The Price of Humanity

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Five

I watch Zane, walking out into the middle of the street, slowly. From here, I would mistake him for a corpse, a walking dead body without any interest in life other than to eat the living.

However, when I look closer I can see that it's still Zane, I can see that he's alive.

He staggers along the street, playing the role of walker a little too well, too convincingly. The corpses in the street take little notice of him, moving on towards the loud gun shots further away.

He keeps walking and the corpses keep ignoring him. He turns around, slowly, to face me and starts walking back towards the bakery.

The relief on his face is obvious but I can't help keeping my eyes glued onto the walkers surrounding my brother. They barely give him a second look, the stench of death masking Zane.

I run back downstairs as he starts to come back to the door of the bakery, making sure he isn't out there any longer than he has to be.

Mia looks up from the campfire as I jump down the last few stairs and sprint towards the door. I unlock it just as the handle is pulled down and walker-Zane stumbles through the front door, locking it behind him.

"Thank fuck." I breathe, moving to give him a hug before he steps away. I take in the stench and the walker guts all over him before realising my decision to hug him probable wasn't the best one. "You owe me a hug later."

He nods and smiles while I walk back over to Mia. I sit by the fire and watch as Zane takes a couple of the water bottles and a spare change of clothes upstairs.

"It worked?" Mia asks in a small voice, finally looking up from the fire to focus on Zane. I nod then, realising she wouldn't be able to see that, reply.

"Yeah. I still don't want you going out there though." She opens her mouth to protest when Zane comes down the stairs and replies for her.

"She has to come with us."

"Are you crazy? I'm not putting her life at risk like that." Zane stands over me with authority, towered above me due to my seated position.

"We're not leaving her here while we go on some crazy suicide mission into the school." I have to say he has a point, leaving Mia alone in the city wouldn't be the best possible option but then neither is bringing her with us into their main hide out.

"Well we can't bring her on the crazy suicide mission, now can we?" I counter. He sighs, running his hand through his hair for the millionth time.

"Guys, I'm right here." Mia complains standing up, she tries to look intimidating but fails against my brother's height. "Stop talking about me like I'm not and maybe talk about what I want in my life."

Zane holds a hand out to her, gesturing for her to continue her speech.

"I want to come with you. I'll stay close to both of you and keep hidden where nessacary. It's better than staying in this dump and waiting for you." She pauses, waiting for our reaction.

I look over to Zane, who is all for the idea. I guess it's two against one.

"You stay right next to us." She smiles and nods enthusiastically while I get up on my feet.

I turn to Zane, who is now clean of guts but still doesn't smell the best. I look up at him, the one I look up to and the one person in the world who will always have my back.

"What's the plan?" He looks over to the back door of the bakery where most of the horde are scrambling towards the fence.

"We walk through the middle of them and climb over the gate where the girl did earlier." I take in the multiple gunshots happening a second and look over to the door too.

"They're not going to stop firing any time soon. We'll be shot if we go out there never mind the walkers." Zane contemplates this before smiling and sitting back down by the fire.

"They have to run out of bullets at some point." I sit down next to him; a disbelieving look on my face.

"This coming from the person that said we couldn't wait out the walkers." He nods, looking into the fire.

"When they stop firing we'll make our way in. It's the best plan we have." I look over to the door where the guns are relentlessly being shot out in the street.

"I don't think that's going to be soon." I mumble to myself, gathering up a few blankets and settling myself down by the fire.

"I'll take first watch then shall I." Zane complains sarcastically as Mia and I snuggle down in the blankets. I can feel myself starting to fall asleep already as Zane gets up and starts to pace around the room.

I watch him for a while, feeling my eyelids go heavy. He's stressed, that's an obvious fact. He's pacing the room and running his hands through his hair repeatedly.

I was just about to get some well-deserved sleep when the gunshots outside stop, gradually all of the shots come to a halt over a span of a few minutes.

When the silence falls Zane stops, mid pace with his hands still tangled in his hair and turns to look at the door, as if looking at where the noise, or no noise, is coming from will help him hear better.

He freezes for a while and I sit up, forcing myself to stay awake despite the complains from my eyelids.

"They've stopped." The disbelief in his own plan is evident, but yes, they have indeed stopped firing. Getting up, I walk towards the stairs, Zane close behind me. When we get to the top of the stairs I head down the short hallway and look out the window.

Sure, enough the men that once stood on top of the walls have stopped firing and are making their way back to the main building, in the centre of the compound.

"Think they've given up and are going to bed?" I ask, looking from one retreating figure to the next.

"I think they're not that stupid. Even if they've stopped firing there will be guards making their way around the walls. We need to move now." He moves quickly and silently down the hallway and back down the stairs to get Mia while I stare out the window for a few more seconds.

Once again, I see the girl. The one that hopped over the wall. Only this time she doesn't seem so carefree, since her arm is tightly gripped by a man and she's barely clothed.

I watch the man roughly drag her into the building nearest the fence, the one she went into earlier. Abandoning the scene, I run downstairs and into the main room of the bakery where Zane is once again behind the counter chopping up a walker.