Chapter 7: The Best of Us

Jon didn't understand why they had been herded into this basement. It made no sense. Crowds meant death when it came to the infected. Wolvo was right next to him, squeezed in, shoulder to shoulder with everyone else in the district. The soldiers were padlocking them in. He heard shouting through the crowd.

"You can't keep us in here you bastards"

"We aren't fucking animals you wankers"

"Let us out of here"

Wolvo turned to Jon, "we have to get the hell out of here". You could see the fear in his eyes. That scared Jon. In all the weeks he had known Wolvo, he had rarely seen him scared. "We have to find Tim and Ellsy". How had he managed to become separated from his brother again? He had to find him. Tim kept saying they had to look after each other.

"The infection is dead, what the hell could be going on" Wolvo said loudly. A nearby middle aged man heard him. "You can't kill evil my boy". Wolvo didn't say anything, he just stared into Jons eyes.

The crowd was surging. Everyone trying to get towards the door, not a soul in there felt safe, no one wanted to be penned in. Wolvo had obviously had enough. "Jon hold my wrist, don't let go".

Wolvo forcefully began pushing his way towards the door they had been ushered though. A few mutterings and insults came from those they pushed past, but Wolvo didn't give a shit. Jon held on and sipped right to the front with him.

They weren't far from the door when the howl rung out across the crowd. The sound of infected at the back of the room. Jons blood ran cold. "Go Wolvo, fucking go".

The surge forward was sudden and violent. The infection was in the crowd there was no doubt about it. Horrified faces were everywhere, people sobbing and families crying for help. Jon looked back on the sea of bodies. He thought he saw a small boy climb up into the ventilation shafts; he could barely process it all.

Wolvo had reached the exit. He wedged his shoulder against the door and pulled Jon against the exit too. "Push" the people around him followed suit. The door strained against the weight. The sound of the infected was growing and moving closer to them. "Come on push, they're coming".

The door finally gave way. Wolvo went tumbling through it. Jon half expected the military to open fire then and there. But he tough they were just as scared and confused as the rest of them. Jon grabbed Wolvo by the wrist. "Run".

The crowd spilled out behind them, Wolvo and Jon sprinted with every ounce of energy they could muster. A woman and a girl were a dozen feet or so ahead of them, a military lady he had seen around the district. They made it to the streets and that's when they heard the first shots. Sniper fire whizzing over head. Jon looked back just in time to see an infecteds head explode to pieces.

"Head towards the district dry cleaners" Jon shouted at Wolvo. Wolvo knew the plan as well as Jon did. The three boys agreed on a point they would all meet if shit ever hit the fan, as Wolvo always put it. The dry cleaners was a perfect place to meet, the back door led onto an alley way that led directly to the river and thus the exit into the outer city.

The sound of gunfire was all he could hear now. People weren't just falling behind them; they were falling in front of them. All around them people were simply collapsing to the floor. Jon could only think of Liv in this moment. He saw her face, smiling. He thought of Tim and Ellsy, how they reminded him so much of what he and Liv had back when there was something left to hold on to.

Jon knew they were closing in on the dry cleaners. He saw normal people begin tumbling to the ground. "They're shooting uninfected" Wolvo screamed in anger. Every three seconds a shot rang out and another body fell to the ground.

His mind should have been on what was happening in this moment. The horror he was witnessing. But it was his lost ones that were racing though his mind. His mother, father and brother Mike, and Livs face, oh good God her beautiful face staring at him.

"JON!"

Tim was standing there in the door way of the dry cleaners. Waving his arms about, Ellsy stood by his side.

Wolvo sprinted towards the door, a shot rang out and barely missed the lucky fool by inches, ricocheting off a nearby bin. They had reached the dry cleaners. Tim smiled with relief and pushed the door open to welcome the two exhausted lads.

A shot rang out across the streets of London. The force of it nearly took him of his feet, but it was the agony that brought Jon to his knees. Tims face faded into horror "Jon NO!" he screamed. Jon was now on the flat of his stomach, the crowd sprinting past him. No one seemed to even notice him, nor his brother or Wolvo and Ellsy. They didn't even notice the pool of blood that was quickly spreading from his body onto the pavement.

Then he felt himself being lifted. The pain and agony began to give way to numbness, to nothing. Wolvo was holding him in his arms and pulling him into the dry cleaners. Tim slammed the door shut and pushed a large tumble dryer in front of the door. Tim cradled Jons head in his arms, Ellsy was crying. Wolvo looked pale as he sat to the side of Jon, covered in blood from the gunshot wound.

It had entered him through his back and out through his chest. Jon felt the warmth leaving him. Tim sobbed as he held onto his brother.

"Jon, no Jon. I was meant to look after you"

"You did" Jon whispered, he could barely keep his eyes open

"Don't go Jon, I can't lose you as well"

"You..did..everything..you..could..for me" The weight of his eyes were too much to bare

"I love you Jon, I love you. All I ever wanted was to save our family"

Jon pointed weakly at Wolvo and then moved his finger to Ellsy

"They..are..your..family..now" Jon struggled for breath

"Look after.. them"

Jon Meyers closed his eyes for the last time, seeing Livs face before blackness took him.

Tim sobbed over the lifeless body. The blood of his brother was spreading across the ceramic floor of the dark dry cleaners.

"We have to go Tim" Wolvo rose to his feet. "We have to get out of the city".

"We can't leave him, I need to bury him" Tim wept.

Ellsy took him by the shoulder."Your brother would have wanted us to go, he would have wanted you to survive Tim. Wolvo's right, the longer we are here, the more danger we are in".

Tim sobbed for a few more moments. He took a long look at his younger brothers face. He vowed to never forget it. He rose to his feet. The other two led the way to the back door of the building.

Before he left, Tim placed the clown mask he had carried with him on the chest of his fallen brother. He went to leave, looked back at Jon lying in the middle of the black room. "You were the best of us Jon". He turned and left.