Zo̱ntanoús Nekroús: Chapter Four

Eleanor POV

We'd been walking for what seemed like hours before I felt like a had to break the silence.

"Okay, so, where exactly is Kyle?" Being from the Deep South, my accent was extremely strong and downright stupid sounding at times, but at this point I was beyond fed-up with all the walking and killing that it just poured out of my mouth like a waterfall. Luckily, many of the buildings we leapt from weren't covered in zombies and there wasn't much of a need for fighting, only tracking.

"You dragged me with you and you didn't know where he was?" Carter grunted, peering over the edge of one of the buildings. There were a few stragglers, it seemed, only about seven or so zombies wandering around aimlessly for the kill. "That was a stupid move."

I chose to ignore him for the moment and instead placed myself at the opposite edge of the building, finding at least twenty more of the undead creatures bustling about, looking for someone to lead them - or someone to eat, more and likely.

"See anyone?" I finally stood up and stretched my legs, turning to Carter. He shook his head, and began backing up for another long leap to the next building. I sighed and met right with him, easily clearing the alley, when something suddenly caught his eye.

I was about to rush over to clear the next alley and move onto the next building, but Carter grabbed my wrist and pulled me back, looking into the darkness.

"I see some people," He half-whispered, squinting to get a better look in the dark. "It looks like Kyle and the others. Think you can light it up, Eleanor?" This was going to be trouble. As much as I would've liked to only light my hand, it usually ended up spreading aorund my body like wildfire. And I didn't want to burn my partner, either. Still, the idea of seeing my half-brother made me feel more confident about doing it. Maybe he could share some of that Firesword magic?

"Okay, I can, but step back." He looked confused by my request, but complied, idly leaning against a steel generator. Now it was just a matter of thinking.

I closed my eyes and thought hard, imagining my hand - and only my hand - engulfed in white hot flames. When I opened my eyes again, I was pleased to see the small orb of fire in the palm of my hand. Carter rejoined me at the ledge. I pointed my palm down and the light shadows revealed a man and what seemed to be a woman, along with a few zombies trailing a mere few meters away.

"It's not him." I stated, not seeing his famous flaming sword. "But they're just regular people - we need to help them." Carter nodded. Of course, now that left us with another problem - how to get down there without killing ourselves.

I was surprised when Carter looped one arm through mine, careful to keep his sleeves far enough from the fire, and pull up the other sleeve, revealing some high-tech prosthetic.

"Don't let go. You might want to extinguish your fire, too. Can't have anyone getting burnt." He perched himself on the highest point of the ledge, watching as the couple nonchalantly passed, the zombies never moving further or closer than 6 or so meters.

Once the fire flickered out, he lunged off the building, pulling me with him. I didn't have time to scream, the air was ripping at my throat hard enough to stop me from making any noise. Our death would likely be a silent, and excruciatingly painful one.

The ground came incredibly close and I felt my body sprint into action. Carters arm was held out against the ground, the prosthetic, like he wanted it to be shattered.

When he landed, he'd saved us though.

The arm make a crunching noise, like it had shattered as I'd predicted, but remained in tact. He were balancing on just his one hand, completely safe, except for the mud that flecked into parts of my soaked hair.

"Okay?" He breathed, smiling. He could see the adrenaline on my face, the look of plain terror. he didn't expect when I burst into flames though, and we went tumbling over into a pit of mud.

The mud absorbed the light flames that singed at his coat, but I remained engulfed in flames. The type that water couldn't put out, they were emotional flames. Extreme fear? Extreme hatred? Extreme love? Too much "extreme" caused the awful flames to cover me, leaving me tired and sweating like a pig afterwards.

Meanwhile, the couple heard the crunch and turned, shocked to see me, the girl on fire. The man started to laugh and extracted a sword, black as night, as the fire around me grew brighter, hotter, and bigger.

"Eleanor Blaise." He smiled, swinging the broadsword around in his hands. The girl behind him seemed to reshape - instead of a regular girl, she was now outfitted in black robes and a long black cape. Her brown hair was longer and beaded with sapphire jewels. She stood behind him for backup, while the zombies we'd intercepted roasted to death from the head eminating from my fire.

"You," I glanced between him, suddenly shifting into the darkest armor I'd ever seen and the woman behind him, "You're from L.A. You're...uh, Nicholas."

"Nikolai." He corrected, as another wave of zombies came lurching from behind him. "Nikolai Fencer. I believe you've met my girlfriend, Lady Holoman." The woman behind him waved slightly, smiling as though this were a Disney parade.

Carter was hurrying to get his AK out and the silver handgun, while I couldn't move. The weapons would melt if they so much as left their covers.

"Ladies, Gentlemen." Nikolai gestured to the wave of zombies and threw his hands forward.

"Go."

The Undead army came swerving forward and I bravely hurried on. Carter had good aim, he wouldn't hit me, and even so I hoped the flames would melt anything, just like the flesh of the undead. Nikolai and his girlfriend went sprinting from the alley, pleased that their plan had worked, and all I could hope was someone would see the rapidly growing fire and come to help.