"Layla...Layla c'mon wake up." Urged Peter in a hushed voice. "Zoe, Alex... you too."

The girls groggily awoke as Peter - Layla's dad - shook them on the shoulder and continued to bustle around the room.

"What's up Peter?" Yawned Alex pushing herself into a sitting position and rubbing the sleep out of her deep blue eyes. Zoe was also sat up on her chair, looking slightly confused to why they were being rudely awakened.

"I just need you girls to get up and get ready." He replied opening a draw, pulling out an old torch and batteries. "Layla! Now."

Peter was a tall, bald man with a kind face in his early 40's. He had the same forest green eyes as Layla but wore a funny smirk, unlike his daughters' scowl.

"Daaadd!" Layla whined pulling the duvet over her head "Why are you waking us up? It's still early AND it's Saturday."

Just as Peter opened his mouth to scold Layla and hurry her up Claire - Layla's mum- entered the room carrying a large box of toiletries from upstairs.

"Do as your dad says, sweetie. Girls, I need you to get dressed, your parents on their way."

"Mum, what the hell is going?" Layla asked, now fully awake like the others. Fear prickled within them all at Layla's parents' strange behaviour, sensing something was wrong. The girls all exchanged a worried glance.

"I'll explain once you're dressed, right now I need you three to go upstairs and get your clothes on. Be quick, we don't have long."

"Yes, Mrs Howard." Said Alex and Zoe in unison.

"Yes, mom."

Alex grabbed her small backpack and hurried upstairs, following Zoe and Layla. All their minds were racing. What the fuck was going on. They hastily got changed in silence, none of them knew how to put what they were feeling into words.

"I'm scared." Zoe said apprehensively "You don't think it's that virus do you?"

She directed this at Alex who was busy trying to tame her thick dark hair into a ponytail.

"I... I dunno."

It was true - Alex didn't know what to think. None of them did. For weeks this virus covered the newspapers and headlines. Naturally, everybody was on edge but they said they were working on a cure. A few people left town to be with loved ones. Some people left out of fear.

The girls all lived on the far outskirts of a city. Not quite the 'countryside' as such but the town centre was a 20-minute train journey away. One end was 'The Village'- as the locals called it- it had a train station, an old pub, a few takeaway restaurants, a couple of corner shops and a small supermarket. It wasn't the biggest or nicest place but it worked for the people who lived close by. All the houses were about 3 roomed with decent gardens- again not fancy, but it worked. Further up the road was a small petrol station and a little further than that was another 'express store' and a small community centre with a library, doctors surgery and a small park. In the middle of the local area was a primary school that backed onto huge fields and forest that was known as 'the Valley'. It was a nature reserve with rivers, walking trails and a big working farm the other end. And at the very top of the road was another pub and a row of small shops - a chemist with a dentist upstairs, an off-licence, hairdressers and a chippy.

It was a tight-knit community and everyone knew one another. It wasn't surprising when this thing started, people got worried. They heard stories - people died. That's when families started avoiding people, not wanting to get to close to anyone. Most people left. It got quiet. It got creepy, but people just carried on with their life.

Layla sat down on the edge of her bed, her chewing at her nails.

"I mean... It's probably nothing. My dad is just overreacting as always."

The worried look in her eyes told another story.

"Let's just get downstairs and let your parents explain" replied Alex, shrugging on her jacket and backpack, opening the door for the others "C'mon, let's go."

The girls trailed back downstairs, Zoe and Alex with their bags on their backs from the overnight stay, ordered straight into the living room by Layla's parents who were packing up the car with food, clothes and blankets. Layla was pacing the living room chewing on her nails, Zoe staring nervously off into space and Alex tapping her feet and cracking the joints in her hand.

Peter and Claire burst into the living room with a small box and started filling it with little items from the various draws around the room- a small sewing kit, a few boxes of matches, small candles and some sentimental items from the family- like an old teddy of Layla's and a small photo album.

"Mom what on earth is going on, you're scaring me," Layla asked walking over to where her mom was kneeled, rummaging through a cupboard full of various books.

"Sweetie not now," sighed Claire, not looking up from the cupboard she was going through "just help your dad and I pack"

"Pack? For what? What's going on?" She questioned further, her worry only growing. "Where are we going?"

"Layla plea.."

"No, mom!" She interrupted "What is going on? First you wake us up at God knows what time, you order us to get changed... We come back down and you've packed half the house into the car! It's madness! I want to know what's happe..!"

"ENOUGH!" Peter bellowed "Claire, she deserves to know what's going on, they're old enough to understand. "

Claire just sighed and turned her back on the girls. They were all now sat on the sofa, Peter stood in front of them with a calm face but they could all see the worry that crept into his eyes.

"I take it you've all heard about this virus that's been making people sick?"

The girls just nodded in response

"Well, it doesn't just make them sick it...well.."

Layla interrupted

"Yeah, we know... People die. Loads have. It's nothing new."

"Layla. Just shut up and let your dad explain" Alex snapped earning a signature glare from Layla. Zoe elbowed her and between them, they got her to keep from retaliating further.

"It changes them." Stated Peter, seeming uncertain himself.

There were a few seconds of confused silence.

"You mean they get delirious? Like from the fever?" Zoe asked, trying to comprehend what the man was telling them.

"No, I mean.." Peter stammered not knowing what to say to the girls "After you die...you come back."

"That's not possible."

"No way."

"What the hell."

They all said at once. Minds racing with hundreds of questions and feelings just waiting to spill out.

"I know, it's scary and confusing. I wish I had an explanation but I only know as much as you do."

"I still don't understand," Layla murmured now standing up and hugging her fathers' side "why do we have to leave?"

"Because it's not safe munchkin," he pulled away looking down at his daughter "those people are dangerous"

"But they're dead... It's impossible..." Zoe interrupted again, trying to justify the situation with a logical explanation of events.

"Those creatures...those things... Whatever they are, dead is not one of them. They attack people - bite people for Christ sake."

"Bite people?" Alex echoed now standing as well.

"Innocent people...they attack them and they start...they start.."

"That's enough now," Claire piped in, she turned to Peter "they're only children. They don't need to know.."

"They eat people? Right?" Alex asked, looking up at the adults "there were rumours going around online, saying the fever made people go crazy, they started eating each other. Like cannibals. That's what's going on right?"

Peter nodded at the girl

"All we need to do is get out of here. Zoe your family is outside, Alex you're going with them. We'll be right behind you.."

"Wait you still haven't told us what's going on... Where are we going"

Peter picked up the last few boxes as Claire carried them out to the car and the girls pulled their shoes on.

"An evacuation warning came through last night. The military is escorting people down to the coast a few at a time" Peter explained shooing the girls onto the driveway and locking up the house. "They told us to stay with people we want to be with... So in the meantime, we're holding up at Alex's place with Zoe, her family and a few others as it's the biggest. There are a few empty houses on the square that we can use until the army come and take us to a safe zone down south.. They've put up a temporary fence around the square so we figured it would be the safest."

It was true. Alex was the oldest of 4 children in her family so her house was naturally the biggest. Zoe had one younger sister and Layla was an only child. Alex lived on "the square" and as the name suggests, it was a square of 20 or so houses with a square patch of grass and a few trees in the middle.

Suddenly, three loud shots rang through the air followed by screaming and snarling. They all whipped around to see an army officer with his gun trained on a... Man? A thing with one arm, bloodstained skin and a wound across his stomach which was alone, enough to kill any person. It was like something out of your worst nightmare. The 'man' didn't back down and kept advancing on the officer. The gun went off again, hitting the 'man' in the chest...but it kept coming. Layla was already in her car, but you still heard a faint scream as Claire covered her mouth to shut her up. Zoe bit back a sob of terror and Alex was silently horrified as they scrambled into the back of Zoe's parents' car. After a brief struggle, the officer wailed and they turned to see the man latched onto his arm with its mouth, ripping the flesh with his teeth. Blood was everywhere. Red soaked his uniform as he fell to his knees at the mercy of the beast. The army officer pleaded for help but the families just watched as the man was torn apart.

Layla was crying in complete terror, Zoe wretched (luckily they hadn't eaten that morning or Alex would be wearing the contents of Zoe's stomach) as Alex just stared in horrified disbelief.

"Can't we help him," Layla sobbed from the back of the other car staring at the beast devour the other man "we need to get him to a hospital, let's call an ambulance. We have to do something"

"He's been bitten" Peter replied looking even more terrified than before flashing his lights at Zoe's dad in the other car, signalling him to drive on. "We can't help him. He belongs to the dead now."

The two cars sped off the driveway and up the deserted street to Alex's families house. In search of a small sanctuary, they left the horrors of that morning in the street behind them. The screams of pain had stopped and the faint gurgle of blood was the only sign of the officers continued suffering as he bled on the tarmac. And that was just the beginning.