• Georgia and I waited down the bottom of the ladder while Seth went up and checked to see if it was clear. We didn’t dare breathe. But when Seth whispered down and told us it was clear, I took a deep breath. I let Georgia go up first. As she climbed the rusted ladder, her gun made a clanging noise as it hit the metal. I noticed it was a pistol just like mine. Then I got to thinking about ammo. How much ammo did I have left? Did I have enough? Did Georgia or Seth have any? Now was the time to think about it.
    “Katie, c’mon!” Georgia saying my name woke me up from my thoughts. I looked up to see her hand extended towards me down the ladder. I put my guns into my belt and began climbing up. When at the top, Georgia helped me up onto the sidewalk. When I was standing, Seth carefully closed what looked like cellar door. When I looked around, we were in a dead end alleyway. I couldn’t hear anything. It was just silent.
    “The library is just down the road. Maybe, three blocks.” Georgia said while Seth had a look around the corner.
    “There’s two up the road. Other than that, I can’t see any.”
    I frowned, knowing we couldn’t just open fire at them. Georgia seemed to read my face. “Don’t worry,” she said. “They’re slow. We can get around them if we hurry.”
    “They’re slow?” I asked, confused.
    “You haven’t noticed? Most of them have to limp to get around. Some of them, however, can run. And when they run, they’re fast.” Seth said. “These two don’t seem to be very fast at all. They seem more interesting in hurting each other let alone anything else.”
    I paced slowly towards Seth and he moved out of the way so I could see. He was right. They were grunting at each other, seeming to be arguing about something. Can they actually understand each other? There is no way!
    They were both women. One seemed more dirtier than the other. The dirty one was blonde and very short. The other was a red head and maybe about my height. She must have been a very sophisticated person by the look of the broken heals she was wearing that made her walk funny. The blonde one was bleeding from her foot.
    “Yeah, I think you’re right. We can get around them. Are you guys ready?”
    Seth nodded, his black hair and blonde streaked curls bopping with his movement. If it wasn’t for everything, I would have found him incredibly attractive. Georgia nodded too and then smiled, as if she was waiting for this. I took one of my guns out of my belt and held it at the ready. Seth led the way, making himself visible in the middle of the street and walking towards the… zombies. Georgia was behind me but her gun was still in the air, aiming in the opposite direction at which we were walking. Her father must have taught her well, like mine.
    The women looked at us with confusion at first, however then they began walking towards us. Well, limping really. Seth seemed to be ignoring them. We just walked around them like Georgia said. It was that easy. They were grunting and they smelled like any other of their kind, however as I paced around the red head I could smell some Charlie perfume. Sophisticated indeed.
    I stepped silently over a dead corpse that had his leg half eaten and tried not to vomit as I went on, aiming my guns at the girls.
    Once we were about ten meters away from them, Georgia whispered to us. “Just down this street here.” She pointed to a rather wide road that headed left. Seth crept to the corner and peeked around it. He signaled to us that it was clear and we kept moving. I guess it was a big city. I turned to look at the blonde and the red head. They seemed to have lost interest in us and were once again ‘arguing’ with each other. I gave Georgia a questioning look but she just returned it and shrugged. Strange.
    There was rubbish all through the streets. Cars had been abandoned and buildings windows had been broken. With every few steps there was either a puddle of blood or a dead body. Every time I saw a corpse I quickly averted my eyes. Seth, however, was checking them as he walked past them, probably making sure they were actually dead. I could hear Georgia gag every time she had to step over one.
    Seth was still up front with Georgia and me trailing behind, making sure we weren’t being followed. I could see the large sign for the library about 100 meters ahead. Center City Library. I was just about to tell the others when I heard Georgia shriek. “Guys, there’s three of them there!”
    Both Seth and I went to stand in front of her and look where we was pointing. She was right. There were three of them pouring themselves into a dumpster that was randomly in the middle of a street to our right. There was something strange about one of them. One of them was bleeding excessively from his leg. And then I recognized him.
    “That one there, in the hunter coat. He was a corpse before. He was just near the other two.”
    Seth nodded and stood up from his crouching position. “I know. They haven’t seen us. So let’s just keep moving. I can see the library just up the street.”
    He led while I tugged on Georgia’s arm to get her to keep moving. We had walked another 40 or so meters until Seth stopped us.
    “What?” I asked.
    And then I saw it. There were heaps of bodies in front of us. From back there it just looked like a pile of rubbish but now we got a close look. All different people: different ages, gender and clothes. I gulped and felt Georgia grip tightly to my arm. I didn’t dare look at the fear that must be on her face right now. Seth just signaled us to keep moving. I hesitated but walked on. I pulled out my other gun so I now had both pistols at the ready. Georgia was moving faster now and over-took me, hiding behind Seth. I was surprised she wasn’t screaming or crying. I almost felt like crying myself. Seeing all these dead people who shouldn’t be dead. No one should be dead.
    Suddenly, something grabbed at my ankle tight. I screamed and aimed my gun down at the one that was holding onto my ankle. The one that way dead two seconds ago. I shot him square between the eyes. Georgia screamed too and began shooting at one who started to stand up.
    “Run!” Seth yelled. It was too late to think about being quiet; more were waking up. I shot aimlessly at the crowd that was forming. I just ran towards the library. I wasn’t far behind Seth but Georgia was slowing down. I stopped briefly and shot some more down before speeding up again. Within two minutes we were at the library steps. I shot up them, skipping several at a time. Seth and Georgia got up to the top before I did. I looked down just before I stepped into the open door and saw them trying to climb the stairs in their hands and knees. They really are not very clever.
    Once inside, I found Seth and Georgia crouching behind a bookcase. Seth hugged Georgia and made sure she was okay. When she assured him she was (“Stop fussing! I am seriously fine!) he turned to me.
    “Did that one bite you when he grabbed you?”
    I looked at him in shock then shook my head. “No.”
    “Mind if I check?” He didn’t believe me? Or was he just taking precautions? I guess he had a right to. I stood slightly, however still leaning over to hide myself behind the bookshelf. He examined my leg and nodded.
    “Sorry. Can never be too careful.”
    I nodded too. “Yeah. But if he bit me I probably wouldn’t have been able to run as fast as I did.”
    He smiled, and then his face was back to serious. “We should move.”
    “I don’t think we have to hurry too much. They are not very good at climbing stairs.”
    Seth heard me but didn’t acknowledge me. He just hushed us and moved forward through the never ending labyrinth of books. While we moved I whispered to Georgia, “Do you know where we can get the information we need?”
    She whispered back. “I think so. If not, there are computers and catalogs around that can help us.”
    I nodded as we moved on, crouching behind bookshelves. Georgia studied every shelf carefully. It was silent for a few moment until she spoke. “We’re in the non-fiction section. I think we should have a look in the fiction area.”
    Seth and I froze. Fiction? But they were real. Then again, they weren’t real yesterday. Good god, has it really only been a few hours? It feels like months.
    Finally Seth nodded and moved so Georgia could lead the way. We followed her through the bookshelves until finally she stopped. When I looked at her, her eyes were wide.
    “What is it?” Seth asked.
    She put one finger over her mouth to keep us silent and pointed to one that was behind the counter. He seemed to be eating something. I screwed up my nose in disgust and told her to move on. Like she said, they were slow. The smell was taking over me and I wanted to get out of here as soon as I possibly could. Seth seemed to be feeling the same. Georgia was just set on not being seen.
    We crept against the back of the desk, crawling so it couldn’t see us. When we got to the other end, I dared a peek over it.
    It was male and was eating another male. The one having lunch was wearing the library uniform. The smell of blood and those things filled my nose. I quickly leaned down and tried not to vomit. When I looked around, Georgia and Seth were gone.
    And then I heard gunshots.


    Chapter One

    More of My Stuff