Zombies

Written for:

"The Writer's Cramp"  13+: Write the best story or poem in 24 hours or less and win 10K GPs!

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Kristy ran with the others, a group of them. Several months before they were all strangers to each other, but now they were friends. It was day time now, but at night the creatures came out, seeking the scent of fresh flesh. The group of seven friends would flee in the morning, hopefully finding a place to rest by noon, before they had to fight for their lives when the creatures reached them. Some nights they didn’t have to fight, sometimes they would find a perfect place to hide for several days, finally relaxing before there were signs of the creatures.

“The zombies were right on our tales last night. I could hear them, the noises, those horrible gurgling noises they made, I could hear them.” Kristy’s best friend in the group, Taylor said around her ragged breathing. When the group moved, they ran, trying to put as much distance between them and the creatures. Kristy puffed and panted her response, trying to sound brave, trying to let her friend know that they would be alright.

Zack stopped suddenly, causing Chris and David to run right into him, there was a quick scuffle as all three got detangled from each other on the ground. Trying to catch his breath he pointed a little farther down the road to an old red wooden barn house. The group nodded and they changed their course across the field towards the barn.

Finally the group were settled. Kristy settled down to sleep, she wasn’t on the first watch, those honors went to Barbara and Luke. She fell asleep almost immediately; the exhaustion of running each day always wore her down. She listened to David’s soft snoring and drifted to sleep.

“Kristy, hey Kristy…” she was being shaken awake by Luke. “Your watch honey.” Kristy groaned and sat up rubbing her eyes, mumbling that she was awake. She could hear Chris telling Barbara to go away as she tried to wake him. Kristy leant over and drove him in the ribs.

“Up. Get up. Come on. Our turn.” He groaned and slowly sat up. Kristy moved to plonk herself to the entrance of the loft, looking down the ladder at the ground, she sighed as she watched the sun sinking slowly, the sky turning pink. Chris sat down beside her and looked out the door.

“I hope we get to sleep through the night.” Kristy nodded agreeing with him. They sat there for three hours, almost in silence, talking about what the world used to be like while they sharpened sticks and bits of wood with knives, making make-shift arrows. Chris was the first one to see them, he kicked the ladder down and pulled Kristy down into the hay, cursing. “They’re here. Go wake the others.” She nodded and crawled over to the rest of the group who were sleeping.

“They’ve found us.”  She whispered as she woke them. Taylor looked as though she was going to cry. “We’ll be alright.” She said as she hugged her friend. The noises became clear, hundreds of feet being dragged across the ground. The friends all huddled together at the edge of the loft, watching the horde of creatures moving closer. Several of the creatures veered off the path towards the barn, causing others to follow them.

They walked stiffly like in all the old zombie movies. Creatures that defied the laws of nature in the way they lived and moved around. The first of them entered the barn. David shot the sharpened arrow right through the weak point, in the eye. The zombie dropped in its tracks, causing those around it to pause, moving their whole bodies to look around instead of just moving their heads. The stench that came with them was horrifying. It was the smells of rotting meat and eggs.

The group gagged. Everyone was drawing back their arrows, taking aim at the creatures. The pile of arrows that the group made was quickly depleted as they were shot at the creatures. The creatures stumbled over their fallen comrades at the doorway. The months that the group had been running they had all become a pretty good shot; only about ten percent of arrows didn’t make their target.

The zombies stood underneath the loft, tilted backwards, trying to find whoever was killing them, the groans and gurgling was like a dull buzz. The group seemed safe for the moment. The creatures didn’t seem to have functioning limbs; they started pounding on the walls after realizing they couldn’t reach the group of seven people sitting high out of their reach.

Kristy could hear the wood creaking and starting to splinter beneath the assault of hands being slammed against the walls. She grabbed Chris’ hand in one of hers and the other one sought out Taylor’s. Everyone grabbed each others hands, so if the building did give way they would all still be together as a group, able to pull each other up and run. They moved backwards, away from the ledge.

Kristy watched as Zack looked out the window, she knew he was contemplating trying to exit the building before it went down. There was a loud creak as the front half of the loft, where they had been previously gave way, the walls and roof fell with it, onto the creatures below. Taylor stifled a scream. Then there was silence. Kristy looked out the window; she could see the first rays of light.

She looked through the dust and could see the last of the creatures leaving, twitching still happened in the group below them but as soon as the sun was up they would be dead.