We see the giant Reaper and the Butcher immerging from the woods looking at us then the Butcher says, “You better-run piggies before the day is over you will be in my stomach”. We run towards the freeway and come to a road Kai says, “There is a factory near here with some housing facilities, let’s go hide there”. Jenny, Kai, Eric, and I run up a dirt road to the factory not knowing what’s next, with the giant Reaper and the Buther on our tails, we see the factory ahead of us and some housing facilities around it. Jenny says, “Guys let us hide in one of the houses”. I replied, “No, that will be to easy for them to find us let’s rather go in the factory, we will have some room to run if we need to run”.
14 a pound of flesh for the butcher
We search through the housing facilities for something to eat, Jenny and Kai search through some of the houses and Eric is helping me. I said to Eric, “You better not run off as you did at the church, that was very irresponsible you could have gotten hurt or worst, plus we don’t know what's lurking around here”. Eric replies, “Yes, I learned my lesson”. I replied, “Good, the next time it happens I might not be near you come and help you”. He says, “Yeah, yeah stop being a baby about it”. I laugh and say, “You getting to smart for your own good”. Eric asked, “Pete, do you think Thor will be okay?” I replied, “To be honest little brother, I don’t know he was infected the last time we saw him and he did not act like himself, but I’m glad he did not attack us”. Eric says, “Maybe he still knows who we are”. I replied, “I guess so little brother”. We went through the cupboards of the houses and find an open box of biscuits and it looked like someone is still staying in the house, Jenny and Kai shout, “Guys we found some food”. We went outside to them and Kai says, “Let’s head into the factory and secure it before they see us”. Jenny says, “We saw some fresh dead bodies of the dead laying around a corner up there, someone might be around here”. I replied, “Yes, Eric and I just saw somethings also like someone might be living in that house, so let’s be on the lookout”. Jenny and Eric went into the factory to go look for a place to hide and look for a way out if we get cornered by the Butcher and the Reaper. Kai says, “Peter let’s go take a look around the place we need to set some traps if we going to get out of this mess we’re in”.
We walk around looking for sharp objects to put in a hole, I start digging the hole while Kai is looking around for nails. I walk around the corner to the place where the dead bodies are laying all piled upon each other and I see a piece of tarp laying under a few of the bodies, I pull it from under them and pick up some scrap wood and boards on my way back to the hole I dagged. Kai comes towards me with some rusty screws and nails, he places it on the ground and says, “We better make a plan with these, good thinking with the tarp we can lay it over the hole”.
We start hitting the nails and screws through the wood and boards and lay it in the hole and pull the tarp over the opening and kick some dirt and stones on it. Kai asks, “So how does it look?” I replied, “Let’s sprinkle some sand over it too so that it cand look like solid ground”. Kai reaches into his pocket and takes out a hand grenade and says, “If I had some wire I could have made a trap by that two oil barrels down there because they will be coming past the oil barrels and we can take out both of them at once”. I start hearing some faint sounds of dogs barking in the distance but it cant be Thor it sounds too wild, I look at Kai and say, “Ssssh, do you hear that?” Kai replies, “Yes, I do let's take a walk to the end of the street and go take a look”. I replied, “Yes, sure I think it is coming from the field we crossed”. We run towards the barrels at the end of the street and look across the field, Kai says, “Peter, duck they coming don’t let them see you”. We hide behind the oil barrels and see the giant Reaper and Butcher coming across the field with two lines cutting through the grass in front of them, but we can't see what it could be.“What's that in the Butcher’s hands” I ask Kai. Kai replies, “It looks like two chains with some kind of dogs chained at the end”. I ask Kai for the hand grenade and I place it in between the two oil barrels and say, “Kai, I hope you a better shot then I am”. He replies, “Let’s hope so because if this does not work, then we as good as dead”. We run back to the factory and see the giant Reaper pointing towards us, the Butcher unties the two dogs and they come sprinting our way we run inside and close the main gate of the factory before the dogs can spot us, we look through the windows of the factory and hear the barking and growling of the dogs approaching.
The dogs run into the street sniffing every corner and go into the houses we have been in and running back out again towards the pile of dead bodies sniffing and start eating on them. Kai looks over at them calls and says, “Damn, that's just nasty”. I replied, “That must have happened to Thor just look at them, they all bold with no hair on them”. A strong wind comes up and the sky begins to darken as the clouds pull together, we see a figure of a man jumping from one of the roofs and running towards the factory gate yelling, “Let me in, let me in! I don’t want to get eaten by these devil dogs”. I want to open the door of the factory and let the man in but Kai yells, “No! Peter wait, don’t open that door it could be a trap”. I replied, “But Kai it can be the person that was living in the houses”. Kai says, “If you open that door you risk us getting seen by the dogs and they already running to him”.
The man yells, “Help me please, I know you in there”. I open the door but it's too late the two dogs jump towards him and rips him apart the man yells, “Damn all of you to hell”. I see the man trying to crawl to the gate and with his last breath one of the dogs bites his neck and rips out his throat, he lays and looks me straight in the eyes as the life gets drained from his body. I close the factory door looking at Kai and say, “We could have helped him, that's an awful way to die”. Kai replies, “It’s not that simple, Peter if we had done that it could have been us laying dead right now”. The dogs turn to the gate and start barking with the look of death in their blood-red eyes, they really do look like hell hounds with there pale skin and veins everywhere on their bodies and the bones sticking out of the thin skin with rib cages piercing through almost like you can see the insides of them. Kai says, “Look, Peter one of them is pulling on the gate to open it”. I look at the other dog while he is biting at the fence, black goo is dripping from his mouth with his razor-sharp teeth. I replied, “Let's shoot them before they get through”.
I open the door and we point the rifles at the dogs and start shooting one stand and barks while the bullets are piercing his body and the other one slowly retreats as we move forward, finally a headshot and one goes down. We hear a whistle and the one that still alive runs to his masters call, the dark figure of the giant Reaper appears around the corner. I yell, “Quickly, Kai fire at the oil barrels”. The giant Reaper walks past the oil barrels and Kai starts shooting at him and the oil barrels, it explodes and the giant Reaper gets engulfed by the flames and starts burning and goes down. Kai shouts, “Yeah! we got the bastard he is dead”. The flames start spreading to the houses and it starts to burn and the smoke gets thicker and darker, Kai walks to me and says, “That went as planned”. I replied, “We not done yet, the butcher is still out there and we have to get out of this thick black smoke, I cant hardly see a thing”. We run into the factory to get out of the smoke, Kai says, “We need to get to higher ground if we want to see him coming”. The Butcher walks through the flames and shouts, “All of you are dying today, you will not live to see another sunrise”. I said, “Kai, he is not even shaken by the flames, his not flinching is he even human?” Kai replies, “We both seen him bleed when I shot him, he has to be human”. We went to the second floor of the factory to get a better look and see if we can spot the Butcher, it starts to rain and the fire slowly goes out. We see the butcher figure immerged from the smoke walking slowly to the gate of the factory, we start shooting at him and he starts running and steps into the trap, he falls and starts yelling, “I will make you pay”.
He gets out of the h
ole and walks to the gate pulling out the rusty nails and screws from his arms, legs, and feet the blood runs out of the punctured holes, then a figure huge appears out of the smoke behind him and starts growling it walks to him and grabs him from behind, its the giant Reaper he must have been bitten during the fight with the Devils and the dead. The Butcher shouts, “What! Get off me”, and he starts fighting with the dead Reaper, he starts pulling out his big meat cleaver, the Reaper starts bitting his arms and shoulder the Butcher get away from him, then hits him through the face and start chopping off the giant Reaper’s limbs and then he smashed his face in with a big brick. Jenny runs to us and says, “Peter, Eric has found a way out in the back of the factory by the loading dock, there are a gate and a path that leads to some sort of road it looks like a highway and it looks like it has not been droved on for a while ”.
I replied, “We must be near the old road it’s a few miles outside our town, the government closed it off some years back”. We about to go down the stairs then we heard a loud noise coming from the front of the building, Eric comes running in shouting, “What was that?” I replied, “Jenny you and Eric go out back and wait for us there”. Kai and I went to go and check out what the noise was out front and Eric and Jenny head for the back exit of the factory, we look through the window and the Butcher is busy taking the gate apart knocking it down with a big sledgehammer, the gate falls to the ground and the Butcher walks into the factory yard. He starts to whistle and his dog comes running in barking and scratching at the factory door the Butcher shouts, “Where are you little piggies, I’m coming for you”.
He starts hitting the sledgehammer against the door, it shakes and the screws and nails come apart from the door frame and the wood begin to snap, Kai yells, “Peter get your brother and Jenny away from this place, I will keep the Butcher back”. I replied, “What about you, he will kill you”. Kai says, “Not if I kill him first, now go!” I run to the back of the factory and look back as the front door flies open, Kai begins to shoot at the Butcher and his dog, the dog jumps and take him to the ground. He wrestles with the dog and shoots it through the head with his handgun, the Butcher starts swinging the sledgehammer at him, I shout, “Look out!” Kai yells, “Go!” I run for the back exit and out the door. Jenny shouts, “Over here” I run to them and say, “Let's go”. Eric asks, “Where is Kai?” I replied, “He is keeping the Butcher back so that we can get away, he will meet up with us”. As we run across the road into the woods I start thinking we will never see Kai again. Jenny looks at me and asks, “So are we really near your town?” I replied, “Yes, it’s a few miles through the woods”.
15 day seven: homeward, the hollow log
We run through the woods and Jenny says, “Let’s stop for a moment, I’m tired of all the running”. I replied, “Okay, it looks like we clear from the factory, but we can only rest for a few minutes then we go again”.We start sitting under a tree and Jenny says, “We have two cans of beans left, let’s go get some firewood and I can heat it for us”. I replied, “No! no fires the Butcher can be close by and the fire could lead him straight to us”. Eric says, “But I’m hungry, Peter”. I replied, “Don't worry once I know we safe then we can eat”. After a while we start walking further away from the factory and heading towards our town, it starts to rain and we run through the wet slippery grass and mud to get cover and we come across a big hollow log. I told Eric and Jenny to get inside the log, I can see Eric shivering because of the wet clothes and I went to go get some bushy branches to cover the entrance and wood to make a fire to heat the beans and to keep warm. I pick up the branches and wood and come across an old beat down cabin with a hole in the roof and broken windows, I creep up to the window of the cabin and I see movement inside suddenly a voice says, “Who goes there?” I quickly run back into the woods to avoid being seen, then I heard a gun firing my way into a tree next to me and I duck down and look back, an old man with a shotgun stands on the porch saying, “Next time I will blow your freaking head clean off”.
I crouch away slowly and walk back to the hollow log, Jenny stands by the hollow log with a worried look on her face and ask, “What was that gunshot about?” I replied, “It was just a crazy old man shooting at me, I saw an old cabin up in that woods and wanted to take a closer look”. She asks, “Are you sure what if he did follow you back?” I replied, “Don't worry about it, he was too old to follow me anyway”. Eric comes out to help me cover up the entrance of the log and start making the fire. Eric and I stand by the fire to get warm and for our clothes to dry, Jenny opens the two cans of beans and I place it on a rock near the fire to heat up. Eric says, “I never thought that I would be so happy waiting to eat some beans”.
Jenny replies, “Hunger will make you eat anything”. I take the beans from the rocks to make it cool of a little and hand one can to Eric and say, “Here you can have my share to”. Jenny asked, “Arent you hungry, Peter?” I replied, “I just don’t feel like eating at the moment”. It's getting darker and our clothes are all dry Eric and Jenny goes into the log to sleep and I sit at the fire to keep watch, I hear the sounds of crickets and the peaceful sound of a quiet night approaching. I sit and think, I’m just happy we lost the Butcher and that finally, we not running for our lives and that we almost home just a few more miles over the hill and we are home free. I doze off against the log in front of the fire because I know the dead will not walk this far up the hill and there is nothing for them to hunt and kill up in the woods. Suddenly I hear a scream and I throw sand over the fire to kill it and stomp on it so that the ambers cant be seen, then I hear a voice saying, “Call out to your friends so that they can come out”. Then I hear a voice I know saying, “No! I will not”. It’s Kai, I walk to where the shouting comes from and I hear Kai screams, “No!” before I can get to him the Butcher hits him in the neck with his big cleaver and says, “Well you did not help me when you were alive, you will help me in your death”. Jenny comes running past me and she does not see me hiding in the bushes and she starts shouting, “No! you monster, why did you kill him?”
The Butcher takes out a knife, grabs her by the throat lifts her and stabs her in the chest she falls to the ground and dies, the Butcher laughs then he starts coughing and blood comes out his mouth and he starts to spit blood everywhere. I’m standing in shock of what just happened, I thought Jenny was asleep everything happened so fast like I was frozen. I run back to the log Eric is asleep I get inside and close it up again with the thick bushy branches, I hear the Butcher shouting, “Where are the rest of you, come out come out”. Eric wakes up and I keep his mouth close with my hand because the Butcher is just outside the log, we hear his footsteps and his coughing and the sound is right leg makes as he drags it across the grass.
We hear him walking away from the log as the sound of his coughing gets fainter, I say to myself he must be going to the cabin where the old man is in. I remove my hand from Eric’s mouth he asks me, “Where is Jenny, Pete?” I replied, “She will not be coming home with us”. “Did she leave?” he asks. I replied, “No, she was taken from us by the Butcher”. Eric gets quiet and he put his head on his knees curls up and starts to cry, I hold him close, and all I can think about when does this end. Eric asks, “So what now?” I replied, “I think we should go before he comes back this way”.
We gather our things crawl out of the log and starts to walk through the woods, I told Eric to stop because we hear a twig snapping, we crouch and look around but see nothing and I grab Eric’s hand and we hide behind some trees. Eric asks, “What was that?” I replied, “Ssssh, be quiet and stay here I will go have a look”. I crouch slowly and see the Butcher walking around then I hear another twig snap and an old voice saying, “Now, now put up your hands and don’t make any movements I don’t want to blow your head off by accident”. I turned around and it is the old man that shot at me near his cabin, he says, “I’ve been following you around now, you and the little kid and where is the girl hiding?” I replied, “She was kil
led an hour ago”.
The old man asks, “Who killed her, did one of the dead get to her?” I replied, “No, one of the living, a crazy big fat cannibal guy that calls himself the Butcher”. The old man grins and says, “People are changing I keep to myself mostly, sorry for your loss where are you heading?” Eric comes out behind the trees and with tears in his eyes and I reply, “My little brother and I, we trying to get home we live in the town down there”. The Butcher appears from behind some trees and says, “Now I got you”. Eric jumps behind me and grabs my T-shirt the Butcher takes a swing at the old man but he missed the old man falls to the ground and the shotgun goes off and he shoots the Butcher in the side of his stomach. The Butcher goes down and the old man stands up and asks, “Is this the monster?” Eric replies, “Yes, sir”. The old man says, “He does not look so tuff now, you boys best be going I will take care of him”. The Butcher starts to bleed out and after a while, his skin started to turn pale and becomes what he always was a flesh-eating monster. Eric and I run down the path on the hill and we can see our town after a while we hear the shotgun going off and Eric says, “The old man shot him, Pete”. I replied, “Yes, he is finally dead”. We reach the outside edge of our town and we see all the dead walking around, the whole town is overrun with these flesh-eating mindless monsters.
No Hope (Book 1): Seven Days Alone Page 9