Chapter One

I bolt up like a frightened rabbit as the sirens begin to wail, echoing through the mild summer night air. It's definitely turning to autumn. Around me, our little hut is quiet. The sirens are blotting out the deep breaths from the figure sleeping just across the small room, and the candles have long since gone out. Spider webs cling to the rafters, refusing to let go, silvery silk in the watery moonlight that seeps through cracks in the door and the walls. As usual, all I can smell is the mustiness of our frail old hut. No fire, then.

I'm a light sleeper and every sound louder than a cricket chirping its sweet little tune easily awakens me. Fortunately for my twin sister, she's the complete opposite of me. I pad over to her bed and gently attempt to shake her awake, but she mumbles something inaudible and drags herself and the blanket to one side, twisting away from me. 'Pineapple,' I hiss, as calmly as I can. The sirens are only ever used in the worst of catastrophes. 'Pineapple wake up!'

Pineapple doesn't move. Fighting down the unease but quickly getting more desperate, I use her real name; 'MEGAN!' It's a half whisper, half shout this time - a stark contrast between two. Even so, she finally wakes up, slowly uncoiling herself and entering back into the real world. 'Pineapple,' I hiss again urgently, 'listen to the sirens. Can you hear? We have to find out what's wrong!'

Pineapple tiredly heaves herself up, propping herself with one arm as she rubs her eyes with the other. They brightly shine with wonder as she squints up at me in the darkness. A strand of hair slides down over her face and she yawns, closing her eyes again for a second. 'Maybe it's just a drill,' she mumbles, a hint of longing in her tone. 'I don't smell any smoke or hear any fire.'

'Then it's something else,' I reply fiercely, getting slightly annoyed. They only ever prepare drills during the sunlight, often making sure we know it's going to happen beforehand so that there's not a frenzy. Sometimes they don't tell us to see what will happen. But they wouldn't do that during the night. 'Pineapple, we've got to get out. Find brother. Find Josh. Make sure we're all together. They wouldn't have done a drill at this time without us knowing; they're ALWAYS in the daytime. Pineapple, it's not a drill.'

Luke (our older brother, even if adopted) and Josh (he's only about a year or two older than us but he's almost always looked after us and taught us, as he's very intelligent,) are our closest-living family. And by close, I mean really close. They live in the hut next door, in our dusty Lilliputian hometown Myossea. Our tiny dwellings reside forlornly in the poor area of Myossea, wedged between all the other dilapidated wooden huts of our friends and colleagues. As if they heard me (which is actually fairly likely considering the circumstances), the door suddenly smashes open and I can see both Luke and Josh shadowed against the light of the moon.

Pineapple is suddenly full of energy. She jolts upright and is on the verge of opening her mouth to shout hello when suddenly Josh holds out a hand. 'Shh.' he whispers, calmly, as if the sirens aren't destroying our eardrums this very minute. 'Don't make a sound. Just come.'

Her face falling into a perplexed frown, Pineapple twists herself off the bed and rises next to me. If you looked at us, you may not think we were twins at first. But by the way we sometimes act, and our decisions, you would eventually pick it up. We look at each other for a brief moment and I can see the confusion in her soft green eyes. Unlike her usual carefree ways, she knows something's wrong right now, and therefore restrains herself from being her usual cheery self. If Josh says so, we have to get away.

'Come on!' Mutters Luke worriedly. 'You don't know what's at stake here yet. We have to go.'

These few words peak my curiosity and I'm desperate to know what IS at stake. Yet still I keep silent.

Without a single word we move together, out into the chill of the night. Everything seems peaceful and quiet but for the sirens persistently wailing into the air. The soft sighs of the breeze tickle past our cheeks as we pad through the town. Unlike its usual bustling self, Myossea now gives the subtle impression of a ghost town. Shutters are forbiddingly closed in the houses as we proceed into the slightly richer area of the village, whom the residents of are able to afford windows. Dust rises at each drag of our feet and it's cold enough for our breath to condense in a cloud in the air, hanging before our faces just to be ploughed through. The gentle moonlight radiates down upon our shoulders and the stars twinkle worriedly above - they can see everything. The wide street is wreathed with deserted market stalls from the afternoons, empty and forgotten, each falling into disrepair as less and less money is made. Slender, fragile strips of cloth flutter and twirl like caught-up butterflies in the breeze, nailed crookedly to the market stalls for various reasons. Not a single light flickers from the gleaming glass of the windows in the looming houses. The silhouette of another human flits through the alleyway ahead. The sirens must have stopped at some point, so now other than that, and us, there appears to be no sign of life. The bright, colourful market from today, humming with life and affection - all residue of that is gone. It looks as though life never existed here at all.

It pains me to see Myossea like this, and therefore I'm thankful when the buildings begin to fade away and the dark talons of the forest reach out to us. They threaten to draw us in to the dark tangle of trees and foliage that's something else's territory. I've never been in the forest before. Suddenly I see it in a different way. Are we actually walking out of a ghost town, yet a peaceful one, into a monstrous hell? It seems almost supernatural, and in my head spirits swirl and dance, projecting themselves into the fringes of the trees before my eyes, vivid crimson with cruel, eerie smiles. I stop in my tracks, unable to move. I need to know.

'What's going on?' I whisper, frowning at the floor, then look up at Josh and Luke. 'Why do we have to leave?'

Josh and Luke both look at Pineapple and I for a fleeting moment. We can see the uncertainty in their eyes and I know they can see the questioning in ours. Then they look at each other. And finally their eyes overflow with more fear than I have ever seen them do, coming to rest on a spot over our shoulders.

Behind us.

'Run.' mutters Josh, heavily drawing his eyes back to us. 'Run!'

Neither of us can help it. As if held down by a gigantic weight, we haltingly shift our bodies around to see behind us. I relax with a sigh. 'What are you so worried about? It's just Mrs Slater.' Just Mrs Slater. The head teacher from the younger childrens' school in Myossea, dressed in smart (as usual) pyjamas, with her old-fashioned haircut and greying hair. Clad with her usual expensive coat embroidered with flowers and her equally if not more expensive silk hat. Mrs Slater, whom nobody knows just how she got so rich. Just Mrs Slater.

However, I then notice that something's wrong. She's mostly walking normally, without particular aim (it seems)... But she's limping slightly. Furthermore, as she gets closer, I can see the dead look in her eyes. They're empty-looking and flecked with red. Her beautiful, old-fashioned coat is torn to shreds in several places and her hat is lopsided on her head. One of the buttons is suspended by a single thread of twine. Is she really that close, that I can see that...?

I snap back immediately into reality as her trembling hand reaches out to touch me and recoil instantly. Her wrinkled fingers curl back and she withdraws her hand as I turn and run. I almost let her touch me! What is she?! A demon? A vampire? Several more figures limp out from the alleyways, spilling out into the night, and that's when it hits me, like a train. They're zombies.

Just ahead of me, my twin sister stands still, eyes wide and staring.

'Pineapple!' I scream, coming to a halt, and my fingers curl around her hand as she stands there, dumbstruck, watching the zombies steadily approach. They'd move at the same speed as a normal human being but for their limp. I tug on her arm and she whips around and begins to run with me. Just a little ahead, Josh and Luke disappear into the dark folds of the forest. My own blood thunders in my ears and the wind has picked up speed, whipping past our faces and whistling through our ears. We crash through the boundary of the forest, into the confusion of the foliage.

Branches smack into my face as I squeeze my eyes shut and accelerate. Pineapple's fingers slip away from mine so I slow down until I can hear her behind me. Branches tear like claws at my clothes and hair. The darkness engulfs me, wrapping me into its bitter embrace. In here it isn't Summer - no. In here it's a never-ending frosty, gloomy winter.

'MIA!' Screams Pineapple desperately. I stop abruptly and spin around to face her. She's caught up in the withered grasp of a drooping tree, struggling as if for dear life to get out. And I can see why. Behind her, the zombies are catching up, and there's no sign of either Josh or Luke. I sprint towards her, and she stares up at me hopelessly, her legs dragging on the ground. I begin to tear at the leaves and the twigs.

After a while I accept that I have no hope of rescuing Pineapple from this all by myself, and since Josh and Luke aren't around to help either, she's going to have to cooperate. Even so, I can see that she's injured and exhausted. 'You're gonna have to help me, Pineapple! Help me or they'll catch you!'

Slowly, my twin sister builds up the courage and strength she needs and little by little we extract her from the unwitting trap. The zombies are undoubtedly closing in on us, but I don't look up to check. Finally Pineapple breaks free, and before either of us can say anything she stumbles up and starts running again. I take one glance behind me as I join her, just in time to watch the zombies swarm through the area where Pineapple just got caught. The area where we both could have died. Although I suppose becoming a zombie would only be half-dying.

We don't stop again until we're deep in the labyrinth of the woods, tripping up every now and then on roots and fallen branches. Our heavy footsteps thump over the coppery rotting leaves, which still bury the earth despite the fact that it's now Summer. Time doesn't seem to move deep in here and I have no idea how long it's been by the time we eventually stop running.

At some point Josh and Luke must have joined us, because now they lean against the trees, breathing heavily after the run. We're in a tiny clearing where the cold moonlight glimmers down through the leaves. It's freezing now, and I'm shivering, so I wrap my arms around myself as if it will help keep me warm. Everything around us is silent. The breeze isn't blowing and nothing is moving. It's like all life here has been eliminated, which means at best that we lost the zombies. I stretch one hand over my face in despair and stifle a yawn, wondering what got us into this mess. At least we survived.

'We have to climb the trees,' mumbles Luke, still out of breath - we all are. I look up and watch as he straightens up and walks around, examining the forest around us. 'I don't think they can climb them. It'll be better than... than staying down here, anyway.'

It seems that we all agree, and we choose two trees next to each other, one for Pineapple and I and one for them. They're tall and secure, furnished with many thick branches jutting out. I begin to climb, Pineapple just beneath me, scrabbling for hand and foot holds and forcing my overworked arms and legs to hold true and not slip off. Once I've chosen a suitable branch, a little above Pineapple's, broad and mostly smooth, I fall asleep almost before I even close my eyes. I should be anxious - but all I want to do right now is rest.
 

2: Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The screams spill out into the night, overflowing every cavity of my mind. Terrified screams, melancholy screams, screams wracked by sobs. They pierce the tense atmosphere and jab at me like sharp, bony, prying fingers, distressing my mental body. All I can do is feel my way through the pitch blackness and listen as everyone I have ever known and cared about get devoured by the zombies. The pain is unbearable - not physical, but in the heart. I can feel it being twisted, twisted, twisted...

...But then the world brightens, cracks of sunlight gradually seeping back into my vision. With a quick jolt I lurch up into a sitting position. I had almost unconsciously maneuvered myself off the branch, and if I had succeeded, woken up any later, I would be plummeting, tumbling towards the coppery sea of the floor below. I would probably have destroyed my back or snapped my neck. Just thinking about it is sickening.

So, it was just a dream. Is that really the terror I'm feeling right now? My conscious mind seems to have subdued it and kept it down, but when I slept the whole thing opened up and all my panic came flooding out, drowning me in horror and distress. My forehead is damp and my heart is still pumping frantically, recovering itself from the alarm. I sigh and close my eyes for a minute, leaning back against the rutted trunk of the safe, sheltered tree.

When I reopen my eyes I look around, impatiently brushing a dark brown strand of hair from my face and tucking it carelessly behind my ear. I already know how high up I am, but I look down anyway. The little clearing from last night looks completely different drenched with sunlight, which I can feel softly stroking my shoulders from above. I'm not afraid of heights so I lower myself slightly over the edge of the branch, dangling precariously to look down upon my twin. I feel like a cheeky monkey about to play a trick. With a short twig, I reach down and poke her gently in the cheek.

Pineapple is slumped like a rag doll on a broad bough just below me, one leg swinging down by the side. Both of her arms rest tiredly upon her stomach, and her head is tipped up in a strange position, dappled by sunlight. I vaguely wonder how she can sleep like that, then poke her again, after bearing no reaction from my former attempt.

This time she reacts immediately, leaping up and hitting her head on my branch, raising two clenched fists in an attacking position. 'Hey,' I say, casually, hanging upside down with my hair suspended in mid-air. Pineapple jumps and hits her head again, rubbing it with one hand and glaring up at me, clearly annoyed and slightly shocked.

'I could have fallen, you know! I thought I was being attacked!'

'Sorry,' I mumble quietly.

We stare at each other for a few seconds. I must look slightly insane in the position I'm in. Pineapple looks equally as bizarre with her bedraggled, sandy brown hair and ripped clothes. Suddenly she begins to snicker. Then giggle. And then we both begin to laugh for no particular reason as we look at each other in the early morning, watery sunlight.

'How can you two be laughing, at a time like this?' We pick up the sound of Josh's voice through our laughter, sounding tired and with a slight tone of despair. 'You two are never serious, are you? Strange personalities, you guys have. Hardly anyone would believe that you're thirteen-year-olds.'

'Sorry,' we mumble, together this time, with a hint of amusement in our voices. We'd better get ready - Josh probably has a plan for today.
 

A few minutes later, we're standing anxiously and warily on the forest floor. I can't push the events from last night, or my nightmare, out of my mind. The silence is a good sign, as I take it, because much as there may be a zombie skulking silently around the corner I don't see them as the type. Although thinking about it, what do I really know about zombies? Stories are all I've ever heard about them, and now that they've come to life like I'm living in a fantasy world, they're completely different to how I imagined. No rotting, mouldy-green flesh or cracked skulls with bulging brains. Albeit the fact that Mrs Slater's clothes were slightly ripped, she bore no resemblance to a fairy-tale zombie. There is, of course, the mystery of their limp - and I'm not sure I want to ever find out how they developed that.

The three of us assemble in front of Josh like schoolchildren being checked for their uniforms, or something. 'Sooooo...' prompts Pineapple, tilting her head at Josh with an expectant look on her face.

'Right. Well.' he begins hastily. 'I happen to know of some cousins of yours, Mia and Pineapple, as well as their parents, who don't live too far away from here, in a town called Krindle.'

My mouth gapes open at this news. 'Are you kidding me?!' I exclaim, dumbstruck.

'What?' he asks, surprised at my outburst, apparently with no idea why I'm acting so annoyed.

'Well all of this time we had actual family, cousins, an aunt and uncle, and you never told us?!' I narrow my eyes at him suspiciously. 'How do you even know, anyway?'

Josh rudely chooses to ignore me and continues with his idea. I huff and stare icily at my feet, only half listening to his plan. We're going to find long lost cousins. Right. 'So I thought...' I hear him begin, through my bubbling thoughts.

We have real family out there. Why didn't he tell us? Makes me feel like he's a traitor. He's known that all our lives we have wondered and wished that we had more real family, Pineapple and I. That we want to find out about our parents. So what did he have against us knowing, for however long he's known? They're OUR family, not his.

'I don't really know the way...'

More importantly...
How does he know? How did he find out? Did we actually have parents long enough for him to be able to understand? No, that's impossible. We barely knew him back then, as far as I recall. Well, we were only two or three... When they... No no, it's impossible. None of it makes any sense.

'So... It's risky.'

I slowly come back around into reality as Luke begins to speak, skeptically. He sounds none too pleased with this plan. 'Right.' he murmurs, sounding very unconvinced. 'And... This is all through the woods? In the safety of the trees?'

Josh's expression turns melancholy, doubtful. He hesitantly admits, 'Sorry, Luke old friend, but if we actually want to have a real chance of getting to Krindle at all, we'll have to switch to the roads eventually. As previously discussed, I currently have only a faint idea of where we have to go... My complete sure-ness - is that a word? - on the route (through the woods at least), is slim to none.'

'Better get going then, huh?' Pineapple presses after a short silence. She speaks the words we're all thinking but don't want to say, for reasons unknown to me.

'How long's this gonna take?' I ask curiously, as Josh begins to meander slowly towards the fringe of trees, lingering until we follow. As he turns around I can see that his expression is slightly shifty, and I fear the worse. He confirms my suspicions a second later.

'Much as I hate to admit it... I have absolutely no idea.'

Pineapple and I turn to look at each other, raising our eyebrows slightly as if to say, 'Oh jeez,' as Josh motions for us to follow him. We catch Luke's eye and he manages to push a weak, troubled smile onto his face. His dark hazel eyes are splashed with anxiety as he turns to accompany Josh. He's frightened - aren't we all - however, it's one of the first times I've ever seen him like this.
 

Twigs crackle and crunch beneath our tired, heavy feet as we traipse on all the way into the afternoon. We're extremely lucky we each possess our own pair of shoes. The merciless sun, constantly beating ferociously down upon our heads and shoulders, rises higher and higher into the azure blue sky as the day drags on. The trees thinned out a while ago, giving way for the sun to torture us with its searing heat. The trees thinning out not only increases our physical distress but makes us - or me at least - feel horribly vulnerable. There's barely even any foliage around to conceal us away from hungry zombies that could approach any minute. The upside is we'd probably notice them before they got to us.

What makes it worse is that I'm dying for a drink of water, but we haven't come across any all day. We've barely rested and there's been no sign of life. The animals that usually inhabit this place have abandoned it. Where they've gone, I don't know, and probably never will.

Suddenly Josh stops dead. Fear shoots in a shudder through me as I assume the worst. However, that doesn't seem to be the case; Josh simply stands there and puts a finger to his mouth. Shh. We stand in silence and listen for a few seconds. I hear nothing. Quickly growing impatient, as usual, I tap my foot and am about to speak when a soft movement comes from above.

My foot stops tapping.

I freeze onto the spot, my body swiftly turning frigid even though the sun is still thrashing down. I can't convince my brain to let me look up, so I linger on the same spot with a stiff neck. Everyone else is just staring at each other, but I can't tell from their faces what they're feeling. It could just be a bird. Except for the fact that we haven't seen a single one all day. And what are the chances of one appearing now, directly above our heads?

There's another soft sound and I let out a piercing scream, leaping back slightly, as a shape abruptly drops down in front of me with practically no warning at all. I can't do anything but stare when I realise. Hanging upside down, grinning madly, there's a boy about mine, Pineapple's and Luke's age clinging to the tree like a monkey, with bright blue eyes and fairly long, suspended dark hair. He's wearing worn-out clothes and carries a small rucksack, which is slightly unzipped and in danger of everything inside slipping right out.

I say absolutely nothing, taken aback. Pineapple begins to snicker next to me at the strange sight, just like this morning. Luke begins to grin slightly and Josh steps forward.

'Well...' begins Josh, sounding slightly dazed, and the boy twists slightly to look at the speaker. 'You startled us a bit there... Anyway,' he continues, regaining his usual confident self, 'I'm Josh. We're trying to get to a town called Krindle. My friends here are Luke, Pineapple - sorry, her name's actually Megan, Pineapple's her nickname - and Mia. Who are you?' Straight to the point as usual.

'The name's Tom,' he replies politely, dropping down effortlessly into the leaves below and not bothering to brush them off. Why would he need to? 'And I'm telling you, I'm really glad to find some actual people who aren't zombies yet. Nice to meet you!'

3: Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I yawn slightly, stifling it with one hand, as we continue to wander through the woods. It's clear that none of us have any idea where we're going. Even Tom has no idea where a town named Krindle might be, nor has he ever heard of one.

I'm still thirsty, my throat seeming to throb and ache with the lack of liquid. I'm already finding it quite difficult to swallow. If we don't find water soon, I swear I'll go crazy. We've had a little to eat, from what Tom has in his rucksack, but we're all still very hungry. Tom, obviously, only packed for one, and it doesn't seem as though he was thinking of going very far. I'm drifting into my own thoughts, walking automatically forwards instead of actually concentrating, when Luke's voice echoes through my mind.

'...you get here?' is all I hear as I snap back to reality. Everything becomes slightly less fuzzy and faraway as Tom begins to speak.

'Well, I live... lived... in a town not too far away from here. In fact, I lived there until just this morning.'

'Just this morning?' asks Pineapple. 'Aren't you going to go back to see if everyone's okay? Your family maybe?'

'No,' Tom sighs slightly, and then quickly whips back to his usual (as we've seen so far, anyway) cheery self. 'You see, I don't really need to. I didn't really have a proper family. I also don't know the way back now, so I don't see the point of leaving you guys and just getting lost.'

We find it better not to ask about his family, and in the brief silence that follows Tom's reply I vaguely wonder if there's any point trying to get to Krindle at all.

'Do you know what happened to the other people there?' I ask, tilting my head slightly. Tom shakes his head in reply.

'I went out hunting this morning, obviously thinking that I would be going back there at the end of the day, or the afternoon, or, you know, just at some point. So I have no idea. I would presume that the zombies reached them and took them out, unless some of them managed to escape. Hehe. That would have been FUN!'

'Fun? Are you just glazing over the fact that you're scared, or do you actually think it would be fun?' asks Josh dubiously, looking past Luke at Tom with creased eyebrows.

'It would actually be fun! I met this guy on the way here, actually, after I saw and ran from the first zombies. Quite a bit older than us...' he pauses for a moment, his expression becoming one of thoughtfulness. 'Probably about 30 years old or so. Anyway, yeah, I walked with him for a bit. Pretty nice but VERY jumpy. Jumped at the tiniest of things. I mean literally, a fly buzzed past his ear and he almost fell over.'

Tom turns and sees us looking at him skeptically. He looks slightly uncomfortable for a second before he realises that we want him to get back to the subject and continue what he was saying, then coughs slightly before talking again. 'Well, the zombies came limping round the corner - I think they were limping - and this guy went absolutely crazy. I sprinted to the nearest tree - the road was surrounded by them - expecting him to follow. Except, he didn't follow me. He stood absolutely still. Well, I'd only known him for about ten minutes, so I didn't go back, and I was in the tree when he finally started running. One of 'em had actually almost touched him. A couple of them, actually... Anyway, he was unlucky. He got his foot caught in a pot-hole and tripped up. I didn't see what the zombies did to him, but they left little remains.'

'Wait... You were actually on a road?! Were we still near it when we found you?' enquires Pineapple somewhat desperately. I don't know why; we're too far away now anyway.

'No, no, I'd gone quite far by that point. Sorry. Continuing on, I slipped down the tree once the zombies were gone, and took the guy's brain in case I needed to lure some zombies away at some point. At least as much of it as I could get, anyway. It was somewhat strewn about. But at least I got it in the rucksack!'

'In... the rucksack?' I repeat, feeling the blood drain from my face. I gag slightly remembering the food he took from there and gave to us, resisting the urge to throw up, as I'd lose what little water I have left and the food itself. That certainly wouldn't help.

'Haha...' Tom says slowly, realising that it might have been a bad idea to store it with the food. 'Yeah... Oops.'

A blanket of silence falls upon us as we continue to drag our feet through the forest. We've moved into a new area, where the trees form a sort of canopy above us. The area's only slightly shaded due to the fact that most of the trees' leaves have spiralled down to the ground already. One of them floats right into my face as we walk and I huff it away, causing a few strands of my hair to lurch up into the air and gently drift down again. It's way too quiet.

Luke stops suddenly, half of his face in the shadows from the peculiar sunlight patterns. He leans forward slightly, his eyebrows creasing, and squints. 'What... What's that?' he muses, and slowly wanders over to find out.

'Luke...' warns Josh, evidently thinking that he might've seen a zombie or something equally as threatening. But then I see what Luke can see, and all becomes clear. It's a sheet of crinkled, moon-white paper, fluttering in the breeze, caught delicately on a tree branch. Pineapple must have seen it too, as she moves with me to go and take a look. By the time we reach him, Luke is reading it under his breath.

'Make sure you have food... water... weapons... medicine and a first aid kit... and torches...' he looks up doubtingly, uneasiness etched upon his face. 'We have none of this.'

I lean over slightly, reading the section of text titled 'Weaknesses'.

We have only found three weaknesses so far.
You should endeavour to use these if you happen upon a zombie.

-Zombies do not come back to life if shot through the head.

-They are allergic to sunlight but can survive in the shade.

-They are also deadly allergic to acid.

'They're allergic to acid? What about acid rain?' I murmur. Acid rain has existed here for a while now from pollution in the cities and all over the place, even though us small towns have to use candles and fires only. Yes, this country is very corrupted, but it's always been like that. It might change now that the zombie apocalypse is happening, though. Probably for the worse, as everyone will probably end up dead anyway. 'It's not rained for ages though. The acid rain might kill them, and it's coming to autumn, but it's so hot!'

'They're allergic to sunlight too,' Pineapple points out matter-of-factly. 'So no matter what the weather's like they can't come out during the day.'

'True,' I reply thoughtfully. At that moment Josh and Tom stroll up and the poster is snatched from Luke's hands. I turn away, leaving Josh to read it and him and Luke to squabble over it. The night is approaching. I can sense it and I can see it, that dawning sense of horror and dread. Panic squirms and writhes inside my stomach and my heart begins to race. Now that it's coming to autumn, the nights are falling more rapidly than before, pouncing upon us when we least expect it like a tiger stalking a deer. And once the night has taken over, it will give way to the zombies. After that point, the zombies will be the tigers and we, once more, will be the deer.

These trees are no good for climbing.

I whip around and almost scream at the others, 'It's getting dark! We can't climb the trees! The zombies will be on us like... like... like flies to a CORPSE! And we WILL be corpses if we don't get out of here!'

'Calm down, Mia!' Says Josh calmly, apparently unperturbed. I resist the urge to scream again and look at Pineapple, who looks terrified. Luke looks shocked and Tom looks vaguely amused. I frown at Josh.

'Do you want us to die?'

'No, but we'll never get anywhere if we get all worked up about it. We need to go about this calmly or we'll end up running frantically in circles.'

I force myself to calm down, slowly seeing that he's right. We can't just rush off with no idea what we're doing; number one, we'll just attract more zombies, and number two, we'll never get anywhere. I nod, taking a deep breath, and we begin to walk in a direction that Tom and Josh decide on, briskly going about our way. It gets ever darker and we walk ever faster as the sun dips down below the horizon. I can't actually see it happening, but I can see as the sky turns red like a battlefield of the fallen. It spreads across until it surrounds us, trapping us into this nightmare. Soon it will be dark altogether.

It's dusk when we seemingly reach the edge of the forest. At least we think it is at first; however, we then notice the fringe of trees on every side. It's a clearing.

Within the clearing, a few sheep graze contentedly, and an old, falling-apart barn house stands towering but abandoned. We all look at each other, and then the quickly approaching dark sky, before advancing towards the barn house without a single word.

4: Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The door to the barn house is unlocked, probably left open in the owner's haste to get away. I gingerly push it open with one hand, feeling the rotting wood practically crumble beneath my fingertips. It protests with a series of creaks and squeals on rusty metal as it slowly grinds along the floor to allow the dying light of the day inside. At least this means that the zombies can't have been here, but it also gives me the impression that nobody's been here for a long time.

We move into the house and split up, looking for anywhere to hide and any supplies. The place is so gloomy that it's difficult to bear. Darkness hangs heavy upon our shoulders as I find another, newer, more-used door, that now implies that someone has been living here recently.

This is confirmed a few minutes later when Pineapple plucks up the courage to look in the cupboards; it turns out there's food everywhere. The house's previous owner must have either been very stupid and left everything or just had a hell lot of food. We spend the next ten minutes scouring the cupboards and pulling out all sorts of things. There are even two rucksacks, and we stuff them full of goods for the rest of our journey.

To our relief, there's clean running water and plastic bottles, due to a water-butt out the back. We fill them and drink a bottle each at least, making sure we don't drink too much as we know we'll have to ration the rest. We fill six bottles and shove them into the rucksacks wherever there's space.

Once we've ransacked the kitchen (albeit the fridge, which contains nothing of use since the power's out and has been for quite a while, probably because everyone's too busy either being zombies or running from them), we check the other rooms; upper and lower.

There's a utility room, cold, dark, and empty, within the depths of which Luke manages to dig up a first aid kit. The cupboards, which go up to knee height in this room, have some medicine in them, but nothing all that useful. Most of them are animal pills anyway.

We abandon the utility room and carefully ascend the creaking, dusty stairs. I cough as some of it flies straight into my face, wiping my watery eyes. There isn't much in the bedrooms up here; just a mess of clothes and mattresses. We each grab ourselves a moth-bitten blanket and head back downstairs. Josh uncovers a bunch of matches and a stack of candles in a half-hidden cupboard on the landing.

The sun has gone down completely now, and the barn house is dull and murky. The flickering flame from the candles creates an eerie golden light, which throws long dark shadows across the walls as I shiver in the hallway. I mentally review the list from the poster (which I presume was a government one) that we found earlier. We now have food, and water. We have a first aid kit and a little medicine. We have candles, which will have to substitute for a torch.

All we need is weapons. The most important factor to our survival.

Suddenly I hear a piercing scream and a terrifying cracking sound, as though lightning has just hit. I jerk into immediate action, bounding towards the sound of my sister's scream. Crashing into the dim, musty living-room type area, which is pretty much bare bar a mouldy sofa which none of us really wanted to sit on, I skid to a halt to stop myself from tumbling into the jagged hole that rushes up to meet me. Luke and Pineapple stand stock-still in shock on the other side of the room.

I take a deep breath before lowering myself carefully onto my stomach to peer over into the abyss, clutching my candle before me. A looming face rises up from the floor towards me and my next breath catches in my throat until I hear the next few words.

'What's wrong? It's only me.'

I begin breathing again, taking a deep breath all in one go, and drop my candle a little further until I can see Tom's face grinning up at me. 'Can I have that candle, please? It's really dark down here, as you can see. And my fall snuffed out my own candle.'

'Are you alright?' is my reply as I hand down my current light source, hastily taking a new one from the rucksack slung over my shoulder.

'Yeah, I'm fine. Didn't land on anything that could break, really,' I hear his voice fade to behind me a little as I shakily stand up and tug my box of matches from my pocket. With quivering hands I strike a single match and watch as the top of the candle ignites into a wavering, tiny inferno, replacing it into the now empty candle holder.

'Wow!' I hear him exclaim. Pineapple and Luke come up beside me, as well as Josh, who evidently joined them at some point. They must have explained already what happened, as he asks no questions. A minute or two later of silent apprehension, just simply staring at each other, a secret trapdoor flies open in an explosion of dust and grime.

Tom's face is illuminated in the middle of the cloud as he coughs violently, just managing to shakily beckon us towards him and into the depths of the basement.

'What is it?' asks Josh, as we approach. 'What's down there?'

Tom just grins and disappears again, leaving us with no choice but to follow him into the darkness. It seems as though I'm in my own bubble of light, all else swallowed by darkness, as I am the first to descend. In the corner of the dingy basement I can see the watery glow of Tom's torch, and progress cautiously towards it. 'Whoa,' I breathe as I draw ever closer.

In the corner of this tiny basement, which must in fact be a storage room, there are stacked pitchforks and shovels, gleaming menacingly as the torches radiate soft rays upon them. There are even rifles. But what really tops it off are the stacks of dynamite, spilling out into the room after evidently toppling over. The toe of my boot almost touches one of the bundles as Josh emerges into the light on Tom's other side, raising an eyebrow at the amount of explosive laid out before us.

'Why would a FARMER...' begins Josh, as Pineapple appears next to me, raising her eyebrows, and then finally Luke comes up next to Pineapple, '...Have all this dynamite?!'

'I don't know!' Exclaims Tom excitedly. 'But it's GREAT! PARRRTAAAAY!'

In my mental checklist I tick off the final ingredient to survival. Weapons. Now we have a real chance of getting through this alive. But to be honest, there's always hope - no matter how slim.

We confer together and eventually decide to spend the night in the basement - the house alone is too easy to get into. We rapidly put together our plan, knowing that it's dark already. Josh and Tom drag the deteriorating sofa over the jagged hole in the floor that Tom managed to establish as Pineapple, Luke and I head back upstairs, heaving down mattresses and blankets and pillows as quietly as possible. We squeeze them all through the basement hatch with the help of the other two, who are now finished with the sofa, and finally barricade the trapdoor shut with a chair. It's unlikely that zombies would be able to locate and open the trapdoor anyway, but we'd prefer to take precautions.

The candles are set in various places around the room, dimly lighting the whole thing, as we set up our own individual sleeping areas. There's no point having a watcher, really, but we decide to take shifts anyway in case a zombie discovers the trapdoor or the hole beneath the sofa. Josh takes the first shift, ready to sit up late into the night, but he eventually gets too tired.

He goes to shake awake Tom, but Tom's still awake, as we all are. It's during Tom's shift that we begin to fall asleep, one by one, drifting into either nothingness or nightmares. I'm just about to get to sleep, about to sink into the former, when I feel a sharp tap on the shoulder. I look up to see Luke's eyes blinking down at me, and as soon as he sees I'm awake his face disappears from my vision and I know he's gone to his own area.

Has it really been that long? Damn, I think, as I sit up, I haven't slept at all. I just know I'm going to fall asleep...

I blink into the darkness, realizing that only one or two of the candles are still alight. I stare at the dynamite in the corner, wondering how we'll use it, and get up to arm myself with a shiny, sharp-pronged pitchfork and a rifle. Sitting back down, I tilt my head and rest the neck of the pitchfork on my shoulder, leaning onto it. And that's when I fall asleep.


When it must be morning I wake up with a start, due to the slow thumping reverberating down from upstairs. It sounds like someone's walking about up there who might have a limp. My mind flickers back to the zombies in Myossea. The government poster said something about a limp too. My breathing stops sharply as I realise what's happened.

'Zombies,' I breathe, and then cover my mouth. How good is their hearing? What will happen if they hear us? Earth and dust dances from the ceiling towards me as the zombies aimlessly amble about above. They'll be doing that all day long, until the sun goes down again. I resist the urge to cry in defeat as I move towards Pineapple. We can't stay down here all day. Any noise that we make, from eating to pouring water, maybe even the strike of a match, could alert them to our presence.

I shake Pineapple awake gently (she's become a lot better at waking up), and as soon as she opens her eyes put a warning finger to my lips. Don't say a word. I shoot her a frightened look, one that whispers 'We're in danger,' and point upwards. Pineapple sits up, raises her eyebrows, and points to the others. I nod and we quietly rouse them from their slumbers, using the same symbols for each of them. Don't say a word. We're in danger.

We listen in silence to the limping clunks of the zombies above us. There isn't really a way of forming a plan without us speaking, so we have no idea what to do. Somehow we make the joint, telepathic decision that we must kill them or injure them to get out, and slowly but surely supplies gather in a small pile in the middle of the room.

The bundles of dynamite are chucked in, to which Pineapple earns a few glares for almost making a lot of noise. We put the rifles in the middle (altogether there are four of them), as well as the shovels and pitchforks. Tom produces a single smoke grenade from his rucksack, shrugging with a matter-of-fact look on his face when we look at him curiously.

We sit around doing nothing for a short while, the zombies still clunking away above us. The noise gradually gets louder and louder, and when it's almost unbearable, as if all the zombies in the house are up there right now, Josh's eyes widen and he springs into action.

The first thing he does is tug a box of matches from his rucksack, kneeling on the floor to unzip and empty it. He throws them down beside the dynamite. Since we don't know what's going on, none of us offer to help, just watch in wonder as he prepares the smoke grenade and lights the dynamite. He motions for us to pick up a rifle each and a pitchfork or shovel, so I snatch up a rifle and sling it over my shoulder, as well as arming myself with a pitchfork. Once the dynamite fuses have almost burned down to the bottom, and we're desperately gesturing for him to get rid of them, he picks up the smoke grenade.

And, with perfect precision, launches it up through the jagged hole into the living room.

5: Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Everything happens quickly after that. Josh snatches up the very nearly exploding dynamite bundles, their fuses bouncing off their shiny red surfaces, and hurls them in different directions under the sofa, through the thin strip of light the edge of the sofa leaves for us. 'Get down!' He shouts, already sprinting over to the chair in front of the trapdoor. I hit the floor, covering my head and ears with my hands, as Josh reaches the chair. He rips it away and drops down just before the explosions begin.

First, the explosion of the smoke grenade blasts into the air, ripping it apart in one swift motion. The smoke seems to pour everywhere, including down here, as it rolls over the edge of the jagged hole and down on top of us. I can't help but cough and bury my head into my jumper to block it off, swallowing down the coughs and straining to keep it that way.

When the second explosions go off, it's even worse. The foundations of the house seem to shudder and rattle like bones as the wood of the floor above rips open. Pineapple screams as a zombie tumbles down just beside her, lurching away from it, and Josh shouts, 'Come on! Hurry! With me!'

We stumble after him, coughing, and tears from the smoke are streaming down my face. I can barely see. All I can do is make my way towards the sound of the others and hope it's right. Pineapple appears next to me, in my half a meter of vision, her arms folded up past her ears and clasped on top of her head. I grasp her arm and we continue until we run into Luke, who's climbing the steps shakily. We shove him forwards, urging him to go faster, until we're all out in the open air of the house and running.

We run, literally, for our very lives, sprinting through the smoke. I scream, a piercing, fearful scream that makes Pineapple jump, as a zombie looms up out of the gloom in front of me. It reaches out and I act on instinct, driving my pitchfork right between its eyes as hard as I possibly can. I feel it drill through the flesh and hit the bone in three places in its face, quickly yanking the sharp metal prongs back out again (none too carefully) and resuming my mad run to get out.

It seems to take hours to find the door, running around in the dim house bulging with smoke, but eventually we hear a shout and make our way towards it. Tom is standing beside the door, with an anxious look in his eyes, motioning for us to hurry up and get out. I follow Pineapple through the door as smoke pours out of it into the daylight, overruling the oxygen and clogging my lungs, blocking out the sun's rays.

'Where are the other two?' I gasp, trying to breathe properly. With all the smoke, it's difficult.

'...I don't know...' he replies hoarsely, worriedly, standing in a poise that indicates he wants to go back in and search for them.

'Don't go back,' coughs Pineapple - she must have picked up on it too. I glance back at the smouldering building, which now has half a wall ripped off, and silently pray that Luke and Josh haven't been mauled by the zombies, and that they'll make it out.

'Crap,' I wheeze, with my hands on my knees, as I notice something through the confusion. I try and stand straight, shading my eyes against the thinning smoke, as two figures emerge from the flames, backing out into the burning daylight.

'Crap,' Pineapple repeats, seeing what I do.

Gunshots echo through the air with a crack as one of the figures aims and fires, and the first zombies stagger out of the barn house, practically falling over their own feet. 'I thought they're supposed to be allergic to sunlight?' Pineapple says, her eyebrows creasing, tilting her head to one side. The effects begin to take place a few seconds later when the zombies' skin seems to incinerate like paper, with rapidly expanding mouths gaping open and spreading across their skin. The breaks glow molten at the rims, blackening slightly further along. The black spots get quickly engulfed by the molten patches.

We watch as the three foolish enough to enter out into the daylight stumble and topple to the floor like fallen trees, stiff and helpless. They desperately claw at the earth in front of them, but I can't see their expressions. All they seem to want to do is seize their prey and drag them to the underworld with them, but Josh and Luke are already lurching towards us, zig-zagging confusedly. I briefly wonder if the smoke got into their eyes, obstructing their vision somewhat. But my attention immediately turns back to the zombies, unable to tear my eyes away from the gruesome scene before us.

I gasp in horror and disgust as the final strips of papery skin, now deathly white, melt off their bones, slithering on to the grass in huge dollops. I'm not sure, but as I watch I think I see the grass around those spots droop and die from the foul substance. As the final globs dissipate away we see that they have no interior organs or body parts, just a washed-out, greying mass of bones. Somehow they don't seem quite right. Then, before our eyes, the bones slowly, section-by-section, disintegrate into dull grey dust and blow away in the breeze. And that's it. Within two minutes, three zombies have become completely non-existent. The only signs that they've ever been here are the blackened, charred spots of grass where they last were before they vanished.

All we can do as Luke and Josh catch up to us is stand there in terrified awe, rendered completely speechless.

'Are you guys all right?' asks Josh, peering at us anxiously. I suddenly realize how weird we must look, and also, that Josh and Luke didn't see what happened. Just as well, really - they escaped the horror.

'Uh- uh- Yeah. We're all right.' I manage to stammer, lying slightly (about myself, at least).

Tom snaps back into reality and says under his breath, 'That was so. Cool.'

I blink at him and shake my head in despair, turning to Pineapple, who's looking from one person to another as if she didn't think we'd all be alive. When she looks at me, I smile slightly, as well as what I hope is encouragingly, and say, 'You okay, twin sister?'

She nods at me, just about managing to plaster a tiny smile on to her face as well, and brushes her hair out of her eyes, which is currently a mess from all the explosions and running, embellished with a couple of sprinkled splinters. 'I'm all right. Apart from almost dying.' she says with a smirk. I laugh, glad to see her usual self, which proves that she really is, to an extent, okay.

'Is there a reason we're just standing around waiting?' enquires Josh impatiently. He doesn't want to waste a minute, whereas I still need some time to rest.

'Not really,' I reply casually. 'But I kinda need some more rest, if you don't mind. Would that be all right with you?'

Pineapple nods in agreement. 'Pleeeaaase Josh?' she whines, making herself seem as vulnerable as possible. 'Just a little while. A couple of minutes.'

Josh rolls his eyes and reluctantly agrees to let us rest a little longer. I clap my hands happily and give him a grateful smile before collapsing to the ground, sitting with my hands wrapped around my knees. Pineapple slumps down next to me and Tom, Josh and Luke sit near us. There's a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Luke interrupts.

'So, what exactly is the plan now? Has this changed anything?'

Josh shrugs, his expression unreadable. 'Same as before. We still need to get to Krindle so that means we still need to find a road.'

'Well, a farm and barn house can't be too far from a town,' I comment, pointing out the obvious - the farmer would need to get his produce to the towns and go to the markets to buy his own food, and so on. He (or she) wouldn't have been able to make a living without doing so. Even so, the town could be far enough away from the farmer to have had to have taken an automobile or horses and carriages. Presumably, that was how they got away, as there's nothing of the sort here right now. I lay my pitchfork down by my side, carefully, and attentively remove the rifle from my back, slinging it onto my lap to examine.

'That's true.' agrees Tom, looking with a far-away demeanour at nothing in particular. 'That means we won't have to travel for too much longer.'

I lean back on my hands, and suddenly a thought slams into my face. 'You never told us how you know about Krindle, and our cousins,' I recall, looking over at Josh. He sits there shiftily and turns his head away, keeping silent. 'Well?' I narrow my eyes.

He coughs slightly. 'I can't.'

'Why not?! We deserve to know!' I protest indignantly.

'Because. I just can't.'

Pineapple glares at him. 'It's our family. Not yours. Who are you to say that we can't know?'

'I thought Luke and I were your family now? Or have I not looked after you and taught practically all your lives?' he quickly shoots back.

'Not really. At least not very well. We weren't exactly the smartest children in Myossea, and you didn't even send us to school.' I retort. Tom looks from us to Josh as the argument continues.

'Well I am only a year older than you. When we were younger, how was I to know there was a school? Anyway, I didn't need to send you to school, I could've been a teacher there anyway.'

'You're really too smart to insult, you know that?' mutters Pineapple, clearly irritated.

'I know, I know.' smirks Josh.

I roll my eyes and sling my gun back over my shoulder, standing up and brushing off my legs. All my clothes are covered in soot and grime, which just ends up smeared over my hands instead of clearing it away. 'Shouldn't we be going, then?' I ask. 'We should choose a track that looks used from somewhere around here and take it. See where it leads us. No harm in trying, right?'

The others each mumble a variation of 'Yeah, okay,' before standing themselves and adjusting their various weapons, preparing to leave. I notice the tips of a few bundles of dynamite sticking out the top of Tom's rucksack, and grin, laughing slightly. Now, if any zombies come at us, they'll be in for a shock.

We take one last look at the wreck of the barn house (that we caused), before embarking on the rest of our journey, raring to get to Krindle. And when I get there, there's no doubt in my mind; I'm going to find out how Josh knew about Krindle, and why he never told us, somehow. I feel like maybe something important in mine and my twin sister's lives is going to change. And soon.

6: Chapter 6

Chapter Six

I yelp as Pineapple pelts me with bundles of leaves, giggling as I stoop to throw a cluster back. The boys leave us to it, Tom or Luke occasionally aiming a wad at our faces, but generally they leave us alone, talking in low voices about what we should do when we get to Krindle. We should really be part of this conversation, but no doubt Josh will simplify and cut it short to tell us anyway. So we continue with our game, passing the time whilst we're walking until we get to the roads. I try to remember how it started...

Pineapple stoops, saying she needs to tie her laces. I continue walking, ambling and dragging slightly as I wait for Pineapple to finish and catch up with us. Tom, Josh and Luke accelerate ahead slightly as I crane my neck and turn my head to look over my shoulder - just to get a face full of leaves. 'Pineapplllle!' I yell, trying to hide my laughter as I turn, attempting to inconspicuously swipe at the ground to gather up a huge pile of leaves. As soon as my body has fully twisted around, I launch them straight at my twin sister's face, laughing victoriously as I sprint away, weaving through the trees. The boys have stopped walking now, staring at us with a vague sense of amusement on their faces. I laugh and wave cheerily at them, dodging out of the way with a zealous side-dive as Pineapple attempts to hit me in the face again.

Suddenly, I hear a whoop of delight and a bout of cheering as Pineapple stoops to shovel up another pile of leaves. I brush one out of my hair as Pineapple pauses and stands straight. After the immediate shock, I whip around towards the sound, but I can't distinguish the others through the close-set trees.

Before taking off to see if we've reached the roads or not, which I assume we have, I give a side-glance to Pineapple, grinning, and jerk my head towards the talking, which now has a few phrases of congratulation weaved in. Her attention immediately turns back to the tall, slim trees that curve towards us and split the boys off from us, a broad grin gradually spreading across her own face. It's not only of elation, but also of relief, and I can almost see a huge weight lift off her shoulders, bar a tiny slice of it that I can just about sense is still there. We stand stock-still for a second, in shock, with the realisation that we arrived at a road alive, then snap into action, sprinting wildly with grins from ear to ear. I skid to a halt just behind Luke, slightly to the side. Pineapple arrives a split second later, briefly pausing next to me to gaze out upon the scene before us prior to stumbling ahead in relief and lying, facing upwards, in the middle of the jet-black road.

I chuckle at her typical insanity and advance a little, into where there would be a pool of light from a street lamp, if the power were on. We must be in a well-off area (I narrow my eyes in disgust) as this appears to be a very posh and well looked-after road. The tarmac is smooth and level, and I can see the heat radiating off it in rippling waves, distorting the forest behind it. It looks like clear snake-skin floating on oil, forming that sort of pattern with that sort of blackness, like a never-ending void. I can imagine the stars reflected on it, stretching on forever into the abyss.

The streetlights are tall, modern and arched, elegantly arcing above the two lanes. Each is moon-white and evenly spread, with a rounded glass bud where the bulb would usually sit and shine upon the tarmac. I scowl as I approach and examine the seamless, lustrous metal, dazzling and cold to the touch, almost looking as though it's sunk into the hard-packed ground in perfect position and the tarmac has just formed back around it, flawlessly, like liquid. I shake my head in distaste and walk away to scrutinize something else. The best we could hope for along the dusty horse-trodden roads around where we lived was a hanging light with a tiny candle in it, which someone had to relight every night and snuff out at midnight. It's not fair, I think, placing my hands on the metal divider which separates one lane of the road from the other. Despite the weather, the metal is frigid under my fingers. They move in a continuous sequence, drumming swiftly as I lean forward, cupping my face with the other hand. Why should these people get all the money, when we're living in squalor and poverty? Do they even consider us? I beg to differ; I don't even know why I'm asking myself that question. Of course they don't.

My gaze shifts to Tom, who's examining a streetlight in awe and attempting to climb it, and then up to a large green sign hanging still and lifeless above our heads. I tilt my head slightly and wander closer, squinting to look past the relentless sunlight at the white words inscripted upon it. They're difficult to read because the sun is reflecting bright white light from it, but eventually I find a lucky position. 'A... twenty... eight...' I mutter with creased eyebrows, slowly making out the symbols to form words. A chunky arrow to one side points up the road the way I'm facing, and beside it there are two words, one above the other. 'Sentanon. And... wait... is that...?'

My face lights up and I gasp in delight, my eyes sparkling. I swiftly twirl around and clap my hands twice. Everyone turns to peer at my elated face, confused and slightly baffled at my outburst. I can't get any words out of my mouth, so instead I enthusiastically shoot a hand into the air and point up at the sign. Finally, my mouth begins to work. 'A28. Krindle!' I almost shout, barely able to contain my glee. 'This sign... it says... that Krindle is this way! We're actually on the right track!'

'Woooooooo!' Shouts Pineapple, punching the air and running towards me. 'Come on then! Let's go!'

Any tiredness we previously possessed vanishes at the prospect of reaching Krindle before dusk. Suddenly, the future seems a little brighter. We travel down the road, skipping, jumping and running our way along, all shouting to each other with woops of laughter that ring through the air. It's fantastic to hear and see - we haven't been this happy since all this zombie malarkey began, and since then it's been a literal nightmare. Tom shoots a shot from his rifle into the air and we have to stop him before he lights a bundle of dynamite and blows up part of the road.

We go on until we reach another sign, which tells us to turn the next corner, so we continue around a bend further into the afternoon. The sun dips lower and lower into the sky as our journey continues, but none of us are bothered - we're all in high spirits now, as we know we're on our way.

Anxiety begins to knaw at my stomach slightly as the sun begins to set, red and orange streaking across the sky. The golden orb of flames is huge on the horizon, as we're now in a never-ending expanse of dying, dirt-brown fields. It begins to sink into the ground, and we all make haste slightly, even if most of us don't notice. I begin to chew my nails apprehensively as it becomes a tiny strip of golden-red, almost completely gone.

And suddenly, as quickly as a snap of the fingers, it's dusk.

I stop dead and shiver apprehensively.

'Come on. Mia, we need to keep going,' Josh says, tugging my arm.

'Why have you stopped?' I fight down a scream as figures appear in the distance, apparently running, and my eyes widen in terror. But everyone else's attention is still focused on me.

'Mia!' Pineapple cries. 'Come on. We're almost there!'

I blink a few times, unable to move my feet, thoughts churning through my mind, and suddenly find the willpower to speak, just as Luke notices them as well. 'RUN!' We scream simultaneously, and I drag myself off the spot heavily.

'Come on, Mia! I'm not leaving you!' Cries Pineapple desperately, and all of a sudden I'm moving. The wind whips past our faces as we sprint as fast as we can, trying to catch up with the boys. I'm breathing heavily but it's not all from the running; it's from the fear as well. My foot catches in a pot hole and I stumble and trip over, smacking painfully, face-first into the ground. I groan in agony as I slowly sit up, and the world rocks dangerously. I can remember Tom's story about the guy he was walking with. I can feel Pineapple tugging on my arm, almost wrenching it out of the socket. And worst of all, I can see the zombies approaching at terrifying speed.

I sling the rifle from my back and take hurried aim, shooting a zombie right through the head with one pull of a trigger. The weapon recoils in my hands, jerking back, and I have to fight to keep control. 'You two! Run!' A voice echoes from behind me, and I manage to hoist myself up heavily, swivelling precariously to look at Tom. 'Run!' He shouts again, and I see the lit bundle of dynamite in his hands.

Pineapple seizes my arm and we run, un-coordinated, together towards Josh and Luke. Tom catches up a few seconds later, now running at the same level as us. 'Cover your ears!' He yells, so that Josh and Luke can hear as well. He abruptly curls to the ground once we're a certain distance away, so we drop down and do the same. I clench my teeth and clap my hands to my ears, pressing hard against my head to stop as much sound as possible from making it into my brain. The ground seems to shake under our knees as the explosion happens, deafening and intense. I'm dragged to my feet again and yanked forwards as more gunshots crack into the air. I spin to see a few zombies crumple to the ground like rag dolls, and one get back up. 'Crap!' Josh bellows, firing once more.

Then I notice, a short while ahead, a tiny town beckoning for us. It's dark but looks safe enough - not that anything can really be judged by its appearance. We thankfully sprint towards it, as fast as possible, Tom chucking one more bundle of dynamite towards the recovering zombies for good measure. We barely notice the hanging wooden sign above the arch entrance as we scatter into the village.

'Krindle'.

7: Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

The zombies are still after us as we careen erratically through the town, searching for anyone who might help us. Josh begins to move from door to door, rattling the handles and smashing his fists against the dark, parched, rutted wood. His actions seem to beg for help. I watch him for a few seconds, taking in what he's doing, and proceed to rush towards the other side of the street, frantically imitating his actions. I can barely hear or see anything but the adrenaline and blood pumping through my ears and those unforgiving doors that could save our lives. We have no time to wait for the doors to be flung open by some angry villager, wondering what's going on, as the zombies are still tailing us. They may be going slower now that they've been injured by the explosions, but it's not good enough. I don't know if they can just keep going, or if they grow their body parts back, but I know that it's one of them. I can sense them, the atmosphere thick with tension. Our nerves are pulled taught and they're ready to snap as I continue moving along.

My head throbs and aches as I forcefully slam my both of my hands into the next door along, sending a surge of pain from my wrist up my arms. I shake them angrily, as if scolding them for being so weak. I move to the door after that one, doing the exact same, putting my full weight to it. I curse under my breath - still the locks hold; they must be fairly strong and new. Pineapple joins me by my side, and now we're running into the doors with all our might, trying to break them down; we bounce back as though they're made of jelly. My head jerks from side to side, looking up and down the street. One side is empty; one is scattered with limping zombies. 'Someone please help!' I yell desperately as we move along again, glancing back at the zombies with terror splashed across my deep brown eyes.

Something small spirals across my vision and bounces down on to the street, looking like a tiny spark in the darkness. I see it roll along and come to a gentle stop, and just as I focus on it another explosion knocks us off our feet. It sounds dull in my ears, but even so I quickly block off my ears as I hit the ground on my side, sending sharp needles of pain shooting through my nerve system. I squirm and push myself up with a groan of agony, looking around with blurred vision. Tom is curled up on the floor again, and begins to unwind himself as my gaze sweeps over to Josh and Luke, who are peering cautiously out of a doorway. They must have hidden there before the explosion.

The zombies, on the other hand, are all spread across the pathway ahead in little pieces of flesh. I feel a twinge of nausea and then a wave of dread as more zombies begin picking their way through the dead. I feel a tug at my trouser leg and scream, flicking a severed zombie hand from my boot. It smashes against a wall and drops down to the ground with a tiny thud. Luckily, it didn't touch the flesh.

When I look back up, all the body parts with a mean to are sluggishly dragging themselves towards us. Pineapple tugs on my arm, and I see that she has a twisted ankle, although I don't know how it happened. 'Oh, god...' With nothing more than those two words I haul her up, and we turn and begin stumbling down the road together, away from the zombies as quickly as possible. Luke appears on Pineapple's other side to help.

'You okay?' he asks anxiously, and we hurry a bit more. Pineapple replies with a simple nod, though tears glimmer in her eyes, creating shining paths down her grimy face as they begin to fall. I have to resist crying myself; I hate to see my twin sister hurt. There was one time, in Myossea, when Pineapple had taken a horse out for a day, having found a stray village one just outside the border. It had bucked her off, and Pineapple had broken her arm. It made me depressed for days, doing nothing but sitting in our hut, by her bed, and willing her to get better. Eventually the doctor gave her the clear to walk around, and from then things improved, but those days had been some of the worst of my life so far, back then. Pineapple was my only real family.

I crane my head over my shoulder to look back at Tom and Josh, just as Josh shoots at one of the zombies. Tom stabs another right in the neck with a pitchfork, and dark-red, thick, unnatural blood comes pouring out. It keeps going, though, stretching its hands out to touch him just as he jabs it a second time right between the eyes. I realise that I haven't been breathing and let out a huge breath of air - that was a close call.

I turn my head back and something catches my eye in an alleyway up ahead. I squint and my face automatically pushes forwards a little, as if it'll help me see. Is that what I think it is?

I hurry along slightly, and Pineapple has to hop a little faster. As I veer off towards the alleyway, Luke protests, 'What are you doing?!' But Pineapple speeds up even more. I think she's seen what I have.

It's a shadowed figure, leaning out of the alleyway sideways and beckoning for us to come towards it. I vaguely consider if it might be a zombie, but then discard the thought; I don't think zombies are intelligent enough to set traps like that. As we approach, Josh and Tom confusedly glancing our way, then back at the zombies, then back at us, the figure vanishes backwards into the alleyway. We have no choice but to follow; we can't run from the zombies forever. 'Are you sure about this?' hisses Luke, having now noticed the figure, but I have no doubts.

'I'm sure,' I confirm confidently. We enter the alleyway, Pineapple limping between us, and finally see the figure illuminated dimly by the moonlight.

She's quite tall, but not as tall as Luke; about the same height as Josh, who's a year older than us. Even so, Luke is just slightly taller than us all. She holds us seriously in her gaze, examining us with gleaming, intelligent hazel eyes. Her hair, the beautiful colour of a setting sun (which would usually be something I'd love, but of course now the setting sun marks the night... I still love the colour though), falls around her shoulders in waves. 'We don't have much time,' she says, as Josh and Tom join us, breathing heavily.

'We sure don't,' says Tom urgently, 'The zombies are literally right out there!'

As if to prove his point, one of them stumbles around the corner and we surge back in fear. The girl simply raises a bow, that I didn't see before, and shoots it dot on between the eyes, before Tom or Josh can even raise their rifles. I notice that Josh now carries Luke's rifle, and Luke is armed with just a metal shovel and pitchfork. We stare in awe at the mystery girl's amazing accuracy before she cries, 'Come on! Now! You yourself said we don't have much time!'

We hurriedly follow the girl down the rest of the alleyway, at the end of which there appears to be a dead end, but then we notice a well-concealed and camouflaged door. She shoves it open and it grinds against the floor before the gap is big enough for each of us to squeeze through. She urgently beckons us onwards, and Luke, Pineapple and I have to turn sideways to carry her through the doorway. The girl goes through last, and she locks the door with a dull silver key as I take in my surroundings.

We seem to be in some sort of pub - we went in the one in Myossea once, just out of curiosity, but stepped straight back out as a stampede of raucous, drunken men descended upon us out of nowhere - but unlike the one at home, this one's eerily empty. It's strange for this time of night. Nothing moves, and the only sound in the sullen area comes from a nosy fly softly droning away by the window-sill. The windows themselves are thick and stained with bottle-green colours and actual patterns with different colours in other places. Round tables stand dejectedly, scattered around the wide, open room, with a few lonely chairs sitting unused by their sides or carefully nudged beneath. A high-tabled bar is set off to one side, lit by flickering candles with throw dancing shadows across the walls. Behind the counter there are three shelves of different bottles, each of a variety of sizes and colours, which look dusty and untouched. The carpet beneath our feet is a dull red but very soft looking, and I can feel it sink beneath my feet, almost moulding around the soles of my boots. You can tell that this town is a proper town; maybe not the most well-off area around, but not as skint as Myossea was. This must be Krindle. At last, I think, and I can almost feel my sub-conscience relax slightly with relief.

The girl lets us rest for a minute, and Pineapple sits on a chair and gently massages her ankle with one hand, cupping her foot with the other. I watch her wince in agony and wander over to sit beside her, patting her shoulder as if to tell her it'll be alright. I feel slightly awkward that I can't do anything else to help her. The girl purposefully strides over and kneels beside Pineapple.

'Are you alright?' she asks kindly. Pineapple just stares at her, so I answer instead.

'She's twisted her ankle, I think.'

'Ah. Don't worry, honey, we can fix that for you.'

All the questions pour out at once. 'Is this Krindle?' I ask abruptly. 'Are there more of you? Do you know of a town called Myossea? How did you know we were there? ...Well, actually, I suppose that's quite obvious, Tom did cause a lot of explosions. Oh yeah, and who are you? We-'

'Calm it!' The girl interrupts my torrent of words and stands to pull a chair across from me. 'Now, what was your first question?'

I try to remember, and eventually say, 'Is this Krindle? Are we in Krindle?'

'We are. Didn't you see the sign as you came in?'

'No. We were kind of busy. You know, the everyday thing, running from zombies, etcetera. But we were heading towards Krindle.'

'Okay. I'll ask my questions later. Second question?'

'You said 'we'. Does that mean there are more people?'

'Yes. I'm going to take you to my sister and our companion, who we found after this crappy zombie stuff began.'

I laugh weakly, and continue. 'How did you- Oh wait, that's one I already answered for myself... Who exactly are you?' I ask, without realising I've missed an important question.

'My name's Katie. It's great to meet you, as well as the fact that I might have even saved your lives! Never thought I'd get the chance to do that. Anyway, yeah, I'm Katie, my sister's name is Naomi and our companion's name is Esme. And you?'

'I'm Mia. This girl here's my twin sister Pineapple. Over there, sitting at that table, is our brother Luke. He's kind of an adoptive brother, and he's the same age as us, and... it's very complicated. Over there, examining the bottles - yeah, those two - they're Tom and Josh.'

She nods, looking from person to person as I introduce them. 'Come on, then. I don't want Mr Richardson, the pub owner, knowing I have a key. He'll take it from me and lock me in the cupboard.'

'Sounds like a really nice guy,' I say sarcastically as we help Pineapple up. Katie laughs and so does Pineapple, although in a slightly weaker tone. The others notice us moving and join us as Katie unlocks the front door, sliding a different key into the lock and gently twisting it. The door shifts slightly with a click, and Katie softly opens it, creating as little noise as possible.

We check the street ahead, bare and lit only by a single swinging candle concealed inside a tall, peeling black lamp post, then swiftly step out into the night, Katie briskly locking the door behind us.

8: Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Katie leads us down winding cobble and sand streets, further into the depths of Krindle. She and I help Pineapple along, and she keeps the pace up by striding briskly and purposefully. Here, the night air is cool on our cheeks, but there's no breeze. Around us it's silent, as though time has stopped. I wonder if there's anyone else living in the town, or if it's abandoned but for Katie and her friends, and for how long.

'Everyone's locked up in their houses,' explains Katie, as if she's read my mind. 'There are only a couple of us brave enough to search for other people, or what have you. But the only reason I came out was because I was visiting the bar. I heard the explosions.'

None of us question why she was visiting the bar - we don't feel the need to. 'How far away is this place?' asks Pineapple, and it's clear from her voice that she can't walk for much longer. I glance over at her, worry furrowing my eyebrows. Her usually rosy face is pale, and I wonder if she's done more than just twist her ankle.

'Don't worry, honey,' Katie replies soothingly, smiling encouragingly at my twin sister, in a low voice. 'We're nearly there now. And then, we'll bandage up your foot, and you can sit down and relax it for as long as you like.'

Pineapple nods weakly, attempting to give Katie a smile, but it ends up more like a grimace as her foot gets caught in a rut in the road and she cries out in pain. Katie's expression turns concerned and she slows down a little, almost causing the others (who are walking behind) to bump into us. 'Careful,' I hear someone mutter, but we ignore it and continue down the narrow path.

We enter a part of the town that's really very nice - the houses are close-set, but they're all like little cottages made of brick. There are some little yellow ones, and others have been painted blue and all colours of the rainbow. I gaze at them as we pass another and another, marvelling at how lovely and cosy the houses are even right in the poorest area of the town.

Eventually Katie stops in front of a moderately sized, baby-blue cottage. She pulls out her collection of keys again, sifting through the ring until she finds the right one. I take the minute it takes her to find it to examine the keys themselves; they range in colours from rusty brown, to copper, to gold, and fading silver to shiny and brand new. The door swings open as Katie turns the key, swiftly and smoothly, and a waft of musty hair sends my nose tingling. I inhale the homely scent as we step inside.

'I'm back,' Katie exclaims softly as soon as we're all inside the building and she's locked the door. I help Pineapple over to a wooden chair that stands nearby in the open living room, enjoying the warmth of a proper building. The living room we're in comes straight from the door, and is actually quite large - looking at the building, you wouldn't think it would be. There's a small fireplace on one side, coated with soot which has infected the floor directly in front of it. Within it a few charred, blackened logs are piled, crumbling on top of each other, evidently from the last fire. My eyes move from the simply decorated fireplace and I gaze past the white-washed walls, which are slightly dingy in several places, and come to rest upon the little, stubby-legged coffee table sitting in the middle of the room. The remains of what looks like a meagre meal squat on top of it, and a fly buzzes past, its legs missing the first plate by millimetres. It hovers by the next plate and then clunkily (for a fly) touches down on top of it. Katie hastily clears the plates away as we settle ourselves around the room. I sit in a chair next to Pineapple, and once the plates are gone, Josh and Luke seat themselves on top of the sturdy coffee table. There's no room left on that, as it's so tiny, so Tom has no choice but to lean on a wall - he doesn't seem to mind, using his pitchfork as support and twirling it round and round. My eyes linger on the pitchfork for a minute, but I don't really see it - I'm too tired.

There's a pitter-patter of footsteps from above and the ceiling creaks as two people descend the stairs. 'Katie!' Cries one of them. As she appears around a doorway, I see that she has straw-brown, straight, long hair, that falls around her shoulders and down her back. Her blue eyes glitter with relief from Katie being home, who steps out of the dim kitchen to see her. 'Hey, Naomi.' She replies nonchalantly.

'You took so long!' Naomi exclaims as she steps out into the living room. I tilt my head, trying to make out the resemblance between the two - Katie did say they were sisters - but I find it difficult to do so. Katie's tall and apparently strong and athletic, whereas Naomi is quite short in height, as well as looking quite fragile. Naomi's straw-brown hair is a stark contrast to Katie's brilliant sunset hair. Even their eye colours are different. 'Wait...'

Katie nods, randomly, at basically nothing, and I jump back to reality to see Naomi gazing at us. 'Hi,' I grin, seeing that Naomi is flabbergasted at us being here.

'So... this is what took you so long?' she asks Katie, turning back to her sister. Katie begins to explain just as another girl steps into the living room - presumably Esme.

Esme also has straight hair, but hers is a deep chestnut brown which reaches just past her shoulders. She's tall, like Katie, and very slim and athletic-looking. She stares at us for a second, evidently (like Naomi) fairly surprised to see us. I grin again and give a little wave and she smiles uncertainly back, then turns to Katie to listen to her story. I glance over at Pineapple, who raises her eyebrows and shrugs in return.

Eventually, after having a hushed conversation, which is rather annoying, they all come towards us. 'Hi,' says Naomi, shyly. 'You might have gathered our names by now, but if not, I'm Naomi. And this is Esme. I'm Katie's sister and Esme's our friend.'

I nod, already knowing this information, but I find it politer not to say so. Out of the corner of my eye I see Josh almost reel back in surprise, but I'm too tired to wonder why.

'Hi,' replies Josh, standing up to greet them. 'I'm Josh. Over there are the twins Mia and Megan,' ('Pineapple, actually,' my twin whispers, fairly loudly, but I nudge her and she stops glowering to hastily grin at them,) 'Sitting on your... coffee table... is Luke, and over there is Tom.'

Tom and Luke nod hello. Naomi and Esme smile back slightly uneasily.

I know it must be weird, five people turning up in your town and getting taken to your house, and considering we're covered in soot and dirt and several bleeding cuts or scuffs we must look pretty strange ourselves. But the two, Naomi and Esme, are being very wary of us with no real cause. It's not like we injured Katie or anything like that; we're just lost teenagers. Maybe they think we've caused the zombies to follow us?

Naomi looks around at us for a second, and Esme dismisses herself to the kitchen without another word. She approaches us with a concerned expression on her face, and kneels down next to Pineapple. 'Are you okay?' she asks kindly, smiling up at her, and gently lifts her foot. Pineapple winces in pain but says nothing to protest.

'Well... I... we think I've twisted my ankle.' she stutters in reply.

'Is it okay if I examine it? I'm kind of the nurse of this house,' she grins.

'No... I don't mind.'

Pineapple carefully removes her boot and Naomi disappears, returning a minute later, lugging over a large tub of water. She heavily sets it down and some of the water sloshes over the edge as it hits the floor with a thump. 'It's cold,' Naomi remarks apologetically. 'Sorry about that.'

Pineapple understands what she's supposed to do, and skeptically touches her toe to the water, creating dancing ripples across the surface. 'It's gone numb,' she notes, before plunging her whole foot into the tub, this time resulting in furious waves raging towards the rim and splashing out onto the floor with a slap. The water runs in streams under our chairs and through the floorboards. 'Oops...' she says meekly.

Naomi just laughs. 'It's okay. This sort of thing's happened before. Sorry about how cold it is, but the gas isn't working. We usually get it for a total of half an hour a day but, well, I guess the cities aren't doing their jobs.'

'We found a barn the other day. The power was out there too. We assumed everyone was too busy escaping the zombies to care,' I add.

'Hmm,' is Naomi's reply. She's evidently thinking about something as she takes Pineapple's ankle in her hands and asks her, 'Does it hurt here?'

Pineapple just shakes her head, and Naomi shifts her hands. 'How about here?'

My twin sister cries out and, on impulse, yanks her foot from the bowl, rewarding Naomi's kindness with a face full of water. 'Calm down!' I cry, as Naomi sputters, then laughs, wiping water from her eyes.

'It's okay. Really. Anyway, I think you've just twisted it, Megan.'

'Call me Pineapple. Please!' She immediately shoots back. She grins at Naomi, who seems slightly taken aback. 'Sorry. I know that's what Josh introduced me with, but I despise that name. It makes my skin crawl. I'd much prefer Pineapple.'

'Alright, Pineapple.' Naomi stands with a smile and carefully lifts the now half-empty tub of water, turning and heading back towards the kitchen. 'I'll be back in a second!' she calls as she disappears through the door. I look at Pineapple, who's trying to dry her foot with her t-shirt sleeve and put her boot back on.

'Don't do that,' I warn her. 'You should leave that off for a while.'

Pineapple turns to see me watching her, and grins at me as she sets the boot down and straightens up. 'Alright, alright. I suppose you want me to keep it still too?'

'Well, that would probably be a good thing.'

'Seriously? Ah, well... hey, I like Naomi. She's awesome. Katie's cool too. I bet Esme's nice as well.'

I nod in agreement. 'I wonder how long we'll stay here? Or if they'll help us find our cousins?'

'Well, we won't have to look very far.' we look across to see Josh, once more sitting at the coffee table. His eyes are on the floor, and everyone else's attention is focused on him as we wait for him to tell us how he knows. Maybe he means it's just because we're in Krindle? Somehow, I think it's something else.

'We won't have to look very far... Because Katie and Naomi are your cousins.'

9: Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Before Pineapple and I can even manage to get a word out of our mouths, Naomi reappears to whisk us away upstairs. We glare at Josh, simultaneously saying, 'We're gonna find out about this.' before following Naomi out into the corridor. The others hesitate awkwardly, but still one by one they join us at the foot of the stairs.

I look around in the gloom. The corridor isn't very well looked after, but to be fair all they use it for is a passage to get to the stairs and coming down from the stairs into the living room. Silky, silver spider webs cling desperately to the ceiling, swaying gently back and forth even though there's no breeze. I peer skeptically up the wooden stairs and gingerly place the toe of my boot on the lowest platform, which lets out a low groan of protest. Stepping back a little, I watch as Naomi coolly ascends, making not the slightest noise as she goes.

'Well?' she says, when she's at the very top, looking down at us expectantly. I realise that we've just been awkwardly standing here for about two minutes and hastily grasp the banister as I begin to climb. I help Pineapple up too, and with her bad foot she climbs like a mountaineer who's been travelling for a whole day already, or is maybe at a particularly precarious section of the mountain; slowly and haltingly, taking as tiny steps as possible to reach to the next area, tired-looking and forlorn. I don't blame her. After the day we've had, and the add-on of a twisted ankle, she must be feeling pretty horrendous.

The short while waiting at the top for the others I spend gazing absent-mindedly at a little black spider. It scuttles hurriedly away, scattering back into its hiding place, as Tom reaches the top of the stairs, his foot (unintentionally) nearly squashing it flat. I sigh - for no particular reason - and instead shift my gaze to the few doors ahead. The little cottage is definitely bigger than it looks from the outside, like the burrow of a rabbit. There was once a rabbit warren near the outskirts of Myossea. A teacher from the local primary school, who also happened to be one of the nicest people I'd ever met, Mrs Nuttall, explained to me that rabbit warrens just look like a cluster of tiny holes from the outside... but inside, the rabbits build many twisting passageways, little burrows as their own warm houses, and she said she'd heard from a book that a couple even build great rabbit-halls within their warrens, for great rabbit-meetings. I was fascinated by the thought at the time, and spent many hours sitting by the cluster of holes and waiting for a little rabbit to come out. When I was there, none did. One day, I went to check on it, and the whole thing had mysteriously disappeared.

I had a bad feeling about that.

I'm lost in my memories when I feel Pineapple nudging me to indicate that Naomi has led the others away, and we begin to follow them just as Esme comes up by my side. 'Heeey guys,' she smiles, seeming much more sociable than earlier. I smile back and Pineapple just stares at her as though she's an alien who's come to abduct her, but is acting all friendly. 'So, you're Mia and Megan right?'

'Pineapple,' my twin sister mutters once more. Esme stares at her in surprise.

'Pineapple?'

'Yes, please call me Pineapple,' she replies, much more confidently. I can't help but laugh under my breath slightly at Esme's quizzical expression.

'How did you come up with the nickname Pineapple? I mean, I've heard of them, but I've never seen one.'

I notice Pineapple prepare herself slightly before she launches into her explanation. 'You see,' she begins quite formally. I giggle slightly as she continues - it's not often you see my twin sister being formal. 'It was just a quiet day in Myossea, our hometown, when I was younger, and we were going through the market. Everyone was pushing and shoving and things, and I was lucky I saw it.'

'Saw what?' Esme enquires confusedly.

'The pineapple, of course!' Pineapple cries, as though it was completely obvious. We're now just standing in the middle of the hallway, listening to Pineapple's story. 'Anyway... it was really over-crowded, and suddenly I saw this thing on the floor. It was yellow-orangey and had these spiky green leaves... and... it was generally just spiky all over. I took it to Josh and he told me it was a pineapple and that I could eat it. And guess what I found out? Pineapples are the best. Fruits. Ever. I swear. I knew I was never gonna find one ever again, so I decided that I'd get a new name: Pineapple. I hated the name Megan anyway, and still do. But there you go. Now, everyone calls me Pineapple.'

Esme shrugs like it's completely plausible and we turn just as Naomi's head pops out of a door. 'Hey, you two. This is where you'll be staying.'

We move into a small room with two separate beds carefully placed exactly parallel to each other, topped with rich, dark brown blankets. A wave of regret at what we left behind in Myossea washes over me - this bedroom reminds me of our little hut so much. We had friends there. A home. And now, we have neither; not really at least. In the middle of the two beds, at their heads, is a small chest-of-drawers bedside cabinet sort of thing. It's wedged in between them like a plant with soil on only three sides. Otherwise, the room is completely bare.

My feet tingle (for some unknown reason) as I pad over to the bedside, my shoes making soft clunking sounds on the wooden floor. I inhale the scent of summer as I sit down. Summer; the scent of grass and wheat curling through the air. The pungent smell of herbs and blossoming flowers, and that dry but pleasant scent of heat. I remember this aroma, somewhere in the back of my mind. It's there, nagging at me, tugging at the back on my brain, but I just can't remember. I look over at Pineapple, but it's unclear whether she feels the same way or not as she perches on the other bed. We haven't mentioned to Naomi and Katie that we're their cousins yet, nor did our names seem to jolt them into some state of remembrance, maybe from something they were told long ago about us. I feel it's safe to assume that if we told them now, they wouldn't believe a word of it.

'This used to be our mother and father's room. Except... they were out the day the zombies came. They were travelling to another village for supplies. That was their job.' explains Naomi dismally, her face falling. 'They were supposed to be back four days ago... but they never came.'

'Our parents disappeared long ago,' I reply, looking up at the melancholy girl standing just inside the doorway. 'But still, I can understand we're in a different situation. We've never known our parents, but you've always had yours. It must be awful.'

'Yes...' Naomi seems to perk up a bit as she looks up at me. 'I still have Katie though. Just like you two have always had each other. As well as there being so many of us now... Esme, and you two, and the others... we all have each other. It's not like we're alone, even if our parents and most of our family is gone.'

It crosses my mind that now might be a good time to confess about being cousins, but I decide against it. She still might not believe us, and if she doesn't she might become slightly wary of us again. I see that Pineapple's thinking about telling her too, but shoot her a warning look, and she stays quiet. There's a comfortable silence as we sit in the room, thinking about what Naomi just said.

Eventually it's Katie who breaks the stillness, popping her head through the door and saying, 'Naomi! There you are. Come on, we're all tired. I don't even know what time it is. We should leave Mia and Mega- Pineapple to get to sleep and get a couple of winks ourselves.'

'All right,' agrees Naomi with a nod, smiling slightly at us before she shuffles tiredly out.

There's a minute's silence and then Pineapple says, 'I won't be able to sleep.'

I smile dolefully at the floor and reply, 'Me neither.'

There's another comfortable silence, and Pineapple leans back into the pillows, taking the edge of the quilt in one hand. She twiddles the corner absent-mindedly, staring at the ceiling. 'So... when are we going to tell them?'

'That we're their cousins? When the time's right.'

'When will that be?'

I shrug, still staring at the floor. 'Dunno.'

This time, the silence goes on for a long time. The summery aroma is really starting to irritate me, and I don't even know where it's coming from. Not the covers, not the pillows, it's not coming from either of the beds at all. I look over at the chest-of-drawers and realise that it must be coming from there. It peaks my curiosity, and I can't help but abruptly leap up to look down upon it.

'That smell. Can you smell it?' I murmur, somewhat to Pineapple and somewhat to myself. My twin sister is gazing at me quizzically. 'It's coming from here. In here...'

I pull open the top drawer. It contains nothing but bare wood and dust. The other drawers also contain nothing, as I wrench them open with growing annoyance. 'But it HAS to be here!'

'Mia! What are you doing?!' cries Pineapple, getting to her feet as I open the top drawer again. Somehow this drawer doesn't seem right. I glare at it, as if trying to force it into telling me its secret. That's when I notice it. The proportions aren't quite right. This drawer is shorter than the others, thinner from top to bottom. My fingers curl around the edges of the floor of the drawer as my fingernails slip through the edges-

-and the floor of the little box lifts out.

The summer scent hits me like a train, stronger and even more pungent than before, invading my senses and my nose. I fight off the urge to sneeze as my eyes water and I try to look through the salty tears at the contents.

My vision eventually clears. Pineapple and I both lean in to get a better look at the inside, banging our heads together. 'Ouch...' she mumbles as I reach my hand out.

I'm reaching for a little glass bottle that's lying on its side, sparkling as though it's made out of crystal. It's tiny, but intricately designed, put together using a myriad of diamond-shaped slices of glass. The mouth is enclosed with a miniature cork, which seems to have slipped off; there's no liquid in the bottle any more. That's why the smell is so strong - the bottle has leaked its contents all over the floor of the drawer, allowing its potent perfume to escape into the rest of the room. Pineapple has something in her hands too. A yellowed, loosely rolled-up scroll of paper, held together by a sliver of velvety red ribbon.

'Somehow I feel as though we have a right to read this.' I nod. I feel something powerful connected to this letter (which is what I assume it is), somehow connected to our lives. It pulses through the air around us as Pineapple gently slips off the ribbon and delicately unfurls the letter, as if it could disintegrate in her hands at this very minute. I lean in closer to read the tiny, curling words that appear before us.

Dear Evalyn,
My husband and I have been informed that, for our research, we have to go away soon. Far away, to such a place that must be kept a secret from anyone other than us. As you know, we recently had two children - twins, as you already know. The twins Megan and Mia. To our complete dismay and outrage we have been informed that we're not permitted to take them with us.
Unfortunately this job of ours is so important that we just cannot prevent from leaving. I really love this job, but now I feel as though we should never have taken part in it, for we can't back out now. We'd have to be killed no matter how trusted we are. That's the sort of job this is. So, we're leaving the twins in the charge of the Appletons, who have a son just a year and a half older than them.
However - and I hope you don't mind - I'm leaving a letter for when they're older and they've learned many things. It's going to stay with the Appletons until they feel that the time is right. That letter is very much like this one in the sense that it's explaining where we've gone and why. Even so, we cannot let it contain details of where exactly we've gone in case they find out. They being our employers. As well as the fact that the Appletons could read it as well. The consequences of that would not be good.
What, in that letter, is different to in this one, is that it contains your address and instructions on how to get to Krindle. This is really what this letter is all about. I want my daughters to have a real family, and I know that you'll look after them well, and that they'll get on very nicely with Katie and your child-to-come. I've told them to look for an Evalyn, and a James, as well as their children Katie and Naomi or Iwan, as I understand you're going to name your new child one of the two. I hope that they receive the letter and make it to Krindle, and get along well with your family, and that you'll accept them into your life.
My dear sister, I hope that you can help them. Remember - it's all the little things that add up to create something wonderful in life. When they've found you, please send me a silent confirmation. I'll feel it, I promise you I will, wherever I am.
Much love to you all,
Claire and Carl.

I sit in silence, waiting for Pineapple to finish reading, anger building up in me every new second. Josh had a letter. He had a letter from our parents, with a message to us, and he read it himself... as well as never telling us about it! A great need for answers builds up inside me as Pineapple turns and looks straight at me, first with heartache reflected in her eyes, and then silent rage. We instantaneously turn and smash through the door, flinging it open with a crash. As there's nowhere else for them to go, the others are sleeping on spare mattresses with spare blankets on the landing. They bolt up one by one as we storm over to Josh.

We don't feel the need to say anything at all as Pineapple shoves the letter into Josh's face, still somehow being careful not to tear it. He gently takes it from her hands, acting calm, although it's clear he knows what it is. He's scared too; whether he thinks he is or not, we can see it in his eyes as they move down the paper. Tom and Luke lean forward to read it at the same time, quickly scanning the paper. A door at the end of the corridor swishes open and I look around to see Naomi and Esme gazing tiredly out, beckoning them over. Now is as good a time as ever to tell them, and we have the evidence.

Naomi curiously takes the paper from Josh as he finishes reading it. He stares at the floor for a second, as though he's not sure what to do, before looking up at us sadly. This just irritates me; why should he be sad when he's kept OUR family from us this whole time? All eyes are on him as I demand an answer with just one word. 'Well?'

He sighs and begins to explain, unable to meet either of us at the eye. 'I'm sorry. I really am. Yes... I knew about your letter. You must have guessed that by now. Otherwise, how would we be here? But... back in Myossea, even though my parents were killed as well as your parents being gone, I was happy. We still had a family. We were all together... me, you two, and Luke, and we were all happy. You can't say that we weren't. If I had showed you that letter, you two would have gone, and it was unlikely back before the zombies that you would have taken us with you. No; you would have gone by yourselves. I'm sure of that. But I saw us as a family. After having no parents, there was no way I could lose more of my family. No way. It was hard, but I chose not to show you. I see how that was a bad thing now... I should have just shown you anyway... you're right, it's your family. And... I'm just really sorry.'

I can't think of anything to say for a few minutes. It was selfish, what Josh did, but he's right - we are family. We were happy. I can see how the letter would have changed that. Yet still...

'We wouldn't leave you behind.' I say firmly.

'Of course we wouldn't,' adds Pineapple.

'Like you said, we're family. I can see what you were thinking. Most of our lives, we didn't have a proper family, yes. Yet... you and Luke were always there. There's no way we would have just left you behind.'

Pineapple nods her head in agreement to my short speech, and we turn to Naomi and Esme, seeing that Katie has joined them. Naomi's holding out the letter to us. 'We read it,' she tells us. 'So... you're our cousins. That's pretty awesome.'

Katie grins at us. 'Welcome to the family. We think that you should have the letter, since your mother wrote it. Take it.'

I thankfully, delicately, accept the letter from Naomi's outstretched hands, and kneel to slip it gently into my rucksack (which I'd forgotten about being on my back the whole time). We did it. We discovered the mystery of the letter. And now we've done that...

...We need to focus solely on surviving.

10: Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

I reach into the tub and immerse my hands, watching as the water swiftly swallows them up with but a ripple. There's only slight splashing sounds of water on water and water on plastic as I swirl my fingers around in circles, creating tiny whirlpools in my wake. I almost lose myself as I fall into a continuous pattern; swish, swirl, swish, swirl; before Pineapple nudges me with an elbow and I snap back into reality. Turning to look at her tiredly, with a certain serious worry in my eyes that wasn't there before, I nonchalantly slide the bowl, with a faint scraping sound as it passes over ruts in the dry wood, over to my twin sister. She smiles at me, but all the light is gone from her worrisome face. The stress and the weight of this horrific apocalypse is beginning to take its toll.

It's been a day since we arrived here in Krindle, I think, but the days are becoming incoherent. Katie went out at some point for a long time as we rested after our endless trek. She came back with food supplies, which she claimed she had gathered at the local market. I don't know if 'gathered' means she bought them or stole them, but I don't really care anymore. It was something to eat, and we all scoffed our portions down greedily; seeded bread, dried ham and peaches. I had almost forgotten the wonderful taste of fruit until it invaded my mouth earlier, sweet and luscious and delicious. It was at that moment that I realised I had a great craving for fruit after days of going without. Unfortunately there was no more to go around, after that, as Katie didn't want to go back to the market.

I didn't sleep much again last night. Every time I even try, nightmares tear through the walls of my consciousness and encroach upon my dreams. Dreams melt into nightmares, and nightmares melt into reality. After waking up tangled in sheets for the fifth time last night, Pineapple looking down at me with fear darkening her eyes, I simply stopped undertaking the effort. It didn't seem worth it.

My eyelids droop suddenly as I slouch listlessly against the wall of the house in Krindle, the edge of my shoulders just touching Pineapple's, watching the bowl get slowly passed from person to person, the dirt from their hands dispersing in clouds as they reach into the bowl. A gradually rising roar fills my ears as I blink tiredly, my head tipping on one side. They're coming.

I lift my head groggily, looking confusedly around me. Did I fall asleep? I suppose I did. Everyone's in the same positions as before, but the bowl of water is gone, and they're all staring wild-eyed at something to my left hand side. My head turns automatically, but slowly as though it's stuck. I still can't see what they're staring at. The kitchen appears, and the tension becomes unbearable as a door appears in the corner of my eye - a door that wasn't there before.

Suddenly the door is smashed open with a roar of splintering wood that crashes to the floor, scattering towards us and flying into the air. One of the splinters catches Pineapple in the eye and I scream as she covers her face in agony, wailing in pain herself. The zombies slowly emerge through the door, their feet thumping erratically as they lurch wildly towards us. I try to help Pineapple, but I can't - she's somehow unreachable.

The feral monsters are suddenly here, and as they fall upon my friends - my family - I find myself unable to shift my legs. They're too hefty. They weigh me down as though my boots and trousers are laced with heavy steel, and I can but watch as the zombies approach, moving painstakingly slowly to slaughter the only family I've ever known before moving towards me.

I'm shaking and sobbing uncontrollably as I look up into the red-tainted eyes of death. Hot blood drools down from the zombies' mouths as I prepare myself for my demise. The zombie lurches down towards me and-

-I wake up.

Pineapple is staring at me fearfully, her eyes glazed with terror. That kind of terror that only occurs when one has seen something horrifying and unnatural. Her face is pallid as she stares at me and then at the others, as if making sure they're all there. 'Y-you're really pale,' I stutter shakily, trying to re-compose myself. She glances over at me, her expression unreadable.

'So are you.'

'I fell asleep.'

'A nightmare?'

'Yeah.'

'That's weird. Me too.'

'What happened?'

I listen with growing fear unfurling like a storm inside my stomach, twisting and expanding evermore as she describes her dream. Except it wasn't her dream. It was my dream. The exact same series of events - but seen from my twin sister's eyes. It's unbelievable, that she had the same nightmare as me, and I can't see any connections as to how it could have happened. She finishes (but this time with herself surviving) and I sit in troubled silence whilst the others chatter around us. I can sense Pineapple gazing at me worriedly as I pick at the floorboards.

'What's wrong?' she inquires.

'Nothing,' I lie, a little too quickly. I don't want to frighten her, and I need to understand this first before I tell her. It seems impossible. 'I just... I need to get out of here. I can't stay here.' I add, lowering my voice to a whisper. Pineapple nods understandingly.

'I can't stay here any longer, either. Not after that. What was your dream?'

I shake my head and turn away, acting as though I can't recount it as I'm too frightened. I hate lying to my twin sister, and I've never done so before. It feels wrong and I feel wretched doing it, but I can't tell her the truth. At least I have a good reason... I think. I frown to myself and push myself up with one hand, hopping on to my feet to sidle nonchalantly over to Katie.

'Errr... Pineapple and I were wondering if we could get out of here. Since this whole thing started, we're not used to staying in one place, as well as the fact that there's danger all the time.'

'Well, we've been here for a couple of days, but I can tell that Naomi and Esme are becoming anxious as well. The problem is, where would we go?'

I settle down beside Katie this time, looking over at Pineapple, who's taken to chatting with Esme, all of her former darkness and distress apparently dispersed. There's still something wrong, though; however, it's more subtle: I can see it in her smile and the way she moves her arms to illustrate some line of speech. Esme just seems altogether nervous: her teeth constantly clinging to her bottom lip: eyes in a perpetual expression of apprehension. My gaze shifts back to Katie as she stares into space, trying, I assume, to form some sort of plan in her head. I sit quietly, even though I cannot admit to patience, and eventually she turns to me again.

'The port.'

'I'm sorry?'

'Well, not far from here - assuming you don't know - there's a bay filled with boats. The port. And if we can get there, we can take a boat and go across the sea to see if other countries are unaffected.'

'Would a normal boat actually get us there?'

Katie pulls a face. 'I'm not sure. It depends how far we'd have to travel. I'm sure some definitely could, if we didn't have to go too far. We'd have to pick one with a map.'

'And a key?'

'The keys are all kept in a hut. I'm sure it'll all be abandoned. The question is picking the right one.'

'We can cross that bridge when we come to it, then. We'll be needing more supplies, I suppose?'

She nods in reply, looking over to where Naomi's talking quietly to Luke. 'We'll all go to the market and then straight on to the coast. We should all be okay with that; and Naomi loves the market. I'm almost positive Esme will too - and you lot. Yes: we should leave as soon as possible. I haven't been out already today so it's as good a time as ever.'

I breathe a silent sigh of relief, and reply with, 'Thank you. I'll get Pineapple and we'll gather our supplies.'

I turn and tap Pineapple on the head, gently. 'Come on. Let's get our supplies. We're going.'

'Wh- what?' asks Pineapple, bewildered. 'Going? All by ourselves?'

'Of course not!' I reply, smiling. 'Sorry, guess I didn't word that properly. We're all leaving. It's not safe near. We need to gather all of our supplies up.'

Tom, who's listening on the side, passes the message on to the others, and before long we're all ready by the door to set out to the market. Naomi and Esme look slightly frightened at the prospect of going outside, as they haven't been out for over a week at least, but I'm looking forward to getting out in the open rather than being trapped in this tiny house. It's silently suffocating me as time goes on.

Katie goes out first, followed by the rest of us, and we look up into the azure blue sky. It's cold and crisp, but still lovely weather, with a clear sky and bright sun. Although it puzzles me why it's not hot in this sort of environment, I can feel the frigid breeze blowing against my cheeks and hands. 'This way,' says Katie, turning down the tiny street and beginning to march along.

We trudge after her, finding it difficult to keep up. Whereas we strolled through the woods, taking our time and basically just wandering around anywhere, she strides down the middle of the road, heading out into the centre of the village. The buildings once more grow and spread out as we continue, towering over us with a sense of abandonment - even though we know there are people inside. One of the curtains flicker slightly as I gaze up at the windows, but I can't see any more than darkness behind the glittering glass. I start to wonder if there will even be people at the market, with so many of them hiding away. What if we can't get what we want, and we're trapped here until the zombies catch us?

My fears are distinguished like a fire doused with water and a hiss of relief through my teeth as we emerge into a new, bustling street. The sun glows down upon it as all sorts of people mill about, casually gathering supplies for their daily needs, paying with dulled coppery coins, and then wandering aimlessly back to their own house - and what else can they do? Barely anyone has the motivation left to actually try and do something.

'Right,' orders Katie abruptly, 'we're going to the food stand first.'

I can't say that the market is exactly a myriad of rainbow colours and exotic goods, but it's fine enough for most people here. The stands are lined with essentials: toiletries, food, clothing; there's even a shoe stall. Of all of them, the food stand is the most intriguing. It takes up three stands, and the goods are jumbled about with no particular order to them, with loaves of bread spread across the middle, colourful fruits wedged in here and there. At the inner most edge of the stall there's a single row of expensive-looking meats, dominated mostly by items like ham which are already cooked, covered over by a single sheet of gleaming plastic.

Katie begins to pick out necessary foods as my eyes swipe over the stall, and I suddenly catch sight of something. My eyebrows furrow and I nudge Pineapple gently, nodding over to a shadowed alleyway. Her mouth forms a silent 'O' of surprise as she spots them too, and she turns to me with bright eyes and an excited grin.

Shivering just within the mouth of the alleyway, there are two little animals curled up with each other, sheltering themselves from the frosty breeze. We sidle away from the group, shuffling slowly and (hopefully) inconspicuously over to them - one's a little puppy, with a black face striped white down the middle, and a completely white body for the rest but for a spot on the top of its head and by its tail; and the other is a little black and white spotted kitten. Pineapple squeals in delight and stoops beside the two, immediately taking to the kitten, but all I can do is stare at the little puppy, who gazes back at me, shivering. I kneel down too and gently stroke its silky soft head. It nuzzles into my hands as Pineapple tenderly lifts the kitten onto her lap, delicately stroking its head with one finger. With its only other warmth source gone, the little dog shakily gets to its paws and crawls on to my lap, resting its head on my knee.

I look up at Pineapple, who's staring back at me excitedly. 'We could keep them!' She exclaims.

'You'd have to carry them.' says a voice behind us. We spin slightly, being mindful not to disturb the animals, to see Josh just outside the mouth of the alleyway. He must have seen us slope off before. As we look up at him he frowns and continues, 'Actually, we might not be able to take them. Too much hassle. You should leave them-'

'NO!' We interrupt, and I pull the puppy closer to me.

'It's too late,' Pineapple informs him, 'I've already named him. His name's Miko. And now that I've named him, I HAVE to keep him.'

'So have I!' I add hastily. 'Her name's Jaffa. I'm pretty sure she's a girl, and I don't know where the name Jaffa came from, but there you go.'

Josh rolls his eyes, in the sort of way that he knows he's lost and we're not giving up. 'Whatever. Just... bring them. Remember, nobody else is going to help you carry them.'

'Wouldn't want them to. Miko's mine. And until he knows me a bit better, only Mia and I can hold him, because Mia found them.'

Josh shakes his head in despair, but can't help a small smile from tugging at his mouth. I grin triumphantly and carefully get to my feet, Jaffa still in my arms. We introduce her and Miko to the others, and convince Katie to get them each a little blanket. I gently wrap Jaffa up in hers, holding her close to me and wondering how much she'll grow. I hope she doesn't get too heavy, because then I won't be able to carry her.

Then, with a full store of supplies and two extra friends, we embark on our next adventure - to get to the bay on the coast.

11: Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

As Katie said, the journey doesn't take too long, and we don't have to travel far. We spend just over an hour trotting through the woods at a leisurely pace, which would be slower if Katie would allow it, but we all perk up at the prospect of doing something. After doing nothing for a couple of days, it's a nice change - we're in the routine now, and any change messes it up within hours.

As we near the bay, the salty scent of sea air curls into our nostrils and lightens our spirits. Pineapple, Naomi, Esme and I skip along happily, despite the stormy-grey clouds that begin to congregate above our heads. Jaffa sits quietly in my arms the whole time, gazing up at me with her tiny tail wagging. I constantly stroke her head, periodically feeding her little pieces of food (much to Katie's protests).

'What?' I say in reply, every time. 'She's hungry. Worse off than us anyway.'

As we enter the twisted, corrugated iron gate of the bay, towering high above us, the sun's already going down and the air is heavy, crackling with invisible electricity. The weather has gone from sun to thick, weighing clouds in just a few hours. I look up into the sky without much confidence, anticipating the first drops of rain and bellows of thunder, pausing just inside the gateway. Then I review the boatyard.

The tide's in, and all sorts of boats bob gently against the rough stone walkways, which are about as wide as half a road. There are speed boats; sailing boats; even one or two rowing boats; antique boats; modern boats... just a lot of boats in general. It's impossible to describe every one of them. A little wooden hut stands off to one side, and I watch as Luke gingerly nudges open the door, Tom and Josh just behind him. I can hear the waves gently sloshing against the walls of the walkways. Once I'm closer, I can see the spray from them dancing into the air, some of the larger waves causing it to spatter against my face and hands. Below me the water churns and swirls into darkness.

'Mia! Be careful!' I hear from somewhere near me. It's only then that I realise I'm kneeling precariously on the edge of the drop, leaning over into oblivion. Pineapple grabs my arm and hauls me heavily back as I stare into nothing and then look up at her.

'Thanks,' I say confusedly, standing and brushing off my knees. 'I'm not sure what I was just doing.'

'It's okay. Any time, any time.'

'Even if I was getting mauled by zombies?'

Pineapple's face suddenly hardens and she stares at me as though she isn't looking at me at all. 'Don't.'

'Don't what?'

'Don't talk like that.'

'Well... whyever not?'

'I don't like it. I don't even want to think like that. Just, please... don't.'

'All right, all right. I'm sorry.'

We whip around to the sound of crashing inside the little hut, and run towards it.

'Ouch,' a muffled voice comes from inside. 'Probably should've switched the lights on...'

I kneel down, still carefully holding Jaffa, and pull a candle from my rucksack. 'You got matches?' Pineapple asks as I fumble around for them, and then pull them out of a pocket to show to her. 'Awesome.'

I strike the match down the packet's rough edge, instantly lighting it, and we slip into the hut. Luke and Josh are poring over a wall of keys whilst Tom stands in a corner with a hand on his head. He must have hit it on a shelf or something; probably the empty one on the right hand wall. The keys are on the left, behind a tiny desk that stretches all the way across the hut - I suppose that gives you an idea of how big the place is.

'What are all those for?' I ask, joining Luke and Josh in gazing at the keys that cover the wall. They're hung on little rusted nails, and some are keys that open locks whilst some are electric.

'For the boats,' replies Josh. 'I reckon we want an electric one. Right?'

Pineapple and I nod. 'True,' says my twin, 'but how are we supposed to know which one it's going to be? There are so many. We can't very well try them all in turn, can we?'

'We'll just have to take our chances,' murmurs Josh uncertainly.

Tom suddenly jumps up and plucks a key off the wall. 'Well!' He exclaims. 'May as well start with this one as you lot obviously aren't gonna do anything about this!'

He leaps out of the hut, and we follow. I emerge into the chilled night air last after everyone else, pausing in the frigid breeze. The oppressive atmosphere of an approaching thunderstorm is even worse than before. Jaffa whimpers as Miko lets out a tiny mewl. I shiver from head to toe, and Tom clicks the 'unlock' button on the strange electric keys. Somewhere in the bay, we hear a boat squeak out a shrill reply.

Naomi appears from behind a sailing boat, waving her arms about and calling, 'Did one of you unlock a boat? It's over here!'

She vanishes again and we run excitedly towards her, feet thumping against the ugly, man-made concrete floor. I dodge a drop-off into the water and curve around a bend towards where Naomi, Katie and Esme are standing, gazing up at a huge electric speed boat. The creamy glazed surface of the boat's sides glow softly in the moonlight, and the dancing water casts twisting patterns on it from below. Its sides are smooth and rounded. 'Uum...' I ask, glancing uncertainly up at the banisters of the boat. 'How do we get up?'

'Ladder,' Katie answers simply, pointing to a runged structure that's nailed to the side of the boat. I didn't notice that before, but still I stare at her blankly before she sighs and says, 'Look, just copy what I do.'

We all watch as she takes hold of one of the metal ladder rungs, at about head-height, with both hands. Then she lifts one foot after another onto the bottom rung. Like a monkey, Katie clambers easily up to the top and sprawls on to the deck of the boat. 'See?' she calls, standing herself up and brushing off her knees. 'Easy!'

Slowly, warily, Josh approaches the ladder and begins to climb, slipping once or twice but otherwise getting up to the top with no troubles. Naomi and Esme follow, with Pineapple close behind, Miko stashed in her coat. Then Tom climbs up, then me (with Jaffa carefully zipped in my rucksack), then Luke. Once we're all on the deck of the boat we realise how expensive and fancy it really is. If it looked impressive standing at its base, it certainly looks impressive now. 'Wow...' mutters Josh, dumbstruck (for once in his life). 'Well done, Tom.'

The deck is layed with glazed, deep chestnut wood - but I think it's mahogany. It's very spacious, with gleaming plastic white benches surrounding the edges. The metal rails are also white, and come up about a metre. As I brush my hand against them, the metal is frigid, and almost burns my fingers it's so cold. The drivers' seat is raised, with two leathery chairs meant for the driver and a passenger. It's covered over by a clear plastic roof and walls on three sides, so the leather doesn't get ruined in whatever weather it happens to be, or the spray coming from the sea. There's also a below deck area, but we don't need that right now.

Since none of us know how to drive a boat, we nominate Katie (the eldest) to do it. She invites me to be the passenger and we climb up into the little plastic room. I look down upon Esme laughing with Josh, Tom and Luke exploring the boat and peering into the below-deck area, and Pineapple and Naomi talking happily together and playing with Miko. All our spirits have been lifted. 'Right,' says Katie, interrupting my thoughts, and my head whips around to looks straight out of the window at the boat in front of us. 'Sorry if I crash this. I just need to get out of the boatyard and we should be fine.'

After bumping violently into a few of the other boats, we finally emerge out into the main channel of the boatyard, that leads out into the sea. The air seems to suddenly pick up, whipping about our little plastic room and whooshing past the others below. The first fat drops of rain splosh down upon the deck as Katie begins to steer (none too carefully) out into the already choppy, dark waters. I cuddle Jaffa closer towards me.

Naomi's head pops in through the back just as we fully emerge into the sea. 'Are you sure this is safe?' she asks, standing properly and coming to stand behind us. I look up at her worriedly, but Katie just grits her teeth and keeps her eyes steadily on the sea. Thunder sounds and her sunset hair flashes blindingly as the first fork of lightning streaks across the dark, swirling sky. Naomi takes a deep, shuddering breath before continuing. 'I really, really don't think this is a good idea. Neither do Pineapple and Esme. And I presume Mia doesn't either.'

Another roll of thunder reverberates around us, following a second fork of lightning. The wind builds up to be even stronger and the boat lurches beneath us. 'Okay, okay...' whispers Katie, her voice so quiet under the howl of the wind and the clash of the thunder and the roar of the sea that I almost don't hear her. She runs a hand through her hair and finally looks up. 'It's a bad idea. The weather HAD to ruin it all. But there's one problem... I can't turn the boat around and steer it back to shore. There's a current... and I can't stop it from moving either.'

For a minute, I'm completely shell-shocked. I can't speak. Jaffa freezes in my arms as she senses my terror, and I feel my whole body go frigid. Finally, I look over at Katie and force my words out. 'N-no anchor?'

'No... and it wouldn't help either. We'd just be tipped over anyway.'

'Wait... WE'RE GOING TO BE TIPPED OVER?!'

'At this rate? I'm sorry, but it looks like it.' replies Katie. I can hear her voice shaking.

My mouth drops open in horror and I immediately stand up, Jaffa jumping slightly at my sudden movement. I clutch her to my chest as I burst out of the back of the boat into the howling wind. It's much worse out here. My hair whips into my face, stinging my cheeks, and I can barely see for rain. It streams down my face into my eyes and, after just a few seconds in the open, I'm already drenched. I fight against the storm not to slip or get blown off as I stumble down the steps, gripping the side-bars until my knuckles turn white. Jaffa, also, is soaked through. So I wrap her as much as possible inside my coat and tuck it into my trousers, doing it up, like the shirts I've seen some people wear. My coat's damp too, but it's warmer there than out in the open. I feel her claws grip my t-shirt and it tightens around my neck, but I don't care.

Shivering, with my teeth chattering, I practically fall onto the deck of the boat. 'What's happening?!' Pineapple cries over the roar of... well, everything. 'Why aren't we stopping?!'

'We... can't...' I stutter, dejectedly. I decide not to tell her that we might be tipped over - she'll go crazy.

Suddenly, a huge wave crashes over the side of the boat and sweeps us violently off our feet. We're smashed against the opposite railings. I glance over at Pineapple, frightened out of my wits, even though I knew it was coming. Her hair hangs in rats' tails around her face as she stares at me with huge, panicky hazel-green eyes. I'm about to open my mouth to say something when CRASH! Another wave comes beating down upon us. I choke up a mouthful of salt water and stumble to my feet as quickly as possible to grip the railings. I can't even feel the cold anymore as I glimpse Naomi and Katie at the top of the steps to the plastic room.

My twin sister is suddenly up beside me, and she links her arm with mine. I look over at her and mouth, 'Miko?' She points at her jacket in reply, and I do the same with a nod.

I can't tell where anyone else is around us. The world's a blur - just Pineapple and I waiting for our certain fate. I pray that the others are okay, somewhere here on the ship, and that they'll survive this horrific storm. Out on the raging sea, I can't see anything either; just darkness and the waves dancing their freaky, sadistic dance of death beneath us. How close is the shore? When the boat tips, will we make it back alive? What about Jaffa and Miko - will they survive too?

The storm unexpectedly gets worse all at once. The boat jolts violently, and we're abruptly flipped over onto the outside of the boat. 'Aaaaaaarrrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhh!' I scream, as it swings dangerously underneath us. The bar I'm holding on to suddenly seems very slippery and difficult to keep a grip on.

'Hold on!' Yells Pineapple.

'It's... no... USE!' I yell back. 'When we fall... we can't... we can't hold onto each other anymore! We'll have to let go if we want to be able to swim!'

'Okay!' Pineapple shrieks, her voice quickly becoming even more panicky. A wave smashes into our backs from behind, but somehow we manage to hold on.

'Pineapple... if I never see you again... if this is the end...' I pant, struggling with all my might to keep a hold, 'you're the best twin sister ever! And if you get back to shore and I don't... tell the other survivors that they're amazing! You can all make it!'

'Right back at you, twin sister.' says Pineapple, and it would have been soft but for the fact that she had to shout to be heard. We suddenly sense another wave rising behind us, and I begin to pray that the shore's not too far away. 'Good luck!'

'Good luck!' I yell in reply, then in a mumble, 'I'd take a deep breath if I were you, Jaffa.'

That's precisely what I do as the wave rises slowly behind us. The tension is unbearable. Pineapple looks at me for what could be the last time before unlinking her arm from mine - we know we can't hold on any longer. The wave reaches its peak.

Abruptly, it's crashing down upon us, filling my ears with its unforgiving roar, filling my world with black. I'm swirled into oblivion as the cold, cold metal leaves my hands forever. I fight to hold my breath as the churning black water envelops me in its freezing grasp.

And I slowly begin to sink.

12: Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

It's so, so cold. And dark. Cold and darkness is all I know as I curl up and let the water take me. Never-ending darkness. Darkness...

The world's just beginning to flicker when I suddenly feel strong hands on my shoulders, tugging me upwards through the water. It's like glue as I'm pulled slowly, slowly through it. The silence is unbearable. I just want the whole world to go away. To let me leave this place. Let me go! Let me-

I snap back to reality and gasp in salty air as my head breaks the surface of the water into the comparatively warm night air. The cacophony of the sea and the storm hits me like a train, all the same as before, as if nothing's happened. The rain is still lashing down, but in tiny piercing drops that create sheets that slice through the sky. Not too far away, I can see the boat. It's still moving slowly away, but on its side, being tossed and turned out to sea. I know I should be cold but my body's so numb I can't feel anything anymore. My own buoyancy is the only thing keeping me floating.

I suddenly remember Jaffa, quickly unzipping my coat and lifting her out as gently as I can (which is difficult, with my hands shaking as madly as they are now). At first, I stare at her little soaking body in horror, thinking she's dead, as her eyes are closed. But suddenly she opens them and big, brown eyes stare up and me as she whimpers. She's terrorized, just as I am; but at least she's alive and breathing. I just hope I can say the same for all the others.

'Mia,' says a soft voice close to my right ear, 'we have to go and get to shore before we get hypothermia.'

My head whips around instantly. I forgot all about my saviour! There, bobbing in the water, still being thrashed by waves (which I somehow completely forgot about up until now) is Esme. Her hair's drenched in water and her face is creased in anxiety, her usually bright blue eyes shrouded in some sort of horror. Or maybe it's just the dark sky and the blackness of the sea being reflected into her eyes. I suppose I'll never know.

'Oh... oh my God...' I mumble. 'Th-thank God someone else is alive! Did you save me?!'

'Yeah, I was taught how to swim when I was younger. I saw you as I was swimming towards the shore, below me. You looked as though you were sinking so I swam down and saved you.'

'Yeah... I was... I almost gave up hope! Thanks so much for saving me.' I reply. There's a question niggling at the back of my mind, but I'm not sure whether or not to ask. Esme seems eager to get swimming... but I ask anyway. 'Um... did you by any chance see Pineapple? Anywhere?'

'Sorry...' Esme replies, and her face falls. 'I didn't see her. I'm sorry.'

I stay silent after that. Esme awkwardly tells me that it's time to get going, and we begin to swim half-heartedly towards the shoreline (somehow, Esme knows the way). There's still a chance that Pineapple could be alive somewhere, but there's no guarantee. Same for everyone else. They could all be alive, they could all be dead. Some could still be alive, and some could be dead. I hope they all make it.

It's difficult to swim, with the water smashing up against us all the time and tearing us off in different directions. We have to work hard to keep going and stay close to each other at the same time, without losing the other person. I gasp as a wave creates a small explosion right next to my face. The water splashes into my eyes and make me squeeze them shut with the pain of the saltwater. Jaffa and my clothes are both dragging me down, and sometimes Esme has to help me along a little.

It seems like hours before we finally wash up on to the shore of a beach, just lying on the sand and letting the waves roll over us. It's calmer here, even though it's still raining. Thunder reverberates around us, and my vision of dark trees is momentarily lit by a blinding flash of lightning. I feel Jaffa crawl out of my arms on to the sand, and her movement urges me to get up. If a weak, hungry little puppy can, then so can I.

Esme lies motionless on her back in the sand, exhausted. For a minute I think with horror that she might be dead, but then I notice her chest gently rising and falling with her breathing. With wobbly legs, I slowly stand and pull her up the sand toward the trees, laying her there and then plopping down beside her with a sigh. Jaffa slowly trots up to us, her head hanging down as though she misses Miko already. It's probably the cold and wet too, and the oppressive atmosphere of the storm, but it must be that too.

'It's okay, Jaff.' I whisper in a shaky voice, as if I'm about to cry, which I might do very soon considering the circumstances. 'I know the feeling.'

She whines softly as if she really does understand, shortly afterwards crawling on to my lap and curling up to go to sleep. I gaze down at her lovingly, wishing that I could do the same, but there's not way I can sleep now. Although it's true that I'm exhausted, my slumber will be invaded by nightmares, and anyway I need to keep a look out for zombies. I must be alert at all times.

It's not just zombies, though. I know that the real reason I'm holding on is for my friends and my family.

I sit in silence, slumping motionless for ages and ages. Esme stays asleep. I'm sitting for so long that the air gradually clears and all that's left is the cold, dark night. Even my hair and clothes slowly begin to dry out. It's difficult to believe that anyone's coming anymore; and I still don't have the willpower to get up and do something. I feel so, so very lonely, even though Esme's right here living and breathing beside me and Jaffa's shivering in my lap.

My rucksack suddenly pops into my head, and I sling it off my back, as well as the rifle which has somehow clung to my back this whole time. I left the pitchfork all the way back at Krindle, and if I'd had it it would probably have just gotten lost in the storm. Luckily, the rifle appears to be intact, even if it won't work until it dries out. I only wish I could say the same for the rucksack. It has a huge tear down one side, and it's still sopping wet and heavy with sea water. I unzip it and carefully extract each item. Some useless, damp matches. Four candles. At the very bottom, some first aid equipment. My bottle of water is gone, and I sigh in despair. Barely anything left.

There's one last thing, wedged in the corner of the fabric. A roll of paper, barely holding together because of the that's seeped into it.

I pull it out.

And abruptly remember what it is.

'No,' I whisper, as I frantically tug it out of my rucksack and unroll it. I don't even care anymore. 'No!'

There's nothing left on the paper but for distorted ink stains, and it's falling apart in my hands as they begin to shake violently. It's because of a mixture of grief and the fact that the freezing cold is beginning to kick in. The only item we had left from our parents, and it's ruined. Gone forever are the tiny, curling words of my mother's handwriting, and it's most likely that I'll never see it again. The only memory left of my mother and father is gone, falling apart in my very hands right at this minute. I can't hold it back anymore. I know I need to think as positively as I can, just to keep me going, but I can't help it.

My hands curl up into fists and I rest my head on them, tears streaming down my face. Sobs wrack my body and I'm suddenly even colder. Breathing heavily, I feel horribly ill, like I want to throw up and I have a headache. I know I'm shaking violently now but I don't even care. Everything's gone. My whole life. Yes, I have Jaffa and Esme here. But my only real family left... they're all gone. Obliterated out of this world forever.

Suddenly a gentle hand touches my shoulder and I can't help but jolt violently in surprise. I didn't expect Esme to be awake so soon. 'Esme, I-I'm sorry...' I sob, as I turn towards the owner of the hand. A gasp escapes my lungs as I look up and immediately my tears cease.

Because it's not Esme.

'It's okay, honey, shh, it's okay,' soothes Katie as she plops down beside me. My hands fly to cover my mouth as I see Luke and Tom standing with watery smiles just behind her. They move slowly and wearily to sit themselves in front of us. 'We're here.'

I should be overjoyed, and I am - but I can't stop myself from being more than a little depressed at the same time. There are people here! They're alive! One of them's my cousin... but none of them are my twin sister. I pray that she's somewhere, alive, out there, and that we can find her. Suddenly I feel a weird sort of connection. It's weak... but I have a feeling that she IS out there somewhere. Nobody says anything for a while. We just enjoy each others' company in silence.

'I'm so tired,' moans Tom, breaking my thoughts and the silence. Katie looks over at him and rolls her eyes.

'We didn't even walk that long. And we sat for ages before that.'

'Well, yeah. But we didn't sleep, did we? And I had to walk 'till I found you and Luke.'

'So... you didn't see Pineapple?' I interrupt.

'She'd be with us if we did. I'm really, really sorry, Mia.' says Katie softly. 'Don't worry. I know how it feels. I've lost Naomi too.'

Oh, yeah. I forgot all about that, I was so wrapped up in my thoughts about my twin sister.

'What about Josh?' asks Luke, hopefully. 'Have you and Esme seen him?'

I shake my head in despair. 'No... we haven't seen him... damn. Stupid storm.' I muffle a yawn with my hands and it passes round to Luke and Tom too.

'Wow. You all seem pretty tired. Look, I'll take a watch. You guys go to sleep. Go on! I know you want to, don't deny it.'

I hesitate for a minute. What if Pineapple appears whilst I'm asleep? I want to be awake if she does. Still, I'm so tired... and I really do need to sleep, because soon I'll be exhausted...

'Okay. I will.' I eventually reply. Katie shakes her sunset hair out as Tom and Luke nod in agreement.

'Great. See you in a bit.' says Katie.

I shuffle to lie myself in a comfortable position on the sand. Not too long afterwards, my world fades out to black, and I enter into the first empty sleep I've had in what seems like a very, very long time.

'Mia.' a whisper enters my peaceful slumber. 'Mia. Please wake up. MIA!'

I jolt up and hit out with my hands to catch my attacker. They curl around the shoulders of a stooping person and slowly my vision clears from the residue of sleep to see a joyous face smiling down at me.

'Oh... oh my God!' I cry, instantaneously jumping to my feet. I fling my arms around the girl standing, shell-shocked, in front of me, sobbing with elation. 'Pineapple... Pineapple... I thought you must have been dead!' Suddenly I stop hugging her and stare at her curiously. 'Is this a dream?'

'No!' She laughs, pinching me to prove it. I know it's there, but I can barely feel the pain as I begin to laugh too. She made it! She really made it!

'How... how... where were you all this time?!' I stutter excitedly.

'I was with Naomi. We washed up a little way down the beach, but we couldn't talk or move or anything for shock. Honestly, I was so frightened. I'm so glad you're alive!'

'They came from the opposite way we did. That's why we didn't see them,' adds Katie, and I notice that the sun has risen and it's morning. Jaffa stumbles up from my lap and lays on the sand, wagging her little tail in glee. Everyone's back together! Except...

'Josh never came.' mumbles Luke, gazing listlessly at the floor. Tom appears to be almost equally as depressed, sitting off to one side and flicking the sand with his head in one hand. 'And I don't think he's going to. He would be here by now.'

Pineapple and I stand side-by-side, mouths open as if we're trying to catch flies. 'N-no. He... he's going to jump out of the trees and scare us witless right now. Right? Right?' I stutter desperately. He may have been annoying sometimes, but we've known Josh since birth and he HAS looked after us practically all our lives. Tom looks up at us with creased eyebrows.

'Sorry,' he whispers, 'but he's gone. And... we're just going to have to accept that.'

'We can search for him though, right? All down the beach. Please?' begs Pineapple. Esme nods and I realize that she's finally awake.

'We will. We have to,' she remarks, and we all know it's true. We can't just give up.

All morning, we split up into two patrols and scour the beach for any sign of Josh. We find a few floating water-bottles that belonged to us individually and various other items, but nothing that might show any sign of him. At about midday, when the sun is beating down through the clear autumn air, we join together again, accepting that we're not going to find him. Ever. It's one of the most difficult things I've ever done.

But he's gone, and that's that.

There's nothing we can do.

13: Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

I sigh as I sit stroking Jaffa on the beach, all fear of zombies and awareness of the world around me drained for the minute. This morning, we had Josh's funeral. It was one of the most upsetting affairs I've been through for quite a long while now. Since we didn't have a body to bury, we wrote our goodbyes to him in the harsh grainy sand, and had to watch them get washed away by the rolling tides like dirt from a window in the rain.

Pineapple slouches beside me, Miko sleeping in her lap, her empty eyes fixed on the ever-changing sea. You'd think they'd follow the waves and the ripples, but they don't - I don't think she's actually watching the water, just staring off into space. It's the strangest thing to see her like this. You have no idea.

At what appears to be around 5 o'clock, we make an effort to get up and have a group chat about what to do next. I drag myself to my feet and we gather just inside the treeline.

Silence falls over us for a few minutes. I stare at the sand that overlaps into the grass of the forest, my eyes seeming to locate every grain of sand as they sweep through.

'This is so weird,' says Tom suddenly, forcing me to come back to the real world. 'Josh was our leader, really, wasn't he? And now he's gone forever.'

I nod, my eyes vacant. 'Yeah. Who takes over now? What do we do? Do any of us actually know what to do next?'

There's another silence, during which everyone shuffles slightly and nervously wracks their brains for something to do. I sigh and force myself to look out into the rolling ocean, searching for something that could be in there. Anything.

'Right,' says Katie abruptly, making me jump. She has a slight tone of determination in her voice that causes us to stand a little to attention. 'We can't just sit here and do nothing. Pineapple, take my bow. You, Mia and Esme are going out hunting.'

Her words make perfect sense, and seem to open up a door in my mind that suddenly motivates me to get going. We can't just waste away here. I grab Jaffa and the three of us make moves to leave, but Katie stops us. 'Wait. Just in case something happens, you need to know what everybody else is doing.' she turns to Tom and Luke adamantly. 'You two are collecting the firewood; we're going to need it to cook whatever the others catch. Go with them if you like.'

Tom gives a sideways glance to Luke and slightly raises his eyebrows. Out 'brother' looks at us with a shrug, turning and shielding his eyes from the morning sun. 'I think we'll go the opposite way. We don't want to disturb the game the girls could catch.'

'Right. Whatever,' replies Katie nonchalantly, but I look over at Pineapple with creased eyebrows. Josh is obliterated from our world forever, and now Luke is abandoning us; not completely, but it's enough. It's a crushing feeling that we just can't seem to escape.

'Naomi and I are going to stay here and sort everything out, ready for when you come back, or this operation will just be a mess. Stay safe. Run from any danger or zombies you come across - just don't let them follow you. This spot right here is the meeting place, so come back here immediately if you get into any trouble.'

'Yeah, yeah,' I say with a wave of my hand. It seems like years since we escaped Myossea right when the zombie apocalypse just began. The fear that manifested inside me earlier is gone now, replaced by a sort of emptiness, one that's difficult to describe. Before we leave, I glance at Luke blankly, but inside I'm silently questioning why he's deserting us at one of the times we need him most. However, he's already turned away to talk to Tom, who looks back at us once with sincere blue eyes before they both slowly stroll off in the other direction.

I catch up with Pineapple and Esme as we delve into the woods. Pale shafts of sunlight glance through the trees, and just above the uncovered russet, heavily rutted branches, washed-out clouds scud steadily across the pale cobalt-blue sky. I nudge off my rucksack and sling my rifle into my hands, checking it for damage first and then loading it. It's a difficult thing to do when you have a heavy puppy in one hand and only one more to use. Once I'm finished, I shrug my rucksack back on and position the rifle defensively in front of my body. If anything attempts an attack, I'm ready. If any game happens to cross our path, I'm ready.

We traipse through the woods for about five minutes, at the end of which time Esme stops sharply and whispers, 'Okay. Here's a good place.' She draws out her weapon slowly and purposefully, crouching slightly in an attacking position and calmly studying the treeline. Pineapple begins examining Katie's bow as far-away birds twitter, a chattering sort of mysterious, melodic piece, fracturing the silence around us. I wait with bated breath as Esme catches sight of her prey; a slight, silvery-coated squirrel.

The creature bolts upright attentively, its little nose visibly twitching as it perches in the tree. It seems to have a sense of awareness about it as though it knows what's coming. Since it can feel the danger... it doesn't move. I tilt my head at it, a sense of electricity crackling within my ears, watching out of the corner of my eye as Esme prepares to apprehend her prey. The squirrel is sitting stock-still in the tree, its nose no longer twitching. I can almost imagine its heart skipping little beats in its tiny stomach.

Suddenly I think about it - the poor thing, the last thing it knows in the world to be that raw fear - the knowing that something terrible's coming but being unable to prevent it. The dry mouth, the heart in throat, where you can feel it beating away within your neck. Those last few minutes of your life that tick by so slowly it feels like you've been waiting years just for Death to appear and whirl you away to the unknown. I know it so well, because I've escaped it by the skin of my teeth. My mind flashes back to Mrs Slater's mutilated hand reaching out to make contact with me. I immediately clap my hands across my face to prevent myself from screaming at the horrific, terrifying image.

Pineapple jolts to look up at me as I do so, and I hear a strange twanging noise from where she stands next to me. My head snaps around just in time to see her first arrow leave the safety of its bow-string, soaring across the tiny clearing... and tear right through the material of Esme's shoe, jabbing and lodging itself right into Esme's foot.

Esme lets out a piercing scream, leaping up from her crouching position and jumping around. She then proceeds to swear profusely, and I wince as the arrow rebounds from the grass and rips upwards again. I turn to Pineapple and silently glare at her, giving her a single but effective warning with my eyes. Pineapple just manages to halt her quiet laughter and coughs slightly, sheepishly crossing her arms behind her back and shrugging at me with wide eyes.

I roll my own eyes tiredly and sidle carefully up to Esme. I don't want to upset her any further. 'Are... are you alright?' I ask. She glances at me with indignant eyes for a second before leaning down and sharply tugging the arrow from her foot. The tip is coated in scarlet blood, which is beginning to seep into the flimsy material of her shoes.

'Not particularly alright, no,' she mutters, glaring at my twin sister in contempt as she twists her foot in her shoe. Pineapple isn't looking at Esme, though, but at the floor; she seems to have found a very interesting pebble to examine.

We wait for a short while until Esme has slightly recovered from the shock and the pain before continuing. The woods are rather prosaical, but nevertheless we journey on for about an hour before travelling back to the meeting-place. I loiter behind slightly, unwilling to shoot anything except for zombies, of which we see none. Esme doesn't talk to Pineapple, apparently holding her in denial for the time being. Techincally her 'attack' was my fault, as I was the one who shocked her into shooting, but there's nothing I could do to convince Esme now.

By the time we've travelled in a full circle back to what is currently our home, Pineapple and Esme have just managed to kill enough animals for each of us to have our own fair share of meat. I glance down at Jaffa, who gazes back up at me with big brown eyes, and shiver. I feel like I've been into the mind of that squirrel, and now I don't want to eat whatever Pineapple and Esme caught. They're already dead, yes; but I still couldn't bear to eat one.

Katie and Naomi welcome us back to the camp when we emerge onto the beach. Luke and Tom seem to have already collected the firewood, which, to be fair, was an easier job than ours, so it makes sense. They've actually managed to light it, finding some dry matches somewhere I suppose, and the flames crackle. Thin columns of smoke spiral up into the air. I stand aside and watch blankly, Jaffa skittering around my feet as the others prepare food.

'Guys?' I say quietly, and they all look up. The sunset spreading in streaks of orange and red behind them makes their faces look shadowed and ominous. 'I'm going to find something else to eat. I won't go far. I just... don't want to eat meat right now.'

They all stare at me in surprise. 'Well, that's okay,' says Katie hesitantly, 'but whyever don't you want to eat meat?'

'I don't know. It's hard to explain, okay?' I reply tetchily. I really don't want people to be arguing right now. There's a heavy silence for a few seconds between us.

'Quickly, go,' says Tom suddenly, leaning down to turn a squirrel on the campfire. 'Go before the sun goes down and it's too late.'

I nod and rush into the foliage of the woods as fast as possible, praying that I find something edible. Jaffa follows me, of course, so I scoop her up and we search the edge of the woods together. The sky darkens quickly and I don't notice myself moving further and further into the forest as time passes.

When I finally find enough roots, I stand up and look around confusedly. Where am I? Squinting around in a circle, I attempt to locate the edge of the foliage, carefully snuggling Jaffa into my rucksack and then pulling it on. 'Don't eat any of the roots I found,' I whisper to her shakily, still looking ahead as I begin to walk.

I try to be as quiet as possible, but still leaves crackle and twigs snap beneath my feet. Jaffa whimpers slightly in my rucksack, and I can physically feel her burrow her way further into it. The blood throbs in my ears as I continue. I can sense it. That terrifying, raw fear. My heart seems to stop momentarily as something shuffles from behind me.

I pivot my body slowly to look behind myself.

And suddenly, out of the blue, it jumps at me. I scream and throw myself aside, just dodging the first zombie's horrifying attack. It glares at me for a second, snapping its head to one side. I can even hear the bones crack. For a few seconds I'm paralysed with fear, and it's coming for me again, horrific and ghastly, half-seeming ordinary but hideously not so. At the last possible second I snap to, rolling myself out of the way and crashing into the bushes. I faintly hear someone scream my name as more zombies begin to emerge from the shadows.

Breathing heavily and rapidly, I stumble up to my feet and begin to run. My legs feel so weak I'm afraid they'll fail me, but I carry on running for my life, slapping aside branches and leaves as I go. I'm trying my very hardest, but they're catching up. I trip and stumble as I reach to jerk my rifle from my back, but it catches on something. 'No!' I shout, still running, as I tug harder at the rifle. What's keeping it?

Suddenly, I hear a tearing sound, and the rifle comes free in my hands, causing me to stumble in shock. That's when I realise what was holding it - the weight from the rucksack is gone. And what was in that rucksack?

Jaffa.

I whip around in a flurry of leaves and hair, my strength renewed. 'Jaffa!' I scream, fumbling with the gun and shooting the first zombie in the head. 'Jaffa!'

I can't see anything through the writhing gaggle of zombies. I can only hope that she's okay. Shot after shot my rifle lets go, but suddenly the bullets run out. I frantically shake it, stuck for what to do, stuck in this hell. I can't run away. I'll forget where Jaffa is. So I must face my fate.

I stand tall as the zombie approaches. There it is; that raw fear once more. The blood rages in my ears, and I feel like throwing up my heart seems so high in my throat. I close my eyes and brace myself for the cold touch of the zombie as its fingers curl out towards me, to touch my face. I imagine the tingling of its finger like stone on my cheek, all before I know nothing and I become one of them.

But that moment never comes.

A shot erupts from behind me, and when I open my eyes the zombie is lying completely and forever dead on the floor. I gasp and step backwards just as a hand grasps my arm and pulls me into the trees.