Love on the Run (From Zombies)

Chapter 15

There were at least 15 people stood in the street, milling around in a group, but not heading in any particular direction.

They seemed to be waiting for something.

I hoped I was just being paranoid and that these people were just drunk (a frequent sight in my hometown) and were on their way home from the pub.

They weren’t drunk.

A cat raced across the scene; a streak of tabby fluff, looking bedraggled and skinny, most likely a stray. It approached the group and began nuzzling against one of the men’s legs.

He turned slowly to see what was happening, his face a mask of rage, his eyes and stance too steady to be under the influence of alcohol. He grunted, lifted his leg and….

I yelped and pulled myself back, praying they hadn’t heard me, hoping they’d attribute the noise to the cat they had just stamped to death.

            “Rain, what’s wrong?” Jack stood in front of me, his eyes concerned, his head tilted slightly.

            “They just murdered a cat.” I whispered, trying not to hyperventilate or vomit, both would have caused too much noise and attracted the attention of the group.

Jack took my shoulders in his hands and pulled me back from the corner, peering around it himself.

            “Jesus.” He breathed. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

            He took my hand again and lead my away, my legs unsteady as I tried to clear the images from my head.

            “How could they….?” I faltered

            “There’s something wrong with them Rain, though I can’t guarantee people wouldn’t do that kind of thing for fun. There are some sick jerks in the world.”

We half walked, half ran in a different direction, wanting to put as much distance between us and the group as we could.

The fun feeling of playing hide and seek in the dark was gone, along with the sweet thoughts I’d been having earlier. In their places was a burning solid mass of fear, lodged in my stomach, wedged between all the fish hooks.

Jack’s grip had tightened on my hand; he was half dragging me by this point, my legs fumbling over each other to keep up with his long ones.

We couldn’t run, it would be too noisy and would give us less time to react if we saw anyone, but this was almost as bad.

I was constantly kicking my own shins with my heels, standing on my laces, the backs of my shoes, cursing in whispers and praying we wouldn’t run into anyone else.

We came to a silent cul-de-sac; a typical feature of this town, each one looked almost identical and they all seemed to be called Mount Pleasant, which made no sense to me. The problem being, they all looked so cookie cutter similar, you had no idea where you were or where you were going. Every street sign pointed to the town centre, there was nothing else of note here, which also helped with our orienteering exercise.