"Come on, Adira, get up!" The deep male voice yelled at her.

     "I can't." She breathed as she tried pulling herself up over the wall.

     "Yes you can." He said in a stern voice, "Now get up."

     She tries again but can't make it up, "Ow!" she whined, "I can't. Stupid thing gave me a splinter."

     "Up, Now!" He yelled sounding like a drill sergeant.

     "I can't when I have a splinter." She told him as she moved her elbow up onto the top of the wood wall she was hanging on to.

     She has been stuck on the wall for at least twenty-five minutes. This was her fifth time trying to get over the wall since that morning when the two of them got out there to train. Every time she didn't get over he would make her start over without any water and so far she hasn't made it over.

     "A splinter shouldn't stop you from getting over the wall!" He told her.

     "Splinters hurt." She told him, "I can't pull myself up if I have to avoid using one of my fingers."

     "That should not stop you!" He yelled out every word viciously, "If a bunch of ruthless human beings are coming after you, do you think they will just stop because you got a boo-boo?" He said going into a baby voice when saying the last word, "No!" He screamed, "They are going to grab you and do whatever the hell they want. Nothing stops a ruthless man. Now get over the god damn wall!"

     She took a few breaths as her hands held onto the top of the wall and her feet stuck to the side of the wall. She wiggled her fingers over the wall to get a good secure grip making sure she wasn't going to fall back or let go. She pushed herself of the wall with her feet as to make sure she got a better grip then before. She let out a breath and began to pull herself off.

     Something fell in front of the wondering girl a few feet away, making her slightly jump. She takes a step forward to get a closer at what looks like a ripped up bag that has been with an uncaring owner fell from the sky but another one fell right next to the other thing. She looks up at the sky and all around trying to figure out where it came from. She squints as she took very slow and careful steps towards the two. When she got close enough the ripped up bag moved up and tries to grab the poor girl, whose eyes widen as its arm stretched out to grab her and screams as she stumbles back.

     The once bag, now identified as an infected, started crawling towards the girl staring it down in horror. Before the infected gets to her, a thud sound rang through her ears at the same time the infected human slanted to the side, making the shoulder hit the floor. This gave the girl the time to smash her foot into the head, which she quickly took after debating for a moment. She stomps on the head but it only does little damage to the head but she didn't know that. She stumbles away in fear it may come back in the second she stood near it.

     A deep groaning sound comes from the half indented head causing the girl to look at it in confusion. Suddenly she something hits her chest and knocks her off her feet sending her to the floor. Her butt hits the hard Asphalt with a thud.

     "Come on, Madison." A young male said as he moves towards the infected.

     He lifts his foot up and smashes the head even more, causing the head to make multiple cracking noises as his foot became more into the head and the blood gushing out getting all over his shoes and jeans.

     "Sorry, Tyler." Madison's soft voice ran out of her light pink lips.

     Tyler walks up to Madison and stretches his arm, "Its fine. Just be more careful, would ya?"

     Madison nods, "Okay." She takes his hand and he lifts her with ease then turns her head to the smashed head surrounded by a pool of jet black blood, "You sure it's dead?" She asks with caution.

     "Yeah." He breathes out and places his hands on his hips as he looks at the corpse, "Destroy the brain is what Richie told me to do."

     The brother and sister duo just stood there looking at the infected face down in the street. They look around the city to see where the two bodies came from. Some kind of movement in the corner catches Tyler's eye and when he looks down he immediately pushes Madison back as he takes multiple steps back. The infected with the smashed in head moves its head up as parts of the head falling off. The hand lifts with the head in a rusty robotic way as it makes its effort to get back up.

     Madison looks down to see what Tyler was seeing and she immediately moves back on her own with eyes widen full of fear and confusion, "Oh my god what is that?" She screeched as her hand automatically took hold of Tyler's shirt.

     "I don't know I-I smashed its head." Tyler stutters, he too in fear and confusion, "It should be dead."

     "Madison!" A voice behind them yells, "Tyler!"

     Tyler turns his head to look over his shoulder but only for a moment before turning his attention by the infected thing trying to get back up.

     "You guys okay?" The voice was now standing next to them.

     "Chad?" Madison whispers making Chad look over at her then at what they were looking at.

     "What the hell." Chad whispers in fright, "Its head is smashed. H-How is that – How is that possible?"

     "I don't know." Tyler breathes out, "What do we do? Do we just leave it?" Tyler looks up at Chad.

     "I don't know." Chad says in a shaky breath as he shakes his head not taking his gaze off the infected.

      When the infected finally gets up it starts making its way in Chad and the sibling's direction, causing them to back up. They slowly walk backwards with every step it takes towards them. They didn't know what to do or how to kill it. It confused them on how anything could survive a fall and a smashed head like nothing happened. It slowly picks up its place from slowly walking to moving even faster with every step it takes causing the trio to walk backwards and the boys getting ready to shoot or fight if they need to but they had a problem...

     They didn't know how to kill it so even if they managed to knock him done and get an opportunity to kill it they wouldn't know what to do or what to aim for. Richie only has been around the ones that go down with just a blow to the head but with this one, it wasn't the case.

      "Hey, um-" Chad started, "Richie."

     "Yeah." Chad faintly heard his voice reply.

     "Um-" Chad said watching the thing begin to sprint at them, "Oh god."

     "Shit." Tyler mumbled out as Madison screams.

     Tyler turns picking up Madison as he runs away from the thing chasing them.

     "Richie!" Chad screams out in fear as they run to Richie.

     Richie looks up from his gun he was checking out and turns around to see Tyler and Chad heading his way. A confused look crawls onto his face as he didn't see anything except the terrified look on their faces. He allows his arms to drop to his sides as he watches them come up to him. It was when Tyler and Chad separate just a little that he saw the undead human charging after them. His eyes widen and he quickly cocks the magazine back in its holder before lifting it up pointing it at the monster. It wasn't until it got close that he sees its head was damaged and the top missing piece missing from it.

     Tyler and Chad stop next to Richie, whose color from its face flushed to a pale sick color. Even though he knew without a head he couldn't kill it. Or just didn't know how.

     "How do we kill it?" Chad asks panic fully in his voice.

     "I don't know." Richie answered with a shrug, "Usually a jab to its head puts them down. This never happened before."

     The monster leaps at Richie, tackling him to the floor and making Madison scream even more as she saw the thing attack Richie. His breathing becomes heavy as he tries to push the thing off of him with a few grunts comes rolling off his tongue. Chad grabs the thing by its collar and the back of its shirt and lifts it off of Richie before tossing it away from them. Richie got back on his feet ready to fight the infected. The infected came rushing at the two older boys, who moved to the side allowing the undead pass them and run into the doors behind them.

     They look at each other as the thing turns around to face them. Tyler was standing in front of Madison to the side as he watches and waits to see what the things move is. Unfortunately for Tyler it lunges for him making a fast reflex to push Madison away from him with a little too much force than he intended to do. The force of the push makes Madison to fall back and hit her head on the concrete at the same time Tyler's back met the cement. They wrestle on the ground trying to gain dominance over one another.

     Tyler and the infected both were grabbing onto each other laying on the side allowing Tyler to get to his feet. The two pushes each other around smashing into walls and hitting cars as one kept the other away. Tyler pins the undead against the wall and with one hand tries to find the gun he was carrying around. He couldn't feel it in the back of his pants where he kept it so he frantically checks his pockets and anywhere else he could think of that would hold a gun. Tyler cursed under his breath when he didn't find it anywhere. Looking back at the headless thing he pulls it to the floor and pins it down by the arms.

     "How do we kill it?" Tyler yells as he tries to stay on top of the frantic thing.

     "I don't know!" Richie answers.

     "Can I get some help?" He puts his foot down to stop him from tipping over.

     Richie checks his gun making sure it's loaded before lifting it up and aiming. He steadies his breathing before pulling the trigger and letting his wrist shoot upwards. Tyler lets out a groan and his head jerked back.

     "Not at me!" Tyler hisses at him.

     "Oh my god I'm so sorry." Richie says taking aim again, "Are you okay?"

     "Just shoot." Tyler orders, "At him this time!" He adds.

     "I can't get a shot you're in the way!" Riche tells him, "Move!"

     Tyler does what he was told and rolls to the side away from the undead. As soon as Tyler moved, Richie began shooting bullet after bullet charging into the soft tissue of the undead. Bullets pierce through multiple organs: like the lungs kidney's and stomach, but none stop him. Richie pulls the trigger again but all it does is make a clicking sound causing Richie to look at it in confusion.

     "Are you out of bullets?" Chad asks in disbelieve.

     Richie pulls the trigger only to get another clicking sound from the gun, "Yes I am. Believe it or not guns run out of bullets."

     "Shit." Chad curses under his breath.

     "Hey, dumbass?" Richie calls out to Chad, who looks at him, "You have a gun too. Use it."

     Chad mumbles profanities under his breath as the words hit him and pulls his gun out of the back of his waist strap. He pushes the button at the bottom of the trigger making the magazine slide out. He catches it and makes sure there are bullets in it before pushing it back in and taking it off of safety. He takes aim but a piece of glass catches his attention as it falls right in front of him. Chad looks up to see a dark shadow of a machine coming from the window five stories above him. He looks at what was below it and sees the undead right in its path. Tyler holds his position on the floor as he looked up to follow Chad's gaze and sees it too.

     "Madison!" Tyler gets up holding his arm where he was tapped him, "Madison!" he called out when he sees her laying on the floor next to the wall unconscious.

     "Tyler!" Chad calls out to him, "Move!"

     Instead of moving away, Tyler moves closer to get hold of his little sister's unconscious body. He bends over, slips his arms under her arms from behind her and pulls her away from the danger zone. Tyler climbs on top of his sister covering her own body with his, her head with his arms and puts his head down. Chad and Richie jumps further away from the machine falling to the ground. The undead that finally got up to his feet at the same time the machine crushes him and smashes to pieces.

     Chad, Tyler and Richie lift their heads when they think its okay to get back up. The scene between the three was gross with all the black liquid everywhere from the all over the pieces of the machine, the floor, walls and some splattered on the car next to it as well. Multiple clinking noises erupt and stop with a thud causing Tyler to look at his feet to see an ink cartridge at his feet. He gets to his feet along with Chad and Richie on the other side and picks up the cartridge.

     "It's was a printer." Tyler informs the two boys, who were staring at the broken printer and the black blood.

     Everyone looks up at where the printer came from only to see a shadow stumble into the shadows. Just at that moment Dan comes running up to them with blood dripping down his forehead and blood in his left hand. They all could hear Dan's heavy breathing and last few steps as he stopped right next to Chad.

     "Whoa, what happened here?" Dan asks examining the scene.

     Richie turns to him with an annoyed look on his face, "Where the hell were you?"

     "I was going to the bathroom." He points to the alley a few feet away, "Are you okay?" He gently grabs his arm looking at Richie with soft eyes.

     Richie gently nods.

"Thanks for the help." Chad sarcastically said.

     "What happened to you?" Richie nods towards the blood on Dan, "We were fighting those soulless monster and you look like you've been through hell."

     "It's not mine." Dan immediately explains, "I was walking over here when I felt something dripping on my head and I stopped to see what it was." He stops to catch his breath before continuing, "When I did that more drops came down so I lifted my hand and saw this that was falling on me."

      "That's not yours?" Richie asks.

      Dan shakes his head.

     Tyler joins the three men with Madison in his arms, causing everyone to look at Madison's unconscious body giving him a worried look, "She's not dead." He said as he sniffs, "Just knocked out. I checked her pulse. What happened to you?" He nods towards Dan's bloody hand.

     "Not mine." Dan informed him.

     "Whose is it then?" Tyler asks.

     "I don't know." Dan looks at the blood, "It was dripping from up there." He points to the shattered window.

     They all look at where he was pointing. They tried to see what was up there but couldn't see anything. Tyler's eyes travels to the second shattered window that the printer came from and noticed a shadow stumble back into the shadow. All of a sudden, a crashing noise destroyed the silence making everyone look up.

     "The hell was that?" Dan asks as he walks away from the building to try and get a glimpse inside the window.

     Tyler lets out a gasps and goes to open the door but realizing he had Madison in his arms. He lifts her up more and grabs the handle to the door pulling it open before carefully running in. Chad suddenly looks at Tyler and runs after him calling his name. Richie looks over at Dan calling him and then rushing after Chad with Dan following after he looks around. Chad continued to call after Tyler as he followed him into the staircase soft heavy thuds echoing through the stairs with every footstep the two took.

     The door clicks close but was suddenly re-opened slamming against the wall behind it more footsteps adding to the first two. Tyler mentally counted the amount of levels the broken window was and watches every number that was painted white on every door he passed until he got to five. He questioned himself on whether or not it was level five or level four that it was on. In order for him to open the door he had to bend his knees to get to a lower level and push the handle down but he couldn't pull the door open. He looks down at his sister and tries it again but was immediately stopped by Chad's voice telling him to wait.

     Chad jumps down the rest of the three steps and gets in front of Tyler, "I should go first just to be cautions." He looks at Tyler waiting for him to reply.

     It was then that Tyler noticed the black color blood splatter that covered the bottom of the door and walls.

     Tyler looks down at his sister once more before nodding, "Yeah, you should."

     "Ready?" Chad asks which he receives a nod.

     Chad takes a deep breath before swinging the door open weapon aimed and ready to fire. He carefully walks in, constantly looking from side to side. Tyler doing the same just to make sure Chad didn't miss anything. They walked down the hall Tyler whisper yelling for Adira but not getting a response back. The loud sound of the door opening made Tyler look back over his shoulders just too barely see figures holding up a weapon.

     He turns back to look forward knowing it was Richie and Dan. Tyler sees drips of the black blood along the walls and on the carpet due to the moon's light allowing the blood to shine. When they arrive at the end of the hall, they see a broken window. Tyler quickly walks up to it pushing Chad out of the way and looks down. They all see one of the infected that fell right in front of Madison just a few moments ago.

     Richie catches something shining at the bottom of his eyes and allows his gaze to follow it. There on the window stood a still enacted pointy shard of glass drenched in blood. Not the infected blood but red human blood still fresh and drops racing to the bottom of the glass. Dan sees where Richie is staring and soon one by one the others see the red blood shaded glass. Chad crouches down and touches it just to examine it.

     "That's human blood isn't it?" Richie asks.

     "Yeah." Chad whispers with a nod.

     Tyler looks out the window to the floor below them then allows his gaze to go a few feet to the side where he sees the shattered printer. He drifts his eyes to the side of the building just to be met with another broken window on the same level. He quickly shifts Madison in his arms before rushes out as fast as he can moves to the next door. Chad looks behind him quickly following Tyler, Richie and Dan.

     The first thing Tyler sees when he walks in was the overturned table with a grey hand that showed all the black veins going through it sticking out of it with black liquid running out from under the table. The deeper he goes in to the room the more he sees the destroyed office room: Tables either on their side or leaning against another, papers, scrunched up or folded, were scattered all over the floor along with multiple other office supplies. Tyler maneuvers his way through all the scattered stuff and tossed over tables, gripping on to Madison like his life depended on it. His breath became shaky as he continued to see blood splatters along the floor following them to where they lead. The more he followed the more papers and tables had blood splatter both red human blood and the infected black blood but then the papers start to have red bloody papers on them along with two tables on their sides facing each other.

     Then he sees it. Between both the tables unconscious is a bloody Adira laying on the floor. She was laying on her back, on leg was stretch out as the other was bent and leans against the other, one hand is laying on top of her stomach as the other slightly bent and lays across the floor and her head turned to the side facing Tyler with her hair out of her face but covering her neck.

     What do you think happened to Adira? Do you think she's dead or not?

How long is a novel? Anyone? Is it suppose to be a certain amount of chapters or the authors choice?

     Again really hope you enjoyed the chapter, if so please press the star button (if you think this chapter deserves it), leave a comment below with any questions, answering the questions above, helpful criticism or just simply telling your opinion if you love it or not, what you don't like or do, Etc.

     Thank you all for reading and staying with me so far I really appreciate it. :) I will be updating Wed. or Friday depending when I edit the next chapter. If you would want to know about when I'll be updating and when you should be expecting it, please go to my profile and follow me :)