End Of The Living // Dangerous Fellows

2 - "Chesh"

[2- "CHESH"]

She was coming closer, but I couldn't move. The teacher was slowly coming closer. Her ankles were cracking in her heels, but that wasn't stopping her from walking. 

She reaches an arm out to me, and I close my eyes and accept my fate.

Then I hear Taylor's voice.
"Alice, run!" It says, and I open my eyes to see him tackling the teacher.

She bites his shoulder and he hisses in pain.

Tears well in my eyes, my mouth gaped open. Ringing filled my ears. I couldn't think.
Did I just witness my best friend die?

The teacher pushes the weak Taylor off of her and gets back up. I look down at him, my vision blurred with tears.
"Go." He mouths to me, before his eyes roll into the back of his head.

I get up off my chair and look around.

All the exits are blocked by these 'infected' people. Except the broken window.
I throw my chair at the teacher, providing a stall, and running toward the window. I jump through the window before any of the infected got to me; but cutting my arms, calves and hands on the shattered glass.
I collapsed on the ground outside of the window, staring at the cuts. They weren't too deep - the ones I could see at least. I didn't have time to look at the ones on my lower leg and knees, because the Infected were crawling out the window after me.

I had to get out of there.

Suddenly, through the ringing and my heart beating in my ears, I hear my name being called.
"Alice!" I look up to see my friend, Mia, struggling to keep an infected away from her.

She was standing on top of a concrete block, not too high off the ground, and swinging her leather backpack at the thing.
"Mia!" Without thinking, I grab a decent sized glass shard from the ground and run as fast as I can toward her.

I knock down the infected with my foot and blindly stab the shard into it.
I look down at it and realise I've stabbed it right in its left eye. That should keep it down.
Mia drops down from the concrete block, pulling down her sleeves and sliding her backpack on.

"Thanks, I thought I was going out for sure." Mia says, smiling widely.
So widely it was a little suspicious. Who could smile that wide after almost dying?

Mia, apparently. She was always so bright. Even at the worst times.

I smile back softly, not as wide as her, then let my smile fade. We had to move.

The infected from my classroom were closing in - I even saw a glimpse of Taylor in the window, trying to fight his infection. I refused to look back.
"We have to get out of here." I say to Mia, my eyes darting around trying to find an exit.
"Then let's go, Chesh." She says, making me smile at the nickname.

Mia and I met at school camp in grade 4. It was a three day camp, and on the second night the school watched 'Alice in Wonderland' together as a movie night. It was my favourite movie back in grade 3 and 4. Ever since then, Mia has called me 'Cheshire' - or more often, Chesh for short - and it became her nickname for me.

We ran through the gates of the school, not knowing where to flee after that. Luckily, it didn't seem there were too many of the infected outside the school. I darted in the direction of a convenient store, hoping to find supplies.

I realise Mia not keeping up. Her forehead was in her hands and seemed to not be keeping up, limping a little.
"Mia come on!" I walk back to her quickly and grab her shoulders. "Maybe we can find enough food to last us."
She hesitates, looking down at the ground. "Okay, Chesh."
She looks up and smiles softly.
"There's the Mia I know."

We run together - Mia slightly slower than me, but she keeps up. Once we get to the convenient store I immediately burst open the doors.

There was one other group of people, maybe 4, who were obviously survivors like Mia and I. They take no notice of us and continue to fill their backpacks.

I hear a sigh, and a boy with the store uniform and a name badge emerges from an aisle.
"Great, more people to steal supplies." he groans, rolling his eyes.
Something about him seemed familiar. I squinted my eyes and read his name badge, 'Toby'. Then, something about his thick brown hair and eyes that you could easily get lost in clicked.

It was Taylor's crush.