There was something about her that could not be explained. The dog loved her from day one. Jackson got his furry neck snapped back as he uncontrollably urged for the strange girl. "Aw!" Alice squeaked as Jackson barked frantically while Marcus reeled him in. Alice soothed the pup and scratched his head. Jackson stopped barking, he loved it. The first thing Alice couldn’t help but think upon meeting Marcus was what a dashing man he was… As far as first impressions go; she had trouble looking at him directly in the eye, and blushed when he smiled at her.
Samuel ran over to Alice. She was smiling and crying all at the same time and looked at him, waiting to say hello. Samuel did not look her in the eye. Instead he examined her from head to toe. “Are you bit? Are you hurt at all?”
“Nope,” she squeaked in giddy excitement, “I’m the last living human in this lovely capetown.”
“Your…accent…”
“Oh! Roight! I’m British. Weird, huh? You’re probably thinking… How did this brit get all the way to Jersey? I’ll tell-”
“Who’s this?” Atticus interrupted.
“Hi! I’m Alice. Plesha!”
The rest of the group surrounded Alice and she laughed. She was nervous and excited. Alice went from feeling like the last person in the world to the new girl in town. She remembered what it felt like to be special, a feeling she had lost with her fiance. Everyone introduced themselves to her.
Quinn loved Alice's curly brown hair, having straight hair herself. Rebecca acted like a mom and a doctor as she immediately felt Alice’s forehead for a temperature. She was very careful with her behavior after the bridge incident. Rebecca felt terrible about Corey’s death, taking responsibility for his sacrifice and blaming it on her causing conflict within the group.
Chambers looked like an ‘80’s hairband guitar player and scared her a little when he strung his bow with an arrow and shot it right at her, just narrowly missing her face and colliding with the head of a zombie leading a full-on charge at them. . .
“RUN!”
The zombies from in front of the hotel had heard all the gunshots at the cemetery and made their way around the town to the road before the hill. There were so many of them. Samuel turned to Atticus. “We don’t have enough ammo!”
“What do we do!?” yelled one of the girls.
“RUN!” Chambers screamed again as he got in between the horde and the survivors.
The dog took off from Alice’s side and she didn’t start running with the rest of them, instead she just stood there, yelling, “HERE BOY! COME BACK! NO!”
Marcus grabbed Alice’s hand and told her quickly, “Don’t worry, he always comes back. Right now
he’s the safest out of all of us.”
Alice was already taken by Marcus and unbeknownst to him she would have most likely done whatever he said anyway. Atticus and Samuel led the front of the group with Rebecca close in-toe.
The zombies were slow but not as a horde. They seemed to gather energy from each other and in masses were often unstoppable. Outrunning them now was not an option; they needed a shelter or means of escape.
“Alice! Where did she come from!?” …Yelled out Samuel from the front.
“Is he talking to me?” Alice asked Marcus, all in the rush of running.
“She must have been held up somewhere, right!?” Samuel went on when he got no answer from Atticus, who was a little preoccupied putting down a couple zombies trying to flank them on the right.
“I think they are,” Marcus answered Alice, “Is it nearby…your hideout?”
“The Cape May Inn! I closed the door when I left. It should be-”
“Tell them!” Marcus interrupted.
“It’s the Cape May Inn!” Alice tried to yell with her polite British accent.
Marcus amplified with his own shout, “CAPE MAY INN!”
Samuel and Atticus looked back at them, “WHERE?”
“Down the market, and up to the left, right before the boardwalk!”
“…DOWN THE MARKET!” Marcus yelled, “…TO THE LEFT…”
Marcus gave up trying to scream it all, “Can you run?”
“Whot?”
“I mean…are you tired…can you run faster?”
“Why? Are you…”
“We need to lead them there; we should lead them…right?”
Alice was confused and scared, but not tired, “…Roight…Yes!” They sprinted while still holding hands and together passed Tyrell and Jill, and Quinn. Alice was almost having fun. They got to Samuel and Atticus, with Rebecca now slightly in front of both of them.
“She can show you!” Marcus let go of Alice’s hand, and she ran up to Rebecca who was turning a corner. “No, it’s this way!” Alice grabbed her shoulders and they both ran across the street to an unseen path. It looked like a town-block too small to be a road. It was the marketplace. And it served as a funnel for the horde following them.
The brainless undead had a lot of trouble in the marketplace, comically tripping over all of the benches, tables, and chairs from outdoor dining restaurants. This gave the survivors some much needed time and space as they left the market and crossed the street. The last block before the beach and boardwalk was sparse with zombies.
Alice showed them down the alleyway to the back door. Before they got to it, Alice climbed up the fire-escape, into a window that was slightly propped open, and inside, letting the window close and lock behind her. When the rest of the group got to the back door it was locked. Everyone caught up to each other and took time to catch their breath.
“What are we gonna do now?” Jill panicked.
The zombies turned the corner down the alleyway.
“NO!”
Chambers pounded one last time on the door before walking away from it and Marcus. The girls backed away as he stepped forward with Marcus, Samuel, and Atticus, all wielding their melee weapons. Chambers clipped his bow onto his quiver and unsheathed his machete. Marcus threw one up against the wall and stuck a flat-head screwdriver up into its cranium. Atticus used his tactical knife to put the zombies down that Samuel knocked over with his shotgun.
Marcus let the girls bang on the door while he stood between them and the fight. Too occupied to help it, one slipped by... Marcus held the fire ax tight. The axe closed in on the grotesque face and implanted into the wall. The fire ax wouldn't come free, as the strike was too high, and the zombie was starting to wiggle free, its bottom teeth still biting for Marcus who was unwilling to leave the ax behind.
Their feet got tangled and Marcus fell back with it on top of him. He freaked out with it squirming above him, blood pouring out everywhere. Marcus broke free and moved back only to find it nipping at the girls' legs. Mustering what strength he has left, Marcus pulled the carnivorous corpse by the pants back towards him.
It's a good thing zombies are not picky, because it came right back for him.
With one hand keeping its head above him by a firm grasp of the neck, his other hand frantically searches for his screwdriver. His fingers wrap around the screwdriver caught in a tear of his jeans. It slowly shakes free, sliding out from his belt. Unable to focus it slips through his fingers and rolls away on the floor towards the feet of another approaching zombie.
No comments:
Post a Comment