The Dead Walk Among Us

Chapter 7: Survival

It's morning. Elizabeth wakes up.
"How much longer?" Alex asks.
"Half an hour," I say.
"We're that close? Good," Elizabeth says. "Hey, what's your grandparents address?"
"Twenty-five-thirty three," Jake says.
"That's about six or seven houses away from my parents. I never knew we were that close," Elizabeth says.
"I'm hungry," Alex says.
"We are almost there. We'll eat at my parents' house," Elizabeth says.

After a while of driving, we get to Emerald street.
"That's my parents' house!" Elizabeth says pointing at a light blue house. I stop. She gets out.
"Take them to their grandparents' house, then come back here," Elizabeth says.

She goes up to the door. I drive down the street.
"There!" Alex says pointing at a light yellow house.

I pull into the driveway. We get out. I go up to the door. I knock. No answer. I try opening the door and it's locked.

"There's a back door, maybe we could try that," Alex says. We walk around to the back. I knock on the back door. No answer again. I kick the door open. Alex steps inside.

"Stay back. We don't know who's here," I say. I walk through the kitchen. I hear a crunch under my foot. I look down to see a bloody bone. I then hear a scream and a growl.
"Get to the car," I say.

Suddenly the door in front of me swings open. A woman with blood all over her face growls and lunges towards me. I back away. It's a zombie with red eyes.

"Get outside!" I yell. I pull my gun out and run outside. The zombie follows us. Alex trips over a rock. The zombie grabs her arm as she's getting up. Jake throws a rock at the zombie causing the zombie to run at him. I shoot the zombie in the arm. The zombie falls over. I run over and shoot the zombie in the head. Alex walks over.
"Your not bit, right?" I ask.
"I'm fine...we have to find our grandparents," Alex says.
"Fine, but I go in first, and you two stay back," I say.

We walk into the house once again. There is a blood trail leading up the stairs. We slowly ascend the stairs.

"Help me!" a woman screams.
"Stay down here," I say to Alex and Jake. I reach the second floor. There's a woman sitting up against the wall. She's bleeding. She's too young to be their grandmother.
"Help...me. There's another...one of those things. In that room," the woman says pointing to a bedroom.

I walk over to the room. Alex is behind me. Jake is waiting by the top of the stairs. I go to the door. I kick it open.

Someone is sitting on the bed. The person turns around. There's blood all over the person. I look at their eyes. It's a zombie. The zombie leaps from the bed and lunges towards me. I quickly slam the door shut. The zombie bangs on the door.
"Run!" I yell to Jake and Alex.

They run downstairs. I hold the door closed. What do I do? The zombie pulls on the door almost opening it. This one is strong!

The woman who was sitting against the wall gets up. She growls and charges towards me. She turned already? There's a door to the left of me. I open the door and slam it shut. Both zombies bang on the door violently. What do I do here? There has to be another way out!

I'm in a small bathroom. I lock the door. There's a window in here. I see Alex and Jake running from three people who I'm guessing are zombies. I open the window. I climb out and stand on the porch roof. I walk towards the edge of the roof. I jump down onto the ground. I run towards the zombies.
"Alex! Jake! Get to the car!" I yell. They run to the car. I pull out my gun and shoot the zombies. I run to the car and get in.
"You guys okay?" I ask.
"Yeah,"  Alex says.
"Jake, you alright?" I ask.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he says.

I start the car. I drive back to Elizabeth's house. She's sitting on the front porch with a note in her hand. I pull the car up and get out.

"Did you find your parents?" I ask.
She stands up.
"No, they left a note for me. They were headed to the city. They needed some supplies so they left," she says.
"How far is this city?" I ask.
"A long ways. About a five hour drive," she says.
"Then we're going to the city," I say.
"Are you serious?" she asks.
"I don't have any where else to be. I have nothing else to do. If your family is in the city, then that's where we'll go," I say.
"We'll have to gear up then," Elizabeth says. Jake rolls his window down.
"Our grandparents' neighbors had guns and ammo. Maybe we could try there?" Jake says.
"Sounds like a plan," Elizabeth says.

We get in the car and drive until Jake tells us to stop. I pull in. I put a tarp over the car. I don't want someone to steal it. We go inside the house. I see a small kitchen area.

"Alex, check for food in here," I say. She runs to the cabinets.

I turn to my left and see stairs leading down.

"They kept their guns down there," Jake says.

Elizabeth and I go downstairs while Jake and Alex search the kitchen. There's a rack with twenty guns down here and a shelf full of ammo.

"These people were ready for anything. I wonder what happened to them," Elizabeth says.
"They probably turned like millions of others. It really doesn't matter if you're prepared or not, becoming one of them can still happen," I say. We both grab duffel bags and stuff them with loaded guns.

Alex stands at the top of the stairs. "There's tons of food in the kitchen!" I toss a duffel bag up to her.
"Put as much food as you can in here," I say.

She runs back into the kitchen. After we finish putting the guns in the bags, I go back into the kitchen. Jake is sitting at a circular dining table.
"The bags full!" Alex says. I walk over. Alex is digging through the cabinet.
"Is that all of it?" I ask.
"Yeah, we got everything," she says closing the cabinet. Elizabeth reaches the top of the stairs with both duffel bags.
"Are we ready to go?" she asks.
"Yeah, I think we are," I say.

Jake and Alex go outside and get in the car. I put the duffel bag with the food and water in the backseat between Alex and Jake. I put the duffel bags with guns in the trunk. We don't need them right now.

Elizabeth volunteers to drive. I get in the passenger seat. I eat a protein bar. I miss the safe house. It felt like maybe that could have been home for us. I also miss Jack and Iris.
"So what's this city called?" I ask.
"I can't remember it's old name, but my family called it the city of the dead, because it was crawling with zombies. I don't know why they'd look there but we need to find them," Elizabeth says. I see sky scrapers ahead.
"That's the city," Elizabeth says.
"When did they write that note?" I ask.
"Recently," she says.
"We might catch them while they are traveling," I say.
"I hope we do," she says.
I see a young girl walking down the road. Elizabeth looks over at the girl.
"That's my cousin."she says. Elizabeth pulls over and walks over to the girl. They talk for a minute. Elizabeth walks over to my window which is rolled down.
"Can she come with us, please?" Elizabeth says.
"Yeah, sure as long as she's not infected," I say. Her cousin gets in the back seat. She looks a lot like Elizabeth.
"Hi, I'm Lisa," Elizabeth's cousin says.
"I'm Jade and those two back there are Alex and Jake," I say.
"I haven't seen many kids these days, especially so young," Lisa says.
"Why were you walking alone?" I ask.
"I was out on a run before Elizabeth's parents left. They left a note for me," Lisa says.

After a few minutes, of us talking I fall asleep. A few hours later Elizabeth shakes me awake. What now?

"What's wrong?" I ask.
"We're out of gas!" Elizabeth says. The sun is setting. We get out of the car and grab the bags. We start walking.
"We need to get off the street. It's going to be nighttime soon. I don't want to deal with zombies in the dark," I say.

I look around for a place to stay. I see a old house ahead. We walk up to the door. I kick the door open. It's empty so far. I check the rest of the house. It's clear. I put our bags down.

There's two bedrooms. Elizabeth and Lisa will sleep in one and Jake and Alex will sleep in the other.

I'm not sleeping anytime soon. At any moment someone could break in. I push the couch up against the door.

I go into the bathroom and clean my face. I go into the closet in the bathroom. I see a black hoodie with black jeans and black and white shoes. I put that on. I sit at the small table in the kitchen. I accidentally fall asleep a few minutes later.

I wake up at six o'clock. I get the others up. We grab our things and start walking to the city. It's raining.
"How long until we get to the city?" I ask.
"If we had a car, half an hour, but since we're walking I don't know," Elizabeth says. Lisa looks upset. What's wrong with her? Lisa turns to Elizabeth.
"Liz, do you know where my mother is? I haven't seen her since the start of all this," Lisa says.
"No, I don't know. She's probably still in Maine," Elizabeth says. We are so far from New York where the bunker was. I wonder if Jason and Anne are still alive.
I see the city in the distance. It's going to take forever to get there. Elizabeth sits on a bench.
"You alright?" I ask.
"Yeah, I'm just tired," she says. We move on.