Zach shook his head, “Maybe the head isn’t exactly what you’ve been destroying when fighting these things. I mean that’s what all of the television shows and movies show, but that’s also Hollywood.”
“I wasn’t talking about that,” I said, walking up to Zach. “What’s with the gun? Didn’t I say that the whole point of the exercise was to kill them quietly?!”
He took a step back, hands raised, “Woah, calm down. Do you really expect me to go out there unarmed?”
“You were armed. Chelsea and I were there too!” I said as I slammed my fist down on the table.
“You could’ve gotten us killed with that gun if there were more around. We can’t have the contaminated following us back here, and you shooting off like that doesn’t help anything.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that I saved your life over there,” Zach replied.
My frustration was building, “Look, this is the last time I’m going to say this. You have to listen. We’ve been here for over a month surviving with very little conflict or interruption. We’ve been exercising in that field and practicing our fighting in that very field every day, and now it is swarmed with contaminated. I don’t mind you staying here, but you have to listen. I need you on our side.”
He looked at me, thinking. His eyes were squinted and tongue was moving through his cheeks. He sighed, “Fine. Okay I’ll do it. No more guns or anything. Once the field clears up we can do it again.”
I sighed in relief, “Thank you. We best get some rest, but someone should stay watch on the contaminated just in case they start coming this way. I’ll take first shift while you two change and whatnot.”
Zach nodded and went off into the other side of the house, but Chelsea came over to me. “You okay?” She asked.
I nodded, “Yeah, just a little frustrated at him, that’s all.”
“Not about that,” she said, kissing me on the cheek. “He did save you out there. We never would have thought that the contaminated could survive a hit like that.”
“I know,” I said as I grabbed her shoulder. “But he’s got to listen. We have something good going here, and I won’t risk losing that or us because of someone else’s stupidity.”
“Well, we’re in a world of risks now,” she said with another kiss. “There’s not much that you can do about that. Just get along, okay?” She said as she walked away to go upstairs her light steps echoing through the hallway.
My attention returned outside to the field. The swarm of contaminated were just standing there as if they were some group cult or something. They began to walk around the field as the minutes began to pass. Eventually every contaminated in the field was walking, and with a pattern to the madness. They were circling someone or something, but keeping their eyes straight ahead at the contaminated in front of them like a human train.
Suddenly one of the contaminated broke off and tan to the center. I could not see what was going on from my angle, but an eruption of hisses and hoarse cries erupted from the outer regions of the circle.
I jumped up out of my seat and sprinted upstairs into the spare bedroom that had an overlook to the field in the back. When I got to the window, the noise had stopped and the commotion calmed down. The circle was moving again in a slow rhythm of marching contaminated feet. I looked to the center of the pack and saw two bodies. One must have been the contaminated that Zach shot. The other body was bloodied and torn into pieces. An arm was nearly ten feet from the body, and its other was right next to it with a streak of blood soaked grass pathing all of the way to the body. It must have been the one that I saw when by the downstairs window that broke off from the pack.
Suddenly another of the contaminated broke off from the pack and made a b line towards the center. It reached the body missing two of its appendages and dove into its back near the neckline. The contaminated began to claw at the back of the neck, blood flying through the air as it dug its fingers into the skin. It began to tear and shred the skin away, revealing bloody neck bone. I swear that I saw it lick its lips.
Before it had a chance to dive in, the swarm of contaminated were on it, pulling it in every direction. The contaminated being torn to pieces let out ear curling hisses and yells sounding like when a cat’s tail gets stepped on. It writhed and pulled in every direction, failing to free itself from the other monsters’ grasp. Suddenly its head was torn off, flying nearly thirty feet behind the body. Its leg went next, winding up with the contaminated that had successfully pulled it off. The severed neck shot blood nearly thirty feet into the air, spraying down onto the contaminated circling it below.
This time the group of contaminated stayed and did not go back into their cult circle. Instead, there was a mad frenzy at the body recently maimed at their own hands. Other contaminated took to the previous two bodies lying in the field, each different one tearing at the necks before anything else. They were drinking, or eating, or both. It was hard too see from my vantage point with a few barren trees blocking a bit of the view, but it was a buffet of contaminated. Twice I saw others being ripped to pieces when trying to reach for a piece of the body while one was at the feast. Each of those bodies were in turn ripped to pieces and distributed amongst the
