Last Dawn of a Horde

Chapter Four: The Outside World ~4 James

~James~

    The screams resonated for about five seconds, and that was enough for me to know something was wrong. So wrong. So wrong that I'll blame myself to death if anything happened to any of my classmates.

    I crawl faster than any toddler and when I landed outside head first on mud, I heard another scream.

    "Shoot it, goddamn it!" I hear one girl yell. It was Sophie.

    When I saw them, my mouth formed a comical O. I stared at them in disbelief.

    Andrea was on top of something that I swear uttered the scream I heard when I was in the sewers. Andrea bared her bloody teeth at me once she had seen me.

    Jimmy held an arrow on his bow, his fingers shaking. "Thank God!" he said when he saw me. "James! Andrea was infected!"

    I looked back at Andrea. Her waist length hair was disarrayed, and when she had inched a bit away, I saw who she was lying on top of.

    With a bloody stomach, Suzanne feebly twitched.

    The other girls, Jasmine and Sophie, were sobbing while behind Matthew and Jimmy who each had a bow and an arrow.

    Andrea.

    It was all my fault to let her stay. I was hoping...hoping that she'll resist it.

    "Andrea!" I called her.

    My infected friend fixed her bloodshot eyes to me. Her face looked so pale but bloody. She shrieked at me like she was an animal meeting her enemy. I reckon Suzanne was already dead--her intestines were poking out of her abdomen.

    Sophie gave me a haunting look, as if she's saying, It's your fault, coward! Your FAULT!

    I felt guilty, even though Suzanne wasn't one of my closest friends.

    "SHOOT HER!" Jasmine said. She was also crying, because what might happen will crush her to the bone. Your friend being with you then will kill you real soon--one of the most abhorrent thoughts to ponder on.

    Jimmy released the string. My eyes twitched in surprise, but when I followed the trail of the arrow, it missed Andrea. It only made her scowl.

    "Jimmy!" Sophie screeched. "You missed on purpose!"

    Jimmy snapped at her. "I just can't do it! You do it, and tell me if you can!"

    Sophie stopped and looked down.

    Jimmy went away towards me. He handed me his bow and only arrow, which tip was so sharp. "You do it. You're the one in charge until John shows up."

    I felt like a brick was dropped on my throat. Until John shows up was something more of an impossible thought now.

    I took his wooden bow in my left hand, and the feather tip of his arrow on my right. I would like to thank our Archery class every Sundays--the class where I receive poor grades.

    I pointed the arrow to Andrea, who was very still on observing me. Don't move, I say on my mind, I'll make it very quick.

    She started growling at me as I stretched the string. The bow and arrow made a strange sound, and I sighed as I released the arrow flying onto Andrea.

    It hit her on her stomach. The impact moved her slightly, but she just stared at the arrow skewering her. Not much harm, I guess.

    "Go for her head!" Sophie yelled.

    No more arrow.

    I turned to Matthew. "Give it to me."

    He shakes his head. "No! She's not that bad! She didn't want to eat Suzanne that terrible!"

    I frowned. "Stop this damn foolishness, Matthew. Give me your arrow."

    Matthew started to cry. Now I finally remember Andrea had been his crush since the fifth grade, but he only told me and John. He told us we're the only ones he can tell his secret at.

    "Listen to me! If Suzanne didn't threaten Andrea, she would've spared her!" Matthew bellowed. "Andrea was fighting it for us!"

    I felt like someone clawed at my heart. Hard. I fixed a stare at Andrea, and she was still not moving from her seat as if she's just waiting for me to tell her what to do. Her eyes, however, were different from the zombies I had seen face to face--her eyes didn't express fury.

    Eyes are the windows of our soul, a voice from my side suddenly tell me.

    It came from nowhere.

    I looked back at Andrea again. She was now whimpering, as if begging for her life. Suddenly, my mind dozed off, and my mind was playing something like a movie, and it was more of a 5D movie--I was really in there.

    A memory.

    I was sitting with John at the very back of the classroom. Sitting in front of John was Andrea, and sitting before me was Den. The two girls were chattering weakly as Mr. Riggins was giving the most boring class ever on history. Andrea's long, fragrant hair was laid on the back of her chair.

    John and I always liked to pull her hair. Pull some hair, and she'll turn one-eighty and give you a scary stare.

    "Nice one, John," Andrea mused. "I missed your face about an inch."

    When she said that, she meant that her hand missed my best friend's cheek from a slap. She always does that, and I always got myself caught many times already.

    The warning bell rang and Riggins flew out of the room instantly, leaving the class chatting with each other again. And John and I get to pull Andrea's hair some more. There was this unexplainable satisfaction when we see her get irritated.

    And that's just one of the hundred times we had been with her.

    Reality gripped me tight.

    An arrow mystically appeared on my right hand, but suddenly it made me no surprised--Matthew's bow wasn't loaded. I pull the string, and shot the life out of Andrea.

    I was to fall when Andrea received an arrow straight to her heart, but then we all broke in panic as Suzanne, presumably dead, rose to her feet.

    Then I know she can't resist on killing us longer than Andrea did. I appreciate her for that. With one great tackle, Jimmy and Matthew pushed her off the edge of the river, and as the river roared, she was carried away to drown.

    And that's it. Five of us left. Just like that.

    I killed the fire with three stomps on the firewood and told everyone: "We'll get the shit out of here."

    Leaving the hole leading to the sewers was like completely giving up the possibility that John and Rich still exist. We ventured through the forest, and after walking about half a mile as the sun goes down to the west, we reach a steep strip of land leading up above.

    One glance at the river falling down to the cliff, we all turned away.

    Helicopters flew around, and I knew this wasn't a normal scene for one notorious criminal of all time.

    And what I had seen on the road made me shiver--we were all stunned when we found Jasmine lying behind us, with a bullet shot right into her forehead.

    Four of us left.

* END OF CHAPTER FOUR *