Cherish Applebottoms's Arc

Chapter 2 of 11

Cherish followed Marcus through the front door. He slammed it and dropped a plank across two brackets. Behind a cracked window, his sick sister (who looked terrible) yelled, "Marcus, who is she?" Marcus was the man who had shot the dog off her chest an hour ago. He had not once put down his pistol, and he did not now. "Doors first," Marcus said. "Then we count what's coming." Cherish swung her backpack to the floor and grabbed her crowbar. The back door hung loose in its frame. She wedged the flat end under a fallen shelf and dragged it against the door. Her arms burned. The wood was rotted soft, and the nails pulled free before she could set them. A sound came from the swamp. Not one thing. Many. Wet feet slapping mud, moving fast. Marcus's sister began to panic!! Cherish looked through a broken pane. One figure stumbled from the trees. Crawling like a wounded animal. Its skin hung in strips with tendrils sprouting from its ear and back. Then it stood up straight, and its back split open. Arms unfolded from the wound, three, four of them. Tendrils slid loose and tested the air. Where one thing had walked, more shapes rose behind it in the dark. "That's not a dog," Marcus said. His voice cracked. "That's Fred from a couple miles away. We used to go gator hunting." The lead creature reached the porch. Cherish had no time to nail anything. She braced her boot on the shelf and held the door with her whole weight. A tendril punched through the rotted wood beside her face, as if it was reaching for a kiss!! "Shoot it!" she yelled. Marcus fired. The shot tore through the door and the creature both. It shrieked and fell back. But the gunshot rolled out across the swamp, and the wet feet answered, louder now, coming from every side at a frantic pace! Cherish understood. Every shot brought ten more. They could not hold this door and they could not fight the whole horde in the open. "Stop shooting," she said. "Upstairs. Now." Marcus stared at her. Then he grabbed his sickly sister and shoved them towards the stairs. Cherish jammed a metal baseball bat Marcus's sister had dropped through the front door's handle and the wall bracket, locking it half a second before the mutants hit it. The whole frame shook. With hands reaching as if they had finally found a way to satisfy a dying thirst. They ran to the top to the master bedroom as the front door was breached and the zombies began to give chase and search the house for their victims. Cherish is almost caught by a zombie who broke through the living room in the confusion. But is shot by Marcus as soon as it reached for Cherish's face with its mouth chomping to get her. Once in the bedroom Marcus held his sister against him and looked at her. As she began to cough and shake uncontrollably, "Anna, Anna," Marcus yells!! "We have to leave now," Cherish said. She was breathing hard. The house she had wanted for herself was full of monsters now, and the only safe room had a person about to turn, with no way out. She pressed her palm to the bedroom floor and felt the horde move beneath it. As several banged on the master bedroom door trying to get in!! She would have to escape through the window with Marcus and find a place to fortify and survive. Marcus couldn’t believe he was losing the only family member he had left, his younger sister. As she began to turn and scream and reach for him, Cherish yelled at Marcus to get a hold of himself and come to his senses or he would be zombie fertilizer. Marcus shed a tear. As soon as the bedroom door broke open with zombies reaching for them both, they jumped out the window, shutting it behind them, and used the roof to get down safely and run for safety. With Anna not only turning but being surrounded by 7 zombies swarming around her! And Anna’s screams for Marcus are heard as they run!