I had not heard Jade so angry before, I had to admit it was a bit terrifying.
'Those deaths were not my fault!' He screamed back. Everyone stood watching their screaming match, I don't know about anyone else but I didn't want to get between them. It would be like getting in between Mothra and Godzilla, the only person who seemed brave enough to say anything was Delilah. She stood right in the middle of them and put both her hands in the air.
'Give it a rest you two, do you want to bring the biters down on our heads?' She said impatiently yet calmly.
'No,' they both spoke in unison.
'Well then you'd better keep your voices down.'
'Frankie, can you and Jensen take a look out the back windows to check for any walkers?' Jade asked calmly.
'No problem,' Frankie replied before hurriedly exiting the room.
'Finn, can you go downstairs and check the front windows please?' She sounded a lot more relaxed though I suspected that she was still angry.
'Yeah sure,' Finn replied, he looked glad to be able to get out the room.
I knew the others hated conflict, and from what I could gather there had been a lot more of it since Kyle had joined them.
'Violet, I want you, Rowena and Brooke to gather all the backpacks and put them in our room.'
'Sure thing,' Brooke mumbled.
I don't know what it was about Jade but she had a knack for telling people what to do in the nicest way. I thought Kyle could learn a thing or two from her, not that he would ever listen to anyone.
'Okay,' said Violet quietly.
Once everyone else had gone to do their jobs Jade sat down at one of the tables and put her head in her hands looking exhausted.
'Right, now can we talk about this like adults instead of acting like children?' Delilah asked looking irritated.
'He started it,' Jade chimed in.
'I don't care who started it, Jade you should know better,' Delilah replied shortly. It took a while and a lot more shouting for them to finally come to a conclusion, instead of Violet getting double her rations she would just get two extra tins a day. Neither of them were happy about it but it was the fairest compromise that could be reached, the others arrived shortly after to sit and eat dinner. We all sat in silence as we ate, no one wanted to start another argument. I didn't know about anyone else but I was feeling rather tired, keeping to the rations may have been the smart idea but it meant that we were always hungry.
I wondered how we were going to get anywhere when we were like this, we needed to learn to get along. Aside from me the only other person who could be more than civil to Kyle was Rowena, I knew that they'd had a good talk back at the reservoir. Despite Kyle's rude and irresponsible nature, they seemed to get on well. I wondered if there was something going on between them, I shook my head thinking about how ridiculous that was.
After dinner Jade showed us where we were heading next, I was joyfully surprised that we were heading towards my home. I asked the group if we could stop by Whitmore to look for my family, everyone but Kyle agreed. Kyle of course wasn't happy, he didn't see the point in looking for them. He thought that me getting my hopes up was pointless and we shouldn't even bother. I told him that if he wasn't happy with the group choices then he should just leave, he shut up after that.
I felt glad that we were going to my home, but at the same time I was a bag of nerves. I dared not hope to find them alive for fear that, I would be devastated when I found them dead. Of course there was always the chance, I wouldn't find them at all. I retired to my room and hoped that no one would disturb me, thankfully no one did.
I woke the next morning and packed away my sleeping bag, I went upstairs to find that everyone except Finn and Violet were awake. Jade said she was going to let them sleep until we were ready to leave as Violet had been upset about the fighting yesterday and Finn had been on watch. There always seemed to be a good supply of maps in our group, Jade always told everyone to keep a look out for more when we were on runs. Currently we had five maps, all of which she had marked with our destination. She had kept one for herself and given the others to Rowena, Frankie, Delilah and me.
We waited another hour before waking Finn and Violet up, Finn looked awful like he hadn't really slept. Though he did not complain and refused when Jade had offered him her rations as well, I admired Finn despite being a young boy he was always looking out for everyone. He took a shine to Violet and was often seen playing with her, I could tell that he missed his sister, his mum and the little boy Leon he'd left back at the lab. He still checked in with them everyday to make sure that they were alright, Morgan was trying to find a vaccine for the mutated strain of the virus but so far she hadn't been able to.
I had never spoken to her but I was so grateful that she had found a vaccine for the first strain, no amount of thank you's could ever be enough for what she had done for humanity. I was getting really worried about Finn though, as he had kept watch every night for the last week. He was barely sleeping and he still insisted on helping us do things during the day, we had all told him to take it easy but he was persistent on doing his part.
I wondered if he felt like he had something to prove, given that the only other person close to his age was Kyle and he was a complete arse hole. I also wondered if he felt guilty, he'd been there the day we lost Dom, Tessa and my brother. Could he be feeling bad that he'd survived and they hadn't? It was possible, I made a mental note to talk to him about it when I got him alone.
Everyone packed up the rest of their things before meeting by the back door, Delilah and Frankie pulled away the tables and chairs blocking the door and peered outside to make sure that we were safe. We walked out the door one at a time with our weapons at the ready, aside from the odd one or two walkers there wasn't many around this side of town.
Our first stop on the way was going to be The Kingsway School in Cheadle which was a two and a half hour walk away, I just hoped that it was safe. Strangely enough the further away from the city we got the more dead heads there were. We took on a small herd not too far from East Didsbury train station, there were twenty corpses to deal with. Fortunately for us they weren't the super strong ones, we finished them off without much trouble.
'Well that was a breeze,' said Kyle in his smarmy voice.
'Speak for yourself,' snapped Jensen.
'Aw don't be such a baby,' Kyle replied mockingly. It occurred to me that Kyle liked killing, a little too much. He revelled in it, I had never seen some one enjoy killing before. It unnerved me, I wondered if the others felt the same or if it was just me. The more I observed him the more concerned I became about the group, he clearly wanted to take control. How long would it be before he decided to take Jade out? I decided to keep a close eye on him, and report it to Jade if I felt he was becoming too much of a risk.
'You alright?' Jade asked Violet.
'I'm okay, just tired,' she replied quietly.
'Its not much further to the school,' she told Violet.
'I'll carry you, if you want,' I said to her as I knelt down on the floor.
'Really? I can have a piggy back?' Violet squeaked excitedly.
'Hop on,' I smiled at her. I put my knife in my belt and let her sit on my shoulders, a little girl shouldn't have to walk so much, it was no wonder she was tired. She giggled happily as I walked with her sat on my shoulders, I wondered if she had ever done this before.
We walked for many more miles, I was getting a bit tired myself but I didn't want to put her down as she was having fun sitting on me. I had to admit that it felt nice to do something that made her laugh, she was such a sweet little kid. It was a shame that she had to grow up in a world like this, but all we could do was try to make her smile and hope that as she grew up, she didn't become cold and cruel.
It was a while later that Violet cried out. 'What's wrong?' I asked worriedly.
'I can see the school gates, there's loads of monsters inside,' she said sounding scared. We walked as near to the school as we cou
ld safely get, luckily there were trees to hide us. I looked on in horror as I saw that the school yard was full of children biters, I had never killed a kid corpse and I didn't want to start but I knew now that I had no choice. We stood by the trees devising a plan, Kyle of course wanted to rush in and kill them. He could be so irresponsible and idiotic, it took a bit to convince him to follow the plan. He kept trying to butt in and when Jade suggested he stay behind, he called her a name that as a gentlemen I would not repeat.
As both Kyle, Delilah and Finn were excellent shots with crossbows they would sit in the trees nearest to the gates and shoot from a distance. Jade and Brooke would stay with Violet and keep her safe while the rest of us take care of the dead ones.
Fortunately for us the playground was split in two, there was another metal fence and gate separating them. Thankfully the gate had been locked, so we could tackle the other side later. We would take care of the smaller half first, there looked to be about thirty walkers in the first part. Rowena and I opened the gate just a little bit, while Frankie and Jensen stabbed the first few dead heads that came shuffling out.
Finn, Delilah and Kyle were already shooting biters from afar, they had taken out six of them and now needed to take a moment to reload their crossbows. I had to admit that when I first joined this group I was not expecting them to be so well organised, I was sure glad that they were though.
'Son of a bitch nearly hit me!' Frankie shouted furiously as she dodged an arrow that Kyle had shot.
'Come on sweetheart, don't be such a baby,' Kyle shouted back laughing.
'I swear I'm going to kill him one of these day,' Jensen muttered under his breath.
'Ignore him and lets get a move on,' Rowena said. We cleared the first part in no time at all, once again we were covered in blood. It was one of the things that you soon got used to in this world, now that the first part had been cleared Finn, Delilah and Kyle had to join us as the other part of the playground was too far away from the trees. They stood a few metres back so they could take care of the biters from a distance, I hoped that they would keep an eye out for ones that got too close to us. Though we all had the vaccine in us, I still didn't want to get bitten or shredded.
'Ready?' Asked Frankie as she went to unchain the gate.
'I'm ready,' I replied holding my knife up. She opened the gate just enough to let four of them through, Finn shot one while me and Frankie took care of two. Delilah didn't get a chance to get the other one as Kyle knocked her out the way, as he came charging up to us and killed the other one, while we wanted to yell at him now was not the time. We continued to let a few through and kill them, Jensen held the gate shut while the rest of us killed them. We were almost finished when twelve walkers burst through the gate sending Jensen flying, Kyle barged past everyone to start his killing spree.
I swear it was like watching a psycho, he did not even stop to wipe the blood of his face or when Frankie yelled at him because there was a walkers coming up behind him. Frankie charged forward to kill it before it could get to him, the rest of us were busy taking care of the other dead heads. I watched as Frankie saved Kyle's life, I personally wouldn't have bothered to save him. Maybe getting bit would teach the little cunt a lesson, though I doubted it.
'I had it under control, I don't need no bitch to save me,' Kyle called angrily.
'Listen here you little shit, I could've let you get eaten but I didn't, so be fucking grateful!' Frankie shouted back. They started arguing while walkers were surrounding us, the rest of us fought our way through and by the time we'd killed them Frankie and Kyle were having a fist fight. I ran over to them just in time to see Frankie take swing at him.
'You'll have to try harder than that sweetheart,' Kyle laughed at her. I could see Frankie's face turn red, she was really pissed off now. She charged at Kyle only for him to push her to the ground, I turned to see Jensen throw his knife on the floor and run up to Kyle. He punched him straight in the face knocking Kyle to the floor.
'Touch her again and I'll kill you myself!' He screamed.
'Oh look its the little boy, come to play the hero. I think your slut girlfriend can take care of herself,' he was still laughing as he got up of the floor. I held Jensen back as he went for Kyle again, Rowena helped Frankie off the floor checking to make sure that she was alright. I was really getting sick of Kyle, he caused nothing but trouble and seemed to enjoy it. Frankie got up, walked straight over to Kyle and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
'Next time I'll let you fucking die.'
She shoved him as hard as she could causing him to bang his head on the brick wall as he fell.
'You need to lighten up,' he said, as he rubbed his head, checking for blood.
'Right, we need to check the windows and see how many are inside,' Frankie told us, ignoring him.
'I'll take Kyle round the back and you three take the front.' I was the only one who could tolerate him so it made sense for him to come with me. The others nodded in agreement as they went their separate ways, I looked over to see that Jade, Brooke and Violet were still safe next to the trees. If they heard what happened they didn't act like it. We walked round the back in silence, I had nothing to say to him and while I could be civil to him at that moment I didn't trust myself not say something horrible.
As we reached the back of the school, I looked in the kitchen windows to find that it was crawling with the dead. I couldn't see through them, there were that many. I put the number at close to fifty, I didn't see how were going to clear it. Of course Kyle's eyes lit up and he wanted to run in, I seemed to be one of the few that could talk sense into him.
I managed to convince him that it was a stupid move, I didn't say that he was on thin ice with others and shouldn't do anything to aggravate them.
'Yeah I guess your right, we need a plan,' Kyle said sounding bored. I was just about to think of one when the others came running round the corner, followed shortly by a large group of biters. I had no time to think, all I could do was fight and hope that we all made it out in one piece.
In the films it always looked as if things slowed down when fighting, but in real life they sped up. You had no time to think, you could only hope that whatever move you made was the right one. For the first time in a long time I was actually afraid, I was glad when I saw Jade and Brooke running over to help us. We had all thought that the doors to the school were locked, clearly we were wrong. I sliced my way through half a dozen walkers not stopping to take a breath, I was surprised to see that Jade had left Violet alone.
I kept a close eye on Kyle as we fought our way through the dead, his eyes were wild and unfeeling. He appeared to be in some kind of a trance, the way he sliced his way through the dead in this frenzied attack was unreal. I stayed away from him, thinking that it would be better for him to die.
After the confrontation between him and Frankie, I wasn't going to risk getting into a fight with him. Especially given that I still blamed him for my brother's death, all he had to do was push me that one step too far and I knew I would not stop until I killed him.
I knew that I was stronger than the others, they'd have little chance in being able to stop me. I tried my damnedest to keep cool, I refused to turn into a monster because of that psycho.
Chapter 23
Kyle
I loved a fight, it was the only good thing about this world. If you got mad or upset you could take your frustrations out on the dead, I sliced through a walker and felt empowered. The others didn't get it, they were all weak. They shied away from fighting when they should have been embracing it, they protected the weak and frail when they should have killed them. Like the little girl, she wasn't useful, all she did was take up our resources and cry. If we hadn't had to take care of her, then we could all have been fighting from the beginning, there was about forty walkers and while I enjoyed a fight, I wasn't sure how we were going to win.
I could not understand how these people worked, I mean in a world like this you had to be hars
h and cruel otherwise you got killed. How on earth had they survived this long? The only reason I had agreed to come with them was because I was sick and tired of the camp I had been in, they were all soft and feeble.
These people were no different, I often thought about killing them while they slept. They would be better off dead than being soft in a world like this, the only reason I didn't is because for the time being I needed them.
Better to be with people so that you had others to fight with you, than to be alone. Before I'd been with the hospital people, I spent many years with a large group of men in Glossop. I'd never told anyone this, when Rowena had asked me I told her I'd been alone for years. I knew if I told them the truth, they'd leave me behind.
I remembered all the time I had spent with that group, they taught me all I needed to know about how to survive. My dad was weak, he tried to reason with the men when we came across them, he deserved to die. My mum and her friends were just women, and women were only toys to be used and abused.
That was the first lesson I had been taught, all these years I'd retained the lessons. Even now as I had to learn to adapt in this new group, I could see how weak and pathetic they were. They would all perish and in the end it would be me who survived, even the men who had raised me, in the end they too were weak, insignificant people.
Somehow we managed to eradicate all the corpses, we all slumped down on the floor exhausted. I wiped the blood from my face and looked at the others, they all looked as I felt. I felt pity for them, it would only be a matter of time before they all got killed.
'Is everyone alright?' Asked Jade sympathetically.
'Yeah I'm good,' replied Frankie. I really hated her, she liked to pretend that she was in charge when Jade wasn't around. She was a bossy little bitch and more than once I had wanted to knock some sense into her, her day would come though. Not only that, she reminded me of someone from a long time ago, someone I wish I could forget.
The others all nodded to say that they were alright, Rowena got up to go and tell Violet that they were okay and tell her to stay put.
Dead World Rising (Book 3): The Cure Page 23
