Chapter 7 - JUMP (1/2)

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.