Shun

Still confused about my encounter with that zombie, I forced myself to sit up in my cot, nearly falling back several times. But when I finally was able to sit up, I found myself looking at the door that the zombie had just left out of after investigating the contents of the sleeping quarters.

I still wasn't sure what all had just happened. That zombie should have ripped me to shreds the moment he saw me. But he didn't. Why? A thought ran across my mind. What if it was because I was infected? Did they somehow know? Perhaps they could smell the virus on me.

Somewhere else in the bunker, I heard things being knocked around, signaling that there were still zombies inside. As I sat there, I thought of something; if one hadn't tried to eat me, would the others try? I swung my legs to the side, and my feet touched down on the cold, concrete floor.

I knew how weak I was, and I knew that I would be pushing myself way past a limit that I no longer had if I tried to walk. But I can't just lay here and wait to die, I told myself defiantly. Pushing myself up to my feet, I wobbled for a moment, but caught myself on a cot.

My legs were so weak, that they were trembling beneath my weight; it was clear that the virus had taken a lot out of me in a short amount of time. I mustered up my strength and forced myself to walk towards the door. When I finally reached it, I leaned against the doorframe and tried to catch my breath.

Something else dropped in a nearby room, and I glanced around the corner to see several zombies staring down at a can of food that had fallen onto the floor. They poked it and touched it with their hands to see if it was anything they could eat.

My eyes then caught sight of a baseball bat that Keith had placed in the hallway, in case we were ever infiltrated. Slowly, I made my way towards the bat, keeping my hand against the wall in order to steady myself. Already, I could feel myself growing weaker; I hardly had any energy to exert, so this was pushing my ailing body to its limits.

I reached for the bat and held on tightly to the handle. Would I even have the strength to even hurt one of these things? The three zombies turned and looked right at me, but never once charged. Their milky, soulless eyes cut right through me, and I saw my reflection within them.

I then swung at the one standing in the middle, sending his body tumbling towards the floor. Then, using the momentum from the first swing, I doubled back and caught the one that was standing behind me. Just like the previous one, he fell down as well.

Now, I stood there, trying my best to stay standing on my feet, while the last zombie stood there and gazed down at his two dead friends that had been with him. He then looked back at me, and only let out a moan. Gritting my teeth and tightening up my grip on the bat, I hit the reanimated corpse upside his head, sending reverberations of cracking bone throughout the bunker.

Due to the momentum from the swing, I lost my balance and fell down to my knees in the puddle of rotten blood that was starting to form. I was panting heavily, sweat running from my forehead from the fever that I still had. The edges of my vision started to turn fuzzy and black in the corners, but I shook it off.

I had to stay awake. I had to see if any of the others had made it out safely. Glancing around the bunker, there were no signs of their blood anywhere; only that of the three zombies I just killed. As I continued to look around, I noticed the ladder to the roof was down, and on the underside of the hatch, there were claw and scratch marks.

I then began to paint a mental image in my mind; the others ran to the roof, and the zombies had tried to claw their ways through to get to them. At least they made it out of here, I thought weakly. There was no guarantee that they were still alive now. But inside, I knew that Keith and Ace would end up doing anything they could to keep their group safe.

They were in good hands. I pushed myself back up to my feet, struggling to stay standing, and walked over to the pile of weapons in the corner of the main room. Almost the entire inventory was still there; minus Ace's hand ax and Keith's crossbow.

It was obvious that they didn't have enough time to grab what they could. Resting on the top of the pile, I saw my chain-whip and sword. I reached for them and hooked them to my belt loops with shaky hands. If I was going to even attempt to look for them, regardless if the zombies didn't want anything to do with me, I was going to be able to defend myself to my best extent.

I leaned my back against the wall for a moment as I gathered my thoughts and figured out my next move. I decided then, that I would try my best to either find Alice, or the madman that released this virus on another planet. Whichever came first.

I then coughed into my hands, and when I looked down at them, they were speckled with my blood. I sighed and wiped the blood off on the wall behind me. I might end up dying before I find them though. By the way my condition was progressing, I was surprised that I was still able to even stay awake.

Pushing my thoughts aside, I set my mind to the goals I had just made, and walked towards the steel door of the bunker that led outside. As I walked by, I saw that it had been ripped off one of its hinges, most likely from when the zombies had broken into the bunker.

Once I was outside, I shielded my eyes from the bright light of the sun. Being that I had been in that bunker for nearly a week, it took my eyes a moment to adjust to the sudden change. Once I was able to see, I lowered my hand and looked down the street.

It was filled with zombies lumbering about, staring blankly at anything and everything. I sighed and walked through the crowd of walking corpses. Not a one of them paid any attention to me, even though it looked like they were staring at me.

The fact that they didn't want anything to do with me because they could tell I was infected, made the whole thing a bit more surreal. It kept reminding me that my time was limited, and that I would sooner or later end up turning into one of these things.

I cringed at the thought of being a mindless beast and hurting innocent people out of a so-called 'instinct.' All I hoped was, that when I did turn, that I never ran into Alice or any of the others.

Alice

We finally stopped running after what felt like an hour, and my legs were feeling the wear and tear from it. I rested my hands on my knees and panted heavily as I tried to stabilize my breathing. Most of the others were doing the same.

Once I was calmed down, I sat down on the ground and brought my knees up to my chest. I still hated that we had left Shun back at the bunker, but as Keith had told me, there was no point in risking our lives for his, since his life was as good as over thanks to the virus.

It still pained me though, to know that Shun was probably going to die, or was already dead. Keith, who had just finished catching his breath, straightened up and slung his crossbow over his shoulder. "Hurry up and finish resting. It isn't safe to stay out in the open like this," he said flatly.

Our group had ducked into an alley in order to try and provide ourselves some cover from any zombies that may have been wandering about on the streets. Mira wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and asked her brother, "What weapons were we able to bring with us?" He motioned towards his crossbow with his chin and said, "This, a knife, and Ace's hand ax is all I know of."

Three weapons. That was it. True, two of them were being used by Keith and Ace, two very skilled fighters when they needed to be. But it left the rest of us virtually defenseless. Keith sighed and told us, "Alright. Let's keep moving until we get out of the city. Maybe there will be fewer zombies in the more rural parts of Vestal."

I stood up and we started to follow, but had to stop cause Baron stood frozen in his spot. His eyes were cast down at the ground, wide and tear-stained. "We're going to die out here, aren't we?" he said in a trembling voice. I felt a pang of sympathy towards him, and I walked over to place my hand on his shoulder.

He flinched back at my touch. "Don't tell me that we aren't going to die! You all are thinking that same thing!" he shouted, sending tears cascading from his eyes. Baron had already been through so much since this virus invaded Vestal; he lost his family and his home.

Now, he had lost the only place he felt safe in. "Baron, calm down," Mira said sternly, but I could tell she was trying to be gentle with the unstable boy. He shook his head and shouted, "No! I'm not going to calm down! We're going to be eaten alive out here! How do you expect me to be calm!"

I placed my index finger over lips and told Baron, "Shh! You're being loud and will draw attention to our whereabouts." He ran his hands through his short, pink hair and snapped, "What's it matter? We're going to be killed in the end…."

I stepped in front of Baron and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. "Don't say that, Baron. Shun and I thought the same thing back on Earth, but we made out alive. I'm sure we can all do it again," I whispered into his ears while trying to hold back my own tears.

I felt Baron's shoulders relax, and he then buried his face into my shoulder and cried. My eyes had been closed while I was consoling him, and when I opened them, I saw a zombie running down the alley towards us. "Watch out!" I shouted and pulled Baron down to the ground to get him out of the way.

He realized what was going on, and started to crawl back to the others. I was starting to run as well, but felt the zombie's hands grab my hair. I screamed and flailed my arms, but couldn't reach him since he was behind me.

Another one of its hands reached around and grabbed onto my arm, and I could feel its vile breath slithering down my neck as it readied itself to bite me. "Help!" I shouted and closed my eyes tightly as I braced myself for the teeth to sink it.

A loud explosion then echoed through the alley, and something shot past me and into the zombie's head. Everything went in slow motion as I glanced over and saw the blood shooting out of a small, circular hole above the zombie's eye.

Things then returned back to normal, I and watched the monster drop to the ground. My heart was racing and beating frantically when I turned back to look at the others. At first, I thought it might have been Keith who had saved me, but I saw that he hadn't even gotten an arrow loaded into the crossbow.

Then, I looked over and saw Baron holding a pistol in his trembling hands. His eyes were widened with fear, and he dropped the gun to the ground, then fell to his knees. Keith knelt down beside the trembling pink-haired boy and picked up the pistol. "Where'd you get this at?" he asked while examining over the firearm.

Baron, who still looked traumatized, said quietly, "I-I took it f-from my house w-when the z-zombies came. I-I was only g-going to u-use it if I h-had no choice. S-Sorry that I n-never told you a-about the gun, K-Keith." Keith tucked the gun away in his back pocket and patted Baron on the shoulder.

"It's no big deal, Baron. You did good just then, but maybe I should hold onto this until you calm down or feel like you'll be able to use this more often than only when you've got to." Baron wiped a tear from his eyes and nodded. I had finally calmed down a bit myself and walked over to Baron.

Just like Keith, I knelt down beside him and smiled sadly. "Thanks for saving me, Baron." He nodded and told me, "It's t-the least I c-could do."

I then helped him up to his feet just as Keith told us, "That gunshot probably attracted some more of those things towards this way. We need to keep moving and try to find a place to set up camp for tonight." None of us argued and began to follow Keith's lead.

chapter title based off the song The Strength To Go On by Rise Against sorry for not uploading recently. i've just been rather lazy lately. :/ i should be back to my usual stuff now. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~