Chapter 7
'Andria, run inside and tell everyone what's happening,' I told her, not tearing my eyes away from the army of dead approaching
'But-' she started
'Go!' I yelled and she jumped, 'and tell Daniel to get the generator loaded onto the ute.' As Andria ran inside Will and Nicole came out, 'what's happening?' Will asked, Wendy pointed as Will and Nicole turned and saw what was approaching
'Why are they coming here?' Nicole wondered aloud
'The gunshots,' I answered, 'they must have been close enough to here them before'
'But a whole hoard? Why didn't we see them earlier?' Wendy asked
'They must have been in the side roads, quite a few in each one, hidden by the houses,' Will surmised, 'when they heard the sound they moved to the main road.' As he finished his thought, Connor appeared, asking the same question, but I stopped him half way through, 'Connor, I need you to take Will and Monica and get the guns and supplies together,' I needed to take charge here or all we had just agreed on would be forgotten, 'Nicole, you and Daphne get any medicine and equipment together and meet them.'
I was stopped by Wendy grabbing my arm and pulling me around, I saw Steven half way down they hill, by now there were about twenty of the dead on this side of the hill, and once they saw, smelt or, felt, what was here they broke into a sprint. But Wendy had seen Steven begin to stumbled and as I turned I saw him fall and roll several feet before stopping, clutching a bleeding ar,. Connor and Nicole stepped forward to help, but I held out my arm to stop them, 'do what I told you we'll help Steven!' Me and Wendy ran to help, but I kept looking at the others until I was sure they weren't following. It took us longer than I'd like to run uphill to reach him, by the time we'd made it Wendy had to shoot the two closest deadmen before they grabbed hold. I pulled Steven up, his arm around my neck, I could see his injury, it wasn't too deep, but it must have stung.
I thought we were going to make it until I felt something wet and sticky on my shoulder, it was the hand of a deadman, most of the skin and flesh had been ripped away, leaving a disgusting, pale red mess remaining. I twisted and pulled away, almost falling myself, and saw a face that was much like the hand, I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to leave him in this state. He came at me again, and I knew I couldn't fight him off without dropping Steven, and Wendy was fighting a deadwomen who had gotten to close. Just as I was about to drop Steven, possibly leaving him to die, I heard a deafening gunshot, and searing pain across my cheek, and saw te deadman's head explode, I turned ignoring the pain and kept running for the station, vaguely aware of Brooke on top of the roof with the rifle.
...
While I was stumbling towards temporary safety, those already inside were in a state of panic. Will and Connor were in the storeroom, Monica had driven the Ute around and shattered the window, allowing them to pass everything to her. 'We're making the wrong decision,' Connor started
'What do you mean?' Will answered, to afraid to think properly
'We shouldn't be running, we have enough people, enough resources we can fight them back,' Connor moved closer and Will saw that he was just as afraid as he was
'They're not an army, they won't run away when they think they're beaten, they will keep coming until they are all dead, or we are,' strangely Will had become calmer while arguing
'You don't think we can win?'
'Not without losing someone, and if I'm being honest this building isn't worth it, there are too many small roads near it, and it not exactly built for this'
'I was... I am a policeman,' Connor walked away again, back to packing up the guns, 'this building is supposed to meaning something, it's meant to be safe.' Will walked up and put his hand on his shoulder, 'I'm sorry, we've all lost homes.'
Finally Wendy, Steven and I made it, and blasted through the doors, Wendy moving a desk in front of it after us. Nicole was there with a wheelchair, which I put Steven in, despite his protests of being fine. 'Is everything loaded up?' I asked, looking around
'The medical stuff is,' Daphne replied, smiling strangely, I think she was just happy to be helpful.
'This is the last box on our end,' Will said as a strangely quiet Connor passed Monica the box
'Where's Daniel?' I asked looking around, but before anyone said anything, Andria ran into the room, calling my name
'Todd!' she was out of breath, 'Daniel's got a problem with the generator.'
The others went back to work as Andria, Connor and I ran towards the generator room. The sound of the dead was getting louder as they approached the station, I knew we had little time to spare. When we reached Daniel I saw him struggling with the generator, surrounded by tools. I turned to Andria, 'Andria! I need you to go back and tell the others to leave'
'What about you?' she almost screamed
'We'll try and get the generator out of here, go!'
'Wait,' she yelled quickly, and placed something in my hand, 'its a police radio, I found it just before'-
'Go Andria!' I pushed her out the door and closed it.
Connor and I tried to help Daniel with the generator, but we were of little use, the generator had metal brackets that were fused the the floor. After five minutes we heard the glass break and new the dead were inside, over the radio Will told us the had all gotten away, some dead were following them but the majority were still at the station, and he also said that Wendy and Simon were still here, outside in Connor's car. I cursed quietly, somehow I felt the three of us weren't getting out of here, and I wished Wendy and Simon hadn't stayed behind, simply to watch us die. Another five minutes passed, the sound of the dead's footsteps got louder, and then quieter again, they were inside, but they hadn't caught our scent and had slowed their walk, until they found out we were hear, then the door would do little to stop them.
I looked down at my gun, it didn't feel like a game anymore, it felt terrifyingly, horrifyingly real. I knew there was one way out of it, one way to avoid a horrific, bloody death, and an even more horrific after-life, if it could be called that.
No.
We came this far, I was going to give up now, I would prefer to die and become one of them and know that we had done all we could to survive than to give up here and now. We would survive this, I knew it in my gut, with or without the generator we were going to get out of here. There was a thin glass window at the top of one of the walls, not enough to crawl through, but maybe the tools that were ineffective on the generator could be used to widen it. I reached out to pull Daniel away and explain, but my mouth snapped closed and i jumped back as the window was smashed open, and bloody hands reached in.
