Land of the Dead

5) Broken Paradise

Chapter 5 --- Land of the dead

Broken Paradise

It only took Slate and Alison ten minutes to reach their destination; a void filled with shimmering golden sand and a murky, blue-green sea that stretched on for ages. Alice was constantly eyeing Slate as they continued down the road, making sure he wouldn't turn on her. He didn't seem to show any signs, so she tried to concentrate on the road.

The rotten stench of the flesh-eater in the back wafted throughout the car. Alice rolled down her window and Slate did the same. It didn't seem to make much difference, so in the end Slate stopped driving to haul the dead body out of the window. The stench lifted slightly, but it was still there.

Once Slate and Alice had finally reached the beach, they prepared their weapons and stepped out of the car. The beach itself was crowded with zombies, making Alice and Slate's mission even tougher.

"I assure you," Slate whispered, dragging Alice behind a building as she started panicking again. "They cannot see us, we are too far away. Their eyesight is poor. Trust me on this."

Alice nodded, tears forming in the edges of her eyes.

"I don't want to do this."

"It was your idea to join me in the first place. You should've just stayed back at the house and let Ivy tag along instead."

"Ivy probably would've died back there!" Alice snapped, instantly regretting her words. Slate raised an eyebrow.

"You would've died back there if it weren't for me. Ivy would've been blowing those things to bits, no doubt about it. Come on, let's go."

Alice growled but followed Slate anyway. They came around to the front of a building, which appeared to be a news-agency by the peeling red letters displayed at the top. Slate looked over at Alice for two seconds. "Put down the AK-47, we don't want to attract any flesh-eaters from the beach."

Alice shook her head. "It's my gun, so I can use it whenever I want."

"Don't be silly, you should know that if you use it it's going to attract the flesh-eaters. I did say that they have bad eye-sight, not bad hearing."

Alice hesitated for a moment before she slung the gun over her shoulder. She spotted a flesh-eater in the distance that was staggering towards them with a broken limb. It collapsed and began to drag itself instead. She slipped away from Slate, rounded the car and pulled open the door, grabbing the first weapon she could clasp her hand onto. Alice pulled out an axe and slammed the door shut.

"That's better, now let's go." Slate himself whipped out a butcher's knife from the boot of the car, being careful as to not make a noise when he shut it. On the count of three they entered the building, taking in their surroundings as they slowed down their pace. Blood was everywhere, newspaper articles littered the floor and several shelves had been knocked over.

"Looks like they tried to put up a fight. Obviously lost against the flesh-eaters, though."

"There's nothing in the news agency that would be useful, unless you're up for reading age-old magazines and other stuff." Alice said, running her fingers over a nearby fallen shelf.

"I guess so. Come on, let's go check a cafe nearby." As Slate spoke, an ominous presence lingered nearby. Slate, with a hunch that it was a zombie, spun on the spot to capture exactly what he feared. The flesh-eater was slow, giving Slate enough time to fiddle with the butchers knife in his hands.

"To think that once upon a time this flesh-eater was just like one of us. Times have changed drastically, haven't they? Only a couple of months ago we were living our lives, eating, sleeping, doing whatever really. Now we're stuck in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Oh well."