Part 10 (1/2)

Or the people around them?

The people had left Old Bill on the ground. They'd left his head there, his teeth snapping, and his eyes wandering.

Andrew had walked up to him. He'd looked down into his eyes. He'd seen and felt that connection all over again. And for the first time, Andrew felt sad. But it was Old Bill's sadness. Old Bill's pain.

He wanted to stay by his side.

He wanted to at least put Old Bill out of his misery.

But he didn't have a choice, so on he'd walked.

And here he was, still walking right now.

He saw movement up ahead then. At first, Andrew wasn't sure what it was. His eyes didn't focus as well nowadays. A vehicle? People? Or...

As he staggered closer, Andrew felt what nerves he had left tingling and building up inside.

He felt total tension at what he was looking at.

The movement had stopped. In fact, it might not have been moving at all. Just looked like it because of the sheer number.

But now that Andrew was close, he could have no doubts about what he was looking at.

He drifted towards them, inside the crowd of undead. No, not a crowd. Crowd was underplaying what this was.

This was an army.

He stepped through people of all genders, all races, all ages. He looked into the eyes of some of them, and they looked back at him. And step by step, Andrew felt that connection. He felt that sense that he was with his kind. That no matter what the monster controlling their body was going to force them to do, they were all in this together.

He stood still for hours. Days, even, as more like him were drawn towards this force of nature like a magnet.

He stood still, totally content, totally at peace, surrounded by... friends.

And then, on the fifth day, Andrew started to walk.

So too did the army around him.

They were going somewhere.

And wherever they were going, one thing was for certain.

There was going to be death.

Amy looked towards the army of undead in the distance, and she swallowed a lump in her throat.

”Batten down the hatches,” she said. ”They're here.”

Chapter One.

Riley looked at the sea of undead standing between his position and Mattius' camp and he wasn't sure what to do.

The morning sun was low, illuminating the undead horde right before him. He knew they were looking in his and Kane's direction, some of them even heading towards them now. He knew the wise thing to do would be to run. To get the h.e.l.l away from here.

But Mattius.

Mattius had Kesha.

He had to get his revenge.

He had to- ”Riley!”

Kane's shout snapped Riley out of his trance. He looked at Kane and the sounds of the groans, the building rumble of the footsteps, the taste of death in the air, all of it came together in a sudden bolt of energy and force.

”We have to get away from here,” Kane said. ”We can't stand around here and let ourselves get torn to pieces.”

”What do you care what happens to me?”

”I care what happens to myself. Besides. I have much bigger plans for you. Now come on.”

Kane started running towards the trees, but Riley turned around again and faced the undead storming towards him, the cuffs still around his wrists. He saw their faces, but not as they were. He saw Jordanna's face on one. Chlo's face on another. He saw Anna's face. Claudia's face. Ted's face.

He saw Tamara. James. Everyone. All the people he'd lost walking towards him, preparing to tear him open.

Then he saw the faces of the people back at Amy's camp, and as much as he wanted to fight through this horde of undead, he knew he couldn't just stay around here.

He wanted to get to Mattius-to get to Kesha-but trying to do that right now was suicide.

The creatures got within ten metres of him.

Some stumbled ahead of others.

Within seconds, they'd be on to him.

”Riley!” Kane shouted.

Riley turned around just as the over-extended arm of a woman in her mid-twenties made a lunge for him.

He turned around, away from Mattius' camp, away from everything he'd been looking for this whole month.

And he ran into the woods.

The more he ran, the more it felt like he was being chased. Sure, he and Kane could outrun the undead. But the sheer numbers of them made this run feel like he was sprinting down one of those corridors in a nightmare where it just keeps on growing in front of you.

If they b.u.mped into anything ahead of them, they'd be f.u.c.ked.