Nine Days

Chapter 8

Kerry's POV

As we sped through the busy town centre, trying to get as far away as possible from the school and the mob of zombies, but as we did, we continued the notice the same horrible sight. Blood. Lots of blood.

"Holy cow!" Exclaimed Lion staring out of the window in horror. We were all thinking the same thing. The shop windows were all smashed, the glass scattered along the pavement as well as any materials which where inside as well as the blood that was starting to seep over the side of the pavement into the gutter, mixing with the puddles of water which has been left after the toxic rainfall. This town centre was usually a happy,npretty place to be, but today it was the complete opposite.

"What's that horrible smell?" Ruben asked after a moment, scrunching her nose in disgust and she looked out of her drivers window. I hadn't noticed the smell until Ruben had mentioned it, but now it was clear. The smell of rotting flesh was like old meat, blood and cheap perfume mixed together giving an odd sickening sweetness.

"It's probably from our clothes and off the streets," Lion pointed out, turning around to face Hazel and I from the front passenger seat, "the smell of rotting flesh and blood have a tendency to linger on your clothes and stuff, so we'll be smelling this for a while now."

"Fantastic," Hazel grumbled sarcastically from beside me and bunched her legs up onto the seat so she could rest her chin on them," so are we headed to the factory now?"

"Yeah, we are," Ruben answered, " but I just wanted to drive via my house so I could nab a few provision from our kitchen and garage for our journey. It ain't too far from the factory."

"Yeah, that sounds good," Lion replied before the van was then settled into a still, tense silence. The kind that would keep you on the edge of your seat. And it wasn't any surprise as we where now, all of a sudden, defending for ourselves out here. Defending ourselves beside three almost other strangers, against some unknown force alone without any means of shelter, and I think this was all beginning to dawn on us now.

I then suddenly found myself nervously tapping on the window a gentle rhythm to keep myself calm, creating condensation on the glass with my breath as I let myself take in the surroundings of Ruben's neighbourhood. The trees, beautiful modern houses, cafes (not as badly damaged as they where nearer the school) and the small community parks dotted around the place. It was almost perfect, apart from the obvious fact that there where zombies milling around every corner and blood dotting the streets.

"We're here, guys!" Ruben called from the front a moment later, "you might wanna take your backpacks with you in case you want to grab somethings from in the house. Oh, and be careful for any zombies around the house. They're not that welcoming to new people, as you could probably guess." And with that, she had hopped out of the drivers seat and onto the pavement up to her front door and unlocked it, letting the rest of us get out of the van swiftly before locking it up and shutting the front door.

The four of us, dirtied with blood and God know what else, sauntered into the house and set our bags down onto the floor, staring in awe at her house. I'd never had even thought that a person like the tomboy Ruben was would live in this kind of house, with it's polished floors, grand staircase, dark oak and marble furniture decorating the place. It looked like the kind of place a celebrity would live in, not meaning to be rude thought.

"We better get out of here quickly before any zombies find us!" Lion said as I had just finished examining the house.

"Agreed," Ruben nodded, "well some can ago and get some food from the kitchen and pack that and then head into the weapons store."

"WEAPONS STORE!" Lion yelled in excitement, startling us all slightly, "what the heck?!"

"My dad worked in the hunting business," Ruben explained calmly, waving her hand in the air with a vague motion, "it's a long story that I can't be bothered to explain to you. But anyways, we need to get going. Hazel and Kerry, go into the kitchen and take anything from the  cupboards for provisions, whilst Lion and I go into the store and look for weapons we may need and then i'm going to head upstairs to get some things from my rooms, mm'kay?"

"Sounds good," I nodded and made my way left beside Hazel into what seemed to be the kitchen and began rummaging through the cupboards.

'Take anything, eh?' I thought to myself mischievoustly as I began taking armfulls of pancake packets, cereal boxes, jars of jam, canned foods and crisps and crammed them into a plastic bag I found in the cupboard whilst Hazel stuck to the salads, fruits, pastas and other nutritious options from the fridge. 'Boring'

"How many things do you think we should take?" I asked Hazel as she had finished up with emptying the fridge.

"Just take as much as you can," she said, "because I doubt we'll be back here any time soon. Oh, and did you see any means of firewood anywhere?"

"There may be some by the fire place through there," I said, gesturing through the kitchen and into the living room where a fireplace stood in between two large glass windows.

"Could be," she murmured, setting down her bag beside the oven before waking over into the living room with me following her, searching around the fireplace for any wood to then suddenly stop short in front of the window, staring out with wide eyes.

"Don't... move," she hissed, standing completely still and grabbing my wrist to make me do the same.

"What is it?" I hissed back in reply, but she didn't need to answer. As now, outside the window, there stood three zombies milling around in front of the garden hedge. Their skin was cracked, eyes where bloodshot, red and sunken with their arms hanging loosely beside their bodies, empty eyes staring ahead of them and sharp cheekbones emphasizing their hollow faces.

"You c-c-can't let them see you," she stuttered, "or else they'll burst through that window and come straight for us. So let's just carefully back away to the kitchen, collect our bags and run to find Ruben and Lion."

I murmured an 'okay' before she gently loosed her grip on my wrist and we shuffled backwards, leaving the firewood but keeping our eyes fixated onto the zombies, oblivious to us standing inside of the house. But once we where far away enough, we grasped our bag handles and spun on our heels and charged into the hallway where we bumped into Lion and Ruben coming out of the basement, large duffle bags in their hands, rucksack on their backs and shotguns in other hands looking rather pleased with themselves.

"That was awesome!" Lion laughed giddily, not noticing our terrified expressions until Ruben said: "Are you guys okay? What did you see? Did you get hurt? Is something in the house?" She paused, eyeing us cautiously "there's something in the house, isn't there?"

"No, no," Hazel said, shaking slightly, "but they're three zombie right outside, so we need to get out quickly."

"Right, right," Ruben nodded understanding, "well I need to run upstairs to get some other things, i'll be down in a moment," And with that, she had dropped her bags and began running up the stairs clumsily, coming back down ten minutes later with yet another bag, panting to catch her breathe as she pick up the rest of her belongings, taking her key out of her pocket.

"So are you ready to go?"

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait on this chapter, but the four of us are so busy right now we haven't had the change to update! Hope you liked it though! :D
flamingllamastickz x ^_^