The Undead Ruined Me

Chapter 9

A gun!? I don't even know how to load a gun, how am I supposed to shoot one!? I look at Sarah, she is staring at the shining silver object that my shaking hands are grasping; she looks me straight in the eyes, I can see the fear in her reaction to it. Her body slowly inching away from mine, her eyes wide and lips quivering.

"Hey!" I say sympathetically, "Don't be afraid, it's just a... a thing."

"Well that's the loudest 'thing' I've ever heard!" She says back, still leaning away from me.

"Did Anne shoot it?" I ask concerned.

"Yes, just before Mrs Kelly bit her. Erie? Why did she bite her?" Sarah says with curiosity thriving in her eyes.

Mrs Kelly was Sarah's kindergarten teacher; she was a nice lady, always for other people's feelings. She never raised her voice or had to reprimand any of the kids in her class, they all respected her as she respected them. Sarah was always good in school, like me, never back chatting and always completing work. Getting A's were a regular thing between my sister and I, we always just flew under the radar. And then it hit me.

Sarah has been sheltered through all of this. She doesn't understand that these things are dangerous. She just sees them as people; she knew Mrs Kelly and thinks that Anne just killed her. But then in saying that, maybe they are people. What if they are still the same people that they were before they were infected and we're just killing them all before the cure comes out? Did I kill a human being? I don't...think so...

"Sarah I need you to understand something." I say sternly. "The things walking around are dangerous. They look like people but they aren't. If one is walking towards you, run or find me, okay?"

Sarah nods and sits back by my side. Even though I don't know if they're people or not, I can't go confusing Sarah anymore than she would be already; I'd hate to think about how that conversation would have gone down.

'Sarah they are dangerous and not people, or maybe they are people, I don't know if they are people but stay away from them, even if they are people because they'll hurt you.' Man, I think I just confused myself.

"Come on girlie, we have a long walk ahead of us." I say to Sarah, interlocking her hand into mine.

Sarah sighs, "Okay."

As we walk along the asphalt everything is silent except for the breeze and our soft breaths pushing against the force of the wind.

In the mean time, I have made a game out of hunting for supplies. I told Sarah if she finds any clothes, food, drinks, things that could substitute as pillows or blankets to sleep with or weapons of any kind, she gets a point and when she reaches ten points she can choose what she wants to eat first and I choose second, but here's the catch, I can find things to get points too. It was just quick thinking on my part, what else could I say? 'Sarah we need to find some hardcore survival gear so we don't starve, dehydrate or freeze to death'? I don't think so.

After walking for around half an hour the only thing we have found is a small rusted paring knife; one point for Sarah.

I decided to put the gun in my bag and keep my pocket knife in my pocket- naturally -with my stick in hand, and the knife that Sarah found in my other pocket, just so I didn't scare Sarah, I would personally feel more protected with my knives out at all times, but hey, she's six.

Up ahead there are two things worth looking at, a few unattended market stalls, and what seems to be a four wheeled drive with a small superhero back pack, sprawled all over the ground with coloured pencils and sheets of paper flying everywhere, the driver seat door and right side door, wide open. I know my first concern should be about the owners of this car and their children, but I'm just really happy that I found the fourth thing on my list, pencils and paper. As we near the car I hear screaming. Not just small, frightened screams but screams bursting with fear, the only problem is, one is coming from the left, the other from the right. I look both ways to scope the situation at hand, okay, logical thinking, come on Frankenstein, you've got this.

On the left side there is a young boy about Sarah's age, being harassed by two undead. He has managed to find himself at a furniture stall. It has pine furniture that looks like it has been hand crafted. He has wedged himself between a book case and a wall unit. The two pieces make a 'V' shape around his small figure, but the opening is too small for the undead to fit through.

On the right is a woman laying with her back against the ground in open area. She is kicking and flailing her legs at the freaks but they just keep making their way towards her. But there are many things wrong with helping her over the child. One, there are twice as many undead and I've only ever killed one, two, even if I save her and her child dies, she will blame me anyway and three, there is blood gushing from a deep, open wound on the furthest left of her forearm. It doesn't look like a bite, maybe she cut it on something. The wound is very deep but I don't think it has hit the main artery in her arm.

What to do, what to do?

"Stay here!" I order Sarah picking her up, placing her in the car along with my stick and my bag and locking the doors.

I take the knife that Anne gave me out of my right pocket and flick it open with a click. I run over to the furniture stall where the frantic cries from the little boy fill the air.

I use my foot to tap the freak furthest away from the boy to avoid noise and make distance between me and them. The undead man then turns around and glares at me with white eyes. The man looks around thirty years old. He has dark hair and skin and looks of Indian decent. His face is thin yet a healthy shape, not to big, not to small, but he has a tubby stomach that sticks out past his waist line.

When he is at a good distance for me to drive the knife into his skull I pull my arm above my head and slam it into the top of his. He gurgles at me and then falls to the ground, knife still sticking out of his head. I try to pull the knife from his skull but it is lodged too far into his head, making it difficult to pull back out. All of this commotion has made the other undead focus of me instead of the boy, this time it is a woman who looks like a farmer, she is wearing worn blue jeans with a green flannel shirt and brown boots. We are in the country, what else did I expect? Her hair is messy and she is covered in blood but she is a pretty woman, maybe around her fifties.

She starts coming towards me, faster than any other undead I have encountered, but then I remember the knife that Sarah found that is in my left pocket. I take out the small knife and jab it into the woman's eye. I must have turned my wrist too much when trying to push it through because the old, weather ruined blade has only penetrated half way into her eye and snapped in half. I now have nothing to defend myself with and the undead woman is quickly making her way towards me. Now the boy is going to live, and I am not, well done Erica, well done.

I trip over a small groove in the asphalt and fall onto my back; the last time this happened I had a stick to protect me, this time, I've got nothing. Knowing what is about to happen, seeming I have been here before, I throw my legs up into the air just as the woman trips and my feet land right into her stomach. She is now balancing on my feet but I am in the most awkward position possible and I can't kick her away because if I do, she will just run after me again. Maybe I will just grow old here, in this position, undead balancing against my shoes, at this rate, that's what is going to happen. I really should stop meeting them like this.

Not knowing what to do, I start to cry. I feel so panicked and then the impulse decision making comes back into play. I kick the woman off my feet and swiftly stand up, I then just stand in shock not having a second half to this plan.

I hear the weirdest noise though; Almost like a whirring kind of sound and that's when I figure it out. A spinning, airborne machete slides straight into the side of the farmer woman's head, forcing her to fall straight on her side. A girl, around my age covered in all black clothing comes bolting out of nowhere. She quickly, but smoothly takes out five small, thin knives from her back pack and with her right hand aims, draws and throws each knife with a lot of power and skill but little effort. She then runs over to each of the undead- now completely dead- bodies and the body of the now dead woman and slides each knife out of their skulls with ease. She then swiftly jogs over to the farmer undead and claims back her machete. She looks over watching me stand still in awe, shakes her head with a wide toothy smile on her face, approaches me and says;

"Well you're one lucky son of abitch then, aren't you?"