Here starts the rewrite! The new chapter should be up in the next few days!

I own nothing, but my ideas!

Chapter 1

"Beachside Charter School?"

"I'd rather risk it here than at some random home, there's more room to maneuver if anything comes at us, plus numerous exits are a bonus," I quickly answered, moving the heavy bag onto my opposite shoulder.

"But what if there's already some in there? They could be our age Callie!"

"Jude, it's going to be ok." I whispered trying to calm him, "Here, you stay hidden and I will go and check it out. When it's safe i'll come back and get you,"

I gently pushed him over towards an abandoned car, checking the front and backseat through the windows I quickly glanced around us making sure there was nothing waiting to creep up on us.

Finding it all clear I slowly pulled on the door handle, cringing internally at the scraping screech noise the door made as it opened.

"Keep crouched down between the seats ok? And do not come out until you hear me,"

"Promise your coming back?" He sniffled slightly, squeezing my hand as be climbed in.

"Absolutely, I will never leave you Jude. I promise," I smiled once more before carefully shutting the car door.

I shrugged off my shoulder bag and stuffed it under the car, still keeping a firm grip on the baseball bat that had become like another appendage for me.

I jogged up to the entrance of the school, and used the little window in the double doors to see if anything was waiting on the other side.

The only sight that greeted me was an empty hallway, which slowed my heart slightly. I'd never say to Jude his fears were mine but in reality the thought of running into some kid zombie scared the hell out of me.

Taking a steadying breath I pushed open the doors and stepped inside, lockers filled the length of the hall some open, some closed. Papers and some people's bags littered the floor in front of me, the latter almost making me turn back.

Either the students just dumped everything and ran, which is a possibility, but on the other hand they might not of made it out of here and that could be why they were still here.

Slowly moving down corridor, I checked every room I came across that had the door wide open before doubling back and checking the ones that had closed doors. Finding them all empty I moved over to a staircase which looked like it led to the next floor and silently crept up them.

Reaching the top, I paused. To the left was the administration offices as well as the Vice Principal and the Head Principals offices, to the right it looked like more classrooms.

I began to move to the left, if your petrified in school one way or the other you end up with teachers.

I ducked quietly into the first open door, which is the teachers lounge, with my bat held high.

The silence quickly erupted into a burst of moans and growls, my heart clenching in fear as my eyes finally landed on the cause of the noise. A group of four dead clambered around and over the furniture each reaching there rotting arms out for me.

I spun on my heel, shooting back out of the door. Almost like they were an alarm system for the rest of the school, those four had alerted the other dead on this floor as they poured from different rooms down the hall.

Dodging the outstretched hands I flew down the stairs, my shoes smacking against the ground echoing off the walls.

I raced back the way I had come not daring to look over my shoulder, as I burst through the doors I screamed for my brother.

"Jude! Out the car now!" I yanked on the car door, practically picking my brother up out of his hiding place I shoved him forward.

Snatching my shoulder bag from underneath I ran to catch up with him. As soon as I reached him I chanced a look over my shoulder, balking at what I saw.

Dead poured from the school in a frenzy, there vision completely set on us.

"Run Jude!" I screamed, pushing my body to move faster.

"Callie!" Jude screamed back, the panic in his voice making my head spin immediately. I'd been going to fast for him, leaving him slightly behind. Dashing back, I picked him up and took off running again. The extra weight made my legs protest straight away, but I ignored it and pushed forward.

Turning a corner, I felt my panic step it up another notch. We'd moved into a housing area, which meant more dead. I paused for a split second, looking behind again to see our hunters hadn't turned the corner yet, before diving for the closest hiding place.

Placing Jude on the ground, I held on tightly to his hand while raising my bat with the other as I pulled him along into a fenced off garden.

As we moved completely out of sight of the dead following us, I latched a large gate behind us. If anything it would give us time to move on and out of sight once more if they found us.

We crept around the side of the house, the groaning spurring us on. The back garden was empty but there was a sliding door on the back wall that led into a conservatory that was wide open.

"Are we going in there?" Jude whispered pointing to the door.

"God no," I whispered straight back, "We'll try and move a few blocks over, put as much distance between us and that herd,"

I motioned over to the back fence, and we moved over to it quickly. Leaning up onto my tiptoes I could just see over the top and into the next garden. "It's all clear, I'll lift you up and over then follow ok?"

Bending down, I held my hands out palms facing upwards and Jude put his foot onto them. Considering how scarce the food was these days lifting him up and over barely took any effort at all.

As soon as I heard him land on the other side, I hefted my own body up and over the fence as well.

We did that for a few more houses before I noticed that we couldn't hear the sounds of the dead anymore.

"Hey," Gently I tugged him to a stop next to a huge tree that sat in the back garden of a large house. A picnic deck was just off to our left so I pointed to it. "You should eat something,"

"There's some in the house!" Jude shouted, jumping to his feet and knocking the raisins I'd just produced from my bag to the floor.

I spun quickly, spotting instantly what Jude had seen. The back doors to this house were glass, so it was easy to see inside. A small group, maybe five, stood just in our line of sight.

"Run!" I screamed, the door sliding open from a dark skinned hand.

"Where!" He screamed straight back, his little body darting every which way.

I spun around trying to answer his question, we couldn't go through the front gate it would take us too close to them. Over the fence again was too risky, there could be others over it or they could grab us half way up.

"Get behind me!" I ordered, dropping everything off my shoulders and brandishing my bat high.

One by one they stepped out of the house, my heart jumping in fear at the number of them.

"Wait!"

"Wh..."

"Callie, they're talking," Jude whispered, his hands gripping fistfuls of the back of my shirt.

"I know," I whispered back, gripping my bat even tighter. "We don't want any trouble," I called out to them, "But I will swing if you come any closer,"

"Stef they're just kids,"

Slowly a blonde woman stepped forward, her hands raised out in front of her. My eyes shot over every inch of her body looking for that familiar look of aggression before locking on the gun she had attached to her hip.

I tightened my grip even more and took what I hoped was a threatening step forward with my bat. Her immediate stillness caused relief to flare up in my chest, my actions gaining the response I wanted.

I knew I had no chance in hell against a gun so the second I saw her hand move towards it, I swung my bat in a low arch making her jump back.

"Just leave us alone, and we'll leave quietly. We didn't know anyone was here," I tried to speak calmly, even as Jude buried his head in my back.

"I was only going to unclip my gun and put it down, we're not a threat to you sweetheart," She spoke back easily, the cadence of her tone and the way she held herself reminded me of a police officer.

"No!" I snapped, readying my bat, "What your going to do is back up and go back inside, or I swear to god this bat is going up the side of your head,"

I needed to control the situation, if I could just get her in the house me and Jude could get out of here.

"I know you're scared right now, I promise you that neither me nor my family would ever dream of laying a finger on you,"

"I don't care for your promises! I don't know you or you me, just go back in the damn house and I won't hurt you,"

"Callie," Jude whispered, tugging on the back of my shirt, "The fence is moving!"

The second the whisper left his lips, I heard the creaking. Something or someone was leaning heavily against the fence behind us.

Quickly glancing behind me, I tried to gauge the distance between Jude and I and the unknown before locking my eyes back on the blonde in front of me.

By the look on her face, I knew she hadn't heard what we had all I could see was a mixture of compassion and confusion, there was no panic. If she knew there was something behind us, her focus would be split.

She'd move closer to her family or at least be shooting looks over her shoulder to check on them, but instead she was solely focused on us.

"Please go back in the house," I whispered, wincing at the desperation I could hear. "Please!"

"Callie!" Jude's tugging became more insistent, as the creaking grew in volume.

I watched as the noise finally registered with the woman, her eyes widened and she began frantically pointing back to the house over her shoulder.

The other woman immediately began pushing the kids back towards the house, but hovered outside herself. The blonde held her arms out towards us.

"Please, come to the house with me. It's safer than out here,"

"No!" I held my arm out and leant down, Jude quickly wrapped his arms around my neck and I lifted him easily into my arms while still managing to keep my weapon in front of us.

Slowly I edged forward, moving in a slight semi circle around her keeping as much distance as possible between us.

"We are leaving and I suggest you get back to your family before that fence gives way," As I spoke we got closer and closer to the side gate, but my words seemed to make her take a step in our direction.

"It isn't safe out there, god knows how many of those things are around," She tried again, "At least stay until we know it's clear?"

"No place is safe," I muttered, holding Jude that little bit tighter.

The fence crashing forward interrupted whatever she was about to reply, causing the woman at the door to let out a yell of panic.

"Stef!"

I watched as Stef spun, whipping out her gun and aiming straight at the zombie that was clambering to its feet on the broken wood of the fence.

"No!" I hissed, stopping her, "There are too many around, we were just chased from the school. If you fire that gun you'll bring all of them down on you,"

I threw my bat to her without a second thought, which surprised me. Stef caught it easily in one hand and spun around and swung. The tip of the bat started at her feet as she swung upwards in an uppercut motion, making the zombies head fly back violently off it's shoulders.

We all watched in disgust as the head rolled to a stop, yet it's mouth kept snapping and snarling at us. Gently placing Jude back on the ground, I pointed to the floor where he stood motioning for him to stay put.

Carefully, I took the wooden weapon from Stef's hand, "You have to crush the brain to kill them," Without hesitation I brought the bat down heavily completely destroying the snarling mess.

"Thank you," Stef smiled, "For the warning, you helped protect my family."

"Sure," I shrugged, now that the immediate threat of the dead man was over, I shot back over to Jude once again making sure I was between him and Stef.

"Will you please come inside?" She asked once again, motioning from herself to the other woman at the back door. I could make out the huddled forms of her kids just over her shoulder.

"No thank you," I didn't wait for her response this time, I just grasped hold of Jude and ran out the side gate.