Affinity

by Havelock

Devil

Razor looked back at the girl sitting on the mattress, debating his method of elimination.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked.

Razor was caught off guard by this, "Why do you ask?"

"You know I'm infected," she said, "I can see the fear in your eyes,"

"You are one crazy, crazy bitch," Razor said.

The girl shrugged, "Not much I can do, but I've learned that eating helps keep me sane, and I don't really see death as an option,"

"Hmm," Razor grunted, slowly reaching for his operator.

With inhuman speed, the girl leaped from her place, dropping her brother. Razor easily sidestepped this, allowing her to crash headfirst into shelves of food. With a careless posture, Razor kicked the rising girl back into the mess of cans.

"Agh! Stop! Please! I don't know what else to do!" she shouted.

Razor simply responded by drawing his pistol and firing straight into her skull, splattering gore all over the floor. He turned to the younger brother, frozen in shock, and stormed over to him. Kicking him to the ground, he stomped savagely on the boy's head, an audible crack and crunch could be heard from the boy's snapped neck and shattered skull.

"Razor," gasped Affinity, "you...-"

A door hidden behind the wall near the mattress crashed open. Stumbling out of it, was another faceless shambler, groaning and screaming mindlessly. Razor lifted his operator, firing a round without hesitation. Chaos began to unfold outside, and there was pounding on the home's walls and windows.

"Come on, Affinity, our time's up," Razor said, looking into the recently revealed room. He took a peek inside, seeing white walls stained with blood.

"Not this way," he said, leaving and closing the door quickly.

He searched around, finding the door to the upstairs, barred. Realizing how he couldn't open the door before, he ran over to remove the bar and open up the door. After lifting the heavy bar of wood, he pressed his ear to the door and listened carefully.

Aaaarrrgghh! Aaaarrrgghh!

Razor smiled, then opened the door and at the same time, stepped off to the side, allowing another shambler to fall to the ground. Before it could get up, Razor stomped on it's head, silencing it with another chilling crunch. Razor slipped through, gliding in between the slow paced infected he encountered. He rushed out the door, grabbing anything that came in hand, bottles, chairs, and dog toys to repel the mindless horde.

"There's an apartment complex nearby, we should try getting to the top of that," Razor said.

"Right, oh, and take this," Affinity replied, throwing Razor and baseball bat.

"Ah," began Razor, catching the bat, "the classic zombie apocalypse weapon,"

He caught a shambler in the head violently, laying it down for good. With his path cleared, he ran as fast as his equipment would allow. Behind him, he heard gun shots echo through the sky, along with shouting from sane humans.

"We're not the only ones," Razor muttered.

Wrecking those in front of him, Razor continued to the apartment complex. Reaching a high fence leading to the complex, he threw the bat over the fence and began to climb up.

"Up, watch the trench coat, and over," he muttered, going over the fence to the other side.

He stopped and unhooked the M4 on his chest, then checked the mag for ammo.

"Razor! There're shamblers in almost every room of that building, how do we get in?" Affinity asked, landing by the human.

"Simple, we go in," he replied.

"You make it sound sooooo easy," Affinity said.

"That's because it is," Razor said, "we have the equipment to do this, we just need to use it, stay close, this is the farthest I've ever gone without seeing the worse infected,"

"Worse infected?" Affinity muttered.

Razor simply moved towards the complex, his weapon raised and ready for action. He ascended the stairs, stepping as lightly as his gear would allow. There was further moaning and groaning from infected trudging outside the apartments. Bursting out of some doors were other survivors of the conflict.

"Hey, bro! Over here!" one said gesturing up the steps.

Razor continued following, the steps, accepting the other survivors' help in escaping. He was pointed to a zip line which connected the rooftops of the nearby apartment buildings. Others were using their weapons to get across.

"This way, man, we gotta get to the others," the same survivor said.

Razor slid across the zip line using his M4, reaching a larger group of survivors.

"Careful! Roof hoppers are coming!" one shouted.

"Roof hoppers?" Affinity said.

There was a chilling screech, followed by the appearance of a morbidly morphed infected. It's skin and several organs were molted off its body, and it bore elongated limbs with hooked claws at the ends. It awkwardly charged forward, leaping the gap between its building and the survivors'. It was stopped mid-flight by a heavy blow to its front. Affinity looked back, seeing Razor fit a shotgun shell into his M4's masterkey.

"I guess those are roof hoppers," Razor said.

He turned to the survivors, "You have a camp nearby?" Razor asked.

"Behind you!" they shouted.

Razor scored a backwards headshot on the mobile undead, striking surprise in the crowd.

Eeeeuuuuuuuurrrrrrraaaaaggghhhhh!

Razor, turned, finding more of them leaping across rooftops and skittering through the streets below.

"They're coming! Come on, we won't have long to escape!" they shouted.

Razor hurried alongside the rushing militia, with Affinity soaring nearby. The undead swarmed them, slashing some of the militia clean in two! Razor was ready and fierce. He seized a machete strapped inside his trench coat, countering the hoppers' wild slashing. He swung for the throat, and was often successful, severing the major artery and in some cases, beheading the thin-necked monsters. Their numbers were near impossible, and the militia was getting thinner. Razor returned his machete, grabbing his M4 once again and releasing volleys of lead.

"To the next zip line! Now!" he heard.

Razor did as he was bid, sprinting to the next zip line. Affinity saw a hopper flanking Razor, ready to impale him.

"RAZOR! NO!" she screamed. Without thinking, she swooped in, delivering a heavy kick to the creature's skull and sending it off the roof.

Razor looked back, "Thanks, Affinity,"

He hopped onto the zip line, reaching another rooftop and escaping the wild hoppers. He hooked his M4 again, drawing his machete for the manageable battle at hand. Wielding it expertly, he slashed and severed their limbs, fighting madly with it.

"Look at him!" shouted a militant, "he's like a demon!"

Affinity was watching Razor, fighting gallantly for his survival. No, he fought to win, he fought for his freedom to live.

"No, not like a demon," she said, "like an archangel,"

Razor noticed the last zip line, how it led to the lower ground and into the untamed forestry nearby. He dashed for it, using his machete to glide down the cord. Affinity followed, watching the other militants follow Razor down the line. Razor switched back to his M4, exchanging the clip for a new one and holding the numerous undead at bay for the rest of the militia to get down. Their numbers were very low now, counting only seven total from the score that once existed. Razor slowly backed up into the forest, gradually vanishing in the vegetation.

"Razor?" Affinity said, losing sight of him slowly. She carefully watched him get engulfed in the forest's shadowy embrace. He was a little more than a phantom now, only visible by the flashes from every shot of his M4.

"Razor!" Affinity steered her way down to the forest, finding Razor backing up more and more. The militia was being overwhelmed, and eventually Razor simply disappeared into the forest, cloaked by the fog which hung among the branches. Affinity was disoriented, she had no idea where she was going and if she was actually following Razor. She bumped into something hard and bulky.

"Razor?" she said.

The face that greeted her was a white mask, with a red mark tracing downward on the left eye, which was squinted and closed. The right eye was open, and showed a human eye peeking through. Across the mask stretched a blood red smile, resembling that of a jester. Affinity screamed at the sight of this, and tried to run away.

"Affinity! Affinity, it's me, calm down," Razor said.

Affinity was breathing heavily, having the daylights scared out of her.

"What're you doing with that?" she asked.

"Long story, I'll tell you when camp is set up, for now, let's dig up the hidden stash,"

Affinity watched with wide eyes as Razor dug through a bush, pulling out a large duffle bag.

"You have a hidden stash out here?" she asked.

"Yeah, now help me out," Razor said.

They were quick at work, with Razor gathering firewood and Affinity pawing at the ground to soften the dirt for a bed. Within tens of minutes, there was a small roaring fire and a soft bed of dirt for them to lay upon. Razor took off his backpack, trench coat and vest, then removed his pants to reveal pajamas underneath. They laid down by the fire, Affinity snuggling close to him. She struggled for a comfortable position, distracted by the events of today.

"Razor," she said, "why did you kill those children? Why did they have to die?"

Razor was silent for a moment, "Don't think I have no remorse for that, but they were already dead, Affinity,"

"And what about the militia? They weren't infected,"

"No..." said Razor, "they were arrogant, they could've escaped with us, but chose to fight, they could've stayed in their apartments, but stepped out,"

"You could've fought with them,"

"Affinity," Razor said, a tear running down his face, "I can only save so much, please, losing you would kill me,"

Affinity's eyes began to water slightly, "Razor, don't cry, I'm here, I'll always be here," she said, wiping away his tear.

They held each other close, eventually being wrapped in the dark's sleepy embrace. Razor waited for Affinity to fall asleep, then began drifting off himself.

"Sleep well... Devil,"