Last Dawn of a Horde

Chapter Four: The Outside World ~3 James

~James~

    Someone was shaking me to wake, but the explosion still banged on my very ears.

    Jimmy was shaking me like he was dusting off rags at home. "Come on, James Stan! Wake up, damn it!"

    My eyes flew open.

    I curled up, but the ground where I was sitting--no, everywhere trembled.

    "What happened?" I asked Jimmy, and he was pulling me away from our base--away from the hole of the sewers.

    He released my wrist, and he looked bothered. "J-John," he stuttered.

    And the ground's tremor stopped.

    "John!" I yell. I got to my feet, energized, towards the hole. I try to climb up and creep inside, but Jimmy and Matthew stopped me from it. Water seeped out of the hole, and it was obvious that the sewers exploded on the insides.

    It was already afternoon, and Matthew told me I had barely slept for twenty minutes. The sun was hanging low on the sky, ready to leave us in darkness again. But lack of light didn't stop me from seeing the garbage water seeping out of the hole. With floating sediments accompanied of blood, my blood almost turned to ice.

    John.

    "When did it explode?" I ask them. The girls were all near the river, afraid to come near the sewers' outlet.

    "John and Rich must've set out the explosives they got on their bags," Matthew suggested, as he inched his glasses high up his nose bridge.

    "It took them hours?" I asked impatiently.

    Jimmy bowed his head. "I dreamt of them two. They struggled against the zombies as they placed and threw explosives everywhere inside."

    It caught me. "You have dreamed of them too?"

    Jimmy nodded.

    I fell on my knees. The girls huddled beside me, tapping my back. I felt numb. My best friend...can't be dead.

    Suzanne had tears rolling down her cheeks. "John had been a good leader to us," she clucked. "He had brilliant ideas."

    I can't accept it. On the back of my mind, some sort of voice was positively saying They are alive and they made it. I prevent tears from streaming down my face, as John would've told me this when he sees me cry: "Leaders don't cry in front of his cadets, remember?"

    I made up my mind. I stood up and I immediately set my upper self inside the hole. Of course, all of my classmates (except Andrea, who was still sitting by the aspen tree before the river,) stopped and pulled me away from the hole like I was a worm in their apple.

    I struggled from their holds. "No! Let me in! I want to help them! DON'T STOP ME!"

    As I yell, my classmates were all quiet. Hot blood flowed in my cheeks and in every vein inside my head. I balled my fist, and that's the time when they all backed away.

    I breathed heavily. "We'll get inside," I said calmly, setting my temper cool.

    "No one will," said Jasmine.

    "Come on," I said sternly. "Jimmy, get your bow ready. Matthew, come with me, too."

    Jimmy and Matthew didn't move.

    "What's wrong with you, people?" I asked, my voice going louder.

    If there are zombies anywhere near us, then my voice would be a flare to them. Hey, we're here, fresh meat for your dinner! Anyways, I don't care. I found myself I was already wearing my cleaned uniform, and then I got a backpack onto my shoulder.

    I marched towards the hole, and no one dared to stop me.

    I inhaled fresh, cool air before I climb up onto the hole again. One last look on the outside world, I crept as fast as I can.

    Brain juice and brain itself was strewn with a lot of shredded human flesh on the walls of the hole. I tried to breathe with my mouth, but as I get nearer and nearer, (I can feel it,) the air I was inhaling tasted poisonous.

    John.

    I'll come for you, bro, I thought in my mind. I will find you.

    I didn't thought of this: If I entered the hole head first, then I should land inside head first. Yuck, I thought. I can't shift positions, and then I remembered the time when I landed head first on wet land when I had wriggled out to the outside world.

    "John?" I murmured. No answer.

    I continued crawling.

    The hole had no branches, so I'm a bit thankful for that. It means this hole leads straight to the sewers. I had a several turns and turns, and I felt really claustrophobic.

    Finally, I saw the sewer's walls were lined with green moss, but now mixed with a tint of blood. With no choice, I inhaled air as I plunged down.

    If I were you, never ever try to swim on the sewer's waters. I swear my head landed and crushed a soft mass of human excretions. I quickly rose up.

    Then James Stan looked like he was a tree of garbage. My white uniform turned brown, and I had smelly masses on my face that I need not to smell what it was. I just wiped it off my face.

    John or Rich or no one was to be found.

    And actually, what I saw made me gasp. Water was still knee-high, but the water was stagnant, so everything ceased to flow. Beyond where I was standing still was a sea of floating, foul-smelling bodies.

    The zombies.

    Should I just keep calm and carry on when I see this place like this? I looked around and yelled for his name, but my best friend was nowhere to be found. I walked in circles, in hope that Rich and he were just under this murky water, unconscious. I bet it will take a huge explosion here for it to be heard outside.

    I found nothing but pulps of trash on my shoe. They weren't around.

    If they did die here, then I'm sure they must've left some remains--I mean, John and Rich was carrying some things, and I still can't find anything that will lead to them.

    I sighed.

    Before I can even examine every hole on the walls, I heard a faint, panicking scream. From the way it sounds, it must have been from outside...

    "No!" I gasped.

    I quickly raced to the hole for my way outside.