Again I haven't edited this chapter, so ya. ENJOY! Drop a comment below!
2094: Chapter 2
A pounding in my head wakes me up. I'm not technically awake, because my eyes aren't open. Opening up my eyes would be too painful at this moment in time. The lids feeling like they weigh hundreds of pounds. I have to open up my eyes though; otherwise I'll never know what hit me.
What if a zombie has bitten me?
What if I'm a zombie right now?
What would happen to Aster?
Where is Aster?
“Imogene! Are you alright?” a voice says, but I can’t register it. I groan, so whoever is there knows I’m not dead.
I peel my lids apart and the blurry forms of Eli and Aster come into view.
“I’m so sorry Imogene! I thought you were one of those...things,” Eli apologizes, with worried eyes.
“Idiot,” I grunt at Eli.
He smiles, happy that I’m not dead. “Good to see you too.”
"I wish I could say the same thing, but you just hit me in the back of my head with a club. So sorry, I'm not the happy to see you," I scowl at Eli, while pushing myself off the dirty carpet. I rise to my feet dusting off my shoulders, finally taking notice of Eli's appearance. His usual leather jacket is now covered in a thick layer of blood and dirt, along with his pants and shoes. His dark brown has lots of dust in it. However, it was mostly by looking into his green eyes that I could tell that he had been through a lot.
"How long has it been since I’ve been out? What happened to you?" I ask, curiously.
"It’s dark out, so about eight hours now. It's a long story. We should probably focus on getting out of the city first," Eli shutters and starts to turn around, but I push him back, so that he's facing me.
"Seriously Eli, what happened?" I question him.
"Fine," he sighs. "When I was about to leave for school, I heard a loud thump from upstairs, where my mom was. My dad had already taken my sister, Eden to school, so I went to go and investigate what was going on. Once I made it upstairs I saw my mom standing by the window in her room. I couldn't see her face, but I already knew something was wrong. I called out to her a couple times, but there was still no answer. When I walked up to her to get her attention, she turned around. Her face looked like it had rotted off. And her eyes…they were the worst. Her eyes, which are usually hazel, had turned to a light blue, sort of like your right eye,” he says pointing at my face.
“Once she noticed me, she started to moan. It almost sounded like she was growling. She charged at me. I didn't know what to do, so I ran away, and tried to lock her in her bedroom. But that didn't work; she just ripped through the door. By that time, I had already grabbed a knife from the kitchen. When she came running down the stairs to where I was…I s-stabbed her," Eli begins to cry, "I stabbed my own mother. I know she wasn't my mother then, but…" he breaks off into a loud wail.
I hug Eli around his shoulders, but I’m too short, and he’s too tall, so it turns out sort of weird. Eli has always been the softy, but I had never expected him to burst out into tears.
I can't believe hard it must be for him. Killing his mother. I hope to God that my mother isn't dead, or a zombie. It would literally tear me in half if I saw her walking around oblivious to her own daughter. The only thing she would care about is killing me.
"It's alright Eli. You had to do it. She's in a better place now," I whisper to him, whilst patting his back.
"How do you know? What if this is just it? What if after you die, you just cease to exist?" he asks me, tears still pouring out of his eyes.
"We can't afford to think like that right now Eli. You have just got to believe that something… that something great is out there," I assure Eli, "but Eli, why are you covered in mud?"
"I wanted to give her a proper funeral," is all Eli says, but I don't need to ask any more questions.
Aster hasn’t said a word since I have awoken. I look over at her, and she seems to be in her own world. Perhaps she's thinking about her parents too. She catches me looking at her, and her violet eyes suddenly turn to me.
“So, what are we going to do now?” Aster asks the question we’ve all been thinking. Nobody says anything for a few minutes because we’re all trying to think of a plan.
“The only thing we can do,” Eli begins. “We have to get out of the city.”
“How are we going to do that? If you haven’t noticed there’s a fifty-foot wall surrounding us. We would never be able to get out of the city fast enough!” I yell at Eli, throwing my hands up in the air.
“I agree with Eli. We need to get out of the city. I don’t know how, but we have to get out,” Aster states.
I roll my eyes, “And how do you suppose we get out,” I ask Eli and Aster.
“I don’t know, dig a hole maybe,” Eli says giving in his idea.
“You think we should dig a hole. That is bound to be the most stupid idea I have ever heard,” I say laughing at Eli. I know it wasn’t a nice thing to say, considering his mother just died, but I had to tell him.
“I don’t know Imogene, maybe there’s a door leading out of the city. Have you ever been there?” Eli asks me, angrily. I shake my head. “I didn’t think so; we’ll decide what to do once we get there. Okay?”
I nod my head. Even though I was completely against the idea, mostly because it will probably get us all killed. Then again, staying here wasn’t much of a better option.
“What are we going to need?” Aster asks Eli and I.
“Well, I think we’re all going to need a new change of clothes,” Eli begins. I look down at my blood stained clothes and shudder. “We should also probably find some food and blankets. We can put it backpacks. And I’m going to need a weapon.”
“What about that thing you hit me with?” I ask him astonished that he wouldn’t use that.
Eli sighs, “Imogene that was a chair. I’m not going to walk around with a chair as a weapon in a Zombie Apocalypse.”
“It felt a lot harder than a chair,” I groan, while rubbing the back of my head. “I wonder if your shower still works. I could really use one.”
“You can always use a shower,” Eli laughs, “And I’m pretty sure they are still working.”
“Good,” I answer with relief. I am already making my way towards his bathroom. I have known the way around his house by heart for years. We have been friends for as long as I can remember.
I walk into his bathroom, relieved when the water still works. Stripping all my clothes off, I go and start my shower. I turn the water on as hot as it can go, and the steaming water makes my shoulders turn a bright red. After scrubbing every spot of blood off me, I start to wash my hair. I dig my fingers into my thick brown hair, and start to massage in the shampoo. Now that I am finished my shower, I leave the water running and stand under the meltingly hot liquid.
I can’t believe the virus has started up again! In our city too! Wasn’t Salvatore supposed to be a safe city for people to go to if the virus had ever started up again? Why are there zombies in here? Who let them in? Maybe it started in here. But that would make no sense at all!
The truth of the zombies’ existence still pounds away in my head. Yes, I knew that zombies had been real. But they just seemed like a thing you would see in a movie. Not in real life. Especially not in my life!
Aster, Eli, and I will probably waste away if we don’t get over that wall. Maybe there is a door, like Eli suggested. But there was an equal chance that there wasn’t.
I wonder what’s behind the wall. Another city like ours? Maybe it is just fields of wheat and grass, just like the pictures they showed in the textbook at school.
A loud pounding pulls me out of my shower trance. “Imogene, get out of the shower! You’re wasting all the water!” Eli’s voice yells through the door. Now that I have come back to reality I realize that the water that I’m standing under is in fact cold. I turn off the shower.
When I step out, I notice new clothes sitting on the toilet seat. I recognize them to be Eli’s sister Eden’s, clothes. I pull on a green tank top and a brown leather jacket, then pulling on blue jeans. Luckily, Eden is also the same shoe size as me, so I also put on her brown Doc Martins.
Then I go and join the others. I notice that Eli and Aster have both taken showers already. Aster is in Eden’s clothes like I am.
Both of them have busied themselves with a job. Eli is packing a backpack full of canned goods. And Aster is packing one full of blankets.
“Anything I can do?” I ask, needing to help someone.
“Took long enough, Princess,” Eli grunts. “Could you get some knives from the kitchen? And then go get more clothes from upstairs?”
“Sure,” I reply, as I walk over to his kitchen. I pull open the knife drawer and take out three some-what large knives. I then bring them back to the living room where Aster and Eli are, and place them on the couch.
“Thanks,” Eli whispers, concentrated on his work.
“No problem,” I start to head upstairs to where the bedrooms are, so I can get extra clothes. I walk into Eden’s room. She had been obsessed with army things. And she hated the color pink. I go into her camouflage drawer and pick out a blue tank top with two long sleeved shirts. Then I go to her pants drawer, and I get out two pairs of jeans and leggings. I then move on to Eli’s room getting him a few t-shirts and jeans as well.
I walk back down stairs with the bundle of clothes in my arms.
“Here, put the clothes in this backpack,” Aster says when she notices me, and hands me a green un-zipped backpack. I take the clothes one by one, and put them in the bag. After I’m finished I zip it up.
“We should split up the stuff, just in case one of us…” I don’t finish the sentence, but everyone knows what I mean. We all agree to split up the stuff. I give some clothes over to Eli and Aster. They both give me some of their things. Then I zip up the backpack once more.
“Okay, everything we need is packed up,” Eli proudly tells us, his hands crossed over his chest.
“Shall we go?” Eli asks. Aster and I nod. “Okay grab a knife from the couch, and take your bats and clubs.”
I go and get a knife; it’s probably around six inches long. That’s big enough to go through someone’s head right? I then go to pick up my bat, which I had almost forgotten about. Aster and Eli do the same.
We head out the same way that Aster and I came in, through the backdoor. Everything outside has seemed to cool down. Although, the black car I saw going into Eli’s house is still flaming a bright orange.
We carefully creep along the sidewalk. No one says a word. It would be dead silent if there weren’t the moans of zombies in the distance.
The Wall surrounding the city is about ten or twelve blocks away from us. If we were to run, we could make it there in no time. But running could cause un-wanted attention. So we walk.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a zombie stumbling its way towards us. I point it out to Eli, and he walks over to the fumbling corpse. They smell even worse than the last time I saw them. I guess once you die, your body immediately starts to decay. It’s probably been about a day since this guy became a zombie, and he already stinks like an outhouse.
Eli has made it to the zombie, taking out his knife. When the corpse is about to pounce on him, Eli stabs him in the eye, hitting his brain, and thus ending the zombie’s life. Eli gets a load of blood splattered on to his clothes. So much for that shower he took.
He then strides over to Aster and I. “That was gross,” Eli whispers to me.
“I bet,” I breathe back.
We continue our way towards the wall. So far, the zombie that Eli killed has been the only one we’ve seen.
Where are they? I think. Maybe we’re lucky, and we won’t see another one till we get to the wall.
That seems very doubtful though.
The once clean sidewalk that we have been walking on is now a sickly red color. I don’t want to know what happened here. The three of us walk by a wall with the words, “Help Us!” on it. The phrase is written in a crimson color. Blood.
Too much blood. And no zombies.
We have walked about three blocks already. Seven more blocks to go, and we’re free. Well, not technically free. We still need to find a way to get over or under the wall.
Eli whispers to Aster and I. “Do you hear that? The moaning?”
I listen hard, and do in fact hear a crazy moaning sound. “We must be close to some zombies. Be careful guys,” I mumble to them.
We walk through the empty streets. The moaning was getting louder, the zombies closer. I look over to Aster, fear etched onto her face. We turn onto Thirty-second Street, five blocks away from the wall. The sight before us takes my breath away. Takes all our breath away.
Zombies.
Groups of zombies stand by the corner. Waiting for something. Something that rhymes with chains. They knew we were coming before we even got there.
Why does this always happen to us! I shout mentally. First at the school, and now this!
“Run!” Eli yells. I don’t need someone to tell me though; I’m already high-tailing it the other way with Eli and Aster on my heels. Zombies on their heels. Loud grunts fill the streets as more zombies come out of not-so-abandoned buildings.
As I run, I crank my head back to see how close the zombies are. Bad idea. They’re pretty much right beside Aster. If they reached their arms out she’d be gone. Luckily, zombies are stupid. Otherwise we’d all be dead by now.
Eli takes the lead, running ahead of us. I’ve never been good at running. My legs slowly start to ache. Aster catches up to me. Tears are slipping down her face frantically.
“Where...are we going?” I pant out to Eli.
He turns his head back, about to respond, but then his eyes go as wide as the moon. “Watch out!” he yells.
Something hits Aster and I, pulls us down to the ground. It knocks the wind out of me and I wiggle around, so I can attack this zombie head on. Literally.
The zombie that pounced on Aster and I, was a young girl. Her skin was a pale green color and her arms were twisted in an odd, unnatural way. She hardly had any hair, save for the large clumps randomly scattered along her scalp. Her rotting breath infiltrates my nose.
I punch her in the face. I know that won’t help me at all, but it was the first thing I could think of. The second thing was to scream.
Another zombie that resembled an old man was attacking Aster. She took out her knife and stabbed it in the eye.
My knife! I can use that! I search for the knife, but come out empty handed. The little girl is still trying to eat my face off. I kick wildly, and catch her in the stomach. I spot my knife a good three feet away from me.
Three feet. Doesn’t seem that far away. But when you have a zombie on you it feels like three thousand.
Using all the strength I have, I push the little girl off of me and scramble to my feet. I dive for the knife, just as the little girl grabs hold of my ankle. Getting a good grip on the knife, I twist around and stab the little girl in the head. Blood oozes out of her, as she falls to the ground.
I’m sorry.
I look around for Aster, but I can’t find her anywhere. All I hear is a loud scream coming from the middle of the zombie group. I head towards it, even though I know it’s a death sentence. I stab a zombie that was looking at me with hungry eyes.
I must look like a lunatic.
That’s when I see a blonde head screaming. Blood splatters her clothes, and small bites cover her body. Aster’s eyes recognize me instantly.
“Go! Imogene! It’s too late for me!” she cries out.
“I can’t leave you!” I yell.
Aster’s body starts shaking violently. She’s turning. “Leave!” she yells at me.
I nod my head quickly, and turn. Not before I notice Aster’s purple eyes had turned blue. I start to run. Thee zombies are still focused on Aster, so I have a head start. Eli is nowhere to be seen. He can’t be dead. Please don’t let him be dead.
The zombies begin to chase after me now. My legs feel dead. I can barely run now, little own run fast, so the zombies catch up to me easily. I feel their fingers tangling in my hair trying to pull me closer to them. A zombie gets a good grip on my arm. I try to pull it back, but he’s already taking my arm to his lips. Suddenly time stops. I watch, helplessly as the zombie takes a good chunk of skin out of my arm. Time starts again.
Ten seconds that’s all I get. All I get before I turn into one of them.