ELUSIVE CHASE
Tony had been wandering the streets of the city for over an hour now, luckily for him he had not stumbled upon any infected, he knew that would probably change however. The streets were so silent, it was seriously starting to get to Tony, and he wasn't so sure of meeting any other survivors after his encounter with Carlos Kalust, which had heavily scarred him. He gripped his machete tightly, always keeping it at an angle that he could easily kill anyone who approached him with ease. Tony kept on thinking of Mark and Sarah, Mark in his white Nike trainers, his baggy black trackies, his white T-Shirt and red Formula One skip cap. Hannah, in her dark shoes, blue jeans, purple T-Shirt and blue jumper, her blue eyes and chocolate brown hair glowing due to the smile that always adorned her face. Such a beautiful sight she was, how she would always wink seductively at him, even though they weren't a proper couple. Tony felt a tear fall down his cheek, what if she was dead? What if Mark was dead? What if he was the only surviving human being on the planet? Tony was put off with the fact that his footsteps were echoing around the street rather loudly in the silence, he knew he should be quieter but didn't know how to be, and then he heard other footsteps. Tony stopped and pivoted so that he was facing behind him, his eyes quickly surveyed the area behind him but there was nothing there, he looked to his left and right and still nothing. Tony turned around and gasped when he was met with a boy, roughly his age, he had dirty blonde hair, a ripped and blood stained jacket, Tony didn't bother noticing what the boy was wearing below the waistline because he was fixated with the boy's eyes, they were a fearsome blood red, a pure devilish crimson. The boy smelled horrible, he smelled of dried blood and rotting flesh. The boy had blood all over his mouth, he was infected. This took a minute for Tony to register that he was staring into the eyes of an infected. Tony flinged when this fact hit his mind and that's when the infected boy attacked. The infected boy grabbed Tony's shoulders, squeezing them tightly, the pain threatened to make Tony's legs give way but he stood where he was and grabbed the infected boy's shoulders and began a war between their upper body strength. Tony was at a disadvantage but he blocked it from his mind. The infected boy tried to bite Tony, who made Tony jerk his head back to avoid the bites; he then forced the infected boy against a lamppost. The infected boy let go and fell to the ground, giving Tony time to pull out his machete, lift it, and bring it down on the boy's chest, blood spurted everywhere, Tony lifted the machete out of the boy's chest cavity and forced it back into where the heart is, the infected spurted out more blood and soon fell limp on the ground. Tony was shaking heavily and that's when he realised the boy. His name had been Jamie. A memory flashed in Tony's mind.
Tony folded his arms in the changing rooms of the P.E department of his school as Jamie walked past in a football strip. "So Tony, doing anything this weekend? Going to try to score with Sarah?" Jamie mocked.
Tony growled. "Try to kill you, maybe?"
Jamie laughed. "Kill me? How would you do that?"
Tony smirked. "I guess I'd stab you. In the heart!"
Tony looked down at Jamie's dead, infected body. That's exactly what he had just done. Tony fell to his knees, dropping his machete to the ground with a resonating clang and lifted his hands to his eyes and allowed the tears to flow. He had known this boy, albeit not on good terms but he had known him nonetheless.
Tony was brought out of his grieving when he heard footsteps, he looked up and saw someone in a leather jacket, the figure looked female, she had long chocolate brown hair. Tony's mind went haywire, was that Sarah? The figure walked into an alleyway, Tony, now sure that it was Sarah, grabbed his machete and ran up the street and into the dark, rubbish filled alleyway that also had the odd dead corpse in it. Tony looked around but couldn't find the feminine figure. He continued searching different paths and different alleyways but still nothing. When he turned another corner he found three infected, almost waiting for him. They all screamed with rage and ran for him, Tony held his ground, although terrified out of his wits and held his machete at the ready. The first infected, a man, rushed him but Tony slit his throat quickly, the man collapsed to the ground in a heap, Tony spun round and shoved his machete into the head of the second infected, a woman and finally threw his machete at the last one, but he missed and the infected woman ran for him, knocking him to the ground. She was about to, what it seemed to Tony, throw up on him when a knife went into the back of her head, causing the infected woman to fall to the side of Tony on the blood soaked alleyway. Tony stood up and caught a glimpse of the feminine figure. She must be friendly, she did save his life, and so Tony picked up his machete and followed the strange woman into another alleyway. The figure, much to Tony's expectations had vanished. He walked on and when he turned the corner an infected man pounced on him before he could react, his machete skidding away. The man's hands began hitting Tony's face with ferocity, pulling at his skin, punching him and trying to gouge his eyes out, the man was screaming maniacally and was also trying to bite as he attacked Tony. Tony was shouting and cursing, trying desperately to fight the infected man on top of him but to no avail. The infected man grabbed onto the sides of Tony's head and began hitting Tony's head of the ground. Tony howled in pain and started punching the infected man in the chest, he kept the punching up, continuously making the punches faster and stronger each time. The infected man didn't seem to flinch and continued his assault. Tony was starting to feel dizzy. Blood oozed from the back of his head. The infected man was screaming with madness. Blackness was becoming a pleasant thought. Sarah jogged into Tony's mind and he opened his eyes and began punching the man again, this time in the face, making sure not to get bitten. The infected man's thumbs thrust themselves into Tony's eyes, Tony closed his eyes and yelled, he grabbed the man's neck, feeling his way since he couldn't see and twisted the man's neck, hearing a loud crack and the attack ceased. The man collapsed on top of Tony who was quick to move out from underneath the man. Tony quickly crawled over to his machete and grabbed it, trying to calm down, his lip bleeding and the back of his head slowly oozing blood. Tony slowly stood up, his balance slightly off due to the attack and his cut head, he staggered down the alleyway, his machete constantly in front of him and yet again he saw the female figure disappear round a corner. Tony stumbled after her, his breathing laboured as the unpleasant feeling of his own blood run down his back inside his shirt made him shiver. When Tony turned the corner he saw the woman in the leather jacket, she was running from some of the infected, two stout men. Tony decided to run after them, calling out to the infected chasing the woman who spun round only to be impaled with Tony's machete. The two men fell to the ground, dead and when Tony looked up, the woman was gone.
"For fuck's sake!" Tony cursed loudly.
Tony abruptly stopped his cursing however, when he saw a lane that headed out into a forest. He remembered this lane well; this was the lane he used to get to Mark and Sarah's tree house. Tony was breathing heavily from his exertions so he holstered his machete and slowly made his way down the lane. The lane was decorated with fences that ran the length of it, ivy crawling around the wooden planks, however, there was also blood on the fence now. Tony ignored the blood and continued on until he came into the forest, he turned to his right and walked the exact twenty-three steps he always used, then he turned to the right again and walked about twelve yards before turning left to face the tree house, hidden in one of the thick conifers. Tony slowly but surely climbed the tree, making sure each large branch supported his weight before continuing. When he got under the tree house, he pulled at the small fold-up stepladders to climb onto the main branches that the tree house was supported by. Once he had done that, Tony opened the door of the tree house gently, yet it still made a loud creek. He slowly stepped inside his now wooden surroundings; he noticed Pepsi cans, fruit and newspapers all over the place. As he examined the newspapers he heard footsteps enter the tree house, then, with a sudden burst, the footsteps were at running pace. Out of sudden instinct Tony pivoted round quickly and brought out his machete and was shocked when it collided with another machete. Tony looked into the face of his attacker and saw none other than the figure from the alleyways, he noticed something else, and it was Sarah.
"Tony, long time no see." She said in her soft tone, lowering her machete.
"It's good to see you." Tony replied, sheathing his machete.
They stared into each other's eyes, realising how much they had missed each other when someone else came into the tree house. It was Mark.
"Well, well, look who's here!" He jeered. "Could have got a haircut you know"
"I've just woken up to this mess, I'll cut my hair soon enough" Tony replied to Mark.
"Knowing you that's a lie" Mark replied. "At least the doctors were wrong"
"What did they say about me?" Tony asked.
"They said you would more likely die than wake up" Mark explained. "Should have seen Sarah's face after that one!"
Sarah punched Mark on the arm playfully, laughing with him.
Tony nodded with a smile.
"I can't believe this is happening, you know?" He asked.
"Tell us about it, we've been dealing with it for four weeks, you haven't." Mark replied with a snort.
"So, where are the others?" Tony asked.
"Dead." Mark replied bluntly.
"Or infected" Sarah included, "But it makes no difference."
"Makes no difference!" Tony copied in surprise.
"Listen Tony, the world you fell asleep in is gone." Mark said sternly. "You always said you could be like a stone, well, now is the time. Survival and the ability to kill without hesitation will secure your life."
"So, you always have two options." Sarah explained. "You can fight, or you can run"
"That's it?" Tony replied unbelievably.
"Yep" Sarah replied with a nod.
There was a rather long silence until Tony spoke up again.
"Where's your sister?" He asked.
"Dead." Sarah replied grimly.
"How?" Tony asked, concerned.
"There was infected outside of our house, we had been boarding up the windows and doors. The only window that hadn't been boarded up was the living room." Sarah recalled. "Anna wanted to see the infected, so, she looked out the window. I remember her shouting on me, she could see one. I came into the room and she pointed to the window."
Sarah paused.
"Go on" Tony encouraged her.
"When I looked at the window, the window was gone, an infected man, her headmaster had crashed through the window and bit her, tearing her finger clean off." Sarah continued. "He then looked at me, I killed him by crushing his head with a vase and when I looked at Anna's blooded form, she had already turned into one. She tried to attack me and I had no other choice but to kill her using on of the broken pieces of the vase."
Sarah was now in tears so Tony hugged her softly. "It's alright, it's alright," He repeated softly.
"No it's not, it's all fucked!" She cried into his shoulder.
"It's not," Tony said softly.
Tony slowly pulled out of the hug, since Sarah had calmed down. He sat down beside one of the boarded up windows of the tree house, there was still gaps in the boards however. Tony's eyes gazed out of the gap and widened when he saw a red pair of eyes. Tony gasped before a blood stained arm crashed through the boards of the window and his left arm was in the infected's firm grip, the infected man bit down onto Tony's arm, causing him to scream in horror but when the infected man jerked his head back, only the fabric from Tony's jacket was in the mouth of the infected. Tony jumped away from the window as Sarah launched into action, slitting the throat of the infected man before Mark called about them being all around the tree house.
Mark opened up a hole in the floor and looked down, seeing a lot of infected running for the tree they were in.
"Close your eyes!" He called out to Tony and Sarah who did so.
Mark closed his own eyes and threw some kind of grenade down the hole; it made a large flash, the infected holding their eyes in pain.
"Now!!" Mark called, shoving Tony and Sarah so that they jumped down the hole as he followed. Once they were down they took of running as fast as they could. The reached a wall so they climbed a tree to jump over the wall onto an abandoned road.
"Let's keep moving!" Sarah ordered and walked very quickly along the road with Mark and Tony behind her.
"Now where do we go?" Tony asked.
"Away from here" Sarah said sternly; "Away from them!"
Sarah was now looking at Tony in shock, so Tony turned round only to discover about thirty infected running after them. "RUN!!" Tony yelled to Mark and Sarah and took off running down the road with Mark and Sarah.
The three of them ran as fast as they could, the screams of the infected behind them being enough to power the raw adrenaline that was coursing through their veins with a rapid pace. The running felt like it went on for hours and hours, with no stop to this chase, Tony saw a pub that seemed secure and pointed towards it, Mark nodded in acknowledgment and ran ahead towards it.
Suddenly, Sarah tripped and fell to the ground. Tony didn't know when he made the decision to turn around and run towards the infected to help Sarah but he was all too aware that he was doing it. He quickly grabbed her and hauled Sarah to her feet and encouraged her to keep on running.
When they finally made it to the pub, Mark had already opened the doors and helped them in; he then rushed in himself and quickly closed and locked the doors.
"We need to barricade this place now!" Mark yelled to the others, who, almost on autopilot began stacking chairs, wood and tables against the windows. Mark and Tony quickly pushed two fruit machines in front of the already locked door and stood waiting at the ready, in case the Infected broke through the barricade. The infected's attack on the pub was loud and frightening, they continued to smash at the barricades and they would break through all too soon.
"They are going to break through soon, so we need to find a back entrance." Sarah ordered.
"Not yet, we can't go round there with all of them out there" Tony said, gesturing to the back and front of the pub respectively.
"Why not?" Mark asked confused and desperate.
"They'll only follow us round there, we need something to deter them away from the pub." Tony replied.
"And what plan have you came up with?" Sarah asked.
"Well, our barricades are made of wood and electrical appliances, right?" Tony asked.
"Yeah" Mark replied. "So what?"
"And we are in a pub." Tony continued, taking his time.
An infected's arm broke through one of the barricaded windows, now the sounds of the infected were far louder.
"Just tell us!" Sarah shouted at him.
Tony walked behind the bar, pulling out a lighter and cloth and laying them on the bar; he then put several bottles of alcohol on the counter. "Molotov Cocktails!"
"You'll burn us all to hell if you do that!" Mark argued.
"Well, I'd rather die by being burned alive than turning into one of them" Tony replied with a frown.
More infected were creating holes in the barricades.
"So, are we agreed?" Tony asked with a smirk, his eyes darting from Mark, to Sarah, to Mark, to Sarah.
"Agreed" Mark said with a nod.
"And you, Sarah?" Tony asked.
"Agreed" She replied with a smile.
"Then let's get to work!" Tony exclaimed, opening the bottles of flammable spirits.
Hehe, cliffy. Hope ye liked this chapter as it took I think, 3 days to write. The next chapter won't be as action filled as this one but will still have enough action to keep you enthralled. As always, R/R!
