Among the Dead

Carrie

Carrie

Rick's plan was to take Carrie straight to his group; at least with the rest of them she would be at least safer. He had left them at the local school, plenty of room for them all to move around and secure enough from the dead and from others who would mean them harm.

On the way to the school though, the path was riddled with the dead; all slowly shuffling the same way the group wanted to go.

The five of them hid behind abandoned cars and watched through broken windows as three of the dead shuffled by.

"Those three we could take out," Rick said quietly but quickly looked down the street towards the larger horde. "However, they would probably hear us and over run us."

"We could use our knives to finish them off," Carrie suggested, "At least they won't make a noise."

"True, but it would mean getting in close," Tom explained, "An unnecessary risk if we can go around them."

Carrie could see the logic, but it still felt they should deal with the dead. When she was with Bert, he always said the dead should stay dead and keeping them walking about was prolonging their agony.

They headed off the main road, keeping low and alert as they went along. Down the side roads, they found them empty; but they knew that could change in a blink of an eye if they weren't careful.

The houses started to change from big homes to smaller, narrower houses with children's play things outside and in the windows.

"I feel sick," Carrie muttered. The play things they came across were covered in blood or blood smears.

"Children trust their parents," Tom explained, "When you were small, did you ever notice when your parents were sick?"

Carrie thought back but couldn't really remember that well from when she was little. "I don't really remember my parents being sick at all."

"Exactly, the adults get sick and the kids will keep playing until the adults turn and eat the children; that's why it you don't see many dead kids walking around."

Carrie pulled a face at him. She couldn't pretend it didn't happen because she had seen some of the bodies walking around.

"If we stick to the back road, we should get to the school in about an hour," Rick explained.

The stuck to the side streets and back alleys filled with stray cats and feral dogs fighting over old rubbish that had been tipped over.

As they neared the end of the alley, keeping a pair of scrapping dogs at arm's length so they didn't get hurt when Rick suddenly called everyone to stop and listened intensively.

He was sure he could hear singing. He was sure no-one in his group could sing, no-one should have been this far away from the school in the first place. "Can anyone else hear that?"

They all listened and they too could hear snatches of a child's song.

"It's coming from that house," Tom muttered and pointed at a small house that had no children's toys in site.

"Should we take a look?" Rick asked the group.

"We need to see if it's a threat to us," Lewis answered, "We're close to the school, if it's a group that could hurt us, we need to make sure they don't follow us to the rest of the group."

Dean grumbled about more hassle than was needed but followed everyone all the same to the little house across the small road.

At the house, Lewis and Rick went first, backs against the brick wall by the front door and rest lined up behind them; ducking low enough to stay hidden under the front window. They watched and waited for Rick to give them the all clear.