The Dead Walk Among Us

Chapter 8: City Of The Dead

After a while of walking, we finally reach the city. We are moving around broken down cars. I'm afraid a hand is going to grab my leg like a few days ago.
"Did your parents say a specific place they were going?" I ask Elizabeth.
"Yes. They were going to a old food bank that turned into a shelter after the zombies came," she says.
"Is this shelter even still there?"
"My parents seemed to think so."

Lisa screams. I run to where she is. She's on the ground with a zombie on top of her. I shoot the zombie. Lisa pushes the dead zombie off of her. Elizabeth helps her up.

"Did that thing bite you?" I ask. Lisa doesn't say anything. She's shaking.
"Lisa! Did it bite you?" I say again. Lisa is still silent. Answer me!
"Lisa, you're alright?" Elizabeth asks.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
We move on. Lisa shouldn't be here. She's going to get bit.
"Lisa can't handle this. She shouldn't be here. She is going to get all of us killed!" I say to Elizabeth.
"No, she's fine," Elizabeth says.
"She's obviously not," I say.
"She'll be fine!" Elizabeth says. "I can protect her."

"You need to teach her how to protect herself. How to evade the zombies, how to kill the zombies, and above all survive this world," I say.

"Don't tell me how to take care of my cousin," Elizabeth says. Fine! Don't teach her anything and just see where she gets.
"How far is this shelter?" Alex asks.
"Down the street," Elizabeth says.

Elizabeth sees something. Elizabeth runs at a building. We follow her. She pushes the door to the building open.
There's a woman sitting up against a wall with a bloody bite mark on her arm. There's a man sitting next to her. I assume these are Elizabeth's parents. They must be.

"Mom! Dad!" Elizabeth says running to them. She kneels next to them.
"Are you alright?" Elizabeth asks.
"I'm fine, Liz," Elizabeth's mother says.
"Where are the twins?" Elizabeth asks.
"They are hiding in the bathroom,"
Elizabeth's father says.

Elizabeth walks to the bathroom and opens the door. Two ten year old girls run to Elizabeth. They both have black hair and brown eyes like Elizabeth.

"I'm so glad you're both safe," Elizabeth's hugging them.
"Can we do this later? We need to go now! Any moment zombies could attack," I say.
"She's right let's go," Elizabeth says. Elizabeth and her father help her mother up. We walk outside.
"Stay vigilant. So far we've only seen one zombie, but who knows where they could be hiding," I say.
"We'll be fine. We just need to be quiet," Elizabeth says.
"Is your mother immune?" I ask.
"Yeah, she was bitten once before,"
We walk through the city. Elizabeth stops.
"Why'd you stop?" I ask.
"I need to bandage her wound. It's bleeding too much," Elizabeth says.
"The zombies will smell the blood and come here. We need to go, then we'll bandage it," I say.
"If we fix it now, she'll be better off. Just get me some bandages and we'll move," Elizabeth says.
"Fine, where could I get them?" I say.
"There's a pharmacy down the street. That's where you might find them," Elizabeth says.
"I'll go with you," Jake says.

We go down the street towards the pharmacy. I go up to the door. It's locked. There's a window above the door. Jake grabs a rock and tosses it at the window causing it to shatter.

"Hey! No loud noises! Your going to draw those things here," I say.
"Did I find a way in?" Jake says.
"Find something to get us up to the window then," I say. He grabs a ladder and brings it over. I lean the ladder against the door.
"You first," I say.
"Why me?" Jake asks.
"You're the one who broke the window," I say.

He climbs up the ladder and drops down into the pharmacy. I climb in. The shelves are knocked over. There's blood all over the place. A zombie was here, I can tell.

"Get ready to run," I whisper. I slowly walk through the pharmacy. I pull out my pistol. I slowly make my way to the counter. There's a first aid kit on the wall. I jump over the counter and grab the first aid kit. I hear a bang.
"Jade! There's something in here...," Jake says.
"Get down!" I say. He runs to the counter and jumps over it.
"What did I say?" I yell.

I hear footsteps. Jake hides behind me. We need to get out now! 

"Find another way out," I whisper. He stays there.

I see someone moving around underneath the shelves. A woman crawls out from under the shelves. She has a white coat on with the hood up. She's covered in blood.

"Please! Don't shoot! There's something in here...with us. It...it bit me," the woman says. A man comes out from one of the rooms. He has blood all over his clothes.
"It's him! He bit me!" the woman yells pointing at the man.

The man runs at the woman. I shoot the zombie in the head. He falls over.

"Get to the door!" I say to Jake.

We jump over the counter and run to the door. I help Jake up to the window. He climbs down the ladder. I grab the ledge of the window and start pulling myself up. A hand grabs my leg and starts pulling me down.

"Jake! Help!" I yell. He climbs back up the ladder and grabs my hand. He helps pull me up. I kick at the hand on my leg. I hand Jake my pistol.

"Shoot them!" I yell.

He aims the pistol. He shoots. The hand lets go. I get out and climb down. We run back to the others.

"What the hell took so long?" Elizabeth says.
"We were attacked," I say handing her the first aid kit.

She sews and bandages her mother's bite wound. We move down the road. I see two people hunched over.

Their clothes are torn. I hear them...eating. One looks up. It has blood dripping from its mouth. His skin is grey. They must have just turned. After weeks of being a zombie, they learn to hide their real appearances.

Zombies mostly depend on their sense of smell. They use it to determine whether or not someone's a zombie. They also can smell blood.

I shoot them both in the head. They fall over. The rain begins again.

We walk past the body the zombies were eating. Jenny and Hannah close their eyes and hold onto Elizabeth. Jake and Alex look away. The person they were eating reaches a hand out to me and growls. She turned.

I shoot her. There is a man walking towards us.

"Do you need help?" He asks. I look at his eyes. He's not a zombie.
"We've got it." I say.
"I have a camp up ahead. I can take you all there." He says.
"How far is it?" Elizabeth asks.
"About a mile." He responds.

If he had a camp we would've seen it on our way here. I look at his hands. He has blood underneath all his nails. This reminds me of Kim. The zombie in the grocery store. I slowly start to pull my gun out. The man notices. He throws me across the road. He lets out a shriek. He's calling more zombies. I hear footsteps all around us.

"Jake, Alex get to cover," I say.

They get behind a car. Jenny and Hannah hide with them. Lisa crawls under a car.

Zombies run at us from all directions. Me and Elizabeth shoot at them. They keep coming. Lisa screams. A zombie has her foot and is dragging her out from underneath the car. Elizabeth runs over and shoots the zombie. Lisa runs to me.

"Help me!" Lisa yells. Her leg has a bleeding bite mark and it's really torn up. She can barely stand. She leans on me. Elizabeth runs over.
"Lisa was bitten!" I say. Elizabeth looks around, thinking.
"Liz!" I yell bringing her back to reality. She picks Lisa up and is carrying her.
"She'll be fine," Elizabeth says running off.

Jake, Alex, Jenny, and Hannah run after Elizabeth. I follow them. The zombies chase after us. I shoot them as we run. They just keep coming. They don't tire out unlike us.