A Knew Hunters Installment
It's been a while, but I finally have some new stuff for Hunters of the Flesh. As always it rated R as it is a zombie story. Friends have influenced some of what has occurred in the story, but once again characters and story are mine. Hope you enjoy. ^^
Solara grimaced at the sudden bright light shining on her. Her head was still throbbing, though thankfully it had finally stopped bleeding, and the light shining directly on her was doing nothing to quell that ache.
As her eyes finally began to adjust she began to take notice of the being standing in front of her. At first all she could make out was the shape, but as her eyes focused more and more she began to make out the features.
Features that made her stifle a scream.
His face was smooth and hallow, his eyes sunken black orbs. The ears were rather misshapen and his nose seemed to have suffered a rather harsh break. His fingers were elongated and ended at talon like claws. He was nothing but skin and bones with no clothing on, but he was covered in a strange film that seemed to glisten.
He smiled a razor’s smile. “Good evening, child. I am sorry we had to meet this way, but I am in need of your… expertise.”
She just stared at him wide eyed.
“I assure you, no further harm will come your way,” he said in his raspy voice, “but in order to accomplish my goal you must stay within our mists for just a little while longer.” He turned and gestured, summoning someone. “My little pet will attend to you.” He turned to the zombie that had stepped forward. “Make sure our guest gets everything she needs.”
The zombie nodded and suddenly the creature and the light were both gone.
Solara blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust once more and when they finally did she realized who the zombie was: her librarian friend Rupert.
* * *
Nathan blinked as he realized they were no longer on the streets but inside what appeared to be a club. “What do you mean my ‘energies are hard to trace’?”
“Just what I said,” the shadowling snarled. “And if it weren’t for that fact that I am indebted I wouldn’t even be here in this mess, so thank your strange benefactor and tell him my debt has been paid.”
“My benefactor?”
A soft spoke male voice spoke up from behind him. “Me.”
Nathan turned and blinked in surprise. The kid couldn’t have been more than nineteen years of age, yet he possessed a wisdom that would have belied centuries of trials and insanity. “Who are you,” was all he could ask.
The young man smiled, his brown eyes sparkling in the dim light. “They call me JJ.”
Steve looked over his shoulder, not knowing if any had managed to follow him. He was no out of breath and unsure of what to do. His best friend was a zombie, some stranger had sacrificed himself so he could get away and now he was not only lost but he was also on his own and exhausted in a zombie infested area.
Looking around he thought he spotted some shelter but then the doors exploded and a massive hoard of zombies came charging out.
Before Steve had a chance to react he was suddenly grabbed from behind and the zombie filled streets in front of him disappeared.
* * *
Christianna sniffled. She was trying damn hard not to cry, but it was becoming tougher and tougher to put on a strong face. Keith and James had finally had an all out brawl with eachother, the end result being Keith the victor but his earlier wound had been torn open and more damage had been done.
James was currently nursing a black eye, bruised ribs and one very soar ass thanks to a well-placed kick by Keith that ended the whole fight right there.
The biggest problem was that now Keith was in severe pain and his wound would not stop bleeding.
Finally overwhelmed with concern Christianna snatched up Keith's phone and quickly found the number he had been dialing before.
"Hello?" A boy sounding about Keith's age answered on the second ring, sleep evident in his voice.
Mustering her strength and composure she responded in a rather calm voice, "Hello, my name is Christianna and I'm one of the people with Keith."
There was some sort of rustling in the background as he answered, "What's happened?"
"Keith has been wounded and originally I had managed to close it, but then he got into a scuffle with one of the other survivors and his wound won't stay sealed and he's in a lot of pain and..."
"Take it easy. Is the wound exposed right now?
"Yes."
"What does it look like?"
"Claw marks."
"Is there anything specific about said claw marks?"
She took a closer look and noticed that they looked somewhat burned around the edges. "They're burned around the edges."
"Alright what you are going to do is find a small blade and run it through some sort of flame. A candle will suffice. Then you are going to slice off the burned area of those wounds. Let the blood run for a bit while you retrieve some holy water. Not from the main area, but from the small 'dishes' near the doors. That water is going to be poured over the wounds and then you are going to clean, stitch and bandage them the way you normally would."
"Are you sure that's going to work? What if it makes him worse?”
"Trust me on this."
"Alright." Christianna followed the boy's instructions exactly to the 'T' and when she was finished she noticed that injuries were already starting to look slightly better.
"Huh. Guess you were right."
A tired chuckle came over the line. "Tell Keith he lost that bet." Click. Then all she got was a dial tone.
* * *
Mac was talking to Keith getting the information they needed to help Peggy. What he was being told did not sound promising.
“Won’t we lose her doing that?”
Keith gave a lengthy response and as Mac listened he picked up on another sound. Glancing over he saw Jason staring at the door. Peggy was stilly lying in the bed, her throat still bleeding, her skin tone pale and her eyes closed. Frowning he said, “Jason? You okay?”
The other young man turned to face him with vacant eyes as a low gurgling groan came form the bed next to him.”
“Oh shit.”
Then they both attacked.
* * *
Tirshinko paced back and forth, wondering what was going on. Keith looked both frustrated and worried and Christianna had already been forced to resorting to the holy water to attend to him.
She had vowed to watch over the young shaman as she owed her cousin that much, but it wouldn’t do them any good if he kept reopening his wounds.
Now she watched as the blond in the pink fairy costume stayed close and tried to attend his wounds.
She remained silent for a quite some time and then finally walked up to Keith and Christianna. “Alright, what is going on?” She looked directly at Keith. “You have been talking on the phone on and off for the past couple of hours and now you look extremely worried and irate. What happened?”
“Peggy was bit in the throat by one of the zombies,” Keith answered quietly after a few minutes. “When I was talking to Mac about it something happened and the line went dead. I have no idea what is going with him, but I do know it’s not good.”
Tirshinko looked a little pale shaken, as did Christianna, the latter rubbing Keith’s back in comfort. “I don’t even know what to say to that,” Tirshinko replied just as softly. “I hope everything is okay, but it really does sound like things have gone very wrong for them.”
“I know,” Keith answered with a sigh, running his hands through his hair nervously. “It bothers me. She had been bitten a while ago, so the fact that she had made it as long as she did was impressive all on its own, but I don’t know what is happening with them now and I don’t know if they’ll be able to survive it.”
Tirshinko nodded. “The only thing we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope to God that they are okay.”
Keith nodded solemnly, doubting very much that he would see any of the three again.
* * *
Mac managed to get away from the two before either had a chance to get a hold of him, but now he was held up in completely different room with no weaponry at hand to use and his cell phone had been destroyed by Jason so he had no way of contacting Keith again.
Unsure of what he should do now, Mac began exploring the room a bit more. As he was searching the door was suddenly shattered open and a set of hand from above suddenly grabbed a hold of the young man and yanked him upwards.
* * *
Lewis was hiding up in the attack like part of his dorm room when he heard someone enter in. At first he thought it might be one of those creatures and then he heard the door shut and lock. Curious, he peeked out and saw one of his classmates searching the place. Then he heard the noise outside the door and then saw the wood splintering.
Thinking quickly, Lewis pulled back the door and reached down. Thrilled that he could reach his classmate he yanked the young man through and quickly slammed the door shut again. Signaling to remain quiet, Lewis proceeded to show Mac through the attack like area to another room. This room was barren except for the duffle bag that Lewis himself had tossed there when the zombie reports first started coming in.
Mac did not saying anything at first, still trying to take in what was happening. Finally he looked at Lewis and asked, “We know each other?”
“Yeah, chem class, but since I sit in the back and am always quiet while you sit up front and annoy the crap out of the teacher, that could be why you didn’t recognize me.”
Mac snorted. “Possibly.” He looked around the room they were now in. “What’s with the secret rooms?”
“I have no idea,” Lewis answered with a shrug. “I just got in the habit of actually looking for them.”
“Why?”
“In case of situations like this.”
Mac froze in place and then slowly turned to look at Lewis again. “What do you mean ‘in case of situations like this’? Are you telling me this has happened before?”
Lewis looked uncomfortable. “Once from what I know of, and it was not pleasant.”
“When?”
“About ten years ago out in Kentucky. It wasn’t nearly as bad and was attended to within a few hours, but it was still pretty scary.”
“I would imagine so. You were what, ten?”
“Eleven, but yeah, it was very scary. I was actually caught in the heart of it and it was not fun. Both of my older brothers were killed during that and my dad went nuts afterwards.”
Mac shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dredge up such bad memories.”
“Not your fault, and they were already nagging at the back of my mind.”
“Any idea how to get out of here alive?”
“I have an idea, but it would still be considered suicidal.”
“Anything is better than nothing.”
Solara grimaced at the sudden bright light shining on her. Her head was still throbbing, though thankfully it had finally stopped bleeding, and the light shining directly on her was doing nothing to quell that ache.
As her eyes finally began to adjust she began to take notice of the being standing in front of her. At first all she could make out was the shape, but as her eyes focused more and more she began to make out the features.
Features that made her stifle a scream.
His face was smooth and hallow, his eyes sunken black orbs. The ears were rather misshapen and his nose seemed to have suffered a rather harsh break. His fingers were elongated and ended at talon like claws. He was nothing but skin and bones with no clothing on, but he was covered in a strange film that seemed to glisten.
He smiled a razor’s smile. “Good evening, child. I am sorry we had to meet this way, but I am in need of your… expertise.”
She just stared at him wide eyed.
“I assure you, no further harm will come your way,” he said in his raspy voice, “but in order to accomplish my goal you must stay within our mists for just a little while longer.” He turned and gestured, summoning someone. “My little pet will attend to you.” He turned to the zombie that had stepped forward. “Make sure our guest gets everything she needs.”
The zombie nodded and suddenly the creature and the light were both gone.
Solara blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust once more and when they finally did she realized who the zombie was: her librarian friend Rupert.
* * *
Nathan blinked as he realized they were no longer on the streets but inside what appeared to be a club. “What do you mean my ‘energies are hard to trace’?”
“Just what I said,” the shadowling snarled. “And if it weren’t for that fact that I am indebted I wouldn’t even be here in this mess, so thank your strange benefactor and tell him my debt has been paid.”
“My benefactor?”
A soft spoke male voice spoke up from behind him. “Me.”
Nathan turned and blinked in surprise. The kid couldn’t have been more than nineteen years of age, yet he possessed a wisdom that would have belied centuries of trials and insanity. “Who are you,” was all he could ask.
The young man smiled, his brown eyes sparkling in the dim light. “They call me JJ.”
Steve looked over his shoulder, not knowing if any had managed to follow him. He was no out of breath and unsure of what to do. His best friend was a zombie, some stranger had sacrificed himself so he could get away and now he was not only lost but he was also on his own and exhausted in a zombie infested area.
Looking around he thought he spotted some shelter but then the doors exploded and a massive hoard of zombies came charging out.
Before Steve had a chance to react he was suddenly grabbed from behind and the zombie filled streets in front of him disappeared.
* * *
Christianna sniffled. She was trying damn hard not to cry, but it was becoming tougher and tougher to put on a strong face. Keith and James had finally had an all out brawl with eachother, the end result being Keith the victor but his earlier wound had been torn open and more damage had been done.
James was currently nursing a black eye, bruised ribs and one very soar ass thanks to a well-placed kick by Keith that ended the whole fight right there.
The biggest problem was that now Keith was in severe pain and his wound would not stop bleeding.
Finally overwhelmed with concern Christianna snatched up Keith's phone and quickly found the number he had been dialing before.
"Hello?" A boy sounding about Keith's age answered on the second ring, sleep evident in his voice.
Mustering her strength and composure she responded in a rather calm voice, "Hello, my name is Christianna and I'm one of the people with Keith."
There was some sort of rustling in the background as he answered, "What's happened?"
"Keith has been wounded and originally I had managed to close it, but then he got into a scuffle with one of the other survivors and his wound won't stay sealed and he's in a lot of pain and..."
"Take it easy. Is the wound exposed right now?
"Yes."
"What does it look like?"
"Claw marks."
"Is there anything specific about said claw marks?"
She took a closer look and noticed that they looked somewhat burned around the edges. "They're burned around the edges."
"Alright what you are going to do is find a small blade and run it through some sort of flame. A candle will suffice. Then you are going to slice off the burned area of those wounds. Let the blood run for a bit while you retrieve some holy water. Not from the main area, but from the small 'dishes' near the doors. That water is going to be poured over the wounds and then you are going to clean, stitch and bandage them the way you normally would."
"Are you sure that's going to work? What if it makes him worse?”
"Trust me on this."
"Alright." Christianna followed the boy's instructions exactly to the 'T' and when she was finished she noticed that injuries were already starting to look slightly better.
"Huh. Guess you were right."
A tired chuckle came over the line. "Tell Keith he lost that bet." Click. Then all she got was a dial tone.
* * *
Mac was talking to Keith getting the information they needed to help Peggy. What he was being told did not sound promising.
“Won’t we lose her doing that?”
Keith gave a lengthy response and as Mac listened he picked up on another sound. Glancing over he saw Jason staring at the door. Peggy was stilly lying in the bed, her throat still bleeding, her skin tone pale and her eyes closed. Frowning he said, “Jason? You okay?”
The other young man turned to face him with vacant eyes as a low gurgling groan came form the bed next to him.”
“Oh shit.”
Then they both attacked.
* * *
Tirshinko paced back and forth, wondering what was going on. Keith looked both frustrated and worried and Christianna had already been forced to resorting to the holy water to attend to him.
She had vowed to watch over the young shaman as she owed her cousin that much, but it wouldn’t do them any good if he kept reopening his wounds.
Now she watched as the blond in the pink fairy costume stayed close and tried to attend his wounds.
She remained silent for a quite some time and then finally walked up to Keith and Christianna. “Alright, what is going on?” She looked directly at Keith. “You have been talking on the phone on and off for the past couple of hours and now you look extremely worried and irate. What happened?”
“Peggy was bit in the throat by one of the zombies,” Keith answered quietly after a few minutes. “When I was talking to Mac about it something happened and the line went dead. I have no idea what is going with him, but I do know it’s not good.”
Tirshinko looked a little pale shaken, as did Christianna, the latter rubbing Keith’s back in comfort. “I don’t even know what to say to that,” Tirshinko replied just as softly. “I hope everything is okay, but it really does sound like things have gone very wrong for them.”
“I know,” Keith answered with a sigh, running his hands through his hair nervously. “It bothers me. She had been bitten a while ago, so the fact that she had made it as long as she did was impressive all on its own, but I don’t know what is happening with them now and I don’t know if they’ll be able to survive it.”
Tirshinko nodded. “The only thing we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope to God that they are okay.”
Keith nodded solemnly, doubting very much that he would see any of the three again.
* * *
Mac managed to get away from the two before either had a chance to get a hold of him, but now he was held up in completely different room with no weaponry at hand to use and his cell phone had been destroyed by Jason so he had no way of contacting Keith again.
Unsure of what he should do now, Mac began exploring the room a bit more. As he was searching the door was suddenly shattered open and a set of hand from above suddenly grabbed a hold of the young man and yanked him upwards.
* * *
Lewis was hiding up in the attack like part of his dorm room when he heard someone enter in. At first he thought it might be one of those creatures and then he heard the door shut and lock. Curious, he peeked out and saw one of his classmates searching the place. Then he heard the noise outside the door and then saw the wood splintering.
Thinking quickly, Lewis pulled back the door and reached down. Thrilled that he could reach his classmate he yanked the young man through and quickly slammed the door shut again. Signaling to remain quiet, Lewis proceeded to show Mac through the attack like area to another room. This room was barren except for the duffle bag that Lewis himself had tossed there when the zombie reports first started coming in.
Mac did not saying anything at first, still trying to take in what was happening. Finally he looked at Lewis and asked, “We know each other?”
“Yeah, chem class, but since I sit in the back and am always quiet while you sit up front and annoy the crap out of the teacher, that could be why you didn’t recognize me.”
Mac snorted. “Possibly.” He looked around the room they were now in. “What’s with the secret rooms?”
“I have no idea,” Lewis answered with a shrug. “I just got in the habit of actually looking for them.”
“Why?”
“In case of situations like this.”
Mac froze in place and then slowly turned to look at Lewis again. “What do you mean ‘in case of situations like this’? Are you telling me this has happened before?”
Lewis looked uncomfortable. “Once from what I know of, and it was not pleasant.”
“When?”
“About ten years ago out in Kentucky. It wasn’t nearly as bad and was attended to within a few hours, but it was still pretty scary.”
“I would imagine so. You were what, ten?”
“Eleven, but yeah, it was very scary. I was actually caught in the heart of it and it was not fun. Both of my older brothers were killed during that and my dad went nuts afterwards.”
Mac shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dredge up such bad memories.”
“Not your fault, and they were already nagging at the back of my mind.”
“Any idea how to get out of here alive?”
“I have an idea, but it would still be considered suicidal.”
“Anything is better than nothing.”