My heart is thumping right through my chest. I can feel the same fear I felt on the highway creeping back into my body, taking over my thoughts, tapping into my instincts. My eyes scan over the incoming herd of walkers, and then the fleeing soldiers. They aren't too far from here, and the cover of night does us no help.
I leap over my bed and pick up my gun from the nightstand. I race down the stairs, yelling and screaming about the slowly approaching herd. Everyone at the dinner table stops what they're doing and looks up at me.
"Get your... guns!" I pant, my eyes darting around the room, looking at everyone. "Walkers... attacking!"
"Walkers?" repeats Holly, clearly frightened. "What about the army? Are you sure?"
"Yes! The soldiers ran away! I saw them!" I've regained by breath, and I can see fear creeping into the others just as it did me. "We have to get out of here now!"
Without questioning me, everyone begins scrambling. Grabbing guns, food, water, backpacks, whatever is in reach. Travis grabs his loofah. Whatever we can salvage from the walker attack, we load into our backpacks. I throw the backpack that used to belong to my brother over my shoulder, but there isn't time to think about that right now.
My father kicks open the front door, and we rush outside. I whip my head around, trying to remember the direction I saw the walkers coming from.
"There!" I shout, pointing toward the highway. I can hear the moans and collective shuffling feet of the walkers in the distance, complemented by the occasional sound of an assault rifle.
"How are we supposed to get out?" my mother begins to panic. "There's nothing but river on either side of the Fort. We're trapped!"
"How do you even know that?" Riley asks, clearly exasperated.
"We've been taking tours of this place, remember?" groans my father. "Enough of this wasting time. We need to hole up somewhere!"
The moans are getting closer, I can almost smell the walkers. Rotting flesh, death, and various bodily fluids and organs. My heart begins to race even faster, my mind goes into overdrive, thinking of somewhere we could be safe.
"The postoffice!" I shout immediately, surprised by my own volume. Everyone looks at me, shocked.
"Good idea." nods Travis. "Easy to board up and defend. Let's move."
We set off in a run. I hear my own heart thumping in my ears. My lungs burn already. I am seriously out of shape.
Around us, I can hear screams and gunfire. The walkers must be advancing and killing civilians. The sounds of what must be innocent people dying pierce my skull. I don't want to die. I won't die.
We round the last corner, and there it is, across the thin street from the destroyed hospital. The postoffice. Our salvation.
Parked outside of the postoffice are a couple of mail trucks. They're not much use now if the only road out is clogged by walkers.
"Why the hell does this shit always happen to us!?" I hear Riley shout angrily, because he seems to see what I'm looking at.
Ten or twenty walkers, clearly in military gear, are shuffling toward us. Not too far behind us, I can hear the moans and snarls of the growing horde. We're trapped.
The military walkers are fully equipped. They wear the usual camo pants and shirt, but they also wear helmets. We can't shoot through those. Their eyes are glossed over, and they have cuts and tears on the spots where they were bit. They don't quite smell like death yet.
"How do we kill them!?" my mother shrieks, holding up her pistol. The sound of her voice attracts the walkers.
The walkers slowly move in front of the postoffice entrance. I don't think we'll make it.
Adrenaline pumps through me now. I feel light, I feel fast and strong. There's no time to think. We only have time to fight.
"Try anything!" I shout, in the same loud, almost authoritative voice I used before. I never knew I had that voice.
I focus in on the horde. The one nearest to me. It used to be a guy. Brown hair spills out from under the helmet. I think I've seen him around before. My bullets barely dent his armour, but I keep shooting. These things killed my brother. I have to kill them.
Just our luck, the horde from behind has finally caught up. They round the corner, they stumble across lawns, they do whatever they can to get their hands on our delicious human meat.
I look around, at my friends, my family. I can see the fight in them, too. My dainty mother, brawny father, quiet Travis and cocky Riley. Even Holly has finally come into her strengths.
Everyone releases a second volley of bullets. Wherever a walker is, a bullet is flying in its direction. Are we... in control?
The walkers close in on us. I can see their teeth, smell their decay, and I can almost feel their teeth gnashing on me from this distance.
Suddenly, a noise from the post office, where the walkers are almost blocking the door. The door creaks open a tiny bit.
"Get in here!" a voice screams. It's a woman.
No one hears it but me, even the walkers are still distracted by our gunshots.
"There's someone in there!" I shout, pointing at the postoffice. "They called us over!"
Everyone looks up from the approaching walkers and our impending doom to look at me wide eyed.
Shots come from the postoffice windows. Walkers around the door begin to collapse and re-die.
"Well don't just stand there!" my father booms, taking down another fresh looking walker. "MOVE!"
The mob of walkers is getting tighter on both sides of us as we run through the road. The walkers are so close that they reach out and nearly scratch us. I can smell the disgusting scent of their decay. The adrenaline pumping through my system blocks them out and keeps me running.
We've reached the door, and just as it opens, I hear a spine tingling shriek from behind me.
I turn around and suddenly everything is in slow motion. A walker has grabbed Holly by the shoulders and sunk its teeth into her throat. Holly's eyes are wide, fearful, desperate. It pulls out, bringing a huge chunk of neck with it. I watch in frozen terror as she falls down mid-scream and the walkers swarm in on her, blocking what's left of Holly from my vision.
Riley looks back, and starts screaming too. He tries shooting, but it's too late. His girlfriend is gone.
Everything returns to its normal speed as I am pulled into the postoffice and thrown on my back, still facing outside, trying to process what has just happened.
I hear gunshots going off like crazy as my mother, father, and Travis rush in after me.
Riley is still outside, and the door is still open. His screaming has turned into a wild, savage yelling, almost like an ancient war cry. He shoots every walker he can see, but Holly is still lost.
Travis grabs Riley by the waist and throws the dismayed guy over his shoulders, carrying him literally kicking and screaming into the postoffice as our saviours close the door behind them.
Our saviours are Connor, Caroline, and Melanie.
Walkers immediately begin pounding on the door. There is no time for a happy reunion or taking in the sights of the postoffice. We grab anything we can, small tables, chairs, and even a photocopy machine, and pile them in front of the door.
I've finally come down from my adrenaline high, and the impact of Holly's death hits me like a brick wall.
I can see that the brick wall has hit Riley too. His shirt is covered in blood, his eyes are red and puffy and he stands as still as a statue, looking wide eyed at his hands. He drops his gun.
"That pile isn't going to hold long." my father says, ignoring Riley, then looking around and spotting a back room. "If it doesn't work, we head in there. Thats where they send the mail out, right?"
I'm not listening, I'm watching Riley. He breaks his statue-like pose and begins rapidly and furiously punching the wall behind him. I jump a little, his movements are so sudden and quick. He lets out choked sobs and colourful language, as the rest of us solemnly watch him.
Caroline nods, looking at my father. "Thats correct. They load the letters and packages into the mail trucks and bring them to wherever they need to go."
"What if we were the mail?" my mother speaks up. Everyone looks at her confused. She shakes her head slightly and continues, shakily rubbing tears from her eyes. "I mean, the trucks are right there. We can get out if all the walkers are over here instead of by the highway."
Riley starts kicking the wall now, sobbing louder and more steadily. His shoe breaks a small hole in the wall, but he doesn't seem to care. He's totally lost himself.
I look away from him, trying to contain my sadness.
Melanie and Caroline push on the blockade, making sure it's sound.
"We're safe for now." announces Melanie. "Those things are relentless."
Relentless for sure. They just grabbed Holly away from us and that was it. Just because she happened to be last in line. Just like my brother had to be on that side of the car. I zone out thinking of how close I have come to death, and how being trapped in here will lead to my death, unless I get lucky again.
I shudder and zone back in, surprised to hear that the thumping on the door has stopped. Riley continues to slam on the wall and dry heave, but everyone else has gathered by the windows.
I push myself between Connor and my mother, and spot what everyone is looking at.
It's Dawson, with his kids and Allie. Dawson and Allie are spraying bullets around like crazy, drawing the walkers away from us in the postoffice toward them in the road, they're just outside of the rubble that was once the hospital. Katie clings to her father, while Isaac and Rachel hang closer to Allie.
"I told Allie to meet me here." Connor whispers from next to me. "I guess she met up with Dawson and the kids on the way."
"What do we do?" demands Travis, focused on the fight outside.
"We yell at them and draw the walkers back here. What else?" groans Melanie. "Then we all get slaughtered. How fun is that?"
"Quit being so negative." I snap, turning my focus on Melanie. In a quieter voice, I continue. "We just lost someone. Quit being so god damn inconsiderate."
Melanie is about to speak, but she's cut off by the yelling outside.
"I know you're in there Connor!" yells one voice in desperation. It's Allie. She lifts her arm, exposing her ripped uniform and torn skin right under it. She's bit.
"We have to let them in!" Connor hisses. "There's three kids for Christ's sake!"
"She's bit!" protests Melanie.
Allie keeps shooting as Dawson leans down, telling his three kids something inaudible from over here. "Hurry it up!" Allie screams, as the walkers advance on them.
Isaac and Rachel nod. But Katie doesn't accept. "No daddy!" she screams. "I'm not leaving you!"
"It's your funeral!" Allie shouts at her. "You two, come with me." she turns to the post office, looking right at us. "CONNOR! Please let us in!"
Allie, Isaac, and Rachel break into a run toward us.
"Fuck you." spits Connor, glaring at Melanie. He tears down the barricade, and unlocks the door, no one argues.
The horde has closed in on Allie, Isaac and Rachel.
"GO!" she screams to the distraught kids. Rachel runs immediately, Isaac following tentatively. Allie runs full force into the walkers, falling on top of them but creating a path for the kids. The walkers eagerly pull a screaming Allie apart like they did Holly.
I can't look outside. The scene is too gruesome, too saddening. One of my only friends here, bitten, but then dies like a hero. I'm hit by another wall of bricks. The door flies open, Isaac and Rachel collapsing to the ground inside of the postoffice. I puke on my shoes, Travis and my mother following suit.
Outside, Dawson and Katie are trapped, the forest to their backs. Dawson looks around frantically, throws Katie over his shoulder in a fireman carry, and sprints toward the forest and into the darkness. The walkers begin slowly shuffling back toward us.
