Chapter 2

I felt two firm hands on my shoulders, and a vicious snarling sound. I swivelled around to find a zombie drooling bloody saliva all over my outfit. I pelted him over the head with my pistol venomously.

I continued to shoot unceasingly, again and again. Zombies cascaded to the ground, along with a bloody, gorey mess, but more and more kept coming, dashing towards Kenneth and I. We were lucky though, Kenneth was a skilled shooter, as he was a police officer, so that meant he had many years of practice.

A zombie pounced at me, snarling and bareing it's blood dripping teeth. It knocked me to the ground, causing another zombie to lunge at me, ready to sink it's teeth deep into my flesh and turn me into one of them.

Kenneth snapped like a twig, and was on the zombies like a hawk on it's prey. He shot the zombie in the back of it's head, sending blood and gore flying right smack into my face. I winced, it wa so revolting, and pushed the dead corpse off of me so that I was able to stand up. I wiped the zombie's remains off my face, my features twisting into an anguished expression. "Thanks for that," I said sincerely, positioning my gun and aiming it at the swarm of zombies.

Kenneth mumbled something in return, but I couldn't make out what he had said, as it had come out rather muffled.

"Kenneth, we can't keep this up any longer, there's too many!" I declaimed over the chaos and disturbing noise. "We need to find somewhere to go where they can't get at us."

Kenneth kept shooting bullets, killing more and more, causing more and more corpses to litter the once lustrous, tepid island sand. He nodded his head in agreement. "I know. Go back to the boat, I'll keep shooting."

"But what about-"

"No," he stated rigorously. "Just go back to the boat and stay there. Start searching for a place for us to stay, because it doesn't look like we're gettin' out of here."

I swallowed the potato sized lump wedged deep in my throat. "Kenneth... Are you sure?"

"Yes! It'll be fine, just trust me, Ana."

"No. It won't."

"Go. Ana, go!"

I didn't argue any further, there was no need of it, there was no way I could convince Kenneth otherwise. I simply turned on my heel and dashed over to the boat, thrusting myself over the side. Nicole and Terry looked at me with confounded expressions. Terry held Nicole in a warm embrace.

"Come on, you two have to help me out," I explained hurriedly. "We need to find a place to stay so that the zombies can't get at us." I began searching, surveying the entire island. When my eyes finally rested upon what I was searching frantically for, I began shrieking insanely. I hollered out to Kenneth, yelping his name.

Kenneth turned round to face me, still shooting and glancing every so often at the snarling zombies getting closer to their prey, their meal. "Ana, what did you find?"

I pointed ahead at a small, fair sized tree house high in an arrogant tree. It wasn't much, but good enough-for our sake anyway. Kenneth's eyes followed my outstretched arm. He gave me a brief thumbs up before focusing his attention back to his brain blasting. As he was shooting, he began jogging towards the still boat. I started shooting, while he dashed to the boat and hopped in.

"Alright, start grabbing some coolers," he commanded, snatching two navy blue coolers. "And lets start heading to that tree. Terry, come on. Nicole will be fine, get your gun ready."

Terry reluctantly agreed, positioning his gun in the correct position. He ushered Nicole off the boat, keeping her steady and close to him as well as possible. The zombies were swarming around the boat savagely.

"Come on, Chip!" Nicole cupped her mouth with her hands and hollered for her dog Chip to follow her. She had found Chip back at the mall we had been stranded at, and ever since then, she was attatched to the matted canine. The dog obediantly followed it's loving owner.

When we prominently managed to make our way through the swarm of blood thirsty, flesh craving living dead, we were exhausted. We stood just below the abnormally astronomic tree, Kenneth and Terry allowing me to rest while they blasted zombies.

After I regained energy, I thrust my pistol into Nicole's trembling hands. She observed the weapon in her hands, her lip quivering. "Ana, no.."

"Yes, Nicole, I need you to shoot," I insisted.

She shook her head uneasily her eyes brimming with hot tears. "Ana, I can't. You don't understand. I'll be a-murderer!"

I breathed inwardly, frustration causing me to raise my voice slightly. "Nicole, you're not going to be a murderer, these are flesh eating zombies and they're going to kill us if you don't shoot! I need you too, I have to use this rope and climb up this tree to safety."

"But I've never used a gun before."

"I guess there's a first time for everything," I replied simply, bristling with fury.

A zombie lunged at Nicole abruptly. She swivelled around sharply and fired a bullet right at the zombie's head. She shrieked as it's corpse collapsed.

I gave her a brief nod and began my work. After many pathetic attempts, I finally managed to climb up the tree by wrapping the rope around my waist and using my feet to walk up the barky trunk.

"Kenneth!" I roared down, my voice trembling. "I'm up." I tossed the rope down to him which he caught simply. He handed the rope to Nicole and muttered something to Terry. Terry then helped a perpllexed Nicole position the rope around her waist and begin climbing.

"I can't, I can't," Nicole kept pouting. But Terry kept insisting she gain confidence and courage.

Momentarily, we were all up the tree and in the small tree house. I observed my surroundings, my hands on my hips in a sophisticated posture. I set a cooler down on the wooden floor boards. "Well there's a sheet. It's a start." Yeah, a start of our new life.

There was a ratty old sheet with holes in it lying on the floor, a window, cards strewn everywhere, and a dart board. It wasn't much, but it was alright if you were desperate. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Nicole, out of nowhere, broke down and started sobbing. Terry immediately ushered to her side and whispered words of comfort in her ear.

Kenneth declined the two coolers he was gripping onto, and stepped further into our new home to get a nice feel for it, to get used to the fact that we were going to be here for a while. We weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Nicole, sniffling and swiping at her tear streaked face, crumpled to the floor and stroked Chip. It had been viscid, but we had managed to get Chip up here. Kenneth, the last to come up, tossed him up to Terry, then Terry thrusted the mutt into Nicole's outstretched hands, then Nicole would gently pass him up to me, where I would set him down on the safety of flat ground.

Seeing Nicole cry so flaccidly made me feel so languished. It melted and snapped my heart into two pieces. It made me want to break down and shed so many tears for all my lost loved ones, for everything that had happened to me recently. This was practically my new home, a measley shack in a tree that somebody probably threw together in a moment.

A single tear trickled from my eye down my tepid cheek. I brushed that single tear away; that one tear meant so much.

That night, stars twinkled high in the unenlightened sky, bats fluttered by, and owls hooted in the pitch, deep darkness. It wasn't just darkness, it was advanced darkness. Even the moon produced a small source of light in the wide open sky.

I lay unperturbedly on the fibrous, back-stiffening wooden floor beside Kenneth, with only a thin sheet to cover me. I was at the edge, so I didn't have much blanket. I could hear the snarls and moans of the zombies below. It was nearly impossible to get a wince of sleep.

The quiet sound of sniffing startled me. I could just make out the silhouette of Chip sniffing in a corner of the tiny shack.

"Chip," hissed Nicole sitting up abruptly. "Chip, come here. Come on, boy."

Nicole stood up and carefully edged towards her wandering pet. "Chip?"

A shrilling, eerie shriek rang out through the crisp night air- it was Nicole. She was yelping and screeching with utter fear. Her breaths came out heavy and hard. I shuddered at the sound of nails scratching frantically on wood.

I sat up straight, to make out two hands gripping onto the wooden ledge of the tree house. It was Nicole, her arm swung over, before vanishing behind the ledge again. She was panicing, trying frantically and desperately to pull herself to safety. Because if she didn't, she would get eaten alive.