Chapter 2

Sometime while I was asleep we’d stopped and picked up William’s three friends, Lance, Kenny, and Jamal, and one of my friends, Hailey. We’re going to get Shawn now and by then we’ll be no more than an hour away from Bilger’s Rocks. To pass the time I write in my notebook again. This time with the yellow pencil.

“Bilger’s Rocks is a large place where there are high cliffs and overhangs where we can set up home. It was well known but not many people would think of a place like that being home, but it can double as a training ground as well as home to us. To survive in the apocalypse you need to be dauntless, steel hearted, and above all, clever. If you can’t make fire out of household items or keep your food fresh. You might as well be digging yourself a grave.”

Jamal is reading over my shoulder and asks, “What are you writing about?” Jamal is a strong, tall black guy who was always self-conscious about things like his grades, he always wanted to be a dentist but the apocalypse prevented that. he always wears quirky shirts that have some sort of joke on them.

“Our plan. Our history,” I say.

“How’d about you write about what the disease does to people.” Jamal suggests.

Kenny pitches in, “That might be a good Idea.” Kenny’s a tall scrawny ‘sour-cream’ white guy. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get a tan, if anything he’s come back from the beach either sunburnt or whiter than when he left somehow. He wears glasses and has a maroon sweater vest over a light blue and white plaid dress shirt. His short brown hair stood out like a sore thumb over his skin but he was a nice guy, he was clever too, he taught me how to make fire from an orange, some sticks, and a dead battery.

I pick up my pencil and flip the page, ready to write when Lance says, “Shawn’s House.” Lance is a chunky guy but it’s all muscle, he was the star shot put thrower on his high school track team, and went to college and studied nutrition and body, He wanted to be a personal trainer.

Hailey’s been silent in the back this whole time, she’s a shy girl. She doesn’t like talking to people who are older than her, she’s a lot shorter than everyone ensue but I try to include her so she doesn’t feel like she’s being left out. She’s the kind of person to think that is nobody talks to her, nobody likes her.

We all get out of the truck and knock on Shawn’s door. There’s no answer.

We knock again, still no answer.

“Might we have to kick in the door?” I ask.

“I don’t know, maybe we-” Kenny’s cut off by the sound of distressed breathing. somewhere in all of it I hear a cry for help.

“That’s Shawn! Boot the door in!” I demand.

Instead of kicking in the door we make our way through a window Lance broke with a brick. All we see in Shawn getting the snot beat out of him by a zombie.

I take swift initiative and give my axe one good swing at the zombie’s head.

“Shawn are you ok!?” Lance, William, and I all ask, Hailey, Jamal, and Kenny stand in awe.

“Guys…” Kenny screeches, “Look at his arm.”

I look at Kenny puzzled. I examine his arm his left arm has nothing wrong with it.

“His other arm, Ryan” Kenny whispers.

His right arm’s been scratched. and the blood from the infected in on the gash, we can tell it’s zombie blood because it’s dark red, dark enough it could almost be considered black.

We all look at each other, fearing the worst, until I turn to Shawn and ask, “How long ago where you scratched?”

“A minute, minute thirty?” He says, in shock.

We’re all thinking of a way around it untill I think of something.

“Amputation…” I say, everyone looks at me like I’m crazy, “He has a chance but, It’s his only chance.” There’s another long pause.

“Axe, please.” Willia,m says.

“Hold on,” I say. I  take a chair and hack one of it’s legs off.  I then take off my shirt and roll it into a rope, tie it to the chair leg into a loop and tighten it around Shawn’s shoulder.

The longer I take the further up his arm we’ll have to cut, so I try to act fast and cut myself with the axe, just on my hand, not too painful but it still hurts. A band aid will fix it.

“Kenny can you hold that there?” I ask, in pain. Kenny nods and holds the chair leg with the cloth on it in place. I chop off another chair leg and tell Shawn to bite down on it.

“It’s going to hurt.” I say, “But it’s the only way it’s going to keep you alive.” He nods in approval.

I hand my brother, William, the axe and go outside.

For two hours all I hear is agony. I refuse to go inside that house.

I finally build up the courage to open the door. William and Kenny are holding Shawn up and are about ready to head out into the truck. as they pass Hailey passes me my shirt, now doused with blood, and says to me “He made it.”