The Dead and the Restless (Completed with undergoing editing)

Chapter One (Edited)

Light fog curled around our feet, barely hiding us from the dead that loomed around aimlessly. In the corner of my vision, I made out a dark figure whose hand found its way out of the grey and onto Lily's shoulder, causing a short scream to rip from her throat as it dragged her down. At first, the panic of the attack had caused my heart to quicken, but then my eye caught a glint of metal.

"No!" I shouted frantically as she fired off the gun multiple times. Craig and I gave her a stunned stare as she stood up quickly, her whole body shaking as she barely held onto the gun. She looked at us with wide eyes and a slightly parted mouth, realizing the enormity of her decision. My boots slightly slipped on the damp grass as I walked over to her and grabbed the gun from her grip, the metal cold and heavy in my hand. My thumb flicked the safety on and I slid it in between the waistband of my jeans, making sure it was secure.

"I'm s-sorry," she stammered, her eye's flickering between the gun and me. "I-I panicked and I didn't know what else to do."

A loud crunch sounded out, breaking the silence that ensued after she spoke. I could feel the resentment crawling off of Lucas, Lily's older brother, as he ripped his ax from the head of a dead body that was half eaten with hands outstretched onto the dirt.

"Don't you know what you've done?" Lucas asked, spitting onto the dead body he had just butchered and starting toward his sister. Craig rushed in front of him, pushing his hand into his chest. Lucas didn't even look at him; he just held Lily's bright blue eyes in his crosshairs. "You've just attracted all the Snappers in a two mile radius! There's bound to be a horde of 'em. We're in the middle of the most populated suburb in-"

"I said I'm sorry!" She yelled, cutting him off and looking from me to him for assistance. "I just wanted it off me, okay? I don't even know how to use one of those-those gun things. Leas-"

"Snappers!" I shouted, making sure to cut Lily off as I spotted a cluster of dark figures appearing through the fog on the horizon. My eyes opened wide; there was a more than a cluster, there was an all-out swarm. We were undoubtedly getting overrun for the second time in two days since the apartment fell, and this time the odds of making it out of this wasn't good without the coverage that the building held. My eyes found Craig, the panic evident. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and plunged a hunting knife into the forehead of one that was getting closer to us, but it was clear that attempting to take them all down would be futile.

"Go!" Craig bellowed as he struggled to pull the knife from the forehead of a snapper, backing up as it finally fell. Lucas started ahead of us, but it was clear that he had no idea where to go as figures appeared out of nowhere. The gun-shot had truly riled up all the snappers in the area. There were the lock-ups that had been left in the house by loved ones hoping for a cure, the roamers that walked the streets night and day, and then there were occupants, the ones that were doing their jobs when they got infected. And all of them were heading to the gunshot that just served as the dinner bell. Not only did that hinder us, but we were tired, weak, covered in the blood of the dead and those we had recently lost, and running around in an unfamiliar park.

"Where do we go?" I asked, my free hand clutching onto Craig's arm and stopping him. We both surveyed the area frantically, panic creeping in as we realized that there was nowhere left to run.

"Shit," Craig muttered, trying to catch his breath. His hand gripped onto mine, trying to steady them as they were shaking uncontrollably. He avoided eye contact with me as he spoke. "Don't worry, Lease. We're going to get out of here. It's going to be ok. We're making it out of here alive, I promise."

Empty promises. He knew that. We all knew that. Lucas let out an audible sigh.

"Craig," I said, shaking my head and swallowing the edge I could feel myself slipping off of. "I don't know if that's going to happen."