The Horde

Chapter 5

Thomas had gotten to the stairs first. Close on his heels, Hannah eventually got to the roof and gasped at how quickly the cold had filled her lungs. The snow had started to fall more ferociously and had already started the process of numbing her face. Eric had his gun trained on the road that led into the forest they had come from, waiting for the intruders to arrive.

"Look," He glanced up at them quickly. "There's a horde of zombies along the forests perimeter, but thats not the main issue."

Squinting, Hannah saw what Eric had meant. Two cars and a truck were speeding down the road towards them. At that speed, they would arrive in a matter of minutes.

"Crap! How did they find us?" Thomas was bewildered. He never thought that they would have found them, at least not so quickly.

"I would assume that they followed our trail, one way or another. They always find a way," Eric muttered bitterly, shaking his head.

"So what now?" Thomas nervously pushed his fingers through his hair. He always did that when he was nervous or his mind was hard at work.

"We will get through it, we always do," Hannah sighed. She didn't even believe the words that she had said. How would anyone else?

Glancing at the road behind them one last time, Eric kneeled near the edge of the roof. The rifle that he was holding started digging into his armpit. If he wasn't prepared for the kick that the gun gave when he pulled the trigger, he would fall over. He had learned that the hard way.

"Get ready! A horde and soldiers from camp are headed this way!" Hannah yelled so that everyone could hear her above their nervous chatter.

She ran into the main room of the store and saw that it was filled with productivity. Everyone started packing the necessities and loading their guns with hands that shook from their nerves. A couple of them would pause at different time intervals and look out the small window by the door to see if they had gotten any closer.

"Emily, you need to get behind the counter, alright? Don't come out, no matter what happens," Alex whispered kindly as she guided Emily towards the counter, her hand was on Emily's lower back.

"But I'm scared," She whimpered as she sat on the cold tile floor. Grabbing at Alex's arms, she begged. "Don't leave me, please."

Alex had to fight back tears. She wished that she could hide behind the counter and hold her, but leaving everyone else to fight wasn't even an option.

"I will be back," Alex tried to smile for her, but failed dramatically. "I promise."

Emily shook her head repeatedly, "Don't. Mommy and Daddy made that promise before they died."

Alex heard the whimpering before she even opened the kitchen cabinet. A small limb hit the side of it as they readjusted and she came to the startling realization that it wasn't a zombie. Maybe a child? She hadn't come across one in a very long time. She hadn't seen anyone for months. Alex decided to take her chances. The hopefulness was too much to bear.

She crouched beside the cabinet and put a hand up towards its small door, "Knock knock."

The whimpering stopped and Alex prayed that she hadn't caused the poor child to have a heart attack.

"Who's there?" She automatically learned two things from the voice. They were female and she may have just made her smile.

"Alex," Now she was smiling as well.

"Alex who?"

"Just Alex, but I'm here to rescue you."

The child pushed open the cabinet with her elbow and crawled out.