Dead World Rising (Book 3): The Cure

by Petrova, Katerina

  'We still need to clear the rest of school, I know we're all exhausted but it's got to be done,' said Jade as she got to her feet.

  'Are you crazy? We barely managed to clear this lot and you want us to go inside!' I practically shouted.

  How could she be this stupid? I liked a good fight but going inside was suicide, we would all be killed.

  'What else do you propose we do? We can't sleep out here its too exposed and there's nowhere else in the vicinity that's safe,' she spat.

  'Why not lock the gates and sleep in the playground, it'll be safer than going inside,' I replied knowing that my plan was better.

  'Lets put it to the group,' she offered, sounding a bit angry. So that's what we did, by the time we had reached a decision the sun had started to set and I was seriously hungry. The others had agreed with me and I couldn't help but feel a little superior, I smiled at her and she just turned away. Almost everyone had agreed with me, it was only Marcel and Jade that had not. I had won for a change, I knew that sooner or later they would side with me. it was just a case of finding the right battle to win.

  Jade set up Violet's bed up while the rest of us moved all the bodies and locked the school doors, we chose to sleep in the smaller part of the playground as it meant being closer to each other. I hated being too near them but didn't want to start another argument, last time I'd ended up getting punched and thrown at a wall.

  Luckily it was a very warm night so we didn't need a fire, everyone got settled in their sleeping bags. I lay down thinking what to do next, we were going to where Marcel was from to see if he had any family left alive. I thought it was a waste of time, I mean the likelihood of them being alive was one in a million. He was an idiot if he still thought they were alive, I would never be so stupid as to have hope.

  I once had a family, parents, sisters and even grandparents. My little sisters had not been with us when all of this started, they had been staying with our grandparents in Leicestershire at the time. I'd never had any hope that they were still alive, my grandparents were old and my sisters were only five when the world ended. I didn't think about them too often, it was far too painful.

  If it wasn't for the picture I kept in my wallet I wouldn't have been able to remember what they looked like, but one thing I did remember was their laugh, it was so infectious and loud. I didn't look at the picture often, it was the one thing that could still hold appeal to my softer side which, in my opinion was my weak side.

  I couldn't sleep so I got up and walked to the gate, everyone one else was fast asleep. Looking down at them, I thought how easy it would be to end them all now.

  'Don't do it,' that annoying soft voice said. I unlocked the gate and went for a walk, my softer side even had me lock back up before I went. I walked for a while not really paying attention to where I was going but still watching out for the dead, I needed to get away as I could feel my other half rearing it's ugly head.

  'How could you possibly think of hurting those people?' My other half asked.

  'They're weak, incompetent people. I'm better off without them,' I spat.

  'Don't be that person, you don't live with those men any more. You haven't been with them for so long, you don't need to abide by their rules,' he told me.

  'Their lessons are valid, women are nothing but toys to be used. The rest of them are going to die soon enough,' I laughed.

  'I see it too you know.'

  'See what?' I barked.

  'Why you hate her, why you torment her and even though you won't admit it, I know what other things you feel for her,' the voice said almost mockingly.

  'I don't want you mean,' I replied angrily.

  'She's just like Lilly, and you're afraid that your feelings for her will make you weak. So you do what they would have wanted you to do.'

  'Shut up, just shut up!' I screamed at him.

  'You don't have to be like this, these people are good, kind people and they'll look after you if you just give them a chance,' he pleaded.

  'I don't need looking after, I'm strong enough I don't need anyone else. Especially not you!'

  'What about your sisters, do you think they would want you to be this way?'

  'Get out, get out of my head,' I cried.

  I slumped to the floor unable to keep him at bay, he was too strong I couldn't stop him from rearing his ugly head. I screamed, I cried and shouted but it was too late. He won this round.

  'Now it's my turn to take control, I'll not have you screwing things up. These people are our chance for redemption, for a new start.'

  I screamed from inside my own head, I couldn't let my weak side win but for now there was nothing I could do. He'd found what little vulnerability I had, and used it against me. I walked back to camp feeling triumphant, I'd not been able to be free in so long. Even while I was at the hospital group, he kept me at bay. Though he was smart enough to know that while he was there, he had to behave. I knew it from the moment I saw her, she was so much like Lilly. Her hair, her eyes, even the way she smiled reminded him of her. I couldn't let him hurt her, I wouldn't allow him to be that monster again.

  I had to protect them, all of them from the monster that even he tries to keep at bay.

  I quietly opened the gate taking care not to wake any of the others as I walked back to my spot, I laid down smiling. For the first time in so long, I had the chance to make things right. In the morning I got up to find that I was the first one awake, I went to check the windows to the kitchen. It was still full of dead ones, there was no way we could clear it. If Eli and the others hadn't left then we might have had a chance, he hated them for leaving and taking food. I understood though, if I had a choice I'd leave him.

  I walked back round to see that Rowena was awake, she was one of the few people in this group that I really liked. She was pretty and smart, I could happily slam her up against a wall and give her a good seeing to. I smiled at the thought, even though I knew I didn't have a chance in hell. I was far too young for a start, plus she couldn't stand me. Well it wasn't me she couldn't stand, it was him. Maybe I would have a chance with her.

  'Morning,' she said sleepily.

  'Good morning, you want breakfast?' I asked nicely.

  'I'll wait for the others to get up,' she replied softly.

  'Alright, I'm pretty hungry now.' I opened the tin of food with my knife, I was going to need a new knife soon as this one was wearing down. I really wished we could eat something other than cold tinned food, today I got beans; oh joy. How much longer were we going to keep finding tinned food, surely the country must be running low? I sat and ate while I waited for the others to wake up, Violet was the second to get up. The first thing she did was ask for food, so I handed her one of the extra tins. He'd been so cruel about her having extra food, I on the other hand agreed with Jade.

  I had to admit Violet had gotten stronger in the last few weeks, ever since Dom had died. I'll give Jade this, she didn't coddle Violet the way Dom did. While Dom had tried to teach Violet how to fight and survive he didn't have the discipline in himself to be able to teach her properly, he looked at her innocent little face and gave in. Whereas Jade told Violet straight, she trained her and taught her how be strong. Not that it had done much good because when it came down to it, Jade still made Violet stay back when it came to fighting. Again I could accept the reason why, though Violet did help out when she could and wasn't for her lack of wanting to help.

  Not long later the others all got up and had their breakfast, I wondered what the plan was for today and hoped that it didn't involve clearing out the school. The one thing I did agree with him on was that it was far too dangerous. The others looked a hell of a lot better after some sleep, well except Finn, he had kept watch again. Though luckily for me he'd fallen asleep during my walk.

  'What's the plan for today?' Frankie asked Jade politely. 'I think we need to clear out the school, I know its risky but we don't have a whole lot of food left and we need to find more wherever we can,' she replie
d sounding a little doubtful of her own plan. 'I agree, but where do we even start? I mean the whole place is crawling with those things,' Frankie sounded a bit fearful, and I could understand why.

  I sat thinking about Jade's suicide mission, I understood why she wanted to do it. Better to find more food now than to run out and starve, we had locked the double doors which led to the reception area. There were no other double doors, only single ones so we couldn't really control how many walkers we let out. The back door to the kitchen was locked from the inside, the only way was to go through double doors and fight our way through the school to the kitchen, it was risky and very dangerous but there was no other way.

  'What are our options?' I asked Jade.

  'The only way I can see is to go through the reception area and fight our way through,' she replied glumly.

  I looked around to see that the others weren't happy about it either but judging from their faces they too realised that we had no choice.

  'Wait I've got an idea!' Exclaimed Rowena.

  'What is it?' Asked Jade. 'Our main problem is the fact that aside from the ones in the kitchen we don't know how many there are inside. So what we need is for some one to go and close the kitchen door to keep those ones in there while we take care of the rest, not only that if we keep two people out here at the windows they can act as a distraction while the others sneak up and kill them.'

  I had to admit it was a good idea. They put it to the group and while everyone was still not happy about having to go inside they agreed it was better than just charging in. In the end we decided that Violet, Delilah and Jade would stay outside and be a the distraction, at least the little brat was actually going to be of some use.

  Rowena and I would go and lock the kitchen door while the others took care of the rest of the and we'd locked the door we were to join them. We walked round to the front of the school, Violet, Delilah and Jade stood in front of the class room window to the left of the double doors. I took out my knife and stood next to Rowena while the others unlocked the door. As soon as they had the biters started piling out, Frankie, Jensen, Marcel, Finn and Brooke took care of them while me and Rowena charged in.

  We sliced our way through to the kitchen killing a dozen dead heads as we went, we shut the door before they could see us. I just hoped that the bolt would be enough to keep it shut, we turned and went into the first room on our left. It was home to half a dozen walkers, I was glad that Rowena was handy with her knife otherwise I would have been screwed.

  Neither of us noticed that there was a half body walker on the floor, it grabbed her by the legs causing her to fall and whack her head on a table. I quickly took care of it before picking her up and carrying her to safety, it must have been a nasty whack because she was very disorientated.

  I charged through the dead heads that the others were taking care of and made it outside to Jade and Violet.

  I laid Rowena down on the floor as gently as I could, Jade came running over looking afraid.

  'What happened!?' She cried fearfully.

  'We didn't notice the half body biter on the floor, it grabbed her and she fell and hit her head on the table,' I replied fearing that she'd think it was my fault.

  'I'm alright mum, my head just hurts is all,' Rowena said as she sat up.

  'Are you sure that your okay?' I asked feeling concerned.

  'Yeah I'm fine, just go help the others,' she told me as she looked at me with those big beautiful eyes. I ran back inside to find that the others had almost cleared the path to the kitchen, they were just in the last room to the right of the kitchen. I went inside to give them a hand, I pulled a biter away from Brooke before it could take a chunk out of her. I stabbed it in the head and when I went to pull my knife out it snapped in half leaving some of it in the walkers head.

  'Here, take this,' Marcel told me as he handed me his spare dagger. It was bigger than my knife and had a curved blade, I would be better slicing the dead with this than stabbing them. We took care of the rest of the dead without much trouble, Brooke thanked me for saving her though I detected a hint of animosity in her voice. I guess she didn't like the fact that I had saved her, I couldn't blame her for being annoyed he'd been a royal prick to these people.

  'Where's Rowena?' Frankie asked sounding a little angry.

  'She outside with Jade and Violet, she hit her head so I thought she would be better off staying out of harms way,' I replied defensively.

  'What did you do to her?' Barked Frankie

  'Nothing, I swear.'

  'Alright you two, now is not the time. Let's check in with Jade,' Brooke told us. We headed outside to check on Rowena, she was sat up with a bandage round her head. She had a cut on her head but other than that she was alright, she told the others what had happened. They resentfully thanked me and Frankie apologised, I felt relieved.

  I hoped that once they got to know this version of me, they would change their opinions about me.

  'How many did you say were in the kitchen?' Jade asked me. 'About fifty I think.' We went inside and sat in the last room to the left of the kitchen to determine our next move, Jade suggested opening the door and letting a few through at a time. I was thankful that the others didn't agree with her, they all thought it was too risky.

  'What else can we do?' Jade said impatiently. 'Why don't we split up, half of us go to the front kitchen door and the other half work on getting the back door open and deal with the dead heads that come out the back,' I chimed in feeling good about this plan.

  The others agreed with me and I could see Jade silently seething, she hated it when I/he came up with good ideas. Rowena, Marcel and I would take the back door while the others took the front. Well except for Violet she would be sat in a tree nearby, I wished Jade would let her prove herself.

  The back door had been chained shut from the inside, but luckily Marcel had found some bolt cutters in the Science classroom. We pulled the door open as quietly and as far as we could, I held it open while Marcel cut the chains. We opened the door to find that the others were already at the other end fighting their way through. We all charged in to attack the back of the horde, I sliced a walker that was close to Rowena. She wasn't fighting with her usual swiftness so I felt that some one should look out for her, I stayed by her side to help her deal with the dead.

  I could see that Frankie, Jensen, Jade, Finn, Delilah and Brooke were having trouble with the corpses so I signalled Rowena to come and help me. The others were surrounded and backed into a corner, me and Rowena carved our way through the dead until the others had the upper hand.

  I kept close to Rowena not letting her out of my sight, it wasn't too long before we cleared the kitchen well half of it was a kitchen the other half was the canteen. Once we'd finished we closed the doors to stop any stragglers from getting in, I thought we had taken care of most of the ones in the school. I sat down at one of the tables to catch my breath, despite being young I still got out of breath.

  Jade, Delilah and Frankie went into the back where all the cupboards were to search for any food, the rest of us needed to take a minute. Rowena came and sat next to me, she smiled at me as if to say thank you.

  I smiled back feeling like I had accomplished something good by keeping her alive, if it hadn't been for me she surely would have been eaten.

  Jade came back looking really pissed off, I guessed that there was nothing to be found. Which meant that all of this was for nothing, great so Rowena had been injured for fuck all.

  'Any luck?' Asked Brooke looking beat down.

  'Not a thing in terms of food, I did find some juice though,' she replied annoyed.

  'Well its better than nothing, I'm sure Violet would like it. Speaking of which I better go and get her,' said Rowena sounding happy. Rowena always had a knack for looking on the bright side of things, she was a ray of sunshine. Though I felt sorry for her, even after all this time her mum still treated her like a child. She was quite capable of looking after herself, her mum needed to real
ise that before Rowena snapped at her.

  Once she returned with Violet the group talked about what to do next, it was getting pretty late in the day. I thought we should stay here another day to get some rest for the journey ahead, so did everyone else thankfully.

  We chose to stay in the kitchen/canteen, the first thing Jade had us do was clear the place of all the rotting bodies. Great, more work I thought tiredly. We needed to rest and recuperate not be worked into the ground.

  We cleared the rooms of bodies and pushed all the metal tables against the windows and back door so that nothing could get in, Frankie and Jensen had gone out to lock the gates while Jade and Violet barricaded the other door. We would be safe in here, at least for tonight. We sat down to eat our dinner, Violet was most pleased with the juice.

  'Yummy, strawberry,' she giggled excitedly.

  'We have a lot of these so enjoy them,' chirped Jade happily. We all had carton of juice, it made a nice change from water. I found it strange that it seemed to be the small things people missed from the old world. Jade missed smoking her weed, Frankie longed to read while Jensen missed the simple things like stroking a cat. Marcel missed university, Finn yearned to play football. Rowena ached to dye her hair, which made me laugh. I never thought of her as one to miss the cosmetics, Brooke pined for her hair straighteners and I missed my computer games. Violet had never been able to enjoy the old world so she had nothing from it to miss, in a way I was envious of her she would never remember how peaceful and safe the world use to be in comparison to now.

  We sat and reminisced about the old days, it was hard to talk about the meaningful things we missed like family and friends, before long Violet fell asleep on Jade's lap. How I wished I could be that innocent again, sadly my innocence was lost the day my mother died.

  I shook my head not letting myself think about her, if I succumbed to weakness then he could take over again and I was going to hold on for dear life.

  'I think I'm going to turn in,' said Brooke yawning.