:D Please comment if your keeping up (: THIS CHAPTER IS INTENSE. My first BIG zombie-attack chapter.... whoa. i couldn't beleive I even wrote this. hehehe. soooo comment, or vote. (comments are better)
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Chapter 4
I jumped away from Bennett’s arms in surprise. It was hard processing the fact that there was an unfamiliar face in front of me; I know everyone, or at least recognize everyone in the society. It was small, and it wasn’t hard to get to know only about three hundred people. But I knew for a fact I had never seen him before. But… it was even harder to process the words he had said.
The Dead have escaped.
That’s impossible. The Dead could never manage to climb over the ledge, so where would they be coming from? My mind was flashing through all these possibilities in a matter of seconds.
Everyone around the ball room started to scream in terror and panic and started running in different directions. Some ran up the stairs, even though we aren’t allowed to go up into the Ruler’s headquarters. Some ran outside, even though that was where The Dead lay. There were girls crying and guys with wide eyes,. Nothing like this had ever happened. We’d never even come close to having to touch or fight The Dead. We could only look below us, a safe distance away
I finally snapped out of it when Bennett grabbed my arm and dragged me towards a crowd. In the middle of the crowd was the man, soaked with rain and sitting on one of the wooden table chairs. He seemed to be in hysterics as we came closer.
People were around him and he was talking in a panic. Many of the people were asking him questions, but he ignored them, and continued to mumble to himself.
“Who are you?” one asked.
“Yeah, where did you come from?”
“How did The Dead escape?”
Many of these questions seemed to continue.
“How many are there?” one of Bennett’s friends asked, finally getting through to the man.
The man snapped his head up and looked at him. In a panic he said, “Hundreds.”
Everyone seemed to realize the hopelessness of the situation at that moment. Everyone split away from him and stood around, not knowing what the hell to do. How could we ever overpower hundreds of The Dead? There are only three hundred of us, and all they have to do is bite us once before we are added to their army.
We are going to die…
I stiffened and started to look around frantically for Clara, but she was nowhere in sight. I spotted Levi and hurried through the masses of people towards him.
“Where’s Clara?” I asked, out of breath once I had finally reached him.
“She said she had spotted Mason,” he gulped. I could see the worry in his eyes for his little brother, and I felt my heart skip a beat.
I looked around more frantically and finally spotted Clara walking towards us again with Mason in hand next to her.
“Oh God!” I exclaimed in relief once I saw her.
I was just about to hurry over to her when I felt someone tug at my arm. I turned; surprised when I realized it was Bennett again. He had an intent look in his eyes and he started to drag me towards the doors. It took me a minute to realize what he was doing.
He wants me to go outside? Is he crazy?
I knew there was no way I was going out there yet, so I started to struggle. Sadly, it was as if I was nothing to him as he continued to pull me through the masses. Finally, I managed to get my bearings and tug my arm out of his grasp.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” I exclaimed, looking at him.
He looked at me again with surprise, but he realized what he had done. “I’m sorry; I don’t have time to explain. We need to go now, there’s too many, none of us will survive.”
I stood there, shocked. By now, Levi and Clara had managed to reach me and had caught the gist of what Bennett had said.
“You know what’s happening?” Levi asked.
Bennett looked at them warily and said, “Yes, and we need to leave, now.”
I looked at Clara and Levi, who both looked baffled.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Levi straightened himself and said, “Fine. But I need to find my parents…”
I jumped.
Mother.
“My mom!” I exclaimed in a panic.
Bennett looked worn out, “We don’t have much time… they might already be invading our society. We can’t go back for them.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“The shore,” he answered.
“My mother, I can get her on the way, right?” I asked.
He sighed. Clara was nodding viciously along with my suggestion. Bennett sighed and said, “Okay.” He muttered under his breath, “My parents must know what to do already, I’m sure they’ll get a separate boat…”
I looked at him, confused, but he simply turned around in thought and started hurrying out the doors. We followed behind him, leaving the fancy building and music behind and into the pouring, cold rain.
Once I was outside I couldn’t believe my eyes, what I was seeing completely baffled me. Around me were many people that I had never seen before, for I would know the few three hundred in our society. There were Dead attacking all around, I could only spot about five on our land from where I was, but I could spot many more attempting to cross the bridges. Many of The Rulers were gathered around the bridges edges, attempting to cut the thick, thick rope, but it seemed to be taking them forever, and The Dead were coming closer and closer as they attempted. Eventually, they gave up and split, running away before they got infected. Crowds of The Dead were crossing now the bridges now.
I screamed when I saw the sight, and grabbed Clara’s arm, pointing for her to see too. She looked at me with the scariest look I had ever seen. I had never seen Clara this frightened before.
It was then that I realized I had to hurry, that my mother was probably already scared half to death.
Terrible thoughts filled my head.
What if I got to my house and she wasn’t there?
Then what do I do?
I started to hurry to get to her. I ran past the houses and masses of people.
Right when I saw my house in the distance, I saw something terrible. Right in front of our pathetic cabin, a Dead woman had already gotten to her. My mother had been cornered between two trees, and the dead woman had already knocked her out… now reaching for her arm.
I shrieked, “Mother!”
The Dead woman already had taken a bite, but I didn’t care. I had to help her. I ran over to her, and I felt Bennett take a grab for my arm again, but I managed to slip it away from him. I reached the Dead woman and pulled her dirty hair, slamming her to the ground. The Dead woman looked up at me from the grass in surprise, before sniffing me and licking her lips. Her rotting face made me feel sick, and she reached out her hand for me, her long, dirty nails making contact with my ankle. She scratched it, and in her black eyes, I could see her aching hunger. I kicked away her hand, and the rotting thing literally snapped, now hanging from her wrist. My stomach flipped again, and I went to kick her in the face this time. I wanted to kill her; she had attacked my mother. But before I could, someone was pulling me away.
I screamed in horror. Has The Dead gotten me?
“Shhh,” a comforting voice said.
I let out a breath, it was simply Levi. I looked over at my mother now, who was lying on the ground, eyes closed. Bennett walked over to the Dead woman across from my mother’s limp form. He took out a sharp knife that he had in his pocket. He pulled back his hand, ready to plunge the thing into the monster. I quickly looked away into Levi’s chest before I could see him shove the thing into the Dead woman’s chest. I heard an inhuman gurgle sound come from her, and looked up again. Bennett pulled the knife back out, and she finally lay limp.
She was now really dead.
“I’ll be back; I need to go check on my family. You need to too Clara!” Levi said.
Clara looked uncertainly at me. She wanted to stay with me, and help me through what was happening to my mother, but she also wanted to check and see if her family was alright. If she could escape with them. If a miracle occurred.
“Go,” I said quickly. “Be careful.”
I didn’t want what just happened to my mother to happen to her family either. I could tell Clara was thinking the same thing I was, so she dropped Mason’s hand, who was crying.
“You stay here with Avery,” she said to him sternly.
He nodded quickly, too fearful to do much else. He sat down in the grass once she turned to Levi. Clara and Levi then both split up and ran in separate directions to see if it was possible to help their families.
I turned back to my mother, whose breathing was now irregular and rough. I crawled over next to her, grabbing her arm to see if it was really true. Sure enough, a big bite mark lay on her arm, red and bleeding. I stared at it in horror.
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“She’s bitten,” Bennett said, peering over my shoulder.
I shook my head in denial. This can’t be. I’ve lost my father already. I can’t lose my mother too. I just can’t.
I gripped her hand and whispered, “Mom.”
She shook her head a bit. I reached for her wrist and found her pulse, it was still beating strong, but soon enough it would slow down, and eventually stop. She would wake up with black eyes and rotten skin. A mental image of her opening her eyes popped into my head. I could see her reaching for me, aching for my flesh. I shook the image from my head quickly.
“No,” I repeated.
Suddenly, I was being pulled away from her. I screamed as Bennett lifted me up and pushed me aside.
“She’s a danger now,” he whispered.
He grabbed his knife from the ground, and I knew what he was going to do.
“No!” I screamed.
I jumped up onto his back, trying to throw him off balance. He tossed me off of him and turned back to look at me.
“Look…” he said softly. His sentenced trailed off though, and his eyes widened as his eyes caught onto something behind me. “Watch out!” he shouted.
I closed my eyes and ducked as he leaped around me with his knife. I heard an ear-splitting scream from what could only be a male, Dead man. I didn’t even look behind me; instead I turned back to my mother. I crawled back to her side as fresh tears spilled down my cheeks.
“Mom,” I whispered, my voice raspy.
I knew the infection was spreading throughout her body, even though I couldn’t see it. She was knocked out, but if she wasn’t, she would still be able to function properly for at least another two or three days before passing out and waking up as one of them.
Bennett knelt down beside me again. “She wouldn’t want to be one of them, you know this. She would rather be really dead, not one of The Dead.”
What he said was true and I started to cry harder. My mother would never want to be a monster, I’m sure none of us would. We would all rather die than become one of those.
I squeezed my mother’s hand for what I knew would be the last time.
“I love you mom,” I said.
I quickly pulled away from her, and Bennett produced his knife again. I hurried away; I could not look at this. I ran over to a bush only about ten feet away and covered my ears. I bent down into the bush and knew for sure this time I was going to be sick. I emptied my stomach into the bush and then slid down into the grass.
I looked up when I heard crying, and there Mason sat in the grass across from me. He was looking past me, at Bennett. He had seen.
I stared at him in horror. He’s only a little boy, he should never have seen something like that. I hurried over to him and hugged him to me, and he continued to cry into my lap.
“It’s okay,” I whispered.
Of course he knew better, and he shook his head at what I said.
Bennett walked back over to us again. He said sternly, “We need to go.”
“What about Clara and Levi?” I asked.
Just as I said this, I heard a gasp next to me.
“I’m here,” Levi said, out of breath.
He only had his father with him.
“Dad!” Mason exclaimed, running over to him and into his arms. “Where’s mom?” he whimpered.
There were tears in both Levi’s and Levi’s dad’s eyes. I felt a pull in my heart as I knew what must have happened.
“We must go quickly before more of The Dead start to expand back here,” Bennett said.
“What about Clara?” Levi asked. “I am not leaving without her,” he said with a determined glint in his eye.
Bennett looked exasperated. “If we keep waiting we won’t make it!”
Luckily, at that time, Clara came running down the hill with her mother and father behind her. They were all carrying sacks of what must be food and useful resources. Thank God, they were so smart. I had never even thought of that.
Bennett helped by grabbing Clara’s bag and we all followed him down to the shore. Levi hurried and grabbed Clara’s hand. There were other people going down to the shore too, but not nearly that many. Only about one fourth of our society knew about these boats, or whatever they were, that could save us.
We finally reached the shore, and sitting there, all taken out, were about seven boats. They were pretty big, and I recognized three as fishing boats, but others I had never seen before. Maybe they were emergency boats, in case of a situation like this?
They were made of carved out wood and were very big, with about five benches inside, each bench could fit about three people. Bennett hurried us onto one of the boats, where two of his friends already sat, waiting for others to board the boat so it was full. I sat between Bennett and one of his friends on one of the benches. Bennett had grabbed my arm and kind of encouraged me to sit next to him. I didn’t even really process what I was doing, I was too busy thinking and looking around myself. I was numb.
Clara, Levi, and Mason all sat in front of me, Mason seemed to be stuck to Levi now. I reached out my hands to a crying Mason, and he jumped up and sat on my lap. He curled up, hugging me as tears streamed down his face.
“Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay. It’ll all be over. We are leaving now.”
“I want my mom,” he cried.
I comfortingly smoothed his hair repeatedly and felt my heart sink.
I want my mom too…
The rain seemed to be drizzling instead of pouring now. Slowly, more people came down the hill and boarded our boat. Ours filled as many people as we could, and we waited until the other boats filled too. The last three boats were barely full when some of The Dead started to descend the hill, towards us.
“The Dead are coming! Set off now!” one of the Rulers ordered.
I watched in horror as about ten of The Dead descended the hill towards our boat. We pushed off of the shore and two of the older people, one of Bennett’s friends- one of the soon to be Rulers, and a real Ruler, rowed the boat away.
We slowly put more and more distance between us and The Dead. I felt like I was in a horror film or having a nightmare, as they came closer. They came after us, into the water, and started shuffling towards us. Of course, they couldn’t swim, so they simply tried to come after us, but started to fall under the murky surface once they followed. They struggled, but couldn’t stay above the water, and sunk.
A few normal people were waving for us to stop, they weren’t infected. But we couldn’t because too many of The Dead were by them. We had to leave them on the shore to die.
That was added to one of the worst things I had ever seen.
Mason whimpered and I squeezed him to me tighter. “It’s okay,” I whispered to him again, not knowing what else to say.
I angled us away from the sight and towards our destination.
Of course. We were going to the land across from our society. The land that everyone had always wondered about, wanting to know what may lay upon it. We came closer and closer to this new, foreign place, as we left what once had been home. What once had been my old life, with my loving mother and my warm home.
It seemed like forever, when in reality it must have been only forty five minutes. We docked our boat on the island and all got out. My feet splashed in the water and I soaked my only shoes.
I then realized that my only possessions were what I had on me now.
I looked down at what I was wearing. The dress mother had made me, my thin, cloth shoes, and my great great great…. Grandmothers heart locket.
I felt my eyes start to sting again as we landed on the shore. The other boats followed.
“What do we do now?” someone asked next to me. “There may be Dead out here too. How do we know?”
One of the Ruler’s took in a deep breath, “Oh, we’ll know all right, they’ll smell us and come after us if they are here.”
I knew what he said was true, but I didn’t want to believe it.
I looked behind him and into the dark depths of the forest. The Dead could smell our scent, possibly already, and be hunting us down as we speak.
Another Ruler shook his head, “This is too dangerous. We don’t know if The Dead are out there, and if they come for us, we won’t be able to board our boats fast enough.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” the other Ruler said.
He paused before saying. “Board the boats? Search the outside shores for signs of life… if there is any…”
If there is any…
It seems like everyone is dead.
Or Dead… I thought with bitter sarcasm.