Chapter 6: A Fair Game

For a tiny body, she can cry a lot. It seems like an hour has passed till she stopped shedding tears. She reverted to her talkative self and I'm trying my best to not bite her face off.

"So Mr. Zombie, is this your base?" She is a curious little thing. She starts walking around inspecting every little nook and crannies. I follow her making sure she's safe even when I already cleared out the zombies while she slept like a log. I look by the door and I notice that after a while, they stopped trying to get in and have begun wandering around.

"I don't think they'll get in here." The little girl noticed where I was looking at. She kept going explaining that most zombies will lose interest after a while. Only if she opens the door and makes a lot more noise than usual, she'll attract them again. It's quite amusing to learn about my kind, makes me feel like I'm above the rest. She stops at the front of the staircase and shines the flashlight she took from my bag earlier. Looking upon it during night-time, the darkness goes beyond making it impossible to see the top.

"Brother zombie, have you gone up there?" Her voice was low yet it was still clear for me to hear. I shake my head from side to side. I couldn't go up there since I had no memory of how to use the staircase. I see her approach it and I study her movement like a curious kid. She raises one leg at a time placing it on each step. She used her legs to push her body upwards while holding onto the railing as some sort of a guide. A sudden memory made me visualize myself going up the steps and it made me fully understand the concept of how to use the staircase.

I walk forwards to try it out and I see her run back down, "Zombie brother, don't go up there. Let's just stay down here. I can hear steps."

I nod and she drags me back out where we came from. I see her frantically looking for something up until she got to the area where these things called counters are. She uses her little body to see if she can move one and it slightly turned after her exerting too much force.

"Whew, ok this is movable, Zombie brother helps me move this to the door." She points at the door that leads to the staircase. "Luckily the door opens the other way so it will be difficult for zombies to get through but, I don't want to take the chance while sleeping."

I nod and grab the counter with both hands. I pull on it and the sound it made as I drag it across the floor probably is attracting more zombies as I hear them groan a bit louder than usual.

"Wow zombie brother, you're really strong." The little girl didn't even need to help me as I drag it much faster than she tried to push. I place it in front of the door that leads to the staircase covering half of it. Feeling that it's incomplete, I drag another counter and using both my arms, I lift it stacking it on top. The little girl is in awe at my strength which seems to me to be a normal thing.

"Are you like, superhuman? How can you lift that so easily." She studies my arms grabbing at my biceps. "You don't seem like you work out. If I remember, you were even strong enough to make those zombies' heads fly with a baseball bat."

I'm guessing humans are weaker than zombies? But then again, I have never seen a zombie fight like me. Most likely these zombies use their teeth as their main weapon. The little girl looks like she was losing energy as she starts yawning. She goes to the couch and places her bag under her head.

"Mr. Zombie, I'm sleepy. I'm going to sleep." Her eyes were slowly closing and I wish I know what she feels like. I've been trying to sleep but no matter how much I try, it never happened. "Aren't you going to sleep?"

I shake my head and she gave me a nod before her eyes completely closed shut. Right before she goes into her tiny slumber, she mutters, "I trust you. If you were going to eat me, you would have done it back at the store."

Her breathing got calmer and calmer as I sat there. I look up towards the glass window near the ceiling and watch the moon at the tiny space. My body never felt tired. I knew what tiredness means but I never experienced it. I guess this is the reason why I didn't need sleep and couldn't force myself.

I watched the window until it turned orange and soon, it was back towards the blue beyond. I wondered all night what is beyond the sky. If there is life beyond the white smoke called clouds. I feel movement next to me and the little girl started to wake up. She squints her eyes towards me and gave me a warm smile.

"Morning." Her voice sounds a bit different. As if she was in a struggle with her vocal chord. I gave her a nod as she stretches her arms upwards and lets out a muffled sound. "That was a good sleep."

She goes into my bag and takes out the water bottle. I knew she was going to ask me if she can use it and I nod before she utters her first word. I saw her eyeing it ever since last night and, it's not like I need water. She quickly opened the bottle and take a few sips. After that, she closes it and places it back into my bag.

"Never take anything that's not yours. My sister and my mom always tell me." She stops and I can see her eyes getting watery. She slapped her cheeks which made me confused but it brought back the smile on her face. "Mr. Zombie, I have to leave today. I still need to look for medicine and find my way home."

I nod and somehow, I felt relieved. If she stayed here and we run out of food, I would go crazy. She still smells like a delicacy.

"Mr. Zombie, I know this is too much to ask but, can you help me?" She looks at me with an expression that made it difficult to say no. I nod and she perks up like a happy little thing.

To be honest, I didn't spend all this time holding myself back from eating her so some random zombie can eat her up. I rather her go back to her human family than become food for some random walker.

After eating the last remaining food, we came up with a plan on how to leave the place. Well, more like she came up with the plan and I just nod in agreement to everything. I'll be going outside first to clear the remaining zombies wandering about. Once the coast is clear, we'll move towards a hospital that seems to be close to where I am. A place called Mount Sinai Hospital. We'll find a place to camp near and once I make it safe, I'll be going out the next day walking through the hospital collecting as much medicine I can find.

The plan for some odd reason all requires me to do the work. Which I don't mind but I'm worried if I leave her alone, I might come back to her remains. I made a note to myself that making the new place she calls base zombie-proof.

Once we're set to go, I got myself ready to equip the katana. She stood by near the entrance as I open the door and lift the gate with one hand. I quickly got out closing the gate behind me and the noise I made already attracted some zombies walking nearby. My katana went through their neck with ease. Sometimes I don't even feel like I'm slicing something. It's as if I was just swinging and their heads will fall to the side in the aftermath.

It took a while to clear but once I was done, I walked back to the gate and lifted it all the way. She peeks out looking to see the of the area is clear and she made an expression that gave me a memory about being sick.

"I think I'm going to be sick, there are so many heads everywhere." She whispers as she tippy-toes around avoiding heads and pools of blood. Feeling embarrassed at the scene I left, I picked her up and carried her towards an area that is clear of all the body parts I scattered earlier.

"Thanks, brother zombie, by the way, what's your name?" Curiosity again filled her face and I wish I could answer her. But even up to this point, I still can't remember who I am. I'm beginning to think I wasn't a human in the beginning hence, why I don't have a name. But these memories are confusing me. It's like I'm being bounced around between a non-existent monster to a once was a human being.

"I guess you still can't talk, well my name is Lina." She held out her hand and the memory of a handshake floods my mind. I clamp her hand gently and moved it up and down. "Well let's go brother zombie, come follow me."

The little girl named Lina leads the way and I follow behind her. I kept a lookout as we move along but there's a feeling I don't know and I can't seem to shake it off. It's like a mix of excitement and hunger at the same time. I just ignore it and continue to focus my attention on the surrounding area.

As we kept moving, it suddenly hit me like a wave. I started to smell it, it's the smell of another human. This time I could tell how many humans there are from the smell. It's as if my sense of smell evolved and I count four new smell that's riling up my insides.

I'm starting to think that, if I manage to get Lina to a new base quickly, I can leave her there and hunt for my new pray during the night. She won't know what she can't see. It's not like I can talk to accidentally tell her that I ate humans while she slept. Besides, I only vowed to protect her as she reminds me of my little sister in my memory. Everyone else is fair game.