Revenge of the Dead

Chapter 34: The Hope

I look down at Daniel with a mixture of regret and anger. What I did was wrong, what he did was worse. I pull the knife out of his skull and a feeling of sickness settles in my stomach, the death of humans weighing differently on your hands. I take a deep shaky breath and look wildly around me, everyone is fighting but more of us are falling.

I crawl over to Jaz, my ears ringing, and pull her into my arms gently. I press my hood against the back of my head to stop the bleeding and let out a grimace as I press on the cut, I feel it soak through with liquid and I groan.

Jaz yelps in my arms and I stroke her soothingly, as blood sheds around me I kiss her on the head and lay her gently in a hidden corner. I slowly get to my feet and stumble towards the ongoing slaughter, my knife held by my side and my gun out in front of me.

The zombies and government still hold their sides and I shoot into the mass of enemy figures with as much precision as my dizzy mind can muster. The men fall with a thud and I pull the trigger rhythmically, a long drum of echoes that bounce off of the blood splattered walls. Guilt pangs through me as I kill the soldiers but soon, the firing of bullets becomes a numb sensation that I disassociate myself from.

The sound of glass shattering spikes through the air and I see the ceiling crack into tiny fractures, I fall to the floor and cover my head with my arms as it flutters down like a deadly rain. As the piercing ringing stops I stare up at the ceiling and slide back across the floor in uncertain fear- until my back is pressed firmly against a blood-smeared wall.

People dressed in a deep navy uniform slide down ropes with guns secured to their backs and hit the floor with a quick and effortless movement, they raise their guns immediately but we don't attack. The zombies stay still and pull away from the government, back towards their original position submissively.

I stare around in confusion until I see them pointing their guns, not at us, but at the Prime Minister's side. The zombies fall back into a pathway that leads to me and I groan as I feel blood trickle down my neck, running down my back and mixing into my clothes as the world fades in and out of focus. Blood starts to trickle from my nose and I dab at it gently with my sleeve, soaking the material with my own blood.

Footsteps echo off the stone floor and I look up to see a woman in her mid-twenties looking down at me, she reaches out a hand and I take it unsteadily. She smiles at me kindly and shakes my hand gently, although the small movement is enough to shoot pain through my ribs and cut-up arm. The woman has sleek black hair which is cut in short jagged spikes and her blue eyes are calm as she gazes down at me, she carefully pulls me up and I frown.

"You must be the Madeline Taylor, right?" she asks with a thick British accent and I nod slowly, I rack my brain for any memory of this woman but I come up empty. I don't know her.

"Well, Madeline Taylor, I'm Nadia Cross and also the acting President of the United States for the time being," I shake my head at her in confusion, she's British and the leader of the USA?

Then I notice something else, her surname and I cover my mouth with my hand- tears dripping down my cheeks.

 "Nadia, their dead. I lost contact with them back in London and now their dead, the Prime Minister killed them," I whisper and she smiles sadly at my words whilst placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"I know Madeline, and that's why I'm here. To kill the Prime Minister for what he's done to the world, and to justify my parent's death in the slightest," she whispers and I pull her into a tight hug. My mind tries to gather any information on Nadia and I stagger backwards as a memory flashes over me.

"Actually we would!" Lara says, almost in excitement.

"What? Really? You would even though it's almost going to be a suicide mission? Why?" I question suspiciously and narrow my eyes at the couple.

"Our daughter was bitten by one of those zombies and we owe it to her to try and figure out a cure, if we find a cure then we can treat her," Nicholas says and I gape in shock. 

"Wait where is she?" I ask scared and they chuckle, looking at each other, almost in laughter at my outburst.

"In a warehouse down the road we just couldn't shoot her..." he trails off.

I stare at Nadia curiously and shake my head, suspicion evident in my voice.

"You're supposed to be infected?" I state but it sounds more like a question. She laughs without humour and starts to walk back towards the centre of the room, her voice loud and clear, staring into the enemy lines scrutinisingly. 

"I am alive Madeline because we have the cure," she says and I let out a surprised breath.   

Then the guns go off and the room collapses into a beautiful chaos. Chaos filled with passion, love and anger. And for the first time, a chaos filled with something different.

Hope.