Infection Z Beswick, L. (books for 8th graders txt) 📖

to say it out loud, since the apocalypse I’ve struggled to adjust but with you around you’ve just made it much more manageable, especially after my mum died you’ve been there for me, you’ve brightened each day and made me laugh more than I ever had before, I noticed you before the apocalypse I saw you at school, I liked watching how concentrated you were on school projects and laughing with April, I think I’m falling for you and I don’t know what to do" he becomes quiet, I stay still unsure what to do or say, I’m shocked but happy at his secret revelation, but would it be wrong to feel the same? Would it be betraying my friendship to April?

Chapter 4

I awake the next morning to the sun shining through the boarded up gaps of the window, the kitten meows happily at me and purrs as I stroke its fur, I lay quietly waiting for the others to wake up and keep replaying Damon’s words last night in my head trying to make sense of his confession, it seems so sudden and bad timing with everything going on, as far as he knows I was asleep so there’s no pressure to talk about it at least, but now he definitely likes me I feel a little shy, but I couldn’t do anything because of hazel anyway, she would feel betrayed and if we ever broke up it would make a weird situation.

Soon enough Damon and April greet me with tired good mornings, we pack up our stuff once again and decide to head out, “we should be okay, the zombies seem to come out more later in the day" Damon states, the ground has dried up from yesterday’s rain and for once the sun makes an appearance making me smile, I always feel happier for some reason when there’s a sun in the sky, “I think today will be a good day!” I announce, April rolls her eyes “there aren’t any good days anymore" Damon nudges her with a frown, “don’t listen to miss moody over there, I’m sure today will be a good day, we might find somewhere to stay for a while and I’m sure we will find more food, it’s good to keep things positive" Damon smiles cheerfully, I smile back shyly enjoying how much more positive he’s becoming lately, ‘perhaps I’ve rubbed off on him' I think smugly to myself.

The kitten starts hissing aggressively with its fur spiked up, we all stop in our tracks confused as to its sudden change in behaviour, but our confusion is cut short when we hear a moaning sound followed by quick but heavy feet, we look ahead to find a zombie and can’t help but stand frozen, any other zombie would have been no issue, but this particular zombie stops us from moving a muscle, “mum?” April whispers out, “what should we do?” I ask Damon just above a whisper not wanting to draw attention to ourselves, “what do you mean? That’s our mum" April says angrily her hands balled up in fists by her sides, “not anymore, she’s just a zombie now" Damon mutters, April turns to him unsure what to say, she glances back between him and their mother, they both watch her unmoving, time seems to slow down while the zombie drags herself past us, “I guess she didn’t see us" I say quietly, no one speaks for a moment.

“Damon?” I ask quietly reaching towards him, “we should keep moving” he says and continues walking once again like the last few minutes hadn’t even happened, April doesn’t move staring at the floor, I grab her hand and give her a small smile, she returns it and we walk hand in hand together, the journey is quiet now none of us sure how to start a conversation, the sun has hidden behind the clouds making the sky as dark as our moods, I quietly hope for something good to happen, I can handle people crying that’s simple, but when someone is just quiet and angry I’m not sure what to do, all I want is to help but I can’t and it frustrates me.

The quiet is short lived and suddenly we are surrounded by zombies, they’ve noticed us and they’re groaning and stumbling towards us, I shakily grab my weapon, we all stand back to back ready for the attack, we swing and hit taking out a number of the zombies, but soon our weapons seem useless as they close in deeper around us, we all glance at each other with worry, Damon grabs my hand and nods, I stare at him in confusion but from his expression soon understand we can’t do anything, we must simply stand together and stop fighting and allow the zombies to close in on us, I grab April’s hand and smile sadly, we all close our eyes waiting.

Just as the zombies groan down our ears, and we feel their stagnant breaths on our faces, a loud crash captures the zombies attention taking them from us, the outer zombies disappear in thin air until all the zombies fly through the air, a horn blares bringing us back to reality, “get in" a voice says from the car that trampled the zombies, we glance at each other in confusion “now!” the voice urges, we all scramble into the car just as more zombies emerge and begin chasing us, we all catch our breaths still unsure what truly happened, “we’re dead aren’t we?” I breath out, “not dead but it was close, why did you guys just stand there?” the person asks, “there were too many of them, it was no use we just accepted our fate" Damon answers, “it seems more like you made the decision for everyone" the voice remarks, “you were watching us?” April asks, “oh sure I wanted to see how you handled yourselves, you did good until you just