Message from the author: This scene is an excerpt from my #SparkNA novella, Love on the Run. The story revolves around Diana Gomez, who is a hardworking and driven young woman. She decides to join a running club because she feels stressed at work and wants to spend more time outdoors. As if the training wasn't hard enough, she meets two guys who capture her interest. There's Paul, the cute trainee who befriends her instantly, and then there's Joshua, the handsome club veteran who always seems to show up when she needs him the most. Diana's first race is the Zombie Run-pocalypse—a challenging, 6-kilometer road-to-trail race where runners dressed as zombies will be chasing after her. Will she reach the finish line with her life (and her heart) intact?

IT was still dark when Diana and Paul arrived in Nuvali, which was about an hour's drive from Manila. The numbers on the digital clock on Paul's dashboard glowed bright red and Diana saw that it was now 4:00 a.m.

"Where is everybody?" Paul asked as he slowly drove along Nuvali's main road. The streets were deserted and the restaurants and shops, which were normally filled with people during the day, were now closed and quiet.

"Oh my God, look out!" Diana screeched.

Paul slammed on the brakes when he saw a ghostly figure appear before them. It was a lady in white, her eyes bloodshot and her hair a tangled mess. She was holding up a sign that said "This way to the Zombie Run-pocalypse" with an arrow pointing to the right.

"Geez, you scared the shit out of me!" Paul exhaled. "Relax, it's only a woman in costume." But the beads of sweat that formed on his forehead revealed he was more scared than he let on.

As they turned the corner and drove further down the road, the buildings gave way to empty lots with tall weeds all around them. "There's the starting line." Diana tried her best to keep her voice at a lower decibel.

After Paul parked his car, they jogged toward the area where a couple hundred people were gathered. They spotted their fellow trainees and a few of the Finishers.

"Hey! So glad you guys made it!" Joy emerged from the crowd and walked toward Paul and Diana. "Here are your race bibs and life flags. Joshua distributed them earlier."

Diana's ears perked up at the sound of Joshua's name. "Oh, is he here?"

Paul spoke up before Joy could answer. "I can't believe it's so quiet. Normally there's a lot of music playing at these races."

"Well, I guess loud music won't exactly go with the zombie theme," Diana said, trying to look around nonchalantly. Just then, a deep, eerie voice bellowed through the speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Zombie Apocalypse is here. The zombies will try to take your flags—do not let them. If you cross the finish line with no flags left, you are considered dead and zombified. Bwahahahaha!!!"

As the spine-tingling sound of laughter echoed through the air, Diana struggled to pin her race bib to her shirt and tie the string with three triangular red flags around her waist.

"Please be mindful of the rules," the voice continued. "You are not allowed to push, punch, shove, or hurt the zombies in any way. Stay on the path and follow the race signs. There will be three waves composed of fast, medium, and slow runners. Each wave will start two minutes apart so make sure you are in the right wave. Anyone found breaking the rules will automatically be disqualified."

Diana was in wave 3, where the slowest runners were, and she waited anxiously as the first two waves—along with Paul and Joy who were in wave 2—went ahead of her. It was almost 5:00 a.m. now but the only light came from a solitary lamppost on the corner. She licked her lips and retied her ponytail. They had done interval training—alternating sprinting and walking—to prepare for this race but she didn't feel confident that she would finish.

"Get ready, wave 3! It's time to run for your life in 10... 9... 8... 7..."

The remaining runners compressed and moved forward as one. She glanced at the timer near the starting line and did a quick sign of the cross. This is it. No turning back.

"3... 2... 1... and go!" A starting gun fired and Diana felt the energy of the other runners propel her past the starting line. Her legs started to move, slowly at first and then a little bit faster as the crowd dispersed before her. This was her first race and she had no idea what to expect. Since she had to get up at 2 a.m. that morning, she barely had three hours of sleep and was now running on pure adrenaline.

Diana decided to stick to her pace, not caring that more and more people were running past her. A few minutes later, the road curved and she saw a sign that pointed toward a narrow dirt path. Several runners had clumped together in the middle of the path and she wondered why they had stopped. Then she saw the reason—a group of zombies had blocked the path, ready to devour their brains.

"Come on, guys! Let's just link arms and run through them!" Diana overheard one runner say.

"But we're not supposed to push the zombies," another runner objected.

"What choice do we have? We need to protect our lives!"

"Okay then, on the count of three..."

Diana decided she had better run with these guys if she wanted to survive. She stepped closer to the group and waited for the signal. A few meters away, the zombies crouched and raised their arms, anticipating the attack.

"Ready, guys... 1... 2... and 3!"

The group surged forward and sprinted past the zombies. She heard high-pitched shrieks and felt hands and arms trying to grab her flags. She quickly held her arms protectively around her waist but as she lifted her arm up, she felt something hard hit her elbow.

"Ouch!" A male zombie with a horribly disfigured face and a tattered shirt had covered his nose and was now kneeling on the ground.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Diana wondered whether she should stay and help the poor zombie or keep going. The other runners had already moved farther ahead.

"Diana, look out!"

She whipped around and was stunned to see Joshua running toward her. Suddenly, she felt someone tugging at her waist—a female zombie had crept beside her and pulled out one of her flags. Joshua quickly grabbed her hand and led her away from the walking dead.

Diana was breathing heavily by the time they turned a corner and were safely out of the zombie zone. "Are you okay?" Joshua asked as they slowed to a walk. Diana felt her face heat up when she realized she was still holding his hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She gently let go and immediately missed the warmth in her palm. "Thanks for the warning. If you didn't get me out of there, I probably would have lost all my lives."

Joshua chuckled. "Don't thank me yet. We have five more kilometers and about a hundred more zombies to face!"

"Hey, it's okay... you can go ahead. I don't want to slow you down," Diana argued. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be in wave 1, where all the fast runners are?"

"Nah, I'm not really the competitive type. It'll be more fun if we run together. And I can use you as a human shield if there are too many zombies around!"

"Haha, very funny!" Diana tried to scowl, but found it impossible not to smile.

"All right then. Let's go!" Joshua picked up the pace and she found the strength to keep running.

***

Half an hour later, the sky brightened slowly as the sun rose on the horizon. Diana and Joshua stopped at a water station to grab a drink. As she sipped the cool water from her cup, Diana glanced sideways at Joshua, whose Adam's apple pulsed as he tilted his head and gulped down his drink. Contrary to his earlier statement, it was Joshua who had shielded Diana from most of the zombies they had encountered. She couldn't believe they each had one flag left and just a kilometer more to run.

"Ready to go?" Joshua tossed his empty cup into the trash bin.

"Let's do this!" Diana said eagerly.

They left the dirt path behind and followed a sign that led them back to the main street. The road stretched ahead of them and they jogged along with other runners who were still in the race. A few hundred meters later, Diana heard rock music playing in the distance and she could almost make out the finish line. As they moved closer, however, her jaw dropped when she saw a throng of zombies scattered around the area.

It was the biggest group of zombies yet. The organizers must have saved the scariest, most menacing ones for last. (She heard that auditions were actually held for zombies and the one with the best costume would win a prize.) She didn't know whether to feel terrified or awestruck at the intricate details they had put into their costumes. There was Michael Jackson from the "Thriller" video with his bright red suit and bulging eyes. Carrie, the jilted prom queen covered in blood. A man with a half-burned face. A nun with a bloody knife in her heart.

Joshua stopped running and sized up the situation. "Okay, we need to run really fast now. Just follow my lead."

"Okay." Diana hesitated as she watched other runners play patintero with the zombies, who moved left and right as they tried to block the runners from reaching the finish line.

"Ready? Let's go!" Joshua weaved his way through the crowd with Diana following closely on his heels. When they were just fifty meters away, they got ready to make one last sprint when all of a sudden, another runner who was trying to avoid a zombie rammed into Diana's back causing her to lose her balance.

Diana fell forward, her knees scraping the concrete. As she tried to get up, a zombie who was crawling on the ground reached for her last remaining flag.

"Nooooooo!" Diana screamed. Joshua dashed to her side but it was too late. Another zombie had sensed their distress and took advantage of the situation. She pulled on the last flag hanging on Joshua's back, but he was too distracted to notice.

"Are you okay?" Joshua asked, holding her firmly by the arms and scanning her face and body for signs of trauma. "You're bleeding!"

Diana looked down at her knees and felt the sting of fresh wounds. "I'm okay... It's just a scratch. Let's finish this."

Joshua nodded and they jogged to the finish line together. There was no need to hurry now—they had no flags left for the zombies to take.

"Good job, guys!" A race volunteer handed them cold bottles of water.

"Thanks. Too bad we didn't survive." Diana smiled wryly and watched while other runners who still had their flags were given medals.

"Let's get those wounds cleaned up." Joshua led her toward the first aid tent near the finish line. Turns out, Diana wasn't the only one who had earned her battle scars. The tent was filled with people who had scraped their knees and suffered other minor injuries.

Diana sat on an empty chair and waited while Joshua called the attention of a medic. Moments later, he returned with some wet wipes, a bottle of iodine, and cotton balls. "The medics are busy so I'll do this myself," he said.

"Don't worry, I can do it!" She reached for the medicine in his hands but he refused to give it to her.

"Relax, I'm trained in basic first aid."

"I'm not, but I do know how to apply iodine on a wound!" Diana rolled her eyes. All her life, she had been used to doing things on her own. She didn't need him for such a simple task.

"Will you just let me do this? I feel bad that I wasn't able to protect you from that zombie." Joshua knelt in front of her, held her leg gently and started wiping the blood from her knees.

Diana felt her face grow hot and shifted her gaze. "You don't have to feel guilty. It's not your fault."

"Yeah, I know. But still..." After he had cleaned her wounds, Joshua placed some iodine on the cotton balls and dabbed them on her knees.

"Ow..." Diana winced.

Joshua looked up and gave her a small smile as he proceeded to dab medicine on her other knee. "Let me make it up to you, okay? Dinner after training on Wednesday. My treat."

"You really don't have to do that. If there's anyone who should treat me, it's that zombie who knocked me down!"

"Please? I really want to."

Diana paused. Oh my God, did he just ask me out on a date? I'm not ready for this!

"I know this great Japanese restaurant in High Street. You'll love it, I'm sure."

Well, I do like Japanese food... Finally, she answered, "Okay, fine!"

Joshua smiled triumphantly as he helped her up. They walked back to the area near the starting line where the trainees and Finishers were already gathered. The ones who had finished the race with at least one flag left were proudly showing off their medals.

"D, where have you been? Check it out." Paul gestured to the shiny round object around his neck.

"I survived the Zombie Run-pocalypse!" Diana read. "Pretty cool, Paul. Congrats!" When Paul turned away to show another trainee his prize, Diana felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Hey, I have to go, but remember, dinner next week, 'kay?"

"Sure." Diana grinned. Even if she didn't get a medal of her own, she couldn't help but feel like the biggest winner of all.