“Hey Ash”

The elderly neighbour called out to him in a low and panicked voice rousing Asher from his light slumber. Opening his eyes, Asher looked over to his elderly neighbour giving him a questioning look.

“Somethings not right with Joe, his breathing got heavier and shorter and he’s also groaning and muttering to himself”

Narrowing his eyes he followed his elderly neighbours finger and looked at what he was pointing at, he saw Joe was sitting down hanging his head his breathing was heavier and under the dim light one could vaguely make out a line of saliva hanging down from his mouth which made Asher cautious, tightening the grip on his bat he slowly stood up.

“Joe…Joe you okay?”

Asher slowly called out to the caretaker, but there was no real reply only mutter and groaning.

“Joe?”

 Asher called out to him one more time as he cautiously approached the caretaker, but as before there was only muttering, which only made Asher and the elderly neighbour more cautious and slightly scared.

Asher turned back and looked at his elderly neighbour and saw that he was now standing and carried the same look on his face as Asher did. 

Both of them were intelligent and knew what most likely was wrong with Joe was. Seeing the expression on each other’s faces confirmed what they were both thinking but did not say. It was almost as if maybe the premonition they both had would not come true if they did not say it.

Turning back to Joe, Asher no longer called out to him but kept quiet as he raised his hand bat in a defensive stance.

 Finally Joe’s breathing stopped and the room fell into dead silence neither of the duo made a move, their breaths caught in their throats. Asher’s heart beat became erratic as it pounded against his chest and he began to sweat, his shirt quickly became drenched, it felt as if time had stood still as both Asher and his elderly neighbour kept their eyes on wavering from caretaker Joe's now still body, however, the silence did not last long.

“grrr”

A low growl escaped from Joe’s lips. Hearing the growl Asher’s heart stopped beating and then suddenly the caretakers head snapped up and looked at the two, his eyes had become red, his face had paled considerably and his teeth became sharp as if they were now small daggers in his mouth and not teeth at all.

The duo froze in horror at seeing Joe’s face, their face paled the cold sweat that had drenched Asher became colder as if he was being drowned in the coldest artic pool. Two had encountered zombies before in their desperate struggle to out run the horrors, but neither of them saw one as closely as they were now.

“Shiiirrrreeek”

Joe released a terrifying shriek and without further warning he dived for Asher.

Seeing the sudden movement, Asher instinctively dove out of the way of the zombies attack, only then did they snap out of their initial shock. Failing its initial attack, zombie Joe did not turn around to look at Asher, but locked his gaze on the elderly neighbour. It suddenly charged towards the elderly neighbour without making a sound. The room was not a large one, but none the less it was humanly not possible to cover the distance it did with the speed it did, however, the elderly neighbour was ready for it ever since he noticed its hateful gaze had locked onto him and he rolled to the left of where he was standing avoiding its charge narrowly as the now zombie caretaker landed where the elderly neighbour was standing less than a split second ago. Asher quickly ran over and using all of his strength he swung the bat at the back of zombie Joe’s head.

“CRACK!”

Came a loud cracking noise as the bat broke and the zombies head smashed into the wall. Asher silently prayed hoping that was enough to finish off zombie Joe; however, his prayers went on answered as zombie Joe stood up once more shaking its head as if its head was muddled from the blow and it was trying to regain is bearings. After a few seconds the zombie turned his head and looked at Asher.

“Grrr”

It lowered its body down and stood on all fours like a wild beast as a low sounding growl emitted from its lips. It walked on all fours slowly circling around Asher.

As Asher watched the actions of the zombie he became more panicked and scared, what he saw before him resembled a starving animal more than it did a zombie, it was also much faster than the zombies he had earlier escaped from, his bat was now all but useless so he was unarmed and this new zombie before him gave him a sense of dread that he had never felt before. His mind churned pushing out one idea after another, trying to figure out how to deal with this now unknown treat before him but before he could even properly think of anything, zombie Joe had once again pounced towards him.

Asher froze, now it should be known that when faced with danger humans have 3 natural reactions that have been programmed into their very D.N.A by nature, these reactions are flight, where the person would run away from danger, freeze, the person would freeze in fear unable to react and just stand there and finally fight, where the person would fight with everything left within themselves in a desperate struggle to survive. When a person’s mind shuts down their natural instinct takes over and they default into one of these 3 reactions.

Asher’s instinct quickly took over and he lowered his body getting ready to receive the blow from the zombie while he readied the broken half of the bat, once the zombie reached Asher he would take the broken bat and thrust its edges into zombie Joe’s hateful red eyes killing it.

However, it did not go as one would think, before the Zombie reached Asher, a blur flew past him and tackled the zombie out of the air.

“GET THE AXE!”

Asher looked at direction of the shout only to realize that his elderly neighbour and the zombie were struggling on the ground.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, GET THE AXE QUICKLY”

His elderly neighbour shouted out again. Asher woke up from his daze and quickly looked around trying to locate the axe that zombie Joe had before he turned. It was not far from him; he quickly ran over and discarded his broken bat picking up the axe. 

Asher did not waste any time, as soon as the axe entered his grip, he turned around and rushed over towards his neighbour and the zombie.

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 During their wrestling match, zombie Joe had somehow manage to get onto of the elderly neighbour snapping his jaws at the neighbours face, while the neighbour desperately tried to fend off the zombies attacks. Seeing Asher rushing back with the axe, the elderly neighbour gathered his remaining strength, he raised his legs and pulled them towards his stomach

“urgh”

With a loud grunt the elderly neighbour kicked the zombie in its stomach, kicking it off him and sent it flying towards the wall

“AHH!”

Not giving the zombie any chance to recover Asher shouted with all his strength as he swung the axe towards the zombies head with everything he had, cleanly cutting off the top half of its head.

Zombie Joe’s body shivered for a second as blood sprayed out the lower half of his head like a water fountain before its body twisted and then finally fell down lifeless.

Breathing heavily Asher fell down soon after, landing his butt, as he gasped for breath. Asher was no stranger to fighting and dangers but this was the first time he had fought so desperately for his life, the last swing took whatever little energy he had left. 

He lifted his hands towards his face, they were shaking uncontrollably, he lowered his hand and then looked at the ceiling.

“Ahaha”

He broke out in laughter, he did not even know why he was laughing, but he could not control it so he kept laughing.

After a few seconds of laughter he felt a burning sensation on his chest, looking down he saw a glowing light under his cloths, he immediately tugged on his shirt so that he could  look at his chest, his face instantly turn into confusion, panic then it slightly  paled, what he saw was there was a small diamond shape golden medal embedded into his chest glowing white, he hesitated a little before finally gently touching it with his fingers before quickly removing his hand, it was hot, he did not expect it to be so hot to the touch, but it only gave a slight warm burning sensation on his chest which was slowly fading. After a few more seconds had passed, Asher gathered his courage and touched it again, this time it was cold like a piece of metal left outside in the middle of winter.

“Gramps”

Asher called out to his elderly neighbour, he wanted to show the mysterious medal in his chest, he did not know what it was or how it got stuck in his chest but the very notion of it being there made him scared in his heart. Lifting his head, Asher looked towards the direction of where his elderly neighbour was but the confused look on his face from the medal quickly turned into panic as he hurriedly stood and ran over to his elderly neighbour.

 Sitting there breathing heavily, his elderly neighbour had a large scratch that ran across the elderly neighbours chest. The wound did not bleed it was only skin deep; however, it was furiously red, it burned with such a deep red it almost seemed as if it was throbbing, as if it were alive.

“Gramps…”

Asher called out in a low sorrowful voice as his eyes became red and watery.

“Don’t give me that look kiddo”

His elderly neighbour said grimacing as if each word caused him pain, they were both smart and after having witnessed what happened to caretaker Joe, they both know what the scratched meant, but despite that the elderly neighbour gave Asher a warm smile.

“Do you know…you remind me of my son, so much so that I almost ran over and hugged you the first time I met you…the two of you are so alike, even down to your temperament. He was like how you were back then…full of anger, the way your eyes looked as if everything and everyone in this world was your enemy.”

The elderly neighbor sighed before he continued

 “No matter what my wife and I did it never seemed to help him, he would always lash out at everything, one fight after another, one call after another saying he was in the hospital, each time it was worse… every time we got a call my wife would cry, not knowing if this call was the call we were fearing would come sooner or later… then finally he met a wonderful girl”

 He said as a smile appeared on his face as he paused for a second lost in his memories as his eyes turned watery

“She had the most amazing influence on him, his eyes full of anger turned soft and happy, he even went back to school, got a good job, they got married and were starting a family…but then…it was a bad car accident, the other driver was drunk…my son, his pregnant wife and his mother…I had to work that night I…”

At this point the water that was building up in the elderly neighbours eyes during the story finally started to fall down his face. 

Asher reaching in front of his elderly neighbour reached down and hugged him crying also.

“Please Ash…I don’t want to turn into one of them…I want to be with my family in heaven…I want to finally see my grandchild.”

Hearing this Asher’s body went stiff as he released his neighbour and took a few steps back. He knew what his elderly neighbour was asking him to do how could he not know, it was something Asher himself would probably ask for if he was in the same position.

“I know…I know what I’m asking you to do is not fair but, I don’t want to turn into one of them and attack you…please Ash”

Asher’s body was frozen his face had a complex look as his emotions were clashing within himself. After eight breaths his the complex look in his eyes changed to one of silent determination, he slowly picked up the axe raising it into the air, looking down at the elderly neighbour, Asher tears began to slowly stream down his eyes, his lips quivered and he slowly opened his mouth and closed it repeatedly, as his hands holding the axe began to slowly shake. After struggling to find the words, he slowly said in a low voice.

“You were the closest thing I ever had to a family”

Hearing these words the elderly neighbour raised his head and looked at Asher, his sorrowful face slowly turned into a warm smile, this was last image Asher ever remembered of his elderly neighbour.

“AHHHHHH”

Asher let loose a loud agonizing scream before using all his strength he brought down the axe cutting into his neighbours head.