Draw Length - The distance in which you are able to fully draw the bowstring back
A few seconds later Lenny comes running into the room i'm in, his face mixture of anger and relief "Why the heck did you run off! We should've gone together-"
I quickly gesture for him to shut up and point to my ears.
He shuts up with a frown on his face and when he hears the banging noises his eyes widen and his hands tighten around the knife he's holding. 'What do we do?' he mouths to me and I shrug exaggeratingly and widen my eyes which delivers the message 'How the hell do I know?'.
He groans and looks around, eyes locking on something just the right of me. My head snaps in the direction he is looking and my stomach drops. A door. Wonder where it goes?
We silently creep towards it and wince every time another bang sounds through the now humid, tension filled air.
I suddenly fill with the urge to run the hell outta there and breath in some fresh air but force down that feeling but telling myself not the act like a wuss and get it done.
When we reach the door Lenny looks at me like he's asking me if I really want to go through with this. I get why as well. A half hour ago we were talking about whether or not we would kill survivors if they threaten our lives and I had said to disarm them only. But what would happen if it was life or death? would I have the courage to kill a fellow human? could I let go of the feeling of What If?
I nod with determination and pull another arrow out of my quiver and nock it. He slowly reaches for the handle with the hand not busied with carrying the knife and slowly pulls it down, opening the door.
We are greeted with stale, rancid air. Like kale left rotten for months in a fridge. I recommend moving out if this ever happens to you because its just a foul smell and the left over slime on your fridge? UGH.
We both gag simultaneously and cover our mouths and noses. If it smells this bad up here imagine how it smells down there. I look over at Lenny who is still retching and breathing hard. I forget the basement and worriedly creep to Lennie, who is now leaning bent over against a wall.
"Hey? You good?" I whisper, scanning his face for any signs.
He nods slowly before regaining composure. I step back, sighing in relief, my shoulders slump a bit and I nod "Good" before turning back to the door and ignore the smell creeping through the material of my jumper.
The banging continues when Lenny finally joins me by the door and I look at him. He meets my eyes and smiles "It really reeks doesn't it?"
I snort "Nah, it smells like freshly baked brownies" I roll my eyes and shake my head.
"Now there's a thought" His voice makes me think of my grandma's house. Her bringing them out the oven, her cutting them into careful and neat squares, and me biting into the soft, gooey mixture and moaning in content- Then my stomach rumbles, bringing me out of my memory and I glare and Lenny, who's stomach also rumbles.
We both laugh and hush each other like a pair of 12 year olds in the middle of a class. I shake my head and open the door more, freezing when the door squeaks so loudly I could feel it through my bones and the banging stops, enveloping us both in a dark silence.
We both look down the pitch black stairs nervously, waiting for something to come running but it never did, maybe because zombies couldn't run up stairs?
Then Lenny looks at me and gestures to the stairs "Ladies first" he smiles charmingly and I playfully smack him in the arm, muttering "Jerk" before i make my way slowly down the stairs to hell.
I gulp silently as I step down from the last step and into a dark and scary room. I was right. The air was much much worse down here. I was lucky I didn't puke my guts up right there and then.
As I'm surveying the room I notice a dark shape hunched over itself, I freeze immediately and mutter "Great, just my luck".
The shape twitches at the slight sound of my voice so I blindly grab something light and throw it to the shapes right. As soon as the object hits the floor the shape snaps into action - Snarling and snapping - which confirms my fears of it being a zombie.
I draw back my arrow and when I had it trained on the zombies moving head I let the arrow fly. It hits its target right between the eyes and the zombie falls to the ground with a disgusting squelching and thump sound.
I sigh a sigh of relief and go to retrieve my arrow.
"Its clear!" I shout up to Lenny who bounds down the stairs within 5 seconds.
He gags and presses a hand to his covered mouth "Oh god I can taste it" he moans and then holds his stomach.
"Don't puke on me yet and turn the torch on so I can have a look around".
There's a clicking sound and then light fills the room so suddenly I have to blink a few times for my eyes to adjust and when they did the sight they saw was not at all pretty.
The zombie was male, his skin was peeling back to reveal the bloody red flesh underneath. I look closer because I think I see it moving but jump back in horror when I realise its maggots, a load of them, eating the dead mans flesh. His eyes were bloodshot, dilated and lifeless. His face was disgusting, puss filled sores filled his face like acne, creating a distorted look about him.
I clean the arrow in my hand on the dead mans shirt, gagging because his sight and smell was horrendous up close and I back away quickly to get as much distance between us. Scratching noises on the cupboard next to me make me jump a mile into the air into Lenny, who grumbles in return.
when I make my way towards the cupboard Lenny grabs my arm, which stops me so I look up at him with a questioning look. He give me a pointed look and then looks down a my bow, which currently holds no arrow.
I raise an eyebrow and shrug out of his grip "What? do you expect a zombie child or something?" I ask him and snort because it even sounded ridiculous to my ears.
He nods frantically "Well they aren't uncommon, anything can be turned".
"If it was a zombie child why was our dead friend over there trying to get through into the cupboard?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know, I just know that we have to expect the unexpected to survive"
I ignore him and walk toward the cupboard, the thing inside had stopped scratching and was now silent. I reach for the handle and slowly pull it open, Lenny behind me holding his knife at the ready in case anything in there was not friendly.
As i pull it open something red comes at me. Fast. Lenny jumps forward to stab the thing that attacked me but I catch his arm because he could hurt it.
His eyes widen in realisation of what he could've done "Jesus Christ Lenny. How bout you look at it before you stab it" I say while rolling my eyes and I get up with the help of Lenny.
"I-I I didnt realise, I j-just saw it jump on you" His eyes are still wide in shock and I pat his shoulder in what I thought was reassurance and turned to the dog sat patiently on the floor.
"Hey buddy, what's your name?" I ask it in a baby voice and scratch the dogs ear.
It cocks its head to the side and its tongue rolls out. I laugh at its adorableness and watch as it goes back to the cupboard and brings out a collar.
"So you're trained" I mutter to myself and kneel down to take the collar out of his mouth.
I squint to read it so Lenny comes closer with the torch to light the tiny italics up.
I'm Bailey.
I'm 4 years old and probably missing my mum now so if you could take me to this address >
"His name's Bailey" I tell Lenny who grabs the collar off me.
I rub Baileys ears while waiting on Lenny to finish reading it and when he does he pats Baileys head and sighs "Well, it doesnt say the breed but im guessing he's an Irish Setter".
I raise a brow at him "You like a dog expert or something?"
He chuckles and shakes his head "Nah, my gramps had one. They have a very distinct colour of fur".
"Red" I guess and Lenny nods again
"Yep, they are great hunters apparently, I see your neighbour was very prepared in case of a meat shortage".
"Not prepared enough" I look over at the dead zombie and shudder.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up into Lenny's eyes "You did good".
I nod and slump my shoulders in relief "You wanna get going?"
I nod again and let him pull me up. Half-way up the stairs I look back and whistle "Come on Bailey" and a second later a red shape comes bounding up the stairs. Panting. "Good boy" I coo and scratch his ears again, making him whine in content.
***
We manage to find the chicken hut and pen still intact and the chickens still breathing. Thank goodness.
I go to grab a handful of bird seed from the bag in the feed shed and jog back to Lenny, who was unsuccessfully trying to lure the chickens into the little hut using a stick.
I laugh at his third attempt and even the chickens did not look impressed. He glares up at me "You got a better idea Miss oh-so smart and wise?"
I smirk and walk into the pen. I cluck using my tongue and throw the handful of birdseed into the hut and stand back to watch the - 15 or so - chickens fight to get in the hut first. I lean forward once they are all in and smirk smugly at Lenny who mutters "Smart-ass" under his breath.
He grabs one side of the hut and I grab the other.
"On three?"
I nod, trying to get a good gip on the probably really heavy hut.
" One...Two...Three!"
We both strain to lift the hut up and out of the wire pen. Once out we slam it on the floor ungracefully, wincing when the chickens inside clucked angrily.
I wipe sweat from my forehead and look over at Lenny, who looked about the same as me - Sweaty and exhausted.
I lean on the hut with my elbows and smirk at him "Tired?"
He glares at me and then takes off his shirt. Making his toned skin glisten in the sunlight. I advert my eyes from his abs and up to his face and find I was caught checking him out. He smiles a knowing and devilish smile and says "In your dreams" Before bending to carry the hut again, making me groan but I go to do the same.
We huff and heave our way to the horse trailer, Bailey at our feet, panting and full of energy. Poor guy. He was stuck in a cupboard for god knows how long, unable to make a sound in case the zombie outside decided to make him his meaty treat. So now he has loads of pent up energy he needs to get out of his system.
We place the hut next to the horse trailer and while Lenny goes to open it I grab a stick and shout "Bailey, look what I've got!" He looks at me and jumps around excitedly "Fetch!" I throw the stick as far as I could and he takes off after it. I watch as he disappears into the trees.
I turn back to Lenny, who has the door on the ground. We both take our places again at the side of the hut and manage to lift it on the trailer without breaking anything.
I bend over and try to catch my breath, my arm shaking with exhaustion. I struggle to life my arm up to look at my watch. 3:32pm. Great. The sun was already going down and we still needed to fill the trailer up with feed and tack and other stuff.
I straighten and look over at Lenny, who was looking at me with concern. I smile weakly and give him a thumbs up to show im okay and not dead yet.
He nods and tilts his head in the direction of the shed. I nod and we go to get more stuff.
***
"Where's Bailey?"
It had been twenty minutes and the little red dog had still not shown his face. We were nearly finished putting all the stuff in the trailer
I shrug and bite my lip in worry. I hope he was okay.
We make our way to the trailer with the rest of the stuff - A saddle and some bridles and head collars.
As if hearing my thoughts a little red shape comes barrelling towards us flat out, yapping and barking like mad.
Two seconds later we see why. A horde of zombies were slowly making their way towards us, eyes locked on us like pigeons to bread. Even from this distance I could hear their snarling and animal like screams.
Bailey reaches us, panting like mad and still barking. "Shush Bailey, good boy" he falls silent and watches the zombies like hawks.
After a moment I snap into action, I pile my head-collars and bridles onto the saddle Lenny was holding and desperately start talking as fast as I could, glancing at the increasingly closer zombies "Look, you take these to the horse trailer and get it ready while I deal with these. Then get in the SUV and wait for me. Ill take Bailey." When he hesitates I shout "Go!" and give him a little push.
He nods before taking off. He stops and turns to me "Be Careful, Quinn. Don't be a hero. You slow them down and then get your butt here okay?"
I nod but know inside that im gonna kill all these things, whether I make it back or not.
I turn and take my bow from my back and nock an arrow. I glance back to see if he had gone and see him sprinting as fast as he could the trailer. God I hope he's gonna be okay.
The zombies are so close now I could make out each of their individual features. 3 women and two men. One has stringy brown hair and more puss filled spores than the others so I guess that she has been turned the longest, which also made sense because of the slow and jerky movements she made.
I draw back and shoot it at the closest male towards me, I hit him in the right eye. He falls to the ground with a last screech and then falls still. I aim for the second, a tall lanky man with mousy brown hair and not as many puss filled spots.
I hit in the head. He falls. Two down. Three to go.
I pull another arrow from my quiver and nock it. I aim at the next woman, who was getting way too close 4 comfort, i hit her in the stomach, knocking her over and aim for the next woman, also knocking her off her feet.
The last woman gets too close so i cant hit her with an arrow so i put my bow on my back and grab a dagger from my belt and duck under the womans angry arm, which clawed to get to her.
I roll to the side, dodging her snapping jaws and stand, swiping the knife at her throat, it opens up like a paper bag and spurts out disgusting, sickly, dark red blood.
I nock more arrows and let them fly at the two near-mutilated zombies, who had given up on walking and were now crawling pitifully towards me, snapping their hungry jaws at me.
I end the first one quickly, one simple arrow to the head. The second one however, decided to be difficult.
I go to nock another arrow when i feel pressure being applied around my ankle and when i look down, i see a zombie hand attacked around my ankle. I yelp and fall back, trying to shake the zombie off but it latches on tighter and tries to use me as leverage to drag itself onto me to bite me. I grab at my knife, which was secured around my waist but find it was not where it should be.
I hold the zombie back with two hands now, it was drooling at my face the way a homeless man would drool at the offer of burger and fries. I grimace as a spot of drool lands on my face. I look around for a weapon and find my knife, on the floor, 10 feet away where i had sliced the zombie's throat open with it.
I was getting desperate now, the zombies teeth were getting closer and closer to my face by the second and just as i was about to accept defeat a red, dog like shape crashes into the zombie on top of me, knocking it off me.
I launch myself up quickly and nock an arrow, aiming for the zombies head that was currently in a growling match with Bailey, whos ears were pinned down and mouth pulled up over his razor sharp teeth.
I let the arrow fly into the zombies head, sighing in relief as I watch it fall, face-first, into the grass.
I gather up all my arrows and my knife and clean them on the zombies torn clothes. Then i whistle at Bailey and run off towards the direction the SUV is.