Rise of the Dead

Chapter 1: The Bump

"He caught her as if he were used to catching fainting girls, as if he did it every day." ~ Cassandra Clare

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I stumble towards the car, trying to hold in the screams of pain that are building in my throat and are starting to slip past my lips in a series of pain-filled whimpers. I need to get to the car, I recognise it, even from this far away. The scratched blue paintwork and the long shaped bonnet, the black stripe that runs down the middle. It's Josh's. As I reach the car new pain hits and this time a let out a small yelp, that's all it takes, though. A zombie spins around down the road and sniffs the air menacingly, its neck tilting back at an uncanny angle. I swear their hearing wasn't that accurate at the start of the apocalypse, none of their senses were.

I run to the nearest door and knock wildly, my fist pounding against the woodwork and sending pain up my arm at the severity. Tears stream down my ashen cheeks and my heart hammers against my rib cage, so loud in my ringing ears I question whether the infected could hear it.

"JOSH? JOSH?" I shout but come to no avail. I carry on down the row of houses until I reach the last one, hope is slowly diminishing and tears roll down my flustered cheeks. All the houses lie empty, some windows boarded up in what I assume was a measly attempt at survival in the early days of the apocalypse. There's no signs of life and for a moment I contemplate the idea that Josh could be dead, that the only good thing I have in the world is gone. I physically shake my head in an attempt to rid the heinous thought from my mind, trying to instead focus on the zombie that's racing towards me.

The zombie is close now, too close, and I frantically search the street for a weapon I can use. I spot a fire extinguisher a few feet away and I dive for it, my fingers closing around the bright red metal. My stomach sends shooting pain through my whole body and I let out a sob of despair, screaming out in a mixture of pain and frustration. With a hitched breath I shakily get to my feet and cradle the bump in my arms as I steady the canister.

The zombies close enough now so I swing the extinguisher at its head, my shoulders aching horribly and my back clicking loudly through the still street. The zombie ducks and the fire extinguisher flies into the brickwork of a house, shattering into the stone and spiralling across the debris.

The zombie crashes into me at full speed and we both crash to the ground with a thud, I scream in pain and fear as its bloodstained teeth get closer to my face. All I want is to protect my baby and now it's all going to be over in one bite, I don't know what will happen to my baby if I get bitten but I have a chilling idea. I use all my strength to push the zombie away from me but I can only hold it at a shaky arm's length, it's too strong and its jaw is getting ever closer to my trembling frame.

My unsteady hands slip slightly and its teeth are just centimetres from my exposed neck, I scream one last time in both pain and terror before closing my eyes. Tears streaming down my red cheeks and falling to the chipped concrete below, darkness surrounds me and I spin in disorientation.

A sickening screech fills the air, followed by a heavy thud that shakes my fragile bones. I open my puffy red eyes slowly and see the zombie laying on the floor with a knife stuck deeply through its temple, black blood slips from the incision and trickles down it's face to pool around its mouth which presses against the ground. I look up and gasp in shock.

"Josh?" I croak out and he nods, tears dripping down his face and his bottom lip trembling.

"Madeline," he whispers and I sigh, that's when the pain starts again- another contraction. I let out a piercing scream, the world dips in and out of focus, black creeps around the edge of my vision and my eyes slowly flutter closed.

The last thing I see is Josh's panic-stricken eyes before I slip sideways and my head hits the floor with an echoing thud.