Still breathing | Original story

Chapter Fifteen: Dead Battery

Word count: 4239
We drove past the fields again but it was almost completely empty, only a few stragglers left behind. Most of them crawling or hitting repeatedly against the fencing like they didn't understand what it was. I wondered where they had gone, the horde that had surrounded Connor earlier couldn't have possibly been made up of all these ones too otherwise we would never have been able to kill them all... so something must have distracted them more than the gun shots, it just a matter of figuring out what.
"They're gone," I whispered as we carried on driving. Tyler said nothing but his grip tightened on the steering wheel and I heard the engine roar loudly. The car sped up as we made our way to the street our little house was on. One street away and I heard loud noises in the distance that sounded like moans, I closed my eyes tightly in hopes the noises were made up by my over active imagination. Tyler stopped the car, he had heard them too.
"What should we do?" I asked but Tyler again didn't reply, his knuckles were white from his firm grasp. I sighed at him and jumped out the car, if he wasn't going to help then I guessed I was on my own. It wouldn't be the first time, yet I couldn't deny the weak feeling in my legs and the irregular pulse of my heart.
I looked up the street to see the creatures, battering the gate down at our house that wasn't actually ours. I wondered what had caused them to go there but didn't ponder on the thought for too long. I walked back to the car and opened Tyler's side, he looked up at me.
"There's about ten, we can draw them away," I said.
"How?" he questioned.
I looked at the streets, I was never really good at navigation but I guessed there might be a few side streets where I could easily lose the infected.
"You drive round the back of the house and get them out safely, I'll stay at the front and get the zombies away. Where's the best place to rendezvous?" Tyler looked lost in thought for a second but then stared me right in the eye.
"We don't have much fuel left," his eyes looked terrified, "but we should have enough to meet you where the streets lead onto the main road."
I thought about how far away it was. If I was correct, which I probably wasn't, the main road was down three streets, up one and down one. I nodded my head and rushed off in the direction of the gathering. I heard Tyler's car screech past and, as if on cue, the infected all turned to me.

"You want some?" I yelled and patted my thighs in an attempt to call them over, it was similar to how an owner would call a dog but a lot more antagonising. "Come on you ugly shits, let's have it."
I kept talking in an attempt to hide my fear, it was working. Soon I ran in the opposite direction Tyler was heading - hoping I could circle back around. Everything was based on hope these days.
I ran faster than I thought my little legs could carry me, hearing the infected not far behind me was what made me push on.
With burning thighs and de-oxygenated lungs, I powered through the streets, gasping for air the entire time. A pain erupted from my side but I ignored the cramp and just kept running. I soon found myself back on familiar ground and, with the mumbles fading in the distance I was creating, I made my way back past the house we had been staying in and was heading towards the main road. I could still hear the moans as I rounded the next corner and stopped for a second. I tried to calm down my breathing but it was much harder than I thought it would be. The moans were getting loud again, I gulped back the fear.

I started running again. I felt like a bullet going through the air and like the infected would never catch up to me but, despite their slowness, they had one advantage; they didn't run out of breath. I felt my head going dizzy, spinning in all directions as my lungs strained for more air than it was receiving. With one final push, I fell to the ground, I heard the shuffling of feet approaching over the noise of my ringing ears. My head hurt, I put my hand up to my head and felt a scab from the earlier injury flake away onto my fingertips. I stared at the blood on my fingers, faint but still present.
My scraped knees burned but still I tried to get up, they were so close on my tail that I'd never be able to outrun them, unless- with a quick thought I remembered why they were chasing me. My scent, the mere fact that I was human with blood pumping through my veins and flesh clinging to my bones. I bit down on the inside of my mouth as I moved my fingers back to my head, I wiped my fingers across the open wound. The burning feeling only added to the pain I was in but soon I felt the blood dripping down. I gathered as much as I could and smothered it onto the fencing nearby.
I didn't stick around to see if it would buy me more time as, with a quick intake of breath, I took off. Heading towards Tyler.