Flesh Eaters

Followed by the Dead

Chapter 33 - Followed by the Dead

*Grey's POV*

Following Murphy's commands I grab two of the small medical knives from the ground. Just as I straighten an eater wraps a cold, boney hand over my shoulder and tugs me backward. Inches from my ear I hear a loud crack of its teeth snapping together.

Without putting much thought into it I swing both my elbows back, striking the eater in the ribs. The impact of the blow causes the unsteady monster to loss its grip on me and stumble backward. In that second I spin around on my heels and step forward, thrusting the small blades into each of the beasts foggy blue eyes.

I gasp surprise at the bloody, water-like, liquid that oozes out around the blades and onto my hands. Disgusted I quickly free the blades and shake the liquid off.

Not giving myself much time to recover from the liquid surprise, I quickly move on to the next snarling eater. As I move to take the beast down I notice Murphy on the ground, struggling to keep an eaters snapping jaws away from his face.

"Shit," I mutter under my breath as I turn my attention back to the eater.

I gasp at how close the beast has moved. Before I have time to react, it grabs ahold of my shirt and yanks me towards it gapping mouth.

Quickly I raise the knives and sink them into the monsters eyes. I move to free the blades but they remain firmly in the snapping eaters eye sockets. I give them a second tug but the stay in place.

"Dammit," I curse as I realize the situation I've trapped myself in.

If I let go of the knives I'll be weaponless and the eater will be on me instantly. If I continue to hold the knives I'll end up surrounded by the hoard slowly pouring into the tent. It's like I've grabbed a rapid animal by its tail, I can avoid its bites but if I let go all hells going to break loose.

My heartbeat quickens as the icy cold feeling of panic begins to set in. Frantically I begin tugging on the blades, trying to free them. I raise a leg and press my foot against the eaters chest, trying to push it off the knives. When that fails I begin to look around in a panic. I don't even know what I'm looking for but the fear gripping my heart causes my eyes to dart around the tent.

*Bang Bang*

Two shot echo through the air and the monster on the end of the knives collapses. Shocked, I gasp and dumbly stare at the quarter sized bullet hole in the eaters head. Slowly I pull my gaze away from the lifeless body at my feet. I numbly stumble backwards as more shots rip through the silence.

All around me, eaters collapse as bullets rip through their mindless brains. Next to me I hear Murphy's voice as he mumbles "thank god" in a sigh of relief.

"MOVE," the voice of Matt shouts over the moans and rapid gun shots. "GET IN THE FUCKING TRUCK!"

Still slightly shocked I shake my head and race over to Murphy who still sits on the ground.

"Come on, get up," I grunt as I help him to his feet.

Slowly and painfully he makes it to his feet. I wrap an arm around his middle and help him walk forward. All around us eaters fall as we move, not even given the chance to touch us.

I stare straight ahead as I move. My mind goes blank as I focus on getting Murphy and myself to the revving truck parked in the tents opening. Seconds that feel like hours pass before we arrive.

"OPEN UP," I shout as I knock once on the metal door.

The door swings open and I gape in surprise. In the passenger seat sits Baird and behind the wheel sits Evens. They both look like they've taken a beating. Blood stains their clothes but none of it appears to be theirs.

Baird forces a smile before he says, "climb in the back with Matt and Zoey, there's no room up here."

"Zoey's here too," I ask in surprise as Murphy pulls me away from the truck door.

"No time for chit-chat, Grey. Not with eaters every fuckin' where," Murphy grunts as he tugs me toward the trucks bed.

We reach the tailgate and Matt stops firing the rifle he holds. He slings it over his back before he moves around Zoey. Crouching down he holds a hand out to me. I take it and he effortlessly pulls me up. Once on the truck's bed I quickly turn and hold a hand out to Murphy.

"Grey, I got him," Matt says as he pushes me toward Zoey. "Grab a gun and start cutting the hoard down."

Forced away from Murphy I stumble toward Zoey. She stops firing shots and points me toward an army duffle bag stuffed full with all types of guns. Left with no other choice I pick a revolver from the top of the bag and stand next to Zoey.

"Take shots at the eaters coming in behind us, I'll handle these ones," she directs.

I turn around and stand back-to-back with her. I check that the revolvers loaded before I raise the weapon.

Before me stumble more eaters then I've ever seen. It looks as if the hoard that me and Murphy ran into back at the trailer park has double, if not tripled, in size. It's clear that the hoards been trailing us, gathering more members as they blindly marched after us.

I shake the thoughts away and line the sights up with the head of one of monsters and fire. As soon as it begins to fall I fire at the next eater in line. Six shots and six dead eaters later I'm out of bullets.

"I'm out," I say to no one in particular.

Matt now back to shooting glances at the hoard moving in on my side. "We have to move. There's too many." He lowers his rifle and moves toward the trucks cabin. "MOVE OUT," he shouts as he pounds a fist against the trucks roof.

Almost immediately the truck lurches forward causing me to stumble and fall backwards. My arms flail and my body automatically stiffens as it prepares to hit the hard bed of the truck. I gasp when a hand catches me by my shirt and pulls me back. I end up with my face pressed against someone's chest.

"Easy there," Murphy's rough voice mutters close to my ear.

My face heats up as I suddenly realizing who's chest I'm pressed against. "S-sorry," I stutter as I push myself away in a fluster.

Murphy says nothing, just smirks at me as I back up. I swallow nervously and drop my gaze to my feet.

"Well, we might as well take a seat. It's going to be a long ride," Matt says as he sits.

At those words Murphy looks away from me. The smirks now gone and replaced with a look of anger. "Hold on. Where the hell do ya' think your takin' us."

"We have another group set up about two miles down from here. It's a smaller group, they're sort of the look outs," Matt explains. "We have to warn the about the hoard coming. After that we'll just keep moving, steer clear of the hoard passing though."

"Then I guess we're gonna be goin' separate ways."

"Why's that?"

Murphy looks to me with questioning eyes. I know he's wondering if he should tell them about Safe Haven.

I look at Matt and Zoey. These two and Aaron helped me save Murphy from their own groups leader. They lied to his face to help a stranger. Matt even risked his life to come looking for us and warn us of the hoard. I'd say anyone who's willing to risk, or even give their lives for somebody is trustworthy enough. Then there's Evans, the doctor. He even did his fair share for us. Hell, if it wasn't for him Murphy would be dead.

I look back to Murphy and give a small nod. He studies me for a moment longer before he turns back to Matt and Zoey.

"We're headed west, ta' a place called Safe Haven," Murphy says before he grabs ahold of my arm. While gripping my arm he slowly lets himself sink down into a sitting position. Once sitting he tugs me down, making me sit next to him. "Heard 'bout it on a CB radio a couple weeks ago. They were broadcasting castin' it."

Matt nods, "we heard it too, on the radio, and I don't believe a word of it."

"Why not," I say finally speaking up.

"Anything that sounds that good, isn't."