And Then They Came

Chapter 11

I wish everything could have been different than they were. I really do. It shouldn't have turned out the way it did. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to anyone.

There was nothing else to do but run. I couldn't turn back to shoot some of them down with Mia on my back. All I could was yell to the others.

"Run goddammit, run!" I screamed trying to be as loud as possible.

They turned to each other trying to figure out what I was saying, so I knew they could at least hear my voice.

"There's a giant horde coming! Just run!"

The expressions I saw on there faces after I yelled gave me the hint that they were gaining on me. I had the urge to look back but a little light in my head kept nagging me not to; but the curiosity was killing me. I went against myself and turned my head back.

My suspicions were right, the horde was gaining on me. They were only a few yards behind me gaining more and more ground as time passed.

"What are you standing around for?! Shoot them for fuck's sake!" I screamed trying to run faster but the weight on my back prevented it.

They seemed to get the gist of what I was saying and grabbed their rifles and sniper in Rachael's case. The popping sound of gun fired sounded through the air and bullets found their mark. Some going straight to the head, others going into torsos or arms or legs. The first pop jolted Mia awake who figured out what was happening in a matter of seconds. She saw that she was holding me back and scrambled off my back to let me run faster.

We both dashed to where our friends were shooting off bullet after bullet in continuous order. Surprisingly, I kept right with her the entire time, and before we knew it, we ran right past the group and continued on knowing they would catch up. Only, when I looked back I saw that Rebecca was having a hard time from the concussion she had suffered and started to fall behind. I just started to turn back to help her when Dante went and picked her up bridal style and made up the distance he lost too meet the rest of the group.

I really hated him most of the time, but when he did things like this, I found the admiration I had for him when I was younger. We shot rounds off behind us as we ran trying to knock a few down, but only managing a couple. I knew that if we kept running down this road they would definitely catch up to us when we ran out of energy, not everyone can run forever. That's when I had a great idea.

"Everyone go left and into the forest!" I yelled back at them stopping and aiming one down before letting a shot fly.

I shot several down as I made sure everyone made it into the forest before heading after them myself. We ran in between trees and jumped over loose roots and shrubs trying to go as fast as possible. I could just feel them coming in behind us, and tried to think of anything else to do so we could loose them. Nothing came to me until I saw we were coming up on a small cliff. It was just tall enough to kill the zombies if they decided to jump off after us, which coincidentally meant that if any one of us hit something wrong, we were a goner.

It was the only choice we had in order to survive, though, and I would choose that over running until one of us was caught. If I had only known what was going to happen then I would chosen something else, but how was I supposed to?

Jay, Jade, and Rebecca all jumped off the edge after I explained my plan. There were a few disagreements but soon they were settled and we all agreed to go. Mia and Alice jumped next while holding hands. I jumped next when Dante shook his head at me, signaling that he could handle Rachael. The surface of the cliff was gagged and rough. Small rocks scrapped my face as I continually flipped on the cliff.

I couldn't see where I was going or what was coming, and before I knew it, I slammed right into a massive rock with my leg. That sent a shooting pain all the way up and the force of which I hit it made me go spinning. There was nothing else to do but bear with it until it was over; that's when I landed on a tree which took all the force of my fall. An excruciating pain came from my leg and my back but I had to make sure everyone else was ok.

That's when I heard a loud bang, I could tell it was from a sniper just by the force of it. Then, a loud scream of pain came from the top of cliff and I looked up to see Dante fall off the edge with Rachael barely in his hands. They both tumbled over one another and hit a few shrubs or rocks on their way down, like I'm sure everyone did. That's when I noted a small blood trail following them.

Dante slammed into a rock and Rachael slammed into him when they finally made to the bottom. I crawled from my spot trying to get down where everyone else was, but Mia gave me a glare that said don't move a muscle. I decided it was a good idea to follow her orders and stayed in one position. When she gave me the okay to move I realized that we were only covered by the tree line we went through and if we moved the zombies would have seen us. Fortunately, they were to stupid to actually realize we were still alive and went on their way.

The adrenaline pupping through my veins started to subside and I started to feel the pain in my leg again. I fell down from the tree to where everyone else was before I looked down at my leg. I sat up against a rock and looked to see a bloody mess where my shin was. I did an intake of breath trying not to groan in pain but it didn't seem to help much. Mia looked over at me hearing it before noticing my leg and scrambled over to me.

She grabbed one of my knives from my waist and started to cut the fabric of my jeans up until the knee. Then, she pulled away the bloody fabric to reveal a compound fracture of my fibula. She gasped at the sight and yelled for Dante to come help. He looked over to see the blood and concern plastered his features before he ran over. he sat down beside Mia and assessed the damage of my leg when he started to reach his hand down to my leg. I grabbed it before he could come any closer and gave him a glare.

"Don't you dare touch me." I said weakly keeping my grip on his wrist strong.

"What the hell are you doing Graham? He's trying to help you!" Mia said staring me down, "He's the only one who has medical knowledge and can actually help you!"

"Like that's going to get him anywhere." I spat.

He glared back at me with those eyes of his as I continued to glare at him.

"What's you deal, anyways?!" Mia huffed, "Why are you acting like this? He's a doctor for god's sake! Let him help you!"

"No." I said blankly.

"Why not?! Why do you hate him that much?"

"Because he's my brother." I said moving my glare to her.