Survival 101: With Vivian Bell

Chapter 14: Forgotten Priority

Through the crowd, I was crying out

And in your place there were a thousand other faces

I was disappearing in plain sigh

Heaven help me, I need to make it right

-Florence And the Machine "No light no light"

There was so much noise around me, I could hardly think. It felt like everything around me was working on overdrive, the colours where darker and even though I was looking and I couldn't see.

I remember the instant everything fell into chaos, a scream followed by rapid gun fire. The sound came from some dark corner at the far end of the store. I was just standing in front of a shelf picking out rolls of toilet paper when it happened. The gunshot alone made me jump and elevate my heart rate before everything around me began to spin from the fear that took over.

My chest was pounding to the point where it hurt. The grip I had on my knife was dulling and that familiar pins and needles shot up my entire body.

Shit. Not now, not like this.

I was trembling, with dread. I swear for a moment it looked like everything was on fire around me and I could hear screams. Familiar screams, from that night. Anarchy, death all around me and me right dab in the fucking middle of it all.

I couldn't breathe, the guns were deafening. I haven't felt this much horror since that night at the camp.

I couldn't, I couldn't.

My legs gave out under me and I fell and landed hard on the tiles. The soles of my worn out sneakers skidded against the floor, my body's instinctual need to bring my legs back under me again. But I couldn't, I just couldn't move.

I had no control anymore. I was going to die here. My body spasmed in reaction to each bullet that left its barrel in a distance, they are all going to die. I could hear the groans and snarls of the dead, their rotting corpses limped past me like I didn't exist and I watched in awe, hiding under a shelf. They were attracted to the noise and I sat there in the silence, in the shadows watching them helplessly.

I couldn't function, not with all that noise. We are going to die here and all I could do was sit there thinking what a messed up day this was. Why did I choose to come? I knew it was not going to end well when I watched them unload all those weapons.

They weren't there to protect, they were a death sentence, held in their inexperienced arms. Fucking idiots, assholes. I am going to die because of them, I should have never been here, and it should have been just Luna and I.

Luna.

Oh my God Luna.

I couldn't leave her, not in that prison, not without me.

My fingers prodded and grazed the tiles in search of the knife; my vision was slowly coming back in to focus. I found the hilt and I managed to will away the numbness in my fingers to clench the tough handle.

The blade armed me with strength and I struggled onto my feet. My legs still shook and for a moment it was hard to find a good balance.

I am not dying, not here, not without her.

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Zach wanted to scream but the fear was lodged in the back of his throat. He struggled against the weight of the Walker that snapped at the air around his face. The fowl breathe of its raspy grunts made Zach's eyes water.

I don't want to die. He was scared for his life, regrets began to consume him and then for a moment. Beth. Her radiant smile and sun-blonde hair was like a balm. He wanted to see her again; he needed to see her again, but then envisioning her face as a final image in his mind didn't make death seem so harsh.

Beth's image disappeared when blood splattered across his face. Zach screamed in shock when he found himself staring into the tip of a blade that was driven through the Walker's forehead. The blade retreated and the zombie crumbled to the ground. Zach gasped and fell back against the shelves that held him up, his frantic eyes searching for his savior.

Vivian

She didn't look anything like the woman he talked to an hour ago.

Her green eyes were blazed with blood lust, her face dripping with black blood, strands of her dark hair slick against her skin. She looked absolutely psychotic, welding the knife in her tight grip and standing above him.

Zach stared up at her in awe and trepidation. She didn't even glance his way and turned to face the group of zombies that limped down the row towards her. He watched her whizz towards them, her arm reaching high and slashing them across the throat and plunging the drenched blade into their soft skulls.

It was eerie how quiet and deadly she was. Zach had trouble looking away—until Walkers took notice of him too.

"GET TO THE DOORS!" Someone yelled out among the chaos, Zach recognized the voice, it was Daryl.

Zach scrambled to his feet, picking up his fallen hand gun in the process. He shot at any Walker that came near him, a bullet to the head just like Beth had told him. Vivian was fighting through the walkers behind him. Zach decided to stick close to her.

All I could see was red at this point, with all the Walker blood that caked my face and my adrenaline rush. But then a beam of light obstructed my vision, like a light at the end of the tunnel I saw the open doors of the store.

Everything around me was just an obstacle.

My arms worked on their own, killing Walkers and fighting vigorously.

I am not going to die, not here.

I was inching closer and closer and suddenly, light engulfed me and fresh air filled my lungs.

I breathed, hard and fast. Black splotches exploded behind my eyes and they only grew bigger. I looked to the skies for light but the darkness prevailed and I was consumed in it.