This Dark, Dark World

Chapter 4

A hand was slapped over my mouth and my eyes snapped open. I tried to sit up but a strong hand was pinning me down.

"Shhhhh!" a voice hissed. I recognised it as Lewis' and calmed down slightly. He took his hand away from my mouth and held a finger to his lips. That's when I heard something that made the breath disappear from my body. Low, grating moans coming from just outside the back of the cabin.

"How did they find us? Did they hear something?" I whispered, my voice trembling with fear.

"Either they're just roaming or..." Lewis' eyes widened, "that gunshot from yesterday."

"What?" I hissed, "b-but that was ages ago."

"Have you seen how slow they move? There's tonnes of them out there; it would've taken ages for all of them to get through the forest to the cabin," Lewis whispered back.

"B-but, we're fine in here, right?" I tried desperately to keep my voice calm but failed and Lewis gave me a look, biting his lip. Then he sighed.

"I don't know, Sunshine," he said quietly. I froze. Then I realised why. The moans were drowning it out before but now I could focus on nothing but the noise that was filling the cabin. Abby's breaths were rattling in her chest and the white of her pale cheeks was slowly fading into a grey. Alex was trying hard to keep her quiet but I could see the jerky rise and fall of her chest and knew that she was about to have another coughing fit.

Lewis and I jumped as we suddenly heard a snarl coming from a zombie outside. Lewis bit his lip again and crawled slowly to the small window at the back and peeked out of it.

I looked around the cabin and saw everyone sitting frozen on the floor, their eyes wide. Everyone apart from... Gus. I quickly scuttled across the floor next to Lewis and gripped his arm.

"Lewis!" I hissed, "where's Gus?"

Lewis' eyes widened, "h-he went out hunting," he whispered, and that's when it happened. Abby started choking horribly and then began to cough. Alex's eyes widened and he held her close to him, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Shhh, baby," he whispered, "p-please. Please be quiet, honey."

But Abbey couldn't stop. She raised a hand to her mouth, as if trying to shush herself, but her head lolled uselessly on Alex's shoulder as her back arched and her limbs shook with her dry, painful coughs. Suddenly, the coughs got thicker, as if there was something trapped in her throat. She coughed again and suddenly a bright red liquid spurted onto her hand. Alex looked at it in horror.

"No, baby," he whimpered, looking at Abby. I leapt about a mile in the air when I heard a loud thump coming from outside. I glanced out of the window and my heart skipped a beat as I saw a grey, decaying hand slam against the glass. Lewis pushed me back from the window quickly and I heard someone behind me gasp as the thumps continued against the side of the cabin.

"Quick!" Joey yelled, "we have to get to the van!"

"But what about Gus?" Lewis shouted. Joey opened his mouth to answer when we heard the window shatter and the moans from the monsters outside filtering through. The large shards of glass bounced and skittered across the wooden floor and I heard someone scream.

Hands started to reach in through the window. There were so many of them. They all flailed and grasped at air, trying to clutch anything they could get to. They were disgusting, some of them with bites that left a gruesome trail of dried blood and others with parts clean off, the gaps oozing the thick brown liquid. I felt sick to my stomach and my hands began to shake as Lewis grabbed them and hauled me to my feet, his eyes wide and full of panic.