Note: Rough Draft
The Herd
Now…
The sound of footsteps hitting the floor began to slow down and breaths were being taken in high quantity, inhaling the oxygen supply at a higher frequency. Some were holding their breath to listen, but they could not stop the sound of their hearts pounding out of each of their ribcages. Minutes passed by with several people hunched over never looking at each other focusing on the heaves of their chest. Finally, there was a silence among the wheezing. A silence, no more stampeding footsteps behind them. Some of the herd found a wall to lean on under the overpass. The others found three foot columns and everyone began to finally relax and slide down to a sitting position.
“Eric?” a girl’s voice broke the silence. “Eric? Where the hell is Eric?!” No response. Most of the herd looked up and made a faint attempt to look around, but no reply from any of them. Inside they did not care, if they did not know someone as a family member, they simply did not care. The girl kept looking desperately for her friend among the people slumped over on the ground, she looked cautiously at the people with bandages and the wounded to make sure he was not in there. He surely would have responded by now. Nothing. “Carlos, where is he? What happened?” Carlos, looked up and shook his head, pretending to be sorry. “Janice, there were a few that fell behind, Eric may have been one of them.” “If you saw some of the others fall behind why didn’t you tell anyone?” “Do you really think any of us would stop when it meant certain death? Are you out of your mind? You know how we roll here, if there someone you want to be saved you hold their hand during the run. It’s what we’ve been doing for the last three weeks girl.” “But…you were holding onto me” Carlos looked down and whispered, ”Yeah.” In truth, the two boys had shared a strained friendship. There was always a rivalry, for the last three years there had been a rivalry and it was not always over a girl. But nonetheless, in the past few weeks his friend had really come through for him. Carlos was not sure he could be the same caliber of friend for him.
Janice stood by the overpass with one hand on a column and wind blowing her light brown in her face. The determination, she was going to find him. Even though Janice had only known Eric a few years that was enough for her to deeply care about him. She enjoyed standing up for him, it made her feel strong. It was a good feeling. There was also the fact that she had grown to despise most of the members in the herd, so in reality she had no reason to stay with them any longer. Carlos shimmied up the wall and began to walk behind Janice. “I know what you’re thinking, you’re gonna go after him. What’s going to happen when all you find are pieces?” The girl pulled her elbow to the air and let gravity accelerate it into the boy’s gut. As he held his aching belly, she jumped off the rough cement onto the dirt path below her and began walking.
A girl with jet black hair approached Carlos on the edge of the overpass, “Are you alright Carlos?” “I’m fine Colleen, but Janice is a whole ‘nother story. She’s gonna get herself killed if I don’t try to help her, she has no weapons or anything. She’s as good as dead.” “So are you if you try to follow that crazy bitch, but if you go, I’ll go.” “Why?” “To make sure you don’t get beat up by her again!” Colleen laughed for a good minute and a half before Carlos began to turn away. “Wait,” Colleen said to Carlos, “I want to go with you because I care about you both. Two weeks ago I would’ve been dead if not for the three of you. I owe you and I’ve grown to give a fuck.” Carlos chuckled. “Well then, let’s grab our shit before she gets too far.” Carlos was still talking to Colleen as he began to grab his bag and the girl with the raven hair began to follow suit. They knew they may not might make it, but it was not safe anywhere anyhow. Janice could still be made out in the distance.
Janice was not afraid, although of only medium build she could carry the bags without breaking a sweat. Good thing since she had been walking for a little over an hour. The Herd had to find safe ground before stopping, that was the protocol. The walking with these bags was not a factor however, Janice had been raised on various military bases all her life where she had met her childhood friend, Blaine. Thanks to her upbringing she had spent quite a bit of time on the gun ranges during her teenage years. As she proceeded to keep walking she could see silhouettes out of her peripheral vision, Janice proceeded to pick up the pace a bit more, she had to find a wall or shelter where she could make sure her weapons were loaded, the last time she could remember she had tasked Eric with loading the gun, he was good at that. It was too bad he was terrible with firearms. All he could handle was a handgun. But that was enough to get them out of a few scrapes over the last three weeks. She spotted a school bus knocked over on its side. She didn’t even want to imagine what had happened here. Apparently no one died here; there were no bodies or blood. She kneeled down by the overturned vehicle by the bottom where she figured she could use the tires as defense. She opened up the bag and picked up a .44 Magnum, something portable like this should suffice in case she had to run. She unlocked the clip and checked for ammo. Apparently the gun was fully loaded and oiled. Thankfully Eric had come through because at this very point the silence had broken by breaths and footsteps. Then…they stopped, she could hear thumping reverberating off the walls of the buildings of the small town. This was different.
Back under the overpass, the herd was contemplating the next move they should be making. An elderly black gentleman stood up to take center stage, he apparently was the self proclaimed leader and it seemed that none of the others had any qualms with it. “Ladies and gentleman of our esteemed survivors group,” he always began speeches just like this, “it would seem that eight of our own have left us, three of them have taken a sizeable amount of our ammunition and guns. On top of that, two of these individuals were the most experienced with firearms. Now is the time more than ever to stick together, we could of course continue on or we could wait for our brothers and sisters to return.” The attentive group knew that the reason they had stayed alive for so long had been in large part to Carlos and Janice. The man had wound down his speech and the herd decided to spend the night under the overpass. The first wave of guards had begun covering all the open areas. It was cold. This was going to be a long cold night for everyone.
Colleen and Carlos were making their way in the direction that Janice had been heading. Dusk had begun to color the skies and it would be night soon. This was no time to talk; they had to be attentive to their surroundings. In the time since the incident broke out, there was hardly ever a time of silence. The creatures were multiplying at an alarming rate. As they reached what seemed to be a main road they could see the lights of a nearby town. No doubt the street lights were still running on a timer. All of a sudden shots rang out in echoes. It had to be Janice.
In the dusk it was difficult to see, surroundings seemed to be a haze, Janice could hear footsteps on the roofs of the surrounding buildings. There was a slight whistling sound, then the clang of someone landing on the upper side of the bus. Janice spun around wildly and fell backwards with her Magnum in the air towards the sound. Behind her more individuals landed, some in a slide. She still focused her attention on the bus, knowing that this was a trap of some sort. Could the zombies really come up with a plan? Moreover could they plan a trap? There had been talk of intelligent zombies. But these creatures were agile. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the dark now. There. She caught sight of a shadow staring right at her; she squeezed the trigger and let out a shot at the figure she was targeting. She would have tried to target but the recoil from the handgun at the position she was sitting caused her to slide back slightly. What really caused the trouble was the muzzle flash. The entire immediate area went white for a second.
Two hours ago, back at the farm….literally
After Eric hands Blaine the shells for the shotgun he begins to take a defensive stance in the doorway to gain a vantage point on the oncoming onslaught of zombies. Eric runs back into the kitchen to grab the machete that his compatriot had been wielding as a lookout previously. Carefully he steps over the head and body of the man and grabs the weapon to the side of the decapitated carcass. Eric still cannot believe what is transpiring, in the first week of all this happening he had been on a mission to find his cousin who was coming back to the states on leave. He could never find him and that’s when he joined the Herd.
Eric dutifully runs back to Blaine who obviously has made some progress. The wave of zombies that were coming over the hill has slowed down. As Blaine squeezes out one last shot and begins to reload, he stops for a second. Something is amiss, Blaine knew there were more of them then he could have possibly shot down. Then he heard it, they were surrounding the house on a all sides, it was no longer viable to simply stand in the doorway. Running footsteps were coming down the hallway from the rear of the house. They were coming from the backdoor that Blaine had broken through when he began to attack. He could not let anything harm Eric, all he knew is that when he saw Eric, something different had emerged as though he just gone through a third transformation. On top of that he needed answers.
Eric also thinking the same thing, he needed answers. He was not about to let these things get in the way right now. He grasped the machete firmly and ran down the hallway. He made a leap through the air and let his blade come down on the neck of the first zombie. After he landed, the second zombie got blown back by a shotgun blast as Blaine covered him. Still crouched on the floor from the landing, the third one began to ran towards him, he let his blade do the fighting as he just let it out to pierce his oncoming attacker, to no avail. The zombie seemed to not even be phased by the stab. Eric got up from his crouch and kicked the zombie clear in the chest. Eric grabbed the machete in the creature’s intestines as it reeled backwards. After possessing the weapon he went to strike at the zombie’s neck, but it was still moving and managed to only cleave up the side of his face. It was almost like getting it stuck in a tree mid swing. Eric tried to draw the weapon back but instead pulled the creature toward him as it wriggled on the floor. The creature was on the ground grabbing air and moaning frantically, Eric thought to himself that he must’ve hit some kind of nerve or something that impaired the motor functions. Not waiting around to find out. The creature that was now by his feet grabbed his leg. But before the creature got a good grip, Eric retracted his appendage from the creature’s grasp and used that same leg to stomp his face in.
“We have to leave! We’re running out of bullets!” Blaine yelled out to Eric as he began to head to the door. Eric grabbed his machete and began his run to the outdoors. Blaine made it outside and hoisted his gun in an attack position. “God, I can’t see a fucking thing out here. Its so bright, so fucking hot!” Blaine was exclaiming with his eyes squinting. Eric looked in disbelief at his surroundings , it had been a really overcast day all day and the weather was actually quite cool if not a little cold. Eric looked at Blaine and was about to say something, but began to notice that his cousin was exuding some kind of steam or smoke. Blaine was gritting his teeth. There was obviously something wrong with him, but what? It was at this moment that Blain’s neck had begun to catch a flame. “Don’t shoot! I’m taking you somewhere a bit cooler.” Eric said as he grabbed Blaine and led him to the side of the barn where it was shady. “Eric, what the fuck is happening to me?” “I don’t know you seemed to catch fire or something.” I think I feel a bit better, lets go.” “I really don’t think that’s a good idea, you should probably stay here. I led you here because you seemed to be really hot.” “Well, it is hot.” Last time I checked it was October in the Midwest. It is not hot. If anything I’d say the weather is dipping to the sixty degree mark.” What the Hell?” “And on top of that the sky is completely overcast. Blaine, I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, but you seem to be prone to the sun’s rays, like a vampire.” Blaine began to laugh out loud, “Seriously, like a vampire. Listen to yourself that’s insane!” “Bitch! You were a zombie just a little while back! How the hell is that so far fetched!” “Whatever…” Blaine ran back out to the heart of the attack, but began to fall. He couldn’t even hang on the shotgun, the metal burned him. Eric ran towards him and dragged him back under the shade. Blaine looked up at Eric, still squinting and said, “Okay, you may have something there.” Then he proceeded to collapse. Eric ran back into the field to collect the shotgun. He ran back and began to rummage through Blaine’s pockets for ammo. Blaine suddenly looked up at him with red eyes. He lunged towards Eric and knocked him to the ground. Eric still clung on to the gun. It seemed as if Blaine was about to bite into him again. Eric managed to prop the gun up and jammed it into the mouth of his cousin. There was no possible way he could of done this before. Blaine had grown weak and slow. Eric looked up at him, “You know I don’t want to do this, but if you try anything right now I will not hesitate to pull the trigger.” Blaine’s eyes seemed to go back to normal for a second as he got off of Eric. He snatched the gun away from him and pointed it towards Eric, he then unlatched the loading mechanism and emptied the barrel of the depleted shells. “You should probably make sure that this is loaded before making threats, just saying.” “You were going to kill me!” Yeah it seemed that way, I think you probably get away from me at the moment, I still don’t know how to control this completely. I still can hardly see and my body feels achy and on fire.” “You probably need to feed on something to restore whatever is wrong with you.” Next to them came a rustling. And there was a sound, but not a zombie. A cow was watching them and had begun to turn around slowly to walk away. Blaine and Eric looked at each other. Eric nodded his head in approval. Blaine went after the cow and let his instincts kick back in. He jumped on top of the cow as Eric looked away, the sounds that were coming from that direction were enough to warn him not to look as the sight was probably worse when accompanied by the sounds. Blaine began to walk back wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Eric looked at him and proclaimed, “That was fucking horrifying, thank you for that.” Blaine just smirked.
It just dawned on them that they had not been attacked by zombies the entire time they had been out here. “I’ll go out and look,” Eric said to his cousin, “you probably stay here.” Blaine had no objection. He picked up the gun and a handful of shells. As Eric began to walk back into the field he could hear the sounds of splintering wood and shattering glass. It must be coming from the house he thought to himself. He ran half speed towards the sound and saw that the zombies had been swarming the house. They had found something as it seemed that they were feeding on something. Of course, the bodies in the house were still there. Eric ran back to the barn to tell Blaine the good news.
As Eric explained to Blaine their good fortune, it was apparent that Blaine was thinking. He then shared his thoughts, “You should probably go Eric, I’m stuck here till it gets dark.” Eric looked at the sky and said, “Actually that won’t be very much longer, dusk is coming in about an hour. We’ll leave then, besides it will be safer to travel with someone.” Blaine could not disagree with that logic. They decided to pass the time by sharing what had been happening in these last three weeks, unfortunately Blaine did not have much to share, but Eric filled him on the developments.
The present, back in town….
The muzzle flash went off in quick succession like a strobe light to the contrasting darkness. Janice missed her target as it quickly darted away. “There is no way this is a zombie”, she thought to herself. Behind her she could feel the presence of others, she figured this must be her time as she began to place her weapon to the ground and turned slowly to face her demise. She adjusted her eyes to meet up with her would-be attackers. There was no one there, where could they have all possibly gone? Nearby she heard voices, voices she recognized. There were both male and female voices. One of them was definitely Carlos.
“Janice!” Carlos called out in the middle of the town square. Could this be the reason that the creatures retreated, Janice thought to herself. Carlos and Colleen kept scouting the immediate area, although there was still light in the town they used the flashlights to peer into corners, they did not want to be caught unawares by a zombie. Janice followed the direction of the voice and began to walk briskly towards it, albeit cautious. She had to get to them and warn them as fast as she could, but she could not shake the feeling that this may be a trap. She wanted to call out to them, but knew that this may be exactly what they want.
Colleen peered into alleyways with her flashlight and gun at the ready as did Carlos. Unfortunately, Colleen made first contact, as she shone her light into the darkness she spotted two eyes staring back. She began to back away slowly and looked behind her desperately for backup. These eyes were not those of a human or zombie. It looked like a zombie, but there was intelligence and understanding in them, especially since it smiled and looked up. As Colleen looked up during her walk backwards she could see figures darting swiftly on the rooftops. Carlos was oblivious to the impending situation as he looked in an alley opposite of his partner’s. As Janice backed up she ran into something solid. She turned around swiftly with her hand on the trigger. As soon as she made visual contact she did not hesitate to begin firing. The leader of the group dressed in flannel cried out in agony as the bullets tore through his flesh. He quickly began to run away from the automatic fire and towards shelter. He did not just run, but he crouched and used his arms and hands to gain extra momentum with which he used to jump up the side of a building and then towards another wall to use as a means to get on the roof and keep eluding the bullets.
Carlos of course heard the gunshots as did Janice, they both began to run towards the sound both making sure the safety off of their armaments. Colleen could not stop firing her weapon as she was in a state of fear and shock until her ammo gave out. The last bullet took out the last remaining light in the vicinity. There were pairs of eyes glowing all around her, she dropped to her knees in exhaustion and shock. Until a beam of light cut a swath through the darkness and straight line to her face. Her attackers were momentarily surprised as they turned their attention towards Carlos. He squeezed the trigger and let out a few rounds in the immediate vicinity to let everyone know that he means business. Janice was right behind one of the creatures and was able to briskly lay her gun behind the creature’s head and without hesitation blew a hole in its cranium.
“Janice? I thought we were supposed to be the ones saving you. Hah.” Carlos smirked to her and nodded, they once again put attention on the group of creatures in front of them, but one by one they began to leap out of range. As they looked around aimlessly looking for targets, they realized that they were only regrouping. The two ran towards Colleen to make a barrier between them and her. “I don’t need protection right now, I need a gun.” Colleen said to the both of them as she outstretched her hand. Carlos dug into the bag and procured a .45 and ammo. “Its loaded, but keep these in your pocket just in case. Make sure you can see straight again before squeezing off the trigger again.” Carlos advised her. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, although only a few minutes had only passed by. Down the main strip of the town they could see two figures walking towards them. As they came closer to their location the three of them got ready to open fire when they could get a clear shot. Just a few steps closer. Suddenly they had enough of a visual to begin firing. “Hold your fire!”
It was Eric and what looked like Blaine. Janice did not hesitate to run to the boys with arms wide open. But before she could get to them there was a the sound of a bottle shattering, then the burst of flames in between them. Although easy to sidestep, there was a voice on the rooftops that stopped everyone in their tracks, the voice belonged to supposed leader of this tribe. He had a walkie-talkie in hand. “Kids, I gotta admit that I’ve had a rousing good time with the lot of ya, but it seems that I’ve got run.” Skrshhh-“there are at least forty of them at last count.” Came the voice from the walkie. “It seems that we have a buffet lined up for us cowering underneath an expressway. Wait, you don’t know them do you? Oh dear, this could be bad after all, you should probably go and help your friends, but you know what? You hurt me, I mean really hurt me. Here’s a parting gift for you….five? Whatever, DROP THEM!”
All of over the rooftops of the main strip there were figures, and in instant the sound of falling, shattering glass was deafening. Flames immediately began to engulf the town. The five looked around desperately for a way out.
Underneath the expressway….
Shots rang out from all sides as the nightwatch caught sight of the attackers. Families found shelter behind pillars and the rest of the willing and able grabbed whatever weapon they could. As moments kept passing the sound of gunshots began to wane and so did the flash. The creatures were breaching the camp and the massacre was well under way.
Now…
The sound of footsteps hitting the floor began to slow down and breaths were being taken in high quantity, inhaling the oxygen supply at a higher frequency. Some were holding their breath to listen, but they could not stop the sound of their hearts pounding out of each of their ribcages. Minutes passed by with several people hunched over never looking at each other focusing on the heaves of their chest. Finally, there was a silence among the wheezing. A silence, no more stampeding footsteps behind them. Some of the herd found a wall to lean on under the overpass. The others found three foot columns and everyone began to finally relax and slide down to a sitting position.
“Eric?” a girl’s voice broke the silence. “Eric? Where the hell is Eric?!” No response. Most of the herd looked up and made a faint attempt to look around, but no reply from any of them. Inside they did not care, if they did not know someone as a family member, they simply did not care. The girl kept looking desperately for her friend among the people slumped over on the ground, she looked cautiously at the people with bandages and the wounded to make sure he was not in there. He surely would have responded by now. Nothing. “Carlos, where is he? What happened?” Carlos, looked up and shook his head, pretending to be sorry. “Janice, there were a few that fell behind, Eric may have been one of them.” “If you saw some of the others fall behind why didn’t you tell anyone?” “Do you really think any of us would stop when it meant certain death? Are you out of your mind? You know how we roll here, if there someone you want to be saved you hold their hand during the run. It’s what we’ve been doing for the last three weeks girl.” “But…you were holding onto me” Carlos looked down and whispered, ”Yeah.” In truth, the two boys had shared a strained friendship. There was always a rivalry, for the last three years there had been a rivalry and it was not always over a girl. But nonetheless, in the past few weeks his friend had really come through for him. Carlos was not sure he could be the same caliber of friend for him.
Janice stood by the overpass with one hand on a column and wind blowing her light brown in her face. The determination, she was going to find him. Even though Janice had only known Eric a few years that was enough for her to deeply care about him. She enjoyed standing up for him, it made her feel strong. It was a good feeling. There was also the fact that she had grown to despise most of the members in the herd, so in reality she had no reason to stay with them any longer. Carlos shimmied up the wall and began to walk behind Janice. “I know what you’re thinking, you’re gonna go after him. What’s going to happen when all you find are pieces?” The girl pulled her elbow to the air and let gravity accelerate it into the boy’s gut. As he held his aching belly, she jumped off the rough cement onto the dirt path below her and began walking.
A girl with jet black hair approached Carlos on the edge of the overpass, “Are you alright Carlos?” “I’m fine Colleen, but Janice is a whole ‘nother story. She’s gonna get herself killed if I don’t try to help her, she has no weapons or anything. She’s as good as dead.” “So are you if you try to follow that crazy bitch, but if you go, I’ll go.” “Why?” “To make sure you don’t get beat up by her again!” Colleen laughed for a good minute and a half before Carlos began to turn away. “Wait,” Colleen said to Carlos, “I want to go with you because I care about you both. Two weeks ago I would’ve been dead if not for the three of you. I owe you and I’ve grown to give a fuck.” Carlos chuckled. “Well then, let’s grab our shit before she gets too far.” Carlos was still talking to Colleen as he began to grab his bag and the girl with the raven hair began to follow suit. They knew they may not might make it, but it was not safe anywhere anyhow. Janice could still be made out in the distance.
Janice was not afraid, although of only medium build she could carry the bags without breaking a sweat. Good thing since she had been walking for a little over an hour. The Herd had to find safe ground before stopping, that was the protocol. The walking with these bags was not a factor however, Janice had been raised on various military bases all her life where she had met her childhood friend, Blaine. Thanks to her upbringing she had spent quite a bit of time on the gun ranges during her teenage years. As she proceeded to keep walking she could see silhouettes out of her peripheral vision, Janice proceeded to pick up the pace a bit more, she had to find a wall or shelter where she could make sure her weapons were loaded, the last time she could remember she had tasked Eric with loading the gun, he was good at that. It was too bad he was terrible with firearms. All he could handle was a handgun. But that was enough to get them out of a few scrapes over the last three weeks. She spotted a school bus knocked over on its side. She didn’t even want to imagine what had happened here. Apparently no one died here; there were no bodies or blood. She kneeled down by the overturned vehicle by the bottom where she figured she could use the tires as defense. She opened up the bag and picked up a .44 Magnum, something portable like this should suffice in case she had to run. She unlocked the clip and checked for ammo. Apparently the gun was fully loaded and oiled. Thankfully Eric had come through because at this very point the silence had broken by breaths and footsteps. Then…they stopped, she could hear thumping reverberating off the walls of the buildings of the small town. This was different.
Back under the overpass, the herd was contemplating the next move they should be making. An elderly black gentleman stood up to take center stage, he apparently was the self proclaimed leader and it seemed that none of the others had any qualms with it. “Ladies and gentleman of our esteemed survivors group,” he always began speeches just like this, “it would seem that eight of our own have left us, three of them have taken a sizeable amount of our ammunition and guns. On top of that, two of these individuals were the most experienced with firearms. Now is the time more than ever to stick together, we could of course continue on or we could wait for our brothers and sisters to return.” The attentive group knew that the reason they had stayed alive for so long had been in large part to Carlos and Janice. The man had wound down his speech and the herd decided to spend the night under the overpass. The first wave of guards had begun covering all the open areas. It was cold. This was going to be a long cold night for everyone.
Colleen and Carlos were making their way in the direction that Janice had been heading. Dusk had begun to color the skies and it would be night soon. This was no time to talk; they had to be attentive to their surroundings. In the time since the incident broke out, there was hardly ever a time of silence. The creatures were multiplying at an alarming rate. As they reached what seemed to be a main road they could see the lights of a nearby town. No doubt the street lights were still running on a timer. All of a sudden shots rang out in echoes. It had to be Janice.
In the dusk it was difficult to see, surroundings seemed to be a haze, Janice could hear footsteps on the roofs of the surrounding buildings. There was a slight whistling sound, then the clang of someone landing on the upper side of the bus. Janice spun around wildly and fell backwards with her Magnum in the air towards the sound. Behind her more individuals landed, some in a slide. She still focused her attention on the bus, knowing that this was a trap of some sort. Could the zombies really come up with a plan? Moreover could they plan a trap? There had been talk of intelligent zombies. But these creatures were agile. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the dark now. There. She caught sight of a shadow staring right at her; she squeezed the trigger and let out a shot at the figure she was targeting. She would have tried to target but the recoil from the handgun at the position she was sitting caused her to slide back slightly. What really caused the trouble was the muzzle flash. The entire immediate area went white for a second.
Two hours ago, back at the farm….literally
After Eric hands Blaine the shells for the shotgun he begins to take a defensive stance in the doorway to gain a vantage point on the oncoming onslaught of zombies. Eric runs back into the kitchen to grab the machete that his compatriot had been wielding as a lookout previously. Carefully he steps over the head and body of the man and grabs the weapon to the side of the decapitated carcass. Eric still cannot believe what is transpiring, in the first week of all this happening he had been on a mission to find his cousin who was coming back to the states on leave. He could never find him and that’s when he joined the Herd.
Eric dutifully runs back to Blaine who obviously has made some progress. The wave of zombies that were coming over the hill has slowed down. As Blaine squeezes out one last shot and begins to reload, he stops for a second. Something is amiss, Blaine knew there were more of them then he could have possibly shot down. Then he heard it, they were surrounding the house on a all sides, it was no longer viable to simply stand in the doorway. Running footsteps were coming down the hallway from the rear of the house. They were coming from the backdoor that Blaine had broken through when he began to attack. He could not let anything harm Eric, all he knew is that when he saw Eric, something different had emerged as though he just gone through a third transformation. On top of that he needed answers.
Eric also thinking the same thing, he needed answers. He was not about to let these things get in the way right now. He grasped the machete firmly and ran down the hallway. He made a leap through the air and let his blade come down on the neck of the first zombie. After he landed, the second zombie got blown back by a shotgun blast as Blaine covered him. Still crouched on the floor from the landing, the third one began to ran towards him, he let his blade do the fighting as he just let it out to pierce his oncoming attacker, to no avail. The zombie seemed to not even be phased by the stab. Eric got up from his crouch and kicked the zombie clear in the chest. Eric grabbed the machete in the creature’s intestines as it reeled backwards. After possessing the weapon he went to strike at the zombie’s neck, but it was still moving and managed to only cleave up the side of his face. It was almost like getting it stuck in a tree mid swing. Eric tried to draw the weapon back but instead pulled the creature toward him as it wriggled on the floor. The creature was on the ground grabbing air and moaning frantically, Eric thought to himself that he must’ve hit some kind of nerve or something that impaired the motor functions. Not waiting around to find out. The creature that was now by his feet grabbed his leg. But before the creature got a good grip, Eric retracted his appendage from the creature’s grasp and used that same leg to stomp his face in.
“We have to leave! We’re running out of bullets!” Blaine yelled out to Eric as he began to head to the door. Eric grabbed his machete and began his run to the outdoors. Blaine made it outside and hoisted his gun in an attack position. “God, I can’t see a fucking thing out here. Its so bright, so fucking hot!” Blaine was exclaiming with his eyes squinting. Eric looked in disbelief at his surroundings , it had been a really overcast day all day and the weather was actually quite cool if not a little cold. Eric looked at Blaine and was about to say something, but began to notice that his cousin was exuding some kind of steam or smoke. Blaine was gritting his teeth. There was obviously something wrong with him, but what? It was at this moment that Blain’s neck had begun to catch a flame. “Don’t shoot! I’m taking you somewhere a bit cooler.” Eric said as he grabbed Blaine and led him to the side of the barn where it was shady. “Eric, what the fuck is happening to me?” “I don’t know you seemed to catch fire or something.” I think I feel a bit better, lets go.” “I really don’t think that’s a good idea, you should probably stay here. I led you here because you seemed to be really hot.” “Well, it is hot.” Last time I checked it was October in the Midwest. It is not hot. If anything I’d say the weather is dipping to the sixty degree mark.” What the Hell?” “And on top of that the sky is completely overcast. Blaine, I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, but you seem to be prone to the sun’s rays, like a vampire.” Blaine began to laugh out loud, “Seriously, like a vampire. Listen to yourself that’s insane!” “Bitch! You were a zombie just a little while back! How the hell is that so far fetched!” “Whatever…” Blaine ran back out to the heart of the attack, but began to fall. He couldn’t even hang on the shotgun, the metal burned him. Eric ran towards him and dragged him back under the shade. Blaine looked up at Eric, still squinting and said, “Okay, you may have something there.” Then he proceeded to collapse. Eric ran back into the field to collect the shotgun. He ran back and began to rummage through Blaine’s pockets for ammo. Blaine suddenly looked up at him with red eyes. He lunged towards Eric and knocked him to the ground. Eric still clung on to the gun. It seemed as if Blaine was about to bite into him again. Eric managed to prop the gun up and jammed it into the mouth of his cousin. There was no possible way he could of done this before. Blaine had grown weak and slow. Eric looked up at him, “You know I don’t want to do this, but if you try anything right now I will not hesitate to pull the trigger.” Blaine’s eyes seemed to go back to normal for a second as he got off of Eric. He snatched the gun away from him and pointed it towards Eric, he then unlatched the loading mechanism and emptied the barrel of the depleted shells. “You should probably make sure that this is loaded before making threats, just saying.” “You were going to kill me!” Yeah it seemed that way, I think you probably get away from me at the moment, I still don’t know how to control this completely. I still can hardly see and my body feels achy and on fire.” “You probably need to feed on something to restore whatever is wrong with you.” Next to them came a rustling. And there was a sound, but not a zombie. A cow was watching them and had begun to turn around slowly to walk away. Blaine and Eric looked at each other. Eric nodded his head in approval. Blaine went after the cow and let his instincts kick back in. He jumped on top of the cow as Eric looked away, the sounds that were coming from that direction were enough to warn him not to look as the sight was probably worse when accompanied by the sounds. Blaine began to walk back wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Eric looked at him and proclaimed, “That was fucking horrifying, thank you for that.” Blaine just smirked.
It just dawned on them that they had not been attacked by zombies the entire time they had been out here. “I’ll go out and look,” Eric said to his cousin, “you probably stay here.” Blaine had no objection. He picked up the gun and a handful of shells. As Eric began to walk back into the field he could hear the sounds of splintering wood and shattering glass. It must be coming from the house he thought to himself. He ran half speed towards the sound and saw that the zombies had been swarming the house. They had found something as it seemed that they were feeding on something. Of course, the bodies in the house were still there. Eric ran back to the barn to tell Blaine the good news.
As Eric explained to Blaine their good fortune, it was apparent that Blaine was thinking. He then shared his thoughts, “You should probably go Eric, I’m stuck here till it gets dark.” Eric looked at the sky and said, “Actually that won’t be very much longer, dusk is coming in about an hour. We’ll leave then, besides it will be safer to travel with someone.” Blaine could not disagree with that logic. They decided to pass the time by sharing what had been happening in these last three weeks, unfortunately Blaine did not have much to share, but Eric filled him on the developments.
The present, back in town….
The muzzle flash went off in quick succession like a strobe light to the contrasting darkness. Janice missed her target as it quickly darted away. “There is no way this is a zombie”, she thought to herself. Behind her she could feel the presence of others, she figured this must be her time as she began to place her weapon to the ground and turned slowly to face her demise. She adjusted her eyes to meet up with her would-be attackers. There was no one there, where could they have all possibly gone? Nearby she heard voices, voices she recognized. There were both male and female voices. One of them was definitely Carlos.
“Janice!” Carlos called out in the middle of the town square. Could this be the reason that the creatures retreated, Janice thought to herself. Carlos and Colleen kept scouting the immediate area, although there was still light in the town they used the flashlights to peer into corners, they did not want to be caught unawares by a zombie. Janice followed the direction of the voice and began to walk briskly towards it, albeit cautious. She had to get to them and warn them as fast as she could, but she could not shake the feeling that this may be a trap. She wanted to call out to them, but knew that this may be exactly what they want.
Colleen peered into alleyways with her flashlight and gun at the ready as did Carlos. Unfortunately, Colleen made first contact, as she shone her light into the darkness she spotted two eyes staring back. She began to back away slowly and looked behind her desperately for backup. These eyes were not those of a human or zombie. It looked like a zombie, but there was intelligence and understanding in them, especially since it smiled and looked up. As Colleen looked up during her walk backwards she could see figures darting swiftly on the rooftops. Carlos was oblivious to the impending situation as he looked in an alley opposite of his partner’s. As Janice backed up she ran into something solid. She turned around swiftly with her hand on the trigger. As soon as she made visual contact she did not hesitate to begin firing. The leader of the group dressed in flannel cried out in agony as the bullets tore through his flesh. He quickly began to run away from the automatic fire and towards shelter. He did not just run, but he crouched and used his arms and hands to gain extra momentum with which he used to jump up the side of a building and then towards another wall to use as a means to get on the roof and keep eluding the bullets.
Carlos of course heard the gunshots as did Janice, they both began to run towards the sound both making sure the safety off of their armaments. Colleen could not stop firing her weapon as she was in a state of fear and shock until her ammo gave out. The last bullet took out the last remaining light in the vicinity. There were pairs of eyes glowing all around her, she dropped to her knees in exhaustion and shock. Until a beam of light cut a swath through the darkness and straight line to her face. Her attackers were momentarily surprised as they turned their attention towards Carlos. He squeezed the trigger and let out a few rounds in the immediate vicinity to let everyone know that he means business. Janice was right behind one of the creatures and was able to briskly lay her gun behind the creature’s head and without hesitation blew a hole in its cranium.
“Janice? I thought we were supposed to be the ones saving you. Hah.” Carlos smirked to her and nodded, they once again put attention on the group of creatures in front of them, but one by one they began to leap out of range. As they looked around aimlessly looking for targets, they realized that they were only regrouping. The two ran towards Colleen to make a barrier between them and her. “I don’t need protection right now, I need a gun.” Colleen said to the both of them as she outstretched her hand. Carlos dug into the bag and procured a .45 and ammo. “Its loaded, but keep these in your pocket just in case. Make sure you can see straight again before squeezing off the trigger again.” Carlos advised her. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, although only a few minutes had only passed by. Down the main strip of the town they could see two figures walking towards them. As they came closer to their location the three of them got ready to open fire when they could get a clear shot. Just a few steps closer. Suddenly they had enough of a visual to begin firing. “Hold your fire!”
It was Eric and what looked like Blaine. Janice did not hesitate to run to the boys with arms wide open. But before she could get to them there was a the sound of a bottle shattering, then the burst of flames in between them. Although easy to sidestep, there was a voice on the rooftops that stopped everyone in their tracks, the voice belonged to supposed leader of this tribe. He had a walkie-talkie in hand. “Kids, I gotta admit that I’ve had a rousing good time with the lot of ya, but it seems that I’ve got run.” Skrshhh-“there are at least forty of them at last count.” Came the voice from the walkie. “It seems that we have a buffet lined up for us cowering underneath an expressway. Wait, you don’t know them do you? Oh dear, this could be bad after all, you should probably go and help your friends, but you know what? You hurt me, I mean really hurt me. Here’s a parting gift for you….five? Whatever, DROP THEM!”
All of over the rooftops of the main strip there were figures, and in instant the sound of falling, shattering glass was deafening. Flames immediately began to engulf the town. The five looked around desperately for a way out.
Underneath the expressway….
Shots rang out from all sides as the nightwatch caught sight of the attackers. Families found shelter behind pillars and the rest of the willing and able grabbed whatever weapon they could. As moments kept passing the sound of gunshots began to wane and so did the flash. The creatures were breaching the camp and the massacre was well under way.
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Please leave a comment. Feedback is always appreciated, this is an ongoing story and I welcome new ideas and views, thank you. -Pablo