Eyes of the infected ✔ [COMPLETED]

Chapter fifteen

Chapter fifteen

‘We’ll stay in the shelter for as long as we have to, then straight to the coast. Maybe the authorities will be there, fat lot of good they’ve been so far’ Lucas muttered the last part, throwing two bags over his shoulder. I followed closely behind with my own bag, Percy behind me and Keith double checking behind us. The afternoon air was strangely warm for October and as crazy as it sounded, it felt like we were approaching an end. Whether it was because we were headed towards something which would shield us from certain death or the fear of the unknown I didn’t know, I just knew what I was feeling in the pit of my stomach.

The hordes below us didn’t even glance up as we peered over the roof fence, still intent on breaking down the doors surrounding the huge shop. It left us a moment to look to one another, ready to carry out the plan we’d devised to leave. For once, it seemed to be working out easier than we’d anticipated, at least for the moment.
‘Ready?’ Lucas asked all of eyes, gaze lingering on me in particular.
‘Wait’ I cut in before anyone could move, ‘If we get split up…’
‘We won’t’ my brother said firmly, ‘We stick together’.
Keith nodded, gazing out towards the infected, ‘If anything goes wrong, try to stay quiet, don’t scream, just run towards these stairs again’ he pushed a stray hair out of his eyes, exhaling and squinting towards the sun. A throb of something sent shivers up and down my legs and I smirked towards him, wondering if he knew the effect he had on me. The answer was yes because he caught my eye before I could turn away and spoke, seeming to address all three of us but not breaking eye contact with me the whole time.

‘Don’t you dare get hurt’.
‘Same goes for you guys’ I replied, all the while stupidly feeling like we were almost indestructible; we’d avoided so much death where others hadn’t.
Mum. Dad.
And Joel? No, Joel was safe I could feel it.
Hadn’t I felt the exact same about my parents? No, I needed to shut up, my little brother was untouchable. Fine, always fine, little brothers had to be, didn’t they?
‘Let’s go’.
And so we moved, Keith and I lagging behind slightly. I jumped when I felt his hand grab my own and a sheepish smile formed on his face as he brushed his thumb across my knuckles.
‘You’re pretty’ he whispered into my ear, his laughter tickling my lobe. I smiled up at him, brave enough to tighten my grip.
‘You’re pretty too’.
‘Ready to go make history, sunshine?’ he asked.
‘I think so’. When he moved to let go, I stopped him, taking a second to look towards Percy and Lucas who were mapping a route at the top of the stairs, facing away from us.
‘Wait… Keith, how do you do it?’ I asked in a rush, praying he’d understand.
‘Do what?’ his voice softened, eyes concerned.
‘Stay so… strong. You don’t scream, don’t cry, you don’t even seem scared’.
‘I’m scared’ he admitted quietly, ‘But not in the way you think’.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, I’m not scared of getting hurt or those creatures down there, it’s confusing but there’s no use spending all this time worrying’.
‘Then what are you scared of?’
‘This’ he whispered, so quietly I almost didn’t hear him, ‘I’m terrified that you’ll get hurt or that those creatures will catch you.. I couldn’t give a shit about me, Harley, I just don’t care anymore. It’s you I give a shit about. Can't you feel it?’.

I was speechless for a minute, thinking I probably should have known this would happen from the very first conversation in the car. What was he doing to me? I needed to tell him how he filled up this hollow mess in my heart, I needed to tell him to give a shit about himself because I needed him alive, I had t-
‘Just.. please don’t get hurt Sunshine’ his voice cracked in the silence and I realised I’d taken too long to reply because he was walking away towards the stairs and it was suddenly too late to pour my heart out the way I should have done yesterday or the day before, maybe even the day before that.
It was too late because either of us could be dead in minutes.

The boys were already making their way down the steps in a hurry, beckoning towards us and I just had time to catch up, becoming dizzy with the spiral staircase, dizzy with my own thoughts. Hitting the pavement at the bottom, we silently moved towards several parked cars, taking the first gamble of the plan.
‘I’ll check the red one, you guys go for the blue’ Keith spoke, sending me the smallest smile. I reached to grab him and try to tell him how much I cared but again he was just out of reach, moving away from the group, away from safety. Why couldn’t I be one of those people who figured things out quickly, who realised how they felt about someone in a normal situation?
‘No keys’ Percy announced quietly, moving from the yellow convertible he had been investigating. I bit back my emotions and searched a black Mustang, groaning in frustration when I saw there were no keys.
‘Nothing’ Keith moved back to us, biting his lip.
‘Nothing here either, man’ Lucas sighed, ‘What do we do?’
‘Someone will have left their keys in or left the car running at least’.
‘Too risky’ Percy looked conflicted, biting furiously at his nails, ‘Maybe we’re better off just heading for the coast’.
‘We can’t, we already know they won’t just let us leave’.

Why couldn’t this stupid boy just see what he was doing to me?
‘Get it together, Lee Lee’ my brother warned me, ‘You’re zoning out, we need you here’.
‘Right, sorry’ I muttered, scolding myself. When we were safe, then I could think. Hadn’t that been my rule all along? I was breaking so many of my own rules recently, such stupid ones.
‘Oh wow’ Percy said in a rush, eyes as wide as saucers. I followed his gaze and saw nothing but the crowds we’d been watching in the distance, none the wiser of our presence.
‘Problem?’ my heart was thumping as I asked, expecting a dead body to reach and grab me as the words left my mouth.
‘No, nothing…’ he replied, dazed, ‘It’s just… look’.
Again, we all looked towards where his gaze directed, my own eyes scanning furiously, getting agitated that I couldn’t see what he was directing me to.
‘Percy?’ Keith asked apprehensively, already reaching towards a bag which contained large and splintered pieces of wood we’d agreed to use as weapons. We didn’t want to carry them yet and draw too much attention to ourselves; the infected were far enough away that we had time to grab them and run if need be. Keith’s B&Q idea had given us the luxury of weapons we hadn’t discovered yet, it was a miracle we’d survived so long without them.

‘Look at us’ he breathed, a smile forming on his lips, ‘Can’t you see what’s happening? We’re so… detached’.
‘I don’t follow’ Lucas said, eyes narrowed. His gaze, like mine, kept darting towards the infected to see if we’d missed something.
‘There’s a mass of people over there, dead on their feet, scientifically impossible yet here we are, wandering round them, trying to ignore them, looking straight past them’.
‘There’s no other option’ I said uneasily, gazing towards the wood we were going to use to smash their heads in.
Oh god, he was so right.
‘He’s right’ I whispered, ‘I don’t wanna end up cold, then we’re just like them… Mum, Dad, we can’t just ignore it and pretend it never happened; all these people were once people. We’re forgetting that’.
‘I guess we are’ Keith muttered, looking a little taken aback, ‘When we get to this shelter, we’re gonna step back from all of this, remember who we’ve lost. Sound fair?’
‘Very’ I smiled gratefully towards him and broke the gaze when I noticed his smile wasn’t quite reaching his eyes and his gaze avoided mine. Did he think I didn’t care? He couldn’t think that, could he? What if he’d needed that reassurance from me up those stairs, what if he thought I’d just been messing around with all this?
He had to think that, I hadn’t proved him wrong, had I? Oh no.

‘Kei-‘ My voice was silenced with a hand as Percy thrust his palm up to my face, looking as though he’d just seen a ghost. I went to wrench his hand away before my own blood ran cold, body frozen at the sight before me. A pair of feet underneath the car, shuffling along so slowly, moving round towards our side of the vehicle.
Infected.
Lucas gestured frantically with his hands, instructing us to move to the left. We simultaneously nodded but halted at the sight of another infected with its back to us, scratching at the black car we’d just been stood next to. Where had they come from, how had we missed them? Panic rose within me, terrified for the people around me, scared for myself. A little part of that fear resided when I felt a hand on my own and recognised it as Keith’s. It didn’t feel like it had before though, it wasn’t tender or discreet, it felt as though he was gripping for the sake of holding onto me purely so I wouldn’t disappear, so we wouldn’t be separated. I was right, he thought I didn’t feel it too, he was putting a barrier between us.

‘Shit!’ my brother’s voice startled me and I gasped at the sight of him shoving away an infected who’d appeared from nowhere, moving closer to make sure he hadn’t been hurt.
‘I’m fine, just scared me’ he said, squeezing my shoulder in reassurance, still panting. We had bigger problems though, because now all the stray infected were looking our way.
‘Go, go’ Keith ordered, not letting go of my hand as we stood, surveying the area in a heartbeat. The infected girl from the other side of the car was moving round one side and the infected who’d been scratching away at another was coming in next to us too.
‘Forward’ Percy pointed to the open car park and we moved off into a sprint without another word. Percy was surprisingly fast for his skinny frame and kept pace with us, breathing heavily as he did.
‘Where are we going?’ I panted. This wasn’t what we’d planned for, why the hell hadn’t we accounted for this?
‘We can’t go back, they’re flooding the stairs’ Lucas glanced behind us, cursing as he did, ‘They’re chasing!’.
‘Wha-‘ Keith’s voice cut off as he turned behind us, ‘Don’t panic, but they’re all chasing’.
It was like the big red button, you know you shouldn’t press it but you do anyway. I knew I shouldn’t look but I glanced back only for a second and almost tripped over my feet. The whole crowd were after us, one must have alerted the others and now there was a stampede as hundreds of feet moved behind us, faster than us, more persistent than us.

The car park was ending and only the alleyway before us seemed the feasible way to go, to take any other route we’d have to make a U-turn and that was suicide.
‘Wait, no, this is where we left all of the infected’ Keith panted, slowing his run.
‘We have no choice!’ Lucas protested, ‘They’ve probably moved’.
Keith and I quickened our pace again as we moved into the small space, so narrow he had to let go of my hand as we moved in single file, Lucas at the front. I had a horrible feeling about this but I didn’t want to object, it wasn’t like we had an alternative.
‘Keep going!’
My own words hung thick in the air as we ran, pushing us on however much further we needed to go. The noise behind us was getting louder, death was chasing us down an alley. I concentrated on keeping my legs moving as fatigue began to overtake me, the n-
Everything stopped as I collided with Keith in front of me, knocking the wind out of my chest. There was no time to recover because a second later, percy pummelled into me and we were at a dead stop, choking on our own air. I didn’t have to wonder for long though because as soon as I looked up, my eyes connected with the whites of an infected, bleeding from the mouth.

It was a large man who was barely clothed, material hanging from his body, some of it actually embedded in his skin. Blood ran down his face, chest, hands. A severed arm dropped from his grasp as he saw us, the metres between us suddenly seeming like centimetres.
There was no way out.
As soon as we whirled in the opposite direction, we were met with the shaking ground of a thundering crowd, far too many to get past. The narrow alley offered no mercy as the man stared us down, still unmoving. Keith reached behind and fumbled for my hands, holding them in his. His palms were sweating almost as much as mine were though his hands stayed steady.
How was he always so brave, how were all these boys around me staying calm, not screaming? How was I not freaking out?

‘Climb’ Keith whispered in the silence. I got the message but waited till he suddenly jumped into action, pulling me firmly into his chest and lifting my body far above his head till I was clutching at the wall, heaving myself onto the thin layer of bricks where he followed immediately afterwards. 
He’d not even let go of my hand.
I hissed as the brickwork scraped against my arms and face, twisting my head to make sure my brother was okay. He had jumped too, making the climb much like Keith had but Percy misjudged it and fell back to the floor with a thud.
‘Shit’ he whimpered as the infected an growled, lunging towards Percy who was about the palest I’d ever seen him.
‘Jump!’ Keith moved over the narrow wall and leaned towards Percy, ‘Now!’
He didn’t waste a second, only tried a second time to jump as Keith’s strong arms lifted him out of the infected’s swiping hands with milliseconds to spare.

‘Oh god, Lucas, Kei-‘
Oh no.
My mouth dropped open as Keith lost balance on the wall, Percy still holding onto him firmly. I reached out to grab his shirt but my hand clasped mid-air as they both fell at least two metres down the wall, Percy landing on top of Keith.
‘No!’ a scream erupted from my throat, I felt like I was losing control. Lucas gripped onto my arm as I tried to vault off of the wall towards the boys and prevented me from moving, holding tightly onto my still sore arm.
‘No, no’ he whispered, ‘Harley!’
The infected man snapped his neck towards the boys who were now lying on the floor, the crowd now thundering down the alleyway one by one. They were going to die, Keith was going to die. Oh god, no, not him, not Keith. And Percy…
Before I could make another attempt to save them, Lucas had dropped from the wall, kicking the infected man straight in the head and sending him tumbling to the floor. I wanted to yank him back up to safety but I knew I had to let him help them both, I knew I would die in more ways than one if he didn't.
Keith, he was still laying underneath Percy who was attempting to lift up his body, groaning with pain. Again, I moved to drop from the wall to  desperately try and help my brother but my arm which had been cut to pieces gave way and instead, I found myself tumbling backwards as the sky came into view. An almighty thud sounded and pain screamed through my body, my back, my legs – now my arm just felt like a pinprick, the real pain was coming from my leg which I’d fallen on awkwardly.

‘Harley!’ Lucas’ voice yelled from the other side of the wall, frantic. I strained to reach upwards but my body resisted, begging me to lay still. Was Lucas okay? He had to be okay, he was still screaming for me. Oh god no, what would I do if I lost my brother, he was the last family I had left, I loved him too much to lose him. Keith was silent, so was Percy - I was so scared, so scared for Percy but frozen with fear for Keith. I tried to remember how hard his fall had been, wondered why Lucas wasn’t climbing back over the wall with them both.
I didn't tell him. I didn't tell him.

‘Speak to me’ I yelled, ‘Please!’
‘Harley?’
I had to move, I had to get up. My arms ached as I tried to push my body upwards, clenching my teeth against the pain in my left leg. I’d barely moved an inch when a noise from behind me startled me and I abruptly remembered where I was. The middle of a world full of predators was not the place to be grounded and unmovable. With an amount of courage I didn’t know I possessed, I turned to look behind me, groaning inwardly.
Zombies. Infected, dead people, the walking, whatever the fuck you wanted to call them , they were everywhere, each hammering on the window of Topshop. If they saw me-
‘Harley!’ Lucas yelled again and I could hear him trying to scale the wall. Problem was, everything else heard him too.

‘No, no…’ my voice was carried away with the wind as I gazed hopelessly towards the crowd who were one by one jerking their bodies to look at me. How long would it take them to sprint over here, ten seconds, twenty?
‘Answer me, Harley!’
It was seeing the first girl who must’ve been around my age running that shot me into gear, heaving with all my might to stand up. I cursed and tears spilled from my eyes as I fought against my leg but with one huge push, I was upright and hobbling down the street. Even the insane throbbing couldn’t put me off as I struggled away from the screeching behind me and away from the safety of my family, my fellow survivors. I knew I couldn’t climb the wall and I had no idea how to get back round there so in the split second of panic, I just ran. Or tried to.

‘Keep going, keep going’ I motivated myself but a shout escaped from my lips. ‘Lucas!’ I yelled at the top of my lungs as I moved away from him, ‘B&Q!’.
I didn’t know how he could get to the building I was gazing at in the distance but I felt safer knowing they knew where I was, it made me think I could meet up with them again easily…
Easy? What was easy anymore? Maybe they were trapped, what if Keith and Percy hadn’t got up, what if… no. We’d come this far, we’d come this far, we’d come this far.
‘Go, go, go’ I winced as my ankle gave way, almost sending me tumbling to the ground. The mass of bodies behind me were catching up and sweat was dripping down my forehead from both exhaustion and pain. There I was, couldn’t have been later than 5pm and I was running for my life, running from one of the last pieces of family I had left, running from Percy and running from the guy I was becoming crazy about.
I never told him. I was going to die and I never told him.

‘Move!’ I growled at myself, picking up speed. I didn’t know how I was working through such pain, it seemed so irrelevant now, so… small. The screeching and footsteps, they were too close now, there was no chance I could outrun them. It seemed stupid I’d even tried, when we’d been sprinting down the road towards the house, Lucas, Keith and I, we’d been moving so fast and still they caught up.
‘Move’.
  I’d never asked my parents if they wanted to be buried or cremated. My mother hated fire, she hated it. I hated it, I hated this.
Keep running.
What if this really was it? What did I have to show for my life? What us Lucas was dead, my only big brother, the one who yelled at Toby for trying to kiss me on a date, the one who made me sandwiches when I burnt my toast. What if Keith was gone? There was no-one else, no one like him. And Percy, he was so smart, so lovely… that boy in my Law class, Mrs Maynard, my psychology teacher. Dead, all of them.

I had to hide, I couldn’t outrun them. Somehow al my cursing and muttered self motivation had gotten me to the corner where I was fast approaching the car park again. There was no chance I could move back into the alleyway, I could actually see a stream of people staggering, the last of the crowd, straight into the narrow entrance.
I hoped with all of my heart the boys had run out the other side. No, I knew they had. After all this, the thing that killed us all wouldn’t be being trapped in an alleyway. Unsteadily, I dodged round the corner, almost knocking into the back of a boy who was exactly my height, probably my age. Maybe I even knew him. He didn’t waver though, only continued to stagger forwards while I eyed up a cluster of bushes, the only cover I could reach. It was risky and stupid but I couldn’t run any more, silent tears were streaming down my face from the pain and it would only be seconds before they caught up.

Thorns pricked and scratched at my skin as I tumbled into the depths of greenery, moving into a spot where I was completely covered. If I hadn’t known I was being chased, I would’ve deemed this area to be completely safe with its humble silence and lack of life. It wasn’t long before I caught the first glimpse of a dead man through a gap in the petals of a rose though, cracking his head up in the air, seeming to sniff for his prey. I hadn’t thought of this – in fact, none of us had. Could they sniff us out? There was plenty of time to panic as the crowds spilled out, presumably the same crowd that Keith handled away earlier with Percy. They started to disperse, some moving over towards B&Q and some stumbling ever closer to the bushes where I was crouched, shivering and breathing in short, shallow breaths.

Ten metres away. Nine metres away. Eight metres away. One of them was staggering towards me, dragging it’s leg across the ground, spitting and growling blood as it walked. Percy was actually wrong when he said we had become completely detached from them, I was still horrified about what it would do if it saw me, still petrified for my life. But what had I learned? I’d learned to be stronger,  I was stronger. So instead of screaming and darting from the bush like I may have done a week ago, I stayed put, holding my breath.
Seven metres, six metres, five metres.
Stick by your decision.
Four metres. It wasn’t looking at me yet but it was far too close, shockingly so. In the movies, horror, action, comedy, whenever someone tried to be brave and do something they wouldn’t usually try, they lived. This wasn’t the case though because as I thought he was going to turn around and leave me alone, he let out a rippling, spine-chilling growl and dove towards me, arms flailing to grab.
The worst part is, I froze.