I awoke to the cackling laughter of a Kookaburra and the sun rising over the rooftop. My muscles ached from all the fighting, running and travelling we had been doing since the outbreak.
All I wanted to do was enjoy a hot shower and dive under the covers of a big, comfy bed. But my current reality was nowhere near that heavenly fantasy.
I sighed as I lifted Wyatt’s arm from around my shoulders, quietly got up from the couch and made my way to the ledge to scope out the main street.
Scanning the area, only a few zombies walked the street. My stomach turned when my eyes landed on Jill’s lifeless body, her shredded torso, head and right thigh were all that remained.
Forcing myself to look away, I thought I saw something moving in the distance. Looking closer, I could see a small figure running between some of the cars piled on the road.
I ran to pull the binoculars out of Wyatt’s backpack, accidentally waking him up in the process.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he smiled, but when he saw the worried expression on my face he jumped up from the couch in one swift movement. “What is it?”
“I saw something down there,” I said as I ran back to the rooftop wall. “I think it was their son, Max.”
Wyatt stood next to me as I peered through the binoculars, searching for the figure on the street. After a moment of frantically moving my line of sight from car to car, I finally found him. He had climbed into the back of a smashed up station wagon, and he looked terrified. He couldn’t have been more than three or four years old.
“We need to get to him.” I said as I passed the binoculars to Wyatt.
As he spotted the boy through the binoculars, I leaned further over the ledge wall to see how many zombies blocked our way out.
“Wait,” said Wyatt, confused. “There’s a guy getting in the station wagon with him. He doesn’t look infected. He must be one of Tom and Jill’s friends. ”
Squinting to get a better look, I saw the man Wyatt was talking about. He sat in the station wagon with the boy and slowly closed the door behind him.
At that moment, Ben’s voice appeared over the walkie-talkies.
“Wyatt? Eva? You there?”
Wyatt handed me the binoculars and grabbed the walkie-talkie from his backpack.
“Yeah, you guys all good?”
“We’re fine,” He answered, and I saw his head pop up from behind the wall on the opposite building. “Let’s get the hell outta here.”
“Ugh, we have a bit of a problem,” cringed Wyatt as he ran a hand through his hair. “Is Tom awake?”
“He’s downstairs with Jo making sure there’s a clear path to get out. Why? What’s the problem?” Asked Ben, exasperated.
“We think we found his son,” continued Wyatt. “He’s in one of the cars on the street with some guy. He looks okay, but we gotta help them, man.”
For a moment, all we heard through the walkie-talkie was static.
“Okay. I’ll get Tom and Jo to the RV and start it up. You two get the kid. We’re leaving now.” I watched as Ben gave us the thumbs up and disappeared from view.
Wyatt and I packed up our backpacks as fast as we could, pushed the couch out of the way of the door to the stairwell, and braced ourselves for what lay ahead.
“We can do this, Eva,” whispered Wyatt before he opened the door. “Just run for it, and smash through anything that gets in your way.”
I nodded, closed my eyes and took in a deep breath as I clutched my axe tight in front of my chest.
Wyatt pulled the door open and we started to creep down the stairwell, listening carefully for any unwelcome intruders.
By the time we reached the bottom floor, my heart was beating so hard that I could feel every pulse in my body throbbing.
“Ready?” Wyatt asked before we entered the pub.
“Let’s do this.” I replied, my voice sounded shaky but my determination was stronger than ever.
Wyatt leaned in and kissed me softly before taking hold of my hand.
As soon as he pulled the door open, we started to run.
We had made it halfway through the pub when something grabbed hold of my ankle, causing me to fall onto the hard wooden floor.
I looked down to see a zombie crawling out from under a table, a rumbling growl emerging from it’s throat as it pulled me closer.
Wyatt tried to pull me up, but another monster stumbled towards him. While he fought it off, I sat up and swung my axe at the zombie’s head as hard as I could, cracking it’s skull with a loud crunch.
The chaos had caught the attention of more zombies, who groaned loudly as they started coming at us from every direction.
I quickly pulled the axe out again and tried to stand up, but it still had a tight grip on my boot.
I looked up to see a particularly large zombie coming right at me, a sinister look in it’s dead eyes. Standing at about six feet tall with the body of a weightlifter, I was no match for such a burly beast.
Frantically, I pried it’s fingers open and jumped to my feet as soon as I was free, just in time to drive my axe right between it’s eyes, splattering blood everywhere.
As I tried to pull the axe free from it’s skull, it wouldn’t budge. Slowly, the zombie started falling forward, leaning closer and closer over me. I jumped back as fast as I could, but not fast enough. The humungous creature landed on my legs, pinning me to the floor.
Pain shot through my legs as the weight of his body held me down, but I didn’t have time to feel it; another zombie had already had it’s hungry eyes on me.
This time, my predator was a little girl, she couldn’t have been more than ten years old. A pink ribbon sat atop her curly blonde hair in a bow and her yellow dress had little smiling butterflies on it. She would have looked human if it weren’t for the dried blood all over face and the ravaged arm in her hand.
The little girl’s eyes locked onto mine as she dropped the dismembered arm to the floor. I winced in pain as I struggled to push the burly zombie off of my legs.
I could hear Wyatt still fighting zombies on the other side of the pub, there was nothing he could do to help me.
I was about to be dessert for this little zombie girl.
My eyes widened in horror as she bared her blood-stained teeth and let out a chilling snarl. Before I even had a chance to scream, she had launched herself towards me.
I anxiously tried to pull my axe free from the skull of the heavy zombie, tugging again and again. With one final bone-crunching jerk, I pulled the axe free and held it up high, ready to swipe at the blood-thirsty monster.
Just as I was about to thrash at her, the zombie slammed down onto the floor in front of me. Looking into her bloodshot eyes, I could tell she was just as confused as I was, and I watched in surprise as she started sliding backwards, away from me.
I looked up to see she was being dragged by something.
“Dixon!” I cried, grateful and relieved to see his furry face again. He pulled the zombie behind the bar and I tried not to listen to the growls and crunches as he tore her to shreds.
“Eva! Where are you?” Wyatt called from the other side of the room. The sudden silence told me he had killed the last of the zombies.
“Down here! I’m stuck!” I called back, still struggling to break free.
Wyatt ran over to me, pulled the monstrous zombie off of me and helped me to my feet.
“Are you okay?” Wyatt asked, looking me up and down for injuries.
Relief washed over me as I stood up with relatively no pain, getting a broken leg right now would mean certain death for me. “I’m fine, let’s go.”
We ran out the door of the pub, with Dixon close behind.
To our left, I could see Ben and Jo in the RV, waiting for us with the engine running.
To our right sat a maze of cars in between us and the station wagon in which Max and the man were hiding.
Wyatt gestured for Ben to follow us in the RV as we bolted towards the station wagon.
I ran up to the window and smacked my hand on the glass, causing them to jump in fright, but I knew we didn’t have time for introductions, we just had to get off of the street.
“Quick, come with us!” I said as Wyatt lifted the back door up and helped the little boy out of the car. “Run to the RV!”
The man picked the boy up and started weaving through the cars towards the RV, with Wyatt and I running close behind.
I heard the groans of zombies up ahead, but it wasn’t until we had made it out of the pile up and closer to the RV that I finally saw them. Closing in on the RV were dozens of zombies, following the sound of the engine.
Jo swung the door of the RV open from the inside and held her hand out to help us all in one by one. She was about to close the door when I realised we were missing someone.
“Wait!” I said as I stopped the door and stuck my head out of the RV. “Dixon!” I yelled, and within seconds I could see him running towards us.
As soon as he leapt into the RV, I slammed the door shut and Ben started speeding out of town, slamming into any zombie that got in our way.
“Max?” Gasped Tom, hardly able to believe his eyes.
“Dad!” Cried the little boy, and he jumped into his father’s arms.
“Tom?” Said the man, his eyes wide in shock.
“Surprised to see me, Martin?” Asked Tom through gritted teeth. “Maybe that’s because you left us for dead back there.”
Martin skulked into the corner of the RV and sat quietly on the couch, guilt smeared all over his face.
“Dad!” Max said again, smiling and touching his face as though making sure he was real.
My heart warmed as I watched the father and son embrace, tears streaming down Tom’s face. For the first time since the outbreak, something miraculous had happened, and it felt good to be a part of it.
I slumped onto the floor and hugged Dixon close, quietly thanking him for saving my life back in the pub.
“Where’s Jill?” Asked Martin, concern in his voice.
With those words, my heart sank. Tom looked at all of us, pain searing in his eyes, and once again I felt like this nightmare would never end.
Tom just glared at Martin and shook his head.
Martin didn’t say anything after that, he just sank deeper into the couch, and deeper into his guilt.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against the wall, exhausted. I felt someone sit next to me and put their arm around me tight, and I knew it was Wyatt. He kissed the side of my head, causing butterflies to flutter deep inside me.
I tried not to think about how close I came to death that day, but the image of that vicious little girl had burned itself into my memory.
I rested my head on Wyatt’s shoulder as the RV sped down the Highway, thankful to be off of the rooftop and back on the open road.
If you’re going through hell, I thought, remembering the Winston Churchill quote.
Keep going.