"Stay back Ayesha, Abu" I glanced back at them again.
I kept my eye mostly on the mutant advancing slowly in front of me, though I had this intense fear of it suddenly picking up speed.
Its red eyes stared intently at us. It looked crazed, almost hungry, like a wild beast.
"I'm going to have to fight, so give me space," I said to the children, who still hovered close to me even after I told them to stay.
I heard the shuffle of their feet as they made more space between themselves and me.
I decided that staying here and fighting was the best choice because running away from this mutant would be pointless, it would just follow us around the city.
A city I had no idea how to exit unless it was through the crevice I had come through in the first place and that way was virtually impossible unless we had the gear to scale that steep slope of sand.
Scaling it on hands and feet with a salivating mutant at our heels would be a ridiculous situation to put myself and these two children in.
There was another thing that worried me about this encounter.
'I wonder if the scratches will turn me into one?'
Now here I am facing a crisis and at the same time drawing parallels to science fiction. It must be a defence mechanism in my brain to add some ridiculous information to help me cope because I couldn't seem to stop.
"I don't want to be the Guinea pig for this episode of Mythbusters so I don't want to get scratched at all" I muttered.
At this point I remember watching one of those zombie movies with Hanes that had very fast fiends that would run up to you quickly, I had jokingly said to Hanes while clinging to his arm: "Can you imagine having to fight these things in real life?"
To which he'd jokingly replied: "If that ever happens, the best thing is to get the hell out of dodge"
I continued to hold the toy sword out in front of me, which looked so misplaced it was almost funny, waiting for the mutant creature that was once a human to get close enough for me to strike.
"Last warning, you!" I yelled.
I really had no idea or experience with any form of fighting outside of all the fictional stories I read and watched, since the beginning of the cataclysm this was all just learning while trying my best to survive.
"Wonder if I'm holding this right?" I glanced down at my hands gripping the handle of the miniature sword.
Once the mutant was within reach I swiped at his outstretched hands. The impact is like cutting through firm meat with bone in it.
My blood ran cold at the sound as well as the feeling.
The attack drew blood but I realized in horror that he did not flinch as if he was not able to feel anything and he kept stepping forward as if nothing had happened.
'Definitely like a zombie, mindless with no pain receptors'
"Grahhrr" the mutant exclaimed.
"Oh god, what do I do?" I was beginning to panic. The only saving grace was how slow the mutant was moving.
While it was moving slowly my mind was churning out ideas. Some of which made sense and my mind was frantic in finding those amongst the madness.
I may have to try to decapitate him because if pain didn't work, nothing else I tried would deter him. I changed my two-handed grip on the miniature sword to an underhand one. Now holding the miniature sword in one hand so that I could thrust and jab at his heart or throat.
'Maybe I should have run with the children' I thought, the slow advance of the mutant allowed me another glance to make sure they were still okay.
They were still maintaining the same distance from me as we moved, their faces pale with fear.
I got a couple of stabs in, but he still didn't even recoil or yelp in pain.
'I need to lead it around the well, can't get too far from my things' I started to subtly shift my steps all while swinging out with my miniature sword whenever the mutant got too close for comfort.
It was becoming a very bloody mess, it seems that I have cut a few major blood vessels on his chest and neck but blood loss wasn't taking him down.
'Wish I had a baseball bat' thinking there would be less mess with a longer reach.
There was now blood all over my hands and all over the front of the mutant at this point. I was beginning to grow queasy and oversensitized from feeling the warm red liquid on my skin. I was never afraid of blood, but there was so much of it that it was almost like bathing in the stuff.
I finally got the chance to pierce where I thought the heart would be, all while avoiding the outstretched hands that kept grabbing at me for whatever purpose, whichever purpose it was, I was not willing to find out.
A squelching sound was made as the blade entered and left his chest. It was like nothing I've ever heard before. I kept backing up with one hand signalling for the children to stay behind until the mutant fell face forward, it stretched out its arms towards us, and started a creepy crawl.
Wet-sounding growls erupted from its mouth before it stopped suddenly, collapsing with its head at a weird angle.
It seemed he died from the stab to the heart.
The entire ordeal did not last more than two minutes and it was shocking how easy it was to end a life.
The miniature sword that I had gotten after watching a new animated series for entertainment purposes was now dripping with blood. For an item that had been all but forgotten in my knapsack when all the sequence of the previous events had played out, it was now center stage and active.