Return (8)

"Get on now!" Arnold immediately crouched down, gesturing for Benjamin to be piggy-backed again. Benjamin, who was in a stupor from seeing such a large amount of zombies rushing towards them, were instantly woken up. He quickly jumped onto Arnold's back, wrapping his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist, just like a koala hanging desperately onto a tree.

"Andy, give me the shortest distance from here to the next base!" Arnold yelled inside his mind as he ran, with Benjamin clenching tightly around him.

"Calculating. Closest route found. Please follow the red line to get towards your destination." Andy said in a monotone voice, as if completely oblivious to what was happening.

A red line suddenly was lined up in front of him, as seen by his right eye. He instantly ran on top of the imaginary red line, not even caring about making any sounds when stomping on the ground.

Arnold channeled his spiritual energy to his feet, permeating through to his shoes. The spiritual energy acted as a propellent. The energy caused a burst from the back of his feet, right below his Achilles' heel, causing Arnold to storm forwards instantly. The propellant force caused massive pressure towards his entire lower legs. Arnold gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain from his muscles as well as his skin and continued running in a pace that would normally be impossible for a human being.

Arnold had sped up to the point that he felt like the wind was smashing against him. His cheeks was compressed, and his entire body was feeling the pain from the air resistance. Benjamin had most of his body covered by Arnold, so he was facing much less pressure.

Unfortunately, the spiritual energy could not last for a long time. After running for at least 3 kilometers, the spiritual energy started to dissipate as he was running out of collected energy within his own body. Arnold did not have time to put Benjamin down and rummage through his backpack and replenish his energy with a zombie core, as each second he wasted would allow the zombies to close their distance even more.

When the spiritual energy within Arnold's body completely dissipated, he started panting, suddenly feeling out of breath. He was experiencing the withdrawal symptoms of releasing too much energy in a sort period of time. Arnold felt dizzy, as if someone drilled a nail into his brain. All of his muscles were aching, and he felt like he was lacking air even as he took deep breaths. The compounded pain and nausea caused Arnold to slow down even more. However, it seemed that Arnold's life have gotten even worse.

"Warning! Structrual abrasion of the skin caused your stitch to be slightly torn. Please re-suture your wound as soon as possible." Andy said from within Arnold's mind.

Arnold suddenly felt a sharp pain from the side of his abdomen. The only good news from this was that the pain seemed to have cleared his mind a bit, allowing him to be focused on running faster again. Unfortunately, the amount of time wasted as Arnold slowed down caused the zombies to close in. The zombies are now approximately 500 meters away from them.

Benjamin, noticing that something was wrong with Adrian, wanted to help. As a person from the military, even though he is highly inexperienced, he could still spot the symptoms of spiritual energy withdrawal. He tried to reach for the opening of the backpack to grab a zombie core from him. However, as Adrian started speeding up again, the release of his right arm caused it to flail back, causing one side of his bidy to tilt and his right leg to be unstrapped by Arnold' leg. As all the weight was now focused on Benjamin's left arm and leg, this caused Arnold's balance to tip the the left as well.

At the end, they could not hold on. Arnold subconsciously twisted his body around as fast as he could to hug Benjamin front the front before falling towards the ground, rolling for quite a long time before friction caused them to finally stopped. As Arnold had faced all the pressure from falling, Benjamin was seemingly uninjured except for some slight dirt on his body. Arnold, however, felt like his back was torn apart. The rocks and the uneven pavement stabbed at him as he rolled, causing his t-shirt to be torn and creating some deep scars on his back.

"What were you thinking!" Arnold scolded beratingly, he was still laying on the ground, hugging Benjamin who was in front of him.

"I-I'm sorry. I wanted to help!" Benjamin whimpered.

Arnold wanted to scold at him again, but he noticed that the zombies seemed to be only around 100 meters away from him. He immediately took Benjamin and held him in a princess carry position, with his left hand holding onto Benjamin's upper body, lodging his hand next to his armpit to prevent him from moving. His other hand held onto Benjamin's knees.

Benjamin instantly blushed, he wanted to say something but stopped, feeling even more ashamed of himself.

Arnold, who was now quite moderately injured, started running again. His legs were lacerated from the fall, causing him to be unable to run as fast as before. The zombies were now less than 50 meters away. Arnold, who had his hands full carrying Benjamin, commanded, "Get a grenade from the side pocket of my backpack and throw it at the zombies now!"

Benjamin, who was still slighly flustered, immediately nodded. He felt slightly happy that he might finally be able to do something for Arnold. As Benjamin was now being carried from the front, it made his body center more stable, allowing him to reach for the grenade that was located behind the side of Arnold's abdomen easily. He took the grenade and held it tightly. Then, he removed the pin and threw it as hard as he could.

Actually, Arnold allowed Benjamin to use the grenade because he thought that even if he epic failed in throwing, he would still be able to kill some of the zombies, as they were already within touching distance.

The grenade exploded, causing the nearby zombies to fly away in many pieces, some of them fell onto Benjamin and Arnold. Benjamin yelped in disgust, he wanted to flick the flesh away but was afraid that he might cause an accident again if he moved too much, so he simply froze in one spot.

The closest zombie finally arrived. The zombie reached out his hands and tried to grab Arnold. Arnold immediately dodged by stepping to the side. Then, he shouted at Benjamin. "Hey, get my gun, it's concealed on the left side of my chest."

Benjamin reached in from the bottom of the t-shirt and reached for his chest. He had accidentally felt Arnold's rock hard abs before finally managing to feel for the gun. He suddenly felt embarassed again.

Benjamin took out the gun and stared at Arnold, as if asking him what to do with it. Arnold commanded, "When I tell you to shoot, shoot!"

Benjamin nodded vehemently.

The zombie that Arnold just dodged tried to reach Arnold again. He immediately turned his whole body around, revealing Benjamin. "SHOOT!" Arnold yelled. Benjamin shot the zombie in the head at point blank range.

The brain matter splattered all over Benjamin's body, causing him to yelp. Arnold ignored him. He turned around and continued running.

As the zombies started to proliferate and had arrived within touching distance to both of them, Arnold asked Benjamin to throw the grenade again.

Benjamin complied. The explosion from the grenade bought a few more seconds of time for the both of them, and it seemed that some good news finally arrived: they could now see the silhouette of a rather unappealing barracks in front of them.

With the last spurt of Arnold's energy, he ran like his life depended on it, using all of his remaining force to push himself forwards. After another few seconds, the zombies arrived again. This time, as much as 20 zombies swarmed towards them. Arnold continued running until the first zombie reached for him. He immediately turned around and allowed Benjamin to shoot at the zombie. However, another two zombies from the side jumped and tried to tear at them. Arnold immediately crouched, placing Benjamin on the ground while dodging the zombies at the same time.

"Run towards the base! I'll be right behind you!" Arnold yelled as he reached for his 2 fighting knives. Benjamin nodded. He got on his knees and started running. Using his own puny bit of spiritual energy, he channeled it to his back and made it burst, propelling him forwards.

Arnold was now surrounded by zombies in all sides. He used his two knives to slice as many zombies as he could while running. However, some of the zombies still managed to scratch his sides.

Arnold winced. He tried to bear through it and continue fighting but one of the zombies jumped on him. He immediately threw him off, but another jumped on him again. Arnold decided to lower his entire body and made a roundhouse spin, his knives placed on his sides. The force of the spin managed to slice the two zombies apart and the force propelled them backwards, their bodies smashing against their compatriots.

As more and more zombies swarmed towards Arnold, he realized that at his current pace, he would not be able to make it. He needed some way to replenish his spiritual energy without the interference of the zombies. It was then that one of the zombies managed to tear a hole through his backpack, making the materials inside fall directly to the ground. The zombie cores rolled in all directions.

Arnold return his knives to his holsters. He grabbed the gun that was dropped to the ground by Benjamin and ran, trying to get the core closest to him. He immediately jumped and reached towards the core. He managed to grab the core with both of his hands. He tore the zombie core away from a zombie that was holding on to it and tried to place the core on his stomach. It was only then that he found something frightening. He gazed below and found a pale, slimy green hand that had rotting flesh with the bones almost revealed through the damaged parts of its skin. A zombie has completely penetrated through his abdomen.