The Falling Stars (The Vamps and One Direction Zombie Apocalypse)

Chapter 39- Smoke

It was Jake’s decision to leave the week after we lost Zayn and Perrie. The zombies had cleared the grounds about an hour after the attack leaving Perrie’s body crumpled and alone in the dirt. A few people walked outside with shovels and buried her with as much dignity and respect as they could, watching as the dead girl’s undead love walked away into the horizon, flanked by the foul creatures which had murdered his lover and infected him.

I couldn’t shake the feeling it was my fault.

I had chosen to abandon our defence and take L back to the room. I couldn’t help but think I could’ve just handed her over to Tristan or Ava or Harry or someone else who was waiting indoors, and then run back up to the roof and stopped them from biting Zayn and snapping Perrie’s neck.

I had been so selfish, sitting all afternoon in my room, hugging my almost girlfriend while two of my friends gave their lives to try and help us right outside. I told this to L, but she only told me that if I had stayed it would have been worse, and both James and Harry would have died alongside them.

I didn’t believe her.

She was just trying to make me feel better about the fact that it was my fault.

~~

I loaded my meagre collection of possessions into the back of the van, climbing in after them and pulling Louis in beside me, followed by Niall.

We didn’t know where we would be going at all, as we were just going to drive. In a way, I hoped we could just keep on driving, for miles and miles and miles, until we all just died of dehydration or something. I just didn’t see the point in living anymore.

Brad and Ellie were in the front seats of our van, and we were the last to leave, the mast vanishing into the distance as we rolled through the huge hills and countryside towards the crumbling remnants of civilisation.

I must have fallen asleep because when I woke the sun was in a different position in the sky. Brad was clutching the steering wheel in his hands so tightly he looked like he might rip it out, and Ellie looked pale green and sickly, a few small beads of sweat popping out on her forehead.

I didn’t realise why until I saw the grey brick derelict building and realised we were passing right by the gates of Army Base 1. We drove painfully slowly past the grounds, so slowly I was even able to see the small collection of flowers that were beginning to grow on the heap of earth which covered Maddy’s grave.

The remains of the battle we still evident; blood splattered windows, the open doorway to which most of the zombies had left long ago, and a lone arm which hung out of a window, only bones now.

Flashback after flashback wracked my nervous body as painful recollections of blood and death forced me to squeeze my eyes shut and rub my knuckles into them to take away the pain. I became acutely aware of a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Niall giving me a sympathetic look. I had not spoken to him properly since that awkward morning after Brad and Ellie’s wedding, but I guessed I should have.

He was a nice guy, just trying to help everyone out, and he had lost people too. Sure, his family were alive, but he had lost Zayn and Perrie that day, and the girl he was travelling with before he got to the radio mast had tried to kill him in his sleep so he had had to end her life himself.

I could only imagine the guilt he felt after killing the girl. I had killed hundreds of zombies, maybe even thousands in the 10 months we had been fighting, and that gave me nightmares and a horrible feeling of guilt that occasionally stopped me from eating or drinking, but Niall had killed a person.

A person with lights in their eyes and the memory of a smile on their lips.  

I could sometimes see it, to look at him. He would smile and laugh and act as he always had but occasionally you would catch a split second moment when his facade faltered and a haunted shell of a man was revealed.

If it weren’t enough to see the deep dark shadows beneath his eyes and the look of fear permanently etched into his retinas he was the one that often woke us all in the night time if Louis was doing okay.

It was only too common to jerk awake in the dead of night, shaking in a cold sweat and trying to scrape the sensation of phantom zombie teeth away from our skin, Niall woke almost every night, several times, with the most heartbroken and pained cries and yells I have ever heard. I figured this was everything we had left. All of us, destined to scream ourselves awake for the rest of eternity while the world died around us.

By that night our destination was obvious. A grey brick building, identical to the one that had caused us so much pain loomed in front of us like a great gravestone blocking out the setting sun.

Army Base 2.

I expected to be greeted by people. Maybe even Katrina, the young girl who had transferred there to find her Mother when Casey had joined us at Army Base 1, but there was no one.

The building was eerily silent, it was obvious no one had inhabited it for a good few months.

There weren’t even any zombies around.

Thankfully, I was able to settle into one of the on site soldiers living quarters which made a bit of a change to the box room I had had before. I let Rex out and washed up, taking advantage of the first running water we had had acess to for months.

I had not bothered to talk to the others. Jake was setting up some complicated looking scientific equipment so no one would see him for weeks, while Brad, Harry and Liam were unloading the vans.

Tristan and Ava Rose sat together on the lawn, their arms around each other, enjoying the sunset. Niall was nonchalantly taking his first few wheezing drags on a pack of cigarettes he had taken from Zayn and Perrie’s possessions.

I tried to pretend I didn’t care, but I couldn’t help notice Ellie, my best friend’s ‘wife’ grab James’ hand and bite her lip seductively, leading him into her bedroom and locking the door from the inside.

Hardly anyone was around when I returned from my shower, so I walked out to the grounds, where Niall had gotten the hang of smoking. He handed me a cigarette and after a few shaky gasps I let the hot smoke sooth my lungs and got into a regular breathing pattern.

We smoked like that for a long time, in silent memorial of or fallen friends. I flicked ash to the floor and watched it glow amber before dying out.

Maybe that’s what our lives were, cigarette ash.

We glowed brightly, for one long second, a small light against all odds, before the dim brightness left and we died faster than a wisp of smoke on the air.

A/N Sorry guys, but for the last few chapters of this book it's going to get even more depressing :/

Basically, the fun stuff (if you can call it that) has happened already so it's sad from now on :(

Oh well it wasnt exactly going to be a cheery story when it started off 'This is the story of how I died'

But there's still everything to go on! So much plot to fit into the next I think 11 chapters so keep reading! And if you have been reading from the beginning I love you so much for putting up with these crappy writing skills!!!! :D

Tahliaaaaaa xxx