After The Rising by T.D Jackson (free novel reading sites .txt) 📕

I crash landed in to a pile of old clothes the table breaking under my weight. I rolled out of it and stood, the entire upstairs was burning, people were running and screaming "There inside there inside!" What? I moved down to the food court towards the exit. As I stepped in to the street people continued to scream. The dead were in the street people ran in every direction. Close by a cop was wrestling a zombie away from a women. I ran over and stabbed it in the temple it dropped "You O.K?" I asked. The officer caught his breath "Yeah thanks" "How did they get in?" "The walls have been compromised, several explosions destroyed it they poured in" More dead were swarming in to the streets catching people and dragging them to the floor, an announcement came over the loud speakers "Return to your homes quarantine is in effect"

The trick to avoiding the dead is to have plenty of room to manoeuvre around them and to keep distance but not tire yourself out till you can break the line of sight. I jogged and walked home sticking the wide open streets rather than the back alleys. I crashed in through the back door and locked it "Down stairs now!" I yelled Everyone flooded in to the kitchen "The wall is compromised they are inside" "What the hell happened?" Ty asked "Someone blew it up, no time to repair it before the main horde arrives, we wait it out" Everyone nodded "Toby Steve go get the stuff out of the car bring it back in" They nodded "Ty when they are back in block up the front door with what ever we have" He moved over to prepare "What about us?" Sky and Ryan asked "Cover the windows fill up the bath and sinks any empty bottles with water, I'm going to start brining anything useful upstairs.

"Front door!" I heard Toby yell. I ran down the stairs almost clattering in to Sky "Upstairs now" "But" "Now you and Ryan now!" She ran up Ryan close behind her. I made my way to the front door Toby and Steve were in trying to shut it but various arms and appendages were making it impossible "Hold on" I ran back through the house out the back door down our private alley and round to the front "Hey!" I yelled at the 3 creatures at our door. They turned. Oh fuck these weren't the slow kind "Come and get it" They lunged forward at the same time getting in each others way one went down as they tried to get through the fence gate. I walked forward quickly pulling my knife and as they were still negotiating the gate stabbed one in the side of the head. It flopped and it's friend managed to get through. As it moved forward I sidestepped grabbed the back of it's head and smashed it in to the lamp post and the knifed it through the brain stem. The knife dropped from my hand as the third creature tackled me and we landed on the bonnet of a car (not ours fortunately) teeth snapped and crazy eyes stared at me. Ty came out the front door with a bat and smashed the creature with immense force putting all his weight behind it, bones broke and it flew 6ft back "Thanks" He helped me up "You coming back inside?" "Nah thought I might stay it's good here. More shouts and screams sent us inside.

We have been in the house for two days. We have a link up to the CCTV in the Outpost the dead are still to thick to make an escape. We have only survived because we have been quiet and not drawn attention. Jack joined us a few hours after the initial wall collapse he is the only other survivor we have seen, the rest are now walking the streets there humanity taken from them.

I lift the curtain of the kitchen window slightly to look in to the back garden. Nothing there, the two gates that lead to our back garden are not particularly strong but they are about 7ft high providing good cover and deterring any dead from randomly wandering over. Then in my pocket my phone vibrates. I was surprised the water electric was still on but that would not lost much longer. I answered the call "Yeah Boss I'm still alive" "How are you holding up?" "Waiting for the dead to clear a bit before we make a run for it, how are you?" "I'm sorry I could not get you all out there was only one space left on the helicopter" It sounded like genuine regret in his voice "Don't worry I'm a survivor, I will probably bump in to you soon" "You will head to Hastings?" "Not straight away don't want to bring a welcoming party with us" "The other refugees did not have that much consideration, we have been sending out constant patrols to lure large groups away" I sighed "Well Boss I kinda have my own problems at the moment is there anything I can help you with?" "I may be able to help you with getting out" "Let me guess they wont authorise a chopper unless I have something the powers that be want" "You got it in one" "What do they want?" "In the Outpost Commanders office on his computer there are blueprints maps of important tactical value, we can't access it from here the connection is down" "You want me to go restore the connection so you can access the files on the hard drive?" "If you wouldn't mind" "No chance" "I'm sorry?" "I will get the plans but I will get the hard drive not restore the connection just in case the powers that be decide to change there mind after they get what they want" "Not a problem" "And how will you help us get out?" "We will send a chopper" "For all of us?" "How many?" Let's see me Jack Sky Ty Ryan Danny and Toby "7" "Get the drive and I will get you a ride" "What about London?" "You still want to go?" Kane had genuine surprise in his voice "Yeah I want to go" "We can talk about it when your here" "Very optimistic of you" "Try not to die it would be a pain to get those plans again" "And the loss of me would be devastating to you of course" "Call me when it's done" I hung up.

I headed out the back door and stopped. We had checked it was clear before I had opened the door of course but now half way down the path something was moving behind the low wall at the bottom of the garden. I took out my knife and moved quickly but quietly to the wall staying low. I took a deep breath grabbed at a head and pulled. Just as I thought human, the movements were to smooth for the dead. I clamped my hand over his mouth "Shhh, I'm not going to hurt you" The guy stopped struggling. He had a balaclava that only showed his eyes a black top and camo trousers "I'm going to take my hand away understand?" He nodded. I let him go. Then things got weird, the first thing was he pulled a knife the second was another man appearing over the wall dressed the same. Oh fuck. The second man vaulted the wall and a gun cam out of its holster he lifted and aimed. He was only a few feet away so I shoved the first man in to him and ran back to the house. I struggled to unlock the door like in all the horror movies. I dived in to the house as a bullett hit the door frame.

I fell in to the kitchen and straight in to Ty "Get away from the windows!" As we hit the floor another shot took out the kitchen window "Toby!" He was already thundering down the stairs gun in hand "What the hell is going on?" He ducked as another shot took out the second window "No idea some idiots were sneaking about out there then they took a shot at me" "What did you say to them?" I took a moment to think about it and realised I had held a knife to him "O.K hold on keep low" I moved back in to the front room before shouting "Who ever is shooting at us we have no intention of hurting you, but we are armed and will not hesitate to defend ourselves" No response O.K there was a response more shots. Ty handed me a gun "Get every one together we have to go that noise is going to attract them" Ty looked shocked "GO NOW!!" He went upstairs and with in a few seconds every one was gathered by the front door. I tucked a pocket radio in my pocket and gave the other to Danny. Glass started to smash in the kitchen I fired a couple of shots in there and heard curses. Danny opened the front door "Wait!" To late his head snapped back and he fell to the floor dead. Ryan and Sky screamed, Toby fired a couple of shots out there and slammed the door shut "How many?" I asked "2 by the gate" Our front door to gate is only about 5 feet Danny never stood a chance "This is not a random attack, some one came after us" No time to work this out "Move" I pushed everyone out of my way and turned over the sofa to reveal a silver attache case, I rotated the dials and opened it pulled out three hand grenades "Grab Danny" I said to Toby He did and moved him to the door. I got