The Dead of My Heart

Chapter Two Now

I take Camren’s hand, trying to make her run faster. The things that growl and bite are chasing us. I still don’t know what they are. My guess was that heaven and hell got so full that they stuck the leftover down here.

“Run, Camren, run!” I yell over the blazing sound of our feet hitting the gravel. I would attempt to stab them in the head like I did to mom, but there is just so many. I can’t.

“Ellie, I’m tired,” Camren said slowing herself down.

I can’t let this happen. I pull her arm as hard as a can to make her run faster. She staggers behind like always. “Keep up Cam,” I yell, “we can’t afford not to.”

To make things easier on us I turn down a dark alley way. The growling things can’t see that well, or so I’ve picked up. We stop running when we hit the wall. We hear the growlers’ footsteps get closer and closer; our breaths get heavier and heavier. “Be quiet Cam,” I whisper into her ear.

They come closer and closer and you can smell them. The decaying smell rests in the air. Something grabs my wrist. I stay as still as possible; hoping the thing won’t realize it’s me.  It let’s go and stalks around some more. At this point we are nose and nose with the growlers. Nose and nose. There heavy breaths fill the air; there smelly breath fills our noses.

Camren wants to cry, I can tell by the way she grips my hand for dear life.

The growlers pin us up to the walls, they still don’t realize that we are there. I squeeze my eyes shut and pretend none of this is happening.

BAM!

My eyes snap open just as then next loud noise fills the air. The growlers turn to the noise and follow it.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

One by one the growlers fall to the ground, as black ooze drips from their heads.  Camren grips me hand even tighter, I can hear her gulp.

“Don’t look,” I say to her as I cover her eyes with my hand. With my free hand I lift her up into my arms and slowly stock out of the alleyway. The surviving growlers don’t notice our escape. But someone does.

The Someone grabs my arm and pulls me back into the alleyway. “What are-,” I start but get cut off.

“Shh.”

I realize than that the Someone is a women…with a shot gun…and a knife…and brace knuckle puncher things around her…knuckles.

“Who are you?” I ask in a hush whisper.

“I’m Ashley Pez. What about y’all,” she says in a southern accent.

“I’m Elise Fuller. This is Camren.”

“Okay. I’m going to help you girls. But you have to listen.”

I nod.

“Can you shoot a gun?”

“I shot once when I was little with my dad.”

“Good enough.”

She takes a spear pistol out of her gun holster and hands it to me. I rest Camren down and bend down so she can hop on my back. She does and I stare at the gun. “You want me to use this?” I ask.

“Yes, just shot anything that looks at you as if you’re a meatball. Got it?” Ashley says.

I nod.

Ashley takes lead and we make way down the street. No action so far. Nothing that looks at me as if I’m a meatball yet.

Ashley leads us onto what used to be Chandler Drive. It was a road where houses lined. She walks up the driveway of the second house on the left and opened the door. We follow her in.

Don’t get me wrong, the inside looked pretty darn nice for the whole world going to trash and stuff. A couch that looked fairly comfortable. Family portraits, although none of them contained a picture of Ashley. 

She gestures for us to sit down on the couch, which we accept in less than a heartbeat.

A man walks in through a doorway, followed by two girls who seem to be out five and maybe ten.  Ashley sits on the floor where the man sits on one of the other couches with the girls.

“Norman, this is Elise and Camren. I picked them up on my run,” Ashley says.

The guy- who I assume is Norman- looks us over. He doesn’t seem very impressed.

“Anyways, Norman why don’t you say hello,” Ashley says seeming to get really annoyed.

“Hi,” Norman says.

The two girls look at me than at Camren. “Are you Camren?” the older one of the two ask my sister. Cam nods her head.

“Who are you?” she asks.

The oldest one points to herself and says, “I’m Missy”- she points at the younger one- “this is Gaelin.”

Camren smiles a smile that I haven’t seen in a long time. “Do you wanna play?” Missy asks.

Cam nods and the three of them run out of the room.

Ashley turns to me. “Do you know what is going on?” she asks me.

“No, not really. Those people, why are they so evil?” I say.

“Not people, things. You see…I don’t know how to tell you this so I’ll just do it the quick way. We’re in the middle of the apocalypse. Zombies yes, but not what you’d think. Me and my family like to call them corpses. There dead, but a part of their brain still functions. Do you understand so far?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, let me continue. There was a disease. Doctors didn’t want it to go public so they kept quiet. They kept looking for antidotes and cures, but nothing worked. Then they found something. Only it wasn’t for the greater good. They healed, but only one section of the brain did. The rest of their bodies went into a severe shut down. They bit the nurses and doctors, and it was just terrible. You follow?”

“Yep.”

  “Anyways, because of the biting the infection spread. People all over started to get it. And that’s not even the worst part. It’s airborne. That means if you die, you turn into one of those terrible creatures. The only way to kill one is by stabbing or shooting or damaging the head in anyway. It has to be the head. That’s the only reason why they are alive. It’s in all of us. Death is just the trigger.”

I put all of what she said into a mental note in my head.  Sad thing is, I sort of knew that, I just didn’t want to admit to myself. Ashley leans over and takes my hand. “Child, I’m sorry,” she says.

Norman leans back in his seat. “What are you sorry for? It’s not like you brought on the apocalypse.”