Welcome to Part Two of Survive!!! I hope you enjoy!!!

"How many are there?!" Nick seethes, shotgun in hand.

"At least a hundred." Caleb growls back, knuckles white as he grips his knives tightly.

"How are we gonna get through them all?!" I whisper urgently, glancing around. "We're stuck in an alley with nothing behind us but a long tunnel leading to a wall!"

"We have to get through them to escape." Nick says tightly, voice hoarse.

Caleb closes his eyes, taking a deep breath as if to steady himself. "Ok guys. We stick together, no matter what. If we go down, we go down together." Caleb slowly stands, raising his knifes. He turns to us and gives a weak half smile. "Ready?"

"Ready." Nick and I answer together, voices strong, if not a little weary.

"Then let's go!!"

We rush forward, straight into the heart of the hoard. They swarm around us, forming a messy ring, leaving no chance of escape. It was too late to turn back now.

"Back to back!" I order my friends.

The zombies eye us hungrily, closing in.

I hear Nick start firing his gun to my left, Caleb charging a group of the nasty creatures with a yell.

I yell a battle cry, slicing through the neck of the nearest zombie.

A small ring surounds me, cutting me off from my group, and I turn slowly in a circle, eying my enemies.

All at once, I drop down, twisting my body in a circle, legs out, knocking them all off their feet.

I jump to my feet and pull out my pistol in a heartbeat, shooting them all in the head.

I look up, bullets flying at anything that came too close. I hear Nick's own gun firing from somewhere behind me, glancing at Caleb to my right, who is screaming at the monsters, attacking anything that dare come close.

A flash of movement caught my eye from in front of me, making me realize that I had lost focus. I turn around to find one of the hideous creatures mere inches from me. I cry out, but the sound was caught in my throat as the zombie was thrown to the left.

I stood there for a heartbeat, confusion radiating from my body. I shake my head quickly,  shooting the zombie that had fallen to the ground by some sort of force. I scan the area in front if me. All I find are zombies and fog. Suddenly, I glimps a figure in the heart hoard that seemed to stand out in some strange way, disappearing behind one of the zombies.

I shake myself, redirecting my attention back to the creatures before me.

For the next hour, I stab and shoot, taking out ten twenty, thirty of the horrid zombies.

The only sound on the ruined streets is gunfire and moans as zombies fall one by one. My mind shuts down after a while, and the only thing that I could think about was firing my gun at anything that moves.

A cry erupts from behind me in the silence that had blanketed my mind, and I whirl.

I squint, trying to find the source of the terrified yelp. A few yards away, Caleb collapses to the ground, cursing violently.

I imediantly sprint to his side, shooting anything in my path. A far gone monster advances on my friend, and I had never seen so much terror on the fearless boy's face. I reach his side not a heatbeat too soon, firing my gun at  the zombie that reaches for his leg to infect him and change him into one of the mindless creatures that stood before us.

I kneel down on one knee beside my friend, firing my pistol at anything that came to close.

"You ok?!" I yell to him between gunshots.

"Fine!!" He yells back. "One of the zombies got past me and knocked my knifes out of my hands. Gave me a good set of bruises!"

"Did it bite you?!" I shout, fear edging my voice. If he had been bitten.... I couldn't bare the idea of having to put my best friend down.

"No!!" Caleb shouts back.

I force back my sigh of utter relief, returning my full attention to the small hoard before me. I continue to fire, keeping the monsters at bay.

"BEHIND YOU!!!"

I twist around, shooting a zombie that had barely been a few inches from us.

"THANKS!!!" I yell to Nick, who had returned his attention to his own group. If he hadn't warned us, Caleb and I would be knee deep in shit right now.

I shoot and shoot, taking out rows and rows of the vicious monsters. I push down the nausea at knowing that these were once people with friends and families, and I was killing them. Murdering them.

I pull the trigger again, aiming for the forehead of a zombie with a shreaded orange shirt and ripped pants, revealing the sickly pale skin with that strange green tint to it. It's short messy brown hair was gone in clumps, but I could tell it had once been a man,  maybe in his twenties. But this time, when I went to fire, no gunshot reaches my ears.

"Crap!!!" I curse, bringing my pistol to my face. I open the case, revealing an empty holder. My mind begins screaming in panic.

"What is it?!" Nick yells over his shoulder. He was slowly backing toward us, skillfully taking out anything that came to close to him.

"I'm out of bullets!!" I hiss. Caleb curses, his face going deadly pale.

"Nick!! I need help!!" I scream, glancing over at him in terror.

He turns to me to run to my side, but only finds a group of zombies that fills he space between us. He wasn't going to make it in time.

"LUKE!!!"

I whirl back around, seeing Caleb wide- eyed. Three zombies advanced, closer and closer.

I yank my spare knife from my boot, pointing it at them.

"I'm sorry Caleb!!" I cry over the racket. I take a deep breath, squeezing my eyes shut.

I'd heard of one of these moments. Where you see your life flash before your eyes, and time seems to slow to an agonizing crawl as death comes closer. I began to see all the moments of my life that had filled me with such joy and love. I saw my mother, who had always been there for me when I needed her. I saw my friends, some now dead or infected by this horrid virus that those damn scientists had accidently created.

And I saw my girlfriend. She had always been the light of my life. I had never felt so... Happy. For the two years we had been together, she'd been the angel of my sorrows, the beautiful goddess that shone as bright as the sun. And I knew she was dead. Just like my mother, and my friends. Caleb and Nick were all that was left.

And now....

Thud thud thud!!!

My eyes snap open, and time returned back to its normal pace, only for me to discover that the three zombies that were about to end everything where gone.

No, not gone. They were laying in a heap on the ground, dead.

I look up, and my eyes imediantly lock on something. Someone.

"Caleb," I whisper. No response. I don't dare take my eyes from the person's eyes. From the zombie's eyes. "Caleb!"

A gunshot fires, and the zombies infront of me start to drop. Nick comes up beside me.

"Here!" He throws me his gun, drawing a butcher knife.

I snap out of my drunken daze, gripping the gun in my hands. Nick charges at a group to my right, slashing through them liks jelly. He picks up my pistol quivkly, reloding it with skilled, efficient hands.

I risk a glance at Caleb, only to find the boy passed out on the ground. I curse at him.

I stand, firing my new gun. I look through the eyepiece (Idk guns 😂), focusing on my targets, taking them out with one, maybe two shots each. I take out the group of ten easily, the shotgun pressed tightly against my bruised shoulder.

As I focus on another zombie, I end up focusing on it's eyes.

The zombie stares back at me, but unlike the cold, unfeeling gaze of the other zombies, I see emotion in it's eyes. Actual emotion. It's eyes seem almost pleading, fearful. Are those tears filling those intelligent, alive green eyes? It stands there, not making an advance to attack me, or to run. It just stands there. Almost as if it were laying the choice out for me. I could shoot it, and it wouldn't make any move to fight.

Or I could....

Slowly, I lower the gun, my eyes never leaving the creature. I could see the girl in the zombie, see the freckles littering her skin. Her skin was so pale with that sickly green coloring, obviously a zombie, but I can tell something was different. Cuts and blood cover her sickly skin, clothes torn. Scratches cover her exposed arms and legs and neck, and I spot teeth marks on her wrist. Bitten. She had been bitten; infected. But her eyes held emotion, as if she was still alive under that death, fighting to stay alive, to stay sane. Fighting death for life, insanity for humanity.

Familiarity sparks in my chest, and I struggle to place it.

My mind suddenly starts back up again. I realize that I had been staring at her, and she had taken a step toward me, hesitating before taking another.

Nick comes up beside me, pointing the pistol at her.

Without a moments thinking, my hand snaps out, hitting the gun out of his hands.

"What the hell, Luke?!" He yells, shooting me an incredious look.

"Wait." I whisper to him staring at the zombie.

"What-"

"Wait." I hiss.

Slowly, I take a step forward. The zombie-girl watches me fearfully.

"It... It's ok." I tell her carefully.

"What the hell are you-"

"Shut up." I growl at Nick. I turn back to the zombie-girl. "I have a feeling that you're different. You still have a person inside you, even though I don't know how the hell that's possible. Am I right?"

At first, she doesn't respond. But then... "Yes."

I almost jump in suprise at the voice. That familiar feeling tugs at my chest again, but I can't find a place for it.

"Who are you?" I ask her, daring another step forward. Whether I was insane, or just flat out stupid, I couldn't tell. But something was clawing and screaming at me, telling me that this girl was different, that she was right.

"I... I don't know." She replies quietly. He eyes dart between me and Nick, who was staring at me as if I had gone insane. "Please, I want the same thing you do. I want to help you."

Nick scoffs, both in astonishment and bitterness.

"Luke, it's a zombie! Snap out of it! It's going to become just like the others soon, even if it isn't now!"

I glance at him, then at the girl. It might make me the craziest man on the damn earth, but I consider sparing her. She had saved me and Caleb. She had spoken clearly, with real, human emotion. By some god-given miracle, she was still sane. I can't just leave her here when she can help us. When I can help her.

Slowly, I walk forward, stopping a yard away from her.

"You have to promise that you won't attack us, that you'll help us." I tell her. She nods reasuringly. I take a deep breath, waiting for my mind to scream that this was insane, that I should just kill her and be done with it. When nothing happens, I then reach my hand out to her. "Don't make me regret this." I growl at her.

Slowly, she takes a few steps forward, hesitating before reaching out her own bloody hand, grasping mine. Her fingers felt so right in mine, as if they had been shaped for me, that I had held them my entire life. I pull her with me as I walk back to Nick and Caleb, the former gaping at me in absolute astonishment.

"Are you out of your-"

"Grab his arms." I interrupt my friend, bending down to grip Caleb's legs.

"But-"

"Grab Caleb's arms." I repeat, ignoring his protests completely. He obeys reluctantly, gripping Caleb's muscled arms. Together, we lift him, but we barely make it a yard before dropping him back down on the bloody road.

"God, he weighs a ton!" Nick pants, brancing his hands on his knees. "How the hell are we supposed to get him back to the base?!"

Before I can answer, I feel a light touch on my lower back, and I turn to see the zombie-girl staring at me wearily.

"I can help." She croaks softly. I hesitate, but she adds, "I'm strong. I can carry him."

Reluctantly, I step to the side, and she limps past me, kneeling beside Caleb. She eases her arms underneath his, with such gentleness that it stunned me.

She stood after a moment, Caleb resting in her arms. It was a strange sight, to see this bloody zombie carrying my friend, who was almost twice her size, and obviously three times her weight.

Nick stares at her, and I might have laughed at the expression plastered on his face, had we not been in the open, where anything could see us and attack.

"We need to hurry," I urge the two, elbowing Nick ruffly in the side to kick him from his state of shock. "We need to get out of the open."

The zombie-girl limps after me as I lead the way to our base, Nick following close behind. We walk in silence, the abandoned streets of my once-beatutiful city as silent as darkness.

I slip into an alley, cutting across the block to the familiar road of Dowl Avenue.

"Come on," I motion to two behind me. "We need to regroup."

Word count: 2458 words.

Jeez, that's the longest part I've ever writen!!! I really hope you enjoy, and please feel free to give some constructive criticism if I did anything wrong!!
Why was this strange girl still sane after she was infected?
Will Caleb be okay?
Why is Luke constantly getting these feelings of familiarity about the new arrival?
What are they going to do with her?
Find out in the next part!!!