The Monster In Me

Knowing the Enemy

The journey that was originally intended to find a shopping center is now changing. Every zombie that Adira and Firda encounter continues to force them to take a path beyond plan. Although not saying it, Adira was sure, Firda Sudang was very tired and wanted to give up. Especially now they have trouble seeing around because the night has long come. However, his friend followed him because there was no better choice for them at the moment.

Adira herself is not too sure of herself, but just like when she does her school exams, she will only solve all the problems slowly and carefully. Do it one by one by prioritizing easier problems first.

Nope. In this case, Adira does the most important task first, which is to survive as much as possible to avoid contact with zombies.

Because there is no point they get to their destination if they get injured and turn into one of the undead.

‘But Firda was hurt. I must continue to be vigilant and watch her silently,’ Adira murmured inwardly. Anxious feelings towards his best friend are covered by fear. Although he could not bear to hurt Firda, but he was determined to act if until the girl changed. ‘Because I'm sure he also doesn't want to live without reason like a zombie.’

In fact, Adira herself was aware that she was only looking for justification for her attitude. No one should sacrifice his best friend to save himself. It should not be that Adira looked at Firda differently just because Firda was slightly injured while fighting with zombies. And the least Adira should do is deliberately accelerate his movement until Firda has difficulty balancing it.

In terms of humanity, Adira's actions will be considered very unfaithful.

However, Adira tried not to care about all that. Because what he is currently thinking about is only one thing, which is how he can get out of here, and go home to see his brother.

Adnan must be worried about him.

Suddenly Adira stopped crawling and turned around. Looking at Firda who had now been right behind him. The dim light from the garden lights that stood around helped him to see quite clearly. Although some of them have been damaged attacked by zombies or hit by humans who are busy saving themselves.

Wait for. The lights are not on during the day, so there should be people who turn them on.

“Do you think there are still many survivors? Is all this also happening out there?” asked Adira in a whisper.

Both of Firda's eyes seemed to widen before he replied. “If many still survive, we should have met them since earlier.” His voice sounded slow and weak. “I hope there are no zombies other than in this place. I still want to meet my family in a normal atmosphere.”

Adira nodded her head, but her face still frowned. For a moment he popped his head out of the territory of the ‘UFO’ replica group where they were hiding before again asking. “If things are going well outside, are they planning to save us now? They can't possibly send a bomb to kill all the zombies, right? Why until now there is no sign of rescuers coming?”

Very slowly, Firda changed her position to sit cross-legged. His gaze seemed to be glazed as he replied. “I also don't know the answer to all your questions, Dir. But I'd like to hope that maybe some of our friends have already met with rescue workers. And they're waiting for us to come.”

Adira was silent to hear it. The expectations implied from Firda's words should have made them more eager to hold on. However, Adira could not deny that his heart hurt to listen to all that. Their current situation made her feel that the desire to reunite with friends was too difficult to be real.

He had witnessed and experienced for himself how difficult it was to fight with those zombies. Because even though the undead are not as strong or terrible as Abian said, still the power of ordinary teenagers is not enough to fight continuously.

Adira and Firda neither spoke nor crawled back for a while. Without needing to say anything, they understood that the two of them needed to rest for a moment. It feels safe to hide behind shadows.

Suddenly Adira changed her position to kneel. He cautiously tried to peek outside. Take a look at some of the zombies that are still around.

“Shortly,” replied Adira without turning to Firda. “It looks like there's something we missed.”

Adira blinked her eyes a few times. Trying to clarify his view in order to see the zombies well. He gasped when he heard some zombies moaning at the same time.

Slowly, he began to get results from his observations. The girl's eyes widened as she saw how the zombies were still moving uncontrollably in their respective places even though they were not chasing prey. The smooth rattling sound of the joints being forced to fold into an unreasonable angle added to the horror of the atmosphere. Adira bites her lip as one of the zombies crashes into the pole of one of the garden lights several times. I don't know until when the pole will stand firm.

Meanwhile, some other zombies were no less strange either. Adira saw how the zombie that was closest to his current position continued to swing his body to the right and left. With the eyeballs turned backwards. At first glance, the creature looked like a drunk. If only there were no blood and terrible wounds all over his body.

“I need something to throw,” Adira said after she crouched down facing Firda.

Firda deftly reached into the outermost pouch in his bag and handed him a bottle of hand-cleaning liquid. “If we had a fire maybe we could make a bomb with this.”

“Unfortunately we don't have,” Adira replied nonchalantly before returning to her knees to observe.

When she felt safe, Adira threw the object in her hand at one of the light poles. His loud voice invited hordes of zombies around the unfortunate lamp to attack blindly. However, one thing that Adira never expected now happened before her eyes.

The zombies that were far enough away from the source of the sound seemed to turn around and walk quickly towards that pole. It was just that, before they arrived, they had first fallen by themselves. They did manage to stand back up, but then fell again with a body that jumped.

And the voice that came out of their mouths almost sounded like an ordinary human being who was nagging. With a more shrill voice of course.

“You found something?” Firda pulls Adira's slum uniform slowly to make the girl back down.

Adira nodded with excitement. He tried hard to refrain from prancing with excitement. “They are stupid creatures and quite lousy.”

“What?”

“They are not able to control their own body well,” explained Adira. “I should have realized, that every time they attacked, they hurt more than us. At least when they attack in small quantities.”

“OK,” Firda nodded hesitantly. “Then, what's the use of that information for us?”

Adira seemed to puff her lips before answering. “I don't know yet. But getting to know the enemy is the first step of preparation to win the war.”

***