Word count: 3000
My eyes felt heavy as I woke up, stinging from the late sleep. I was alone in my bed and grabbed the covers so I could wrap them around myself. I snuggled into them in the lightroom, not caring about getting up. I could hear someone snore and knew I could still rest for a little while. As I gripped the covers for warmth, my mind seemed to wake up and my eyes opened wide in panic. I threw the covers off me as my muscles woke up all at once, my heart beating too fast and my face getting warm with anxiety. Caleb. He was there earlier. I jumped out of the makeshift bed and circled around the room but couldn't see him anywhere; there was just Em and Tyler asleep on the bed. I even looked under their bed but all that lay there was a dirty old sock that probably belonged to the owners and my hatchet.
I was about to rush out the door when Caleb appeared, two bowls in his hand. My whole body froze and I felt a flood of relief swarm my body.
"Oh my god Caleb! Don't wander off," I said seriously, worry consuming my voice.
"Sorry mum," I arched an eyebrow at him to figure out if he was being serious or not but I couldn't tell. I figured he was probably mocking my reaction and I was just trying to read too much into a nine year olds words. "I was looking around and found cereal under a table so I made you some as a thank you."
He handed me a bowl and I lightly smiled at him.
"Thanks... but don't wander too far without me again," I told him as I walked back over to the makeshift bed.
"Sorry," he mumbled a second time and joined me. I left it there. I didn't have the energy to start up an unpleasant conversation, he apologised what more was there to say?
"It's okay." I ruffled his hair with one hand and a smile broke out on his face. I couldn't be too harsh he just didn't know the dangers...
We began to eat the dry cereal. Surprisingly, they were pretty good dry so I wasn't too fussed about having no milk. Besides dry cereal is better than wet cereal with lumpy milk in it.
"What was your dream about last night?" I asked Caleb after I swallowed some more food.
"Um..." he started a bit awkwardly. "I dreamt zombies came in. They took you first and then the others. I couldn't do a thing... it felt so real." He looked up from his bowl and looked me straight in the eyes, "I wish I could fight like you."
In that moment, it dawned on me that I didn't even know how to fight. Before all of it, I barely went outside never mind getting involved in close up combat. My dad used to encourage me to go to martial arts classes but I never paid much attention when I went and so my dad stopped sending me, he instead opted to teaching me a few self-defense things in the hopes I would be able to fend off any kidnappers that happened to cross my path.
"It's mainly spur of the moment for me. I didn't think I could fight but you get the hang of it," I told him. "But you won't need to because I'm here."
"I'd rather learn... So I can protect you if I need to."
"I'm supposed to be the one to protect you silly," I said, even though that actually wasn't my job. I had no idea what I was signing up for when I saved Caleb that day but it appeared that I had accidently signed a contract that bound me into making sure nothing happened to the boy. I took note that Em had stopped her look-out job but I couldn't really be mad at a pregnant woman. It was still hard to knock out the thought that we had been open to attack for who knows how long... I thought for a bit and came to the conclusion that teaching Caleb might be a good idea, just in case something happened to me or in case he decided to wander off again and got himself into trouble. "I guess some training would put my mind at rest. We'll eat this and I'll teach you a few tricks yeah?"
"Yeah!" He exclaimed and began to shovel food into his mouth as I looked on in amusement. "Hurry up," he told me with his mouth full. I shook my head laughing and began to eat.
"What's first?" he asked when we got into the living room. We decided to move so Tyler and Em could get more sleep.
"Firstly let's start with some trivia," I told him as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. He stayed quiet as he waited for me to continue. "Where do you aim?"
"The head," he said without hesitation, I nodded.
"If there's a group of them what do you do?" His eyes widened and he stuck his tongue out slightly as he thought.
"Um... run?" He said, a bit unsure.
"Good!" I rewarded him. The other option was to try to go around them quietly if he could or even fight them, but I made the quick mental decision that running would be his best chance of survival.
I couldn't think of any more questions so I just went on to the next thing: fighting without a weapon. "You'll want to use their body weight against them," I said, reciting the words my dad used to tell me if someone tried to hurt me. "Try and knock me down," I said and pretended to be an infected, Caleb started giggling so I snapped out of character and gave him a hard stare. He stopped and positioned his body in a karate kid style. I shuffled towards him again. He ran forward and scooped his foot behind my leg. He pulled it forward and I felt my body go down quickly. I stared up at him in shock.
"I used to cheat in football..." he trailed off and I burst out laughing. I leaned up and Caleb helped me up the rest of the way.
"Okay, I think you'll do fine," I breathed out. "Just remember. If one goes on top of you, hold its arms away and put your head to the side away from it," I told him as I remembered the one from yesterday, "and with a weapon just aim for the head, simple as that."
"How do I hold my knife?" He asked me and I titled my head to the side. He got the tool out of his pocket and opened it up. He held it awkwardly.
As I tried to help his positioning I heard footsteps getting closer. A fast, rhythmic sound. I whipped my head up to see Tyler.
"Remi! You're needed," he said as he kneeled over out of breath.
"Whats happening?" I asked confused.
"We found a room and well..." he trailed off looking for the right words and finally settled on, "look for yourself. "
Caleb and I rushed up the stairwell after Tyler. I nearly tripped up the steps trying to match his speed but just kept going, it was obviously something important. I saw Em standing by ladders that led to the attic, one room no one checked - until then obviously.
"I think Caleb should stay down here," Em said and Tyler nodded. I told him to stay put as Em stood to the side and allowed me to go up the metal steps. I tried to prepare myself.
I made my way up and heard the metal creak as another body joined me into the attic. As we all stood in there, I heard metal click against wood. The attic smelled of a house riddled with damp; a dusty smell mixed with the odor of rusted over metal. Tyler pulled a cord and a yellow beam shined down onto a figure.
It was thin and had centimeter thick blonde hair that went down to its shoulders. The thing itself was covered with almost transparent grey skin that clung to fat covered bones. What I noticed most was that it was chained up.
"What's the big deal?" I questioned the pair as they stood terrified. It seemed as though someone wanted to keep a family member alive and did that. I could understand that. I mean who would want to end the life of someone they love? Even when the person they love is already gone. "Just kill it?" I suggested and was about to leave when Tyler stepped in the way.
"Not that easy." I gave him a confused look.
"It... it can talk," I took a sharp intake of breath in as Em spoke.
"How!?" I exclaimed, inhaling so deeply that a metal tang was left hanging in the back of my throat. Up until that point, I had thought their brains were decayed so that shouldn't be possible.
"R!" I almost fell down the hole in the floor as the infected spoke. Its voice was deep and gravely but it definitely said something. It sounded like someone who had been drowning in water gasping for their first breath of air as they finally resurfaced.
"R?" I said as I stalked closer to the thing. Glaring at it as though I expected it to articulate a sentence I could understand.
"That's all it keeps saying. R, R, R..." Em told me as I made my way to the middle of the room, the infected was on the wall at the far end.
"What's R?" I questioned it when I was a bit closer.
"R!" It growled and rushed forward. I fell to the floor as it almost grabbed me, only to be held in place by the chains. It screamed at me over and over, the one letter, as its muscles flexed under the pressure of the chain. It's spit foamed in its mouth. I got up from the floor and stumbled back to the group as brick dust fell from where the chain was stuck down.
We all got out the attic and I placed my head on the wall as I tried to calm myself. I had thought all the infected were brain dead but what if they still had some emotions in them? Then I had killed a living being. Multiple living beings.
"Are you R...?" Tylers accusing voice sounded in my ears but I stayed where I was. "Remi. R-E-M-I," he continued, putting emphasis on the 'R'
"I don't even know what you're on about," I said with clenched eyes, "how could I be R when I don't even know what that brain-dead monster is talking about?"
"Tyler, stop being paranoid dear," Em told him and he finally went silent.
"What- what the heck is that thing?" I asked, not liking the unanswerable question that still hung between us.
"You tell us!" Tyler crossed his arms around his chest and I saw his jaw clench.
"Ignore him," Em reassured me
"No! Don't "ignore him"! We don't even know her." He pointed at me. I felt anger spark inside me as he did so. "She could be behind all this for all we know."
"Yeah, a sixteen year old girl who just scraped a B in her science mock is capable of making a fucking zombie apocalypse happen! Such fucking logic!" I burst out, feeling my face go bright red.
"Everyone calm down!" Em hushed us.
"REMI!! HELP!!" My ears perked up as I heard Caleb's voice. It was only then that I realised he wasn't there with us.
"Caleb!" I called as I looked around the top floor rooms, only to discover he wasn't there either.
"HELP!" His cry traveled to my ears once again and he sounded far away, I ran out to the hallway and saw Em pointing towards the stairs.
"Down there," she said and I ran down.
I wanted to yell something encouraging to him but I could barely get enough air in to breathe, let alone come up with a coherent sentence that I could yell down to him. I heard a groan downstairs, getting louder at each step.
I could see Caleb in the hallway when I reached the bottom step. He was being backed into the end door by an infected, I felt a breeze hit my back from the open front door.
Caleb had his knife out and was swinging it about trying to jab the infected but his attempts failed each time. I gripped the air expecting my hatchet to be there but was shocked when I remembered it was still under the bed. I clenched my fists and ran forward. I gripped the infected's shirt and yanked it down with force. I clenched my teeth and pulled harder until it fell to the ground. I climbed over the creature and puts it's arms up.
"Caleb get it!" I yelled helplessly but all I heard was crying and no one else was in sight. Em and Tyler hadn't come down. Why weren't they helping? Why wouldn't Caleb kill the thing? Why had I left my weapon so far out of reach? All questions were unanswerable.
I saw another infected approach the door and felt like crying.
"Caleb please stab it now!" I urged him and was shocked as the little boy crouched down by its head. The infected began to push into me harder and hissed, trying to get a bite out of Caleb. He raised his knife and I saw the infected outside reach the first slab step.
"You can do it," I told him, trying to mask my fear.
Caleb lifted his knife up and pushed it into the infected's skull, I felt it stop moving and let go. I grabbed the knife off Caleb and ran to the door. I stabbed the second one and saw more approaching the gate. I kicked another into the garden before shutting the door behind it. I grabbed the table at the side and pushed it in front of the door.
I ran over to Caleb, who was still kneeling over the dead creature, and pulled him up and into a hug where he cried into me. I was so proud of him. I was so happy to still be alive. I felt his tears seep through my shirt and once he calmed down I pushed him away and checked him for bites.
"Did it get you?" I said as I patted him down.
"I'm okay, I'm okay, stop! Remi I'm fine," he told me as he squirmed away.
"Why are you down here by yourself? What did I tell you?" My tone was softer than I thought it would be.
"I heard something moving... I thought I could take it down by myself," he said and I thought that maybe 'training' him wasn't the best idea.
I put my hands either side of his shoulder and looked at him. "You could've been bitten! You know how lucky you are?"
"Sorry."
"No! This is more than a sorry!" I said.
"I won't do it again."
"You better not." Before I could say more my attention was diverted to the front door as an infected tried to barge its way through.
I heard Em come down the stairs, closely followed by an annoyed looking Tyler. I bet he was hoping I would die down there, that would make him feel a whole lot better. They both walked past us and into the front room, Em pulled the curtain back and clutched her stomach protectively.
"There's more of them outside," she said.
"Isn't it coincidental that the skeletons seem to follow us where ever we go?" Tyler growled as he looked out of the window and then his eyes lay on me.
"Are you shitting me?" I looked to see Caleb staring wide eyed at me for swearing and I tried to calm down. "They're everywhere," I mumbled.
"We saw barely any before you happened!" He hissed. "Was this your plan? To kill us off because you certainly did a good job." I bit the side of my mouth as I thought of Pat and Connor.
"You can't blame me." I felt a tug on the hem of my shirt and looked to see Caleb.
"Will them things get in?" He asked and I shook my head although it there was a high chance that they would. I looked out the window and saw them coming through the gate. Their feet battering against the path leading up to the front door, all of them knew we were in there and it was only a matter of time before they broke the door down.
"We should go," I said to no one imparticular.
"Out there!" Tyler said "Are you crazy? No way!"
"Well if we don't we'll die in here," I whispered so Caleb didn't hear. Tyler glared into my side as I moved away from the window.
"Remi's right," Em spoke up, "we can go out the back and avoid them." Even as she said it she continued to rub her stomach anxiously.
"No way!" Tyler interjected.
"I know I seem mad but listen," Em started calmly. "I don't want to die here, I want a fighting chance." I nodded at Em, I couldn't have put it any better myself. The thing she didn't say, that I thought, was that I didn't want to die without knowing what this thing is, what started the apocalypse. After coming so far I wanted to go all the way and find out. And after finding the infected 'R', I wanted to know so much more.
"Let's go then," Tyler mumbled, obviously not happy.
"I'll meet you out back, I need to get my weapon," I told them quickly and went into the hallway. As I reached the first step I heard a bang on the front door and turned to see the glass panels cracking. We didn't have long.