Prologue: Today (3)

3.

Before I could shush her, Kate uttered a slight squeak from surprise once she saw this unexpected visage. Instantly, the mottled masculine shape stood erect, as if awoken from a standing sleep, gripped the rail with both hands and flung himself out into the open air. Landing a full faceplant on the turf, it immediately leaped up as if the ground were cushioned elastic and charged in our direction in large galloping lunges. One arm was swinging in an unnaturally limp configuration out of sink with each flying step. Kate opened up her lungs repeatedly, tugging at my wrist in a panic.

“Kate! It’s alright! I got this!” I grip her wrist firmly in return.

“No! Please!” She implores, “We have to run now!” Another shrill scream as she backs away in disbelief, releasing her grip.

“Kate. Trust me.” I insist, eyes never leaving the running figure ahead. Wait for it. I speak internally.

She takes a very deep breath, drawing as much lung capacity as possible, then releases with an added passion than before.

Waaaaiiit for iiiiit.

He leaps over a low-lying shrub, pitches forward somewhat stumbling for a few steps, then regains balance at full speed. Fifty feet.

I raise my right arm to the square, palm forward, thumb and first two fingers extended at ninety-degree angles to each other. I ceremoniously lower my arm forwards and pause. Thirty feet.

Now I can clearly hear the rabid grunting noises it makes accompanied by a particular wheezing which I know to be a punctured lung, most likely from a broken rib during the fall. At twenty feet, I release my thumb-hammer and fake a recoil.

“Bang!”

At that instant, and at full speed it’s left leg falls into a narrow and deep post hole. As it pitches forward, I can hear the posterior cruciate ligament stretch and snap as momentum lays it out flat on the ground, leg bent forwards at the knee. From here it looks like it’s got only one and a half legs, although I know the gruesome reality. A single infuriated moan erupts from it’s lips as even now it scrambles to extricate itself from the hole, reaching forward with it’s one good arm as if to grab me from where it lies.

Between moans, the air is surprisingly silent. I turn towards Kate and find her frozen, slightly trembling where she stands, tightly hugging herself. Staring at the monstrosity on the ground.

“Kate. . .”

I walk towards her, rounding her left side.

“Kate. . .”

She lets out a sharp trembling breath, raising her chin a little.

“Kate.” I touch her shoulder, then reel backward as I perceive a flying palm homing in on my face.

“What the hell was that?!” She demands in all-out rage. Her voice gruff from the vocal exercises. She tries to slap me again.

“Kate. . .” I gently catch her flying hand, then the other and hold them firmly as she struggles against me.

“Why didn’t you just run?! I was begging you to run, why didn’t you?” She shakes loose and turns away.

“Because we didn’t need to. It wasn’t a very big zombie.” I try to reason.

“Listen to yourself!” She says incredulously. “Unbelievable!” She says angrily. I suppose I can understand her frustration. She calms herself down for a minute, breathing heavily and pacing to and fro. Suddenly, she stands still, then unexpectedly laughs.

A few moments pass with silence between us. In increments, we step further away from the crawling monstrosity to remain out of reaching range. It ever moans so. I can she that Kate is replaying in her mind the previous events, and then a sudden thought catches her attention. She cocks her head to the left and mentally chews on it. Finally she speaks:

“How did you do that? To know that that… thing… would just happen to step into the hole right before it got to you...” I can tell her question is as yet incomplete, so I hold my tongue until she is finished. Another moment’s hesitation, and she continues, “I mean, you didn’t even hesitate. There was no doubt in your mind that that was going to happen, was there? You knew?”

“I didn’t know-”

“You did!” She proclaims with a stern finger, shaking it a few times as if she were dicing tomatoes with it, “You totally did, and I know it!... You knew it!”

“Kate, I promise I didn’t know that exactly that would happen, I couldn’t have.” I insist, “But that doesn’t matter right now. Right now, we have to get to Mercer. We need to find Stu and Meg. Make sure they’re alright. Right?”

Kate poses with her lethal finger stretched out for a moment, then drops it. “You’re right.” She allows, “We need to get going, especially before that thing makes enough of a ruckus, a bunch of his homeys want to come see what’s up.”

“Excellent point!” I agree, then gesture northwest, “Shall we?”

“Don’t think you won’t have to explain yourself,” she warns, again with what I am learning to be her favorite finger, slicing and dicing yet again. “You will tell me what happened here.” She asserts. We start walking at as brisk a pace as possible, ever scanning in all directions.

“I don’t think you will believe me.” I venture, after a few minutes of walking. Not initially, at least.”

“After a night like tonight, with all reason and logic stolen from my personal reality,” she shakes her head emphatically, “I think I could believe just about anything.”

I take a deep breath. “Well then…”