Everyone runs in different directions. Three zombies are chasing me. I run through the gardening section. I grab a shovel off the ground. I turn around. I slam the shovel against a zombies face. Three of its teeth fly across the room. This only seems to anger it. I hit it again. It falls over.
I ditch the shovel and pull out my machete. I stab one in the heart. I stab the last one in the head. I see Sarah and Karla. They are trying to fight off five zombies. I grab a pitchfork. I stab one of the zombies in the back with it. The other four turn their attention to me. A zombie behind me grabs the hood of my jacket and pulls me back. Sarah shoots the zombie behind me. It drops to the ground, letting go of my hood.
We finish off the zombies near us. I haven't seen any of the kids since we split up. I hope they're okay.
"Did you see where the kids went?" I ask.
"No, we didn't," Sarah says.
I call out their names. No response. Panic starts to set in. Where are they?
I walk through the store. Are they...dead? I look straight ahead. A zombie is hunched over a body. I can see Alex's bag next to the zombie.
I stop. I lost them. I couldn't protect them. I should've been there. I should've ran with them. I turn around, crying. Sarah shoots the zombie.
"Jade!" I hear.
I turn to the sound. Jake, Alex, and Clarissa are running to me. I hug them.
"You guys weren't bitten or anything?" I ask.
"We're fine," Jake says.
I look over at the body the zombie was eating. It's a girl about Alex's age.
"Jade, we have company," Sarah says.
I look in the direction she is looking. A woman and two teenage girls stand to the left of us.
"Hi," The woman says.
"Who are you?" I ask.
"I...I noticed you have kids. I have a group. They'd be safe there," She says.
"I've been doing an okay job of protecting them myself," I say.
"Really? You lost them and thought they were dead," she says.
She is really testing my patience.
"They are fed, safe, and alive. That's more then most people can say," I say. "You avoided my question, who are you?"
"I'm Mia," she says.
"I don't think we can trust them," Sarah whispers.
I agree. They just all of the sudden appear out of nowhere?
"Where were the three of you, while we were fighting the zombies?" I ask.
"There is an office at the other end of the store. That's where we were," Mia says.
I hear something being knocked over in a far away aisle.
"It's just the three of you?" I ask Mia.
"Yeah..." she says.
Either she's lying or we missed a zombie. I pull out my gun. I walk towards the aisle. Everyone else hangs back. I turn the corner. A zombie crawls towards me. I pull out my knife and stab it in the head. I return to the others. It's nighttime now.
"Are we leaving?" Karla asks.
"It's dangerous to be outside at night. It wouldn't be a good idea," I say.
"I guess you're stuck with us until the morning then," Mia says.
As long as those three don't bother us, I guess it's okay. I put my bag down. We all sit on the floor.
"You said you belong to a group. Where is this group?" I ask.
"We live in a mall nearby. If you want, I can take you back there in the morning," Mia says.
That doesn't sound too bad. We could stay with her group for a few days. Maybe get a car from them. I walk to the front door. I look outside. I see a person running up to the door. It's a woman.
"Let me in! I need help!" she screams.
I look behind her. Three zombies are running towards her.
"Go around the back," I say.
She runs out of my view. I sprint to the back door. I open it. She's not here yet.
Come on! Hurry up! She runs inside. I slam the door, shut, and lock it. The zombies bang on the outside of the door. I turn around. I look at the woman. I notice a bite on her neck.
"Are you immune?" I ask.
"I don't know yet," She says.
How could I let this happen? How did I not see the bite?
"You need to get out, now!" I yell.
"We are not opening the door. We'll just let more in!" Karla says.
"We need to do something! We don't know how long she has left," I say.
"I think we have bigger problems!" Alex yells.
We turn our attention to what she's looking at. A horde is walking towards the store.
Zombies are pushing on the glass doors. There is a little window on the back door. I look through it. The horde is on this side, too.
"Stay away from the windows and doors," I say.
We're going to die today. There is absolutely no way we're surviving this. What could we even try to do at this point? We're surrounded.
"We need to do something!" Karla says.
A vent lid pops off. A zombie crawls in through the vent. Sarah stabs it. I run to the carts. I grab one that is connected to ten others. I wheel it in front of the doors. It will at least slow the zombies down. I look around. The shelves aren't tall enough for us to stand on and be out of the zombies reach. They could help us in a different way.
"I need you and your sister to get as many weapons as you can find," I say to Jake.
I remember earlier I saw a bunch of folding tables by the gardening section. I send Sarah and Karla to get them.
I ask Mia and her daughters to help me move the shelves. We arrange them in a way so that zombies have to climb over them to get to us.
Karla and Sarah return with the tables. I unfold them and flip them on their side.
Alex and Jake return. They lay everything they found on the table.
There is a sledgehammer, screwdriver, rake, chainsaw, claw hammer, crowbar, and cleaver.
"Guns are the last resort. As we all know, noise agitates these things," I say.
I pull out my machete. The folding tables and shelves encircle us. Everyone grabs a weapon. I can hear the glass doors breaking. This is it. Will we survive?
YOU ARE READING
The Dead Walk Among Us
Science FictionIt's been ten years since the fall of humanity. I was only ten years old when the zombies took over. The military told us to flee underground, explaining that it was safer. The zombies are smart, too smart. They can learn to hide themselves. Some of...
