Chapter 3

Nathan’s lungs burned with the cold fall air, but his mind was purely focused on putting one foot in front of the other as fast as possible. He didn’t know where he was running honestly. He had simply picked a direction and sprinted. He had no plan other than to get as far away from trouble as possible.
“Nathan! Wait!” A voice called from behind him, he looked over his shoulder to see three figures sprinting after him. He looked back in front of him to see the back door of his and Oliver’s house. His mind had set him on the right course even when he had felt nothing but raw instinct pushing him to flee, he had still managed to keep hold of the baseball bat as well. For a moment he had the insane urge to keep running until his legs failed him. They would never be able to keep up with him. The only one that even stood a chance was Lee, but he was in his armor. He knew however that it was just the panic rat chewing at him, trying to get him to act irrationally, but was it so irrational? Two people had just gone insane and tried to eat people after all. Nathan recoiled from this thought. He had to trust someone, he couldn’t just abandon everything and everyone. And so he waited for them to catch up, it was only once they had nearly caught up that he saw those following them. Almost as if they had been purposely silent until noticed, all of them let out a wail in dreadful harmony as they increased the speed of their pursuit.
“Move! Come on we’ve got to move!” Nathan shouted at the others.  Nathan sprinted the last hundred feet to the back door and slammed into it. He tried turning it but it was locked. They didn’t have a key, but they had always left it unlocked. Of all the times to worry about burglars Nathan thought as he slammed his fist into the door. “Around the front, run!” Oliver yelled and overtook him with Lee, Alex and their pursuers close in tow.. Nathan chased after him with the others. Oliver unlocked the door and burst through with the others falling in behind him. Lee slammed the door shut and the first of their assailants slammed into with a scream. It slammed into the door again and again as the door began to shudder in its frame.
Nathan was eyeing the door carefully, he didn’t know what they were going to do once the door gave in or once they found the windows. Go out the back, but then they would just be on the run again. Then the sound of squalling tires and the sound of a metal on metal collision came from just outside and the things outside the door stopped hitting it. One of them made a strange cawing sound and they all turned around and ran of the porch. Nathan chanced a peek out the window and saw them dragging a woman and a boy out of a car.
“Ok, everyone stay quiet. They’re gone but I don’t want them coming back.” Nathan whispered.
“What are those things!”  Oliver said loudly clearly on the verge of panic. Nathan shot him a look and put his finger over his lips. Alex didn’t look any better. Lee was better off because he had helped kill the one at the party and a few others on the way here. He had obviously already come to grips with the situation.
“This is going to really sound stupid,” Lee started but paused,” and crazy, but I think they might be zombies.” But it didn’t sound crazy to Nathan at all, he had been thinking the same thing. He could remember when he used to make up scenarios with some of his friends. They called it their Z-day plan. None of Nathan’s plans had involved him being 2 hours from his home with limited food and water and a bat as his only weapon.
“Zomb…!?” Oliver began loudly but caught himself and whispered. “Zombies? You’ve got to be kidding me. Zombies aren’t real. It’s completely impossible for someone to die and then just get back up. It just doesn’t work like that!”
“Yeah? Well why don’t you just go tell them that? Why don’t we just go explain to them that they shouldn’t exist. Then they will just disappear in a puff of logic, eh?” Lee said waving an arm at the door as though saying after you. Oliver gave him a dirty look but didn’t bother retorting, he knew he was right.
“It doesn’t really matter what they are.” Alex said sharply. “All that matters is what we are going to do next.” Alex spoke for the first time since their arrival.
“Do? Honey, I don’t think you understand. There is nothing to do. Look out that window, where are we going to go? No, all were going to do is sit here and wait. If the military shows up and does something about it, fine. If not, They’ll either break in here and kill us all or they’ll get bored and move on, but right now there are far too many of them to do anything.  Lee said.
“What, were just going to sit here and do nothing?!” Oliver said his voice rising again.
“All of you calm down. We can’t be bickering like this, but Lee is right. There’s nothing we can do right now. We just have to bunker down and hope they clear out. If and when they do we’ll figure out what we are going to do then. For now, we need to get some sleep. We’ll keep a rotating watch. Me and Oliver will take all the bedding out of our bedrooms and bring it to the laundry room. There aren’t any windows in there and that will put another door in between us and them. I’ll take the first watch and I’ll wake someone up after two hours.” Nathan finally finished. It felt strange giving out an order like that. It felt strange talking at all, he was still in shock from Jacob’s attack and death. He knew it wasn’t murder, he had been defending himself, but at the same time he had hated Jacob with a passion, he couldn’t deny that there had been some relief that it had been him instead of anyone else and even some small pleasure in being able to hit him like that.
“Sounds good, Nathan. Wake me up for the second watch.” Lee said. Nathan nodded and walked to his room to get his bedding. He and Oliver moved it all into the laundry and spread it out. Oliver and Alex fell asleep almost immediately but Lee looked at him from his spot in the corner, “Two hours, then you wake me up, but if you need anything before that don’t hesitate to get me up.”
“Ok, thanks Lee” Nathan said.
Nathan sat with his back against the washing machine watching the door, but after about thirty minutes he started to get restless. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a smoke break.” He whispered to himself. He got up and walked into the living room to smoke so as not to disturb the others, he grabbed his bat as he passed through the door. It would also give him a chance to see what was going on outside. He had just walked to the window to peek outside when he heard metal bang against asphalt outside. The crash made him jump away from window.
He instead walked towards the front door and leaned towards it straining to hear whatever it was again, just as he was beginning to convince himself that it was just the wind knocking over a trash can, something slammed into the door hard enough to make it shudder in its frame. Nathan jumped away from the door and began edging towards the kitchen. Lee rushed into the living room but upon seeing Nathan he quietly asked, “What was that?”
As if in answer a woman’s voice called from outside, “Hello!? Is anybody in there!? Let me in, please!” She screamed.
“What are we going to do?” Lee asked quietly.
Nathan whispered back, “ We’re going to let her in.”
“What if there are more of those things out there.” Lee asked his breath hissing between his teeth.
“If we don’t let her in she’s just going to keep screaming out there and that will draw more of them anyway. She may get desperate enough to break a window to get in if they do.” Nathan replied.
“Point taken.”
Nathan walked to the door and twisted the knob and the woman rushed past him and into the living room. “Close the door! Close it!” She nearly screamed.
“Shut up, you want them to hear you?” Lee scolded her quietly.
Nathan shut and locked the door and walked over to the woman, “Are you okay?” He asked holding her by the shoulders and trying to look into her eyes.
“N-no I’m not, I just got chased by these, these lunatics and they were biting people and killing them in the streets, I didn’t know what to do so I just, just…!” The woman’s voice was rising.
“Okay, calm down, what is your name?” Nathan asked in a soothing voice.
“My name is Olivia.” She said breathing heavily.
“Are you hurt?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, one of them caught me for a…”
“Were you bitten?” Lee suddenly asked.
Nathan could hear the sudden coldness in his voice and he could almost feel the tension radiating off of him, but the woman didn’t seem to notice and she went on, “ Yes, on my leg, but it actually doesn’t hurt that much.”
“Nathan I need to speak with you in the kitchen.” And then when Nathan only gave him a questioning glance. “Now, alone.” He said emphasizing the point to the woman.
“I know what you’re thinking, Lee.” Nathan began.
“Really, you do, well you don’t seem to be too worried.” Lee whispered.
“Yeah, I’ve watched those movies too, we don’t even know how this spreads, it could be…” Nathan started but was once again cut off.
“You saw how Jacob changed when he was bitten, don’t try to deny it.”
Nathan did know what Lee was talking about but that was ridiculous. Those sorts of things only happened in the movies, didn’t they? Then again, mindless raging lunatics that craved human flesh only existed in the movies, well with very few exceptions, but he had seen that just an hour earlier. “Okay what if your right, what do you want me to do? I can’t just throw her out can I?”
“That or we kill her, quietly while everyone else is asleep.” Lee whispered, glancing at the woman again.
Nathan’s eyes widened as he stared into his friend’s eyes. He had never known such coldness could exist in Lee. Lee who was always the first to offer assistance to anyone, whether they needed it or not, Lee who had been his first real friend here at the university and who had on multiple occasions helped him out of a jam. “You can’t be serious!” Nathan hissed. Lee was looking over his shoulder and he made a gesture with his eyes, but Nathan continued. “We can’t kill some just to be careful. We can’t kill out of fear just to protect our own skins.”
“You two are talking about me aren’t you?” The woman suddenly asked in a trembling voice from behind Nathan. He stiffened as he drew in a deep breath and turned to face her. “You think I’m going to become one of them don’t you?”
“No” Nathan started but Lee cut him off
“Yes we do” He said without bristling at the look Nathan shot him.
“It’s a possibility but we don’t know any more than you do.” Nathan said still looking at Lee.
“It’s not just possible, it’s very probable.” Lee said once again ignoring Nathan’s gaze.
         Nathan watched as the woman’s face dissolved. She fell to the floor to the ground sobbing. The young college student looked back at Lee. “You wanted her dead, right? Do it then. Kill her.” Nathan said his faced twisted in anger and pity. “You do it.” He said holding the bat out to him. Nathan knew he was right, but he wasn’t about to kill someone in cold blood just to be careful. When Lee didn’t reach for the bat Nathan said. “Or throw her out that’s the other solution isn’t it, but if we throw her out she is as good as dead and you know it.” When Lee stilled didn’t say anything Nathan went on. “The moment we start killing out of simple fear, that is the moment we will be no better than them, killing on impulse and instinct with no regard for human life.”
         Lee looked down at the woman himself and his face twisted. “Fine, but I don’t want her in the same room with us.”
         Nathan walked over to the woman and helped her up. “He is right about one thing, I can’t risk him being right and you changing in the night. I’ll have to ask you to sleep in my room over here.” Nathan said leading her to his door. “Just stay away from the window and leave the light off and you should be fine.”
         “Thank you for giving me a chance.” The woman said, her voice barely above a whisper.
         “No problem, everyone deserves at least one.” Nathan only hoped he wouldn’t regret it, but he could see the infection in her eyes. Nathan had his own theories regarding the infection though, it seemed as though one had to die before the infection would take over. It would explain why Jacob changed so quickly but Stephen still hadn’t changed even as he left. Something to consider at least, but for now he would be happy just to get through the night.