Dead Ends: The Awakening

Chapter | 2 |

Immediately, all four teens went still, everyone holding their breath, their eyes glued in the direction the scrabbling was coming from.

Elizabeth saw James mouthing something to her, but couldn't see what he was saying. He went to walk closer, within whispering range, but she shook her head no.

The store was perfectly still, quiet, pristine.

Until all hell broke loose.

Something jumped from the side, knocking into Rose. There was screaming, a gunshot, another gunshot, something grabbing someone's arm, a knife in a decaying chest, a low growling in the background, heavy breathing.

Two were on the ground, two still fighting, shooting, slashing. They had come from nowhere, too quick to really be seen well before they had attacked. Time seemed to speed up as adrenaline kicked in. Everyone fighting, until it suddenly stopped.

There were a few dead bodies on the ground around them, thankfully none of them were human.

Or what had presumably once been human.

Elizabeth and Noah were hunched over, standing, gasping for air. James and Rose were sitting, a small gash in James' leg. Rose had sat up, slowly getting up.

"What... The... Hell..." Elizabeth gasped between breaths.

They all stopped and nearly cried when they heard a new noise, something like a mixture between growling and whimpering. They all remained still as what looked like half-starved dogs walked to the strange, decaying bodies on the ground, dragging them into the shadows and disappearing as quickly as they had come.

"Weird shit just keeps happening today." She thought she heard someone mumble after all the dogs had retreated.

They might have been normal if not for the discoloured liquid oozing from various places in their bodies, the missing limbs and unnatural noises.

"What just happened?" Rose said simply, looking around.

The area looked just as it had before, perfectly quiet, spotless.

"I guess... animals still work the same then? If they're hungry they'll eat anything?" Elizabeth said, ignoring Rose's question for now, because, well, she didn't have one fucking clue what just happened to them.

"Those weren't animals. If you try and tell me those are animals," Noah snorted, looking at Elizabeth.

"Okay there's a thousand things they aren't. Peaceful, Animals, Whatever. I want to know what the hell they are." James said, running a hand through his hair.

"Well that's the million dollar question, now isn't it." Rose replied.

They left the store as quickly and quietly as possible.

"Did anyone see any places, stores, anything that might still have food?" Elizabeth asked.

"The McDonalds didn't look too bad earlier." Rose offered.

"We can go check, it can't hurt much at this point."

"Yeah, except us." Noah argued, looking up and down the abandoned highway they were walking along. "I say we get the hell out of here. Don't look back."

"And how long are you gonna make it without anything to eat? We don't know what it's gonna be like outside of our small town. If it is what it looks to be, and it does have something to do with zombies, that means we need to stay away from the big cities unless necessary." Elizabeth retorted.