They Walk

Chapter Eight

I resist him, my earlier ideas of leaving forgotten. He holds tight to me, and is almost dragging me out by my arm.

“Matt, stop. Are you crazy, where are we going?”

He stops just inside the door, and turns to me. His eyes are frantic and I know he must be terrified. He pulls me too him, and places his hands on my shoulders.

“Listen to me Maggie. My car is parked along the road.” He glances behind him, before turning back. “It’s close, but we have to go through those things out there.”

I’m shaking my head no before he even finishes. Is he out of his mind! The guys out there are stronger than us and they got killed. We’d never make it, its suicide.

“I know we can make it, I swear. We can’t stay here.”

“We can’t leave everyone else behind. It’s not right.” I say.

I look behind me at Maria, and see that she’s as white as a ghost. She catches my eyes, and shakes her head. She starts to back up, implying if we leave, she won’t follow. I haven’t even seen Claire since we came inside, and I pray she’s not out front. The rest of the kids outback are rushing in through the porch door, but I don’t see her amongst them. I can hear the yells of my peers as they struggle to fight those things.

“Claire was outback, we have to find her. I can’t just leave and what about my brother?” I try to pull him back into the foyer.

He holds me in place with his hands, and gets this sad look on his face. Raising one hand to my cheek, he shakes his head fiercely.

“I’m sorry Maggie,” He grabs my hand now and takes a step backwards. “I just can’t lose you.”

He immediately pulls me through the door. It feels like another world out here. There are screams of pain, surprise, and even action. The lawn even in the dark is already covered in blood, and I can’t turn my eyes from the horror of it all. Someone comes out of the house behind us, and bumps into me trying to go down the steps. I stumble into Matt and we get pushed into the yard faster than I would like. Whatever those things are, they’re fast. As soon as they bite into someone and kill them, they are immediately jumping right back up and are running for the next kill.

Matt doesn’t stop when we hit the lawn, but grips my hand and pulls me forward. He’s moving quickly and I try to keep up, but the chaos around me keeps drawing my attention. Everywhere I look someone is being killed, and then getting back up themselves. We dodge around a girl that has fallen with another girl biting into her stomach, and I hate that we don’t stop to help. As we are making it to the edge of the grass I hear a familiar voice. I turn to the right, and I see Gabe on the other side of the yard.

He’s hitting at Adam who is biting into a girl’s hip, and she’s yelling and trying to tear him off her. His hits don’t register though, and I can tell by the intensity of her screams that he only latches on tighter. Just as Gabe pulls him off her, I’m sighing in relief when something slams into Matt. I have just enough time to turn to see what it was, when they fall to the ground. From the strength of them falling, my hand slipped from his, and I stumble onto the ground on my side. It’s a guy our age, but half his throat is missing. As he snaps and growls at Matt, it comes out as a hiss. Rolling onto my back, I see the guy straddling him, and Matt’s trying to shove him off. It feels like time stops suddenly, but I know that’s not true. I have trouble focusing and all I can see is Matt, and I don’t know how to help him.

Before I can decide to get up, I feel a scratching on my ankle. Looking down at my feet, there is a young blond girl trying to crawl up my legs. She’s missing an arm, and one of her legs is bent at an unnatural angle. I know she’s one of those things now, from the way her mouth is silently snapping at me and her eyes aren’t even focused. It’s like she’s running on instinct, and right now, it’s to kill me. I shuffle backwards with a yelp, and kick out with my feet. It doesn’t shake her off though, her hand grips my calf and I can feel her nails through my jeans.

Pulling back one of my legs, I kick out at her face and she only stops for a second still gripping me. She pulls herself up my legs, and her head is now near my feet. As her mouth gets closer to me, I thrash my legs fiercely and scream for help. Knowing no one is coming for me, I try to roll onto my stomach, hoping for leverage to pull myself away. Just as I feel the pressure of her teeth into my sneakers, I hear a crunch and the weight of her is gone from my legs.

I flip back onto my back, expecting something worse than the girl.

It’s Gabe.

He had kicked her in the face, and she has fallen onto her back. Her nose is a bloody mess, but it only stunned her for a moment. She’s already trying to roll back to me, ignoring Gabe and focusing on the one on the ground in her reach. Gabe is faster than her though, and he kicks her again. When she falls back this time, he lifts he foot and smashes it into her face. When I hear her skull crunching under his foot, I look away. Now successfully rolling onto my stomach, I can pull myself to my feet. As I steady myself, something grabs my arm. I spin around with a yell, and try to pull myself free. I barley have a second to realize its Gabe, when he’s pulling me towards the house.

His hands are warm and slick with sweat.

I can feel the tightness in grip, and I know he’s just has frightened as I am.

My feet stumble along, and I look around for Matt praying he’s alright. I glance back to where we were, and see Matt, who is now leaning on Dan. He has blood on him, but I can’t tell from where I am how bad he’s hurt. Dan is swinging the fire poker at the guy that was attacking Matt, and knocks him to the ground. I almost stop and turn to go to them, but Gabe’s grip on my hand keeps me from moving away. I have to take my eyes off Matt, so I don’t trip and we’re dodging around fallen friends, and I can’t stop the tears as I see the state they are in.

Everywhere there are limbs missing from bodies, and then I see who they were once attached too. They are now chasing they’re friends and biting into them. There is so much blood on the ground that the grass is slick with it, and we have a hard time staying on our feet.

As Gabe finally reaches the porch steps, I see that the door is open and Brian and Claire are standing there. I’m surprised to see them holding knifes that are already dripping blood. I’m so relieved to see Claire that I can hardly catch my breath. Behind them, I see Maria who is dragging in an unconscious Austin inside. I can’t help feeling surprised and a little guilty. I should have made Matt stay to help and not tried to make a run for it. I don’t have time to think any further though, because some more of those things are running at us.

Gabe is suddenly swinging us around so that I face the steps, and he pushes at me.

“Go!” he yells in my face.

I stumble on them, but quickly rush up, not even glancing behind me. I can feel him close behind, and hope that it’s him and not something else. Reaching the deck, I throw myself toward the door, and only now do I look behind me. Dan has gotten to us and is lugging a limp Matt with him. He tosses the fire poker to Gabe, who has a blood soaked guy almost to him. He catches it in one hand with ease, and brings it around so that it snags the guy in the head. He knocked him to the ground, but he quickly brings the poker down so that it smashes into is face. The guy stills his movements and Gabe turns back around and looks right at me. I haven’t moved from my spot near the door, even though everyone is rushing inside. But I can’t take my eyes off of Gabe.

How can he be so unfathomable?

I’m so terrified I could just die, but he’s being so brave.

He looks away though, and it feels like a spell has been broken. I guiltily focus my attention to Matt, who is almost near me with Dan. I rush to them, and take some of his weight off of Dan.

I rest his arm on my shoulder, and help him inside.