SHORT PIECE NUMBA FIVE!!!

...My legs are on fire as I come across the clearing. It's the first one I've seen in miles. It's large and mostly circular. Surrounded on all sides by the same dense forest I just emerged from. I can barely make out the boulder at the far side in the pale moonlight. It's perfect. I can take cover, take a breather, then make for the other side without them seeing me. It's only another 300 yards away. No time to rest. Gotta get there. Fast.

I can hear the meatsacks behind me breaking branches and collapsing in the thick brush. Zombies aren't good at navigation. But they don't have to be when they don't need to rest or sleep. 200 yards.

The first of them appears at the tree line just as I spot it. The boulder. It wasn't a boulder at all. It stood up. VERY up. Roughly 8 feet tall and weighing half a ton. The biggest zombie yet...WAS A FUCKING BEAR!

I fall as I plant my feet and take a header into the mud. I rise in time to see his glowing red eyes as he lowers his head and begins to charge. My Legs act independent of my body. I'm on my feet in an instant, turning and running up the hill towards the tree line. Towards my former followers.

All I have is D34TH. So I get up close and personal. The curved edge of the Japanese sword is beautiful as it slices through a body. The lack of blood spray means the victims are a bit harder to get through. But, when you're fleeing like a child from a flu shot the sized of a VW van, you get PLENTY of adrenaline to aid in the endeavor.

An unholy howl billows through the trees. Not caused by the dismembered visages in front of me. Not from the hulk behind me. From within me. My body is on fire. Any thought of control is thrown out the window. From now on, I deal in instinct alone. I allow my body to defend itself. Allow my brain to shut down all unnecessary paths. This is not an act of savagery. It is a game of survival. They lose.

The bodies fall around me like leaves in the wind. I cut one diagonally from it's right hip to it's left shoulder blade then through head of the next one in the way. I grasp the blade in my cold, hard, hands and drive it through the head of the elderly woman in front of me. She still smells of moth balls. Damn. A quick twist of the wrists and she slides free of the blade. Surprisingly soft skulls at that age.

I continue the blade from the left shoulder to the right arm pit of "Eric" the mechanic. Then a single-handed beheading of a husky housewife into a vertical cut from the katana-gash of zombie stripper #13 through her right breast implant and shoulder. Right in half. I smile as I watch the Saline glimmer against the Japanese Steel. Then I run as I see the reflection of Dead-Bear in the newly cleaned blade.

It continues on like this. Seemingly forever. I swing, they die. Simple concept really. Swing at the neck. It's the quickest way to dispatch them. Or just take them out at the feet. Not going to be a huge threat on stumps. A construction worker decides to bite my blade. Bad move. I pop his top. His massive bloated tongue hangs down beyond what's left of his mandible and he collapses.

That's when I hear him. For the first time in what feels like forever. After this complete cluster-fuck of asinine bull-shittery, I'll never fight will him again. Fuck that. I'd rather be wrong then raped by a bear AND skin-walkers.

"Xander!!!"

"HERE!!!!" he hears me immediately.

A few more strides. A dozen or so more deadites. I swipe low on an especially lanky zed and take him off at both femurs. I'll never forget the odd sound of cutting through a femur. When you feel the blade quiver there is no doubt that this is the strongest bone in the body. Best to stay away from there.

The next six go down without a hitch. The seventh and eighth were works of art. Managed to get five good cuts through each one's face before any others were on me. I've never been a fan of Abstract pieces. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. I finish the next group in record time and finally see my brother again.

"I'm sorry man!" we say in unison. Him, covered in mud and sweet. Me, covered in mud, sweet, blood, and my own piss. ZOMBIE. BEAR. Fuck you.

"There are a shit-ton behind me still and a fuckin BEAR."

"I know. What the fuck though? A bear? At least it stopped at the edge of the clearing. He's eating the people zombies."

"Well? Any plans? My arms are on fire here. Not to mention my legs and balls..."

"Balls?"

"I blasted myself tryin one of those samurai moves."

"Throat?"

"Not yet. Chest."

"Let's go then!"

"Where?"

"Follow me!"

So we ran. More and more fucking running. I'm a truck. Built for power. Not mileage. I'm dyin here. But we ran. Fans in tow. Like the zombie Beatles. Up hills, through trees, under logs. Soaking wet. Caked in mud. We came to it. A massive clearing ending in a 500 foot shear cliff edge. A nice comfy bed of death waiting on the rocks below.

"Here...Here!" he thrusts a rope into my hands.

"Shut the fuck up. Where's the camera? This is a fuckin joke right?"

"You have to man. I know you can." at least that's one of us...

"Fuck. Me. I can barely hold D34TH. How am I supposed to do this?"

"You just man handled a good FIFTY zombies in one sitting. While being chased by a zombiebear...UPHILL. You can climb down a fuckin rope, pussy." he always know just what to say.

"At least hold my blade bitch." we both smile.

"Don't worry. I've already anchored 'em. There's plenty of slack so just go when you're ready."

As we go over the edge we see the dead nearly on us. Greedy as pigs. That's what kills 'em. Off they go. No real concept of depth I guess. They all just jumped at the empty space where meat used to be. One by one.

We found a small ledge to stand on and watched. Zombie base jumping. Xtreme Edition. Two by three now. There must have been dozens more. All following a pack mentality. One of our basest emotions. No real thought of our own. All just...jumping. If every zombie in your class jumped off a ledge, would you? Yes. Turns out, yes, you would.

It wasn't long until we started making wishes. Shooting stars and meat-eor showers...