Corpse As Body, Corpse As Meal

13

NATALIA blended with the crowd that surrounded the front of San Laurel Hospital. From where she stood, she could see the whitewashed building, shining because of the glaring sunlight reflected on the glass dome that covered Citadel. She blinked, ignoring the sensation that she was being stared at by the people around her as they slowly distanced from her because of her odor.

While staring at the building, she was still pondering how she could enter it without getting a lot of attention. She took note of her clothes which happened to be a vividly pink sweater and a pair of faded jeans and decided that these were not the ideal colors to camouflage.

How was she going to deal with this?

A newcomer passed her by and approached someone that they knew. "Is there a zombie in the hospital?" she overheard him ask.

"Yes, bro. I know because my brother is a nurse there."

She set aside her eavesdropping and focused her ears on any sound that would come from the hospital. Her poor attempt only resulted in a mild migraine.

'I am really not yet in my tip-top condition. I need more strength to regain my highly sensitive hearing ability.' She walked forward. 'Thankfully, I can still transform at will, whether I am in the condition or not.'

As she walked past more and more people, bumping them or brushing past their arms at times, Natalia's form began to morph. Her long, black hair pushed back like a curtain against the breeze. Small veins began embossing on both corners of her eyes, eyes that gradually turned into muddy whitish-gray like cataracts.

Her skin remained pale white. Her arms stretched longer along with her fingers and her sharpening nails. Her nails turned from flat to rounded, narrowing down to their pointy tips. Even her waist narrowed because her ribcage pushed higher, that part of the transformation made her huff in the next few minutes while walking. She raised her hands and dragged her nails at the side of her sweater, cutting it open to reveal the sides of her torso. Next, she tore off the sweater's sleeves.

Her legs stretched longer too, making her bend them lower until she walked swiftly in a hunched and squat-like position, staggering. The nails on her feet tore her shoes open, making her shake them off her feet to stop obstructing her every step.

Adrenaline raced through every vein in her body, turning her fast strides into running like a bolt. A goofy grin formed on her lips even if deep inside, she feared for her mission to fail.

The longer Natalia ran, the more she became one with the wind. Time slowed down, one puff of her breath was the equivalent of her speed against the movements of the people around her. The next thing she knew, her heels pushed her off the ground. She flung like a released overpulled rubber band and darted to the glass-covered sky. She was faster than a blink, faster than lightning. No eye could chase her at the height of her leap.

Natalia closed her eyes for a moment and felt the warmth of the light that touched her face. It felt so different to be in a place this high, with nothing to physically hold her in place in the middle of the air. The only thing that existed in this short moment was her, floating even just for a while. It felt so liberating!

When she opened her eyes, she found herself so close to the glass roof of Citadel's dome. This was when she discovered that there were tiny holes on the top glass of the dome.

She was breathless for a moment moment. She felt like a fish that was so close to kissing the surface but could not jump out of the water . . . because it was time to go back down.

Natalia could feel her body getting heavier, a sign that her flying momentum was starting to fade. This shifting rhythm of her momentum forced her to lower her head. She took a dive down to the direction of the hospital. As she fell lower, Natalia stretched out her body and extended her arms and hands. The skin beneath her arms down to her waist began to pull out like wings.