The air stiffened as soon as the dormant Walkers turned sharp gazes at the boy holding the rod.
'Damn… I've got to find some water before they come after me.'
Before Elia could move, a walker with an uncovered breast dashed at him, the breast dangling and leading her.
'If not it being a zombie, I would have booked her into my cult of ladies.' A lustful smile flashed on Elia's face as he ran backward.
More sweat dripped from him scrambling for a place to get water. "Think, think, think." He stepped behind the door, slid it shut, then began scanning the closed doors.
"Already open?" His eyes widened as soon as the fourth door pushed open under a single touch of the handle.
Inside, cylindrical glass bottles were scattered at the top of shelves and tables. Shards of glass crunched under Elia's boots as he stepped inside, grinding them with every step.
The bottle he saw single at first began to multiply under his gaze. "NO! I can't collapse… not now." He shook his head, slapped himself multiple times, then continued searching.
After ten minutes of yielding no result, he leaned against the side of the table that had no glass shards on the ground.
'Will I die when I don't get hydrated?' A dissatisfied sigh escaped him when he swept his gaze around for the last time, then closed his eyes.
In the darkness behind his eyelids, the translucent panel appeared.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
Warning! Warning!! Warning!!!
Heartrate: 2%
Hydration: 8%
Strength: -0.3
Endurance: -0.5
Recommendation: Consume Liquid to prevent death
"Prevent death? I thought I would just collapse." Elia forced his eyes open, then pushed himself from the wall.
He scattered the remaining cylindrical glass, slamming them on the ground one after another as he whirled around on the tables.
'I've got to live. I can't die again!' His jaw tightened when he neared the shelf on the left side of the door.
With a deep, satisfactory sigh, he reached for the bottle of soda. "Shit!" He slammed the body hard on the ground. "Why the fuck will empty soda be placed on a shelf?!"
His skin began to lose its strength, his breathing coming in shallow gasps.
With hazy vision, he moved to the next, and the next. "I tried." His legs gave out, causing his body to slide and slam his bat hard on the smooth floor.
Everything around him turned into dancing objects; even the breath he inhaled had shapes. At the last verge of total darkness, his left leg kicked the small table in front of him.
A silver bottle fell from its open drawer as the table turned and crashed to the ground. "Is… that… water?" The dancing shapes began to slow, almost becoming stiff.
With trembling arms and a very slow heart rate, Elia reached for the bottle, then slid on the ground beside it.
He used the little strength he had and opened the lid of the bottle. The water from the bottle splashed on his chest as his trembling arms moved it to his lips.
As soon as the first drop touched his lips, the translucent panel popped up.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
Host Condition Detected
Hydration: 12%
Strength: +0.5
Agility: +0.5
Endurance: +0.5
Recommendation: Hydrate More
Without hesitation, Elia poured all the water into his mouth, using the little strength that had been downloaded into his body.
"Haa!" The dancing shapes began to vanish as the hazy vision cleared. "I now feel like a human," Elia exclaimed, then moved forward.
"Where did the rod even fall?" He swept his gaze around, then stopped when he spotted a silver dagger lying at the side of the table he had kicked down unconsciously.
He grabbed the dagger, swung it, then smiled. "Using both this and the rod will help me kill with ease."
For Elia, using a dagger to kill something was like using a pen to write.
"I miss the old days of high school camping." He stared at his reflection in the blade of the dagger, then moved toward the rod and grabbed it also.
"All those claims about people seeing shapes of sound and air weren't a lie." He giggled slightly, shaking his head.
"At least let me take the bottle with me… I can fill it up when I get to where water dispensers are."
He grabbed the silver bottle, picked up a black sports bag from the shelf on the left, then neared the door.
Snaring and teeth-grinding sounds flew through the wood of the door and entered Elia's ears, which he had pressed against the door's surface.
"Let's keep the ball rolling…" He stepped back, gripped the rod tightly in his right arm, and the dagger in his left.
The door swung open, pushing the female zombie he wished wasn't a zombie to the left.
The cylindrical end of the rod waved through the chest of the skinny zombie standing just where Elia jumped to.
Countless blood and growling sighs escaped the zombies as Elia plowed through them.
The sky outside the Jordan Hospital reeled, changing from the dark, star-filled one to an early morning glow.
Fallen brown and green leaves, torn newspapers, and discarded rubber moved in a miniature storm on the road at the left side, carrying the scent of dry earth and the quiet despair of its people.
Stepping outside was like escaping a death sentence. "What a world we live in now." Elia stared at the rod that had bent in a wreckage style, then hummed.
"I'm sorry, but this is as far as I can take you." He loosened his grip on it, then threw it.
The wretched rod clicked on the ground on its first impact, bounced, then clicked again, until it finally rested beside a wretched jeep.
"It's been a while since I felt the sun biting my unbathed skin." Elia closed his eyes, took in the early morning glow, then teased himself.
He walked a few meters away from the hospital's entrance, whistling, moving as he tossed it from his left arm to his right, and vice versa.
After thirty minutes, as he moved toward the junction separating the hospital from Baker Street, his eyes widened.
"Oh, shit!" The air on his skin rose. "I forgot the kids are still in the hospital."
Without hesitation, he turned back like a mad dog on a chase.