Chapter 10

Dave and the rest kept on running. They got to the lake house and Brad and Ruby continued running past it to the pickup truck behind.

'No, in here!' Dave ordered and they quickly turned back. It was too risky to put all their hope in the truck then. If it didn't start, they wouldn't have the chance to get back to the house. Dave kicked open the door and held it open as the rest of them ran in. He looked towards the lake and saw Lucy running to the house and holding Emily by the arm.

'Please!' Emily had screamed again, tears sliding down her face. Lucy took a sharp breath in and then took off running to her. She got close to Emily but a zombie was already reaching out to grab her. Lucy brought out her gun from behind her and used her last bullet to shoot it down. Emily screamed as she heard the zombie fall behind her. The shrieks from the other zombies grew louder and they began advancing faster. Emily felt fingers wrap around her arm and then she was pulled up. She looked at Lucy gratefully but Lucy's eyes didn't meet hers.

'Come on,' Lucy said and began pulling her along.

Once they both got through the door, Dave slammed it shut and the rest began barricading it. When they were done, they slowly backed away from the door, their heartbeat slowing down. 'You think it will hold?' Brad asked and as if on cue, a peeling and wrinkled hand broke through it, spiking up their heartbeats again. Emily screamed and wrapped her arms around Lucy who peeled her off with a frown on her face.

'What are we going to do?' Ruby asked, a strained smile on her face. Another hand broke through the door and they began to panic. They didn't have enough ammunition or knives to take all of them down. They began to search around for what they could use when Tyler stepped on a rug and the floor under him creaked. He frowned and then bent down to remove the rug under him.

'Guys!' he said, looking down at a trap door. 'In here.' He opened it to reveal a dark basement. The others came over to the trap door and one by one, they descended a ladder into it. Dave closed the door after them and a split second later, the zombies barged into the house.

They could hear the sound of the zombies rushing into the house and their shrieks were muffled by the ceiling of the basement. They climbed down the ladder quietly, not wanting to agitate the zombies any further. They were greeted with the foul smell of rotten food. Emily made a gagging sound and Helena hit her on her arm to make her quiet. They moved about till they found a corner where it didn't smell that bad.

They sat together, randomly and their eyes began to adjust to the darkness. Around them were stacks of boxes and lots of equipment including gardening tools. They sat silently as they waited for the noise the zombies made to reduce. Brad took a look at an open box beside him and his face lit up.

'You guys,' he whispered and they all turned to him. 'Food.' He put his hand into the box and brought out two cans of sardines. He handed one to Ruby and Helena gave him an unsettling look. 'Relax,' he said, opened the can and smelt the content. 'It doesn't smell expired.' Helena sighed and then collected the can of sardines he offered her next. It went round and they dug in. They brought out the bottles of water that they were able to fill and drank the content.

'Will we ever get out of here?' Emily asked, scared that they were still hearing noises from above.

'We will, we just have to wait some more,' Tyler said and she sighed.

A few minutes went by and then Ruby spoke. 'I remember how I felt when the zombies came. My mum and I were hiding in our garage since we had to hide there when the zombies broke into the house. I kept on wondering if we would ever get out of there.'

'What happened after?' Brad asked and she continued narrating her story.

They had stayed there without food and water for two days and her mum couldn't bear to see her child go hungry. 'We have to leave,' she said and Ruby weakly frowned at her.

'But, they're still out there.'

'If we stay here we'll die of starvation.'

'I'd rather die of starvation than be killed by those rabid people.'

Her mum sighed, shaking her head. 'There's still hope you'll be safe. The government surely has plans. If there's a chance you can be safe, I'll die happy, knowing I tried to save you.'

Tears welled up in Ruby's eyes and she looked away from her. 'Don't say that.'

Her mum held her close and Ruby cried into her arms. 'Cheer up,' she whispered and Ruby nodded. After a few minutes, they opened the garage door. A few zombies were around the area and they began coming after them. Her mum threw herself at the zombies so Ruby could have the chance to escape and she did so even though her heart broke.

She found other survivors who helped her learn how to defend herself as they travelled to one of the safe zones. She killed zombies ruthlessly, wanting to avenge her mum as much as she could. On their journey there, one by one they started getting killed until it was only Ruby left. She could only smile through the pain and go on so her mum's sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.

'…that's when Dave and Tyler found me,' she said, finishing her story with a thin smile on her face.

'Sorry about your mum, Ruby,' Helena said sympathetically and she thanked her.

'I was fast asleep on the couch when I heard screams from my neighbours...' Brad began.

He woke up angry. He thought they were having another crazy party and he tried to go back to sleep. The screams continued and he sat up, frustrated. He looked up at the wall clock. His wife should have been home thirty minutes before then. She worked as a nurse and at times her shifts kept her long at work. He had fallen asleep, waiting for her.

There was a weak sound of someone hitting the door and he stood up to answer it. He called out his wife's name but nobody answered; all he heard was a low moan. He checked the peephole and recognised the back of his wife's head. Her usually neatly kept blond bob was scattered and he got concerned.

'Honey, what's wrong?' He asked, opening the door. She slowly turned around and faced him. He stepped back in shock at the horror that was on her face. Her skin was pale, her eyes were all white, her face had a large bite mark on it and her mouth was bloodied. He couldn't understand what could have caused her to look like that and his heart broke at the thought of her being in pain. 'What happened?'

She opened her mouth like she was about to answer but only a loud shriek came out and she jumped on him with a force that his sweet wife had never shown. He gently held her back and told her to snap out of it but there was no reasoning with a zombie. He went halfway through the door to call for help but all the faces he saw looked just like his wife. He grew terribly terrified and confused.

His wife scratched his arms and snapped her teeth at him and for a moment, he wanted to join her. But then he knew that his sweet wife would never want him hurt. With much reluctance and an instinct for survival, he left her, took his car and drove away. He had been driving and fending for himself for over three months before he found Dave, Tyler and Ruby and thought it best to join them.

Ruby reached for his hand and held it comfortingly when he was done talking and the group when quiet for a short while.

'I… I um,' Emily stammered, wondering if it was okay for her to talk. When no one stopped her, she continued.

She had been hearing the news about zombies on the radio for a few months already. Her grandma's house was in a secluded area so they didn't have to be too afraid since they hardly had any people around them. Although, her grandma was always scared for her safety and wanted her to leave as soon as she could. They knew they were to go to Alka and they knew how to get there. Emily was waiting for her mum so they would go together. The last time her mum was home, she left suddenly. She was a medical scientist and she buried herself in her work so she hardly made out time for her daughter.

They lost all hope when the zombies came and her mother still hadn't come back. Her grandma told her to leave alone. She knew she couldn't run with her; she knew she would slow her down if she came along. Emily regretted having waited for so long. She got angry at her mum and herself for having to leave her grandma in the hands of those monsters. She got on her bicycle and rode on it for weeks until the tyres went too flat for her to move with it anymore. She carried on by foot until she was saved by them.

Lucy looked at her sadly, sympathising with her. They all had lost their loved ones and it made her think about her aunt again.

'We were in school when we heard an urgent announcement to leave. It sounded more serious than the drills we had,' Lucy said.

They evacuated the classes in a practised and orderly manner until they started hearing screams from other classes. They stood still, in fear and unsure of what to do. A bunch of students from other classes began running toward them and that was when they all started running. It was crazy how some teachers hit their students as they ran for their lives. Nobody cared about the person next to them, they all wanted to survive. So when a student called out for her help, she didn't think twice before she ran away and to her aunt.

'I didn't have to experience the loss of anyone I cared for,' Helena said.

She had left her hometown in search of independence. She had a car, an okay job and a place to sleep. She had all she needed, she didn't keep ties with anyone and she liked the solitude. She was stuck in traffic the day the zombies came. Everyone in the traffic was horning, wondering what the cause of the hold-up was. She was already late to work and she didn't want to have another 'talk' with the principal.

All of a sudden, people started getting down from their cars and running away from the cause of the hold-up. She got down too and saw some people further down getting tackled. She immediately left her car and ran away.

She hid with a group of people and moved with them whenever zombies invaded their hiding space. It was only her and another man who had become her friend that were left when Dave, Tyler, Ruby and Brad showed up. The other man didn't last long after then and Dave was there to console her when he was gone.

'I lost my colleagues,' Dave said.

Tyler ran into the station shouting nonsense and his colleagues threatened to lock him up when he didn't stop shouting. Before they knew it, screams erupted from every corner of their town. They went out to protect the townsfolk and Tyler warned them that they couldn't fight against them. They didn't believe him though, and neither did they want to leave innocent people to die. Dave told him to stay put and he and his colleagues rushed out with their arms loaded.

Dave was the only one to come back with his clothes covered in blood and dust and his eyes red. He picked up one of the keys to their cars, grabbed Tyler by the hand and they escaped.

There was a long silence when Dave was done talking as every one of them waited for Tyler to talk. He looked up at their expectant faces but kept his mouth shut.

'Oh, come on Tyler. Not again,' Ruby said.

Tyler breathed out hard. 'Zombies started killing everyone and then I ran to the police station. You know the rest,' he quickly said. Lucy frowned to herself. She remember him saying he had a sister to Emily but she didn't want to pry.

'A minute of silence for the dead?' Brad suggested and they all nodded. That was when they realised how quiet everywhere had become.

'I'll go check if the place is clear,' Dave said, standing up.

Helena reached up and held his hand. 'Be safe.'

He smiled sweetly at her and nodded. 'I will.'

Lucy looked at the both of them and saw how perfect they seemed together. She felt conflicted within her, not wanting to stir up any friction between them. She then looked at Ruby whose smile had faltered a bit and she could somehow feel her pain now that the initial anger was gone. She wished she never caught them in the first place. She wished things didn't have to be that way among them.

Helena let go of Dave's hand and he went to the ladder. When he got to the top, he slowly opened the trap door. He stopped when the door was just a few inches open and the leg of a zombie was visible through the space. He waited and after a while, the zombie walked away. He opened the door and poked his head out, checking the surroundings. He then quietly climbed out when he didn't see any zombies near him.

He hid in the shadows at the corners of the house. He could only count about three zombies inside, the rest were scattered outside. He went to the kitchen to get some sharper knives and couldn't believe his luck when he saw a key on the kitchen counter; a key to the truck outside. He looked for the back door, finding nothing.

He quietly went back down the basement, explained the situation to the others and gave Brad the key. They began picking up tools to use to fight, knowing that they would most likely need them for the zombies. They picked up a sickle, an axe, a hedge shear, a hoe and their supplies, and Helena handed Emily a shovel.

'Use it to swap away their heads, hard. You understand?' Helena instructed, knowing Emily didn't help at all during the time they spent trekking and Emily quickly nodded. 'Good.'

They gathered together and climbed up the ladder one by one. They quietly moved out the house, through the front door. The zombies moved about the grass, not noticing them. They quickly moved to the side of the house where a zombie was face to face with them. It opened its mouth to let out a shriek but Tyler was faster. He ran forward and drove the sharp end of his sickle into its skull.

They moved forward, seeing fewer zombies scattered about at the back of the house. They began jogging forward as quietly as they could but then, there was a loud shrieking sound as one zombie spotted them.

Without a second thought, they ran as fast as they could to the truck. They got to it, giving the zombies a wide gap and Brad put down his jerry can beside the gas tank. He opened it, brought out the pipe and started fuelling the truck, not wanting to bank on the possibility of there being fuel in it when they had the chance to fill it up.

Dave went to the passenger seat while the others climbed up onto the cargo bed. When Brad was done, he went to the driver's seat and jammed the key into the ignition point. He turned the key and the engine stuttered.

'Come on, come on,' he muttered as he turned the key again and again and the zombies got closer and closer.