Soon to be... Dead (Re-Writing)

Chapter eight - Crashing down

My mind was awake long before my body was. I’d already decided what I was going to do, what I needed to do long before my eyes opened. And once that happened my thoughts were reduced to thinking one phrase, over and over, trying out how it felt and drilling it into my mind, making sure I remembered it before it could be stolen away from me. The phrase “Mum is alive.” My favourite phrase.

My body didn’t need any help getting to work, my arms had already grabbed my sodden clothes that had been drying on the radiator and I had put some of them on before I even realised it.

By the time I was yanking on my leathers my mind had just about been able to comprehend what was happening. The phrase was just a whisper in the back, still very much a vital part of my thoughts but not overpowering. It was then I realised I’d put my dress one instead of the t-shirt and jeans I usually wear under my leathers. I couldn’t get the trousers on over the lace skirt. I decided I didn’t have the time to change and so just pulled them on leaving the skirt outside, hanging down below my knees at the back.

I didn’t think that a mistake like that could save my life. But then I wasn’t thinking, was I?

I slammed my body against the door, forgetting that I needed to turn the handle to have a hope in hell of opening it. I paused just about long enough to do so, but not so long to realise I forgot to leave a note. I realised that later. If Julie and Maddie survived long enough to make it back to their home I would have seemed to have vanished. I wonder what they thought happened to me. I wonder if they survived.

Apparently they had driven me back to their place from the hill because my tent and motorbike were still in the back of their truck. Their other car was gone.

I think I swore a lot as I fought to free my poor bike from its rope prison. I fell over at least once. That’s when it started to rain. As I was sat on the driveway feeling stunned I looked up toward the cloudy sky, a thin cloud just about covering the moon. I felt the first drop of rain hit my cheek, just below my eye. It slowly slid down my face to my chin. I felt like a tear. It felt like the tears of the thousands who had already died because of this ‘cure’. It felt like all the tears the lost would never cry. It was then that the heavens opened, Sucking up all the lucky ones who were in fact dead and not still walking. In return it gave us their tears. I would have rather it gave us nothing.

As I struggled to get back on my feet against the thundering power of the rain I noticed for the first time the chaos around me. Cars were racing by at a speed that could only be described as so over the speed limit that the speed cameras wouldn’t be able to catch them. I could still hear the screaming, even above the sounds of the pouring rain. But now, it wasn’t just children I could hear. There were babies, mothers, fathers, men, women and the elderly; I could hear them surrounding me. It was then I knew something wasn’t right, it was then I decided to run.

I yanked my bike free with one final and very definite tug. It then promptly fell on top of me; which at least did save me the trouble of lifting it out of the truck if nothing else. I slung my backpack over one shoulder and climbed on.

As soon as I hit the main road I was assaulted by speeding cars from all directions. My bike was skidding around like crazy as I tried to dodge all the oncoming vehicles. I had to pull over to regain my breath after a rather close call with a blue Nissan. As I was panting away I let my eyes slowly gaze across the scene before me. That’s what it felt like, a scene from a movie, not the little city I’d grown up in. The buildings loomed much higher over me than usual, they were twice as intimidating. I don’t know why.  Most of the lights in the windows were off. There was a certain degree of finality to their darkness that could not be explained, maybe it was because of the frantic shadows leaping out from the houses that were still occupied or maybe it had something to do with the way the windows stared off sadly into the distance, their glass more glazed than usual. As I turned my head I saw why. Fires. Flames hundreds of feet high and growing. The ground shook beneath me and the air roared then more flames sprung up. But this time they were not on the horizon.

I was on my bike again before I had worked out where the flames were coming from. I was speeding down the road at almost the same speed as the cars. I was going so fast that I could barely see the road ahead. It was nothing more than a grey blur. The people around me, however, remained crystal clear. All of them either crying or screaming. Many gathered around smoking or stationary cars that I could only guess where their own. A little girl with a pink suitcase and a worn teddy bear in her arms.

The closer I looked the more I saw. A young couple nearly came sprinting out of the shambles, their hands locked tightly together. They paused for long enough to catch their breath when a dark shadow leapt on the man. The woman screamed as the shadow mauled her partner, and even after his screams were silenced the woman was still clutching at his hand. Then the shadow turned on her.

I felt the tears leak out of my eyes as I drove away.

The further out I drove the more desperate people seemed to get away. At first I saw parents stepping out into the road, pushing their children behind them and waving frantically for someone to stop for them. Then people started throwing things at passing cars to get their attention. And finally I saw a woman, a mother with a screaming toddler in her arm and a little girl hanging onto her hand step out into the road. Directly in front of the car ahead of me. She started screaming, begging for the driver to take her children, to save them. The car didn’t even slow down. I was close enough to see the woman’s tears on her cheeks as the car smashed into her.

It was too much. I lost control of my bike, swerving all over the place. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a black land rover. Headed straight for me. I lent backwards and tried to brake and avoid it. I hear a loud rip from behind me and a strange tug at the back of my legs, I felt myself being hurtled out of the bike and saw everything go black as I hit the pavement before I could even open my mouth to scream.

A.N:

Finally!! I uploaded. Yeah I know, it’s been like what? 2 months. Time flies. I really didn’t want to write this chapter. I’m really bad at writing action kinda stuff. If you could call this action. I know this part isn’t the best and I will rewrite it at some point in the future but right now I just wanna start work on the next chapter. The one I’ve been looking forward to. I won’t say anything more than that. I will say though that I haven’t exactly worked out the whole plot yet, I’ve worked out the ending and everything, just not how they’re gonna get to the ending so if there’s any long pauses in writing it’ll be because I’m working out what to do plot wise. Also, I’m not gonna be able to write as much anymore because I’ve just started my GCSEs and I’m already pretty busy with them.

Thank you so so much to everyone who’s sticking with both me and this book. I love you guys millions. XD