deadheads by jade swiler (superbooks4u TXT) 📕

Later we made a bed on the floor and cuddled for warmth. The temp had gone down during the evening and it was cold. I fell asleep with my head against Seth’s chest.

The morning dawned bright and early, I stood at the window and looked towards town. There were a few deadheads stumbling around but for the most part, a lot had wondered off since there was no more food around.

“good morning, did you sleep long?” Seth asked as he came up behind me.

“for a while. Seth where’s Mark?” I had to ask. It hit me last night that Seth was here with me and not with mark.

“ I don’t know jade, my parents and Mark went shopping in the city and I haven’t seen them since.”

I lowered my head and looked at the floor. The city was 20 minutes from our town, if we had been over run, what did the cities look like?

Seth made a simple breakfast for us and I sat down next to him to eat it.

“after we eat, I am going to teach you how to use that sword of yours. Just like in the movies, you have to kill the brain, or they will still come after you.” Seth told me.

I nodded in agreement.

I had a lot to learn and quickly too.

We climbed down out of the tree and set up in the field. He taught me how to use my sword and to fight hand to hand if I needed to. I was small and skinny, not a lot of strength but Seth taught me that I didn’t need to be strong to kill these things. I just had to be fast and not hesitate, because if I did even for a second, I could get bit and turn.

The war had started and we needed to survive.

The storms came in about a week after we had come to the tree blind. Heavy rain fall with huge sounding thunder and bright lighting, had me huddled in a corner. The wind rocked and shook the blind and I was scared it would fall out of the branches to the ground. But Seth was calm, he never showed any emotion about anything. It made me feel better to see he wasn’t concerned.

He had to yell to be heard over the storm.

“its going to be okay jade. Just a summer storm. Nothing to worry about. “ I nodded and looked out to the gray sky and watched the lighting flash.

*

Sam Wheatfield was scared. People had come to his house and hurt his daddy. Momma had made him go to the basement and then after a while she started crying and then screamed. He had wanted to go upstairs but momma said to stay down in the basement so he did. But now it was quiet upstairs and the food his momma put down here with him was gone. He was so hungry. He laid curled up in a blanket and whimpered in the dark. He wanted his mommy and daddy.

*

“are you ready for this?” Seth asked me one more time. We were going back to town to look for any survivors that may be hiding out. But food was the main reason, we had run out last night and needed to re-stock. I took my sword and Seth took his rifle and long hunting knife and put it in his belt. we headed down the ladder and walked to town.

“we are going to go through the track of houses on the east side near the mobile home park. Then from there we will take the alleys to the super market west of town. There will be a lot of food there if the deadheads are clear of the place.” Seth explained to me.

I nodded that I understood and we made our way out of the woods. Bodies lay in the streets half eaten and forgotten. I was shaking and barely holding it together. I had never been so scared.

As we neared the houses, a few deadheads were wondering around aimlessly, so we ducked out of sight and crawled on hands and knees past the first 3 houses. The fourth house had a space between the other house and it led all the way to the alley so we crawled there.

A whimpering sound was coming from the basement and I stopped to listen.

“Seth you hear that?” I hissed.

Seth paused and cocked his head to the side and listened. The sound came again and we heard it more clearly, it was coming from the basement of the fourth house next to us. It sounded like a child.

“what do we do?” I asked.

“we go inside and see if it’s a kid or a deadhead.” I had to swallow a lump in my throat when he said that.

I wasn’t ready to face a deadhead up close and personal. But I couldn’t leave a kid to the fates either. I nodded and we headed to the back door.

There wasn’t any deadheads in the back yard so we stood up and moved quietly to the back door, there was blood and gore smeared all over the door and frame. The smell of death was strong. I swallowed hard and followed Seth inside. He shut the door after me. I gave him a questioning look.

“so no deadheads come in while we search.” he explained.

The kitchen was clean except for a trail of blood from the back door leading to the front room. I gripped my sword tighter in my hand and followed behind Seth as we made our way to the living room.

2 bodies laid near the chair. They were torn up and parts were missing. The stench of rotting meat so strong and I almost gagged from the smell. Seth stepped over the bodies and closed the front door.

We checked the rest of the house and saw it was clear of anything nasty. We headed back to the kitchen and opened the door to the basement. Dim light from small windows made the stairs visible. We headed down slowly and could hear more whimpers in the dark.

“hello?” I whispered.

At first we heard nothing then sniffles coming from the corner of the basement. In the dim light a young boy of maybe 10 sat on a few blankets. He was shivering from fright and had a haunted look in his eyes.

“ my names jade. What’s yours? “ I asked him coming a little closer.

“saaammm.” he stuttered.

“Sam this is Seth, we want to take you with us, its not safe here anymore.” I whispered to the boy.

Seth held out his hand and at first I thought Sam wouldn’t take it but after a moment of hesitation, he slowly came towards us.

Seth pulled him in a firm hug and ran his hands through Sam’s hair.

“are you hurt Sammy?” Seth asked while I looked at Sam’s clothes and arms for anything that would show a bite mark. There was nothing.

Sam shook his head no.

Because of the death and bodies upstairs, Seth didn’t want Sam to have to see it so we wrapped him in the blanket and Seth carried him upstairs and through the kitchen to the back door. I went out first and Seth followed me.

We went down the alley for a while and came to the shopping center. Seth put Sam down and un-covered him.

“Sam we are going in to that store. We need food. But I want you and Jade to be quiet and keep close to me, do you understand?”

Sam nodded and we opened the door and went in.

The smell of the bad meat in the freezers hit us first. The power had been off for a week so the food had started to spoil.

Seth loaded a cart with canned food, batteries, a radio, flashlights and coloring books and crayons for Sam. I grabbed soap and box stuff like crackers and cookies and things. Seth had told me we were going to take a truck out back and fill it with the food we are taking and leave haven. He said there had to be places that were set up with soldiers to make safe zones.

After we loaded up everything we could in to a truck that Seth had backed in to the loading dock. We got in and left. Deadheads came stumbling out from behind buildings and gave chase but they were slow moving and we got away. The roads were clogged with abandoned cars and trucks where people had tried to flee the carnage. But most were killed right in their cars. It was awful to see the blood and gore and the many bodies, some half eaten and still moving, trying to crawl after us. It was terrible.

Seth turned down a secondary road and for a while it was clear. It was surreal, there was no traffic, no people, it was just a huge nothing out here. Everything I had known, all the people I loved were either dead or still out there somewhere . My parents were on a huge ship in the ocean, I only prayed they were still okay.

Sammy sat between us and colored in his book Seth had got him. Kids bounced back pretty well when bad things happen. I was glad for that. He was a cute kid. His round face was dirty from the basement but his eyes were a bright green. His hair was blond and curled around his small ears. He was small for his age, which I was right, he was 10 yrs old.

We stopped at a space behind a traffic jam that Seth had to figure out how to go around. Sam and I need to pee. We got back in the truck just as Seth shut down the truck and told us to get on the floor and be quiet, he bent down as well.

A huge horde of the un-dead were moving down the road towards us. There was hundreds of them. When I took a peek over the dash, I could Cleary see that they were quiet, no moaning nothing, just doing that stumbling walk they do and coming right for us. I ducked down again.

The horde walked around our truck, sometimes hitting the sides and making it move and shake, I held my hand over Sam’s mouth in case he got scared and yelled out. A deadhead came right to the window and seemed to look in but no sound came from it so I knew it hadn’t seen us. It moved on with the rest of them and it seemed like hours until they all passed the truck and rounded the curve in the road and disappeared.

“we are going to stay here for a few more minutes and make sure they are gone, a horde that size could tip over this truck.” Seth whispered to us. Sam and I nodded that we understood.

Seth started the truck and we were on our way.

(2)

Handmade signs were posted along the highway pointing to a safe zone. It was an air force base! As we pulled up to the gate, we all sat in horror and looked around. The gates were busted and there was fires in the building and bodies lay all around. It had been over run by deadheads. Recently if Seth was right. Maybe even from that horde of hundreds that passed us on the way here.

I started to cry, I didn’t realize how much I had needed to be around other people, how I wanted to be in a safe place and be normal for once and not so terrified.

“ we are going to get away from here and find a place to sleep for the night. Its getting late and we need to rest. We’ll keep looking until we find a safe place to stay. You guys okay?” Seth asked warily. Sam nodded but I still sat crying and looking out at the carnage.

“jade? Its going to be okay, we’ll find help.”

I