Chapter 10
I
awoke, choking on dust, and quickly realised I was coated heavily. A quick
glance around gave me some idea as to the damage Wendy’s “plan” had done. The table
we were hiding behind had been broken, a large chunk of concrete had been flung
into it. There was a hole in the wall, but replacing it was the smoking remains
of Connor’s car, from what I could see we wouldn’t be driving it out of here.
I
was cut in several places and bleeding, but it wasn’t too bad and soon I was on
my feet. Connor was up before I was, and was now trying to shake Daniel awake.
Daniel looked the worst of the three of us, there was a large cut on his forehead
that was badly bleeding, and he showed no signs of waking up soon. Wendy and
Simon came climbing in over the car. ‘Are you alright?’ Wendy asked, but I
could only nod my response, ‘we have to get out of here,’ she continued
This
time I found my voice, ‘Daniel won’t wake up,’ my voice was shaking from the
shock
‘Then
we carry him,’ Connor said, also sounding fearful
‘Can’t
we wait he might be badly hurt,’ Simon argued, picking up the generator
‘I
don’t think we have the time,’ Wendy gestured at the door, and I say that the
impact had also damaged the barricades we had made, and more of the dead had
found their way here.
‘Run,’
I yelled and all four of us ran and pushed desperately on the car, pushing back
out of the hole it had made. My eyes stang from all the dust and the sudden
light, but I kept running blindly until Simon cried out and pushed me to the
ground as an explosion sounded behind me.
…
Once again I woke, ringing in my
ears and dust in my eyes. Apparently the crash had damaged the car so badly the
fuel had ignited. I hadn’t been out that long and Wendy was pulling my arm
trying to get me up. Dazed I stumbled to my feet but the desperation of our
situation returned I was quickly sprinting with the rest, in which ever random
direction happened to have the least amount of deadmen present.
…
As we ran from the station the rest
of our group in the warehouse all rushed towards the sound of metal hitting
concrete. Brooke and Daphne rushed to push the section of ventilation off Steven
who was now unconscious. Nicole quickly joined them, ‘What the hell happened?’
‘The piece of ventilation just fell,
right on top of him,’ Daphne replied hysterically. Brooke took Daphne away as
the others arrived, and Nicole checked Steven’s pulse. ‘He’s breathing, and his
heart’s beating fine,’ she informed the others, ‘that’s all I can really tell
for now, let’s get him somewhere safe.’ Nicole thanked her foresight to bring
the stretcher from the hospital along.
‘Wait!
He’s bleeding,’ Will pointed out the small trail of blood on the floor
‘He
can’t be I checked,’ regardless Nicole checked again, still finding no open
wounds. That’s when they all heard a soft whimper coming from inside the piece
of ventilation.
...
Connor, Simon, Wendy and I didn’t
stop running until Simon couldn’t stand carrying the heavy generator anymore
and, along with Connor carrying Daniel, stopped and fell slowly to the floor.
Wendy and I stopped just ahead of them, and did a quick sweep for any of the
dead. We found none, but I knew some had to still be following us from the
station, we couldn’t relax now.
‘We can’t keep going like this,’
Connor gasped between breaths
‘Well we can’t stop now,’ Wendy said
quietly through closed teeth, I could tell she was afraid, ‘for all we know
they’re right behind us’
‘Yeah or they could be just up
ahead,’ Simon argued back frustrated, ‘as long as we’re on foot and burdened,’
he gestured at the generator and Daniel, ‘we’re sitting ducks to any decent
amount of zombies that find us.’ I had to speak then, ‘if it comes down to
either leaving the generator behind or dying then we leave it that’s fine, but
there is no way we are ever leaving Daniel to those monsters’
‘Of course, I wasn’t implying…’
Simon mumbled ashamed. In truth I didn’t really think that’s what he meant, I
was angry at myself for considering leaving him behind, if only for a moment.
But I had to be strong here, I needed to get these people out of this mess. But
how? Simon was right the way we are now there’s no way we can get out of here
safely.
‘Then we’ll find a new car,’ Wendy
said resolutely, interrupting my thoughts. I was pleased she had spoken but
also embarrassed I hadn’t thought of such a basic solution
‘Seriously,’ Connor asked, getting
his breath back finally, ‘what’re the chances that we’ll find a car that
actually works that has had all its petrol taken around here?’ I knew he was
right, between us, the marauders and whatever over groups that were struggling
to survive around here we had siphoned almost all petrol around this area.
Panic gripped me, how are we going
to get out of this? All of us are decent fighters, we all want to survive, but
with Daniel wounded, and the rest of us in bad shape the odds are stacked
against us. We have an army of undead all around and god knows where we are, we
don’t even know if the others made it to the warehouse! Deep down I know that
there was little to no chance of us surviving, even if we make it through this
challenge, there will just be another waiting for us. And while the enemy grows
with each fallen survivor our numbers grow smaller, and our resources dwindle
more and more.
What’s the
point in fighting, if there’s no hope of victory?
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