Becoming Them: A Zombie Novel

Eight

     "Are you crazy?" Jamie asked Adrian.

     We had hidden ourselves, away from the line of sight of the zeds, next to the doors through the corner. The group had waited a good twenty minutes and slowly the number of zeds against the door was decreasing, forgetting about the people they wanted to sink their teeth into. They began to wander around aimlessly once again, but a few still stood hopeful for another potential food source to come into their clutches.

     We could tell that they had given up; the ear-straining clawing and tapping had nearly ceased. The other zed stopped banging its head against the glass, so the door remained upright and none of them broke through. Relief fell through the group at that.

     "No, I'm not," Adrian replied gruffly, sending a glare toward Jamie. She only responded with another roll of her eyes. "We just have to find a way in where there aren't any of them or many of them at least."

     "And then what? The place is crawling with them. We'll never make it into those shops. It'd be too good to be true. And what happened to not 'risking the lives of our own'?"

     "I never said those words. Caro did."

     "But you agreed. It would be suicide going in there, and you should know that."

     Adrian didn't reply. Jamie slipped away, choosing to stand beside Holly who stood at the back of the group.

     Hunter suddenly zoomed past us from wherever he went. He stopped beside Adrian and began talking to him about something in which Adrian nodded in response. Then Adrian gestured for everyone to huddle around him.

     "Alright, Hunter thinks he's found a way in," he declared. "There's a back door with a staircase."

     "Let's go then," Caro said eagerly, his rifle at the ready by his side.

     Hunter scurried to the front of the group and commenced to lead the way. The rest followed him down a stiff escalator. Then he made his way over to a large, black door with a silver handle. Hunter looked back to see we were right behind him before pushing the handle and swiftly opening the door to reveal a long staircase which blurred up into darkness.

     Aaron came at Hunter's side. "Did you go up there?"

     "No. I wanted everyone here just in case it wasn't safe."

     "Good thinking."

     Caro came forward and bounced the butt of his rifle against the hard tiled floors which motivated a loud echoing bang to travel around our surroundings. The noise travelled far, but only one zed had emerged from behind another hard corner. Once it was close enough, Paula buried one of her daggers into its skull, then took it out as the body fell to the floor, lifeless and no longer a threat.

     "There's nothing up there," Caro said. "Would've followed the noise if there was."

     Adrian pushed to the front. "Let's go." He crept up the stairs and everyone else followed a few at a time. "Get your torches out." Before long, beams of light flushed out and bounced against the walls like strobe lights. Using the torches lights, everyone could see a door not far up ahead.

     As we closed in on the door, our steps slowed and our tired breathing had become soundless. Muffled growls could be heard behind the door, and the noise grew every time we took another step closer. Soon, we stood right in front of it, neatly in a single file on the narrow staircase.

     Adrian was at the front, so he risked languidly pushing the handle down and opening the door a few millimetres wide. It was almost noiseless, but we still had our weapons at the ready just in case any zeds had seen and wanted to investigate our side of the door. Adrian peered through the opening with others struggling to get a peek, too. He let out a frustrated sigh before closing the door as slowly as he had opened it.