Z-Day Series: Book 1 First Burnz Page 7

Chapter 6

  The figure was getting closer. It seemed to be... No, it couldn’t be... Was that my cousin?

  My cousin was called Sophie, and she had come to London with her mum and dad, my aunty and uncle, because her dad had a new job. We had been the best of friends, but we never got to see each other, since, you know, if the journey takes four hours with no traffic, how long does it take with traffic? Ages!

  “Sophie!” I called. “Sophie, is that you?”

  The figure’s head turned sharply to face us, before running in leaps and bounds to get to the park; that was Sophie alright. Short, dark, hair, and cheerful blue eyes. She carried a pair of nunchucks, one in each hand, and one side of each one was covered in spikes! She also had a belt of silver grenades going over one shoulder, as silver was quite effective against the living dead, apparently. Even our bullets were silver! Honestly, were we fighting werewolves?

  Sophie hugged me, before asking after the names of my crew, and fondling Molly, as she always had a soft spot for that dog. She was delighted to meet everyone, even asking if she could come with us! Well, Courtney said yes, as we had one seat left in the Jeep, so off we went!

  As we drove to a small newsagents, our newly chosen base for that night, and maybe more nights to come, I asked Sophie about how she had been.

  “Well, to be honest, quite good. A lot of the people around here were all predicting when it would happen, and, well, you know, it did. But the strange thing is, none of them seemed prepared for it. Must’ve thought it was all talk and that, but anyway, as for me, I took some of the weapons they had secretly, and illegally, stockpiled, and went it alone, as those cowards didn’t even last a day.”

  “What about your parents?” Daniella asked.

  “Well, I tried to convince them to move, but they wouldn’t. My mum just wouldn’t move, she was saying all this stuff about it being alright in a few days, but I couldn’t just stay there. I went around for a couple days, found myself a base, then went back to get them. But by then... Well... You know what happens... When they wait for too long...”

  Sophie then broke off, choking on her tears, while Daniella hugged her and told her it’d be ok. Trust Daniella to be concerned about an almost complete stranger! I was quite sad, hearing about all of these deaths, because, when it’s some random person on the street, you don’t really care, they’re just people who couldn’t survive well enough, survival of the fittest and all that stuff.

  But when it’s family, it’s different. You don’t care how ill your mum is, how annoying your little sister is, you just want them to be safe. And when they’re not, and you can’t do anything, you just feel... Powerless. Like it’s your fault that you can’t save them, but it’s usually not. This causes a lot of depression, but some people can get over it. Others? Well, let’s just say I’ve seen some people at the Libraries who aren’t ever going to stop crying and mourning for their lost ones, right up to the day they die. And you don’t want to go that way.

  When we arrived at our chosen destination, I started barricading the front door, back door and windows, while Courtney looted the shop and made us a sort of lunch. Teegan cleared a space for us to sit down in, and Daniella comforted Sophie, who was still a little teary eyed.

  Lunch wasn’t as quiet as it usually was, since we were all talking/reading (Me, of course), whilst eating our tinned carrots and beans with some bread and apple juice (Yes, that’s our idea of a varied diet. Deal with it.).

  Afterwards, we all started practising with our weapons, but all of the guns had silencers on them, thanks to London Library, so that we didn’t attract any attention, and Sophie did not use her grenades!

  I had missed Sophie, when she left, but never did I even dream about meeting her like this! But, to be honest, she was quite good with her nunchucks. The sacks, which we were using as fake enemies, were very quickly broken, so Courtney and I had the idea to copy Hannah, and go outside, kill some actual Zombies, then bring them in as targets.

  This worked a lot better, as we worked on how to attack actual Zombies. But we had a problem, which had been brewing over the past few days but hadn’t really been talked about; Teegan didn’t have any weapons.

  Courtney then surprised us all, saying that it was Teegan’s birthday! A birthday! In the middle of a Z-Day! Unbelievable, but true. She then surprised us even further, by bringing out two Machetes! And a pistol! She said she’d been thinking about the ‘no weapons’ problem, and decided to get Teegan weapons for her birthday!

  She must’ve known Teegan well, as Teegan wielded the Machetes easily, decapitating the already dead Zombie! As I’ve told you before, even a knife has trouble getting through Zombie skin, so the Machetes must have been sharp, and Teegan talented.

  The dogs had also joined in this practice, jumping at the dead Zombies in glee, pouncing at an enemy that couldn’t attack them, and, for the first time, we saw them develop a hunting pattern.

  Lacy, the British Bulldog, would run to the legs of the Zombie, and try to get it on the ground, or at least close to it. Then, Buddy would take over, jumping onto the body to make sure it definitely didn’t move. From then on, either Molly made the bite to head, or she took over Buddy’s position while he did it.

  There was one other, and that was when Lacy couldn’t get the Zombie to the ground. Then, Lacy and Buddy would keep the Zombie still, as Molly leapt up and bit at the head, usually the front as well, near the eyes. Well, they weren’t called Springer Spaniels for nothing.

  But we also noticed something about Buddy and Molly. They seemed... Close. Not just friendly. However, we dismissed it, having more important things to think about. Such as getting to bed!

  Believe it or not, we weren’t really tired, but, one by one, dropped off to the ‘land of nod’, as Daniella put it. I think Courtney was the last one to sleep, and the dogs the first, but I wouldn’t know, as I went to sleep quite quickly.

  In the morning, we were woken by the usual barks, yaps and short howls, which meant that the dogs were hungry. Luckily, so were we, and we all had breakfast together.

  Looking back on it, I’m surprised that the dogs didn’t just get something off the shelves, like, y’know, normal dogs do. But they seemed to want to rely on us, not have to scrounge off the shelves. Maybe the dogs were cleverer than anybody thought.

  Clever dogs aside, we went to the park again, where the dogs all acted naturally, and we shot some Zombies who came a bit close. Teegan practised with her Machete, and seemed to have a natural talent for it, like Daniella with her knives, and unlike me, as I just had a love for my guns, and Courtney, who... Well, who knows why Courtney picked AK47s?

  After the park, we went to the Library, to fill up on ammo and some food, as well as new trainers for Sophie, who had gone for a long time with battered ones. But when you’re on the run from Zombies, you need shoes that aren’t going to fall apart.

  Her new trainers were navy blue, with black laces, but we didn’t rush off straight after getting them, as we liked to spend time in the Libraries. I helped out where I could, not wanting to be a burden, like some survivors, who lazed around doing nothing. The only reason we moved on was because we wanted to be independent, and not have to rely fully on any one resource.

  Upon exiting the Library, hoping to end off a peaceful day with a peaceful evening, we had our wishes shattered, as a strange, but deadly, looking mob of figures seemed to block out the horizon... And they weren’t humans.