Chapter 7 - JUMP

The cold night wind blows and the smell of death permeated through the streets of Joy Park.

Azief could smell the flesh, could hear the crackling noise of building on fire, and he could even hear his own heat beating.

He was nervous kind of like nervous when he has to do a speech in front of a class. A nervous excitement.

Instead of nervousness because of fear.

Right now adrenaline and other hormones are producing dozens of chemical reaction inside his brain, urging him to survive.

Seeing all these zombies coming towards him, he did not freeze in fear instead he prepares his heart and strengthened his courage.

Bravery.

More than ever he needs that right now. To survive the world right now, power is needed but without bravery power is nothing.

'It is all or nothing' Azief said.

'If I am wrong, I get eaten. If I'm right I might save myself from this area.' Whatever he will do he will not go to the elementary schools.

That alien! I will not fight it. That is truly sending myself to the jaws of death. He mused thinking of that beast in the elementary school and shivered with fear.

But he has already had a plan.

From behind him, from his front, from his left, from his right, all the zombie sis coming towards him, surrounding him, walking listlessly, groaning and dragging their feet.

I hope this kind of agility is enough.

Azief look at the trees nearby the debris, not affected by the crumbling buildings since it was far away from the candy shop.

Just near the candy shop is a high tree almost three story high.

When the zombie began to spot a human in the middle of debris they quickened their steps and move a little faster.

This is of course the mutated zombies who mutated some of their body parts with the corpse of the beast.

Azief quickly climb to the three and with his agility, it was an easy task. But that is not his true plan.

The zombie then all reached under the tree trying to climb the tree to no avail.

Some of the mutated zombies succeeded only to be cut down into pieces when they reached Azief position.

Usually he just stab the incoming mutated zombie.

Some claw the tree bark with their fingernails, and their fingernails stuck inside the bark of the tree, while some zombie smash their head to the tree trying to bring it down, while some is trying to eat the sturdy bark of the tree.

Underneath him is almost 350 zombies all waiting for him to come down.

'Thank god they are stupid' Azief said as he climbs higher.

He then set his position.

'The signal post' he said to himself.

If he jumps from this height before, he doubt he would survive but when he jumped from the second floor before, he has a slight pain only.

And when that happens his mind has begun formulating plans.

Now his agility is high and his strength is also better than the last time. He thought to himself.

Wouldn't he felt no pain compared to the last time?

His plan is to jump far from this tree as the focal point, land gracefully on the ground, and sprint towards the signal post, running to the residential areas, rest there for a while before going to the mall.

But once he does that he doesn't know what he will see or encounter.

After all the residential is close to the signal post, they must have also been attacked and they must have zombies too.

But danger is everywhere. And now at this point he has no choice but to gamble. If he stays here, sooner or later he would be found out.

Now that he has chosen to fight, better go all out.

But the structure of residential area made it easy for Azief to hide and find some house that has no occupants, maybe rest inside for a while like he did in Ah Seng shop.

But why did Azief try to attract all the zombies nearby to his area. Simple. Because he want his path unblocked.

He realizes that there are some zombies in the sign post area and the many shops nearby the sign post area.

They are deterred from the residential areas because of the scattered cars but they formed a barrier if Azief wanted to cross over.

If all congregate in one place when he jump all he has to contend with is the traffic congestion from the abandoned cars instead of running through a wall of zombies.

Then looking from the highest point of the tree, he took the view that is in his front. Hundreds of zombies fill the area, all wanting to eat him.

All with variety of stiffs, all are horrifying, all lost a few limbs, some lost eyes, one even lost his private parts.

That must have been painful Azief think to himself. Maul by tigers probably considering the large hole in the zombie hip areas.

What an awful sight!

Below him the zombies are still trying, those that managed to climb were immediately dispatched by Azief.

He prepares the vial for stamina and vitality, if anything should happen.

'Bravery' he said. And then he added.

'With a mix of stupidity and stubbornness.' And he smiles bitterly.

He closes his eyes. He take a deep breath, inhaling the stained air, cold sweat running behind his back, a droplet of sweat dropped from his forehead and he opens his eyes.

He is no longer trembling like the first time he was attacked.

'Now or never' he said and his heartbeat quickened. And he laughs a bit, trying to ease the nervousness.

Then he launches his body to the air.

The branch on where he was standing broke into pieces because of the powerful force of his jump, and he launches himself like a rocket, wind whooshing around his face, feeling like he was flying and he begins falling down as he use all of his agility to land as gracefully as possible without injuring himself.

If his bones are broken, especially if the broken bone is his feet, he would surely be sitting duck.

It happens in almost second, but he could swear it felt like a lifetime for him to land.

He landed onto the cold tar ground, and he rolled to lessen the impact.

'Ouch' he said, there is some slight pains, like a cramp when he landed 10 meters away from the congregated stiff.

He smiles in pain while drinking the vials for stamina and vitality. He got up. Then he looks behind him as the zombie turn their head back slowly towards the area he lands.

'Groaning stiffs' he said. The zombie began walking towards him, moving away from the tree.

A large force of undead is coming for him. He looks at the signpost and he ran like the wind.

In front of the signpost is dozens of cars burning and corpses littered the road. Azief did not slow down even when he sees golden coins or some books.

Maybe later he thought to himself.

He doesn't have time to pick it up. Being too greedy when you are weak is courting death. No….I'm not going to be eaten stupidly.

He jumped through the stacked burning cars as his stamina is draining one by one because of the speed in which he is running, and he passed the sign post and is now running again with all his might to the residential areas.

He is trying to distance himself from the horde. And he enters the residential areas, jumping through the tall brushes of the houses.

Most of the houses near the sign post belong to middle class family but further in you will see some bungalows and some high wall belonging to some rich families.

He met a stray zombie from the residential areas, wandering aimlessly.

'More stiff.' He said, clearly annoyed. He is tired, it is night and he lack sleeps, nervous and in the verge of breaking down.

A man can only take so much in a day.

The world change, the zombies is hunting him and let's not forgets that alien looking thing in the elementary schools.

Remembering that, he could not stand still.

And the gruesome sight he has witness today. To be honest he want to lay on a comfy bed, get some rest without having to worry being eaten by some beast or bitten by these stiff and turns into them.

Azief brandishes his blade and it shines in the moonlight night. With one swift movement, Azief made a slashing motion.

He runs while slashing the zombie head, and the head flies three meter away, the body falls down naturally.

And then there is another zombie preventing his way to go to the residential areas. Again he slashed and the head is decapitated.

I made the right decision to raise my strength and agility. His speed is faster and his strike pack more punches than before.

One slash is all he needs. Combined strength with speed and the power double.

Physics.

Even a pebble travelling 200 mph could destroy a man skull. Imagine that with sword. Speed and strength.

The only thing he lacks now is stamina. Finished killing the stray zombie, Azief decide to find a place to rest. He can't keep going like this.

He spotted one of the large house, and jump from outside entering the bungalow, like a cat.

The zombies find it hard when they are obstructed with walls or any kind of obstruction. A little bit like the small giants in Shingeki.

And in closed space like this it is easier for him to deal with zombies if they ever managed to breakthrough.

Here his agility could shine.

He is trying to find some of the house that is suitable for him to make some kind of a hideout like he did in Ah Seng shop.

He has so many items he has lost count. He needs to check it and see if anything could help increase his strength.

He keeps jumping and slashing. Jump through the bushes, slashing the stiffs that block his way.

As long as he did not make too much noise or mess, the horde will not come after him. Many of the residents must have cleared out before the massacre really happens.

Azief notices there are not too many stiffs here. Then he hears the horde. He turns back and recognized familiar faces.

'Fuck, why can't they leave me alone!' It was the zombie he ditches when he jumps from the tree.

Then he jumped into one of the huge house and decided to hide under a dog home. Even though he is stronger than before, even he is not confident to take on the entire horde.

He waited. And he waited. Tine passed as the zombies keep walking around the area.

For an hour Azief made no sound. He almost fall sleep at that moment. He is tired, frustrated, nervous and nervous.

He repeated nervous two times. Because he can't stand it anymore. He waited for a long time before he hears the footstep moving away.

Then when he made sure the zombie has decided to give up the search Azief slowly went out of the dog house.

His stomach suddenly growls and Azief look left and right, fearing any stiffs could hear that. It was pretty loud to his ears.

Now he needs to find some food.

His stomach is growling. After making sure there is no zombie nearby he decided to break into this bungalow looking house.

It doesn't seem to have zombies or it might have some noise inside

In a house like these they are surely some food. He began imagining meat, chickens, eggs.

Azief slowly walked to the front door. He was about to break the lock with his hand or blade when suddenly the door open.

'Come in' the voice said. Azief gripped his blade tightly and was in a battle stance. All he need is a reason and whatever that made the noise would be neutralized.

'Who's there?' Azief asked.

'Come on inside. Quickly before the corpse come.' The voice comes from behind the door and it sounds like a Chinese.

He spoke Chinese. Azief knows this and he understand it, and it puzzles him. Why? Because Azief knows he doesn't know Chinese other than the normal greetings.

Azief still cautious buts seeing no other choice enter the door and slowly closed it.

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