14 Chapter 14

This was how I was going to die.

I felt the dread settle in my stomach as the infected closed in. I began to pray as I kept swinging, trying to reduce their numbers but more were closing in. My muscles burned from exhaustion but I didn't stop swinging. I didn't want to die. I could hear someone calling my name under the moaning as I swung at another infected, small ragged gasps escaping my throat.

Then as suddenly as they had cornered me, they began to retreat. My heart was racing wildly and my shirt was soaked with sweat. I held out my weapon as they stumbled away from me, some of them heading out the door.

"Enny!"

I took out another infected that lunged at me before I saw who was calling me. Ezra. He was making his way towards me... through the infected, unarmed and unharmed. I let out a harsh breath as they shrunk away from him, making clicking noises. My mouth was slightly open when he got to me. He took the trench hawk from me and wrapped his hand around me. I dug my heels into the ground as he tried to guide me towards the door, through the rest of the infected that were still in the house.

"It's okay, it's okay," he said, wrapping his arms tighter around me.

I still didn't want to go through them. I don't know how he did but I'm pretty sure I don't have the same privilege he has. I stood firm when he tried to move me again while staring at the infected. Their unblinking eyes stared back at us... or me.

"Enny!" he shook me and I looked up at him. "Trust me."

I glanced at the infected and swallowed before solemnly nodding at him. I didn't resist when he moved me again. I tightened my arms around him and held my breath as they followed us with their eyes. They didn't come close, they wanted to get away from us instead, but it was still horrifying.

The front door wasn't far, but the courage and effort it took to walk towards it, it could have been the Pan-American Highway. I kept counting our steps as I waited for them to inevitably attack us. They didn't. By the time we got to the door, I could finally breathe. I felt drained and I wanted to collapse onto the ground.

A wave of panic swept through me when I saw that the car was no longer in front of the house. There were a couple of bodies lying motionless on the ground, but thankfully, I didn't recognize any of them. Ezra's bat lay broken next to a body beside the door. I didn't know if it was a man or a woman because the individual's head had been smashed to a pulp. Infected filled the street, shuffling towards the car a couple of houses away from us.

I could make out Zeke, Clareta and Cassandra standing beside the car as we approached it. They were defending the car and themselves from the infected. The driver's door opened and Cassandra slammed it shut, yelling something at the person in the driver's seat.

We were a couple of feet from the car when a distressed cry came from behind and my head snapped back to see who it was. Someone was on their knees by the door of the house we just left. She wasn't being attacked by infected. She let out another cry and I realized she was beside the body whose head was smashed.

Ezra had been looking back too and the moment her head darted up, he turned my head forward and rushes us to the car.

"Enny!" Alison exclaimed when I clambered in, her eyes were red and she was holding Jack's collar to keep him from running outside.

Daniel had turned around in his seat and was silently assessing me. I gave him a nod and a small smile when he raised a brow at me. He scowled at Faye who was in the third row and she averted her gaze from him. He turned in the seat and after everyone got in, the vehicle lurched forward.

Zeke was in the passenger seat, Ezra, Clareta and Cass were in the second row while Faye, Hae In, Alison and I were in the third row. It took a while before Belmont disappeared behind us and I finally relaxed. I was trying to get comfortable in the seat when Hae In leaned close to me and began to whisper.

"What happened?"

I didn't feel like talking as the fact that everyone was here except for Roshni, her mum and Debbie began to settle in. I shrugged in response.

"Faye said you were dead," Alison blurted out and my mouth fell open.

"I –"

"That's not what I said!"

"Fuck you!" came Daniel's voice from the front, the same time Zeke said, "You're a fucking bitch!"

"That's not –"

A thud came from above and everyone fell quiet and immediately looked up. A yelp escaped from Alison and my heart jumped as a loud bang followed and a dent appeared in the car ceiling. A shriek blasted from above followed by more bangs and everyone snapped out of their daze.

"What the hell is that?!"

"Lock the doors!"

"Daniel, get rid of it!"

Alison covered her ears with her hands as everyone started talking over each other and crawled into my lap. My heart was throbbing in my ears, loud and irregular, but I barely heard it, for my mind was clouded with fear.

The car sped up, which resulted in Alison being sandwiched between me and the back of the second row seat. I could see the familiar stretch of road where we had been shot at earlier today.

The car swerved to the side as a fist came down on the windscreen, cracking it and Jack began to bark. Another hit and the crack accelerates, branching like a drunk spider's web and the car spins out before coming to an abrupt halt.

I was thrown against the seat, my head hitting the headrest hard. I had no idea how Daniel managed to keep the car on the road. I shook my head which was a bad idea since it was already pounding. I looked out to see the girl that had been kneeling by the body in front of the house. She raised her fist to smash the window when a whip-cracking sound fills the air. The top of the girl's head explodes in a mist of blood and brain matter.

She fell to the ground and I turned around to see who had shot her. The infected lady stood a couple of feet behind our vehicle with a shotgun in her hand.

How the hell did she get here?

She smiled at me and waved.

"Is that the infected you were talking about?" Alison asked.

"Yeah," I muttered and hesitantly waved back seeing as she'd just helped us out.

She kept waving for a couple of seconds before she ran off. I turned back and Cassandra slumped in her seat.

"Okay," she let out a harsh breath. "What was that?"