Bloodhearts

Chapter six: Danger.

My desperate yelling sure wakes the living up and gets me the attention I need. My eyes are so wide they might pop out of their sockets and Cory asks for his new makeshift walking stick so he can limp over to my cage.

"Cory!" Jason yells at him.

Cory gives him a look that says not to go against him. Its almost as scary as disobeying orders from a boney - which is pretty much what I'm doing right now. There's one rule about the living; eat them and kill them. Don't spare unless it's to expand the family.

"Don't tell me what I can or can't do! I'm giving the orders here and I deem this important to investigate!" Cory snaps.

Jason growls and kicks the sofa, but doesn't argue any further. Instead, he focuses on me just like Cory. Always nice to know he cares.

"What's wrong?" Cory asks me once he's sure Jason won't cause any more trouble. He's close enough so that I can reach out and touch him. Maybe he doesn't realize how dangerous that is especially at a time like now.

My eyes get huge as his smell hits me. I must concentrate long enough to tell him what's happened.

"D-danger-r," I try to explain.

"I know what we do is dangerous," Cory assures me. "That's why we brought these babies. He shows me his gun. He doesn't get it. 

In panic, I grab his arm so tightly he makes a face at me. All his friends are prepared to kill me if I make just one wrong move, but I have to tell him what I saw now before we get company.

"What are you doing?" Cory says nervously.

"B-blood," I say and point to the long trail by the entrance. I point towards the trail until it dawns on Cory what it is I'm trying to tell him.

"Shit," he says and limps towards it to take a look. When he realizes it's a trail that goes pretty far out, he knows there's little time to escape. Jason is the nearest living to me right now. All I have to do is make a little noise to get his attention. "C-coming h-here-e!" I tell him and point to myself. "Run!"

He gets the message and looks to Cory for orders. "Get the most important stuff and then we've leaving," Cory declares and everyone around him starts to pack only the most necessary things with a few people on the watch to see if my 'friends' are somewhere near us. No doubt they are. A smell like this one doesn't go unnoticed. They could be here any minute so I kick up a big fuss - anything - to get Cory and his friends to leave faster. When everything is ready to go, he finally looks at me with a torn expression. He doesn't want to leave...

And then it's too late.

Screams cut through the air and my fellow dead have arrived on destination just in time to play their part in my worst nightmare. The dead attack in blind hunger and the living scatter to grab their guns. Some of the dead get shot within seconds and others get to tackle a living. Then a bullet goes through their heads. A few get even further and I watch it all from the relative safety of my cage. I go into some sort of shock when all this happens. It's hard to comprehend who's killing who. I don't know if Cory's alive anymore. I can only hope he is. He has to be.

...

We pull up to his house in tense silence. I get out as Cory is already about to unlock his front door. All I do is stand there and stare at him, until he turns around, looking at me expectantly. "Are you coming?" he says.

"Uh..." I begin, not knowing what to say. I don't get to make a decision, though, because Cory pulls me inside his house and closes the door after me. I am told to go to the living room and I just do so. I sit down on the couch in the home of a seemingly happy family. There are loads of family photos taken on holidays and loads of things that have personal value to them. That's different from my home.