I looked into the security post, noticing the guard was gone. I winced at the sound of a woman screaming and tried to open the door. It was no use, the guard had locked it. I could see that the door on the other side was open, so if I could find another way in, I could get to my knife.
There was another explosion and the smell of blood mixed with smoke reached my nostrils. Why were there bombs going off inside? What was happening? Were my friends okay?
I noticed there were zombies everywhere, trying to break the wall or climb over. When I looked to my left, I saw a huge gap in the wall, where the zombies were able to easily find their way into the once protected city. One of the bombs that went off must've destroyed it. I waited until the zombies were inside before quickly running towards the gap, pushing myself through and scanning my surroundings.
There was fire surrounding me. All the houses that seemed so lovely were now burning to the ground. I heard screams coming from everywhere and I shivered, shaking my head and focusing on why I was here. The group. Get to the group.
I heard a low growl behind me and quickly turned around, seeing there were even more zombies coming this way. I quickly jumped forward and sneaked towards the security post, going inside and pulling at the drawer. It wouldn't budge.
"Fuck," I muttered, remembering that the guard had the keys around his neck. That meant there was no way I could get my knife. How was I ever going to find the group without any weapon for safety?
I was about to leave the security post when I heard gunshots and cheering, so I stumbled back inside, crouching behind the wall and just listening. There were more gunshots and the sound of people chanting. They were chanting a name.
"Duncan, Duncan, Duncan!" I carefully peeked around the corner, seeing a bunch of people wearing black hoodies and masks. The masks were terrifying; they seemed to be made of skin. One eye was stitched shut, while the other was just a hole with black fabric behind it, a thick, dark substance leaking down from it. The mouth was stuck in a huge grin, more of the weird substance dripping down around it. It made me shiver and I quickly looked away. I really hoped that dark substance wasn't blood.
They stopped cheering and I could hear them talking about something. I was too far away to be able to actually make out any words, so I peeked around the corner once again to see what they were doing. It was like they didn't have a care in the world, talking to each other and killing all zombies that came too close to them. I had no doubt in my mind that these guys were the ones who blew up the city.
They just seemed to be talking and laughing when two of them suddenly gave each other a high five before mentioning to the group to follow them. They were headed in my direction.
Shit.
I quickly scrambled up from behind the wall and searched around the room for a place to hide. Why on earth did they make the security post so damn small?! In my panic I tried to open the drawer and the door once again, but of course they were both still locked. What now? I had nowhere to go and these masked people were coming closer. I had no other choice than to just stand there and wait for them to get here.
Or so I thought.
"Cry, over here!" I heard a small voice whisper from next to me and I jumped, turning to see blond locks. It was Davon. He pushed the chair from the guard out of the way and revealed that he had made a small opening in the thin wall of the post. Davon was covered in mud and he had red, puffy eyes. I wasted no time in taking his hand and allowing him to lead me through the opening and away from the security post.
"Davon, are you okay? Where are your mom and sister?" I asked once we were far enough away from the masked people. The buildings around us were already completely destroyed by the flames.
"They're okay. They are waiting for me outside I think," he said, to which I nodded.
"Listen, I'm going to get you out of here, and then I need to find my friends," I told the little boy, taking his hand again and leading him towards the partly destroyed wall.
"No, I'm going to help you find your friends!" Davon said, pulling his hand from my grip and walking back towards the burning buildings. I quickly ran over to him and lifted him. There was no way I was going to let him follow me.
"Go find your mom and sister. I promise I'll find you when I get back." I climbed through another part of the wall that had been blown up and placed Davon on the grass, ruffling his hair and telling him I would be back soon. He huffed but said 'okay', making me sigh in relief. Alright, Davon was away from the danger.
I climbed back through the wall and started running through the city, ignoring all the screams of people locked inside their houses. I needed to find my friends, and I needed to find them now. Once they were safe, I could see what else I could do for people.
Once I got to the little house we lived in, my eyes widened in shock when I saw how much damage the flames had already done. It was no longer white with some green ivy covering the walls. It was black and falling apart, the flames so bright they hurt my eyes. I wasn't sure what to do until I heard a familiar scream.
"Russ!" I yelled, running towards the house and climbing through one of the broken windows. I coughed when I inhaled an amount of smoke, feeling my throat burning already.
"Russ!" I tried again, finally getting an answer.
"Cry? Where are you?" I heard Scott yell from somewhere next to me. I made my way through the living room - careful not to get too close to the flames, because I wasn't really planning to catch on fire - and looked through the hallway. I quickly spotted Russ' brown hair and rushed towards him, about to ask whether he was okay when I saw Scott. His leg was trapped underneath a beam that had fallen from the ceiling, and Russ was trying to lift it. I immediately helped Russ and together we managed to lift the beam off Scott's leg, allowing him to crawl away. Russ and I dropped the beam again and helped Scott stand.
"Where are-" I started, but was cut off by another beam falling down and barely missing us. We took this as our cue to leave and hurried out of the house, climbing out of the same window I came through. Once we were outside and at a safe distance from the flames, Russ and Scott let themselves fall on the ground.
"Where are the others?" I tried again, looking around us in case there were any zombies nearing us.
"I-I don't know. We g-got split up," Russ stuttered. He was shaking terribly and it looked like he was about to pass out or burst into tears.
"What happened?" I wanted to know. Scott shared a glance with Russ and then looked at me.
"We heard an exlosion and people started screaming. We tried to leave the house but there was another explosion and I got s-stuck underneath a beam," he explained, looking at the house. "Russ tried to help me but the others had already gone outside."
"So the others are out here somewhere?" I said, more to myself than to Scott and Russ, but they nodded anyway.
"Shit, we need to find them. There are freaks with masks walking around and shooting people," I explained, earning a confused look from both guys. I ignored them and helped them up. They were able to walk, which was good, but they kept coughing due to the amount of smoke they inhaled.
None of us had a weapon - they were still locked in the drawer, after all - so we quietly walked through the city, avoiding all the zombies and humans we saw. There were bodies everywhere and I could hear people crying and screaming. Russ covered his ears and I noticed that Scott went pale, but I just did my best to ignore the pleads for help and focused on finding the others. I just hoped they were together and alive.
We walked around for a little while, trying to find our friends, when someone suddenly grabbed my arm.
"Cry, over there!" Scott pulled me to a stop and I looked up, spotting Jack and Mark in an alley between two houses. They were crouched on the ground, looking at something.
"Guys!" Scott called out, running over to them. I cringed at the sudden loud sound of Scott's voice and looked at Russ, who seemed panicked. I ran after Scott and Russ soon followed as well.
"I'm so glad you guys are-" Scott started, but suddenly froze and muttered a swearword. I frowned and looked over his shoulder, gasping when I saw what Jack and Mark were looking at. Ken was lying on the ground, his eyes closed and a puddle of blood surrounding him. There were multiple bullet wounds in his chest and stomach, some deeper than the other, and it didn't look like he was breathing.
Russ quickly looked away and gagged, covering his mouth with his hand. I didn't blame him.
"Is he..." Scott started, but we all knew the answer already. There were tears running down Mark's cheek and Jack started sobbing, hiding his face in his hands. Mark quickly pulled him in a hug and allowed him to cry on his shoulder.
I was completely frozen. I didn't know what to do, what to say. I hadn't been that close with Ken, but it still felt absolutely horrible to see him lying there. He was one of my friends after all. I couldn't imagine the pain Mark and Jack were feeling. They had just lost their best friend.
"W-We should go. We need to find the others," Scott said carefully. He didn't want to be the one to pull them away from his body, but he was right, we needed to find the others and get out of this place. Luckily, Mark just nodded and stood up, helping Jack up as well. With one last glance at Ken, we continued walking, Jack still sobbing. It was such a heartbreaking sound. Russ was crying as well, constantly wiping his cheeks with his sleeves. We kept walking until we heard gunshots from right ahead of us, followed by a familiar voice.
"Snake..." Scott mumbled, running towards the sounds.
"Wait, Scott!" I quickly ran after him and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back. It wasn't safe to just run towards the sound of gunshots. However, Scott just pulled his arm away and ran across the street - me still running after him, in case I needed to pull him away from the crossfire - when we heard Snake's voice again. I stopped and looked to my left, seeing the others in the middle of the street, Snake tightly holding a gun in his right hand. Scott called out to him and he looked in our direction, seemingly relieved when he saw us.
"Thank god..." Scott sighed in relief and hurried towards the group, immediately sticking to Snake's side. Minx smiled when she saw us and said something to Krism, who was silently crying. I saw Felix and I couldn't help but smile when he gave the still crying Russ a hug, patting him on his back and talking to him. Snake put the gun away and I frowned, looking around us. How did he get that gun? I soon found my answer when I saw one of the guard's bodies a few feet away from us, his stomach ripped open by zombies. Gross.
"Wait, where's Ken?" Minx asked quietly, looking between Mark and Jack. We all stayed quiet and that's exactly what confirmed it. Minx brought her hand up to her mouth in shock and Snake looked down at the ground. Jack started crying all over again and Mark hugged him, telling him it would be okay while trying to hold back tears himself. I took a deep breath and distracted myself by drawing figures in the sand with my shoes.
"Let's just get the fuck out of here," Scott said and Snake nodded. They took their usual positions as leaders of the group and - for the first time since I had joined this group - I was extremely thankful for that. They were the best leaders a group could have.
As we passed the body of the dead guard, I stopped and stepped towards him. It was the same guard; the one with the keys to our weapons.
"Cry, what are you doing?" Russ asked. I just crouched down next to him and ripped the keys off his neck, dangling them in the air.
"He won't be needing this anymore," I mumbled, getting up and showing the keys to the others. "We can get out weapons back with these."
They just nodded and we hurried towards the exit. I felt uncomfortable and unsafe, but at least Snake had a gun so we weren't completely unprotected anymore. It was unsettling that most of the people that had been screaming and pleading for help were quiet now. I was pretty sure it wasn't because someone had saved all of them.
We got back to the security post and none of the masked freaks were around, so we quickly ran towards the post. Before we reached it, however, I saw something from the corner of my eyes that made my blood run cold. I stopped, causing Felix to bump into me, but I couldn't care less about that.
He was dead.
Davon was dead.
I slowly walked up to his small body, praying that I was just imagining things, praying that what I saw wasn't real, praying that it wasn't the cute boy I'd gotten to love so much. The closer I got to him, the more it dawned on me that it wasn't my imagination. His clothes were covered in blood and his eyes were wide open in shock. A bullet had found its way straight through his head.
I realized everyone was looking at me as I crouched next to Davon, looking at him with tears in my eyes. I thought I had saved him. I thought he was out of harms way, that he was with his mother and sister. Davon saw me as a hero, but I couldn't even safe him. He was dead because of me.
"I'm so sorry..." I whispered. I softly closed his eyelids so he looked more peaceful, wiping some blood from his cheek. I tried to hold back the tears, but I just couldn't, so I eventually gave up and let them roll down my cheeks. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up, seeing Felix standing next to me. He had tears in his eyes as well.
"Cry, we need to go..." Felix softly grabbed my arm and helped me on my feet, pulling me with him. I was too numb to say anything or to fight back so I just walked with him into the security post and gave the keys to Snake. He quickly opened the drawer and everyone took their weapons. I didn't even care that Scott took my knife again, it really didn't matter. It was just a knife.
As soon as Snake unlocked the door, we started running. We didn't care about zombies seeing us, we just wanted to get as far away from the destroyed city as possible, so we ran and ran until we reached the forest. Once there, I let myself fall on the grass, looking up at the leaves that were blocking the night sky. I heard that Krism and Jack were both still crying, Minx and Mark each trying to calm the two down. I was silently crying as well, but they luckily weren't able to see it thanks to my mask. The world started spinning and and I closed my eyes, allowing sleep to take over.