A snarl. A scream. And a gurgle of blood.
Ada's eyes snapped open, disorientated for split second until her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she realised she was safe in her bed, with Zoe sleeping peacefully at her side. Her headphones were still in her ears, but her iPod had died in the night, the wires tangling awkwardly in her hair and around her throat. She clawed them off her, hating the way they felt on her skin, suddenly claustrophobic in the way she was trapped between the wall, her friend, and the tangled duvet. She sat up, crawling to the end of the bed in an attempt to escape, careful not to wake the other two girls. As she slipped out of the door, shaking the memory of the vivid nightmare out of her head, she stumbled through to the bathroom in the darkness. The pipes groaned as she blindly turned on the tap, spluttering out enough water for Ada to splash on her face, the cold shocking her body out of panic mode. Between the water and her forced shaky breaths, Ada managed to wrestle her mind back to the present and fend off any further spiralling.
Through the frosted glass of her bathroom window Ada could make out the dark pre-dawn sky washed with fiery red, waiting for the winter sun to slowly rise. It was morning at least, and she had a reason to not have to try and go back to sleep. She peered at herself in the mirror, the best she could in the darkness, and brushed he fingers through her tangled hair, scraping it on top of her head into a messy knot with the hair tie she kept on her wrist. Ada crept back to her room in hopes of finding something to wear without having to climb over sleeping friends to reach her wardrobe. Usually she would stay in her pyjamas as long as she could, but today she wanted to be ready for whatever time the military would return for them. Luckily Ada had a bad habit of never putting her clean washing away, so managed to rummage through a pile on the floor by her desk, and found a comfortable pair of leggings to wear with a clean, but very creased, T-shirt, and also pulled an oversized hoodie over her head to keep warm. Once dressed, Ada left her two friends sleeping and went in search of anyone else that may have been awake. But her house was quiet and still. None of its usual buzz of many bodies. And Ada suddenly felt a pang of upset in her gut. She missed her siblings so badly. It had hardly been a full day and yet Ada couldn't stand the feeling of them being away from her, especially with no way of knowing if they were okay. So she pulled on her trainers in her hallway and shrugged on her jacket, making her way outside and walking down to the gate to see which one of the adults were dutifully standing on watch to escape the solitary anxiety that she knew would have come with sitting in her bed waiting for Zoe and Layla to wake up. Her breath danced in front of her face as she stepped out into the cold. At least it's not raining, Ada thought gratefully.
Down at the gate, her dad stood on top of the platform with Vinnie at his side, the both of them peering down the road, talking quietly to each other. They turned at the sound of her footsteps, both men instantly motioning for her to stay quiet before beckoning her up the ladder.
"What's going on?" Ada whispered under her breath as she pulled herself to stand next to the men, steadying herself on the chain link fence.
Wordlessly her dad pointed across to where the road bent around a corner to another housing estate, and Ada saw it, hovering aimlessly and snapping at the air.
"Is it infected?" Ada breathed, turning to her dad, memories of the morning before flooding to the front of her mind.
"Yeah, we spotted it about an hour ago." Daniel hushed, not taking his eyes off the monster.
"Yeah, luckily we spotted it before it spotted us." Vinnie steadied Ada with a hand on her shoulder, noticing the way her eyes widened as she looked between the men for reassurance. She didn't want it getting closer. She didn't want it anywhere near her or her friends. "But it's too far away for us to shoot and we don't want to risk the noise trying. The last thing we want to do is attract more. Just have to hope it wonders away."
"Everybody will be awake soon." Daniel shook his head. "It'll hear us eventually and we've got a baby in here- it's only a matter of time before it starts crying. We need to figure out a way to get rid of it before it becomes a real problem."
"The guns are out of the question." Vinnie sighed, knowing that his friend was right and hoping that their problem would go away wasn't the best option. "There's some combat knives in that box they left, maybe we could use those."
Daniel nodded slowly, eyes still trained firmly on the infected, weighing up the risk.
"Yeah I think that's best. Only problem is that it'll be close quarters-"
"No." Ada said firmly, grabbing onto her dad's arm, voice shaking. "Dad, no. You're not going out there."
"We need to get rid of it." Her dad shook off her touch dismissively. "The only way to do it quietly is with the knives. I'll go out and I'll deal with it, there's no point being scared."
"That's insane. You've not seen what they do!" Ada argued, voice raising louder than she intended in her panic. "Dad, please-"
"Keep your voice down!" He hissed in return, finally turning to face her, brow contorted in anger. Ada bit her tongue, swallowing her fear so that it pooled in her throat, choking her.
"She's got a point." Vinnie defended the girl weakly. "Yesterday morning we saw one take down a soldier in full protective gear. It ripped him apart mate. It was awful."
Daniel looked from his daughter to his friend "Then what do you suggest, huh?" He spoke, voice laced with irritation that his plan was being undermined. "We can't leave it to wonder right up to the gates, we don't know how strong they are. I'd take it out from here if you let me use a gun but you said that's out of the question, so where does that leave us?"
"Look, I'm not saying the knife plan is a bad idea." Vinnie explained. "I'm saying that you going up against it alone is bad idea." The shorter man paused for a moment, turning to eye up the infected before he spoke. "I'll go with you."
"Jesus Christ." Ada breathed, balling her fists into her hair, tugging at it out of sheer stress.
"No listen," Vinnie's hand found Ada's wrist, coaxing her away from the pain she was clearly inflicting on her own scalp. "We'll both go down, between us we can try and restrain it and get it to the floor. Once it's down we can use the knife on it. But just in case something goes wrong." Vinnie reached for the holster at his side, producing a hand gun that was left to them by the Sargent, extending it to Ada. "You can cover us from up here."
Ada blinked, finding herself reaching out and clasping her cool metal with her clammy hands without trying to, as if her body was moving on autopilot, following the instructions given to her.
"I don't know how-" Ada began, voice quiet, get grip on the gun the only thing stopping her hands from shaking.
"Yes you do." Her dad interrupted her doubt firmly, pushing her towards the confidence she needed to take on the responsibility of watching their backs. "You've been to the shooting range with me plenty of times. It's no different to that. You line it up, hold it steady, and squeeze the trigger to shoot. You've done it all before, just don't get distracted and stay focused on the infected."
"What happens if something goes wrong? Do I try and shoot it? What about the noise? What if I miss?" Ada rambled, overwhelmed by the sudden weight on her shoulders.
"Nothing will go wrong." Daniel shook his head, clapping his daughter on her back in a poor attempt of reassurance. "You and the gun is just a precaution. You'll be fine."
"Okay." Ada nodded uncertainly.
"I'll go grab the knives." Daniel began backing towards the ladder. The second her dad was out of earshot, busy rummaging through the military box for a knife, Vinnie turned to Ada.
"Ada if the worst happens, if something goes wrong and we get bit.." Vinnie began, voice hushed and laced with panic. Ada's eyes widened at his words as he continued. "Don't let us back in."
"But ... dad said." Ada stammered, heart thumping. "Nothings going to go wrong."
"I know. I know." Vinnie, closed his eyes and shook his head, taking the girl by the shoulders before looking at her intently. "But just in case. Promise me. Promise me you won't let us back in if we get scratched or bit. I don't want to be a danger to the others. Ada, you saw what they do with your own eyes, your dad didn't. We need to get rid of it but we both know what they're capable of. But if something goes wrong, please, for everyone's sake, don't you dare let us back in."
"I promise." Ada swallowed, her quiet voice strained in the overwhelming panic she felt constricting around every nerve in her body, threatening to freeze her to the spot.
"The second it sees us it'll come towards us." Vinnie spoke as Daniel climbed back up to the platform, handing his friend a knife. "I think it's best if we climb over and down the fence, that way Ada's covering our backs the whole time from up here and she's not wasting time or risking more noise by opening and locking the gate behind us."
Daniel nodded along, strapping the knife's sheath to the utility belt he now wore, quietly humming his approval to this new part of the plan.
"Then when it's all done and it's safe to do so." Vincent emphasised the last part, holding Ada's gaze steadily. "Ada can climb down, unlock the gate, and let us back in. Sound good?"
"Yeah, good." Daniel agreed. "Let's get going then, need to get this done fast."
With not so much as a backwards glance at his daughter, Daniel grabbed the top of the fence and slung his leg over it, testing to see if it would take the men's weight.
"You've got this." Vinnie mumbled with a small nod as Daniel dropped himself onto the pavement below before following suit. The moment the second man's feet hit the floor, the monsters head turned, snarling into the morning air as it began dragging itself towards them, and Ada's grip tightened reflexively around the metal in her hands.
'Just like the shooting range' she reminded herself, raising the gun to train on the infected as it grew closer to the men, her hands trembling.
The monsters hands were outstretched, grappling at the air and reaching for the men, it's foggy, unseeing eyes locked hungrily on them as it bared it's blood-stained teeth. It moved quicker than Ada expected it to and despite its mindless stumbling, it descended on Vinnie and Daniel before Ada truly had chance to panic. Both men sprang into action- they grabbed an arm each, holding its wildly snapping jaw away from them as they struggled to wrestle it to the floor. It was stronger than they anticipated, head flailing frantically back and forth as they tried to restrain in, trying desperately to sink its teeth into either of their flesh. Ada held her breath and kept the gun steady. After what felt like a lifetime, Vinnie managed to sweep its feet from under it with his own leg and they pinned the infected to the floor. Daniel sat astride it, struggling to pin its chest down as its hands gripped at his clothes, fighting to pull the man closer.
"Put your foot on it." Ada heard her dad grunt at Vinnie. "Need to try and pin its arms."
Something out of the corner of Ada's eye caught her attention, emerging slowly from the alleyway behind the row of houses, heading towards the noise of the men.
Another infected.
"Dad!" Ada called, voice shrill in her fear. This infected, a woman, looked almost fresher than the other ones Ada had seen. Her clothes were still neat and her hair combed tidily back in to a ponytail. But the blood dripping down it's chin and staining it's hands wasn't it's own. So she turned the gun on it, blood running cold as the men paid her no attention. "Dad! Anot-."
"Not now, Ada!" Daniel cut her off-both men focused solely on the much larger monster they had trapped beneath them, finally managing to wrestle out of its grip so her dad could pin its hands at its sides. The other infected dragged closer, sights fixed on her unsuspecting prey.
"Shit! Dad!" Ada tried again, eyes flitting between the infected they had pinned and the infected that posed them a much bigger threat.
"Keep your voice down!" He scolded, finally holding the monster still enough, and Vinnie drew his knife, positioning his blade over its eye, hesitating for a second as the other infected staggered closer. It stalked towards them, but Ada was frozen, unable to peel her eyes away. Its face was sunken in, eyes unfocused. Its mouth twitched and drooled. It's outstretched hands inches away from her dad's shoulder. Somehow, Ada's body found itself discovering how to move again, and she raised the gun, pointing it at the infected woman's heads
Vinnie drove his knife downwards, the squelch of it drowned out by a deafening gun shot as Ada pulled her trigger. The sound ripped through the early morning silence, sending brains exploding over the two men as the bullet went cleanly through the temple of the woman and the corpse hit the tarmac with a dull thud. In the distance, a flock of birds screeched and took flight. The two men blinked dazed at the body that fell lifeless next to them then their heads snapped in the direction the bullet came from- to where Ada was stood on top of the platform, gun still raised and hands shaking. Her ears rang from the offending gunshot as her heavy breaths shook her body, her eyes fixed on the woman she had killed.
But she was quickly pulled from her daze by the sound of snarling and dragging feet, as a small group of infected staggered out of the alleyway.
"Shit! Ada, get the gate! Now!" Vinnie shouted, grabbing his friend that was still sat astride the first infected and dragging Daniel to his feet.
Ada's feet were moving before her mind caught up and she was down the wooden ladder and at the gate, fumbling with the keys as she tried to unlock the gate. Thundering footsteps from behind her skidded to a halt at her side as she turned the key, and two large hands gripped onto the fencing, helping her slide it open just enough for both men to slip through before slamming it shut again, leaving the walkers pounding and snarling on the other side. Ada turned breathlessly to see who helped her with the heavy gate, wanting to thank the person that came to her aid first. Toby stood next to her, brown eyes wild with panicked confusion as the rest of the group fled towards the commotion.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Peter shouted, taking in the scene as he hurried towards them.
"There was an infected just outside the gate." Daniel explained, voice dangerously calm as he breathed deep ragged breaths. "We couldn't leave it so me and Vin went outside and took it out. The noise must have drawn another one out, but we didn't see it and it nearly got us."
Peter's eyes widened, eyeing the men's blood-stained clothes, and took a wary step back.
"Have you been bit?" He asked slowly, moving in front of Layla, eyeing up people at the gate. "Any of you?"
"No." Vinnie asserted sternly, wiping the brains off his knife "No. Luckily we had Ada covering us. She blew its brains out before it had the chance to get hold of us."
Ada felt numerous pairs of eyes fall on her and she shifted uncomfortably.
"That was you?" asked Peter raising his eyebrows in disbelief at the girl.
Ada nodded.
"Wicked!" Billy mused. Ada diverted her attention to her hands.
"It wasn't the smartest move," Daniel added, throwing a stern look at his daughter. "The gunshot drew more, we have no idea how many are out there now."
Her head snapped up at his absurdity.
"You're having a laugh, right?" She scoffed in bewilderment "You told me to cover you, that's what I did. It nearly got you both, but I stopped it."
"Yeah, but you could have warned us. We could have taken care of it. And quietly." Daniel returned, and Ada didn't understand why her dad was so angry with her. She had only done what he had asked.
"I tried. You wouldn't listen." Ada was suddenly aware of everyone still watching her, most still in their nightclothes. Toby had inched closer to her as well, the tall boy looming over her shoulder now as she attempted to defend her actions to her dad. Her cheeks burnt red as she lowered her voice "I only did it to protect the two of you."
"Whatever happened... It's done now." Daniel sighed "We need to get people on watch. No more going over the gate and no more using guns."
"Yeah." Peter agreed "We need to check all the fences and keep the noise to a minimum. We just need to hold out until the army comes back but we can't risk any more of those things piling against this gate. Hopefully if we stay quiet, they'll get bored and wonder away."
'I don't think they work like that.' Ada wanted to say, but she bit her tongue. She was already in enough trouble. And snapping at Peter, who was only trying to help, wouldn't get her very far.
"Go back to the house." Daniel said to Ada, reaching over to take the gun out of her hand as Ada held him in a blank stare. He took her by the shoulder, turning her around and shoving her in the direction of the houses. Ada stumbled, quickly finding her feet and letting them take her forward a few steps before looking over her shoulder to her dad. "Go on, go get some breakfast. I'll speak to you about this later."
Ada felt an arm snake around her shoulders, squeezing her and guiding her forward gently.
"Let's get you some breakfast, yeah?" Rebecca spoke, voice warm in the cold morning air. Ada nodded emptily, grateful for someone gentle to be taking over her autonomy for a few moments so she didn't have to think.
It was only when Rebecca guided her to the dining table and sat her down did Ada realise that the other children were following, and were now taking their own seats around her, their voices mixing into a dull blur. Through the noise, Toby caught her eye as he slid into the seat opposite her.
'Are you alright?' His imperceptible raise of an eyebrow asked, his eyes not moving from her face. Ada shook her head slightly as a 'no', and the boy took in a deep breath inclining his head knowingly.
Their silent conversation went undetected by the others as Rebecca reappeared from the kitchen with bowls of porridge for all of them. Everybody tucked in hungrily, their idle conversation going over Ada's head. Her ears still rang and she could still feel the weighted metal in her hands. And she wasn't sure if she was imagining it or the infected at the gate were getting louder, but she could still hear the hungry snarls of the monsters, determined to get to the fresh meat inside the gate. They were trapped in here now. They were trapped with monster's at the gate and it was her fault.
"How did you know you were gonna hit it?" Layla asked nudging Ada out of her daze from the seat next to her. Ada looked up from where she was idly poking at the porridge, struggling to eat more than a bite. She blinked at the girl a few times, brow furrowing in confusion.
"I didn't." Ada replied. She had shot the guns at the shooting range a handful of times before and usually hit lucky with hitting the target under her father's skilful guidance. But that was nothing like this. The smell. The blood. The sound of a hollow body hitting the tarmac. It was all too much. "I was just lucky."
"Lucky? What if you missed and it got Uncle Vin or even your dad?" Layla provoked, an unnerving glint in her eye that bordered on excitement as she watched Ada get worked up. Layla was one of the very few people that could get a rise out of the usually very stoic Ada. She knew just where to press and she knew exactly where it hurt. "It could've killed them like that man back on the street. And that would have been your fault for not protecting them properly. If you didn't know you could protect them, why did you agree to doing it? Did you want to be the hero?"
"Why are you being such a twat for?!" Ada snapped, slamming her hands on the table turning to glare at her friend.
"Alright alright." Layla scorned, holding her hands up defensively. "I was only asking. You don't need to take it out on me."
Becoming acutely aware of the awkward silence that followed her outburst, Ada glanced around the table, cheeks burning red in embarrassent. Everybody was looking at her, various levels of concern on their faces- everyone except Toby. The older boy had his jaw clenched and eyes firmly locked on Layla.
Ada stood up abruptly, pushing the bowl of porridge into the middle of the table.
"I'm not hungry." She managed to get out, walking away from the table and out of the house before anyone could respond. Ada heard the scrape of a chair and a pair of footsteps following her as she picked up her pace, hurrying to lock herself in her room before the tears started spilling from her eyes. She didn't want anybody to see her cry. And she didn't want to explain to anyone why she was crying, especially because she didn't know herself.
Ada slammed her bedroom door behind her, grabbing a door stop from her shelf and wedging it firmly under the door, a trick she learnt to stop anybody in her house annoying her when she needed to get important school work done and her parents refused to let her get a lock on her door. She kicked off her shoes and curled onto her unmade bed, letting the tears flow now she was privately locked away.
A soft knock came on her bedroom door.
"Go. Away." Ada said firmly between her sniffles. She expected it to be Zoe, chasing after her to quickly apologise on behalf of Layla- telling her the girl 'didn't really mean it like that' and they should all try and be friends still. And Ada didn't want to hear it.
"Please don't cry over that cow." Toby's voice came from the other side of the door, his last word laced with resentment. Ada sat up abruptly, wiping the tears from her face. Why was he here? She got up in, tears stopping in her confusion, kicking the wedge out of the way to open the door. Toby stood leaning on the wall opposite, arms folded over his chest.
"What did you just call her?" Ada asked, voice still hoarse from the tears.
"... a cow?" Toby hesitated in his response, standing up straight, equally caught off guard by Ada's line of questioning.
"That's not very nice." Ada scowled, remembering that this was her friend that this strange boy with talking about. No matter how much Layla had got to her, they were still friends.,
"Well, she wasn't being very nice." Toby defended. After a long pause he spoke again. "I'm not taking it back. She was horrible to you back there, poking at you like that. Everyone could see how shaken up you were and she just kept going. It wasn't nice at all."
Ada just watched the big for a moment, taking in how angry he was on her behalf, his big hands clenching into defiant fists at his side as he spoke. Why did he care? He didn't owe her this sort of loyalty. He hardly knew her at all. Did she really cause that much of a scene at the table that this boy felt like he had to come and check on her? Maybe he didn't want to be here at all and Rebecca sent Toby after her. Suddenly Ada was embarrassed again .
"Well, um, thanks for checking on me." She forced a small smile, hoping if she faked it well enough he would go and tell the others that she was okay and they would leave her alone. "I just needed to be on my own for a bit. Oh, uh, and sorry by the way. For my outburst at the table I mean."
"Why are you being weird." Toby said slowly, voice concerned.
"I'm not." Returned Ada, baffled by the way Toby saw so quickly through her response like that.
"You are. You've gone all formal." Toby looked amused now, dropping his hands to his sides from where they were folded across his chest as he took a step towards Ada with a crooked grin of his face "You sound like you're reading off a script."
"No I don't!" Ada couldn't help the small laugh that she let out as she shook her head defensively.
"Yes, you do!" Toby continued, chuckling lightly himself as he made fun of her. "I apologise for the way I acted back there" he mimicked her, over exaggerating her English accent.
"Piss off." she shook her head and rolled her eyes, smiling now.
Toby smiled back.
"I think you were very brave." He said after a moment, voice quieter than before. "Not everyone would have had the nerve to do what you did this morning. It sounded scary."
"Thank you." Ada returned, grateful for his comforting words.
He nodded curtly. "Well I'll leave you to your 'alone time'. I think Billy's mum is going to give us some chores to do but I'll tell them you're sleeping or something. Come find us when you're ready."
"Okay, thank you Toby."
The boy smiled tightly as he retreated away from her and down the stairs. Ada closed her door, no longer feeling the urge to cry or the need to lock everybody out.