BRAINS: with a side-order of Flesh. by Siagrrl (parable of the sower read online TXT) 📕

genius. What does it look like?”
He grabbed my other hand and attempted to pull me up. Obviously having trouble, Delevan signalled to Mercy next to him, for her to help.

“Right.” Mercy nodded. With that she leant over and grabbed my upper arm, which was an easy feat for her, with her extremely long limbs, and hauled me up and onto the top of the gate. With the weight lifted, Roger was able to climb up the rest of the gate with ease and in about a second.

Finally, when we were all at the top of the gate, safe, sound and up high from the incandescent flesh-eaters, we turned to Gahnt, Mio and Roger.

“What now?” Hope huffed.

Gahnt pointed away from the school – passed the gate – towards a navy blue 4-wheel drive located about 10 feet from the foot of the gate parked on the curb across the street. “We go there.”

“You drive?” Mercy asked. “And 4-wheel drive, at that?”

“No. Kieren drive. Kieren parents car.”

“Yeah, I borrowed it.” Kieren piped up. “Though, technically since the world has been zombified –”

“We don’t know that. Could just be the city. Or the state.” Faith added.

“And his parents, as well as all yours – probably, are dead (but action first, mourning later), he probably can’t return it, so I guess it’s stolen.” Roger finished.

Hope gasped. “Dead?”

Somehow the thought hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind even once since this started. Everyone was silent for a moment as they thought about their families. I too, was silent, but I didn’t really have a family to miss. I mean, yeah Delevan’s family had been alright and all, but they weren’t my family.

An unexpected pain shot through my leg and reminded me for the umpteenth time that a) I, in my current condition was useless, and b) the blood was attracting many more suitors than I’d originally hoped. The zombies were gathering fast at the foot of the gate inside the school and for as far as I could see, the coast on the other side of the fence was clear.

“Um,” I started uncomfortably. “I hate to interrupt our sombre moment and all, but we should probably get to the car and get someplace safer than here, before we attract any more attention.” To demonstrate my point I pointed back down behind us to the still growing crowd of undead that watched us, and waited for just one of us to fall and make their next meal.

Obviously repulsed, Faith gagged and looked away. “Yeah, she’s right. We should.”

In a unanimous agreement to discuss and mourn families and friends later, the group all started down the other side of the gate. Mathieu and Kieren took one look and jumped without hesitation landing below in a squatting position on their feet, stood up and waited for the rest of us to follow. The sturdier of the group; Roger, Delevan, Gahnt and Mercy all clambered down the gate as fast they could, without the zombies reaching through the gaps and biting their faces off, I noticed. Faith got about half-way before slipping off the railing and falling into Mercy’s waiting arms. I remained at the top with Hope and Mio, deciding the best way to get down without more unnecessary bloodshed.

When Roger reached the bottom he looked up at me and gestured for me to jump. “I’ll catch you!” I noticed Delevan give him a dirty look.

"Why should she trust you?” He spat. ‘In fact, why should any of us trust you people?”

“That didn’t seem to be a problem a few minutes ago.” I heard Faith retort.

“What did I

do to you?” Roger asked with a raised eyebrow.

Gahnt shook his head and elbowed his way past the two of them. “I catch you.” He smiled. I smiled back, braced myself and jumped from the gate. I figure it was a shorter distance than the window in the school, so hey, why not?

I landed easily in Gahnt’s arms, and he put me on the ground and offered his shoulder to steady myself. He smiled again. “Most people would shut eyes when jumping.” I smiled, proud of myself. “I’ve been there, done that, and now I’m an expert.” I laughed. Roger and Delevan hadn’t noticed and were intently glaring at each other.

I noticed Mio pluck up the courage to climb down and Mercy catch Hope as she jumped. When we were all on the ground once more, I turned to Roger and Delevan. “Come, on guys. Let’s go. Chop, Chop.”

The two broke away from their mental battle long enough to give me a confused stare, and I shrugged it off and headed sorely to the car. “Now

.” I shot back, and after a moment they followed.

Mio led the way with a brisk and edgy walk, she was anxious to get to the car and get out of here. I could understand that.

“Problem.” Mercy spoke up when we reached the car. There is eleven of s, and a 4-wheel drive seats 7. Now what?”

Ms Faeshar stepped up. “I’ve got an idea.”

Within minutes we were all seated in the car. Ms Faeshar up the front in the driver’s seat, and Mathieu in the front passenger seat. Gahnt, Mercy, Mio and Kieren managed to squish in the back. Which left Delevan, Faith and Roger (an ironic grouping) in the very back seats. Hope sat between Mercy’s legs, subconsciously twining hair into braids, and I sat on Gahnt’s lap with my leg extended across Mio’s.

“Right.” Came Ms Faeshar’s voice from the front. “We’re off.” And after a few stalled starts, we were.

Chapter 11 - A Close Call.

“So where are we going exactly?”

It had been about six hours since we had begun our car ride, meaning it was the early morning, and needless to say we were all a bit antsy. We had stopped the car only once since we got in, and that was to refill on fuel and grab some supplies at a local gas station called Marety’s. Mercy, Roger, Gahnt and I had gone in, while Mathieu had been the lookout while he refuelled the car. No one was very pleased that I went in. But I needed bandages, some painkillers and antibacterial cream. The painkillers were a wise choice, as I soon found out that the entire place was trashed. I tripped over everything.

The lights were out, and it had still been dark out, so torches had been our first priority. The aisles were tipped, windows smashed and a large pool of still wet blood behind the counter and the back wall, told us there were more infected somewhere close by. While Mercy and Gahnt scoured the place for any usable weapons or food, I had become responsible for the medical supplies. Roger stood at the end of the aisle watching me – either making sure I didn’t make too much noise dragging my keg around or watching my back – either way I was grateful. We had unanimously decide that the less time we spent there the better, and once we had what we came for, plus water from the back fridges which were also trashed and almost bare, we loaded up as quick as possible and were again on our way.

By now everyone was taking the time to either gather their thoughts, or was sound asleep. Gahnt looked down at me, wide awake, and nodded out the window. The school was on the coast so it didn’t take long for us to reach the water. We were travelling down the highway that led to the city outskirts and to our left was endless ocean of blue, which had, I noticed, a small island in the midst of it. It was about 10miles out to sea.

“There?” I asked. “Is that the military base we talked about?”

He nodded.

“Does anyone find it odd that we haven’t seen a zombie even once since we left the school?” Mercy yawned from the right side passenger seat. “Even at that the fuel station.”

“We saw blood.” I offered. “Lots of it.”

Mercy nodded and wiped the sleep from her eyes, careful not to disturb the sleeping Hope in her arms. “Yeah, but no actual zombies.”

The car jolted over a speed bump and knocked Faith from her sleep in the back, hitting her head back against the back window. “Aah! Son of a –”

“Morning, Faith.” I smiled without looking at her.

“Mmpf.” She grumbled back.

Mercy turned to Faith and asked her the same question she asked me only seconds ago, and was answered with a blank look. “Dunno. Maybe they’ve headed off somewhere.”
Obviously unsatisfied with the answer, Mercy turned back around to face the front, and huffed. After another few moments of silence I noticed we had begun to speed up. We had gone from doing 70 in a 60 zone – what? It’s not like there’s any point in obeying the road rules now – to doing over 130mp/h in a 60 zone. The 4-wheel drive jolted in defiance before it sprang faster and faster down the highway.

“Whoa! Hey, what the hell?” Faith demands in a shrill voice from behind me. Ms Faeshar ignored her and shoved the car into the highest gear and slammed on the gas as hard as possible, sending the rest of us into a panicked frenzy in the back. I noticed Ms Faeshar check the rear-view mirror a few times and attempted to swivel around to figure out what had caused this kind of reaction. Just barely, I could see something that propelled my heart fifth gear. We were being followed. A sleek black SS V8 commodore was travelling even faster than we were and was tailing us like dog chases a cat.

“I don’t get it.” I said aloud. I mean sure we were being followed, but they didn’t really seem like much of a threat - whoever they were. “Why are we speeding up? The more the merrier, right? Maybe they have some extra supplies and stuff. Maybe we should stop.”

Mio, recently awoken, nodded. “Yes, Miss, what’s the matter?”

Ms Faeshar stayed silent and gave me a cold stare from the rear-view mirror.

“I think that means we aren’t stopping,” Roger observed, noticing Ms Faeshar’s response. “Someone we know?”

I turned back to the advancing car and tried to get a glimpse of our follower/s. Then I hear it. The ting, ting, ting

sound of something hitting the frame of the 4-wheel drive. My stomach lurched.

Gunfire.

Everyone was quiet again for a moment and their faces slowly twisted into expressions of terror, surprise and the infamous – what the (beep). I didn’t care who it was, there was no way I was stopping for them now.

“Holy Cow! Is that gunfire?!?” Delevan gasped.

“They’re shooting

at us?” Mercy followed. She said the word as if she’d never heard of a gun before. I look to the front and realise we’re running out of road. The highway split in two at