Kiah couldn't move.
Every part of her body throbbed, pulsing with agony. A jagged piece of wood pinned her shoulder to the cracked wall from the debris.
Her breathing was shallow, and each inhale felt like a slice through her ribs and lungs.
She coughed again, splattering more blood across her chin.
One hit. One freaking hit had done this.
From her assessment, she had at least three broken ribs and probably internal bleeding. If she took another blow like that, she'd be dead before the sun came up.
She gritted her teeth, trying to move.
'God, Eden was right.'
Now she understood why Eden had been so strict. Why she'd pushed her, lectured her, made her train until her limbs trembled. No wonder Eden had told her not to underestimate the degenerates. If she got out of this alive, she would kiss Eden on the cheek.
And Killan… no wonder he'd looked so haunted when she told him about the test. She doubted a lot of people survived. Hell! She didn't even know if she would make it at this rate.
Why did the degenerate have to make her its first target?
"Don't let them get too close," Dark shouted, drawing her attention to the ongoing fight.
'Yeah, no kidding. That information would have been more appreciated before I got punched into a wall.' She thought bitterly.
Luckily, after throwing her into the wall, the degenerate fixed its eyes on someone else.
The others had sprung into action. The yellow-haired girl fired arrows in rapid succession. Red swung his hammer like a maniac. Pinkie had run off somewhere.
The rest either tried to fight or ran in opposite directions, running for their lives — it was probably the smartest move anyone could make, honestly. The noise the group was making would only attract more of those things.
Kiah could hear more distant shrieks and wails approaching. That was her cue to get the hell away from this bloody carnage.
Her labrys lay several meters away, knocked from her grip when she was hit. Her flashlight, too, had landed somewhere in the street.
She needed to untangle herself from the wreckage before more degenerates came to finish her off.
Clenching her jaw, she reached up with her uninjured arm and grabbed the piece of wood lodged through her shoulder.
With one shaky breath, she yanked.
"Ahhh!" She screamed, the sound raw and ragged.
The pain made her vision blur. Sweat poured down her temple. Her teeth ground against each other.
It felt like fire seared through her body as the splintered plank started to slide free, wet and sticky with her blood.
With one last muffled groan, the jagged wood tore free from her shoulder. Her shoulders finally sagged in relief.
Blood spilled freely, soaking the fabric around the wound, but she didn't have time to check the extent of the damage. This wasn't the time or place for first aid.
She could move now, and that's all that mattered.
Her eyes locked on her labrys a few distances away. Swallowing the pain, she attempted to creep past the chaos of the fight to it, her hands stretched out.
But to her surprise, as if sensing her desperation, the labrys moved on its own, sliding across the pavement until it landed on her palms.
Kiah flinched slightly, not expecting that trick.
Was this a result of the bond?
She wanted to deliberate more on it, but there was no time. No one had noticed her yet.
Her backpack was thankfully still strapped to her back. She clutched the labrys in one hand, knuckles white around the handle, and crept toward her flashlight next.
Unlike the degenerates who were accustomed to the darkness, she was nearly blind. And she couldn't fight blind either.
She found the torch, shoved it in her pocket, and forced herself to get feet. Her legs trembled, holding her weight.
The fight, at least, was over.
Three degenerates lay sprawled on the ground, their heads on the floor. One looked like it was hit repeatedly until it was crushed, with part of its brain spilling out.
Kiah suppressed the urge to puke.
In the middle of the small group stood Blondy — one of the guys she hadn't learned the name of — cradling a bloody arm. A deep bite mark ran across his forearm, the flesh mangled and oozing.
He had been bitten.
Blondy looked disoriented, crying as everyone backed away from him.
"No. No, no, no. This can't be happening. I'm not infected. I swear, I'm not. It's just a small bite. I won't turn…"
"You will," Red said flatly, his hammer still dripping with greenish blood. "I'm sorry. But we have to kill you."
"No, don't! You morons!" Blondy's eyes bulged out with rage. "If only you guys had stayed quiet, they wouldn't have found us. This is your fault. Your fault—!"
He stopped. His body stiffened mid-rant.
Then, he collapsed on the floor, his body jerking unnaturally that his bones cracked.
Green froth spilled from his lips. His eyes rolled back. His neck snapped to a grotesque angle with an audible pop, and the whites of his eyes turned red.
Then he screamed. A wet, guttural shriek that cut through the air.
*Squash!*
Red's hammer came down on Blondy's head before he could move with a brutal finality. Blondy's skull caved on the impact, and his head burst open. The rest of his body stopped moving after that.
Seeing Blondy's, half turned, half-human, with bits of his head scattered on the floor, Kiah couldn't hold it anymore. This time, she hunched over and hurled her guts out.
She didn't care if anyone saw. Her ribs hurt. Her shoulder burned. And she just wanted to go home.
"It was for the good of everyone," Red announced, already turning away without a hint of emotion.
*Shriek!*
The sound of another approaching degenerate came. And it was too close.
Kiah didn't want to be there when it arrived. With the last bit of strength she could muster, she bolted towards one of the abandoned buildings, ignoring the stabbing pain in her ribs and the blood that seeped from her shoulder.
***
All the things Eden told her about the degenerates came rushing back.
"They are faster and stronger…"
"They are sensitive to sound, so stay somewhere quiet and don't make too much noise…"
"They are sensitive to the smell of blood. Try not to bleed. If you do, stop it fast. If not, they'll track you down… "
"If you have an open cut and degenerates' fluid gets in, it's the same as being bitten…"
"Most importantly, get to the capsule before sunrise. Degenerates get more aggressive in the morning. Something about the sunlight makes them snap…"
Eden's voice rang through Kiah's mind with every step.
She had two priorities.
One: Find a safe place.
Two: Treat her bleeding arm before it attracted more of those monsters.
The building she entered looked like it used to be an apartment complex. It was rundown with dirty floors and soot-covered walls.
She picked a room on the second floor and, after deeming it safe, she headed straight for the shattered remains of the bathroom.
She slid off her backpack with a grimace and turned on her torch, its narrow beam illuminating the dust-laced air. Kneeling on the dirty tiles, she unzipped the emergency kit Eden had helped her prepare.
Eden had warned her not to take anything in glass bottles because they could break during a fight. She thanked God she listened because everything in her bag would have smashed when she slammed into that wall.
She pulled out a plastic bottle of antiseptic and took off one of her sleeves with shaky hands to reveal her injured shoulder.
The sight of the wound made her stomach churn.
Biting down hard on a rag to muffle her screams, she poured the antiseptic directly into the gash.
Pain travelled down her spine.
She jerked, breath hitching in her throat. A tear slid down her cheeks, but she didn't make a sound.
When the burn finally dulled, she reached for a blue paste Eden had packed in a small squeeze tube. She squeezed the cool gel onto her injury, then bandaged her shoulder tightly.
The cooling relief was almost instant, and the ache reduced drastically. The paste was a pain reliever.
'Eden, you're a lifesaver.'
Kiah disposed of the bloody bandages and rags in a corner, after wiping off any trace of blood on her skin, before totally taking off her shirt, rinsing the dried blood from it with half a bottle of water. The rest, she drank in greedy gulps, before putting the damp shirt back on.
As for her ribs, well, there was nothing she could do with the limited resources she had, so she left them.
Now, it was time to find a more secure place to spend the night.
She left the bathroom cautiously and scanned the hallway. Gladly, it was empty and quiet.
She tiptoed down the corridor and slipped into another room farther from the stairs. She didn't know how many degenerates were in the area, but she bet it was a lot.
Spotting a half-collapsed desk in the far corner of the room, she crawled under it and clicked off her flashlight, meeting the darkness wrap around her like a cocoon.
A faint sigh of relief escaped her lips.
Her plan was to wait it out here until sunrise, then head for the capsule. She didn't think they had wandered far from the capsule drop zone before the attack, so it couldn't be too far from here.
She could make it.
She had to.
Suddenly, a low growl echoed in the room.
Kiah frowned, gazing down at her stomach.
Seriously? She couldn't believe her body still had the audacity to feel hungry at a time like this.
This wasn't the time to eat.