Chapter 4: The Right to Live
EDWARD
Without wanting to, I found myself becoming used to life at camp. My day had a routine to it and I found that it was something that I'd missed. Before the world fell apart, my week had had structure—school, homework, video games, etc. Often that routine had bored me, but now I craved predictability.
For the first week, Jasper and I would leave the camp every morning, so that he could take me through lessons on how to shoot my crossbow and gun. It was really difficult and his expectations were high. By the end of the week, I could shoot things that weren't moving with a fair amount of accuracy, but a moving object was a lot harder.
So, rain or shine, with or without Jasper, I left the camp to practice shooting. Jasper had created a moving target for me by tying a piece of wood to a rope and hanging it from a tree. When it was swung, it made a fairly good moving target.
Jasper seemed unimpressed by my progress though. Thankfully, he didn't say anything to Garrett about regretting his decision to vouch for me, but I kept waiting for it. My life was essentially in his hands and I didn't even know why. He still wouldn't tell me why he saved me and wouldn't share anything personal about himself. So, even though I spent a lot of time with him, I knew less about him than many other people in the camp.
Besides training, the rest of my days were spent either guarding the camp or foraging for food. I led some members of our camp to the Richardson's farm as well as other farms that I'd heard about. After that, a lot of people's opinions about me changed. Now, I wasn't looked at with distrust every time I walked through the camp, but instead greeted with friendly smiles.
Jasper warned me again about drawing attention to myself, but I didn't understand what he thought I was doing wrong. By being standoffish, I thought Jasper drew more attention to himself than I did.
As Jasper's protégé, Garrett began including me in meetings he had with Jasper and James. At first, James was vehemently against it, causing a lot of friction between himself and Garrett. But one day it was as if he had a complete change of heart and was actually nice to me.
I thought that maybe he'd finally come to accept that I wasn't a threat when he started inviting me on hunts. I wanted to agree in order to stay on James good side, but Jasper always seemed to have something for me to do on those occasions.
I resented Jasper in those moments. He was only a few years older than me, but he acted like he was so much wiser. I wasn't a kid any more. Plus, being older didn't make him anything special. But because he'd vouched for me, Jasper had control over what I could and could not do.
I was sure that rejecting James' offers to include me on hunts would just cause him to start hating me again, but James barely acknowledged the fact that I was turning him down every time.
"You're such an idiot, Edward. Open your eyes. They're just pretending to be friendly. The minute you turn your back they're glaring daggers at you and soon it'll probably be real daggers. You don't understand people like James. People like him don't have friends, they have allies. And allies are a means to an end. If they wear out their usefulness, they're easily disposed of. You won't survive in this world if you stay this naïve," Jasper hissed at me one night as we settled down for the night.
"Fuck off, Jasper. I'm not naïve. Just because you don't fit in doesn't mean that you need to drag me down with you," I grumbled.
I saw anger flare in his eyes at my words.
"You just don't get it. This is not about fitting in. This is about surviving in a world full of bullies and criminals. Soft hearted naïve people do not survive. It's only the people who will do whatever it takes to get what they want in this world that will live. I bet you've never had to fight for a thing in your life. Everything was handed to you on a silver platter. Well, not everyone grew up in that kind of luxury. Some people have had to fight and scrounge for every bit of luxury they've had because no one would step in to care for them. It's these people who survive because they've already learned not to trust people simply because they're nice to them. You'll see soon enough, Edward. This is how it happened with the other guys that James thought were a threat. He cozied up to them and when they let their guard down, he murdered them in their sleep," Jasper responded in a hushed voice.
It was the most that Jasper had ever said to me and it made an impression because he said it with more emotion than he'd ever shown before. What he said seemed more personal than a simple lecture.
After that, I paid more attention to James' group and how they behaved when they thought I wasn't looking. It was around that time that I got the sense that I was being watched. I never actually saw anyone, but there were times that I'd get a chill from what felt like eyes burning into the back of my head.
I grudgingly told Jasper about it and he gave me a "I told you so" look. He felt that it was probably Alistair who was James' right hand man.
"They don't like the fact that you have Tanya hanging off of you all the time. She's the ultimate prize," he said to me in his quiet voice. "She's gonna get you in trouble, Edward. So, stop thinking with your dick," he grumbled.
"He's twice her age. That's so gross," I exclaimed.
Jasper just shrugged.
He thought that I liked Tanya, but I didn't. She just wouldn't leave me alone. Whenever I had time to relax, she was at my side and wouldn't stop touching me. She seemed to constantly find an excuse to rub my arm, brush a hand across my leg, lean into my shoulder.
I couldn't deny that I'd find myself sometimes noticing her curves and how soft her skin looked, but I didn't have time to be a stupid guy making goo-goo eyes at girls with boobs.
Thankfully, after a while of not showing interest, Tanya gave up in a sulk and left me alone.
After about a month of being in the camp, I found myself actually starting to enjoy my new life. I always kept what Jasper had in my mind. However, the more time passed without a fight breaking out between myself and James, I started to think that maybe Jasper had been exaggerating about him.
Garrett was a strong leader that took an interest in me and would often encourage me to sit with him and his family at night. It was at that time that I learned Garrett had a plan for our group beyond just surviving. He was trying to create a new civilization, one where he selected only the strongest to join. One night as we sat around the central fire, he talked about his philosophy.
"With animals, those that are weak are soon killed off or die on their own in the wild. The animals that survive are the ones that are healthy and strong. However, when humanity became civilized, we developed ways to protect the weak through technology and laws. Therefore, the weak members of society survived and started breeding which led to a frailty in the human race. This plague of the undead is bringing us back to the way that the human race should be. The strong survive, the weak die," he said.
After his speech, Garrett turned in for the night. Once he was gone, I stared into the fire thinking about what he'd said. It was ruthless and cruel, but was he wrong?
He seemed to reinforce everything that Jasper had been telling me. This new world was brutal and not a place for people who were fragile or too tender-hearted. You had to be ruthless and less emotional to survive. The fact that we were all already infected with the death virus only solidified that point.
Garrett had become more of a father to me than my own had ever been. I did whatever Garrett asked of me with a smile on my face because I felt like an essential member of Garrett's inner circle. I volunteered to go on trips for him where we'd look for food and survivors that might be deemed strong enough to survive this world.
The scouting parties were told to keep a look out for people. But instead of approaching them, we were to report back to Garrett. If he found that they'd be valuable members of the community, then he'd send people to retrieve them.
He was ruthless when choosing who could stay. When people were brought in, they were given a probation period to prove themselves. If they were found to be too weak, they were kicked out and if they refused to leave they were killed. Women under the age of forty were always taken in, but that didn't mean that their travelling companions were accepted. One particular case shocked me and made me question for a brief moment Garrett's philosophy. One of the hunting parties found a twenty-something woman travelling with her elderly parents. Garrett told her that she could join our group as long as she left her parents behind. She refused, so Garrett kicked them all out.
The camp was split under Garrett's rule. Many people were unhappy with the fact that Garrett was bringing so many people into the group. They felt that with every new member that we brought into the fold, our lives were in more danger. I didn't totally disagree with them, but Garrett argued that every day more and more people were dying and by the time we found a defensible home there may not be enough people left to repopulate the human race.
Tensions began to mount between James' group and Garrett's followers as the camp expanded. It was getting to the point where at times James would pick random things to fight with Garrett about. It was often something as petty as who got the best share of a kill. A battle of wills would ensue, but usually it was James who would back down. However, these little battles allowed James to make his point. Garrett was not God and if he stumbled, he was there to take his place.
I tried to make myself less conspicuous as these incidents increased and stuck close to Jasper, not wanting to rekindle James hatred of me. But James attitude towards me never changed. Even when he'd argue with Garrett, he was nice to me.
"You seem to be settling in here quite nicely, Edward," Alistair said one day after we'd returned from a mission.
"It's nice to be around people again," I said, neutrally.
James sidled up next to Alistair.
"I do believe you're right," James said with a grin as he smoothed his hair back into its pony tail. "It'll be even better when we settle and can start repopulating the human race, eh? We'll have the pick of the litter," he said with a wink.
I flinched at his casual tone. I'd noticed how James and his guards treated the women of the camp. They were friendly enough, but they treated them more like possessions than people. Often fights would break out among his men when two would be interested in the same woman. They reminded me of a pack of animals fighting over a kill.
When I saw what they were doing, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about my mom or even Anna and it made my skin crawl.
I mentioned it to Garrett one night and his answer surprised me.
"It's the nature of our species, Edward. Men, deep down, are nothing but beasts. I'm not saying that we shouldn't fight against it, but a certain amount of pack behavior is going to emerge when you put a bunch of alpha males together. We need to ignore it for the greater good for the time being. Once we've settled into a more permanent home, we can establish some rules."
Garrett's opinion unsettled me. I agreed with a lot of his philosophy, but not on this. Women were not possessions to be used as men saw fit. It bothered me even more how Garrett would turn a blind eye to it and yet keep his wife and daughter protected at all times.
Jasper seemed to agree with me. I saw that whenever he noticed the men making moves on the women who shied away from them, he'd try to distract their focus.
So, day by day, I was torn between the bond that I'd formed with Garrett and the brutality with which he viewed our new life. The violence that he was allowing to go on in camp couldn't be contained and it was only a matter of time before it exploded.
And then one night it finally did.
As I lay in my bedroll, I heard a scuffle erupt at Garrett's camp.
"You can't stop me, old man!" I heard James snarl.
I sat up and looked around me, reaching for my shotgun.
Jasper had rolled out of his blankets at the same time and was now crouched with his gun held out in front of him.
When he saw me looking at him, he gestured for me to stay quiet before slipping into the trees.
But I couldn't stay where I was. I could tell that the tension that had built over the months had finally boiled over and people were going to get hurt.
I crept towards Garrett's camp site, trying to be as stealthy as possible.
"Nice and easy, hoss," James said in a cheerful twang, raising the barrel of his shotgun at Garrett.
James and Garrett were practically the same height, but James was in better condition. Life as a hunter and guard had taken away any softness to him. He was all hard lines and sinewy muscle. Dressed in worn camo-pants, muddy work boots and a leather coat, James was a threatening figure as his pale blue eyes narrowed at Garrett.
Out of the darkness, Alistair appeared behind Garrett and kicked his legs out from under him.
At the sight, I moved more quickly to the camp site and pointed my shotgun at James. However, it was at that moment that I realized that I'd forgotten to load it after the day's hunting expedition. Jasper had told me to check my weapons every night. He said that I had to always be ready to fight and now I was experiencing first-hand what he'd been trying to teach me. I wasn't prepared to fight and now I might very well die because I hadn't listened to him.
I stopped about eight feet away from James, concentrating as hard as I could on pretending that my shotgun was loaded.
"Drop your weapon, James," I said, calmly.
James eyes flickered to mine, but beyond that he ignored me.
"I assume that this is about what happened yesterday," Garrett said, bluntly.
Yesterday, James had returned from the hunt full of energy as he dragged the carcass of a deer into camp. However, his excited energy soon turned vicious as he chose to antagonize Garrett again.
"We're eating good tonight, folks!" he shouted and the camp clapped in excitement.
It was the best meal that I'd had in a long time. The venison stew filled my stomach and made me drowsy as I sat next to the fire.
I was practically asleep when I heard Garrett snap loudly at James.
"Let go of her, James," Garrett snarled.
My eyes snapped open, looking to the other side of the fire.
James was sitting on one of the logs with Tanya tucked securely under his arm.
"I think she's comfortable where she is. Aren't you, sweets?" James said, roughly kissing the side of Tanya's head.
I looked at Tanya and saw that while she looked stressed, she didn't flinch away from James as I thought she would.
"It's okay, Daddy," she said, soothingly. "James and I like each other."
However, Garrett ignored her, never looking away from James.
"I'm warning you, James. Let go of my daughter. I'm only saying this once," Garrett growled, not seeming to understand the danger that he was in.
For a few tense moments, James stared at Garrett. Then, he let go of Tanya and stood up.
"No harm, no foul, hoss," he said with a grin. "I'll see you later, Tanya."
After he left, Tanya scurried away from the fire and into her tent while Garrett sat frozen looking in the direction where James had gone.
"I've decided that I'm not going to be taking any more orders from you… I think that we need a change in management…" James said with a smirk.
"Lower the gun and I'll let you leave the camp," Garrett responded.
"Well, let's just think about that for a moment. I think that there may be a lot of people here that would have a problem with that," James said.
It was at that moment that the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I felt the presence of others standing just outside the ring of firelight.
Garrett must have sensed it too because suddenly I saw a flicker of fear in his eyes.
"That's exactly right, hoss,"James said, his voice calm. His teeth gleamed as he smiled a reptilian smile, taking a step towards Garrett. "You're not God. You're nothin' but an old man that has worn out his usefulness."
Garrett climbed to his feet, but then stood his ground. I'm sure he knew that the next few moments were critical to his survival and he was trying to show the rest of the camp that he was not weak.
"I don't want any bloodshed, but I guarantee that if you don't step down, yours and mine are gonna be the first blood that's shed," Garrett said in as reasonable voice as possible. "I don't think you want that James."
"I don't think it will come to that, old man," James said.
He called out suddenly to one of his comrades in the dark. "Felix?"
A voice answered from the woods. "Got'em, James."
Felix appeared out of the woods with Kate trapped against him as he held a knife to her throat. He was a young guy that I'd seen James with before, but I hadn't really paid attention to him. He was abnormally thin with long skinny arms riddled with tattoos sticking out of a faded camouflage jacket that had the sleeves torn off. His tics and constant darting eyes had made him seem pitiful. Now, though, I thought that his nervous behavior actually made him more dangerous because he was clearly unstable.
Then, to Felix left, Marcus a large thug that had been newly recruited by James stepped out of the woods, dragging Tanya by the arm.
At that moment, I knew that there would be no peaceful resolution. James was going to kill Garrett and then anyone who supported him, starting with me.
"Let them go, James!" Garrett snarled as his calm exterior shattered.
"Now, why would I do that, hoss?" James asked with a cruel grin.
"Please, don't hurt my family," Garrett begged. "Kill me. Take it all. Just don't hurt them. They need to survive."
I saw James grin turn cold as he raised his gun.
"Hold on, now," I heard a voice, speak from the darkness. "There's no reason to be hasty, James."
I looked over James' shoulder and saw that Jasper had materialized out of the darkness with his gun pointed at Felix.
He made eye contact with me and then at my gun before narrowing his eyes at James.
I realized that he was telling me to be ready to shoot James while he took care of Felix.
A sinking feeling filled my stomach as I recognized that my stupidity for not loading my shotgun was going to kill us all.
"Jasper, you and I have never had a problem besides over that suck-hole over there," James said calmly as he jerked his chin towards me. "We won't have to have a problem once I get rid of the two of them. You hear me, man?"
"I don't think so, James," Jasper said, calmly before spinning towards Felix and shooting him squarely in the head.
"NOW, EDWARD!" he shouted as he lunged towards Marcus who was holding Tanya.
I dropped the gun at my feet and rushed James with my knife in hand, but it was too late.
The blast of the gun being discharged blinded me for a moment as I lunged towards James.
Knocking him to the ground, I slammed my blade down blindly, but instead of striking flesh I struck the ground with a jarring impact.
I felt arms grab me and drag me off of him, but I continued to fight slashing at whoever had a hold of me. Curses and yelps of pain escaped those that I was able to reach, but their grips on me never faltered.
By the time they had me under control, James was on his feet and in front of me.
He grasped me by the throat and squeezed, causing the fight to leave me.
"You alright, Alistair?" James asked over my shoulder.
"I'm good J, but he stuck Sam," Alistair responded, wrenching one of my arms behind my back hard enough that I thought it would break.
"Sam? How you doin?" James asked.
"He stuck me, J. Right in the gut. Oh god, my innards," the man groaned.
James eyes flashed fire as he looked back to me.
"Well, that seals your fate, Eddie… I thought you may have been one of us when you dropped the gun. But really you're just a little kid who forgot to load his shotgun," he said with a laugh.
I felt shame and anger fill me.
He shook my head viciously by the throat before letting me go, causing me to sag in the grip of Alistair and whoever else was holding me as the air rushed back into my lungs.
"Felix?" James called out into the darkness.
"Dead…" someone said.
"Jasper?" James said with a growl.
I felt my heart skip a beat.
"Gone… I lost him in the trees," another man said.
"GOD DAMMIT!" James shouted.
Spinning back to me, he punched me in the stomach and then twice in the face. "Hog tie him. I'll deal with him later when I have time to savour the moment," he snarled at the men holding me.
My two captors dragged me to the fire and roughly pulled my arms behind me.
Jerking my legs and arms together, the rope bit into my skin as I was thrown to the ground.
Lying on my stomach, I was left face to face with Garrett's body.
Blood was dripping out of the hole in his forehead, congealing in a pool under his head.
I clenched my eyes shut, not able to look into Garrett's death glazed eyes.
I was a failure. I'd caused his death because I'd let my guard down, trusting in Garrett's ability to control the camp.
I opened my eyes and stared at the body of the man I'd come to love.
I felt a numbness begin to enter my body that took away the sadness and guilt as I watched the blood drip from his.
After that, I went in and out of consciousness as I was left on my own.
I heard the sounds of the camp around me. There were whimpers and cries as James took control of the group by force.
"This is my camp now! You will follow my rules just as you followed Garrett's and if you obey me I'll let you live. You will also obey my guards, just as you do me. They speak with my voice. We will do what we want, and take what we want. You'll accept that if you want to live," James stated coldly to the assembled people.
There were a few muffled protests, but they were quickly followed by gun fire.
Then there was silence.
"Okay, if there are no more questions, it's time for bed. I'll lay down the rest of the rules tomorrow," James finished.
No one came for me that night.
I was left tied up, my muscles strained in their unnatural position. The left side of my face pressed into the dirt once I was able to roll onto my side facing away from Garrett.
I was now facing the camp and able to analyze my current situation.
Besides a few campfires still flickering, the camp was dark. No one was guarding me. They felt like I was no longer a threat.
But I was not done. I was going to survive this and I was going to make them pay.
My eyes continued to move from tent to tent, trying to think about how I'd get free in order to exact my revenge.
It was then that I noticed that one of the tents was slightly open. I stared into the shadowed recesses of that small gap in the entryway and saw the flicker of eyes reflected by firelight looking back at me. But then they were gone.
The next day the camp awoke and went about their day to day lives like nothing had happened. They were sheep, every last one of them, I thought, darkly. They were happy enough to follow whatever leader was in control at the moment.
No one looked my way in sympathy. In contrast, many who had smiled at me in greeting in the past now looked at me with disgust.
When a few of the guys my age dragged Garrett's corpse away that morning, one of them actually had the nerve to spit on me.
"Worthless…" Paul hissed, as he strode by me.
I tensed at his words. I wasn't worthless, at least not anymore. I had learned my lesson.
The other guy Marcus kicked me in the stomach and growled down at me. "You're gonna die and I'm gonna laugh."
Marcus was one of the worst at the camp. At least James had a motive for his cruelty. Marcus just seemed to enjoy causing other people pain. He was the most aggressive with the women at camp and was always the first of James' men to jump at the chance to strong arm anyone.
I fought to control my anger because I needed to be clear headed.
All day, James was busy re-organizing the camp, leaving me hog tied under the bright sun.
Every once in a while, he'd look at me with a grin on his face and I knew that he was leaving me there to torture me. The muscles in my arms and legs burned with pain and it was quickly spreading to the rest of my body. I tried to maintain focus, but the pain was causing me to go in and out of consciousness.
I tried to do everything I could to stay awake and make a plan, but it was hard.
There were eight guards, each one heavily armed, with plenty of ammo. But the one thing that I knew could work in my favor was that they were cocky. They'd spent the last day and night congratulating themselves, almost like they'd forgotten that humans were not the only danger that they could face. They barely guarded the perimeter. Instead they drank and fooled around with the women of the camp. All it would take would be for one zombie to be let loose in the camp and their little army would fall apart.
I let out a long breath and closed my eyes because unless I was released from these ropes there was nothing I could do.
When I was jostled awake, it was pitch black outside. I was disoriented and in agony, but I still struggled against whoever was pulling at my ropes.
"Stop fighting me," a soft feminine voice spoke above me.
I froze at the sound.
I felt something cold at my wrists that began sawing away at the ropes.
When the rope finally snapped apart, I fought to not cry out in pain. I couldn't move. The agony was overpowering as blood throbbed back into my arms.
When my legs were also released, the person helped me sit up.
I peered into the dark at my rescuer and was shocked to find that it was Garrett's wife Kate.
While I'd become quite close to Garrett, Kate had always been standoffish. So, it was a shock that she would risk herself for me.
We stared at each other for a moment, before she spoke to me in a whisper, "Make them pay for what they've done to my husband. Just don't hurt my daughter."
And with that, she slipped back into the darkness, leaving the knife she'd cut my bindings with at my feet.
I dragged myself away from the fire and into the shadows in order to give my limbs time to work and to formulate a plan.
Self-preservation did not factor into my plan, nor was it to save others. I wanted James and his guards dead. That was my only thought.
A slow grin spread across my face when a plan materialized in my head.
Some guards that were put on watch by James were less careful than others. A few of his new recruits barely walked the perimeter when they were on duty.
At a little after midnight, Marcus started his guard duty for the right side of the camp. There were others guarding the perimeter, but there was a lot of distance between each one of them. I heaved a sigh of relief because Marcus was vicious, but lazy. When James was watching, Marcus followed his orders to a tee. However, the minute James turned his back Marcus would find a way to slack off.
I didn't feel bad for what I was about to do to him.
I crept behind one of the trees that grew at the edge of our camp and found a large branch to use as a weapon. Then, I waited for him to walk by. He was bigger than me, so I needed the element of surprise in order for it to be quiet.
So, I waited for my opportunity.
And I waited, and waited.
Marcus stood at his post, paying attention to what was happening around him for once.
I internally growled as my opportunity for revenge was slipping through my fingers.
Finally, Marcus stretched his arms behind his head with a yawn and started to walk away from his post, probably to go take a piss.
I waited with a thick piece of wood in my hands ready to take my first human life.
Marcus was barely paying attention to putting one foot in front of the other as he strode by my hiding place. So, when I slammed the piece of wood down on top of his head, he barely made a sound as I took him completely by surprise.
He fell boneless at my feet, so I grabbed him under the arms and dragged him further into the trees.
I got down on my knees behind him and pushed him up in a sitting position with my hand around his throat. Then, I reached for my knife.
My hands shook as I started to reach around to the front of Marcus neck with my knife. Even though I wanted to take my revenge on James crew, I was having a hard time slitting Marcus' throat.
"Edward… what are you doing?" a hushed voice came from the darkness.
It was Jasper.
Without making a sound, he crept out of the darkness and crouched by my side.
"I'm getting revenge for Garrett. James and his crew don't deserve to live and I have just the right form of punishment. I'm going to kill one of them so that they can become a zombie who will slaughter them all."
Jasper reached out and grabbed my wrist as I pressed it against Marcus' throat. I was shaking badly now, but I had to steel myself. I was too weak. I needed to be a killer. I'd forgotten that truth at camp, leading me to go to sleep with my shotgun empty.
"You can't do this, Edward. It's wrong," Jasper whispered.
"You told me that I should kill James if I got the chance because he'd kill me," I hissed at him.
Jasper never made sense. He was always contradicting himself. He said I was weak, but now that I was trying to be strong, he was against it.
"I told you that you should kill James if he attacked you, but this is in cold blood Edward. This is not self defense," he tried to reason with me as he tugged on my arm that held the knife.
"Jasper, you need to step away. I'm doing this…" I said, pressing my knife more firmly against Marcus skin.
"Edward-" he began, but was cut off by the close range of a gun blast.
A bullet passed so close to my head that I could practically feel it brush against me.
In shock, my hands fell away from Marcus and I scrambled backwards on my knees.
I peered through the trees and saw Alistair striding towards us with his gun raised.
Another blast erupted hitting the ground at my feet.
"Come on, Eddie. Face me in a fair fight," Alistair said with a grin as he squinted into the darkness of the trees. He couldn't see exactly where I was, but was firing into the woods anyway.
I stood up, knowing that this was my opportunity to be a man.
"If you give me a gun, I'll face you," I snarled at him.
Jasper grabbed my arm, but I shook him off.
I saw a smile spread across Alistair's face and he beckoned to me.
"Okay, Eddie, my boy. I'll give you a gun. I've never turned down a good figh-" he began, but before he could say anything more I saw a blur of blond hair come out of one of the tents behind him.
He didn't even know what hit him as the blast from Kate's gun tore into his back.
For a moment, I don't think he even felt the pain of it. Strangely, he laughed when he looked down at himself and saw a blood stain spreading across his shirt. Then, almost like puppet whose strings had been cut, he dropped to the ground.
Kate barely paused after shooting Alistair. Instead she strode to the tents of other members of James' guardsmen and shot through the very walls of the tent.
All hell broke loose at that point. Stunned guards poured out of their tents with their guns drawn looking for their attackers.
I broke through the trees at a run, grabbing the shotgun from Alistair's hands and took aim at Paul who had zeroed in on Kate. My gun shot caught him in the shoulder, knocking him off balance enough that he wasn't prepared to dodge Kate's bullet which caught him in the chest.
I tried to reach Kate, wanting to protect her, but I was not able to get to her in time. James appeared out of the darkness, gun drawn and shot her point blank in the head.
James barely batted an eye before turning his gun on another target. He seemed to have no purpose for who he was shooting. He saw any person who wasn't one of his guards as a threat and shot them.
Person after person he shot down until he saw me. With a vicious grin, he began walking towards me shooting as he walked.
I raised my gun as well and started firing.
I felt a bullet slice a furrow along my left arm which caused a searing pain to shoot through me, but the adrenaline pumping through me was enough to keep me going.
One of my shots struck James in the leg, causing him to stumble and fall to one knee.
A feeling of exhilaration filled me as I saw that my goal for his death was within my reach.
It was like a duel in which neither one of us was deviating from the goal of killing the other.
But before I could reach him, I was distracted by the shrill sound of a child screaming.
Just that small blip in my concentration was my undoing. I felt a gun blast hit me in my shoulder and I fell backwards and landed on my back.
Frantically, I rolled to my stomach, needing to finish off James, but I saw one of his guardsmen dragging him away.
I struggled to my feet, using my right arm to push me up because my left arm hung uselessly at my side because of the gun shot.
As I looked around for another weapon, my eyes zeroed in on where Alistair's body had once rested. With a dawning feeling of horror, I realized that he had turned.
"JASPER!" I shouted. "JASPER, THEY'RE TURNING!"
I saw the silhouette of Jasper appear from behind the tents and then he was running to my side.
"Jesus Christ, Edward. We need to get these people out of here," he gasped between ragged breaths.
I looked around the war zone that had once been our camp in stunned stupidity.
There were people running everywhere screaming and crying, dripping blood.
"Let's get as many as we can into the RVs," Jasper grunted, breaking into a run.
We grabbed anyone we could and dragged them with us to the RVs.
When we reached the large vehicles, I shoved two children and a woman through the door of one of them and turned back to the camp site looking for more people.
What I saw almost froze my heart. People I knew were now walking corpses attacking anyone within their reach.
Jasper sped ahead of me back into the blood bath, shoving people towards the RVs and away from the undead.
I ran after him, using my knife to cut down any zombies within my reach. But I didn't have the strength to kill them. My one arm was useless and the other was weakening by the minute from my steadily leaking blood. So, instead, I tried to save as many people as I could.
It wasn't many.
Either they'd been turned into the undead or they'd escaped into the darkness, but either way there were not many people left.
Finally, when it seemed that there were no people left that we could save, Jasper and I turned back towards the RVs.
All the RVs were gone. Only one minivan remained. The rest had left without us.
We threw open the backdoor to the minivan and climbed inside, slamming the door shut just as the undead reached the vehicle.
I collapsed onto one of the seats, my head slamming back against the window frame with a thud.
"Are you okay, sir?" a soft voice asked.
I forced my eyes open and saw that it was a family who had waited for us, Derrick and Lindsay with their two young kids. The little boy who spoke to me was one that I'd rescued.
I tried to speak, but my lips felt numb and everything was beginning to turn grey around the edges.
I heard the sounds of talking around me, but I couldn't make out what was being said.
Eventually, I gave up trying to remain conscious and let the darkness take me.