Keith

The scream made the glass windows of the stores vibrate, and the group had to cover their ears, except when Keith glanced at the others, he noticed Heather covering up the kids ears and not her own and she looked like she was in pain. He cursed under his breath and glared at the zombie which, out of nowhere, stopped and stared at the man on the ground. He had been trying desperately to get away, but he seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, and the scream had forced him to stop and cover his own ears. Keith knew he didn’t have long with how much blood he had lost and knew it would be useless to try and help him.

“We should go now, before it starts charging at us,” Keith said, and Caz nodded in confirmation.

“Yes, let’s hurry!” he said, and started to quickly and quietly walk towards the entrance. Heather didn’t look good, and Keith knew her ears must be hurting, if not damaged, but he didn’t have time to talk to her as the zombie moved forward towards the man, almost like a predator. The man looked back and tried to scream but it came out gargled, then the zombie went for him, it’s long bony fingers grabbing onto what ever it could get to first and started to rip him apart and stuffing it into it’s huge mouth. Blood spilled everywhere and dripped from the zombie’s mouth down it’s own body, covering it in red. Keith quickly looked away and reached the glass entrance first, then motioned for Heather to go first through then Caz.

As Caz went to the door, the zombie suddenly screamed again which surprised them all and made Caz slip on the glass on the floor, forcing him to catch the doorframe for balance, but the moment Caz’s hand grabbed onto the doorframe, he cursed loudly and pulled his hand to himself, blood dripping from it.

“Fuck!” Keith gasps, as he saw the blood then looked at the zombie that, for some reason, had its focus on them. He quickly pushed Caz out through the doorframe and followed close behind.

“Oh my god!” Heather gasped and rushed to Caz’s side. “You need to stop the bleeding,” she ushered him and was about to take off her backpack to search through it when suddenly they could hear the zombie.

“Let’s get away from here first! I don’t think it’s going to stay in there much longer,” Keith warned, and they all started to run, but Keith was right, even though he wished he wasn’t, because the zombie suddenly came through the entrance, and it was aimed at them. Keith had a feeling it was because of the blood since it didn’t react to them until Caz had cut his hand. Keith held his bat ready, and he could hear Heather tell Caz to be careful, but Caz dismissed her. Keith glanced quickly their way and could see he was holding up his rifle and getting ready to shoot but he looked like he was in pain. Keith clenched his teeth and took a step forward towards the zombie and yelled at it to get its attention, but its focus was solely on Caz. It’s the blood, he thought, it can smell the blood. Keith quickly turned around and moved quickly towards Caz.

“Smear your hand on me,” he said to Caz. He looked confused at Keith and probably wondered if he had gone crazy. “It’s reacting to blood but not sound, and it’s only focusing on you, so if you smear your bloody hand on me, it might focus on me if I get closer to it for it to smell,” Keith explained hastily. He could see Caz was thinking but he didn’t let him think for too long, since the zombie could be charging at them at any moment. “Just do it!” He yelled, startling Caz for a second but he did as Keith said and placed his hand on Keith’s clothes, making sure to get as much blood on him. Keith wasn’t sure if it was enough, but it was better than nothing and he turned his attention to the zombie which was making its way to them, sniffing the air as it tried to locate them, which the wind made harder. 

“Let the wind help you,” Caz said in a slightly strained voice. “The wind can take the smell of blood to it,” Caz finished explaining and Keith knew what he meant. He quickly checked his surroundings and noticed how Heather's hair blew in the wind. It helped that she had longer hair then them, as it helped him getting a better idea of the direction of the wind, and he dumped his backpack onto the ground, praying none of the cans of food broke, and went in the opposite direction getting as close as he could to the zombie. When the wind hit the zombie again it's focus went directly towards Keith. He grinned a little nervously and held his bat up, and then, as it charged, so did he. 

The zombie was crazy fast, and Keith had to be faster even though he could barely keep up. He hadn’t really trained for this, so he also had to use his strength to keep it at bay. He secretly wished he had kept up with his usual training, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He bashed at the zombie, hitting it in the chest which startled it, but only for a short moment before it lashed out at him. It caught his shirt and ripped it a little but lost its grip. Keith then tried to quickly hit its legs, but the zombie didn’t give him a chance before it tried to hit him again. 

This time Keith managed to bash its hand which broke with a snap, echoing into the empty parking lot. It didn’t seem bothered by it at first but it was like it realized it couldn’t use the hand and got furious. It screamed loudly, forcing Keith to cover his ears before it tried to attack him. A bang sounded and Keith noticed a bullet hole on the zombies shoulder. He knew Caz had probably tried to hit its head but missed, which could be because of the scream but it was enough for the zombie to turn its head as it stopped screaming. Keith saw it as an opportunity to hit the back of the zombie’s head, except when he thought the blow was going to kill it, it didn’t, instead the zombie was stuck onto his bat and when he pulled, the zombie followed. 

“Fuck! Give me back my bat,” he groaned as he tried to pull free his bat. The zombie flayed its arms, trying to hit Keith but when it turned its head, Keith followed. “Caz! Shoot it!” He yelled as he knew he wasn’t going to be able to hit it if it kept stuck on his bat. He kept the zombie as still as possible, knowing if he moved around too much Caz could end up miss or worse, hit Keith. A bang sounded and Keith could see the bullet on the side of the zombie’s head, then another shot which was just what Keith needed as it loosened the skin by the bat, which freed it from being stuck on the zombie, and now it was only skin being stuck on the bat, but it was still useful.

With the skull exposed, the zombie seemed confused, and Keith saw it as an opportunity to hit the zombie’s legs, forcing it to its knees before he hit its head. It fell for over and landed face first onto the ground, where he hit its head again, which almost exploded onto the concrete ground. Keith was panting hard as his bat was buried deep into its skull before he stepped on its back and pulled the bat free then dried the sweat from his forehead and headed towards the others. Heather was already cleaning Caz hand who was cursing as she poured something over it, which seemed to hurt.

“I can’t do much right at this moment, but this should be good enough for now until we find shelter where we are a bit safer,” Heather said as she hid away her first aid. Caz nodded with clench jaw and looked at Keith.

“Nice fight, but we should leave. Other zombies might be on the way already,” he said and glanced around. “We should go back to the train, it’s hidden well in the forest and you can’t see it from the road, plus it might be enough shelter if the weather changes,” Caz explained and Keith nodded. He wasn’t going to argue since he thought the same and they all hurried off, as quietly as possible and did their best to avoid the big road. Keith wondered what happened to the others from the car but decided not to waste his breath on it, as they were probably already dead.

When they reached the train car, it had started to drizzle. They hurried to check their surroundings before they entered the train. Since it was an passenger train car there was plenty two person seats, not really long enough as a fully bed but enough so they could get some rest, and they sat down on the mushy, damaged seats, which probably used to be soft once but were now either hard or damaged enough that they could feel the metal bottom, but they didn’t complain. It had been a whole day before they had gotten proper rest, and exhaustion and hunger were creeping in. Keith and Caz decided to share a can of mini ravioli, as they wanted to save their rations of food, and gave a can of SpaghettiOs to Heather for her to share with the toddler. 

It didn’t take long before they were all done eating, and they spread out, trying to find the most comfortable places to get some sleep. Heather helped Caz properly clean his wound and bound it in rather impressively, to make sure it was protected from dirt and other nasty stuff. Caz has taken a seat on the opposite side from Heather and was folding up a sweater to use it as a pillow while Heather was making sure the kid was sleeping comfortable, then she looked at the others.

“You know, we should name the kid something,” she said, catching the others attention, “I suggest Ella,” she said as she glanced at the kid.

“Ella?” Keith said curiously. Heather smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, unless you got something better?” she asked them.

Caz looked thoughtful at the kid and smiled. “What about bean sprout?” he suggested with a raised eyebrow.

“Or munchkin?” Keith suggested too, both silly nicknames which made Heather glare at both of them, putting her hands on her hips like a big sister scolding her younger brother for their stupidness.

“I’m not going to call her that! She needs a proper name, so unless you can come up with proper names, it’s going to be Ella,” she declared and crossed her arms, the end of the discussion. Keith chuckled and Caz shook his head while he shrugged.

“Fine by me,” Caz said, and Keith agreed. Heather nodded and smiled before she sat down, getting ready to sleep.

Keith decided to take the first round, as he sat by a window where he could look out. The rain had picked up and the wind was howling through the crack and broken windows. They were lucky most of them were intact, but further back the windows were broken which also meant the rain got in through there. Keith just hoped it wouldn’t make the train too wet, but the rain didn’t hit them from where they were. He was carving on a wooden stick he had found on his travels, which was his way of relaxing and keeping himself occupied, so he wouldn’t end up losing himself in his thoughts and worries. He glanced out at the window, letting the darkness consume him as he kept a watch out.