"Maddie?" She kept scanning. She could see the road up ahead, highlighted by a group of abandoned cars. Reaching the road she noticed how empty the streets were as a stiff breeze blew dust and debris across her feet. Devin walked past the cars and gasped, closing her mouth with her hand, when she noticed freshly dead bodies in a few of the cars. Some were killed still with a face of shock while others look as if they were suspended in time. Some of the cars were still smoking. Devin surveyed the area and had no idea what she was going to do. Her stomach growled and she realized that she was hungry. She decided to look in the cars to see if she could find any food.
A mangled hand pushed open the car door as its lifeless body began to move. The zombie smelled Devin's living flesh as it lay dormant in the car waiting for its next meal.
Devin rifled through a suitcase and found a granola bar. She tore the wrapper and ate it in two bites.
The zombie moved swiftly with Devin's back facing it. Its gaping mouth filling with black liquid and its eyes grew wider at the prospect of another meal.
"Devin!" Someone shouted from behind. Devin got up and turned around to see the zombie in time. She screamed and suddenly a large pole went through the head of the zombie, falling over like a bag of bricks. Devin stood shocked in place and couldn't believe what almost just happened.
"Are you all right?" Devin looked up. It was Christa. Devin couldn't say anything. "We got to hurry, the others can smell when one of their own is killed. It'll become a feeding frenzy out here in a minute." Christa took Devin's arm and pulled her as they ran to one of the buildings along the street. They went down an alley way, up a ladder and through a window on the third floor.
"Oh my God, it's Devin!" Caroline said. She ran to the stairs on the opposite end of the large room they were in. "You guys come upstairs, Christa found Devin alive!" The sounds of footsteps running up the stairs echoed throughout the room followed by Annie's and Lauren Norris' faces.
"Devin, you're alive!" They all came over and hugged her.
"What, what happened to you guys last night?" Devin finally asked.
Christa explained the whole thing.
"That's when we thought we'd find some people at Strosniders, but by the time we got there, the place was already up in flames. There were zombies everywhere, we had to backtrack. We eventually ran into Luana."
"Luana?! Was Maddie with her?"
Christa shook her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't see her." A tear fell down Devin's eye.
"So where's Luana?"
"I can tell you that part." Lauren Norris joined the circle and sat cross-legged on the floor next to Annie. "Once we reunited with Luana we made our way to a building just a few blocks down from here. It was the Don Pollo chicken place just yesterday. I stayed there with Luana and Annie while Christa and Caroline scouted outside to see if we were in a safe place for the night. We had boarded ourselves in and as Luana was looking for more nails, we didn't realize there was a zombie in the store. It scratched Luana in the arm before Annie stuck a knife through its head from behind. Within a few minutes Luana began bleeding from the mouth and she fell on the ground convulsing. Then she fell silent. We knew she was dead. Annie and I cried but couldn't afford to lose time. We continued to safe guard the place. An hour later Luana's body started to move again. Annie went over..."
"Please stop telling it." Annie covered her ears.
"What happened?" Devin asked looking at Annie with concern.
Annie got up and went down the stairs before Lauren continued to speak. Caroline followed.
"Luana tried to attack her. Annie didn't want to hurt her but I knew it was either her or us. I took a chair and smashed her face in while she was still on the ground." Lauren looked at her hands. "I knew I had to do it."
"You had to." Christa added. "There was no other choice. But that's when we returned and realized we had to get out of there. I noticed a lot of zombies coming our way. We found this place. The zombies don't seem to know how to use ladders and that's the only way in here. We can guess now that they somehow knew that a zombie was killed." Christa got up and went over to the window.
"Come and see this." Devin joined her and looked down at the street where Christa had found her. More than a dozen zombies had congregated.
"See? I think they use their smell the most."
"It's in the blood." Lauren walked over.
"What?" Devin asked.
"It has to be an infection...or a virus...that's transferred when they scratch you...or bite you. That's what happened to Luana."
Suddenly Caroline ran up the stairs. "Guys, come quick!" They followed her down the stairs where Annie was looking through another set of small windows. They could see the zombies closer from there. Caroline pointed to a smaller zombie rummaging through the same suitcase Devin had looked through earlier that day. The zombie looked up and around.
"Maddie!" Devin screamed. She ran up the stairs and through the window she had come in. Christa couldn't get to her quick enough to stop her. "Get back in here!"
"She's a goner." Caroline said.
"Not on my watch. Annie go grab my steel bat. I'm going after her."
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