Becoming Them: A Zombie Novel

Twelve

     The night went by as quickly as it had come. Outside, it was noiseless as I awoke from my slumber. My back began to ache, my hands were sore, and a headache pounded against the walls of my brain. Sleeping in a bin wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst either. My headache seemed to scream otherwise.

     Seeing as Evie still sat sound asleep with her head against the wall and her arms crossed, I took it upon myself to check if the coast was clear for us to leave.

     I shifted open the lid slowly. A distressed sigh escaped my lips as it was unmistakable that we would have to find another way to clear out of this place. The road was still filled with those ruthless zeds. All of them shuffled in random directions, mutters of incomprehensible growls trailing out of their mouths. Not too far away, I spotted Luther's body, or what was left of it.

     At that moment, I looked away, not able to deal with the horrors of death, especially when it was the death of someone I knew. Forcing myself to look back at his decaying body, I saw his head torn to shreds, his face mutilated and out of place. His body was mostly bones and was drenched in blood. Parts of him were strewn across the place, not too far as if the zeds were passing his insides around as a sort of reward for their victorious find. It was sickening just thinking about it.

     Closing the lid again, I looked over at Evie with an aim to wake her up.

     "Evie," I called while gently shaking her knee.

     "Hm?" she replied sleepily. Her eyes finally fluttered half-open, and she looked at me. Realising the situation, she abruptly sat up, causing a bunch of bottles, paper and rotten food to rustle and squelch. She turned her nose up at the foul smell that came back to her.

     Looking at her, I asked, "What are we going to do, now?"

     "Chill. I just woke up. Give me time to think."

     I noticed she wore the same anger from yesterday when she lashed out at me. I was only trying to give her hope, but I guess after Luther's death, it didn't really mean anything to her anymore.

     A few moments later, a distant screech could be heard inside the bin, and then a voice. The noise was quite loud, making us hold our hands to our ears. With worry, we rifled through the rubbish to find it was Evie's walkie-talkie making the noise, Adrian's voice coming out of it now.

     "Anyone there?" he asked.

     Evie took the walkie-talkie and began to speak to her brother. I, on the other hand, hastily opened the lid again to see if we had directed any attention towards us.

     Obviously, we had.

     Their growls had stopped as they looked curiously towards the alleyway. The complete silence scared me, as well as the stillness of the zeds. Then, they started to move, determination showing in the movement of their swaying bodies.

     "Oh, thank God you're okay," Adrian said, static following his words.

     "Evie, we have to go," I interrupted.

     "What?"

     "The zeds heard the noise. We have to go."

     "They know we're in here?"

     "I don't know, but they will damn well fill this alley up and I don't want to wait any longer for when they do."

     Evie nodded in agreement, and we both climbed over and out of the bin. The zeds finally caught sight of us, growling - with glee, most likely - knowing they found yet another few people to eat.