Chapter 4

“You give up easily” a zombie comments. Wait. Since when do zombies talk? I open my eyes and for the first time in ten days I see humans that are actually alive. No rotten, decaying skin. No lifeless white eyes. No bone or muscle poking through the skin. Just fully intact, very much alive humans.

I stare at them. I think they might be the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen but that could just be because the only faces I’ve seen lately have been half decayed.

I walk over to zombie number two (who is now decapitated) and yank my knife out of its shoulder.

“Aren’t you going to thank the gorgeous people who just saved your life?” The woman suddenly asks.

“Where’d you get the machetes?” I ask instead. They both raise their eyebrows.

“Why?” The man with floppy, curly brown hair asks. I look at him.

“Why do you think?”

Neither of them say anything. They just look at each other before turning away from me and starting to whisper together.

I cross my arms and sigh. What are they doing? I just asked where they had got their weapons from, there was hardly any need for a discussion.

“Um, hello?” They keep whispering.

“If you could just tell me where you got the machetes that would be great thanks” No answer. I let out another frustrated sigh. Fine. Be like that. I guess I’ll just have to live without a machete. It’s not like my knife is terrible. It does it’s job. Not dying would just be a lot easier if I didn’t have to get up close and personal with the zombies every time I needed to kill one. At least with a machete there’s some distance between the two of us.

I wipe the zombie blood from my knife onto my leggings, hitch my backpack higher up my back and start to walk away.

I get ten meters away from the petrol station before a voice calls out after me.

“Hey! Wait! Comeback!”

I turn around to see the two people from the petrol station running after me, wildly waving their arms in the air.

“What?” I ask slightly annoyed.

“We have an offer you can’t refuse!” Brown haired guy exclaims. This guy definitely worked in a car dealership Pre Apocalypse.

“I’m not interested” I turn back around and start walking again. I need to find a place to sleep. Preferably before it gets dark.

“But you don’t even know what it is!”

I turn back to face them again. “Fine. What is it?”

”We have a warehouse. It’s full of food and water and spare clothes. You can stay there as long as you want. There’s a whole group of us there” This sounds too good to be true. Which means it probably is.

I narrow my eyes at them “What’s the catch?”

”There is no catch” Brown, floppy hair says, eyes wide. No way there’s no catch.

“Why would I go anywhere with you? I don’t even know your names” I say instead.

“Oh Right!” Says Brown Hair “I’m Theo!”

”Sybil” The woman introduces herself.

“Well then Theo and Sybil, how do I know you’re not just luring me in with a promise of food and shelter only to murder me for my supplies?”

Sybil smirks “We have machetes and a car. I don’t think we need to murder you for your tinned food and kitchen knife”

I look behind her and sure enough there was a black jeep parked down the road. She has a point. I think it over for a few moments. Providing that they’re telling the truth being able to get a proper nights sleep without starting awake at the slightest of sounds would be nice. So would some clean clothes. Also the whole safety in numbers thing. Besides even if they do murder me its not like I was going to survive much longer by muself anyway.

“Ok I’ll go with you”

Theo smiles “Yay! Let’s go!”

”You didn’t take much convincing” Sybil comments

I shrug “I figured I’m dead either way”

”Fair enough”

We all start walking towards the parked car. “You never told us your name” Theo suddenly says.

“Erin” I respond.

The rest of the walk was silent and kinda awkward.

Theo and Sybil get into the front seat so I hop into the back.

The second I close the car door behind me Sybil steps on the accelerator and I’m thrown off my seat.

“Oof” I glare at her “You couldn’t have waited two seconds until I had put on my seatbelt?”

Sybil shrugs “Oops. Sorry” she doesn’t sound very sorry and the smirk on her face doesn’t help.

I pick myself up off the floor and quickly put on my seatbelt before I can be thrown off my seat again.

The car is silent for a few minutes and I stare out the window, watching the fields blur past the car.

Suddenly loud country music blares over the speakers, startling me. I whip my head back to the front just in time to see Theo practically throw himself at the car radio to turn down the volume.

You and Sybil glare at him while he smiles sheepishly.

”Well done” Sybil says dryly “Not only did you just make our eardrums bleed you also just alerted every zombie within the 10 mile radius of our whereabouts”

Theo scoffs “As if the car engine hasn’t done that already”

”You seriously listen to country music?” I ask incredulously.

Theo blinks “...it’s soothing”

I just stare at him. I’m seriously beginning to regret coming with these guys. Who the **** listens to country music and actually enjoys it?.

Sybil tolerates the country music for all of thirty seconds before turning off the radio. Theo pouts and the car is silent again.

I turn back to the window just in time to see a figure crouched in a ditch. Huh, this is the third uninfected person I’ve seen today. Actually, they kinda look like Jenna. Wait...

”STOP! STOP THE CAR!”

Sybil slams on the break sending all of us flying forwards.

“What the fu-“

I’m already out of the car running back down the road to Jenna. Behind me, I hear Theo and Sybil getting out of the car too.

”Jenna!” I shout as I run towards her. She looks up. The dark rings under her eyes make it seem like she hasn’t slept in a long time. She probably hasn’t.

Jenna stares at me blankly for a second before recognition lights up in her eyes.

“Erin! Oh my God!” She staggers to her feet and rushes towards me. Once we reach each other we wrap our arms around each other in a tight hug.

I bury my face into her shoulder and feel tears start to sting my eyes.

“I can’t believe it’s really you. I thought- I thought you were-“ I can’t finish the sentence.

“I know. I know. So did I”

We stand like that for a long time. Hugging and crying until Jenna finally notices Theo and Sybil standing awkwardly behind us.

She breaks the hug, suddenly on edge.

“Oh my God it’s you!” Theo exclaims.

I blink “You guys know each other?”

”Yeah. These are the weirdos who tried to force me to go to their ‘shelter’ with them”

”Whoa Whoa Whoa, that’s not what happened”

”Yeah! We didn’t try to force you!”

”We saved you from being bitten by zombies-your welcome by the way- and when we offered to let you stay in our zombie free sanctuary you kicked me in the shin-ow by the way- and ran”

I burst out laughing. Sybil glares at me “Hey! It’s not funny! I have a bruise!”

”It kinda is though”

Jenna grabs my arm and pulls me away.

“You’re not seriously going with them are you?”

”Yeah I am. Why?”

”You don’t know who they are! They could be serial killers or something!”

”What if they aren’t? If they wanted us dead they would have just left us to the zombies”

”What if they saved us to gain our trust so they could kill us themselves?”

”I’d rather take my chances with the potential serial killers than spend another day in this hellhole where I’m probably going to die anyways”

Jenna stares at me.

”Are you coming with me or are you staying here?”

Jenna sighs “Well I can hardly just let you go off with potential serial killers alone now can I?”