{"id":412,"date":"2011-11-22T02:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T10:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/?p=412"},"modified":"2012-02-28T00:57:17","modified_gmt":"2012-02-28T08:57:17","slug":"zombies-ii-chapter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/zombies-ii-chapter-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Zombies II – Chapter 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second chapter in my Vote Your Own Adventure series. You are in control. Vote on the options at the end to decide what happens next. A new chapter will be posted every Tuesday and the voting will end every Friday. Read chapter one here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

VOTING FOR THIS CHAPTER IS NOW CLOSED. A NEW CHAPTER IS POSTED EVERY TUESDAY<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>SAVAGES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Victoria\u2019s eyes drift to the foot of the door in front of her. She tightens her grip on the heavy pistol. The shadow shifts on the other side of the door. It seems as though it\u2019s pacing as if trying to decide if it should enter.<\/p>\n

Victoria’s heart is pounding in her chest and she struggles to steady her breathing. She slowly lowers the pistol but keeps her finger on the trigger.<\/p>\n

The door handle jiggles a little before it begins to turn. It isn’t one of the common infected, she’s sure of that now, but it could be one of the smarter ones. The moans from the torso in the corner get louder and more excited.<\/p>\n

Victoria pushes herself to her feet, preparing herself for whatever is about to join her.<\/p>\n

The door slowly creeks as it opens. Her vision struggles against the sudden light that enters the room.<\/p>\n

The door opens all the way and reveals a small, silhouetted figure. It’s a child. It doesn’t move. It just stares at her, shuffling its feet in uneasiness.<\/p>\n

The child slowly comes into focus and Victoria loses her grip on the gun. It drops to the floor with a rattle but she doesn’t notice. Her mouth slowly opens and tears drip from her chin. She tries to speak but nothing comes out.<\/p>\n

“Mommy?”<\/p>\n

Victoria covers her mouth with her hand and chokes on a moan. She wipes at her eyes with her trembling hands.<\/p>\n

“Jacob?” she forces out.<\/p>\n

Jacob’s outstretched hands reach for her as he runs through the doorway. Victoria drops to her knees and hugs him close. She wraps her right arm around his back and tangles her fingers in his short, blond hair. Jacob buries his face into her shoulder and wraps his skinny arms around her neck.<\/p>\n

She can’t bring herself to look at his face. To see his eyes.<\/p>\n

She swallows the lump in her throat. “Your sister?” she whispers in his ear. She doesn’t bother asking about Kyle. She’d seen what had happened to him.<\/p>\n

Jacob shakes his head and sniffs loudly. “She’s a zombie,” he says. “Daddy too.”<\/p>\n

Victoria squeezes her eyes shut but tears push their way out and run down her chin.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be OK, baby,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I know.” His words are low and whispered.<\/p>\n

Victoria can feel his warm breath against her neck, his tiny lips moving against her as he cries. His teeth touch her skin briefly as he struggles to adjust his hold on her.<\/p>\n

She lets go of him and grabs his shoulders. She has to look into his eyes. She needs to make sure he’s OK. She takes a deep breath and begins to pull herself away from him.<\/p>\n

A gunshot echoes through the room followed by a sickening, wet sound.<\/p>\n

The sound shocks Victoria and her grip tightens on her son. She turns her attention to the opposite side of the room. The moaning torso is quiet now and pieces of his head decorate the wall. Blood and brain matter drip to the floor.<\/p>\n

She looks towards the source of the bang. A man is standing in the doorway, blocking the light. Smoke trickles from the barrel of the pistol in his hands. His skin is dark and he’s wearing a military uniform. He points the gun towards Victoria.<\/p>\n

She springs to her feet and pulls Jacob behind her, shielding him with her body. The man slowly walks towards her with his pistol raised.<\/p>\n

“Let me see your eyes,” he says. His voice is trembling.<\/p>\n

Victoria doesn’t move. She studies him cautiously as he gets closer to her. He’s much younger than she initially thought – barely 20 years old. His black hair is clipped close to his scalp and there was a faint shadow of stubble on his face. The tag on his jacket says “Dunville.”<\/p>\n

Jacob’s arms squeeze tightly around Victoria’s legs as she lets Dunville look into her green eyes. She glares into his in return. They are deep brown and show no signs of mutation.<\/p>\n

Apparently satisfied, Dunville lowers his gun. His eyes drop to the remains of the military man laying at his feet. A look of pain flashes across his face. The dead man’s shirt also says “Dunville.”<\/p>\n

He wipes at his eyes briefly before bending over to grab the pistol that Victoria had dropped. He removes the clip and puts it in his pocket before tossing the pistol onto the body of his dead friend.<\/p>\n

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s get you out of here. The place is crawling with these bastards.”<\/p>\n

Dunville reaches his hand out. She nods and takes it.<\/p>\n

He leads her to the doorway and stops to check the hallway. He gives Victoria’s hand a gentle squeeze and raises his gun. The left side of the hallway is filled with swaying zombies. Their excited moans get louder as they see Dunville.<\/p>\n

“We go right,” he says. “We have to be fast.”<\/p>\n

Victoria reaches for Jacob’s hand. His head is tilted as he stares at the floor.<\/p>\n

“Don’t be scared, sweety,” she says. “We’re going to get out of here.”<\/p>\n

Jacob’s head doesn’t move but his hand reaches for hers. Their fingertips touch before Victoria is jerked away from her son.<\/p>\n

“Jacob!” she screams.<\/p>\n

Dunville’s grip on her hand is tight as he sprints through the hallway, dragging her behind him. She can hear Jacob’s sneakers slapping against the floor as he runs after her. She looks back to see him struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n

“Stop,” she says. “My son.”<\/p>\n

Dunville ignores her. Jacob is getting farther away. Victoria struggles to break the hold he has on her but he’s much stronger. She tries to dig her heels into the floor but it doesn’t slow him. They take a sharp turn around a corner and stop.<\/p>\n

At the end of the new hallway is a steel door that leads to the stairwell. They can get out this way. But dozens of undead block their path. Their attention immediately turns to Victoria and Dunville.<\/p>\n

Victoria claws at Dunville’s hand trying to break his hold.<\/p>\n

“Please,” she says. “We have to go back for my son.” She can hear the sound of Jacob’s footsteps getting closer.<\/p>\n

“We have to run through them,” he says. “There aren’t too many and they’re slow. We can get through.”<\/p>\n

Victoria looks Dunville directly in the eyes. “I’m not leaving my son.”<\/p>\n

He stares back at her with a pained expression. His stare lingers for a moment before he grabs her by the waist and throws her onto his shoulder.<\/p>\n

“No,” she pleads. “Don’t do this.”<\/p>\n

Dunville sprints towards the door. Jacob is nowhere to be seen. Victoria erupts into tears and screams Jacob’s name repeatedly.<\/p>\n

Hands grab at them as they move through the hallway but they aren’t able to grab hold. Victoria covers her ears to block out the deafening moans.<\/p>\n

They reach the doorway and Dunville begins to push it open. Something slams into the door from the other side and he jerks his hand away. The metal groans and bends against the force. Dunville turns to run but it\u2019s too late. Both he and Victoria are tossed through the air as the door explodes open.<\/p>\n

Victoria hits the floor of the hallway hard. She gasps in pain as the air is knocked from her lungs. Through her blurred vision, she can see that the steel door is bent and hanging from its frame. A large figure pushes its way through the doorway and into the hall.<\/p>\n

She recognizes what it is right away, though she\u2019s never seen one in person before. They were nicknamed Savages. They were born from a strain of the virus that physically mutated its host into something monstrous. Its skin is a faint purple with thick blue veins that extrude from its giant arms. Its bulging muscles throb and press against its torn clothes. Its hair is long and black and hangs from a head that is too small for its massive frame. It\u2019s very fast and unnaturally strong.<\/p>\n

Dunville struggles to stand but the creature immediately pounces on him, slamming his shoulders against the floor. He howls in pain as the monster\u2019s claws dig into his flesh. It leans in close until its face is only inches away from Dunville\u2019s, its white eyes looking straight into his. It snarls loudly and drool drips from its large jaws and pointed teeth.<\/p>\n

Victoria can hear the excited moans of the other zombies get louder as they begin to close in on her. As she pushes herself to her feet, her hand brushes against the cool steel of Dunville’s pistol which is laying on the floor next to her. She grabs it.<\/p>\n

VOTING FOR THIS CHAPTER IS NOW CLOSED. A NEW CHAPTER IS POSTED EVERY TUESDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does she:<\/strong>
\n A: Shoot the Savage and help Dunville<\/strong>
\n B: Leave him to find Jacob<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second chapter in my Vote Your Own Adventure series. You are in control. Vote on the options at the end to decide what happens next. A new chapter will be posted every Tuesday and the voting will end every Friday. Read chapter one here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

∼ Continue Reading ∼<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zombies","category-zombies-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions\/653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklidstone.com\/TheWriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}