Earth: Book One (Elemental Series)

by Adams, Taeya

  Chapter Four

  Day One: March 26th, 2020; 4:09 pm

  Forres had the beast by its neck.

  She tried to push the undead thing off of her as the thing snapped at her. “Get off!” Forres said, gritting her teeth. The fowl beast stopped struggling and started drooling. Forres‘s jaw tensed in fear and she made a face as some landed on her cheek. The undead thing struggled again.

  Forres’ right hand reached over and searched for something, in pain. Her finger tips touched a handle of a knife. She wrapped her wounded hand around the knife handle and she pulled.

  But the knife didn’t move.

  She glanced over for a split second. The knife was in the head of the fat cook.

  Suddenly a crack came and she glanced over. The door was breaking. All Forres could think was she wasn’t going to make it. She was going to die here and wither from existence. Most of all, she would become one of them and she couldn’t bare that. She didn’t want to eat human flesh or walking around, searching for food. She dreads that the most, searching for food like a raccoon. Plus she wouldn’t win the game. The game she was now determined to win. Oh how much she wants to win and right now, she didn’t want to give up so she didn’t. Out of anger and with her right hand, she balled it and punched the undead thing square in the jaw. The blow was hard enough to knock the thing off of her.

  Forres quickly crawled to the cook and tried to pull the knife out his head. The High Pitched Zombie slowly got up. Its jaw was hanging by a thread of flesh. Come on!! Come on! Forres thought. The zombie got closer. Forres put her foot on the cook’s face. His ice cold blood oozes in between her toes. She began to pull harder as her foot pushed down too. An inch from her was the zombie. Forres pulled out the knife, turning and sticking it upward into the zombie’s jaw. The zombie goes down with a thump.

  The zombies from the cafeteria were suddenly free. The door had broken from its hinges.

  Forres raced to the air vent but she bumped the gas stove, turning on the gas. She took the vent off and whipped at the closest zombie of the pack. She began crawling in the vent. Half way in, a zombie pulls her leg back. She let out a cry as she slipped, hitting her head on the vent. Forres kicked the nurse zombie in the face and when she let go, Forres started crawling again. She came to a five way: right, left, straight, down or up. She chose to go up. “How does Spiderman do this?” Forres thought aloud, bracing herself and climbing upward.

  The zombies tried to get her but end up falling downward. They hit the bottom of the vent with a bang until it broke and were sent into another hospital room. Something grabbed her ankle, making her jump a bit and slid downward but she braced herself.

  She looks down, trying to hold on. Three zombies were clever and didn’t try to jump for her like the others.

  Forres begins to slip as she wiggled her foot. The others try to snap at her. Forres had to think and quick.

  She let go.

  She let go and now she was falling. It felt as if she was falling slowly like it was a bottomless pit. A scream got caught in her throat and her arms went up to her head. She hit the ground, hard, as the one who still had her foot, split his head open. She had fallen on him. Bone crunch under her, making a sick noise. The wind that was in her lungs left as fast as it came.

  Forres opened her brown eyes, just in time, and saw that two zombies had jumped down after her. Quickly, Forres rolled over as one hit its head of the ground. The other banged its head off another zombie’s skull, cracking its skull open. Brains and blood fly onto Forres.

  Forres scrambled to her feet and to the door. She threw up everything she had in her stomach – which wasn’t anything so she sat there gagging. After, she looked at herself she was covered in blood and brain. She starts to shake and didn’t know why. She tried to brush the blood and brains off of her, holding in her tears. The blood just smeared in her white gowns. Warm tear started to run, down her face as she rubbed harder.

  In the corner of her eyes, she saw movement. She looked over and saw some zombies were still alive and trying to get out the pile of the undead. Forres stiffened and looked down the hall she was in. She couldn’t tell where it lead but she followed it, limping a bit. She still was trying to rub out the blood but didn’t realize it.

  Ahead was a door, it looked as if it was the back door but she couldn’t tell. As soon as she saw the outside light, she bolts to the door in a limp run type thing. Running until she was out of the hospital.

  The sun blinded her. She shielded her eyes from the sun. When her eyes adjusted, she looked around. She was in the hospital cemetery except it wasn’t all sad. There were flowers growing from the ground. A dome was high up in the sky that if she looks up she couldn’t see it because in the distance was smoke in the air and it filled the top of it.

  Slowly, Forres started walking through the cemetery. She suddenly stopped. Her mouth forms into an ‘o’ as she looks at her bleeding right hand. She let out a painful scream, realizing that the adrenaline wore off and pain rippled throughout her body. Tears of pain run down her face. She starts to walk. Not paying attention to any surroundings as if the zombies were only in the hospital, she fell.

  She had fallen into an open grave into a casket. The roof on the casket broke from the weight. Forres goes to pick herself up and she saw a body below her. A fresh one as if it died today or yesterday. She let out a scream as she backed away from the body. The dead guy slowly rose. A scream escaped from her lips as hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her out of the grave.

  A long sword sliced off the dead guy’s head. “Let’s go!” A female human ordered her grabbing Forres from the ground. The girl ran ahead of Forres, slicing and dicing zombies, all around. They ran out of the cemetery, side-by-side, and being chased by a horde of undead, most of them elders yet they were fast.

  The girls ran down the street together and turned a corner, slipping into a store without being noticed. They duck behind a clothing rack as a group of undead passes. Once it was safe, the girl gets up and goes to the door. “Wait,” Forres calls. The girl stopped. “Where are you going?”

  “I saved you,” she said. “What? That’s not enough?” She put her hands on her hips, her long dark red hair hanging over her shoulder.

  Bewildered, Forres stuttered and answered, “N-no, no. It’s just you are skilled with that knife,” She pointed at the long knife that had blood on it still. “I thought… that we could stick together for a while…”

  The girl cocked her brow. “No thanks,” the girl started out of the store and Forres understood. Who would want to be grouped with a sick girl in a sick game?

  Forres bended down, putting her hands on her knees as she tried to breathe. She didn’t notice that a zombie came around from the check-out counter and goes to her. The zombie was close and finally let out a groan to tell Forres it was here. She turned just as the zombie’s head was cut off.

  Blood splattered on Forres as she turned away. When the zombie fell to the ground, she turned back to see the girl.

  “I have a group of survivors. We have food, water, and heat. Are you infected because I can’t risk that with my group?” The girl asked.

  “I’m stabbed in the hand…,” Forres looked down at her dirty feet.

  The girl rubbed the back of her neck. “Uh, bring clothing. We need to get you cleaned up and fed,” Forres started to smile when the girl said that but she added, “Then you are on your way.” Forres nodded. She grabbed a bag, and filled it with a bunch of clothing and shoes.

  They both started out, looking at both ways of the streets as if they were little kids and they were watching out for cars. “You better not just take me and eat me or something,” Forres joked.

  “Yeah, something like that…,” the girl joked back and smirked. Forres had to look at her twice to notice she was joking.

  Or was she?

  Chapter Five

  Day One: March 26th, 2020; 4:31 pm

  The girl led the way down the streets.

/>   Forres had no idea where they were going but she followed silently.

  “What’s your name?” The girl asked, looking back at her as they crossed a street.

  Forres looked up at the girl. “I’m…,” Who was she? Was she really the “doctor” told her she was? Did she even trust this person? She knew she had to trust someone in this new world. “Forres…,” She finally said.

  The girl cocked her thin brow. “Is that your real name?”

  Forres shrugged. “I don’t know…,”

  “How?”

  She shrugged again. “I woke up with no memory.”

  “Wow… Weird,” The girl said. Forres agreed and nodded. “Kind of cliché.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know,” The girl started. Forres stared at her. She really didn’t know. “You never watched a zombie movie or read a book?”

  “I’m sure I have… But I don’t remember it.”

  The girl looked at Forres for a second, wondering if she could trust the girl with no memory. “Well in every zombie movie or novel the main character always wakes up, usually they have a member unless that character was in the war, shot or sick or something.”

  Forres stared forward, still walking. It was a cliché beginning. Of course, she was the main character of her own life and maybe the hero of this story but why so cliché?

  “By the way, I’m Eleanor,” Eleanor replied. Anyone could easily tell Eleanor was part Native American from her tan skin. Eleanor had long dark red curls – from her mother being part Irish – and dark indigo eyes to match. She led the way into an alley then to an Auto Body shop door.

  Forres watched as Eleanor made a fist and raised it to the door. “This group of yours, are they nice?”

  Eleanor looked at Forres before she said, “You tell me,” and she knocked.

  *****

  Day One: March 26th, 2020, 4:45 pm

  Austin paced back and forth throughout the garage, rubbing his chin and thinking.

  He doesn’t really know where his thoughts have gone but he was worrying. His thoughts were on the nurse, Eleanor. And if she was dead or undead right now.

  “Will you calm down?” Cedric, a kid who decided to follow them when Austin’s brother’s head was blown to pieces, said. He lights a cigarette and takes a puff. When Austin paced to him, he grabbed the cigarette and instead of putting the cigarette out, he took a puff. He used to hate cigarettes. The smells of it made his stomach do flip flops but that was before his brother, Grant, was killed in front of him and Chyler. Oh Chyler. Her silence worries him the most. She hasn’t talked since Grant’s death.

  Cedric laughed a bit.

  Austin coughed and handed the kill stick back to Cedric when the secret code was banged on the garage door. Cedric put the cigarette out and raised his gun at the door as Austin opened the door. His gun was drawn too but wasn’t pointed at the door.

  Two girls come in: one was the nurse, Eleanor, and the other Austin didn’t know. Cedric lowered his gun. “Who are you?” Austin hissed. He stared at her as if she was an infected bird without wings. His eyes went up and down her. She was in a hospital gown with bare dirty feet and was cover in blood. He couldn’t tell if it was her blood or those things.

  “Easy! Calm yourself!” Eleanor ordered. “She’s just here to clean up and eat then she is on her way. Right?” Eleanor looked at the girl. The girl nodded.

  Austin stared at the girl. “Are you bit?” Cedric raised his gun at the girl, again.

  “N-no,” The girl stuttered. “I was stabbed…”

  “By who?” She shrugged, not wanting to tell him what really happened. Austin studied her and she looked away. He looked at Eleanor and cocked his brows. “Fine,” He said after a few seconds. “But she is on her way after,” Austin stepped aside for Eleanor and the girl.

  Eleanor motioned for the girl to follow her up the twisting stairs from the auto body garage. The girl followed, pulling the gown down a bit, awkwardly. Austin followed behind them. The three of them came to a huge room with a couple of offices and a door, leading to the bathroom. In the huge room were three girls, relaxing. Their eyes went over to the girl.

  Eleanor started to walk to the door leading to the bathroom. It takes a second for the girl to start following her. She tried to ignore the looks from the others as Eleanor held the door open for her.

  *****

  Day One: March 26th, 2020; 4:48 pm

  “Don’t mind them,” Eleanor told Forres as they entered a hall that had two doors on each side: one lady’s, one man’s. Eleanor goes to the ladies’ room and Forres followed. As soon as she saw the stalls, she goes in one and uses it. Eleanor let out a small laugh and washed her hands in the sink. She heard Forres let out a sigh before finishing, after what felt like a twenty minute pee.

  When Forres got out, she tried to wash her bloody hand, wincing when the hot water touched her right hand.

  “Let’s clean your hand first,” Eleanor sat on one of the sink next to Forres. She reached for Forres’s hand but stops. “Is it fine if I…,” Eleanor started but her voice trails away. She doesn’t know where she was going with it so she stops. Forres searched Eleanor’s face and after a second, she thrust her hand forward. Eleanor paused. “One second…”

  Eleanor leaves the bathroom, leaving Forres scared. She might just get trapped by this girl or even the guy. They’ll probably clean her then eat her. She shuttered at the thought of being eaten by humans. It sounded so gross. Eleanor came back with the first aid kit, relieving her. Eleanor also had a bottle of alcohol.

  “Here. Drink some. This will hurt,” Eleanor stated. Forres was caution as grabbed the bottle and took a big swig of some of the alcohol. The clear drink burned her throat as it slid down. She coughed and Eleanor grabbed the bottle and poured it on the girl’s hand.

  Forres let out a silent cry. She knew if she would have screamed a bunch of undead would be at their door. Her jaw tightened as she felt weak in the knees. The pain slowly stopped. She tried to control her legs that were shaking.

  “It’s done. That wasn’t so bad?” Eleanor joked. Forres glared at Eleanor and Eleanor let out a small laugh as she bandaged Forres’ hand which was now clean from the alcohol. She grabbed the bottle and drank the rest of the clear alcohol.

  Chapter Six

  Day One: March 26th, 2020; 4:46 pm

  “We can’t trust her…,”

  Jekaterina, or Jinx – whom was in the war before –, looked at Austin whom was watching the bathroom door as if Eleanor would never come out again. His strong arms crossed over his chest and his face as somber as can be. “She was hurt…” Jinx scowled, fixing the new girl food.

  “I don’t care if she was the freaking president,” Austin threw his hands up. “You have to learn humans will do anything to survive now, even if that means killing and stealing. We can’t just let in random ones in Willie Nellie.”

  Jezabel, the youngest girl and Jinx’s child, laughed. She was the only one who rarely laughs in the group anymore. Everything is serious now and not much time for laughing but she is so young. Jinx was always filled with joy whenever she heard Jezabel laugh. “You said ‘Willie Nellie’.”

  Jinx smiled at Jezabel then looked at Austin before repeating, “She was hurt,”

  “The world is different now,” Austin explained, frustrated. “We can’t just go to store to buy stuff. We need to preserve our stuff. The world’s basically over…”

  “The world is only over when we forget we’re still human,” Jezabel sang like a bird. Even though Jezabel was only ten, she was smarter than most. Under her sun blonde curls was a brain and under her chest between her small lungs was the biggest heart anyone could own. She was the kind of kid that saw the world differently. She knew, even at the age of ten, that everyone was going to die. And she had a plan to live it good and do whatever she could before she dies which could be tomorrow or at any random time.

  Austin threw up his hands and groaned. “You guys ar
e hopeless. You don’t get it.”

  When Austin left the room, Jinx winked at Jezabel.

  *****

  Day One: March 26th, 2020; 4:58 pm

  Forres thought about telling Eleanor but she didn’t know if she could trust her.

  “Did Greene put you up to this?” Forres blurted out as they were walking out the bathroom. Forres felt clean with her new clothing: a long sleeve plain green shirt which was her tighter then wanted, dark pants and just regular shoes. Her body was as clean as she could get it.

  “Who?” Eleanor opened the door and sideways looked at Forres.

  “Uh, never mind,” Forres replied. “Just forget it.”

  Eleanor let Forres go first but really she was narrowing her dark blue eyes.

  Everyone looked at Forres. “Hi!” The youngest girl said and hopped up and goes to her. “I’m Jezabel,” She held out her right hand for Forres. Forres raised her right bandaged hand. Jezabel then held out her left hand without letting the smile fall off of her face.

  Forres took her left hand and shook once. “I’m Forres,” she said and the noticed her voice had cracked. She felt eyes on her, not the others eyes, burning eyes. Eyes that burns her inside out. She looked over to see a guy in the corner with a cowboy hat on. He was broad compared to Forres and he was proudly showing his gun off that was on his hip.

  “Are you hungry, sweetie?” The eldest female said while standing. She was average height compared to short Forres and looked as if she was in her early 30’s. She had high cheek bones like Jezabel, telling Forres that she was Jezabel’s mother. Forres felt relieved that Jezabel was with her mother. Jezabel had to be only ten or less. Jezabel’s mother had caramel brown hair with emerald eyes. Of course, everyone was skinner than Forres.