The end

Chapter 2

I woke up in my bed, comfortable, warm bed. I looked at my shoulder, now treated and bandaged. I hopped out of bed and opened the door. There was nobody in the corridor so I walked down it to the bridge, crossed the bridge into the next house. I walked towards the "living room" we called. It was just a room lined with couches on all the walls where we talked about stuff. I saw everyone but three people: Baptist, Jono and Simon. They all looked up as I walked in. We tried to keep some kind of formality in our group, and each scavenger party elected a leader. The scavenging parties were all ways different and so was the leader. I had been elected leader last party and so I was the one to tell everyone what had happened. I sat down next to Daniel and Mitch. "So?" Someone asked after some period of time. Normally they would all start asking questions and talking at once, eager to know what had happened, but since I was the leader of the whole group, they patiently waited. I started "they're getting smarter. We struggled to climb a rope up a hole twice our size, but the zombies went straight up it with they're bare hands. We were chased by a horde of at least 200 of them, they know they're stronger in numbers. And they are running faster now" I said. There was a dead silence in the room. "I think its going to get too dangerous to stay here much longer" I gravely explained. "But what will we do? How will we-" Mitch wall started but I cut him off, "Mitch, we have what, fifteen teenagers, the zombies have at least 200 and counting. We are not staying here much longer, you can stay if you want, but I'm leaving". there was silence in the room again, taking in what I had just said. "So what did you get, what loot did you find?" Someone asked. "Nothing" I replied blankly. To darken the mood even more the person in the watchtower, lachie Higgins I think, yelled down, "hey guys, there's two people down there being chased by zombies swearing at me to let them in, what do I say?". I thought frantically. "Tell them to hang on!" I replied up the chimney, "Mitch, Mitch, Daniel, Josh, and Sam, lets go!" I said unsheathing my knives. They followed me to the door, wielding various weapons: a sledgehammer, a sword, a baseball bat, etc. I burst through the door and ran to the two people. They were both boys. "Sam! Josh! Get them inside!" I yelled. I turned my head jest I time so see three zombies running at me. Yesterday three zombies had felt like an entire army, now just simply three zombies. I ducked as one of them jumped at my head. I jabbed my knife up as the zombie flew overhead. I stood up and held both knives pointed strait at the closest zombie as it ran closer, to its death. I kicked the third zombie to stop it advancing on me as I pulled my knives out of the second zombie and cut the third zombie down. I always felt bad about killing, even if it was a zombie. It still used to be a human, going about they're daily life, now turned crazy by the disease that the rest of us seemed to be immune to. If you think about killing from another angle it seems a bit better. If you look at it as though you're putting them out of their misery, their suffering, give them a quick death, rather than let the disease kill them slowly, it seems a bit better. I was smacked back to reality by a zombie. It had crash tackled me to the ground and ripped my shirt down the middle. "Sorry" I said, before killing the zombie. I pulled my knife out of the zombie and rolled the body off onto the road. I stood up to see all my friends with dead bodies around them. I walked over to Mitch Wall "hey, can you get the others back inside, I need to go talk to these new people" I said. "Sure" he replied. As I walked towards the door I heard Mitch yelling at everyone to get inside, he loved it when he got to tell people what to do. I opened the door to see Sam, Josh and the two newcomers, all surrounded by the rest of our group yelling questions. "Oi!" I yelled over the noise, "you guys follow me" I said, pointing at the newcomers, "the rest of you, go back to what you were doing, except Daniel and Lachie H, you come with us" I said. I walked to the door of a small room, with the newcomers, Daniel and Lachie in tow. "Weapons" I said to the newcomers, holding out my hand. They unclipped their weapons and handed them all to me. I waved them inside the room and put their weapons outside the door. We sat down on two couches and I said, "before we start, any funny stuff and you'll be a red, mushy puddle on the floor, clear?" I asked. They both nodded. "Ok, lets get started. What are you doing over this side of the city, we never see anyone else over here" I asked. The slightly younger looking one answered, "to do exactly what we did, find other survivors. We were sent by our king, John, to find more survivors and bring them to his castle where it is safe. We have food growing, a river not far away, and most importantly safety in numbers". I looked at Daniel and Lachie, they didn't seem to be believing it. "How far is this 'castle'?" I asked. "Walking, probably a few days. If you drove a car however, it would be two to three hours, seeing as the roads are blocked" the older one replied. "What if we drove bikes?" I asked, "Ben and Barney have I think six bikes in the garage, they work on them all the time, topping them up with what little fuel we have, fixing them when they break. We have kept them for an emergency or when we really needed them, and I think now could be the time to use them" I replied. "Great, we'll use those" the younger one said. A breeze blowed through the window, blowing our clothes slightly. The sleeve of the older one blew up and in that brief moment I saw green/ brown, blistered skin. I looked at his legs, same thing. I could see it spreading, it was slow, but I could still see it. I saw it creep up his neck, down his legs and arms. I only knew of one condition involving green/ brown blistery skin. I noticed his eyes going bloodshot and I stood up. I drew my knives and pointed them at him, and his reaction was anything but human. He snarled, jumped up and snarled again. His friend jumped away, obviously surprised at the last five seconds. I pulled back his shirt at the neck and i saw a chunk of flesh missing, and a hole the size of a human mouth. "How long ago were you bitten?!" I yelled, pointing at the bite mark. "This morni-ing" he replied, looking hungrily at me. Newly turned zombies were the most dangerous because they're body hasn't decayed away, meaning they're as fit, fast, smart and agile as humans. I looked at him, then to my friends. We had never fought a zombie thirty seconds old before, so we had no idea what to expect, other than it would be hard. Daniel and Lachie stood beside me, joining this potentially deadly standoff. They drew their weapons and, surprisingly, so did the zombie. He reached down and drew a short knife out of an ankle holster. "Who wants to die first?" He asked in a crazed voice. His friend had recovered from the shock and drew a small knife from his ankle too, "I do!" He yelled, running at his friend. He stabbed the zombie in the leg twice before he was stabbed in the back. He rolled on the floor groaning. The zombie was obviously hurt, he was limping now and there was blood on the floor, whose it was? We didn't know. The zombie smiled and laughed manically, "hahahaha, I'm faster, smarter and better than normal zombies, and you know it, don't you!" He said. "Together on three" I whispered to Daniel and Lachie, "1... 2...3!" I yelled, racing forwards. I dropped down and crash tackled the zombie into the wall. I held it against the wall and it tried to stab me but Daniel grabbed his arm and ripped the knife out. Lachie grabbed the zombie's jaw just in time before it bit my shoulder. The zombie smirked and said sarcastically "well, good job in getting me suck against a wall, but what would you do if I said I wasn't trying, if I let you get me here?" By now all his skin was covered in green/ brown blistery skin. "What if we cut off your head, eh? Then what?" I yelled in his ear, holding my knife up to his neck. He smirked. I pushed the knife enough to spill some blood, but he smirked even more. "You wouldn't do that, your just a kid, a pathetic little kid!" He yelled back. I pushed the knife further into his neck, not enough to kill him, just until he whimpered and stopped smirking. "Who's pathetic now?" I asked. "What do you want your last words to be?" I asked. "You have no chance, you will all be killed!" He said. "Eh, not very heroic, but it'll do, brace yourself" I said raising my knife. I swung my knife back down, but before I hit him he rolled out of the way, ran to the window and jumped out, glass shards flying everywhere. I looked out the window and saw him standing up and limping off. I turned around "damit" I said. I also noticed a giant dark cloud moving overhead. "Storm coming" I said, "we can't go after him with a storm coming, warn the others". Lachie ran out the door the warn the others of the storm. "What are we gonna do Daniel? The zombies are getting smarter, now a young zombie knows where we are, he could lead the huge hoard here" I said. "I reckon we move, just across the road or something, for a week while he decays and becomes like the others, then move back" Daniel suggested. "That could work..." I agreed. I walked over to the boy's body, "he gave his life for us, total strangers. we didn't even know his name. He deserves better than this. we'll give him a proper burial tomorrow. And he didn't think twice about trying to kill his friend, that takes true courage" I said solemnly. I walked to the window and my heart fell. "Daniel, tell everyone to get ready to go right now, or we are gonna die a most gruesome death" I said.