incoming explosion of glass as I flew past him.

My legs hit the ground first, followed by my hands as I glided on broken glass that dug into my palms. I grabbed some of them and threw them at the shooter I had been exchanging fire to keep him covering his face.

I grabbed a large shard of glass.

As I gained control of my momentum, I sprung out of my glide and charged the shooter. My shoes were not made for this uneven terrain and allowed my foe to brace for my charge, but luckily not enough for him to turn me into cheese.

He held out the rifle defensively n front of him as I reached him. I ducked low and rose as I reached underneath his rifle, throwing his guard up. I let myself glide on the shards of glass and twisted my body and struck the glass into his side.

It cut deep into my own hand and into him.

I would’ve enjoyed my moment of victory had I not been shot from behind. The unsuppressed gunshot of a short barrel weapon echoed out as I was hit in the shoulder blade.

I coughed from the sudden impact and I let myself slump down from the impact and fell down.

“You’re one hell of a tough son of a bitch to kill.” Came behind me along with steady steps, it was the voice of the one and only. Someone I wanted to kill.

“How many fucking shots have you taken after coming back from the dead? Three? Five?” The target asked me as he stopped in a safe distance.

I rolled over to face him and smiled at him. That earned a shot into the knee.

I grasped it and winced.

“Don’t play coy with me, I know you’re probably just playing.” The man with blue eyes said, his formerly slicked back hair was now in a sorry state and his eyes looked me like I was a monster.

I pulled myself up at gunpoint and leaned on to the window frame. Blood merely trickled down from my shattered knee. I did not have instant regeneration, but I didn’t bleed a lot and clotted up fast. Useful thing that, hard to bleed out.

Still it hurt like hell. I crossed my arms and smirked at the man who still hadn’t killed me.

“Tell me how.” He demanded as my nonaction spurned and encouraged him on. He took a half step forward while aiming at my face.

“You should know, I’m guessing this is whatever you did to me.” I casually answered, while leaning back.

He sneered at my answer. “What I did should’ve kept you in an agonizing state between a mindless husk and consciousness as the cure and virus fought inside of you before dying.”

“Good to know.” I nodded.

He took a half a step forward again, around 4 meters was between us.

“And you died.” He stated. “at least for a while. And then coming back with all this,” He added while motioning towards me with his gun. “Rose after a knife went through your heart, and all this super power shit.”

I watched as his eyes glinted with greed and he licked his lips. He rummaged behind him in a utility pouch and threw a sample syringe packed in plastic.

“Fill it up.” He demanded.

I laughed in his face, but took the syringe and unpacked it. I stuck it in my left elbow vein. I pulled back the tap and watched the murky, dark blood flow into it.

“Thank you for your order, would you like just the sample or the whole me?” I asked sarcastically as I waited the syringe to fill up.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He asked, “ But no, you’re too… difficult to transfer.” He laughed. He took another half a step and extended his arm as I removed the needle. A small spurt of pressurised blood flew out of that I directed into the bastard's face.

The gun went off and hit me in the upper part of right chest. We both recoiled from different reasons as I moved into a last charge while coughing blood. His empty left hand was reaching for his face to clear his face while the gun was still pointed towards me.

“God fucking damn zombie!” He screeched.

I shifted to the right just as the gun fired again. The shot flew past, and I was on him. I grabbed his right arm holding the gun and jerked it up violently and head-butted him in the face.

I twisted his hand outwards as another shot went off. His free hand pushed against my face, trying to put distance between us. My free right arm grabbed his throat and squeezed.

He gurgled and tried to shift away, but my grip held. My smile stuck out below his hand.

He could not force me away. Slowly, his hands stopped supporting him and he slumped in my grasp.

“You’re out played.” I said playfully. My face inching closer to his face as strength left him. I nudged my head out of his grasp and looked at his terror-stricken face. His hand fell feebly to his side.

“All alone.” I cooed and let him fall to his knees. My hand squeezed the gun out of his hand and it dropped to the floor. I eased my grip on his neck to let him draw breath.

“With a ‘zombie’ you created.” I drew close to him and whispered in his ear. I let go of his arm that held the gun and used it to caress his cheek. “Do you really think I’m a zombie?” I softly asked as I tightened my grip again. “A mindless creature?”

His hands feebly grasped my hand that strangled him. He tried to say something, but all that came out was a gurgle. He shook his head in my grasp.

“No?” I asked as I slowly bit into his ear and drew blood. He winced as I ripped my head back with a piece of his ear with it. I brought the piece in my mouth and rolled it around and tasted the blood.

I spit the piece out of my mouth and turned back to the trembling man.

“You know I was so close to freedom when you.. decided to ‘greet’ me.” I said, “I’m a bit mad.” I sighted.

I glanced as the man reach for something behind him.

“Aww, are you going to break my heart again?” I cooed as grabbed his elbow. He tried to overpower me, but I merely tightened my grip around his neck.

I guided his hand up in front of me and glided my hand to his wrist. He was holding a knife in his hand and was desperately trying to break from my grasp.

I guided the blade to his face.

He kept shaking his head and edge it away from the blade. I used the blade to run over his face and drawing a red line that simmered with blood. His grip over the weapon faltered, and I took the weapon in my hand.

“Would you like to beg for a quick death?” I asked, as I was sure he was aware of his untimely demise that was to be slow.

He nodded and groaned erratically while his hands grasped my pants in desperation.

I smiled gently at that.

“I’m sorry, I don’t care.”