Last Man Standing: Chapter 4

Chapter 4
IV

Megan Snow

Never Leave Someone Behind

“What kind of creatures are these?” I asked as I slashed my sword into the grey figure that tried to grab me.

“They look like zombies,” Nolan said as he smacked another one with his hammer and it fell to the ground. He hit another causing its arm to fall off. The creature looked at his arm on the ground for a second, but then tried to attack Nolan again before I ran my sword through its skull. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, now we have to get out of here. This place is too open to defend and we’ll get surrounded,” I said. Nolan agreed with me and we started to run into the forest where we met up with Malcolm and Erika, children of Apollo and Demeter respectively.

“Are you two ok?” Nolan asked as he ran over and gave them a hug. They nodded, but the sound of zombie moans could be heard not far behind us. As we started walking, the sound began to come from the sides and front as well. These things were everywhere and it wasn’t long before we were completely surrounded.

“I’ll make an opening,” Nolan said and his body began to glow with a golden light. It was a blessing he received from Hermes that allowed him to travel at incredible speeds. “When I do, run for it.”

“No, we should stick together,” I argued

“Don’t worry, I’m the fastest hero alive. Nothing can catch me,” he said. I tried to argue, but was silenced when he turned around and kissed me. I didn’t even have time to react because a second later he was speeding around hitting zombies to the ground creating a path. Erika, Malcolm, and I ran down the path and kept running, never looking back. We could still hear the zombies moaning behind us, but as we ran it became fainter.

That had been four days ago and we hadn’t heard anything from Nolan. We tried to send him an Iris Message to at least let him know where we were, but the goddess of the rainbow seemed to be gone and we had heard nothing from the other gods. Meanwhile, I learned that some kind of Zombie apocalypse had spread across the world and the survivors were few and far between. We made it to New York City and made camp inside an apartment building that had been evacuated.

“Is there a storm coming?” Malcolm asked. “I thought I just heard thunder.”

I looked up and didn’t see a cloud in the sky, but I heard the sound again and a golden light in the distance.

“It’s Swift!” I said, a bit more excited than I meant. “Come on, we’ll meet him downstairs.”

We took the stairs and made it to the bottom floor. Nolan Swift stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the three.

“Oh no,” Erika almost screamed, while Malcolm and I looked on in horrified silence. Nolan had been zombified. I dropped to me knees as a tear rolled down my face and I tried to find the will to stand. Malcolm a bit reluctantly pulled at his bow and notched an arrow, pointing it at Swift.

“I’m sorry Swift,” he said and released the arrow. It sailed right for his head, but in the blink of an eye Swift was gone. I looked around trying to follow his movements with no luck. I heard a scream and saw Swift biting into Malcolm’s shoulder.

“Megan, get up!” Erika yelled and I did out of reflex pulling out my twin swords in the same motion. If I didn’t do something, we were all going to die. I ran up and tried to stab Nolan, but I hesitated and he sped away. I watched as the golden light surrounded us in a circle, like an animal circling its prey.

“Erika, trip him up. Make some vines,” I told her. She placed her hands on the ground and several vines sprouted from the ground. Swift hit one and tripped, causing him to careen into a light pole.

“Malcolm, wire arrows!” I ordered. He pulled out two arrows that had a wire attacked to them and he loaded them into his bow. He fired and they arrows wrapped around the pole and Nolan, preventing him from moving even an inch. I walked up to him and saw how he struggled against his bonds.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” I said and kissed his forehead before jabbing my sword into his head, killing him. Malcolm then collapsed onto the ground holding the spot on his shoulder where he was bit.

“Malcolm, hold on. Maybe I can heal you, I just need some medical plants,” she yelled franticly. She reached into her bag, but Malcolm grabbed her hand to stop her.

“There is no healing this one,” he said. “Kill me before I try to kill you.”

“I can’t do that,” She said. “I love you.”

“I can't either, not while you are still you,” I added. He looked at us angrily, but then ran back into the apartment building and took the stairs down into the basement. There was a small section off to the side and we walked in. It was the hotel’s vault and the door was open. Maybe the person that was supposed to close it ran off when he heard about zombies.

“If you won’t kill me, then you can at least keep me down here. I can feel myself changing so close the door behind me. These walls are made of steel so I won’t be able to escape,” he said and sat down inside the vault. As he sat, I could see his skin begin to pale.

“I’m going to go take his bow from him,” Erika said. She jumped into the vault as I turned around to guard the door. I turned around and saw Malcolm with his teeth in Erika’s arm. She looked at me and tossed his bow and her bad of seeds out of the vault. We both knew it was already too late to save her, so I did the only thing I could; I pushed the vault door closed. The automatic locks kicked in and I knew they wouldn’t be able to get out unless someone opened it. Erika wouldn’t be able to grow plants as she wasn’t connected to the earth and couldn’t call plants through such thick metal. The metal was also too thick to turn into an arrow, a power Malcolm had. I had sometimes watched him turn small rocks into arrows, but nothing as large as this door.

As the automatic locks kicked in and I could hear the bolts in the door moving into place. I walked back upstairs into the streets and wondered what I should do. I thought about praying to Athena, my mother, for help, but the gods were gone and I knew it would be useless. However, about a mile away I heard a large explosion and started running towards it. It wasn’t long before I saw a group of people climbing into a van and I started walking towards them.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive