The Beginning of the End

Chapter Twelve

The noise of everyone sitting around the fire had quietened but not by much. Most people were engaged in their own conversations. Eilish picked up her chair and moved it over next to Jakob’s. Jakob smiled that adorable smile of his.  “Hey” Jakob whispered looking down at Eilish.

“Hey” Eilish whispered. They both turned back and looked at the cracking fire. Jakob reached his hand over and interlocked their fingers. Eilish blushed. But luckily it could barely be seen from the darkness of the night.

By now Eilish and Jakob were engrossed in their own conversation, Molly and Tate were sleeping on a picnic mat on the ground near the fire. Everyone was still oblivious to the growing horde of the walking dead slowly infiltrating the large estate. The sounds of the crackling fire covering the emotionless moans escaping the copses mouths, oblivious to everything around them.                

The fire had dimmed down but not by much. There was still plenty of wood. Zoey rose from her stiff position in her seat. She walked off towards her apartment. Everyone was growing tired but they were still sitting around the fire. She walked through the brisk winter air and grabbed some toilet paper off her front step. She headed towards the back end of the Estate to find some where private to do her business. She found a small clutter of bushes right by the back entrance of the estate. She did her business in peace. But then suddenly her head shot up. She heard the first moans of the approaching dead.

She dropped her roll of toilet paper and ran. She ran the quite long distance dodging through the narrow streets to the campfire. She got there in a flurry. Eilish shot up out of Jakob’s grasp and ran over to Zoey. She rubbed circles in the small of her back. Zoey was out of breath and she was hyperventilating. “Take deep breaths, deep breaths” Eilish whispered just loud enough for Zoey to hear. “ Tell us what happened” Eilish said a little bit louder this time.

In the time it took Zoey to regain her breath the horde of mindless dead were closing in on the estate. Zoey had caught her breath and told everyone what she heard or at least what she thinks she heard. Everyone was in a small circle listening intently to what she had to say, unknowingly to the clutter of in animated corpses entering the large iron gates of the estate beckoning towards the small huddle around Zoey.

The horde dawned in closer to the now diming campfire, and the still absorbed group. Molly and Tate were still sleeping on the mat oblivious to the horde less than twenty meters away. The moans of the dead were covered by the now howling wind and the soft booms of thunder clouds yet to release there rain. The group were weary of the fact of the walkers hanging around their safe abode but they were also brushing it off knowing that the iron gates would keep them safe. 

Eilish and the small group around Zoey had all gone to an apartment to get some pills to try to calm Zoey down a little bit thinking that Molly and Tate would be safe by themselves, but they were wrong. The mumbling group of the dead neared Tate and Molly sleeping peacefully. One was close enough to nearly touch them. The closets mindless dead reach out their rotting hand and pried it right around Molly’s ankle. She woke up with a start just as the walker put its black mouth on her lower Achilles taking out a chunk and causing it to bleed freely. She let out a screeching cry that woke Tate up instantly. He saw Molly was doomed and he saw the rest of the large horde catching up. He tried to help but in the end couldn’t. He ran off leaving Molly to be devoured by the dead surrounding her, her struggling body trying to fight against the undead. Her feeble movements doing nothing against the stronger bodies now on top of her, biting into her arms, the crook of her neck and her stomach.

Tate ran up and down the narrow roads desperately trying to find the other part of the group before the horde did. He had tears streaming down his face, images of Molly’s face while the walker attacked her and the drowning sounds of her screaming. He found the apartment with the other half of the group inside. The main room was lit up and was producing a light glow around the outside of the apartment. Tate sprinted up the narrow path, overgrown weeds neighbouring each side.

*Eilish’s POV*

He burst through the door of the apartment. Zoey was sitting on the bench taking deep breaths. Our heads shot towards the door and there stood little Tate. His face blotchy, his eyes bloodshot and his breathing laboured. I jumped over to him. He looked up and screamed “We have to go now!” Everyone