Decaying Hearts

Chapter 22

   Alex led us out of the library through a heavy fire escape at the back of the building in to a haunting alleyway. The nightly passage was illuminated by a single street light, revealing nothing more than a tragic scene from a Spielberg war movie. The passage was framed with metallic body-filled dust bins with limbs poking out underneath heavy lids; some had fallen from their make-shift graves and still seemed to twitch with life in the street light glow. The walls beside us still stood tall, the red bricks blood stained with flakes of flesh clinging to the cracks of cement.
   The bottom of the alley told a different tale as the walls had fallen into ruins and had been left to erode with the Roman ruins and the cobbles crumbled under feet. The debris had surprisingly been pulled to the side, providing a runway and just past the heaps of fallen homes a corpse idly staggered in the distance of the road, probably trying to follow the tantalising aroma of flesh.
   To the side of us, there was a four-wheeled drive, combat-green Jeep that had been held up on the alley’s natural downhill slope by a single brick beneath each wheel. Alex and Colette took two brick each from the wheels and tossed them carelessly into the back seat as we clambered in. In a matter of seconds, Alex sat herself in the driver’s seat and in the dim light I could see her hands gripped around the leather wheel, her knuckles paper-white. I wondered if she even knew how to drive as her shoulders set with tension and a vein prominent in her neck, yet Colette didn’t seemed phased by the youngster’s presence in the driver’s seat.
   The engine roared to life with an exhausted cough and a splutter. Alex dropped the hand brake and threw the car in to gear, her leg almost struggling to reach the clutch as she did. The car raced down the alley and she swerved the Jeep in to the road, taking out the walker in her wake. With the engine whirling and the tires all but screeching against the tarmac, Colette began to fill us in on Dim’s plans.
   “He planned to attack tonight when everybody would be sleeping and the guard would be minimal. He thought none of you would suspect an attack to be made so soon. Although he didn’t mention how, but he’s planning on making it quick event and killing everybody. ‘No is to be spared, no mercy.’ He had said. He doesn’t care how, he just wants that school. He doesn’t care about braking the fences, he believes he can rebuild them – make them indestructible.” Colette explained, losing her breath as the words tumbled from her lips so quick it was impossible to hold on to the air in her lungs.
   “Okay. It’ll be best if we go back in through the back gate. Chances are that Dim’s is unaware the back entrance exists. Us four,” I indicated to us guys in the back piled up on top of each other, “We’ll go in and find the girls; Isabelle, Rosie and Maria have to be our priority.”
   “And Emma.” Jake exclaimed.
   I nodded slightly, knowing Emma would be able to fend for herself. I knew she could she had shown me the fighter in her, but Isabelle was just a kid and Rosie was heavily pregnant; neither one of them were in a position to protect themselves from danger. Maria, however, was our only doctor. She may be able to defend herself, but we couldn’t risk losing her medical expertise with a baby on the way.
   “We’ll send them back to the car to you two. We’ll then go get a car from the front and meet you outback. If something goes wrong or the teeth start out of the woods, drive east to the next town, leave us a sign and we’ll catch up with you later.”
   We continued down the road we had walked only half an hour or so ago, where the growling baby remained and I had almost met my end. I leaned over through the gap between the two front seats and directed Alex to an opening in the woods. The Jeep shuddered violently over the uneven terrain, avoiding the trees in our path. The engines call brought the teeth to us, many walking in Alex’s path, but she drove the car through the bodies, caring not of the damage caused to the dead people walking. The blood splattered against the windscreen and the wipers smeared crimson completely across the glass, all view of the way ahead had been obliterated by the gore. Limbs pounded against the metal shell of the vehicle, cracks had begun to form in the passenger window; it couldn’t break otherwise we’d be exposed to the greedy hands that reached for food.
   After a few minutes that simply felt like hours, through the blood plastered windows I could see that we finally swung in to the open field behind the school. Alex braked abruptly just before the fence and U-turned so the car was posed ready for a quick getaway.
   “Wait for the girls, then if things get of hand, just go!” I urged, as we almost fell from the car as the left-side door flew open. In the past, it may have been a humorous sight, seeing four grown men stumbling out of a small car like, clowns at the circus; in the present, it was terrifying not being able to move fast enough whilst lives hung in the balance.
   Alex and Colette both jumped from the car and kept all the doors open wide, using the metal for cover. Colette kept her eyes on the school, awaiting for the girls whilst Alex observed the feel, looking for any signs of approach death. The nodded to each other respectively, like comrades behind treacherous enemy lines. They shared some unspoken communication in just the simple gesture and the seriousness in their eyes before they turned back to their mission at hand.
   The guys and I ran through the open gate, letting it slam behind us, and then through the garden. Regardless of the dangers we were about to face, we all found ourselves dancing through the soil, careful to avoid stamping on sprouting greens and damaging flourishing vegetables. We threw the doors open and cringe with the clattering sound as the door smashed against the brick and slammed back into place. Crouched in the dark, we listened for the enemy I was sure would come charging through the corridors with the ferocity of Boudicca’s Celtic warriors, but nothing happened. All that came our way was the eerie silence of an empty school.
   In formation; Lenny at the head of the line, followed by myself and Robert with Jake bring up the rear, he stalked through the corridors and the single hall way where the improvised bedrooms remained. The first door was the room that belonged to Robert and Nancy, we had already agreed we’d give him a few seconds to run in and grab a few things just in case things went to shit. We guarded the door whilst he rustled hastily in the room and joined us in the hallway once again, shoving an old picture of him and his wife in to his rucksack. Something glimmered around his neck, I noticed. A slim gold chain sat around his neck with a two circles hanging in the centre – Nancy’s engagement and wedding rings. I wondered if he had just put it on or if it had resided there this whole time. A thought that didn’t matter at the moment!
    Across the hallway we scurried once again, this time it was Jake who went in to the room whilst we flagged both sides of the entrance. 
   “Emma! Hey, Emma!” He whispered harshly.
   She remained soundlessly asleep. Her chest rising and falling beneath a thin blanket with hair that fell limply across her face. A hand dangled down the side of the mattress to scrape against the floor.  He shuck her slightly and the sleeping beauty vanished, turning in to a deadly assassin. Emma rolled off of the mattress and stood in a slight crouch and knife brought protectively across her chest and a small pistol outstretched in front of her. As I peered through the gap in the door, I could see the shock in Jake’s expression, he hadn’t known how agile his younger sister actually was.
   Recognition washed across her face and she began to sit herself back down on the mattress. “Jesus, Jake! What are you doing?!” She huffed, clearly not impressed that her sleep had been disturbed. “My watch doesn’t start for another few hours yet.”
    “Get dressed. We need to go. Now!”
    “What? Why?” Emma stared, panic surging through her blue eyes.
    “I’ll fill you in on the way Emma, just get dressed!” He snapped, throwing her a pair of ripped jeans and a jumper.
     Emma moved as quickly as she could, although it felt like mocking like slow progresses as she threw the clothes on over her pyjama shorts and her tight fitted vest top, then threw her hair up in to a messy bun on top of her head.  Quickly, she tied the laces of her boots and then grabbed her jacket from the desk in the corner, before finally joining us in the hallway. Women, I guess some things never change.
   Emma continued to ask questions, ignoring the fact it was clear we were not ready to answer them yet, we weren’t going to repeat ourselves to everybody in the school, and she would just have to wait for her answers. She would be filled in once we were ready to make our escape. God only knew how much time we had.
    I heard the distant sound of an engine and the ear-piercing sound of screeching tires. The call of clanging metal echoed and travelled through the darkness and we looked at each other knowingly, Emma oblivious but panicked. They were here. We didn’t have long until we would be succumbed to an attack. We need to get the girls out of here and find Howard and Tony.
   Running in to Rosie and Maria’s classroom, Lenny made his way to a sleeping Maria in the far corner, whilst I ran to the nearby mattress Rosie usually slept. One side of the double mattress was crumpled and vacant, the other a tiny lump with mousy curls spread amongst the pillows. I pressed gently against Isabelle’s shoulders, her head rocked to the movement softly and delicate lashes fluttered open like butterflies spreading their wings for the first time. 
   “C’mon, Baby. Get up, we gotta leave.” I said softly, stroking a stray curl that had fallen across her nose.
   “Where are we going?” She slurred through a yawn.
   “You’re gonna go meet my friends outside, two nice ladies. You’re gonna have to be brave for me. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to get back to you okay?” I said urgently.
   “Where are you going?” Isabelle said, pulling herself across the mattress with her feet. Her hand had been forced in to a fist as she rubbed vigorously against her hazel tired eyes.
    “I have to help Lenny with something, but Emma, Rosie and Maria are going to take care of you.” I said holding out her skirt she had worn the day before on her arrival, she put on shaky leg after another in to the soft material and pulled on her tights and then swap her long night shirt, it must have belonged to Emma maybe, for her own.
    “But I want to stay with you.” She almost whined. She was too young to understand she couldn’t, why she couldn’t. Danger was coming for us and would swarm upon us like killer bees. I promised to protect her and to protect her I couldn’t be selfish, I had to allow her to escape with the others. I wanted desperately to stay with her, but I knew I couldn’t. I just had to do everything I could to get back to her.
   Where was Rosie? I had noticed Rosie wasn’t in the room when we came in, but the only place she was likely to go was the bathroom and she should have been back by now.
   “Belle, do you know where Rosie is? Did you see where she went?” I asked seriously, holding her by her arms just a little too tight. She squirmed slightly beneath my grasp.
   “She went to the bathroom like ages ago.” She said simply and slipped her feet into her shoes.
   “Shit! Not now!” I cursed. Taking note of the young ears in the room I quickly composed myself and kissed Isabelle’s forehead. “I’ll see you soon.”
   “Hey kid, we got a whole new problem.” Lenny’s voice wavered.
   I joined him to look out the window. The large transit van the group had come in to attack the school the first time around was parked in the old playground. Dim and another older man stood at each side of the back doors. It seemed to happen in slow motion. The doors of the van swung open with a deathly thud and from the shadowy abys the bodies emerged.  The slow and staggered movements of dead came to life as twenty to thirty crammed-in bodies fell from their prison. Dim and his accomplice ran before the dead could catch them back in to van, piped the horn viciously and drove back into the darkness. The dead had been abandoned in our courtyard with the smell of our flesh strong, the sound of the horn and the engine would only draw more near from both sides. We only had minutes until we would be over run. We had to move now.
    I instructed that Jake and Robert escorted the girls to the car and make their way out front to get a car, then meet us out back. Lenny and I would find Rosie and the others. Our plan seemed so simple in words, but bring in the sheer terror of being ripped apart and the fear that it was to sit on the conscious of the living was hard to bare and sat heavy on our judgement.
   We ran our separate ways, Isabelle tight in Jake’s arms as they ran in to the distance of the corridor. I headed to the bathroom and my stomach dropped like piano from a skyscraper as I heard the growls… and then the screams. Rosie’s screams. Lenny looked at me with a knowing look and dashed ahead with me in pursuit. As we made it to the girl’s bathroom, the growls echoed from within as Rosie cried for help.
   “Kid, wait!” Lenny called, but it was too late. I was already one step in to the room and I wasn’t going to leave Rosie.
    I could feel my heart pulsating in my ears and my sweaty palms slipped on the hand of my blade, I tightened my grip as things were about to take a dangerous turn. Five bodies stood in the tiled room, all banging their bodies against a dark green cubical, a smear of blood now spread across the PVC and I could see a pair of clean feminine feet kicking underneath.
   “I’m coming, Rosie!” I yelled over the violent groans of desperation for human flesh.      
   “Josh!” She called in despair. “The baby, its coming!”
   “Now?!”
   “Yes, now!” Rosie screamed.
    Two bodies turned to face me whilst the others still battered against the cubicle. I stood poised for a fight, took a deep breath counting to three and charged into battle. I swung viciously, but seemed to miss the target each time, missing the brain each time.  By now the second corpse was closing in and a third had given up on the girl hiding behind the locked door. The PVC wouldn’t last much longer against the pressure, I could hear the metal of the hinges caving and the exterior was snapping. I had a minute, two minutes tops.
   I swung out once more and blood splattered across my face, but the corpse dropped to its final death. I dodged to the side and turned to my next opponent connecting instantly with the dead man’s skull. The third was already right before more, its reaching hands fumbling for my flesh. I pulled back ready for the blow when another set of hands grabbed from behind, I hadn’t even noticed the fourth body come my way. The blade was knocked from my grasp and I fell to the ground, the knife just out of reach. Two jaws and two sets of claws were just millimetres away from my body, one grabbed hold of my ankle as I kicked out frantically and the other straddled across my body, its teeth chomping for my neck.
    Pinned the broken tiled floor and unable to move I was sure this was it, I was sure I was dead. I was too weak to fight of the dead, their hunger was too strong for me to defend against. Maggots fell on to my face, falling from the rotten ears of my killer.  The pallor of the dead on top of me was a ghost-like white tinted with green, its breath was killer as the tang of decay exuberated from its open mouth. I continued to struggle, with the blade mocking me as it sat just out of range, but I knew I was Rosie’s and her baby’s only hope. Only fate knew where Lenny had gone! We were on our own, like I had always been.
   My heart clench as the body rapidly came down on me, it’d mouth wide open and I braced myself to feels its teeth ripping through me. My body tensed and teeth clenched, I hoped it would be over soon. Then its movements ceased. The growls silenced. All I could hear was my own breath and the blood pumping through my body at an impossible speed. Rosie screamed in the pack round and two more bodies stood over me. This time I surrendered. This would be my last fight. I didn’t want this life anymore, I wanted it all to be over. I closed my eyes and waited for the teeth feast amongst my flesh.
   “C’mon kid, get up. We ain’t got all day.” A familiar voice called to me. Opening my eyes I saw a hand reaching out for mine. I absently grasped the firm hand, the slight tanned skin taunted by ancient scars. I was pulled to my feet and Lenny smacked his hand across my shoulder. “I’m getting sick of saving your ass.” He winked. I smiled feverishly in return, embarrassed that I had just been so willing to surrender to death whilst Rosie lay on the bathroom floor mere meters away.
    Rosie! I ran to her instantly and knelt down beside her was another familiar face, only less so, but his gold curls that fell to the nape of his next and his dark blue eyes looked over Rosie with fear and disbelief. Zak turned to me and looked at me expectantly, his mouth ajar and fumbling for words that couldn’t be found. Lenny looked to floor and then to the ceiling, we all knew what was happening. The baby was coming, right here, and right now. One of us was going to have to deliver the baby.
    “Rosie, look I’m here. Everything’s going to be okay!” I smiled falsely and I knew she would see through my façade if she had been brave enough to open her eyes.
    “You lying bastard!” She almost screamed as another contraction came.
    “God, we need Maria. Or even Emma.” I stated, looking to the others
    “No, Josh! Please don’t leave me!” She begged and she cried. The tears streamed down scarlet cheeks and the whites of her green eyes were now the colour of a field of poppies.
    “I’m not going anywhere, Rosie. I promised I’d take care of you and here I am. We’ll do this together, okay?” I smiled at her believingly, convincingly. I hoped for the best, because there was no way in hell should we expect the happy momentous birth we all imagine our first born to be.
    “Oh god, I need to push.” She panted.
    I nodded to Lenny and Zak to stay outside, to keep an eye out for any sets of teeth that would be in search for the screams they take as the sound of prey. Zak nodded to me as he left with the hang cuffs still jingling at his wrist for luck, knowing he was much happier to be killing the demons than the responsibility of birth. Regardless of how much I was not ready for such a task, I turned back to Rosie and looking between her legs bashfully, I could see a head ready to emerge, I urged her to push.
   “Push, Rosie. Breathe out slowly, but don’t push too hard. We don’t want to hurt the baby!” I said and she did.
    Her screams were loud and echoed through the halls. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the dead would arrive for the buffet, but I wasn’t about to demand silence for a woman in labour. To this day, I’m still not sure which is the most deadly; the living dead or a woman’s scorn.  A small head was now free and I gently cradled it with my hand that now seemed enormous in comparison. The baby’s head seemed to rotate to one side slightly and with another push the shoulders were now free, soon followed by kicking legs and dainty feet. A weak cry broke through the air and Rosie’s tears were no longer from the pain but from the joy of new life and finally being able to meet her new baby, a son.
    “You were right, Rose. It’s a little boy.” I said softly, holding the baby softly in my arms.
    “I have a son.” She cried. “We have a son.”
    I looked at her in surprise. We. Did that mean she wanted me to play the role of the little boy’s father? Or was it just a slip of the tongue? I had no time to question it. Lenny threw a towel our way from the bathrooms entrance and placed it beside me whilst putting the baby on to his mother’s chest, who held him dearly. I placed a hand on Rosie’s stomach and rubbed it gently, she winced painfully.
    “Sorry, Rosie. We need to get the placenta out.” I said sternly and encouraged her to take a sitting position. A few moments later the placenta arrived and its writhing smell hit me. I couldn’t describe it, it was unique to say the least, but it was out and we needed to leave. Reaching for my knife, I brought it down firmly across the umbilical cord breaking the tether between mother and child, and the blade scraped across the tile. I quickly reached for the baby and swiftly washed the baby beneath the warm tap of the sink, trying the best I could to remove the blood and gunk from his baby-fresh skin. I wrapped him up in the towel and put him back in his mothers arms.
   “Can you walk?” I asked desperately. I could almost hear the slow steps and the growls of the dead approaching the in the shadows of the corridor.
   “I’ll have to.” She nodded bravely, but I knew the pain must have been seething after the ordeal her body had just endure. There was little time for empathy. Survival was our next priority.
  
   We moved quickly in to the corridor and thank god the baby had seemed to have to stopped crying, as though sensing the danger among us. I held out my blade in front of me and a hand on the bottom of Rosie’s back, urging for her to keep up.  She held the baby desperately to the chest, knowing all too well he was no longer in compassed in the safety of her womb and was now exposed to the dangers of life and death.
   In a huddle we ran back through the corridor to our classrooms and I broke away quickly to grab the little Moses basket and rabbit that had been left in my room. I was glad I had kept the formula and nappies in the basket when I returned from the raid. At least the baby would be taken care of for a little while. We would need to find some clothes for the little mite reasonably soon, I doubted he would be able to survive in a towel and Rosie’s body heat for long. In the room I peered out the window and was surprised to find the courtyard clear of the dead. A few bodies laid lifeless, decapitated heads laid across the faded lines of the old football court and stood amidst the spot light, Howard stood wiping the thick red liquid from his sword on his combat trousers and wiped the sweat from his brow. We had to get to him quick and get us all out of here, but where was Tony?
   “Hey, where’s your friend?” I asked Zak, noticing his young friend from the hospital bed was not amongst our group.
   “Dead.” He shrugged simply, but the sorrow was swirling in his eyes. He rubbed the raw skin that had been chaffing against the handcuffs that had bound him. “He was already dead before the teeth got to us. He hadn’t moved since last night, I noticed his chest stopped shortly after you left. Not like any of you seemed troubled about our wellbeing, not a soul even came near that room. I thought your doctor girl seemed too decent, but apparently not enough to check whether we were dying or not.”
    “What? Nobody checked on you?” Lenny grunted, being close to Tony and Howard, it seemed even he expected that Maria would be in to check on the pair every few hours. He repeated to us the conversation he had with her that morning. He couldn’t understand what had gone wrong, but I knew instantly. Tony happened. Tony must have warned Maria off from treating our patients, he probably told her to think of them as nothing more than prisoners of war and because of his selfishness, a young man had died. Another human gone and our species was one step closer to extinction.
   “C’mon, Howard’s right out front. The paths clear.” I sighed heavily.
   So, I thought the path was clear. As we reached the T junction at the end of the corridor, not just one or two, but a swarm of dead bodies came round the corner with arms out stretched, clawed hands reached for us. We ran back down the corridor but more bodies staggered in to view. As we stood trapped in between two hordes, I hadn’t notice how I pushed Rosie into my shadow using my body as a human shield.
    “Quick in here.” Lenny yelled, kicking the door open with a large boot to an unoccupied classroom. For a second we stood like deer in headlights shining on us from all angles. The light and the pressure froze us in our place, eyes wide with the fear of how we would survive this. The school was over run, we would never be able to come back here with rot that now walked its halls. Lenny called to us again and we were suddenly pulled from our reverie, only second before a hand grasped my shoulders. I swung my deadly blade and the hand fell from the arm, the nerves in the fingers still convulsed as though they still reached for us.  Without hesitation I swung again and the razor sharp blade made its target and the body instantly slumped.
   We rand in to the room and Rosie stood in the centre with tears streaming down her face, instinctively she rocked the baby in her arms and tried to create soothing sounds that came more like disruptive splutters. It was more for her own benefit as the baby remained sleeping in the crook of her elbow and a tiny hand wrapped itself around Rosie’s slim index finger. Lenny threw the door closed behind us and rapidly flicked the lock but the flimsy catch would hold the dead for long. Without haste, Zak and I darted through the room moving the book case and desks to sit in front of the door. But the class window was cracking and they’d soon find their way in.
    Zak ran to the window and began pushing the panes, but they had been bolted shut years ago. The courtyard was still clear and we had nowhere left to go. The window was the only escape. He picked up an old chair and with an almighty swing he through the chair through the glass that shattered in to millions of harsh shards and the chair landed haphazardly in the centre of the tarmac. The metal of the legs had landed in crumpled mess.
   From the shadows, Howard ran to the corpse of the school chair and looked in confusion. He knew the teeth had no capacity to do such a thing. He looked around desperately for a familiar face. We waved frantically from the window and yelled till our throats felt raw. There was no point trying to be quiet, every dead body in a five mile proximity was standing on the other side of the door, working their way in! He looked our way and broke in to a sprint, he moved like a well-trained sportsman built for speed. He was beneath us in seconds.
   The school was one story high, but had been built on a higher foundation. We would have to lower ourselves down to the ground. First went Zak, so there’d be someone keeping an eye out whilst the other helped us escape the building. Next went Rosie, who looked at me with puppy-like eyes, wet with tears. She couldn’t bring herself to part with her new born baby, the fear of losing him was strong, but the longer she waited the higher those chances rose. She passed the infant on to me, stroking his head tenderly and planted a sweet kiss on the tip of his nose before lowering herself down to the ground.
    It was in that moment that our futile defences gave away, the glass came crashing down to the floor like fireworks and a bloody hand replaced it, grabbing hold of anything it could. It would soon figure out that it needed to pull itself through the gap, then it would only take moments for them to make their way through the mass of piled chairs and tables.
   “C’mon, kid, your turn.” Lenny insisted, pressing his hand to my back and brought me to window as I lowered the baby’s basket to the others. The whole time he never took his eyes of the bodies that fumbled through the opening.
   “You first.”
   “Don’t get noble kid. Just get your arse down there.”  He huffed.
   “But…”
   “Just go, kid!” He yelled, his voice almost wavered and the bodies were now firmly planted in the room.
   I looked to the baby that slept soundly in my arms, I realised in that moment that the child’s life was literally in my hands and in seconds I was out of that window and on the ground with the rest of the group, leaving Lenny behind to fight off the killers. From the tarmac we could hear Lenny cursing and yelling and screaming his cries of war, we heard the blade swish through the air and take out its target. The sound of falling bodies in the background of the action and all I could think was that jammy bastard was a one man killing machine. He was taking on the lot and coming out on top, he was indestructible. He was a warrior.
   But, then there was heavy grunt and a growl and then silence dropped. I was sure I could hear the distant hum of crickets from the woods. There was nothing. The air sat heavy and we waited tensely beneath the window. My heart thumbed harshly against my rib cage threating to brake its prison. Lenny, he couldn’t be, but he was. He was gone. It had been too long and not a sound, not an inkling that he’d survived. There had been just too many to fend off alone. He died so we could survive. He had been a martyr. He would forever be a hero.
   We all seemed to bow our heads in sync and Rosie held her baby tighter, who stirred with a faint stifle of a cry; he was back to sleep in seconds. We knew we couldn’t wait about any longer, the dead above us would only be distracted by Lenny’s body for so long, until he became one of them. I cringed. The thought of Lenny’s body being ripped in to by mindless monsters sent violent shivers down my spine, it was not what Lenny had deserved and it brought a tear to my eyes. I wiped it away quickly.
   With no further delay we ran to the side of the building to transit van. As always the doors were unlocked and we threw our bags in to the back. Zak helped Rosie in to the back, nestled her in to the corner behind the passenger seat. He had taken the little pink blanket from the basket and wrapped the two in its warmth. She was exhausted. Her body had been through so much and had just lost a dear friend, she was emotionally and physically drained. We all were.
   I looked to Howard briskly who quickly checked the tires of the vehicle, checking for any sabotage caused by out attackers. Tears were strolling down his face, his skin flushing red and he brush a hand over his head where hair had once been.
   “Howard, where’s Tony?!”
   “It was him.” He panted, his breath escaping him along with fresh tears.
   I looked at him profound. What did he mean? What did he do? Did he mean Tony? Or was he distraught over the death of a friend and his body that had been left behind for dinner.
    “Tony. He set us up. This whole time he’s been working with them. He gave Dim this whole idea; to attack us at night, break down the gates whilst most of us slept. He wanted to kill off the weak. He was going to kill us all, we didn’t fit the cut. The whole scene in the cafeteria… had been planned. Tony knew Nancy would die that day, he had chosen her to be the first kill, because of her dementia. She was apparently a liability.
     You were right, Josh. You could see it, you could see something wasn’t right. You pretty much said he was crazy. He’s not just crazy, hes fucking insane. He tried to feed me to a set of teeth whilst he watched. Well, jokes on him.”
    “Where is he?” I uttered. I was in shock. So much had happened in such a small amount of time with out a chance to process the whole situation. The school was over run, the others were separated from us, Lenny was dead and Tony was a traitor. I needed to lie down, or a shot of whiskey, but I was shit out of luck once again.
    “He’s dead.”
    Something caught my eye. A body in the distance staggered our way. Its shadow unrecognisable, yet familiar. Every inch of my body was telling me to jump in that car and get the hell out of there, but something within me whispered wait. Looking from a far, the body moved like the dead and even looked like the dead; coming closer, I could see the pale pallor of the skin and the rough-looking beard that lined a well-known face, then the red hat sat amongst its head that feel askew to one side of his head revealed my suspicions to be true. I felt my worst fears were coming true. Lenny, no not Lenny, his dead-living corpse had risen from its slumber and had follow the scent of flesh. He was looking for food.
    I turned quickly to Howard and nodded bowed my head. A silent conversation was spoken amongst us as he pulled himself in to the driver’s seat and wait for me to do we all knew I had to do. Lenny would never have wanted us to allow his body to wander through the world as a risk to human life. He would want it to end. I pulled my blade from my pocket and stalked over to meet the body approaching. I was just feet away and sound escaped his body, rasped breaths that was almost a snarl. I pulled my arm high ready to do the impossible; to kill my friend, or what was left of him.
    “You really gonna kill me now kid, after the shit I have just been through to save your arse… again.” A painful voice coughed.
    “Lenny?” I gasped. “We thought… I thought you were dead.”
    “I can see that.” He laughed sadly and a part of my crumbled at his surrendering voice, but I threw all my manly dignity behind me and wrap my arms around my friend. I had really thought he was a goner, but this guy was not a man to trifle with. He was a born survivor.
    “C’mon, kid. Get off me. We gotta go.” He said wincing and looking down I realised why,
    Blood dripped from a sleeve that had been ripped from his plaid shirt and wrapped around a stump. His forearm was now gone. The shirt was no longer any distinguishable colour other than red as it was pressed firmly against the missing limb and I could see just how weak he was beginning to feel as the blood escaped his body.
    “What happened? Realised you had other distraction, cut your arm off and threw it to the dogs in one last desperate attempt to survive?” I joked unconvincingly.
     Lenny choked on a pitiful laugh, “I got bit, dick.”
     He staggered slightly to the side and then almost fell back into me trying to correct himself. Lenny was losing a dangerous amount of blood. We need to get him to Maria for his best chance of survival, but from his blood shot eyes and his paling skin I could tell we didn’t have long. I held him in place against my shoulder and waved to Howard behind me. The van roared to life and he was beside me in a matter of seconds, with Zak waiting at the side doors. His mouth fell open and quickly closed it again, jumping out to help me lift Lenny in to safety.
   Lenny fell from our grasp and his body went down with a thud, banging against the metallic floor of the van. Zak slammed the door shut and Howard hit the gas. I yelled to him about the noise of the engine to drive round the back to check the others had gotten away, then turned back to Lenny. His eyes were vacant and his body convulsed slightly. He was going in to shock. We may have gotten to safety, but the terror of the night was far from over.