The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

  By the youth's feet there was another body of woman who layed there motionless. Seems to have already been killed.

  Around 10 meters away from the youth there was another young man standing. He was going backwards step by step as he covered his mouth with his hands. It seemed that he was afraid to call out because of the fear.

  Chapter 49: Fatal

  "Ah, Aaron, save me ... " At this time, the youth that was being bitten by the undead cried out. His hand was raised as if to reach out to the young man who was retreating backwards in hurry. His handsome face was full of fear and pain! Moreover, there was a desire to live!

  The young man, 'Aaron,' clutching his mouth, looked down at his close friend. His body was trembling and tears were streaming down his face. He gritted his teeth and turned to run towards the exit of the street.

  Dudian's saw that the undead who was feeding on the youth was alerted by the footsteps of the Aaron. It raised its head towards the source of the sound. Suddenly, it stopped feeding and turned to chase after the Aaron. It's arms were fluttering, body was swinging as if it was drunk and could fall at any moment. However its speed was extremely fast and it quickly caught up with Aaron.

  Aaron heard to the sounds of the movement coming from behind. He turned to look and was horrified as the undead was almost catching up with him. He turned back immediately and took out his dagger. The woman diagonally waved her arm and used her sharp claws to attack Aaron. He lifted his dagger to parry against the claw. He was able to block it but was hit to the ground by the heavy force behind the claw attack of the undead.

  Dudian was extremely shocked by the sight. At the same time he was frightened to death. If the undead had attacked him in his current condition, he would absolutely die. He was lucky that he hadn't chosen this street or at the moment he and the other three would have met their end.

  As he saw that the youth was gradually overhelmed by the undead, the idea of withdrawal sprouted in his mind. At the moment, the idea to go forward to help out the other scavengers, has been left behind in deep parts of his mind. These consortium scavenger have not gone through formal training but had participated in many scavenging expeditions. As a result they had rich experience and got more "God's blessings" than the newly graduated ones. So their strength should be several times greater than his. If the old timers couldn't deal with the undead then he was sure to die.

  Dudian waved back gently gesturing to back away.

  Mason stood behind the Dudian. Although he did not see scene but he heard the mournful screams and chewing sounds. After all the ruins are too quite and the sound transmission is particularly clear. As he saw Dudian's gesture, his face chaned. He recalled the earlier attack by the rats and slowly went backwards.

  It didn't took long before another four consortium scavengers came out of the other side of the street. They heard the screams that were echoing out. They quickly rushed out and saw the appalling scene where Aaron's arm was biten by the woman undead. Uniform which was normally used as an armor had no resistance against the sharp bites of the undead. The blood gushed out as she bite more and more.

  "Kill it!" The newcomer youth's pupil shrank in horror but he did not go back but roared loudly: "Kill it!" Then he said to the three fellow companions who were besides him: "We should contain it until Scott and the others come over."

  His companions were also horrified. However, as soon as they heard the youth's commands they didn't hesitate but headed towards the woman undead in rush.

  The dead woman heard the sound, looked up at them. As previously, she stood up in a weird twisted posture. There were no regular patterns to how she waved her arms. She rushed towards the four youths who had come.

  The youth roared loudly and as he was running he jumped to kick the undead. He mercilessly kicked the undead woman and flung her out. She fell onto the ground.

  Dudian saw the four of them had appeared so he was no longer in hurry to leave. Instead he continued to observe the scene. His heart was in joy as the youth's kick had affected the undead. However he didn't rush out to help them as he was scared by the undead's agility which he had observed before.

  Mason and the other two probed over the sideline to see the fight and taken aghast.

  As the youth kicked the undead the other three scavenger immediately stepped forward to hold the Aaron. He was pulled back and left the battlefield.

  The undead's body quickly rose up, made a hoarse roar and menacingly rushed forward to the youth!

  The youth was taken back by the mobility of the undead. He used his dagger to cut off the undead. It sliced its arm. But there was no blood that oozed out of its skin. From the cut it could be seen that it was black flesh inside and the blood seemed to be solidified. This had resulted in its body to be extremely hard to be cut. The dagger itself was stuck into the bone.

  The youth's pupils shrank, holding the hilt, he tried his best to pull it out. But he couldn't and in this short moment the undead woman moved onto him, raised the other arms and attacked his throat. The claw clasped as it pop sound echoed out. It had pierced through the arteries on his neck. Blood spewed out spilling on undead's arm.

  "Wegner!" Three who were dragging Aaron's body back, saw the scene, cried out in alarm and run back to help him.

  Wegner was clutching his neck while his eyes were wide open in shock. He would have never thought that his young life would end in here. He struggled to raise his head to look at the horrifing face of the undead. The light in his eyes gradually dimmed down.

  The undead growled and seized his body. It bit on his neck and began to eat his body.

  "Monster!" One of the companions, who was a bit chunkier than the rest, cried out loud as he rushed over. Holding his dagger he rushed over to the corpse of the undead.

  The undead pushed the body of the handsome Wegner away and swayed towards the on-coming chunky youth.

  "Pease, no, don't go!" The two group mates shouted out.

  His eyes were blood red. As he was reaching the undead he took out his dagger and stabbed. He had successfully pierced the chest of the undead but didn't seem to hurt it a bit.

  At this point, the undead attacked the pudgy scavenger. Kacha~ The sharp claw pierced through his chunky scavengers cheek. The tip of the claw pricked from the other side of his face. He felt severe pain and wanted to cry out to ease it. But the next moment he saw the ferocious face of the undead approaching his own face. Instinctively, without losing the momentum the undead bit him on the face.

  "Pease!" The companion that was behind cried out. The other one pulled him to hastily recede back. He hoped to be able to take advantage of time, as undead was eating the pudgy Pease, to escape as far as possible.

  Dudian didn't think that the four consortium scavengers are not a match against an undead which was alone. The most terrible thing was that even thought its chest was pierced it was not affected the least bit. Do the other side is really an immortal monster?

  Suddenly, he thought of the dead woman in the bathroom and other corpses that he had seen while searching for materials. He thought of the common thing in all of the bodies which were the scars on their heads!

  It didn't matter whether it was a sword, dagger or arrow injury. All of them were on their heads.

  Is the head their fatal point?

  Chapter 50: Bloodstain

  Sounds of footsteps echoed out from the rear. Dudian looked back to see Scott and Mia coming over with a large number of scavengers. Scott and Mia were in front by a difference of a large distance. Their speed was alarming as if they were humanoid cheetahs. They were hundreds of meters away, in the blink of an eye they were in front of Dudian.

  "What's going on?" Scott said hastily.

  Dudian saw them and his heart loosened a lot. "Undead!", he said pointing to the corner of the street.

  Scott and Mia's face changed as they saw two scavengers dragging Aaron who was in coma. They also noticed Scott, their faces suddenly were relieved as they said in hurry: "Help
us! There is an undead! Please save Pease!"

  Scott and Mia ran past and saw the undead woman eating the chunky youth. Scott immediately draw his dagger and said: "Get ready to fight! Together we will be able to kill it, otherwise it will always pursue the smell we left behind!"

  Mia saw the Aaron who was injured and in coma. She asked in a trembling tone: "Is he injured?"

  One of them replied: "He was bitten! We rushed him over to help him out!"

  Scott's facial expression changed: "Kill him immediately otherwise we will have to face two undeads!"

  "This, this ... ..." Both of them heard what Scott said. They were not rookie scavengers and they had known for long time that if the person is bitten by the monster is will be infected and turned into an undead. But personally killing a scavenger who was their companion for a long time, especially the one who was still alive was hard to do.

  "Can't we rescue him?" the tall youth looked at Scott, "maybe he can hold on ..."

  "Idiot!" cried Scott interrupting his words. He continued in angry tone: "If you want to die then hold on to him. But if you want to live then kill him right away!"

  At this time, another young scavenger said: "The undead is coming over."

  Scott quickly focused on the undead woman. She gave up the prey in her hands and glanced at the new comers with her green eyes. Taking off in a rapid pace she attacked Scott.

  "Very fast!" Scott's mind was surprised but he did not flinch a bit.

  Scott made the first move and kicked the undead woman in the abdomen. She didn't tried to dodge, was hit badly and fell to the ground. Scott seized the opportunity, quickly approached her and immediately kicked her face.

  His steel boot was pointed at her jaw as he kicked again.

  "Die you devil!" Scott growled, raising the dagger to stab the face of the undead woman. Dagger pierced the center of its face and the undead woman uttered a dry roar. Her body was severly twitching. Her body was struggling while her head was tightly nailed to the ground by Scott. It struggled for a while then gradually stopped moving.

  As he saw the undead stopping movement, Scott was relieved and he pulled the dagger out slowly from its cheek bones.

  Dudian knew that his previous guess was true, to kill the undead its head to be damaged. At this time, the other scavengers also rushed over to the scene. They saw the bloody scene and were disgusted by it.

  Scott turned around and looked over the two young people and couldn't help but shout out in anger: "Do you want to die so bad that you still haven't killed him? If he wakes up, the first to die will be you!" Then he came over towards both of them and looked down at Aaron. He took a deep breath, stabbed the dagger through his throat and cut his head off.

  Blood was spewing out as if it was a fountain.

  The two youth turned pale, their legs trembling.

  Scott looked at them coldly while he cleaned the blood off the dagger: "This is the giant wall's law of the survival. You don't have intructors by your side anymore! Either adapt or die!"

  Then he looked at the silent Mia and sighed. He ordered the other scavengers: "Light up a fire and burn these bodies. Do not let the smell of the blood lead the others towards this place!"

  Scavengers who were newcomers as Dudian, one by one turned pale at the sight of such a real cruel scene. One of the girls was horrified: "I, I want to go home. I do not want to scavange! I don't want money..." She finished, turned around and ran crazily.

  Scott angrily said: "Catch her and bring back!"

  Two consortia scavengers went after to recover her back immediately.

  One of the scavengers suddenly opened his eyes widely, trembling he raised his hand, pointing over Scott's back and said: "Boss, they...they stood up..."

  Everyone quickly looked up.

  Dudian saw the youth and the other female scavenger who had been bitten at first were struggling to stand up. The female's head was fractured from the spine so as she raised her head its head twisting right and left. However she rapidly adapted to her new condition.

  "Damn!" Scott looked ugly, growled: "Everyone get ready to follow me!" He was the first to rush up.

  Mia was the first to keep up with Scott and the other consortia scavengers hesitated for a moment, but quickly caught up to them. Some of the newcomers from the Dudian's group stared at this scene and dropped onto ground because of the fear.

  Dudian had previously seen Scott's skill so he reckoned that Scott and Mia should be able to solve out the two transformed undead. He clenched his dagger and went up ahead.

  Mason, Sham and Zach quickly pulled him back and said: "Are you crazy?"

  "I'm going to destroy the other two bodies so that they do not turn into undead," Dodian said.

  The trio were surprised but immediately said: "We will go as well."

  Four of them ran behind the consortium scavengers. They had come by the bodies of the handsome and chunky youths. Dudian looked at the dead body by his feet. He hesitated for a moment but then cut off their necks.

  After two blessings, Dudian's body had become twice stronger than an average adult's so he easily cut off their necks.

  Dudian's heart was pounding wildly. Although he knew that they were already dead, but the action had brought him guilt of killing people and fear. His hand which was holding dagger trembled. He constantly comforted himself in his heart, suddenly he heard screams that came up from the front.

  He saw more than a dozen consortium scavengers, including Scott and Mia, with a face full of panic, turn and flee towards them.

  Dudian saw more than a dozen undeads from the gap while the consortium scavengers were escaping.

  Chapter 51: Heartbeat

  "This is way too much!" Dudian, Macon and the others were scared at the sight.

  They were still in a daze. Scott that was running in the front roared: "Flee ah!"?Dudian jolted off from his daze, quickly turned around and fled. Mason, Sham and Zach followed suit.

  Yet, at this time the differences in their physique and stamina were finally evidently clear as Scott and Mia quickly closed the gap between them before quickly overtaking them. They disappeared from their sight in short amount of time.

  At this time, the other consortia Scavengers who lagged behind by a huge margin also caught up to them.

  "Get out of the way!" A burly youth screamed out at Dudian and the other three. He pushed Sham away, who was the slowest one of the four. Because of the sudden shove to the side, Sham lost his balance and fell onto the ground. Several young Scavengers who were rushing over passed over the stumbling Sham.

  Dudian heard Sham's scream and stopped to look back. He saw a scratched up Sham was on the ground and was trying to get up when another youth pressed him down over his head while passing by. All of them were bolting away and trying to use Sham as a bait for a leverage.

  Around 100 meters behind there were more than a dozen undeads quickly giving chase.

  Dudian's face turned pale. He clenched his fists and ran back to help Sham. He grabbed his arm and yelled, "Quickly! Up! Up!"

  Sham quickly grabbed on to Dudian. He led Sham's body, pulled him up, and immediately turned to continue to run. The other consortium Scavengers had already succesfully ran to the front, trailing Scott and Mia. They ran in the direction of the duo disappearing in the corner of the street.

  Sham looked back to see a dozen or so bloodthirsty undeads. His scalp tingled and his legs trembled which made him almost lost his footing again.

  Then, Macon and Zach also turned and rushed over, quickly supported Sham's body, dragging him forward in a hurry.

  "Turn to the right!" Dudian screamed as they reached the corner of the street.

  The three of them were stunned. But they didn't have time to ask and could only closely follow the way Dudian hadran off to. After a ten or so meters Dudian stopped and grabbed a few pieces of stones from the gravel on the ground. He began to throw the stones towards the direction Scott and Mia had earlier disappeared to.

 
Pound!

  The stone fell to the ground, rolling a few times and made noises.

  By then, more than thirty meters away from the corner of the street the undeads began to nearly caught up. As they reached the corner most of the undeads choose to run towards the place where the voices echoed from. However, there was an undead who was well aware of Dudian's and the others' existence. It ran after them and another two zombies followed it.

  Dudian's face changed and quickly glanced on both sides of the street. He saw a gate more than 10 meters in front of them. It was a community gate and the door was covered in vegetation. "Come with me!"

  As he came up to the door he saw a few corpses lying on the ground. The door to the security room had long been corroded because of the moss. From the little exposed window he was able to vaguely see that there was a humanoid shadow in the room. Dudian stopped looking and passed by to the nearest building. He went into the building to see a corpse by the doorstep and another one in the corridor.

  Dudian suppressed the fear in his heart and trampled over the dead body to go inside. "Come over!"

  The other three saw the corpses by the door. Their faces turned white but they fought back the fear and jumped over it. Dudian saw that another two undeads were tagging along with the previous pursuer.

  Dudian's facial expressions changed, and quickly grabbed the door. He wanted to lock it but found the the door handle has long been covered with moss. It couldn't be locked so he gave up the idea to lock it and dashed into the building towards the elevator. As such, the door to the elevator was in a half open state, covered with moss and vegetation. Inside the elevator, there laid a few corpses. Some were dead, some were decaying.

  Dudian immediately ran up the stairs, as he said, "Keep up."

  Mason and the other followed behind him.

  When he entered the building, he previously saw the height of the building which was at least fifteen or so stories high. He ascended the steps and saw seven or eight dead corpses along the steps, along with decaying human bones.?By the sixth floor Dudian was already physically exhausted. Mason and the other two were also in similar condition. In fact, during the previous battle with rats they have exhausted all of their physical strength. Yet, they were desperately fleeing out of fear. That was how they broke through their physical limitations.