Chapter 1
It was a warm Friday evening in mid November, in an old empty house with a balcony overhanging the doorway in the middle of the woods, where four, four-teen year old boys spent most of their school time, today thinking of excuses they can use to skip the last lesson of the day maths, which they all truly hated, purely because of the maths teacher Mr. Parry, who always picked on the four boys, giving them detention for the slightest giggle or smirk, he often gave them homework on a daily basis which they never did, which then led to more detentions and the occasional letter sent home to parents, the one boy Connor who was definitely the largest of the group he had a long, blonde, bowl cut hair style, wearing a white hooded jumper over the light blue t-shirt and plain black trousers that was the school uniform that all four of them were wearing, suggested “ how about we say we were involved in a fight and all got seriously hurt ?” Lewis who was a short, thin and had short spiked, brown hair and was wearing his red jacket and white trainers was sat opposite to Connor on the kitchen counter, sarcastically replied “oh yeah, and what scars or bruises do we have to show on Monday genius ?” Connor sharply replied with “hey, don’t get sarcy’ with me pal, I don’t see you shooting idea’s out your arse? Oh here’s another one, how about I punch you in the face? You can show them bruises to the teacher’s?” Lewis didn’t dignify that remark with a reply. Out of the blue Ieuan – Owen or ‘herbie’ as he’s known as because of his second name being Herbert, who was short, and had slightly ginger spiked up hair, who wore his pink trainers to school, which isn’t part of the school uniform, but was allowed to wear because he had broken his ankle over 2 years ago, but whenever asked where his school shoes were he would play the ‘it’s still painful’ card, who was sat in the corner of the room said “whoa guys, chill it’s not like we haven’t done this before, we’ll figure something out, hey’ rob what time is it?” Rob who was very short, skinny, and had short black hair and who would always have his school jumper sleeves rolled up and was constantly biting his nails was completely distracted from the question that he was asked because of the phone in his hand, which he is on mostly all day. Herbie grew impatient and shouted “oi’ fathead, I said what’s the time?!” Rob then acknowledged him and said “oh sorry I was distracted, it’s ten to one” Lewis asked him “what is it that distracts you all through lessons, all through the day?” Rob answered “oh you know, just Facebook and stuff” “really? Just Facebook , you sure it’s not that jess girl your always messaging” Connor replied with a wink, rob just looked at him and sighed “yeah con’, I’m sure mate”.
Chapter 2
Forty-Five minutes passed with multiple excuses being laughed at and forgotten about within the next few minutes, when suddenly Rob says “hey guys, wasn’t we supposed to have our tetanus jab’ fifth lesson, you know, the one scientist improved earlier this year?” scientist’s had made a massive breakthrough in vaccine injections earlier in the year which was to be given to all schools and work places throughout the country. Lewis replied “OH shit! was that today?! It was all over the news, my parents even had them yesterday, how could we forget?” Rob replied staring into space, “Yeah I just read some kid in year 8’s status saying ‘ouch those injections hurt, don’t feel so good’ so what do we do now guys? Its quarter to three, so we have definitely missed the jabs now” All four boys looked at each other blankly for a few seconds before Connor interrupted the silence “ oh well, what are the odds we actually get that disease anyway?” it was a rhetorical question. It was 3:05 and the boys decided to leave the cabin and head home when Herbie asked “hey guys, how about we get totally hammered this weekend? My mum has tons of booze in the house ever since dad left she spends most nights crying and drinking, I’m sure she wouldn’t notice a few bottles missing?” Connor quickly replied as his eyes widened “yeah that sounds awesome” as he continued he got very excited “Hey, we could spend the weekend in the cabin, we could all tell our parents were at each other’s houses and no-one will know” “I don’t know guy’s” Rob interrupted “you know I don’t like to drink a lot” when the 3 other boys just laughed “don’t be such a bitch, it’ll be fun trust me” Lewis reassured him “we can get some girls too” he continued with a wink and a smile on his face. Rob sighed “I’m still not entirely sure, I’ll think about it”. As the boys walked down a slippery path that went straight across the side of a steep mountain-side, the surrounding woodland swayed in a sudden gush of wind that made the hairs on the back of robs neck stand up, he looked up at the trees swaying above the path, he then turned his head to the left and looked down the steep hill below, he could see a blurry figure on the bottom of the field below kneeling down, he watched carefully for a couple of seconds, trying to figure out what he was seeing. As he watched the figure, Herbie realised that rob wasn’t walking behind them anymore, he said “where’s rob gone off to now?” Lewis and Connor turned around to see nothing but a few leaves blow across the path, Lewis said “this is the only way back; he couldn’t have gone anywhere else?” “Let’s go back and find the stupid pri...” but before he could finish his insult, from over the hill of the path, rob came sprinting furiously, he shouted “hey guys, come quick, check this out!” all three boys looked at each other puzzled before running after him. Connor, Lewis and Herbie all caught up to rob who was once again staring at the figure, “So what’s so good that you made us run?” said Lewis after putting his asthma inhaler back in his pocket, “hopefully his mum” said Connor jokingly “shut up, just look at that” Rob said pointing his finger at the blurry figure, by now there were three figures, all knelt down facing away from the four baffled boys. A few more seconds past before Herbie said “What the hell are they doing?” to which Rob replied “I have no idea, I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while now” he said with a puzzled look on his face, “strange that” Connor said “oh well, let’s just get home and start our kick ass party” he continued excitedly “sounds good” Lewis replied as he followed Connor and Herbie who had continued walking “you coming bro?” he said to Rob , but Rob was still glued to the mysterious figures “yeah, I’ll catch up to you in a min’ mate” “okay” said Lewis as he turned and ran up to Connor and Herbie, Rob took out his phone and opened up the camera application, he zoomed in on the figures and realised they were kneeling in front of a long thin dark object, which had some sort of red stains on the top, he couldn’t quite make out what it was because most of it was hidden behind the three figures, “OH for god’s sak.. Rob hurry yo’ ass up” said Herbie from a distance, Rob turned his head to see Herbie tapping his wrist as if he had a watch on, Rob stood back and started walking towards to three boys, as he did so he held his phone and studied the short video clip he recorded of the figures, still interested in what he saw he put his phone back in his pocket and rejoined the three boys. As they reached the bottom of the path, they walked past the tall, green gates that lead into their high school, they noticed their head teacher with her short, blonde, and middle parted hairstyle and large circular glasses and dark purple suit that she would wear every day, Stood right outside the main entrance, They quickly hid around the side of the gate that was on the opposite side of the entrance and teacher, “come on guys, It’s probably safer to go around the long way” said Herbie nervously, as the three boys went to walk around the back of the school, Lewis stayed and kept watch, he noticed something strange, “wait! Look at Miss Cartwright” he said, as the three boys returned to have a look, they saw their head teacher lean over the bar that led from the entrance, up the steps and into the car park and as she leant over the bar she started throwing up large chunks of yellow and red liquid, “OH dude SICK” said Connor trying to keep himself from throwing up, “I can’t watch that shit no more” he continued, covering his mouth with the bottom of his light blue hooded jumper, so all four boys continued to walk around the back of the school, “dude, what ya’ thinks wrong with her?” asked Rob, “I dunno, and to be honest and don’t wanna know” replied Connor still disgusted with what he saw, “well, whatever it was, I sure hope I don’t bloody get it that’s for sure!” said Herbie.
Chapter 3
The four boys all went towards Herbie’s house first as it was the closest, As they approached the ‘orchard street’ sign that was heavily covered in graffiti, Connor asked “How can you live here herb’
I mean it’s so rough, and cheap , and your dad, wasn’t he like some big shot lawyer or somethin’?” herbie looked at him and sighed “yeah, he was” he looked at the ground “But ever since he worked a case in America he got obsessed with collecting baseball memorabilia, you know like bats and shit” Lewis said “yeah, but baseballs a pile?” herbie looked at him with a blank face “Don’t ya’ think I told him that? But he insisted on wasting all his money on tickets and more signed photos and shit instead of redecorating or fixing the damn locks on the doors”. They reached the metal wire fencing at the middle of a row of old brick houses, with a torn hole in, which leads into Herbie’s back garden, “you guys wait here, I’ll be back in a sec” herbie told the other three, “WAIT!” Lewis shouted to him, “what?” he replied? “Say Hi to your mum for me?” Lewis said with a cheeky wink, “oh shut up ya dick” herbie sighed, as the Rob and Connor continued laughing. Herbie walked on the cracked concrete pathway leading to his patio door, which was covered in grime, he tugged on the door handle, but it was locked from the inside, he swore under his breath as he realised he had to climb through the kitchen window that was on the left of the patio door. As he clambered his way through the window, trying to avoid the towering pile of dishes that he was trying to manoeuvre past, but as he put his left foot on the edge of the sink it slipped and he came crashing down on top of the dishes and fell to the kitchen floor making a loud clashing sound. He moaned “Ouch! U bastard thing!” as he stood he realised he had blood trailing down his arm, he turned his arm to reveal a two inch cut that was throbbing with blood, “Oh shit” he groaned as he got up searched through the kitchen cupboards for a bandage of some sort, but all he could find was some dry biscuits and some paracetamol tablets, he headed up stairs to see if his mother was home. He entered his mother’s bedroom and tread all over some rolled up tissues that had been thrown across the room, “mum?” he said, he looked over at his mother facing the other way towards the television, “mum? Mum are you okay?” he repeated, but there was no reply he walked over to the left side of the bed where he could see his mothers face that was white like a ghost and tissues resting in her nose, and a bowl full of yellow and red sick at the bottom of the bed, he nudged his mother in the shoulder, she suddenly awoke with red blood shot eyes, she smiled “oh, It’s just you Ieuan, your mothers not well, I’ve been throwing up all morning, maybe It’s just the vaccination starting to work, how was school?” “School?” he replied “Oh, school, uh yeah it was okay, nothin’ new, same old stuff, do you want anything?” “no thanks Hun” she replied with a smile “just some rest should do me good” Ieuan couldn’t take his eyes off the bowl full of sick, “oh yeah, I’m staying over my mates house tonight I’ll be back tomorrow okay?” “okay make sure you text me when your there safe?” she asked “don’t I always” he said with a grin, he walked out into the bathroom and looked through the bathroom and searched through the cupboards, for a bandage, he found a long roll of bandage and a pin and wrapped it around his cut, and put the pin in to keep it from falling. He then walked back downstairs, back into the kitchen and knelt down to the lowest cupboard on the left where the alcohol is normally kept, he reached his hand around the corner of the cupboard and brought out a large bottle of wine, he reached a few times and all together he had found 6 cans of carling, 2 bottles of whiskey, and 4 bottles of vodka, he put them on the counter and ran to find his back pack which was on the dining room table he took it to the kitchen where he put the bottles and cans into his backpack, he then unlocked the back door and headed out back down the concrete path and through the metal fence.
Chapter 4
Herbie crawled through the hole in the fence and saw Connor, Lewis and Rob all sat around the fence, “Took your bloody time didn’t you fathead?” said Lewis, “Sorry lads, my mum’s not well,” he replied, “More importantly, did you get the booze?” Connor interrupted “ yeah don’t worry I got it all, chill your bean” he said smirking “so where to next” rob said checking the time “its 4:50” Lewis said “how about me and Herbie go to my house and get my shit together and Rob and Connor go to their houses and get theirs?” “yeah okay” said Rob without really paying attention, once again he was distracted by the video on his phone again “well meet back at the cabin knock four times in a row so we know it’s you” said Herbie, with the plan in hand the four boys headed in separate directions towards each other’s houses. As Rob and Connor headed towards Rob’s House, Connor said “dude, tonight’s gonna’ be so awesome” Rob was on his phone when he replied in a very sad and non-interested way “yeah... awesome... dude” Connor looked at him and said “Look bro, if your gonna be a total bitch, and be mopey’, and be on your phone all night you might as well stay home!” Rob quickly put his phone in his pocket, “nahh, It’ll be awesome like you said, I won’t be mopey and miserable It’s just I got something on my mind is all...” “you wanna tell me?” Connor asked “nahh don’t worry” there wasn’t much talking for the rest of the way apart from a few jokes. Meanwhile Lewis and Herbie had already been to Lewis’ house and gotten his stuff, he had brought a torch, a radio, plastic cups and cans of coke for the vodka. Lewis and Herbie had gotten to the cabin by 5:30 and at that time it was already pitch black, so they walked up the three creaking steps leading to the door, Herbie and Lewis looked through the windows on both sides of the door. It was pitch black inside “looks like they ain’t here yet” said Lewis as he walked back to the door. So they both walked inside and chucked their bags on the old wooden table that stood in the middle of the living room, surrounded by three old, dusty red sofas. Herbie took out his alcohol and placed it on the table, whilst Lewis was stood on the sofa, tying the torch around the hole in the roof where the old light bulb used to dangle. Suddenly there were two loud bangs on the door which turned both Lewis’ and Herbie’s heads towards the door then back at each other “who d’ya think that is?” Herbie whispered to Lewis “I don’t know” he said as he turned the dangling torch light off, Herbie and Lewis both knelt down and slowly walked towards the both windows either side of the door, there was another loud Bang on the door, Lewis and Herbie looked at each other and gulped, they continued to walk to the windows and as they approached they could see two figures standing, and then both made a loud sigh “oh for fu... you stupid twat! You were supposed to knock four times you silly prick! Nearly gave us both a heart attack!” “OH stop ya bitching and let us in” Connor said back holding his hands out.
Chapter 5
It was a long night, the four boys had drank for hours on end they started to drink at around 6:00pm and ran out of drink about 4:00am. The evening light shone through the window and straight into Robs eye, this awoke him “ohhh.. . shit me” he mumbled as he rubbed the dust out of his eyes, he looked around, to his left was Herbie and Connor both led on the same sofa, Herbie hanging of the edge only to be held on by Connors arm hugging him, “OI!, u bunch of gays! Wake up” Rob shouted as he stood up wobbling side to side, Herbie slowly opened his eyes, it took him a few seconds to realise what position he was in, he launched himself in the air of the sofa where Connor was still sparked out “what the hell happened last night, I can’t even think straight” Herbie said “me neither, why don’t ya wake up fatty and ask him?” Rob said whilst clearing his throat, “Hey wait!, where the hell is Lewis?” asked Herbie “Dude, was Lewis even here last night?” Rob said laughing, Herbie punched Connor in the arm “Wake up dickhead” Connor slowly awoke, “ohmbmmm...” he looked puzzled, and pulled a king of spades playing card out of his mouth and threw it across the room “... what’s the time?” he continued, Rob checked both his pockets before reaching for his back pocket pulling out his phone “11:30am...” he said “ oh that’s not so bad” Connor said, “SUNDAY!” Rob’s jaw dropped, “holy shit” Connor said as he stood up and as he walked around the sofa he kicked something and tripped over it and fell to the floor “ouch, you son of a... bitch” came a voice from behind the sofa “which one of you silly pricks did that?” “Well seeing as I’m on the floor...” said Connor, Then there was a sudden bang on the door followed by a loud groan “will you shut that twat up, I got a massive hangover” Lewis grumbled whilst standing up. Another groan came from outside the door, Herbie walked over to the door and slowly opened it, only for the door to be pushed fully open hitting Herbie in the face, knocking him to the floor holding his nose “Aaaarghhh” he screamed as a man with his lips ripped off and was frothing at the mouth like he had rabies, pounced on top of him trying to bite into him, “Help me, you useless pricks!!” herbie yelled as he held off the man that was desperately trying to sink his teeth into His flesh, “shit! you two pull him off Herbie I’ll get something to smash him with” said Lewis, so Connor and Rob both grabbed hold of the rabid mans shoulders and pulled him back, Herbie still trapped underneath “Hurry up u fucking idiot!” shouted Connor “I’m trying, I’m trying” Lewis shouted back, he ran outside and grabbed the nearest branch he could see, the three boys arms became weak and couldn’t hold on much longer, sweat started to drip down Connors forehead. Then Lewis came running in and shouted “move!” as he swung down the branch straight on to the man’s face, Lewis’ eyes filled with anger, he repeatedly hit the man in the face until he no longer moved, Lewis swung one final time and let go of the branch as it went straight through the man’s skull, he had killed him.
Chapter 6
Rob, Herbie and Connor all stared at Lewis who had red blood splattered all over his plain white t-shirt and light blue collar and was desperately trying to catch his breath, Connor ran over to the dining room table and searched through Lewis’ bag and grabbed his inhaler and rushed back to Lewis still panting and staring at the corpse in front of him. Connor handed Lewis his inhaler, Lewis put the inhaler into his mouth without taking his eyes off of the smashed mans skull, He inhaled a few times before putting it back in his pocket. Herbie stood up and put his hands on his head, “what have you done?” he asked, Lewis looked at him in shock “I just saved your fucking life! That’s what I’ve done” he shouted, “dude, you just totally flipped, I’ve never seen that side of you, you... you killed him” Herbie trembled “what do you mean I killed him?” Lewis asked, “well I certainly wasn’t the one who pounded the guys face in” herbie said trying to comfort himself holding his hands up as he stepped back, “hey, all of you are in this as much as me?” Lewis proclaimed, “How do you figure that one out Sherlock?” herbie snapped, “your accessory to murder mate, you held him down” Herbie knew he was right, the four boys all looked at each other in horror, “so... what do we do now” said rob with his hands on his hips, staring at the corpse, “we do what any normal person do in this kinda’ situation” said Connor, “what? Go to the police?” asked Rob “nope we bury the body and forget this ever happened” Connor replied scratching his chin, “ok then Mr. Big man, you carry him outside and bury him” said Lewis, “OK, I will” said Connor proudly. Connor circled the body a few times trying to figure out how to pick it up, he eventually decided to pick up his legs and drag him, the other three boys just stared, and watched his pathetic attempt, “well?” Connor said in embarrassment “are you going to help or what?” he asked, Lewis sighed and walked over and picked up the dead man underneath his shoulders, Herbie opened the door and checked to see of anyone was outside, “It’s clear” he shouted. They carried the body down through some woodland until they approached a nearby reservoir, they all looked at each other, and without saying a word they all knew what each other was thinking. Connor and Lewis walked up to the side of the reservoir and they threw him into the darkest part of the pool, there was large splash and the body slowly sank into the darkest corner of the pool. The four boys trekked back to the cabin without saying a word, and all sat down on the sofas, there was a moment of silence where all four boys stared blankly into space, “so what’s the plan?” asked Herbie, not one of them blinked, “we never speak of this again, simple” said Lewis, but they all knew it wasn’t that easy. “well why don’t we all go back to my house and we can chill, and take our minds off of this mess with a game on the Xbox?” said Lewis, the three boys all nodded and packed up their stuff trying not to leave any trace of evidence that they were ever there and headed out the door, and through the muddy, woodland pathway. They finally reached the end of the path and headed across the path on the mountainside where Lewis noticed a bright yellow light in the corner of his eye, he looked down the mountainside where he could see the main road leading into the town centre, overloaded with cars, some on fire and some tipped upside down, “holy shit” he mumbled, “that’s one bad ass crash” he continued, the other three all stared down at the havoc and chaos that was below. After a few minutes of staring the four boys continued their way home, but about 20 feet ahead on the path was a shadowy figure knelt down, just like the first figure rob spotted. The four boys slowly approached the shady character, “dude, um... excuse me could you tell us what happened down on the road?” Connor asked, but as the man turned around they could see what he was kneeling for, he had a large chunk of flesh hanging out of his mouth that he had bitten off the torn off arm he was holding in his right hand, the blood from the limb had stained the man’s chin with dark red blood, his eyes were yellow and blood shot, he groaned loudly before dropping the limb right in front of Connor’s feet, “look mate, I don’t want no trouble okay? I’m just gonna leave you and your um... feast alone okay?” but as he slowly backed away the man stood up and tried to pounce on Connor, so Connor dived out the way and followed the other three boys who had ran past without making a sound, but the man chased them down the mountainside, which only boosted the four boys adrenaline rush. As they reached the bottom they stopped for what could be the worse sight any of the boys could have ever seen.
Chapter 7
They stopped to acknowledged the horrendous sight that stood before them, for they saw hundreds of those things they had just ran away from, except some of them were missing limbs like arms or legs or even both, they had completely covered the high schools car park with people being eaten and the loudest and most spine chilling groans they had ever heard. The boys suddenly realised what they are seeing “holy mother of god...” Lewis said as he gazed at what they believed to be ‘hell on earth’. They suddenly remembered they were being chased, “quick into this bush and wait for that.. thing to pass” said Lewis as he pointed to a large green bush on the left of the path, they all dived into the bush trying not to make a lot of noise. The man that was chasing them ran by, the boys all held their breaths, but the man ran straight into the large crowd. Rob started to bite his nails “uh guys, what are we supposed to do?!” he said, his voice drowned with panic “shhh u stupid idiot, keep your voice down, the last thing we need is for them to hear us” whispered Herbie, “I say we head for my house” he continued, “what about our family’s are they okay? Are they one of those?” whimpered rob “how do I know dickhead? Anyway don’t think like that, think positive” Connor reassured him, “right, you see that bus toppled over on its side?” herbie said whilst pointing to the other side of the road where the bus was on its side impaled against the school gate, “one at a time, we slowly and quietly walk over to it, and then we can go around the back of the school and make our way back to my house?” “but what if there’s more of those things around the back?” asked Connor still staring at the large crowd, “I highly doubt it, anyway what have we got to lose?” Herbie smiled, “okay ill go first and I’ll give you the signal when to follow”, before another word could be said Herbie ran behind the parked, green land rover that was about 35 feet from the bus, the other three boys watched with their hearts in the throats, herbie poked his head around the front of the 4x4 and saw one of those things stood right on the other side slowly limping around towards him, Rob was recording this on his phone, “Dude!, are you for real, give me that!” Lewis barked at him as he took it from Robs clutches, “oh shit, he’s so screwed” said Connor from the safety of the bush, Lewis and Rob turned to look, Herbie had to act fast, he fell to the floor and shuffled himself underneath the land rover barely fitting underneath it, he turned his head to front wheel, where he could see two feet, one of them had been snapped and the ankle bone was poking through the sock, he continued to watch the feet pass by the 4x4 and no longer could see them. He shuffled himself closer to the edge of the land rover and he could see the man that just passed him had walked further down the main road. He looked around to see if it was clear, he couldn’t see anyone else so he quickly rolled out from underneath the bus, “oh thank god” Lewis said whilst sighing with relief, Herbie quickly walked over to the toppled over bus, he sat against it he looked back at the boys and gave them the signal to follow. Connor hurried after herbie, then Rob, they both made it across safely, it was just Lewis left, as Herbie gave him the signal Lewis hurried across to the land rover but as he approached it he tripped against the kerb, and fell on his side against the land rovers door which then set of the car alarm, “oh my god, that stupid dick!” Rob murmured looking back, Lewis still leaning against the car door rubbed his arm, as he stood he saw the whole car park was empty, he turned his head to the left where the bus was and saw all of those ‘things’ charging towards him like an angry mob, he murmured to himself “OH shit...”.
Chapter 8
Panic ran through Lewis’ veins, he had to think fast “now’s our chance?” herbie said as the large group passed, “you’re just going to leave him out here? With those ‘things” Connor said holding him back, “look, think it through, its better him than all of us, anyway he’s a smart kid, he’ll know what to do, now come on” Herbie reassured him, Connor looked at rob in disbelief, but knew Herbie was right, they slowly walked around the front of the bus, there was one or two of those things crawling across the car park with missing legs, the three boys just ran past them they ran down the steps leading behind the back of the school. They reached the corner shop that was at the bottom of ‘orchard street’ the windows had been smashed, and the door was hanging on by its top hinge, the boys ran to it and stopped to take a look inside, they stepped over the shattered pile of glass, “what the.. hell is going on” rob asked trying to avoid the fallen shelves, passing the two fridges, the one having blood dripping from the top of the door handle, rob opened the fridge door “so... can I just take stuff now?” he asked whilst crouching down to grab the green fizzy drink can, “I guess so” Herbie replied whilst looking in the back storage room, “no-one’s here” he continued, Connor walked around to the third row of shelves and looked down the bottom shelf that was half tipped on the floor, he grabbed a box of tampons and giggles to himself childishly, he opened up the box and threw all the tampons at the back of Rob’s head, “dude, seriously?” he asked, as he pulled a tampon out of his hood, Connor still laughing childishly, “I thought a touch of humour was needed” he said opening a bag of cheese crisps and shovelling them in his mouth, “come on gays,” Herbie said as he walked back through the smashed door, “we’ll ask my mum what’s going on, I need to know what those things were” he continued , Connor and Rob ran after him. Meanwhile Lewis had climbed a small to medium sized tree where he was barely able to hold himself up, “will you just.. PISS OFF?!” he shouted down at the large crowd of those things all reaching trying to grab his feet, with only the few succeeding to which he would just kick off, he looked at his surroundings, but all he could see was hundreds of those things, hands grasping thin air, loud groans coming from every direction, then all of a sudden he remembered he had robs phone, he patted his pockets, but no luck “oh please, please, please” he begged as he looked up to the sky, he patted his red jackets pocket and felt a rectangular object, he reached in and pulled it out “thank you god, you imaginary piece of shit” he said looking back up at the sky.
Chapter 9
“Nope... nope... nope...” Lewis sighed with his head rested on his hand, “why doesn’t he have anyone useful, the stupid prick” he said scrolling down the contacts on the screen, from Ray to Reuben until he saw Ritchie, a short, skinny, ginger headed kid that they hung around with from time to time, not a lot because he spent most of his time making videos on the internet, they were quite popular across a lot of websites, he even got an offer to meet a very popular internet phenomenon and make a video with him, that was the reason he stopped hanging around with Lewis and the others. He pressed the dial button on Ritchie’s number, he waited and waited, but no answer “pick up you ignorant twat” he sighed, but he reached the voicemail, he hung up and slowly put the phone into his pocket, but before he could drop the phone it started ringing, the song ‘9 to 5’ sung by Dolly Parton started playing, “the gay Tosser” Lewis said to himself with a smile on his face, the phone read ‘Ritchie’ he quickly answered it before he missed it , “hello?” he said desperately, “Rob?” a high pitched voice replied, his voice was that distinctive he knew it was him, “no, it’s Lewis, where are you?, what’s going on?” he asked, “I’m at my house, Liam’s with me” Liam was a stocky kid, with light black hair that hung over his forehead, “well... the...vaccination.... wiped...” is all Lewis could hear of what Ritchie was saying, “hold on a sec..” Lewis interrupted him, “Will you shut the fuck up!?” he shouted down at the large group of zombified people groaning loudly, “ugh” he sighed, “Ritchie I need your help, I’m stuck up a tree surrounded by these... well... zombies if you will, the tree I’m up is at the bottom of the road leading up to the school, there’s hundreds of them come quickly!” Lewis hung up the phone, he couldn’t hear what Ritchie had said. He waited, and waited until all of a sudden he could hear a chain rattle, he looked up through the branches to see the main road, he saw Liam on a small black BMX bike, blowing a novelty whistle loudly, the ‘zombies’ all turned their attentions to him as he rode by, they all started leaving the tree and ran after him, from a corner another BMX came skidding past the near garden fence and riding it was Ritchie with his thin, black jacket and grey joggers, he jumped off the bike “get on quick” he shouted to Lewis watching the hundreds of ‘zombies’ chase after Liam, he jumped down and fell to his side, “ouch, you son of a....” but before he could finish from around the fence’s corner came Liam peddling for his life, waving his arm encouraging them to hurry up, Lewis stood up and got on the Ritchie’s bike and started peddling with Ritchie running behind, eventually jumping on the stunt pegs on the back tyre. Lewis peddled furiously, “Where are you going?” said Ritchie, “to Herbie’s” he replied, “why the hell are you taking us there for?” he asked looking back at Liam who was right behind, “that’s where the others are” he told him as he passed the toppled over bus, “other’s? You mean there’s more people” Ritchie asked excitedly, “well, Rob, Connor and Herbie?” he replied, Ritchie suddenly lost all excitement in his voice “oh, great” he sighed. They reached Herbie’s metal fencing, Lewis, Ritchie and Liam got off the bikes and Lewis threw the BMX over the fence into his garden, “watch it!” Ritchie shouted, “That cost money you know!” he continued, “Have you completely forgotten what has happened? I’ve just been in a tree for at least an hour and a half, and you’re worried about your bike? Liam would you hold me back because I’m afraid, that I might kill him” Ritchie dived through the torn hole in the fence, Liam then passed over his BMX to Ritchie, Lewis and Liam clambered through the hole, they banged on Herbie’s back door but there was no answer, so Lewis asked Liam to give him a lift into the kitchen window, as he jumped over the sink full of water, he landed on the floor and slipped on the smashed plates, “OW, bastard thing!” he murmured, he stood up and wiped himself down and had a look around, he saw that the front door was slightly open, he slowly walked down the small hallway, holding the railing of the stairs on the right. As he reached the end of the rail he slowly reached for the handle and closed the door, as he did so from the stairs came a pillow case and was forced down on top of his head, suddenly there was aloud scream of anger, and as Lewis was trapped under the pillow case, he felt a sudden blow to the stomach with a hard object and as he bent over to hold his stomach he was hit again on the back of the shoulder, he screamed in immense pain.
Chapter 10
“WAIT that’s Lewis you’re beating the shit out of!” shouted Ritchie from the kitchen, he ran over to Lewis and lifted the pillow case, Lewis was heavily coughing blood, he looked up to see Connor drop Herbie’s dads favourite steel baseball bat, Connor slowly lifted Lewis up underneath his arms only to be stopped by another spine tingling scream, “why the fuck did you do that for?” Ritchie asked Connor, “we’ll, I panicked didn’t I? I thought he was one of those, you shouldn’t come sneaking around houses at a time like this!” “we did knock” replied Ritchie, “what the hell’s going on down here” said Herbie at the top of the stairs, he was wiping a tear from his eye, “yeah, is someone going to explain why Lewis is on the floor coughing? and why he is bleeding from the mouth?” asked Liam as he walked into the overcrowded hallway, “basically, Connor beat the shit out of Lewis” Ritchie said crossing his arms as he looked at Lewis, “shit...” Lewis coughed, “I think you popped my shoulder out you stupid prick!” he yelped as he tried to lean against the rail to support him as he stood up, “well, just put it back in then?” said Connor, “Oh, yeah It’s that easy and pain free” said Lewis with a blank face, Then all of a sudden Connor punch Lewis as hard as he could in his bad shoulder, there was a loud clicking sound before Lewis erupted, “OUCH, you son of a bitch!!” “Better?” Connor said smugly, “yeah, but there was no need to be so rough u prick” Herbie invited the boys up into his room, “herbie what’s up with the tears, you want a tampon?” Liam joked, “dude, oh my god” Connor said quietly, “what? What did I do?” he asked with a puzzled look on his face following them up the stairs, “my mum” herbie said, “she’s gone” he continued wiping another dry tear from his eye, he pointed to his mums room, Liam, Lewis and Ritchie poked their heads around Herbie’s mothers door, there was a large pool of blood in the middle of the bed, with a trail of blood leading out of the room, “oh my god, Herbie I’m so, so sorry mate” said Liam as he put his hands on his head, “don’t worry mate you didn’t know” Herbie said falling flat out on to his double bed, “wait” said Lewis looking around the room, “where’s Rob?” he asked, “oh he lost to Connor at fifa football 2012 on the Xbox so he had to run down to the corner shop and bring back supplies, he’ll be back anytime now” reassured herbie. Ten minutes passes, The boys were all sat on Herbie’s bed skipping through all the channels, but all them were out. Night approached and Rob still hadn’t returned, “I’m bloody starving” Ritchie moaned, “yeah, we know, you’ve been bitching for the past hour” sighed Lewis, “well, where the hell is rob?, I thought you said he only went to the shop?” Ritchie complained, “dude, have you seen what’s out there? Those things are eating people? We don’t even know where our parents are or even if they’re alive, I think we should sort some sort of plan or rule list to keep ourselves safe, any ideas?” Lewis asked, the other boys just looked at each other as if to imply Lewis was talking in another language, Lewis sighed “I’ve seen plenty of zombie films to know enough about how to survive, basically, we need a safe house, transport and no stupid mistakes like going out on your own or without a weapon” the other boys watched him and listened carefully, nodding their heads, “firstly we need to find Rob, now I don’t recommend going now seeing as its pitch black outside, and that’s always a mistake, in all the zombie films, so I say we get some sleep and sort this out in the morning” He continued, “yeah, good idea” Herbie agreed, so Lewis, Connor and Ritchie slept downstairs on the sofa’s and Herbie and Liam slept in Herbie’s room.
Chapter 11
The morning sun rose, its bright yellow beam shone through the window, the sound of groans rang through the boys who were downstairs ears, they all immediately sat up and slowly peered out the window, to see a pale faced woman with straightened black hair drooping over her face groaning and slowly limping around the back garden, “shit” Connor sighed, “wait I have an idea” exploded Lewis, he ran quickly up the stairs, Connor and Ritchie swiftly followed, “OI, you lazy pricks wake up” Lewis shouted at Herbie and Liam, “what the fu..” Herbie muttered, “quick, look out your window” Lewis interrupted, all the boys went over to the window and stared down, “what am I supposed to be seeing then silly bollocks?” said herbie, “what do ‘ya mean what are you supposed to be seeing there’s one of those zombies stood right outsi...” he looked out the window but there was no sign of that woman anywhere, “she was right outside I swear” Lewis said scratching his chin, Then all of a sudden, there was a loud groaning noise, for the woman was stood directly behind the boys, they all turned around to see her about to pounce, she made a very high pitch squeal as she raised her arms ready to grab one of the boys, but all of the sudden the woman froze were she stood, even more drool started to trail down her chin as her head started to shake, she then fell to floor, stood directly behind her was.. Rob holding a stun gun in his right hand, his jaw was reaching the floor, he dropped the stun gun without moving any other muscles in his face or body, “ROB!” all the boys shouted ecstatically, rob didn’t move an inch, they all ran over to him and brought him to the bed, “dude, where’ve you been all night, and where did you get that stun gun from?” asked Lewis, Rob snapped out of the shock and quickly wiped his eyes, “we’ll as I got to the shop there was an army humvee, it drove past me I tried to hide, but there were armed soldiers on the top and inside who stopped me in my path, they all had foreign accents, they threw me into the back of the humvee, they asked me have I had contact with the infected and obviously I said no, but they took me on about a five minute drive to this massive patch of dry land, it was all fenced off, it was huge, there were thousands of people there, the outsides of the fence were surrounded with flashing police cards, I could see tons of the infected, they were in a separate fenced off area..” “so how did you get back here then?” Herbie interrupted, “I’m getting their” Rob continued leaning back against the bed’s backboard, “they took me and three other adults out of the humvee and threw us in a contamination room, where I was thoroughly inspected..” “wait wait, you were touched all over by some strangers in suits, dude that’s gay” Lewis giggled, “shut up ya dickhead” he said with frustration in his voice, “after they inspected us they threw us into the large fenced off area were there were hundreds of people, most crying and hugging each other, I searched for anyone I recognised but I had no luck, I was there for at least 6-7 hours, I was just sat in the corner of the area waiting for someone to pass by that I thought I could recognise but again, I had no luck, I eventually fell asleep but I was awoken by loud screams and sirens, the infected must have broken free from their own fenced of area, the first thing I saw was Everyone running and pushing trying to knock down the metal fencing as hundreds of the infected was chasing and eating them alive, So I ran around the edges of the fences, trying to find a way out and I reached the contamination chamber which was heavily on fire, I had to make a run for it so I ran as fast as I could through the raging flames, I barely made it out alive, but I managed to catch my breath but there were tons of the infected everywhere I was sure I was dead , but in the corner of my eye I saw an infected drag a policeman who was trying to start the police car, out of it, the policeman reached for his stun gun but the infected zombie dragged him across the floor whilst biting into his hand, which made him drop it, I made a run for the car, as I reached the door I picked it up and jumped into the car, and I have played enough driving games to know the basics of driving, so I drove back here and I just saved all your arses” he said with a smile and a cheeky wink.
Chapter 12
All the boys looked at Rob and admired his heroic adventure, but something came across Lewis’ mind, “wait you said you drove back here in a police car right? So how come we didn’t hear you pull up outside?” “aah, I parked it at the bottom of the road, I thought it would be safer that way as there were a few infected following me” Rob said with a smug facial expression, “well let’s get out of this dump, and go find somewhere safer with more people” Connor said as he got i to pack some up and headed down the stairs, he looked around shoving anything he could see into a stuff into a black backpack, “yeah he’s right we should get somewhere safer” Lewis agreed. So all the boys packed whatever they could find into their backpacks including Herbie’s dads baseball bats, helmets, knifes, unlike the rest of the boy’s Lewis kept his baseball bat in hand. Rob led the boy’s out down the narrow path behind the house’s, “it’s just down this hill guy’s” Rob pointed towards the corner shop, they boys approached the back of the corner shop, and as they looked down the hill in horror Lewis uttered the sentence whilst rubbing his forehead side to side “you left the fuckin’ hazard lights on, of course you did, I knew it was too good to be true” “you’ve just attracted a massive herd of those things with those fuckin’ lights, nice job Rob” Ritchie said sarcastically, “Relax guys, I got it all under control” Rob said calmly, he suddenly licked his lips and raised his two fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly which got the attention of every infectee’ within’ 20 feet of the police car, “ yoo’hoo, I’ve got some dinner for you” he taunted whilst grabbing Connors stomach fat, “Dude, not cool, not cool bro” Connor said slapping Robs hand away, but before they could turn around the horde of infected came sprinting furiously up the hill towards them, “quick you run around the shop and start the car and I’ll give em’ the slip” Rob taunted some more whilst lifting up his t-shirt to reveal his stomach “hey!, over here” the other boys hid around the shop whilst the infected followed Rob back up towards Herbie’s house, “now” whispered Lewis, they all ran down the shop’s steps and into the police car. Lewis got to the car first and jumped into the driver seat, Connor called “shotgun!” and jumped into the front passenger seat, Herbie, Liam and Ritchie all squashed into the back seat, and Lewis searched the front of the car for the keys, “where’s the key’s? Where the fuck’s the keys?!” Lewis grew frustrated, “shhh” Connor whispered as he pointed towards a stray group of five infected zombies in front of the car, all five boys slowly sank into their seats they held their breath as they watched and prayed that they would walk past, four of the five infected past, but one the last one which had long, dirty black hair and had a torn up white suit looked into the passenger’s seat, and seen Connor, “shit” Connor said with a sigh, suddenly the infected started groaning loudly and banging on the glass window, but as he got close to breaking it, Rob came diving through the sun roof and handed Lewis the car keys “looking for these?” he said with a cheeky grin. Lewis quickly put the keys in as the zombie broke through Connors window and grabbed his collar, he hit the acceleration pedal, but all the boys were suddenly launched forward as the gear stick was in reverse and they reversed back towards the large crowd that Rob had supposedly lost, Rob still stuck in the sun roof quickly changed the gear and shouted “Drive! Drive! Drive!” Lewis once again hit the acceleration pedal and the zombie that was holding onto Connor was flung underneath the car and was crushed by the weight of the car, the boys had gotten way by the skin of their teeth.
Chapter 13
Rob lowered himself into the back seat when they were a mile or two away from the horde, then Lewis stopped the car in a sudden jerk, “hey, what’re you doing?” Ritchie said as he dislodged himself from the overcrowded back seat, he was now sat on the edge of the seat, “where are we going? What’s our plan?”asked Lewis turning round to face the four boys in the back, there was pure silence as the boys just looked at each other with puzzled faces, “we need to find a new type of transport, I’ve had this cup holder up my arse for too long” Herbie replied whilst lifting himself up from the seat, “well, how about we just head for town centre, there’s plenty of supplies, shelter and there’s bound to be more people there?” said a confident Rob, “yeah, but there’s also a very high risk of it being over-run with the infected” Lewis responded, “well, did anyone pack their bag with food or drink?” asked Ritchie, after no-one responded Lewis sighed as he turned around and turned the keys, “looks like we’re going shopping”. On the drive towards town they we’re constantly passing the stray zombie, “how did it come to this?” sighed Connor, Lewis once again stopped the car with a sudden jerk hurtling the boys in the back forwards, “dude, you gotta’ stop doing that...” Liam moaned as he rubbed his neck, “how in the hell are you two not one of those?” Lewis interrupted, suspiciously pointing two fingers at both Liam and Ritchie, all eyes were now on Ritchie and Liam, both boys looked at each other, their eyes widened, but before they could answer a loud high pitched scream was heard from the distance, The boys all looked out separate directions trying to find out where the scream had came from, “what the hell was that?” Lewis asked poking his head out the side window, then another scream was heard from the bottom of the main road, they could see a crowd of people sprinting towards the boys, “I thought we lost them?” Ritchie said quickly changing the subject, “nahh” Lewis replied with confusion, “I don’t think it’s the same crowd, there’s only like 4 or 5 down there, and there was tons back by the Herbie’s” He continued, “Wait, I think their... girls and their near enough our age if not the same” Lewis said excitedly winking, as soon as he heard those words, Connor quickly threw himself up and stood on the top of his chair, and poked the top half of his body out the sun roof, he rapidly started waving his arms side to side, the girls approached the car and four girls approached the car, one blonde, one redhead, and two brunettes, and from the distance were a large crowd of the undead charging furiously towards them, the girls flung open the back doors and Connors door, and launched themselves screaming, on top of the boys who all looked at each other and raised their eyes and smiled at the current situation, “please ladies, one at a time” Herbie laughed, Lewis looked back in disgust, “lucky bastard’s” he pouted, and in anger forced his foot down on the pedal, but the car was to heavy so they it could only go 45mph at the most, Lewis drove at that speed straight down the main road heading straight for the large crowd of the undead still pouting and grumbling “lucky son’s of bitch’s..” he rammed straight through the large crowd of 15-16 undead and knocked them over like a bowling pins, he didn’t stop until he reached the end of the main road where once again jerked the car still, “Ouch!” shouted everyone in the back as they were launched forward, Lewis smiled to himself “OH, I’m sorry” he said sarcastically, “So, where did you come from?” Lewis asked as he turned around to see the girls sat uncomfortably on the boys”, the blonde who had long blonde hair with a few light pink highlights in a curled ponytail leading down her left shoulder said “well, we just got back from our cheerleading dance tournament...” “sweet, cheerleaders” Liam smiled while nodding his head up and down, “I’m sorry for him” Lewis continued “please, go on?” she looked back at Lewis, “well... as I was saying, we had just returned, and we was heading back for the school to get dropped off but we didn’t notice at the time but their was no-one around, but we approached the bottom of this road and there were a three people lead down in the middle of the road and they wouldn’t move so our dance tutor miss Andrews and the coach driver went to see if they could get them to move but as they approached they turned on them and grabbed them and started biting them in the necks, as we watched in horror the third person who was missing a large chunk of the back of his head and was groaning loudly, came banging on the coach window, so Michelle ran to the front and tried to drive the coach, but she reversed the it about 30 feet back and crashed in the side of another car, so we all ran outside and got split up and that’s how we found you” she continued “what’s going on? Where is everyone? And why are you driving a car?” she asked tilting her head to the side, “we’ll explain everything we know when we get there” Connor said, “get where?” the short haired brunette, with a straightened fringe asked, as Lewis turned around to start the car, he said “where going to town to find more people and shelter...”, But he couldn’t start the car so he interrupted himself, “ we gotta problem”.
Chapter 14
Lewis kept turning the key, but it just would not start, he leant forward and looked at the dashboard and he could see the ‘check engine’ light flashing, “shit” he sighed, “what’s wrong now?” asked herbie who was still sat on by a tall, curly haired redhead, “the cars fu..” he stopped himself from swearing because of the girls presence, “its broke down” he continued, “you said you was in a coach? Where did you crash it to?” the girls looked at each other, the blonde girl said breaking the silence, “I don’t know exactly but we could retrace our steps?” but the redhead jumped in, “what about those crazy people out there?” “ok rob, me, you and Connor will go first and check if It’s clear, and the rest of you follow behind were its safe” said a confident Ritchie, “dude don’t be a hero, it never ends well” Lewis whispered to him, “Dude have you seen these broad’s? Trust me nothing will go wrong” Ritchie said tapping Rob and Connor on the shoulders, “come on guys”. So Ritchie, Rob and Connor headed off down the path, all the girls except the blonde, pink highlighted haired girl got out and followed about 45 feet behind Connor, Lewis noticed her not moving just staring at her feet, “you coming?”he asked holding out his hand to her, she looked at him and grabbed his hand, “soo.. What’s your name?” he asked as he pulled her out the back door, “Lily” she said closing the door, “hi I’m Lewis” he said holding out his hand, “nice to meet you” she said smiling, “so what’s with the people biting people?” she asked nervously putting her hands in her shorts pocket, “well.. we think that the new vaccinations makes people extremely ill until they die, it then brings them back from the dead as one of those things, the only way we’ve been to successfully kill them... again is to destroy the head or brain, not the nicest of things to do but... well you’ve seen what they do”, “and where are your parents?” she asked, Lewis looked to the ground and sighed, “I... don’t know” he sighed with a heavy breath, “Hopefully not one of those ‘things’ out there”, “same here, maybe we’ll run into them” she said with hope, but Lewis knew it was very unlikely but he kept it to himself, “I think Liam likes your friend’s” Lewis said pointing towards Liam about thirty feet ahead in between the two brunettes, Lily giggled whilst biting her lip “yeah I think so too” Lewis smiled back at her. As Connor, Ritchie and Rob and the redheaded girl reached a small zigzagged path at the corner of the main road it lead straight through a large area of woodland, Lewis and Lily still talking followed behind, but they wasn’t within sight of them, “so you’re not from around here then?” he asked with his hands in his pockets, “nope, it’s just the dance finals were being held here” she said disappointedly, “I guess we’ll never know if we would of won”, “I’m sure you would of” Lewis reassured her, “oh and how do you know that?” she said smiling with her hands on her hips, “I can just tell” he said shyly, “yeah yeah” she giggled, suddenly there was there was a rustling in the bushes to the left of the narrow woodland path, Lewis stopped and whispered “don’t move, keep very still” the rustling was getting closer, then all of a sudden something came flying out of the bushes, Lewis quickly shielded Lily, wrapping his arms around her, “what are you two lover birds doing all the way back here then” Herbie shouted with a wink and a smile on his face, Lewis suddenly realising he still has hold of Lily he quickly let go and stepped away, “that wasn’t... we weren’t...” Lily smiled and blushed as her face went bright red “thanks anyway” she said as she continued walking, Herbie and Lewis waited for a few seconds, “Herbie u fucking idiot!” Herbie just laughed, “Sorry mate” he said putting his hand on Lewis’ shoulder, Lewis stormed off to catch up with Lily, “look, about that...” she interrupted him “don’t worry about it, it was sweet of you” she smiled. They continued walking down the path until they reached everyone else, they stopped at the end of the woodland path, they could see the coach about fifty feet up a grass banc, “why’ve you stopped” asked Lewis as he knelt down beside them, “come take a look” Connor said quietly, everyone slowly walked up to the top of the grass bank, they led down and looked over the top, and Lewis sighed “oh give us a break already”, the bright red light of the massive fire danced elegantly all over the blue and gold coach, “please tell me that wasn’t your coach” Lewis asked even though he already knew, he looked at the tall redhead and she sighed and nodded, “great, just great, wha’ do we do now?”, Liam got up and had a look around to see if there was any undead about, it was clear, so he got up and slowly walked up the grass banc towards the burning bus, “where are you going?” Ritchie asked viciously, “I’ll be right back, don’t worry I just want to find out what caused this” he reassured them, as Liam approached the bus on the other side of the road, sweat started to drip down his forehead due to the immense heat, he walked to the back of the bus he saw a Red mini crashed into the back of the coach, it was fully on fire, he approached it to take a look if the driver was still alive, he got to the door and could see a old man, still sat in the driver seat with a large cut going down the side of his face, coughing loudly due to the fumes, Liam covered his mouth with his t-shirt, “Hold on, were gonna...(cough) get you outta’ here” he shouted to him, the old man looked at him in shock, “quick get out of here, I’m not gonna... (Cough) make it, if the fire reaches... (Cough) the gas tank were both done for” but Liam didn’t listen, he ran back around the bus and shouted “quick guys there’s a man trapped in a car on fire!” the boys on the bank looked at each other, “Girls, you stay here we’ll be back in a minute, Ritchie, Herbie and Rob you stay here and look after them”, Lewis and Connor ran after Liam who was still stood behind the mini and the bus, Lewis and Connor got within 30 feet of Liam, when a massive explosion from the mini which set of a chain of explosions from the mini, the coach and a small blue car that was parked to th
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