The Apocalypse

A Bad Experience

     In the moment the zombie had killed Alex, Holden personally felt like it was all over. The reason he felt that way was that Alex wasn't a small guy. He was actually really bulky and had barely lost any muscle in the time between that last practice and now, and his guess was that Alex was also responsible for putting the zombie that bit Max and would inevitably end Max's life locked up in the locker rooms so that they could both torture the creature for what it had done. Personally, Holden couldn't blame it because he thought it just had the idea of eat and kill implanted in its mind, but then again, nobody knew the complexity of the zombies that singlehandedly collapsed one of the most powerful nations in the world.
     "Holden, fire an arrow," Megan ordered, but his mind was still locked in a tunnel and he ignored the command. This moment was an awakening for Holden. He, at that moment, accepted death with open arms and no longer cared about his condition. Funny, how it happened now instead of earlier like when they first walked in where they saw Justin ready to kill or when Max jabbed his own exposed neck, ending his own life.
You know, death wouldn't be so bad. Holden thought. He gazed down at the arrow he had in his hand. Using his lighter, he lit the tip with the gasoline-like substance he had found earlier on a walk he took when he snuck out late at night. The flames seemed to barely lick his hand, but he knew it was just perspective. The seemed to call to him, mocking him with their dance. Holden could've sworn he had heard a voice and the sound of screams echoing from the flaming tip, and began to think if it would be so bad if he had a taste of the barrel of one of Alex's guns, but Alex was still at base camp, and the Alex he had looked up to was now dead on the floor.
Slap! The sound echoed across the room as someone's hand beat him back to reality. He suddenly recalled that there were other with him. He saw Megan with her katana ready if Holden would continue to sit there, not ready to die yet from her lack of knowledge of her boyfriend, Will's whereabouts. They may still get into fights, but deep down, she cared for him. Then he saw who had slapped him. It was Lane who stared at him with pure anger in his eyes. Lane wasn't planning on dying then and if Holden would stand between that, Lane would not hesitate to beat Holden back to his senses. They had all agreed to do that if one of them was loosing it.
     Holden almost dropped his arrow, but he was now aware that even though he embraced death, he honestly didn't want to die, especially here, where he had spent some of his worst moments. Holden readied the arrow and released, sending an arrow with a trail of fire streaming behind it. The arrow was shot almost perfectly and pierced the zombie that was now mere feet away from the range of Megan's katana right in between the eyes. It didn't even flinch.
     Megan, realizing that this wasn't working, stepped forewords and swung, cutting off a rotten arm in one quick swoop. It fell to the floor with a splat and seemed to finally die. The zombie, still charging, only slowed a little in its tracks. They moved back to the wall where they could run towards the door if needed.
     Henry stepped forwards next, swinging his dual axes in an X and only damaged the empty shell of a person. His swipe caused a fluid to only leak out, so he raised his right axe and swung it down, plunging into the skull of the zombie. It, once again, barely reacted. The only "good" thing was the fluid that was currently squirting out ignited with the arrow still lodged in its head and made it look even more menacing. Henry ripped the axe out before it was damaged from the flames and backed up.
     Next came Lane and Ethan. Lane swung his bat as hard as he could and made contact with the zombie's head. Its nose shattered to pieces and it's face in general caved in a bit where that bat made contact. It swung at Lane with its remaining arm, but Lane was skilled enough to dodge. Ethan swung next with his nunchucks, screaming "REEE" as loud as humanly possible. He hit the zombie right where Lane first made contact, further deepening the indentation. Once again, it didn't even flinch.
     Now irritated, Cade jumped forewords and in one clean swipe with his left dagger cut the head off. It erupted into the liquid oozing everywhere now and the body, to no surprise, continued moving forwards (and you guessed it), not flinching in the slightest. Megan took another quick swing and cut right down the middle , almost splitting the bodies in half. It collapsed, but continued to crawl towards them.
     "How?!" Holden screamed. He lit another arrow and fired. It completely erupted in flames and began to turn to ash. He shot two more just in case and watched as it went from burning flesh to dust. It was now gone except for the head, and that was taking raspy, broken breaths. Justin walked forward with a shadow over his face.
     "This is for Alex and Max," he whispered in the most menacing voice any of them had ever heard from him. Justin took the tile blade and shoved it into its caved in forehead with all his might. It penetrated straight through and split right in the middle, lodging the blade inside. He kicked it into the pool and watched as it sank to the bottom, still attempting to breathe. Justin watched as it sank and wasn't satisfied until he could no longer see it among the green algae and bacteria.
     "We should go," Megan hastily called to everyone. "Justin, you can come with if you want." They all left except for Holden retrieving his arrow heads still left in the ashes. They were hot, but not too hot.
     "It's interesting how this stuff can combust, but it doesn't do much until it touches the zombie blood," Holden thought aloud.
     "Quite," a voice responded. Holden looked up, panicking. He looked wildly all around until he saw that Max and Alex were missing with a trail of blood leading to the locker rooms where a set of blood red eyes stared at him. "I won't hurt you now, but I can't say the same in the future." It told him.
     "I'm imagining things," Holden whispered as he got up and walked to the door. Laughter followed him with a soft "you wish" coming shortly after. Holden turned around to se the eyes leave into the locker rooms and the chains move back into place.
     "That wasn't real, just my scared imagination," Holden once again whispered aloud. But was it? He thought. Even if it was, Golden knew it would probably upset Justin who was still in an unstable state, so he refused to mention it to the others, at least not in front of Justin. He hopped in the waiting truck with Megan impatiently tapping her fingers and they drove off. Even though the drive was only a few minutes, Holden managed to forget the experience in the awkward chuckling in the truck as the sped home, dodging corpses and zombies as they went.
     "That zombie was starved and probably weak, so we can just assume we got beginners luck with that," Cade told the others as he stretched his legs. "I'm gonna be a lot more careful in battle, and I suggest you do too." That stuck with some of those in the car. Imagine, that one was weak and pathetic from being starved and weakened by attacks that may have not even landed if it were a well fed and powerful one, so they all expected much much worse to be out there.

     "Alex! We're back!" Henry yelled in the house. "And guess who we found?!" Alex looked up from staring at the barrel of his gun and ran over to them.
     "What took you guys so long?" He asked. Henry had seen what Alex had done, but chose to ignore it. This might be a mistake, but I don't care. Henry thought. I'm happy to be back.