Tommy and Coleen could see it all unfold before them; as if it were a movie and they had VIP passes to the preview showing. They saw the first infected burst through the door and pass on the disease to someone else, and they saw those two infect another person and thus began a chain reaction that seemed never ending. Not even thinking about fighting back, Tommy jerked Tanya awake and, without saying anything she knew what was happening. She was up and moving faster than even Tommy was, and her and Coleen looked to him for an idea, as they racked their own brains trying to come up with something; anything.
"Outside!" Tommy yelled, realizing that everything seemed to be focusing on the inside of the church, which meant it would actually be safer to be outside; at least for now. He only saw one infected come from outside, which meant more were sure to follow, but weighing that against the hundred that would be inside this church in a matter of minutes made anything look like a blessing.
Tanya and Coleen listened, immediately heading for the exit, shoving anything and anyone that got in their way. Tommy was close behind, keeping his eye out for James. He hated to admit it, but he was worried. James had been gone since before Tommy awoke and who knew what he could be up to. Tommy wouldn't have been surprised if he was out finding the cure for the infection or something ridiculous of that sort.
The sun had not quite pulled itself up from the horizon yet, as they dashed outside, but it was poking its head out to see if the coast was clear, which sent a brilliant shower of colors into the clear-blue sky. It was cold, but not see-your-breath-as-fog cold, and the world around them showed it. The trees didn't sway, no lights, besides the sun, could be seen, no sounds made their way into the survivor's ears, and no life seemed to be present in anything. Everything was still; still and cold.
They paused in the parking lot that surrounded the front side of the church and looked around, hoping to see James or anything really. Deep in the pit of their minds they were hoping that they would see the military in the distance, charging their way towards the church to save the survivors, but they knew that wasn't going to happen.
"Where's the car?" Tanya was still trying to catch her breath as she forced the words out, aimed towards Tommy of course.
"We parked it around back," His breath was mildly calm but still ragged as he continued to scan for any sign of James. "Where's James?"Tommy looked to Tanya, who looked from him to Coleen, and she looked from Tanya to Tommy, all of them hoping that someone had the answer when it was obvious that no one did.
Then they heard it; a loud crack blasting its way into their ears. The sounds of the infected screaming as they dropped to the ground followed it, and then the crack came again, this time closer. They wanted to smile, because they knew what the crack was, but they found it hard to. They had all found it hard to smile recently. Not even the cloudless morning sky could lighten the hearts of the young survivors.
Tommy rushed to the nearest window that looked into the church, Coleen and Tanya followed, pressing their eyes to the glass to get a glimpse of what laid behind it. They saw a room that resembled a class room, lined with desks and chairs. It was dark in the room except for a light that came in from the doorway, and through that doorway they saw James, standing with his right side faced the door, firing his shotgun towards what they assumed were infected. What came across their faces wasn't a smile, but more of a smirk; a really relieved smirk.
"James!" They began yelling, hoping that they wouldn't gain the attention of the infected, and also hoping that they wouldn't cause James to get too distracted. Luckily he seemed to be waiting for his name to be called, for he leapt through the doorway into the class room and slammed the door behind him, laying his back against it to keep it shut.
"Took ya long enough." He said, grunting while the door rattled and shaked as the infected rammed their bodies against it. "Open the window so I can get out."
Tommy looked at the window curiously, searching for anything that might be a latch or a lock that held the window in its place. There wasn't anything, and Coleen could tell from the look on his face that he was feeling a little too hopeless to have this happen right now. His eyes got big, and she could almost feel his heart beating faster than it ought to. She went to lay her hand on his shoulder when the window was knocked back into the room that held the smirking James. Tanya, leg raised chest high, kicked the window straight out of its place. She looked surprised with herself, as if, in her head, she expected it to go completely awry, leaving her with a sprained ankle or something of that sort.
Not having the luxury of time, Tommy began formulating a plan.
"Ok!" He yelled to get James' attention. James was grunting as he tried to keep the door from breaking under the pressure of the zombies. "On three, run for the window!"
"If I move," James began as the door got one big shake, causing him to pause before continuing. "This door comes down and then I'm dead!"
"We'll cover ya!" Tommy shouted back, bringing his rifle up to a firing position, aiming directly next to James. "So, on three!"James nodded in approval.
"One…" There was no use counting because James immediately dashed away from the door, going into a full sprint as the infected broke through behind him. Tommy fired into the small crowd that had gathered at the door, and Tanya and Coleen sat and prayed that James was fast enough and that Tommy was quick enough, since there wasn't much room at the window for three armed people.
James leapt through the air, stretching his body out perfectly flat as he made his way through the hole where the window used to be. Tommy let off a few more rounds and got out of the way as James tumbled through on the other side, rolling before hopping back up on his feet, shotgun at the ready. He looked to Tommy and they both began to fire through the window at the infected that were beginning to climb out. Not a single one was allowed to feel the cool morning air that hugged the survivors' lungs soothingly.
When that little group fell to the ground of the classroom, the survivors wasted no time as they hurriedly made their way towards the car that was around the other side of the building. They hardly noticed how out of breath they were as they forced their bodies to keep running, their guns bobbling up and down on their backs, or in their hands, as they went. Then Tommy came to a sudden stop, sliding a few more steps forward before inertia let go of him.
"Keys!" He yelled, turning back towards the entrance to the church and taking off running. James looked at Tanya and Coleen with a "get-to-the-car" look and took off after him, knowing that this wasn't going to be easy at all. By the time they would get to the front doors, more than half of the inhabitants of the church would be infected, and when they got back to their little corner of the sermon hall and grabbed the keys, James estimated that more than three fourths would be fully turned and blood thirsty.
Tommy was going fast, his gun hanging on his back unused, so James, instead of trying to catch up, decided to keep Tommy safe as he went. James slowed his pace and raised his gun, taking aim and firing at the first infected he saw. It's stomach blew out its backside before crashing down on the pavement with a unappealing thud. Then he fired on the next, and the next, and the next, and he continued that pattern until he was in the doorway of the sermon hall, firing at anything that wasn't trying to grab a set of keys to a green mustang out back.
It was chaos in its purest state as Tommy rushed to the right-hand corner of the sermon hall, ignoring anything and everything as he went. The infected leapt at him, and clawed at him, but he dodged, and ducked, and dipped, and just kept going, not letting anything slow him down. Right now Coleen and Tanya were outside alone, waiting for him to get back so they could drive out of here and hopefully leave this whole incident behind them, there wasn't any time to stop or slow down.
As an infected, targeted by James, was blown into smithereens right next to Tommy, he saw the little area that they had set up, complete with absolutely nothing except for a crappy book bag and a couple loose articles of clothing they had used as blankets and pillows. He already knew where the keys were, and he could see them. The key ring itself was inside the pocket of a button up shirt Coleen had been covered with, but the lanyard that was attached to it was hanging from that pocket, allowing Tommy to yank on it and bring forth the shiny metal that he needed.
He turned and began to run back to James when something jumped on him, knocking him flat on the ground. His head connected with the ground rather brutally, leaving him in a semi-dazed state as this former-human flailed its body on top of his. The growls that came from its mouth were followed by little spurts of blood, and the smell that covered it was that of vomit and previously living tissue. For some reason Tommy found himself remembering what happened to Taylor. This is what she must have felt like; helpless, hopeless, prey to the hunter. He tried to get up but he couldn't, his body was too weak, and the infected appeared so strong. He was no match.
James' voice pierced the gunky feeling of Tommy's brain, as he shouted some kind of curse word, most likely because if he tried to take a shot at the infected that was barreling down on Tommy, he would kill Tommy as well. Two birds with one stone never looked worse than it did then. Tommy chuckled at the thought. Well, it was meant to be a chuckle, but with a two-hundred pound, blood thirsty creature from hell laying on him, the chuckle sounded more like a blunt form of suffocation.
Then everything went quiet as a piercing pain shot through his side, and he noticed that the weight wasn't all spread throughout his body anymore. It was all localized on his lower half, most of it on his groin, making everything so much more uncomfortable. The silence seemed never ending as the pain got stronger, and deeper. Tommy felt the warm feeling of blood as it poured down his side onto the carpeted floor. It'll take more than Oxy Clean to get these tough stains out…
This time the chuckles that followed the hysterical comment came out in gasps of blood filled air, causing Tommy to gag and swallow a lot of the blood that now filled his mouth. He felt it slide down his throat and into his lung and he prayed that he wouldn't drown in his own bodily fluid, that wasn't the way he had seen himself going. In fact, he had never seen himself going any way, whether it heroic or lame. He realized that the entire time, after he found Coleen lying in his back seat, he had felt like he was immortal, as if it wasn't even possible for him to get injured.
Well now, laying on his back with blood filling his mouth and an infected digging its teeth into his side, he realized he wasn't immortal. He was just human, maybe not even that anymore; he wasn't sure what being infected felt like, but he supposed it might feel like dying, but constant and never ending. They do call it the living dead don't they? He tried to chuckle again, but he didn't have the spirit for swallowing more blood.
He watched as James' boot connected with the infected's side, its teeth tearing some of Tommy's skin off as it collapsed. James pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of the zombie's head and let the shell enter into its skull, leaving nothing but mush (if that even). He leaned over his bloody friend, and looked into his eyes, seeing the endorphin dulled pain he was in.
"Come on," James said, not even believing that Tommy could. "Get up, we gotta get going." Tommy shook his head; the blood was now running down his cheek and onto his neck. James knew that it was too late, even if Tommy wanted to get up and keep going, he wouldn't be allowed to. He was bitten. He was one of them now. James stood up, and aimed the gun toward Tommy's head.
"Don't waste that on me." Tommy said, pushing the barrel out of his face. "Just go." His shaky hand held out the lanyard with the keys to the mustang on it, and James took it; he took it and ran.