Chapter 7 : Hardships lead to heaven

I stepped outside, my ears reacting to every single sound. I scanned around for movement, but there was nothing in sight. I made another step outside the building that seemed comparable to heaven in comparison to what was awaiting in the dark corners of the outside world.

I cocked back my shotgun slowly, and walked cautiously a few meters. When I was sure that everything was clear, Josie, Tom and Mitchell followed suit. Tom still had that look of pain of his face, as if he was seeing over and over his girlfriend's death. Sadness was in no way a strong enough word to describe it.

In the newly arisen sun, four teens were what remained of the city. All had tired look on their faces, and carried weapons like they were Viet-Nam veterans. But there were no Viet-Cong soldiers, no underground passages, no machine guns hidden in the bushes. Just these three survivors, and an army of restless et idiotic flesh eaters wavering their arms in slow motion at their new preys.

''Holy fuck!''

Numerous zombies occupied the street in front of us. I scanned the area around for a backup exit.

''Over there!'' Tom shouted, pointing at a narrow back alley.

We ran for the alley, characteristic flaps of the zombies' footsteps on the humid street.

''I don't feel that one...'' Josie said, her voice weak.

I turned around to gaze at the alley. It was very narrow, and light did not pass much in it, blocked by the tall brown brick buildings surrounding the zone.

At the other end of the back alley, a few shadows moved in pitch darkness. We were sandwiched. Stuck between a narrow passageway filled with zombies and another bunch of zombies. We had tow options. Two directions to got. The later was way too risked. We could not afford a direct battle against such a high number of these things. But the former wasn't much better. In this narrow passage, death could be lurking around every corner.

I was about to lead them into the alley, when a thought hit my mind like an electric shock through my brains.

''This could be a dead end...''

Nothing proved us that the alley would lead to another street, or to any potential way of escape. We might as well end up stuck between a sewer gate and a pack of zombies.

''There!'' Tom shouted, fingering a door near the start of the back alley.

I ran for it, Josie still holding my hand tightly. I kicked the door once, but it didn't even rumble. I rammed it once more, and was about to do it again, when I realized I had a shotgun in my hands. I lifted it to level with the handle, and blasted. The door opened within a split second and I pushed Josie inside. But the door bounced back when I tried to keep it open, and what remained of the lock clicked back into place as if nothing had happened.

''Fuck!'' I muttered.

I heard a scream, and saw Mitchell getting grabbed by a zombie. He shot a few bullet, but missed every shot. I saw the zombie's yellowish teeth dig deep inside my friend's neck, and extract a piece of flesh, nerves and pieces of sticky flesh still extending out of the wound.

As blood dripped on my shirt, I realized what had just happened. I lifted my shotgun and filled the first zombie with lead. The second came, and had the same fate as his late companion.

I felt hand on my shoulders, and saw rotten fingers clutching around my upper arm. I bounced back and tried to push my opponent back, but it was solidly in place. I heard a click, then a gunshot. Tom had Mitch's pistol in hand. The body of the zombie fell to the ground, his head damaged by the small bullet.

As soon as the zombie hit the ground, Tom got grabbed, and the door opened. Josie yelled to get in. I lifted my gun to help Tom, but I realized it was useless. I would have blown both the zombies and my friend. By the time I could figure it out, he was laying on the ground with several zombie on him, clenching their teeth on some fresh meat.

I turned around, and tried to reach the door, but I was pushed in the back, and fell forward. I saw the door frame coming closer and closer until my face hit it and I felt pain deep in my head. My vision blurred, but, before fainting, I could feel a soft touch on my shoulders. Then I knew I was safe...

I woke up, and felt pain to my head, like a terrible migraine. I looked around, and saw Josie, sitting near me, asleep. Her fine features appeared very fatigued. She must've been worrying about me for a while before falling asleep. She looked sad, deeply sad. As if joy had forever left her mind for another world. A world were atrocities like this would never take place.

Watching her sleep, this look of sadness etched on her face, holding a cold gun between her hands, I came to ask myself if it was worth it. If life was worth all of this. If death would not be more welcoming.

I gazed down at my own gun, placed on the floor in front of me, and then gazed back at Josie. During a split second, I thought it might have been better if I killed us both. I had the power to end this nightmare the moment I wanted it, to prevent us from seeing any more of this horror.

I lifted slightly my gun, my hands trembling with fear. I leveled it with Josie's head. She had not deserved this crap. Neither had I.

I slowly pulled back the pump, and readied the weapon for the shot. Silence crept in like a dangerous animal ready for attack. I slipped my finger on the trigger. Sweat was dropping down my face.

I could not do this.

It was simple as it could get. I was not capable of doing such a barbaric act, even if it could save us a load of crap. We had to try to escape. If we could do so, I did not asked anything else from god. God... what an abstract notion, what a useless use of words. God was supposed to be a good and just being ruling over the world, insuring good people a bright future. Something had been horribly wrong with that basic. Maybe there was no god after all. Just an excuse the human being made to believe that they weren't the strongest thing in the universe, that their action could always be fixed by some powerful force from above.

I released my finger from it's nest, and dropped the gun. Me, who had since the start been the leader, was the one loosing it now. Without a group to support my decisions, I would not be no leader. I wasn't a leader without a group to lead. With only Josie to protect, I would have to watch myself more than ever.

Grief had been a feeling almost absent from my mind since the start. But now, I felt like it was all of my fault, like if I had killed those students. Just as if I had cocked the gun and squeezed the trigger. I had felt responsible for these people, when it had not been my job. They were as responsible as me.

As my thought started being more and more dark and depressive, I closed my eyes. One question totally excluded from my thoughts since the start was traveling in my mind, coming back on forth.

Was she really loving me?

Since the start, I had been worried about me feelings towards her, about how I would tell her. But now, it was the other way around. I had never pictured her not loving me. But I had to admit it was possible. There was a strong bond between us both, but to call it love, was I completely out of the tracks?

I did not knew what to think. So it was with pleasure that I saw Josie waking up. Physical action in the room sucked my away from my thoughts, made me put them aside for a while.

''Matt... You're okay?''

''Yeah...''

I grabbed my gun, made a forced smile to reassure her, and went for the door.

''Matt?''

''What?''

''We don't have to leave now...''

I walked back to her.

''Matt... You look concerned...''

''I'm just tired... of all this...''

Her green eyes shone darkly as I said those words. She caught the sadness in my voice. I felt her getting closer to me, passing her arm around me.

''Matt... since the start... I've been worrying about... you not loving me... but... I haven't thought you might think... the same thing...''

The surprise left me breathless. She immediately knew how I felt, what bothered me. Perhaps because she had experienced the same thing. I smiled to her slightly.

''Matt... I love you... At the start, I wasn't sure... I thought it might have been just because you saved me... But now I can say it... I love you...''

I felt tears running down my cheeks. For a second, a forgot about all the sad events of the day, and only one thing was on my mind : her.

Our lips met, and this time, it was even better than any other time. Because we knew we could tell everything to the other. We were like one heart separated in two persons.

Relieved, I stood up, and went for the front door with Josie. I might not know what tomorrow had in store for me, but I knew one thing.

She loved me.

And that was enough to get me through any amount of crap.

We walked a few blocks. Almost none of these things were in sight. We easily dodged the few zombies we encountered. After a few minutes of walk, we arrived in front of a large sign.

''Downtown...''

A large bridge overlooked the river. On the other coast, the city was stretching, endless, beautiful. Sun shone through the high rise towers. I made it look heavenly.

We crossed the bridge still without any problems. A few wrecked cars were the only thing that stood on the bridge.

As we got closer to the city, we could see it wasn't as heavenly as it looked from a farther point of view. Fire lifted from a few slummy buildings, and cars laid overturned or simply burned down in the middle of the roadway. The high-rise part of town looked untouched, but it was far away, and I could not see the details.

We walked a few blocks before realizing how big this city was. We could not make it to a police station on foot. We were most likely to get caught in a dead end and cornered.

A few blocks from there, Josie saw a car parked across an intersection, lights still on, a dead body near it. A zombie was eating his fest. We got closer and cut his lunch fast with a slug to the head. As I hopped in the car, I noticed the keys where still on, and the engine was running. The guy's death was obviously recent, since the car battery would have ran low had it happened many hours ago.

Josie followed me, and climbed in the passenger seat. I drove around the larger street, hoping to see a police station. We finally found one after half an hour of search. I hopped out.

The large glass-made building rose in front of me, modern and imposing. This time, we would stay...

Sorry, no update for a while, but I was focusing on some other story, The Pyramid of Violence. Please, let me know how you like it, and, if you want to contact me, use my Yahoo! Instant Messenger. It is ''gangstermat320''. Or just leave me a review. Another fact, this story being a rewritten version of a story I wrote in French, I have to say that the original story ended sort of like near that point. So for now on, I'll be creating new chapters, no longer just rewriting. So it might take a little longer. Thanks a lot, and take care everybody...