Child Z

Chapter 1

The moon, high above in the sky shone a bright yellow as the clouds slowly drifted across it, casting shadows along the city landscape. The sky was a dark red as the sun set behind some hills in the distance. The howls of zombies could be heard throughout the city, car alarms, grocery store alarms and the sound of people running and screaming for their lives as they fled through the night. But below the city in the deep dark parts where no wondered. Underneith in the sewers where non of the zombies thought to look for a few extra midnight snacks. There was a meeting being held. Ten kids and a couple adults stood beside a campfire looking into the flames, wondering how their lives could possibly get any worse.

Suddenly, foot steps could be heard, breaking the long silence, as the sound of something running up the tunnel that lead from one of the entrances connected to the subway makes the campers around the fire think that maybe their thoughts had actually summoned one of the demons that they so feared.

One of the adults, a man, pointed his automatic rifle in the direction of the sound shakingly.

A little boy by the age of six suddenly broke into the circle of people, letting the fire light shine onto his pale skin. Looking out of breath and tired he managed to huff out a few words.

"d-deres o-one of dem in-in-in the tunnel" he said gasping for breath.

one of the adults, a lady, by the name of Lydia walked up to the boy, takes an inhaler out of her pocket and stuck the tip into the boys mouth.

"inhale slowly" she said.

The boy took a deep breath, then, after blowing a few puffs she took it out and the boy let out a slow worry tingled breath.

"Tank you miss Lydia Ma'am" he said, taking a few extra deep breaths then nodding once in her direction.

The woman, Lydia, smiled and put the inhaler in the boys hand then nodded back and runs to comfort one of the children that had started crying near one of the campfires.

The man with the automatic rifle stepped out from the shadows and walked up to the boy.

"Did you say there was one in the tunnels?" he asked with a worried expresson on his face.

"yes sir." said the boy nodding again this time to answer his question.

Another man who was smoking a cigarette near one of the fire pits (with no concern of the childrens health) tossed his cigar into the fire and looked at it sadly as if it was the last cigar on earth then turned to face the boy with an emotionless expression on his face. "What kind?"

The boy frowned "I-im sorry Sir I don't understand your q-"

"I SAID WHAT KIND you gon def boy?!" said the man raising his voice making an echo through the sewers and causing some of the smaller children to burst out crying, aswell as earning a shush from Lydia who was trying to calm them down.

The boy frowned as if confused and not showing an ounce of fear or any tears like the others, then putting his inhaler in his pocket says.

"No sir Mister Jerome Sir"

Jerome grunted and frowned, lowering his voice back to normal, not taking his eyes off the boy. "Then answer the question."

"Its one of the slow ones sir." said the boy, his frown being replaced by a worried look as he remembered why he was here. "Da oders are hiding from it and sent me back here to get help."

There was silence for a second, then, awkwardly like a dog, Jerome patted the boys head "Thank you."

He then turned to the other adults "I'm gonna go and take care of it, I'm tired of standing around in this stinky hell hole."

One of the kids, a four year old named Kevin who was listening to everyword, giggled and poked his twin sister who was standing near the fire with some chocolate milk in a sippy cup. "You Stinky Ell ole."

His sister, a girl named Christina, jumped with surprise when he poked her and dropped her cup. She frowned and watched as it rolled away and fell into the fire then turned and pushed her brother. "NO, yoou stinky ell ole."

Kevin laughed then got up and started dancing around her and pointing wile singing. "Ell ole, Ell ole, Stinky, Stinky, Stiiiinky."

"Nooooooo!" Christina howled and started crying.

The nurse Lydia, who was still taking care of the children frowned at Jerome "Seriously? you can't watch your language around children??"

Jerome looked at the kids then at the lady and shruged, unaffected. "They're gonna learn the words sooner or later anyway."

Lydia sighed exaustedly and shook her head then turned and started talking to the twins about saying nice words.

"Jerome turned and faced the other man with the gun, takes out his own pistol, loads it, then puts on a bullet (and bite) proof vest. "I'll be back, make sure no one wonders off."

The other man took his gaze off Lydia then noded at Jerome.

Jerome smirked then turned around and patted  the boy on the back, who was still looking worringly down the tunnel, rather hardly on the back. "Come on boy we gotta kill this zombie before it eats your friends" then smiled as if he didn't care if his friends got eaten or not and thought it would be rather funny. He took a deep breath and started sprinting up the tunnel, not looking back to see if the boy had followed.

The boy looked after the man then frowned and looked slightly afraid but quickly brushed away that feeling. There was no time for fear. He took a puff from his inhaler then ran after the crazy man into the dark tunnles of the underworld.