Death From Below

Chapter 18

The vehicles got filled with gas, and a large group from the bus decided to check out the store and see if they wanted anything. I ended up getting in the truck and sitting with the door closed so that I could think over what Josh had asked me. I close my eyes, relaxing into the seat as loving the heat from the sun soaks into my skin. The coolness of the wind that is soothes the burn of the heat. It is so quiet for a good twenty minutes before the first scream ripped through the air breaking the silence. I jump from my seat and hurry out of the vehicle. I run over to the entrance of the little convenience store, holding my blade tightly in my right hand.

There is a little rectangle of light gleaming down on the floor at the front door, and when I hear a noise, I ready my weapon as a bloody arm lands in the light, interrupting the sun from gleaming on the floor. I let out a gasp as something pulls the arm away, into the darkness. A lady from the bus goes flying through the air, screaming, and lands with a loud thud that silences her voice. Angle runs over to her to see if she is dead or not while I try to make out what is in the darkness of the store, all that I hear is our heavy breathing when very lowly I can make out a growl. I begin to slowly walk backward away from the store, making my way to my truck while people ask questions from all around me. "Get back in the vehicles!" I call out, not looking away from the doors as I pop open my truck door and scoot into the seat.

"Angel, let's go!" Torri calls out to him as she climbs into the truck and scoots over to make room for the others. I buckle my seat belt as Sofia runs to Ethan, he had stayed in the van with the babies. Tristan walks over and gets in the back of the truck. People fill up the van while others run to the busses. Josh and Dante began to back away slowly. The group of our people came staggering out of the store and towards everyone. Screams began to erupt throughout the air as everyone fought to get to the safety of the busses, as the horde began closing in around us.

Time seems to slow down when Josh jumps into the back of the truck, and Dante is snatched by his shirt and thrown across the ground, landing about twenty feet away. I scream in terror as they begin to surround him, and everything fades out. I tear the seat belt off and jump from the vehicle as I run to him, screaming his name as I swing my sword at anything that gets in between him and me. "Please don't die on me!" I cry out as I leave a path of destruction in my wake as I paint the ground with blood and body parts. Dante hasn't said a word since he yelled out when it threw him, and as I get to Dante, one of those things is ripping into a body.

I swing my sword like a baseball bat slicing through the center of its head and slinging blood all over the place as I cry out his name. I drop to my knees as tears pour down my face, and I slide the ripped-open body of the woman from earlier that was laid over Dante, shielding his body from the hands of the dead. Dante's beautiful brown eyes were closed, and his breathing was shallow as I lifted his head into my lap and hugged his body to mine. I cried out as I tried to lift his body but wasn't able to support his weight and fell to the ground again, using my legs to keep his body off the ground. Josh, Ethan, Tristan, and Angel all came running over, calling my name Ethan and Tristan lifted his body as if it weighed nothing and carried him away while Angel and Josh held me back. I could feel my heart breaking, causing me to gasp for air as it felt like my lungs decided to close for the day. I began feeling this horrible pain in my chest as I watched them load his body into the back of the van.

It was as if my hearing stopped working, my heart was racing, and I was crying so hard that I couldn't see anything else around us. Soon I am being lifted off the ground as I cry out and look around for Dante. The scene in front of me is horrific; bodies are lying everywhere. The dirt has painted a mixture of red and black while body parts lay scattered along with the ground. The air has a strong metallic scent due to the blood that stained the earth and was so strong that I could taste it on my tongue. I begin getting a headache from all the crying, but all I could think about was Dante, nothing and no one else mattered to me at this moment. Due to the lack of oxygen, I begin to see black spots forming and fight to try to keep my vision.

I didn't know if he was dead or alive at this moment and kept trying to push Josh and Angel out of the way to crawl towards the van. Visibly plastered on their faces was fear as we drove slowly away from where we lost so many people. I began to hear a low growl that became a snarl as Josh and Angel jumped back from me in fear, and I began to slowly shake as the growling soon became that high pitch scream. The truck jerked to a stop, and they cried out, grabbing their heads and covering their ears. I jumped out, looking around to see if I could find his body. "Harper, you need to calm down. He is going to be alright, but if you keep turning zombie queen on us, you are going to end up hurting someone or worse." Victoria says as she slowly steps towards me, causing me to take a step back. She looks up into my eyes and gasps, moving towards the others as they all stare at me with eyes wide in fear, and some take big gulps.