Before I Die

Chapter 5

By the time everyone had slept the child had seemed to have calmed down, thankfully. The woman was still fast asleep. 

"Your Mam will be okay you know" Aria attempts to comfort the poor boy but he didn't hesitate to answer.

"She's not my mam, she's my auntie" he says.

Me and Aria look at each other as I turn to ask "is it just the two of you who has been staying here" I ask in a more quieter tone.

"Since almost the start I've been living with my aunt And my uncle, he has been away for about two days now" he spoke.

"Have you been staying here long" crisps asked.

"This has been my home forever" the sound of innocence in his voice made my heart break. No child should be brought up in a world like this.

"So when do you think he will be back" I ask hoping for an answer. The young boy just shrugged. I sigh and blow air through my nose not knowing what to say or do now.

Aria was quick to realise the silence and was the one to break it "so what's your name?" She asked with a smile. I've known Aria for too long to realise that it was a fake smile. But was there really anything to actually smile about now? Nope.

"My name is Benjamin but everyone calls me Benji" he answers,no smile.

"Well hello Benji, it is nice to meet you. I am Aria, that is Crisps, Larrie and nought"

The young boy looks at us one by one. He would take a longer glance at the blood stains on your bodies making us nervous in how he would react to it. But he didn't seem exactly new to the look.

"Why are they called crisps and nought" he asked in confusion.

We all had to laugh a bit at that as he did have a reasonable question to ask.

"Well you see crisps has had that nickname since Larrie by there miss heard his name. He introduced himself and she though he said 'crisps'" we all broke out in laughter again " but his real name is Cole".

The little boy seemed interested in these small stories. Maybe he was just enjoying the new company?

"What about him" followed by a small hand pointing at nought he lifted his head as the small child spoke.

"Ahhh, you see that is Nought because he doesn't really talk" the boy looked at Aria in confusion once more "you probably wonder why don't you? Well we don't really know. Think of it like this, ninety-nine percent of ninjas don't talk and look how badass they are" a smile beamed from ear to ear on his face. Making the rest of us smile a little, a real smile.  I think the boys smile was also because she swore as children would usually find that stuff funny.

I noticed in the corner of my eye that the woman was moving and starting to wake up. "Hey crisps" I call whilst I nod my head towards the woman. Once she opened her eyes and started taking in her surroundings I realised that she was in shock.

"Who are you, where's Benji" she demanded. The boy moved his head in sight so that his aunt would be able to retreat from investigating where her nephew had gone.  She seemed taken for words.

"Larrie saw the smoke first and ran at your bungalow so that she could save you and the kid" crisps spoke in a rather rude attitude.

"How are you feeling" Aria asked while the little boy sat besides her.

" I Um... thank you" she didn't know what to say.

"If you hadn't realised we are in the treehouse by the bungalow you were in. We couldn't get very far because your leg and there were zombies coming from everywhere" I tried to put the woman's mind to eas by asking questions she most probably wanted answers for. 

As the conversation went on we were able to find out that the aunts name was Caroline. Before the zombies came she was a shopkeeper. She had told us that her partner Ray had gone to look for supplies and should be back within the next few days. She explained that there is also a house around a hours walk from where we are and if we would help them get to their destination. We were hesitant at first on weather to follow it through or not but after a group discussion we agreed to. 

It was going to be hard, the woman's broken leg, a child to watch. With nought being injured that would also make us weaker if anything happened. Luckily it was early in the morning which gave us the whole days worth of sun light. Crisps and me agreed on taking out the handful of zombies left that had been drawn to the flames of the fire. 

I was in the lead of us so that I was able to take on anything that came out from the way head on. Nought was carrying Caroline behind me so that she could guide us the safest way to the houses. Close followed By Aria who had locked hands with Benji to make sure that he was safe and not afraid. Crisps was last to follow so that he can keep and eye out for anything following us. Me and crisps carried most the bags, Aria had hers. Caroline and Benji has nothing to take other than the clothes on their back which must be hard on them. Although I don't think they have actually had the time to think about leaving all their memories behind. She explained that if anything was to happen that they would meet Ray at these houses.

Up ahead I could see that there were some Z's, I hushed the que of survivors behind me to stay low and to make as little noise as they most possibly could. It was going well until..

*THUD*(followed by the sounds of snaps and cracks) 

A tree that was probably around 10 feet away from me had collapsed.. great timing.

All at once the zombies turned our way. There must have been around 2 dozen of them. We realised we were outnumbered as there wasn't enough of us ready to take them on. But we don't have a choice.

"Aria nought stay here" crisps calls whilst dumping the bags on the ground whilst pulling his knife from his poked which was attached to his waist belt. The same knife he used yesterday to help me.

"We can do this" I reminded crisps. "We've dealt with worst matters"

One by one piercing the skulls of these dead bodies and pushing their chest to retrieve the knife that was stuck in their heads. We began to realise that there were more and more of them coming from all directions.

"Right Benji I need you to be a Brave boy and stay right here okay" Aria said without giving the child a chance to answer. 

I begin to panic, they were everywhere. It felt as though you kill one and two more would appear. I noticed that nought had sat Caroline down beside where Benji was. He was also helping taking down these walking dead figures.

There was probably about four dozen to say the least of these zombies that were in view without the ones ready to join the party that had commenced that consisted of blood, sweat and bad odour.

I felt a cold hand grab my shoulder only to see it fall to the ground within a split second as nought had driven his knife straight through it. I could barely see anyone else due to the number of bodies around me and nought. Suddenly I hear startling screams the same ones I heard just the day before from Caroline and Benji. I push my way beneath the zombies to get at them. My eyes were drawn to the blood pooring down Caroline's leg with a head that seemed to be the reason... a zombie was eating her. Right infront of my eyes I was witnessing this horrid scene. Nought drew the knife through the skull of the flesh eating monster to find chunks of the woman's flesh eaten. 

"BENJI" the woman howled. I looked up to find no small figure anywhere... Benji was gone.