World War Zombie

3

Shit. Now I know something is wrong. Her used-to-be little brother Jakob starts advancing towards us, his small figure suddenly looking menacing. He wore a Bart Simpson top and tracksuit pants, followed by her mum, wearing her usual denim capris, white top and her favourite golden bangles, each one with each of the kids names on it. As she walked, her dead arms swung down by her sides- the bangles dropped from her skiny wrists onto the floor, clinking as they met the floor. Joey turned white and looked like she was about to vomit. 

"We have to get out of here!" I yelled at her, pulling her limp arm along behind me. 

"MUM! JAKOB!" She cried, stumbling down the stairs. I have to keep her moving. I don't know what's happening but I know they are dangerous. Zombie like, almost. 

Joey fell to the ground on the bottom of the concrete stairs of her backyard, she rolled to her side and vomited, and I just jumped out of the way so she didn't get my shoes. Lucy hooked her arms aroud her and we hauled her up, each supporting her as we walked. She needs to get it together or she'll kill us all.

"COME ON! YOU NEED TO KEEP IT TOGETHER WOMAN!" I screamed at her, trying to wake her from her dazed state. "DO YOU WANT TO END UP LIKE THEM!' 

Where could we go. Nowhere is safe, not even our own houses. Not even our families.

"Daisy, the safe place!" Lucy puffed, still running beside me. "You go up ahead and check it's safe, wait at the top and give the signal when it's good. I'll get Jo going."

"Lucy!" I called, "Race you to the top!" .

I knew Lucy was slower than me so I ran my fastest up to the 'Safe Place'  at the top of the big hill looking over the town, and climbed up to the very top of the big oak tree, using the big branches to hoist me up. I sat on the platform we made, the paper sign reading 'FAIRY HOUSE' hanging my a branch just above it, and settled onto the wooden planks. A few minutes later I saw the top of Lucys head pop up from the leaves. I moved over for her, and saw her puffing madly. She looked over at me and we burst out laughing, our faces as red as tomatoes. 

"Mum will never find us up here!" Lucy giggled, hearing our mothers calling our names.

"I don't want them to ever find us." I replied, helping to cover her in leaves so we blended into the trees. We were always pretty sneaky. We don't like home very much.

I snapped out of my memory, relizing I was at the hill, 'The Safe Place' from when we were little. I started to go up the hill- how did we ever do this when we were little!? I was slipping at every step I took up it's slippery sides, falling and stumbling on the wet grass. Bloody rain. Not too much longer to go. I'm only about 20 meters from the top. I can feel my feet slipping out from under me again, and I fell onto the mud. I stuck my hands out to break my fall and I am trying to grab onto anything to help me stay upright. I reached my left hand out to grab onto a vine, and the pain shot up my wrist again, the pain worse than ever. 

"Shit!" I screamed, immediately regretting it. I saw movement from the bottom of the hill and'thing' is coming up, it's eyes locked on me. I should have enough time to get up there, they seem uncoordinated as it is- let alone up this slippery hill. I just need to get up that Oak Tree. I pulled myself up, making sure I didn't look behind me. My stomache was sick with fear- how do I climb all the way up there with one hand!? The tree is at least 30 meters high.

I placed my right hand on the lowest branch, jumping up and moving around the tree as quickly as I could, trying to remember the way up this tree from all those years ago. I peered through the branches, only to see that the 'thing' was faster than I thought it'd be, almost at the top of the hill, advancing towards the tree. I looked up through the trees, seeing I still had ages to go- I could never get there with my wrist like this. We had an easy way to get up. I remember it- we discovered it just before we stopped coming here. 

I remember.

The shortcut is round the other side of the tree, on the cliff side. Up the big branch and then it's an easy peasy climb from there, just like a ladder. I can definitely do that with one hand. But how do I get down!? It was right underneath me now,  i could see it trying to reach up and get me.  I reckon I could outrun it... and without thinking, I jumped down,  my wrist moving from the impact. I groaned from the pain, holding my wrist. The thing... I think they're corpses- obviously heard. I didn't think they'd have any hearing seeing as they have no ears. Guess I was wrong. I almost considered laughing until I remembered I had some rabid monster on my heels. So I sprinted towards the cliff side  of the tree, my lungs feel tight and my throat dry from the trek up the hill. I turned around to check where they were- and there was no longer just one.

There had to be at least a hundred- shuffling along and groaning, there grey skin flaking. I saw something small running up to me- sprinting actually- and a rotten stench flooded my nostrils (A/N lol inside joke)  I reached up and grabbed a branch as it lunged for my ankle, and I looked down and it looked like... a dog? A corpse of a dog. Just another surprise of the day. My hands were sore with the rough bark from the branches.

What the fuck was that that crawled across my fingers. 

My hands instinctively let go of the tree, the group of corpses only meters away and the light slowly fading. The corpses have surrounded me- the only bit they were not covering was the cliff face, which I now realize I am dangerously close to. Do I jump? It's the only way to save myself. Another small animal ran at my legs and I used my biggest football kick to kick it as hard as I could over the side of the cliff. A zombie followed it- hands outstretched as it fell over the cliff. Weird. A big rock was near my feet- it looked sturdy enough to knock a few skulls in. I shuddered. It's only been a few hours and I'm already thinking like this. I'm a monster. I'm in danger and if I don't get out of here my friends will be too. A sound stung my ears and I reached up to cover them as all of the zombies turned. A tall blonde girl wearing torn up jeans and a red tshirt holding the most massive gun I've ever seen in here hands stood in front of the hoard. I chucked the rock as hard as I could at the back of a small corpses head that was blocking my way and it crumbled to the ground. I don't think it was dead but it certainly was injured. I pointed to the where I remebered the way up was on the tree as she shot a clearing through the corpses. I tried to yell to her to climb and not to bother about me but it was no use. The gunshots were too loud. I could hear her heavy boots running closely behind me, shooting occasionally as I nimbly climbed through the branches, forgetting the pain in my wrist from the fear running through my mind. She soon caught up to me, and without saying a word her brown eyes locked onto mine and looked up towards towards the planks and she took my good hand and hoisted me up the last few meters to the rotted bits of wood we made when me and Lucy were only kids.

"I'm Sarah." She smiled. "and that was bloody close."