Walking Among the Dead

Part 1.3 (The New World We Live In): Chapter 3

Walking Among the Dead: The New World We Live In

CHAPTER 3

A muffled scream from the backyard sends Andrew flying up from the bed which he had apparently wandered into during the night. The last time Andrew remembers checking his watch, the time read 4:45 in the morning. Now, it presents the time 12:15 – afternoon. He glides down the stairs and sprints through the back door, fearing he had allowed something to slip by while he should have been on watch. Fortunately, though not exactly a good thing, he finds everyone standing in a line behind John, now wielding a bow. It occurs to Andrew, now, that the scream hadn't exactly been one in distress. Over Samantha's shoulder he finds a makeshift hay bale resting upon a chair with an arrow sticking out of the bottom of the hay. Around the chair, four other arrows are buried into the grass. A light snow flurries atop the grass as well. The screams were in excitement for him finally hitting the target.

"Where's the bow from?" Andrew startles the others from behind.

"Found it in the garage this morning," John responds.

Andrew walks towards John, "Show off anything else you found?"

"Not yet. Wasn't my fault you slept all damn morning."

Samantha jumps in to avoid conflict with, "John, he was up until like five this morning, give it a break. Andrew, we've all been up for a while and we searched around the back garage. There's no need for a fight over it." In addition to checking the garage, he's also informed that Kurt had gone on a run, to God only knows where, keeping to his cross country team roots. Rather than addressing the lack of necessity in this and risk it holds, Andrew focuses still on the greater issue. The sirens from the direction of the city have just about died down entirely and the gunshots heard the night before are less in number. Andrew assumes people had tried to garner supplies or escape somewhere in the cover of the dark, and there was more fighting as a result.

John continues, "I didn't get to sleep much at all last night. Sounded like the damn Fourth with all those shots. Obviously everyone else is defending themselves, so it's time we do too." Before Andrew can even think of a response, a scream sounds from inside the house, this time certainly in panic. Quickly looking around, Andrew notices the family is missing. Jacob and David come darting out of the door as Andrew just had and by the time they reach the group, Cathy appears in the doorway, looking much drowsier than the night before, almost drooping. She slowly shuffles over the porch, falls down the steps, slowly recovers, and as she limps towards the group, faint growling noises are heard. Nearing the crowd, the volume increases and she lunges out at Mike, the closest one to the gate she came through. Now at a visible distance, Andrew notices something painstakingly familiar about her face color, especially that of her eyes- yellow, and the color of her shirt around the wound –black.

Mike springs back up, shocked and Alex pushes the woman to the side. Her husband and son are pushed aside as John steps up with an arrow drawn, "She's fucking one of them now. That walk. Those noises." Despite their attempts to stop him, he lets the wood fly and it embeds itself into her midsection, just above the waist. To everyone's awe, she continues progressing, unaffected.

A couple of the others shout, "Stop! We can get her help!" She begins towards John and gashes a rip in shirt, thankfully not breaking any skin. Mitch produces his pocketknife, walks up behind her, and runs the blade through where her heart is located without hesitation, feeling something needs done and since he is armed already. Once again, no reaction aside from the gushing of jet black blood from the newest of now several wounds. Since they had been searching for weapons prior, many of the others join in the attempt to conquer the enemy. Alex delivers a hefty blow to the hamstrings with his aluminum baseball bat and sends her to the ground, only for her to stand back up a second later. By this point, Samantha and Kyle have had to resort to holding back the Schwin men. John joins in with a two-handed axe, carving a split down the shoulder and through the chest, having left the bow on the ground in the hasty excitement to prove his point.