Chapter 7

          Months went by in this fashion. James taught me for half a year until I was finally ready to face an actual zombie (physically ready, but far from mentally ready). He had taught me karate, how to shoot a gun, the best ways to kill an undead, and even some special Red Shield moves. I also knew how to identify a zombie by its smell. Gross, but true.

          Today we were heading to the barracks, the place where they brought misbehaving zombies to train with. Mainly it was a death trap for the undead. My job was to track a Hellraiser and kill it. Lovely.

          James took my shacking hand and squeezed it encouragingly. “It’ll be ok love, I’ll be there with you the whole time. Besides, we won’t be the only two humans in there. I know that at least Bruce is training there today.”

I nodded, not feeling much better. I was still shaky but at least I had him with me for support. James had started to become more of a fatherly figure than a guardian to me, and I looked up to him. He even put up class photos of me (you see, I was taking a mid day ‘orphan’ class, where we were taught the essentials such as science, math, history, and English) on his nightstand. Some might have thought this was creepy or even a bit weird, but I knew it was because he saw me as a little sister and felt the need to have something to remember me by.

We arrived at the barracks; the fifteen-foot tall solid-steel walls loomed over us like mountains. The heavy iron gates creaked open when the two soldiers on guard let us in. I gazed all around me in amazement and horror. There were zombie remains all over the place; spleens, heads, brains, arms, legs, everything.

“Ok you’ll be over there. I’m going to stand right here. Find the Hellraiser, kill it, and we can leave. That’s all you have to do. And do you remember what to do if you’re in trouble?” James asked.

“Fight til’ I see the light.” I replied, gulping loudly.

“Good girl. Now go.” He pushed me towards my area and winked. “I know you can do it, I trust you. Give ‘em hell.”

I clenched my sweaty fists and walked straight ahead. It was surprisingly easy to go forward, what was hard was stopping. I almost ran into the steel walls thanks to my lack of self-control. Clear your head Avhelstrom. I know you can. What has he been training you for these past few months? Snap out of it you coward. My conscience screamed at me. Whoever said consciences were supposed to be helpful obviously didn’t have one because mine sounded like an angry housewife.

Shaking my head, I cleared my thoughts of everything except the task at hand. My mission was seek and destroy. I sniffed the air, felt the around, and looked about for any signs of my target. The oxygen around me was so filled with decaying flesh that it felt impossible to recognize anything. Then, as if a shovel to the face, I smelt it. The intoxicating, gag-worthy smell almost made me collapse to my knees. It was way more potent than the rotting bodies James had let me practice with.

Only now did I realize the true intensity of my situation. I was out on the field. Alone. No gun, no weapons, just my fists, my mind, and my newly gained knowledge. I could die any minute, especially since I was dealing with a Hellraiser.

The scent caught my attention once again, and like the after shock of a whiplash I stumbled backwards. Where was it coming from? Why didn’t I see the zombie? The wind was blowing east, which meant the zombie must be in the west. I looked to my left and surely enough, a lanky, snarling, figure crouched a mere six feet from me. I froze. Any sudden movements and it would rip me to shreds.

Well, look on the positive Lotta. You found him. The only con here is that you could, and probably will die if you keep standing there. My conscience mumbled.

“H… hey there. How are you doing?” I stumbled over the words in a ridiculous attempt at conversing with the beast. It moved. I began shaking. Again.

          This is it, Lotta. Say goodbye to life. Wave to James, it’ll be the last time he’ll see you. I shook my head to loose the negative comments. It didn’t work.

          The Hellraiser stepped forward again, looking like a dog. He walked on all fours, only standing on two feet to sniff the air. He stepped another foot closer and I was about ready to hightail it to Mars. To my surprise (yes I know I’m surprised a lot), he didn’t try to eat me. Instead, he walked around me a couple times, smelled my clothes, scratched my pant legs with his rotten nails for some strange reason, and then curled up by my leg. If I tried to move he’d snarl.

          “What the hell?” I mumbled and he looked up at me, tongue lolling out to one side. “You really do think you’re a dog, don’t you?” He rubbed his black haired head against my thigh and I shuddered.  He likes me? I thought in silent despair.

          I was so busy watching the odd behavior of this doglike zombie that I didn’t notice the Spitter behind me. I barely heard it hacking up some acid before a lump of it flew past my right ear, burning off a couple strands of my hair as it went. I swirled around in time to duck before another wad hit my face. I tucked and rolled behind a mound not too far from where I had stood.

          I looked around to see where the other zombie was, but he hadn’t followed me. I peeked over the mound, and to my amazement, my new friend was tearing into the other monster’s chest with what few teeth he had. They both fell to the ground viciously growling and hissing. The one that I supposed was on my side was busy ripping the other into shreds while he pathetically tried for a quick escape. The battle ended with the Spitter in 15 pieces and the Hellraiser missing both eyes. He stumbled over to me, whimpering.

          “Aww did you get hurt boy?” I had no clue why I was feeling sorry for the horrible monster, but he really wasn’t as bad as the others.

          He pointed to his eyes. “Hurt…” I had to do a double take.

          “D… Did you just speak to me?” He nodded. “No… way!” I jumped up, startling the Hellraiser. “Say something else!” I demanded excitedly.

          “H… human…” He pointed to me and I nodded.

          “That’s right, I’m a human. And you’re a what?” I had completely forgotten to be shaking in my skin.

          “H… h… h….” He looked like he was in serious pain.

          I tried to help him. “Say it with me: Hell… raiser… Come on, you can do it!”

          “He… Hell… Hellrais… Hellraiser!” He barked. I clapped enthusiastically. Then I patted him on the head, also forgetting what I was touching: A rotting corpse totally capable of pulling that arm out bones and all. There was just something about him…

          I paused for a second to think. “What should I call you?” I studied him and noticed how he was chomping away at one of the Spitter’s legs. “I got it! Chompy!”

          “Chompppyyyy!” He jumped up excitedly. Then he took off running and was gone in a flash.

          “Well that friendship didn’t last very long.” I shrugged.

            Little did I know, loosing Chompy wasn’t the only thing I was going to be worried about.