The UNDEAD: by Nick Venom (reading strategies book .TXT) 📕

“I’ll handle the fireworks. I’ll make sure they go off.” Scar told them.

“You sure? I can do it instead.” Alvin offered.

“You’ll need to lead the way to your house.” Scar argued.

“Fine,” Alvin said getting ready to run. He was holding the knife from the principal’s office. Myra, on the other hand, wielded a bloody pair of scissors. Scar held onto the gun, his fingers tempted to use it.

Scar opened the classroom door with the fireworks in his left hand and the gun in his right hand. “Wait a few seconds!!” He whisper-shouted. Myra and Alvin lingered in the classroom as he ran off, his sneakers rubbing against the floor. The squeaks of the sneakers bounced off the walls, alerting the undead still inside the building. They headed towards the cause of the sound.

With most of the undead passing by them, Alvin led Myra out through the doors and outside. The undead waiting outside had diminished to a few stragglers. Alvin sliced at the nearest undead, nicking them, before pressing forward. He grabbed Myra’s hand, pulling her along with him.

Myra kept up with Alvin, her time as a cheerleader making her more energetic and athletic than she ever imagined. She raced in front of Alvin, breaking their hand-holding, and sliced at a nearby undead. She hit the undead’s head, drawing blood, however, the undead wasn’t killed by the simple attack. It lunged forward at her.

Alvin, meanwhile, pushed Myra out of the way, falling to the ground with the undead on top of him. It gnashed its teeth and snapped at him, but he somehow managed to keep the undead as far away as he could from him.

“Myra, kill it!” He shrieked as his strength weakened and the undead’s face got closer to his. “Kill it!”

Myra stabbed the scissors into the undead’s head, killing the monster instantly. Its head fell forward, blood spilling and nearly entering Alvin’s mouth. Alvin, fortunately, turned his head in time to escape the blood flow, his face being stained by it instead.

With Myra helping him throw the undead off him, he managed to scramble to his feet as the undead were nearing them. They were coming from everywhere, slowly closing onto them.

“Let’s leave,” Alvin nodded before leading the way to his house. However, they stopped within a few seconds. The sound of fireworks erupting inside the school became apparent. Gunshots soon followed the fireworks. 

“Will he be okay?” Myra questioned, staring at the school.

“He… He’ll be okay. Let’s go before the undead catch up to us.” He told her, tugging at her arm. She stood her ground, hoping to see Scar pop us. 

“Shouldn’t-”

“No!” Alvin shouted. “We’ll die if we stay here.” He dragged her away, her eyes still searching for Scar’s silhouette or any clue of his health.

“Listen to Alvin, he’s right.” Scar shouted, appearing from their side. He had run through a different exit and appeared on the side of the school. His clothes were stained with blood and guts. He moved his arm around, feeling the kickback of the gun intensely. It nearly wore his shoulder out.

“Lead the way.” He told Alvin, glancing at Alvin’s hand placement. It was still grabbing a hold of Myra’s arm. 

“Using both hands.” He insisted. Alvin nodded in response, feeling the intensity coming from Scar’s eyes, releasing Myra and running ahead of them.

I trust him since I have to… but something feels off inside me? Is it anger? Sadness? What is it? No, I can’t be thinking about that. We need to leave now before they track us down! Scar thought as he followed after Alvin. Myra followed with them, running in front of Scar and leaving him at the back of the pack.

After several minutes of running, they reached Alvin’s house. He sprinted to the front door, unlocking it before beckoning everybody else inside. He closed the door as soon as Scar entered.

Now inside, they were temporarily safe from the outside monsters. They stood in the furnished living room, behind a solid wall that the undead couldn’t claw their way through. Alvin stared at Myra and Scar for a second before running throughout his house. He was on a search for his family, but they were gone. They weren’t in the house or the garage… Almost as if they disappeared.

“What now?” Myra asked, staring through the living room’s window’s curtains.

“We make this our base for now. Let’s look for tape and blankets. We can’t let the undead look into the house.”Scar said before grabbing a blanket from the recliner near a window.

“Makes sense,” Myra said as she rushed to help him, barricading the front door with the recliner while taping up blankets against windows without curtains. This prevented the undead or other survivors from seeing them.

Scar and Myra finished what they could, splitting up to complete other tasks. Scar went into the kitchen and turned the faucet on, letting the water run freely into the sink. He then grabbed a nearby cup and filled it with low-pressure water. Not a lot of water came out of the faucet.

Myra, meanwhile, checked for electricity after finishing up with the defenses. She turned on the television, being blasted by a loud volume. She quickly grabbed the remote control sitting on the television stand, muting the program being displayed. It was the news, the silent reporter mouthing out words that Myra couldn’t make out. However, the bottom text gave her everything she needed. 

“Streets flooded, stay inside. If you can’t then head to the safe havens located outside Chicago, Florida, New York, Las Vegas, Houston, Detroit.” She read out loud.

Scar heard her, but his attention was on Alvin who had returned from the garage. “Anything?” He asked.

Alvin shook his head. “All gone. I doubled checked, but I can’t find a-anybody, not even a note.”

Scar nodded. “Well… put a bucket here, then follow me.” He instructed a saddened Alvin. Alvin nodded, grabbing a red plastic bucket from under the sink, leaving it under the faucet as the water dripped into it. He then followed Scar to the living room where Myra has the news on. “Turn it up slightly, just enough to hear it.” Scar said.

Myra nodded, lowering the volume to a steady level before unmuting it. 

“-are infected humans, do not get close to them. Anybody with the following symptoms of constant coughs, high fevers, dry throat, cracking skin, and bloodshot eyes are infected. Stay clear of them. Use backstreets and avoid high-density locations. These infected have dog-like hearing and hawk eyesight. Be careful and make as little noise as you can. Remember, stay away from them.”

Scar turned to Alvin. “It wasn’t just our school, but the entire world.”

“Gone. The entire world’s gone.” Alvin remarked, his eyes absorbed by the news. “Everything’s gone.”

Scar cracked Alvin hard against the face. He grabbed his collar, looking him in the face. “We’re alive. Your house is still here. Everything’s not gone.”

“He’s right. We’re alive and that’s what matters.” Myra chimed in.

“Yeah,” He released Alvin, turning to face Myra. “Question is what do we do now?”

Alvin turned away, approaching the front door. He glanced out from the front door’s window through the blanket that had been taped against it. He watched as the horde trickled and trickled into a large horde that consumed the entire street. 

“We have no supplies, we need to leave,” Alvin remarked.

“We just got here, though.” Scar said.

Alvin turned around. “No supplies mean we’re going to be hungry. I thought there were some here, but it’s all gone. We need to find more supplies or travel to the nearest safe haven.” He declared. The slap managed to bring Alvin back into reality and face their current situation.

Scar smacked his lip. “Then let’s rest here and we’ll move out in the morning.”

“Let’s hope the horde thins out tomorrow,” Alvin said. “Oh, and don’t think I won’t return that slap.” 

“I’ll be waiting for it.” Scar said, cracking a small smile.

“Will the safe haven be safer than being here? We don’t have a lot of weapons, but one gun and some knives.” She held a kitchen knife instead of scissors. 

“We’ll be fine.” He said as he patted her head, retracting it as quickly as he placed it. “Sorry.”

Myra blushed, shaking her head. “It’s okay.”

“Well-” Alvin couched into his fist. “-let’s get some sleep.” The others nodded, going to sleep at different times. Alvin stayed up first, keeping guard, before switching with Myra then Scar. They each slept several hours, filling themselves with shut-eye before morning came. 

Alvin woke up first, peeking outside. As he hoped, the horde thinned out enough to move comfortably. However, the thinning horde wasn’t on their own accord as a large group of people armed with guns and sitting on bikes swept through the neighborhood. They moved quickly and strongly, rampaging through the undead horde.

“What’s wrong?” Myra asked, standing next to him. 

“People… People armed with guns. They’re ransacking the houses. We need to leave now.” Alvin said. “Wake Scar.” He continued to watch the people while Myra approached Scar.

She kicked him playfully, jerking him into consciousness. “What?” He asked, his eyes half-opened. He looked around, confused at why he was awoken suddenly. 

“We’re leaving. People with guns outside.” She told him.

Scar nodded, grabbing his things and moving to the backdoor. Myra followed closely behind him, grabbing what stuff they could get. 

Alvin followed after them, grabbing his phone and a knife on the way, being the last person to reach the backdoor. He nodded at Scar, who then opened the door and pushed towards the alleyway. Myra followed after him. 

Alvin then exited his house, staring at his house as he reached the alleyway door, which Scar unlocked with Alvin’s parents’ keys. “Goodbye… Goodbye home.” He tearfully remarked before vanishing into the alleyway with Myra and Scar. They disappeared before the people on the bikes could find them… in the house.

TBC…

“How long is it ‘till we reach the safe haven?” Alvin asked. He took up the rear, facing forward but one eye trained behind him.

“A couple more hours based on the GPS.” Scar responded, holding Alvin’s phone. Alvin had handed him his phone to lead the way since Scar was holding the gun. 

“We’re traveling through more neighborhoods?” Myra asked, her energy drained. 

“Yeah, so let’s tread carefully. That bike gang has been going the same way we’ve been going.” Scar said. He looked down at the GPS, seeing the signal bar switching from one bar to two bars. Scar glanced at Myra, showing her the bar increase. She quickly took her phone out and dialed her parents but got no response. She shrugged the failed phone call off as if it was nothing of interest, but Scar could see her defeated face. He knew it had devastated her.

Scar, on the other hand, had no family to contact. They were all dead.

The three pressed forward, moving from alleyway to alleyway. The alleyways were vacant while the main roads had sporadic amounts of undead; for some reason, there weren’t large clumps of the undead. 

Scar peeked his head over a corner, seeing dead moving in a straight line; almost being pushed forward by the biker gang. The horde seemed… scared.

“Where are they going? Where have the strong beasts we saw at school go?” Alvin mocked them.