Still breathing | Original story

Chapter Fourteen: Scared

Word count: 3319

"Up ahead," Tyler spoke and we kneeled down behind a garden wall. Houses lined the street and on the opposite side was the massive, block shaped building. There were a lot of infected walking around, mostly teenagers - a few dressed smartly like they were teachers but they were too young to be. I guess they'd come here to escape the undead... odd how we come back to our old 'hell' to escape a new one.
I pushed the thought aside as I began to calculate how to get to the gates without dying. I saw bones on the gate, fingers still clung to the bars. I grimaced as I put the pieces together: that was a piece of Kyle.
I noticed the gate was slightly open and that was where the majority of the infected were coming from. If the gate was closed it would be so much safer. There must've been about one hundred infected on the school grounds, possibly more inside and only about thirty outside.
"Let's go, he's obviously not here," Tyler told us but I wasn't giving up so easy, he could be one of the dead. He could be hiding. He might not even be there yet. I needed to know.
"Idea." I turned to face the group. "If I run up there I can close the gate. We need to be sure he isn't in there, right?"
"That's suicide!" Connor exclaimed and then quickly slapped his hand down over his mouth, knowing what noise did. We heard the infected stop moving, their feet no longer shuffling about. We all held in our breaths and tried to stay calm in the hopes they wouldn't wander over. After a long while, the shuffling started again and terror gripped my stomach, tying my intestines into knots. That was until I noticed they were going further away.
In unison, we breathed out, our fear released into the air.
"Look it's the only plan we have," I continued, begging them not to leave. "Would you guys cover me?"
Tyler let out a long sigh but eventually he nodded. They all held their weapons tighter. Both Tyler and I noticed Connor still had the pistol on him, Tyler shook his head at him.
"Wait until the gates closed, the noise will draw them out otherwise," I said.
He looked a bit sad about it, probably because he wanted some target practice, but shrugged like he didn't care and got out his bat.
I put a thumbs up, swallowed my nerves, and got ready to go out. I looked down the road leading to the school and saw all the creatures, their limbs failing them and a few still looked semi-human - apart from the death that seemed to flow through them, the clouded fog of darkness that was noticeable but I couldn't explain why because it was a figment of my own mind. It seemed like a demon was following their every movement, consuming their bodies, which made sense since I had been thrust into what was basically hell on earth.
"Wait until I'm in there," I pointed to a dip on the opposite side of the road, big enough to cover me if I lay down, "then make a distraction. It needs to be loud but not too loud," I warned.

My legs felt weak as I rushed out, I hoped the group would follow the plan but I didn't wait to check. I was face to face with one infected and took it out easily, another filled its place. I just kept swinging my hatchet, kept moving my feet. I fell into the small ditch and waited for the distraction. I pulled out a piece of paper that I had stashed in my pocket that morning. I quickly had to think of another place to meet, and I had the perfect one in mind:

"Logan, school not safe!
Go to Manchester hosp-"

An infected fell into the ditch next to me before I could finish my note. I almost screamed but clamped my mouth shut in time, my eyes watered over in terror. I tried hard to kick the creature as it hissed at me, its legs were immobile, as it had twisted from the short fall, but it could still move at a shocking speed. In my panic, I was too afraid to pick up my hatchet that lay next to me, scared I word hit my foot rather than the infected's head. It gripped on my shoe and I felt its nails dig into the fabric, narrowly missing my toes. I kept kicking but all it seemed to be doing was taking my shoe off, I got my other foot and starting pushing at the heel. The two fabrics gripping and slipping as I tried to quickly get it off. I felt it loosening slowly as the infected's face was nearing my top cap, mouth open as it readied itself to bit into me.
I felt myself fly backwards as the shoe finally came off. My head connected with the pavement and I groaned. I put my head up quick enough to see the infected bit through the fabric easily. Like a knife through butter. That could've been my foot. I stared at the creature with surprise as it began to hiss and knock the shoe aside. I scrambled on the ground for my hatchet and pushed myself onto both feet. The infected lifted itself up with its hands and I swiped the hatchet downwards, chopping straight through the brain. I shoved my shoe back on and took in a quick deep breath before continuing the plan.
I looked at Connor who was distracting the horde by banging his bat on a lamp post, I couldn't really hear it too well and the noise disappeared completely as I neared the gates. A few of the infected inside looked my way and slowly stumbled towards me. I closed the first half of the gate fully and slid the bar into the hole in the ground to keep it secure. I began closing the second one as the first infected approached. I managed to close it as it reached a hand through the gate. I felt it grip onto my arm and swallowed my scream as I grabbed the hatchet next to me and slammed it down. More hands poked out of the gate trying to grip on me. I slipped the second lock in place and rattled it to be sure it was tightly shut.
As my hand was holding the bar I felt something grip onto me. Fear gripped me. I pushed the weapon forward and chopped the creatures hand off. I felt something on my hand still and shrieked when I saw the decapitated hand still gripping onto me. I shook it off quickly and doubled over as I tried to get my breathing back, whilst also holding in vomit.