"Did you know about it?" Emil knelt by Klara's leg. He looked at her confused.

  She nodded her head affirmatively. Tarhos let her go after Emil's words, who asked him to take care of Igor's body. He forbade him to kill whatever came back, only to immobilize the corpse. The family, meanwhile, took care of Kaja, who was still shaken. Emil rolled up her leg, wanting to look at the bite. The boy felt something, a pain in his chest. He wanted to kill Klara, but when it came to him that the girl would actually say goodbye to life, something hit him. He didn't understand why he still had any feelings for her when it had been dead for a long time. His dark side, however, did not allow him to show emotion. He was no longer the same Emil, living in the belief that feelings could not surpass common sense.

  "Am I going to die?" She asked, hoping for a negative answer, but was disappointed.

  "Dariusz died from a bite. We know it kills. It can take 24 hours." He couldn't and wouldn't comfort her. He was direct.

  The girl accepted it. She had already thought about death when discovering the bite. Because of this, she wanted to convince Igor that they could all live together but that didn't work out because of his psychosis. She felt she had nothing to live for, so she didn't cared.

  Emil lifted her off the ground and began leading her deeper into the plot. They reached under a small shed, freshly renovated before the apocalypse by Miko?aj with the help of his son. He opened the door and led Klara inside. There was no hole inside that the girl could escape through, and all the tools had also been taken away. So it was an empty room, perfect for a cell for one person.

  "You will stay here. I won't risk it a second time."

  "Will I at least get water?"

  He left, slamming the door, ignoring Klara completely. He blocked the door with a wooden plank and walked around the shed one at a time to check if there was definitely no hole, and there wasn't. Suddenly he grabbed his stomach, feeling a burning pain. His wound was giving out again, and he had to crouch down for a while. He sat down next to the shed, leaning against it. He inhaled and exhaled. And so several times until he heard Klara's voice inside the shed.

  "Are you all right?" she said to him through the wall of the shed, hearing him on the other side.

  "Are you kidding me? The wound you contributed to hasn't healed yet. It hurts like hell."

  "I'm sorry. I don't even know what to say. I've lost myself."

  "We all get lost." He sighed, closing his eyes. "The world is fucked up and we're standing still, looking for a way to live like before. It's stupid."

  "I get lost earlier. Choosing Igor's side, I thought I had a chance. But he was a prick."

  "That's no explanation." He opened his eyes, almost going blind from the sun. "You have terrible taste. Anyway, I think I do too."

  He leaned his head against the wooden wall of the shed, making a quiet knocking sound. He was tired. Igor's blood ran down his face, he wiped it off with a clean part of his blouse. Then he took it off when he started to get hot, staying in just a white strapless shirt. The sun came out from behind the clouds, warming the air to a sizzling heat. The silence lasted for a few brief moments, birdsong piercing through. He pondered about his future life, so far his head had been occupied by thoughts of Igor's murder, he had not looked so far ahead. He tried to get up from the ground and succeeded, though with great difficulty admittedly. Klara did not speak again so Emil did not wait any longer. The boy became weak which worried him. Deciding that he needed to examine his wound, he walked slowly back towards the house. Kaja and the rest of the family were still standing outside the house, talking. The girl was hugging her mother, also showing concern for her father's hand. Emil smiled seeing his sister safe as well as his parents and aunts alive. Even Dawid's situation did not grieve him, he believed Tarhos. They could finally all rest from the constant chase for their lives, at least until the next wave of corpses appeared. He passed them, intending to approach Tarhos, but his younger sister ran into him. Emil knelt down on one knee and hugged again, embracing Kaja.

  "I'm glad you're okay." he said warmly. It was clear that the boy had a weakness for his sister and his heart softened when he spoke to her.

  "Thank you."

  "I'm sorry I didn't stop them right away."

  This annoyed Kaja, who slapped her brother in the face with an open palm. The youngster did not have much strength in her hand, Emil barely felt the blow.

  "What's that for?" he wondered.

  "For talking silly. I was afraid I wouldn't see you again..."

  "Fortunately, I'm alive. You have to be strong, remember? For me, for mom and dad."

  - What you said at the mansion... Is it true? - she recalled, remembering his words about death.

  His face turned dark. He himself was not sure what was happening to his body. Sure, he had been badly injured, having awakened from a coma in an extremely short time, giving his body no time to recover, but there was still something wrong. He could feel it. He wanted to put together a meaningful sentence in his head, but he was only getting lost. Kaja did not torment her brother any longer with this question, seeing his confusion.

  "Where are you going?"

  "To our guest. It would be appropriate for me to meet him. "

  "He helped us when you were unconscious. He helped you."

  The corners of her mouth lifted, she was happy to have come across such people.

  "And what about this girl? Do you get along?" looked over Kaja's shoulder, Aurora watched the two siblings out of the corner of her eye, and when her eyes met Emil's gaze she quickly turned her head away.

  "No... I think... I rather think so. I don't know."

  This made the boy laugh. He was satisfied that his sister had the opportunity to meet a new friend. Especially since he had known for a long time that she did not have many friends.

  "Keep trying, young one." He ruffled her hair which upset her sharply. She had already swung her leg to kick him in the tibia but only scoffed, not wanting to bring embarrassment to herself in front of her friend. Emil laughed again, amused by his sister's reactions when he teased her, and he did it quite often. However, they were very quick to reconcile, just like now. Kaja once again glued herself to him, this time for longer. She missed him.

  In times of apocalypse, a person only appreciates what he has and what he can lose if he is not careful. After defeating Igor, they could finally smell the peace they hadn't felt in a long time. Their lives would never return to normalcy however, they had a plan on how to live so as not to feel too strongly the presence of the living dead in the world. There were none in the village itself lately anyway, only in the woods and fields around the village.

  Emil tapped Kaja on the forehead on the way out, the latter only sighed refraining from brutally beating her brother. The boy finally went as far as Tarhos, who was just in the process of examining the bound, dead body, more precisely observing it. Emil did not interrupt him, he was very focused and did not want to spoil it. He stood next to him, also staring at Igor's lifeless body.

  "Come on..." Tarhos muttered under his breath. "Show me how you work."

  Something was beginning to happen. First he noticed movement in the corpse's sinewy fingers and then a characteristic cringing, distorted by the slit throat. Seconds later, the corpse opened its blinds, biting its jaws, wanting to bite the two survivors. Tarhos pulled a small notebook from the depths of his coat, tore out a few unnecessary pages and began to write something down.

  "I counted the time from the moment of death to the change. Seven minutes and fifty seconds. That's how much the virus needs to revive the body. "He put the notebook away, looking at Igor. "What I did not know is that the transformation also occurs without a bite and you said the words... 'Let him turn.' Will you explain?"

  "Movies."

  "What?" That was not the answer he expected.

  "I watched a lot of zombie movies. I thought it works the same way."

  "Not stupid." He scratched his chin. "Indeed, a lot of things can go right. Fascinating how accurately man has predicted nature's intentions. How everything, one to one, agrees with the pop culture vision-"

  "Control yourself, Veredi". He was slightly horrified by the sight of the pseudo-crazy doctor.

  "Sorry, I got carried away." He knelt by the corpse, checking his handshake.

  Emil stood with his hands folded, not supporting the research on the corpse. Not because he was against science but because he saw no point in it. According to him, no cure was to be hoped for, and there was no one to do it anyway. One doctor in an intimate setting with no equipment had no chance of doing it. He looked at the ease with which Tarhos touched the dead Igor. He was horrified at the thought of a corpse moving on its own without any life in it and he let him grab his hand without any resistance.

  "What are you going to do with it?"

  Emil looked at him at first without catching what he was asking.

  "I'm talking about Klara."

  "And what should I do?"

  "I know what you are thinking. Don't go down that road, boy. You'll regret it later."

  "She tried to kill me, she shot my cousin." He was pulled out of his rhythm by the inflection of his voice. "It doesn't matter what I do with her, she's bitten."

  Tarhos looked deeply into Emil's eyes. He could guess that the boy did not want Klara's death but was blinded by hatred.

  "Following the logic of movies and TV series, the transformation could be prevented by getting rid of the infected body part, right?"

  This is what Emil feared. He didn't want Tarhos to find out because he would inquire about this information, and he certainly wouldn't let the girl die.

  "We can save her." He continued.

  "I don't want to go back to that, I don't want-"

  "She will go away. We will make her disappear. She doesn't deserve it." He stood up, moving away from the corpse. "Come on, Emil, I think you loved her? "

  Emil wondered, staring into the distance, at the shed. He was in a quandary, unable to make a decision on his own. Any topic concerning Klara triggered a wave of thoughts that overwhelmed his mind.

  "We'll deal with that later." He replied, wanting to postpone it.

  "If the virus spreads beyond her leg then we won't help her anymore."

  "Christ." Tarhos' insistence was already tiring him, he succumbed to it reluctantly. "I'll talk to her. "

  "I know it's difficult, but that's what we should do. The enemy is dead and she is not one of them. On the other hand, if you kill her then how will you be different from him?" He pointed his finger at Igor, reaching Emil's reason.

  Emil felt deep inside that Tarhos was right. Letting someone die when they could be helped would be inhumane and would bring them closer to wild animals. However, his personal feelings for Klara still stood in the way of reason and Emil, shaken by his emotions, felt a constant pain in his heart.

  He nodded his head as a sign that he understood.

  "I need you to examine me as much as you can." He changed the subject, returning to more personal matters. "Something is wrong."

  "What exactly?" He asked concerned.

  "I don't know, that's the knot. Maybe it was the hallucinations of a half-dead man but something might be up. "

  He let out a groan of pain as once again his insides began to stir inside him. It was an unbearable pain, as if someone was setting him on fire from the inside.

  "I don't want to be superstitious, but my grandfather had similar visions before he died."

  " Strange, very strange. I didn't notice anything disturbing about your condition, well, except that you woke up the day after taking blood." He looked at his face, everything was fine. "You should lie in bed and rest. Otherwise your body will not stabilize."

  "I will sleep after I die." He replied sarcastically. "Or at least after the matter with Klara is over."

  Tarhos returned his gaze to the corpse, which incessantly demanded a bite of a bit of fresh meat. The man made eye contact with the corpse. The zombie did not let him out of his sight, and for a moment stopped motionless without believing or making a sound. This was shocking to them, they had not encountered anything like this before. With a calm, slow movement, the gray man knelt down by the corpse again, without breaking eye contact. Igor's eyeballs followed Tarhos.

  "Are you there, Igor?" He asked, as if he was really hoping for an answer. He waited for some sign, a movement of his hand, his head, anything.

  Emil was overcome with fear. He had shivers all over his back, which was strange because the boy was not afraid of zombies. He was more frightened by the thought that something was still "alive" in the dead, some substitute for human consciousness, which the virus could not neutralize. The corpse began to moan quietly, changing the target of its desires to Emil. It moved its mouth, making deafening sounds resembling words. Emil moved closer, leaning over him to listen. What he heard froze the blood in his veins.

  "Kill it..."

  He jumped away from the corpse terrified. His heart jumped into his throat. In a surge of sudden fear, he pulled out his knife instantly and plunged it straight into the corpse's eye socket. He pierced the brain, putting Igor to sleep for eternity. Tarhos was unfortunate not to hear anything therefore Emil's act surprised him. It was the first time the boy was so terrified.

  "I went crazy. I am completely fucked up." At first he thought it was a figment of his imagination. "Say it's my psyche and not reality..."

  "What are you talking about? Did you hear something?" he inquired, pulling Emil by the tongue.

  "They are whispering. To me." He continued, feeling slightly embarrassed. He had a doctor in front of him who could very quickly diagnose him as insane. The man's answer surprised him.

  "Are you sure?"

  Emil and Tarhos sat down next to each other on the ground, a piece away from Igor's body.

  "You don't think I'm insane?"

  "No, why not? Admittedly, this is one option, but we don't know anything about the virus. If you heard something then perhaps there is something left in them." he pulled out a pack of cigarettes, took out one and lit it with a lighter, hidden in the depths of his coat. He sighed protractedly, depressed. "But we won't find out."

  "There's no hope for a cure either." he undertook. "They are falling apart, rotting. There is nothing to save."

  "Here's the thing. They are certainly physically dead, only their brain can function... Though it's not fully functional either."

  They began to look at the sky. Emil was overwhelmed by a strange feeling of melancholy, longing for his former life. At first he was excited by the vision of the zombie apocalypse. For him, as a fan of the walking dead, it was interesting but now that he had experienced the horrors of this epidemic himself, he realized that he had been foolish and immature. He longed to return to his old, boring life in the school desks. And Marcel, his friend Emil thought of him every day. He left him at the very beginning, saving himself, his sister and Laura, he had a guilty conscience. He wasn't even sure about his fate, that was what was killing him the most.

  Veredi smoked a cigarette during the long silence. He himself also pondered a lot, but for him the end of the world was not a big deal. He already didn't feel alive before the apocalypse, and he could finally feel it, fighting every day to survive. Although it wasn't a big problem for him either. Fighting the corpses alone, as long as they didn't walk in groups, was easy. The real trouble was the mediocre supplies, everyone knew they wouldn't live long if they didn't start organizing expeditions outside the fence to farther and farther corners of the area.

  Time was passing. Tarhos, seeing the arrows skipping further and further on his watch, got up. He wanted to finally take care of Klara before it was too late. He hurried Emil to do so. He helped him up from the ground, grabbing the boy's arm and pulling him up carefully. Emil still wasn't convinced that his ex-girlfriend deserved help but didn't protest. If Tarhos took responsibility then it's nothing to him, he thought in this way. Emil approached his father, resting on a chair near the house. Miko?aj watched his hand. He was nailed, knowing that because of his severed fingers he might have difficulty grasping things. Seeing his son, he hid his anxiety under a mask of a quick smile.

  "Do we have any more axe?"

  "Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe there's something left in the stash?" He leaned forward, putting his hands along his knees. "And why do you need it now?"

  "Maybe Klara will survive. But it may be difficult to control the bleeding."

  "Does Veredi know about it?"

  "He knows. He came up with the idea himself."

  "Do what you want. But you probably don't want to let her stay?"

  "After what she did? Never in my life."

  "I'll tell the others not to disturb you unnecessarily."

  Miko?aj pulled away from the chair and passed Emil. However, he stopped when his son added something else.

  "How is your hand?" for the last few days Emil hadn't talked much with his father, he wanted to get back to it.

  "It hurts like hell." He looked at his hand, the blood had already soaked into the bandage, which was a sign that it was time to change the bandage. "I guess I'll have to switch to left-handedness."

  "I'm sorry."

  "Stop. Two fingers won't make me infirm."

  Emil's attention was caught by the bracelet on his father's left wrist. Under the flurry of events, he had forgotten that Kaja had made the whole family bracelets. He smiled, seeing that he wasn't the only one wearing it. He didn't stop Miko?aj any longer. He quickly entered the house and opened the door from the storage room in the hallway. There was an axe in it, just as his father had said, but it was their last. Emil checked the general state of their supplies and it turned out that they were the ones with virtually no weapons. An axe and two knives, not counting the Hungarians' revolvers was all they had for that moment. Against the corpses there would be no problem defending themselves with such equipment, however, having experienced human envy Emil knew that this much would not be enough.

  Taking the axe in his hand, he ran out of the house, directing his gaze toward the shed. In its direction walked Tarhos, slung over his shoulder was a bag. Emil looked over, Kaja's gaze was still on him. The girl was discussing something with Aurora, sitting on the grass and Aurora, for the first time, did not seem distant. Both of them at the same time looked at the boy, and more at the axe. Kaja was worried, which could not be said of Aurora, she was unhappy, she wanted Klara dead.

  In front of the shed, Tarhos listened to see if anything was happening inside, but there was silence. When Emil finally reached him, the man opened without ceremony. Klara broke down, frightened. She was about to fall asleep when the 'guests' came to her. She was surprised by this visit, by Veredi's presence she thought it was some kind of medicine care, but then she saw the axe and got a little scared.

  "Relax, we won't kill you."

  Veredi looked meaningfully at Emil, kneeling down in the corner of the shed, removing the bag from his shoulder.

  "...Or at least we'll try." He added, with an awareness of the risk in the back of his mind.

  "What do you mean?" she didn't understand him. She took a quick glance at Tarhos and his equipment.

  "We want to stop the virus." Veredi looked at her, after a moment lowering his gaze to her leg. "We need to cut it off."

  "What?" she grabbed her leg instinctively. "I'm going to bleed out!"

  "What will that change? The bite will kill you anyway." replied Emil, sliding his finger over the blade of the axe, checking that it was sharpened properly.

  "The sooner we do it, the less risk of infecting the rest of the body." He stacked a supply of bandages and medicine next to Klara and once he was at her side, he held her down. "Ready?"

  Emil nodded proudly. He raised the axe, preparing to strike. Klara shook out her eyes.

  "Wait, wait!" She hollered out in panicked fear. She got hot from the sudden stress she experienced seeing a person with an axe pointed straight at her. She took a few deep breaths. " ...Okay, just make it quick."

  Although Klara wanted to die the will to live still smoldered within her thanks to which she agreed to the amputation. The image she saw before her eyes was the only way to survive. She held her breath, closing her eyes. For a moment her heart paused, she had blackness in front of her. She calmed down, but the pain she had just experienced could not be prepared for. The axe slammed into Klara's leg just below the knee, the girl screamed in agony, writhing. Tarhos held her tight. Unfortunately, one blow did not cut off her leg, Emil pulled out the axe, causing Klara more pain. Tears flowed into her eyes, she clenched her teeth almost biting her tongue. Blood was spilling profusely. Not a moment passed when the sound of the blow rang out again, this time managing to cut off the remaining piece of meat. Veredi let go of Klara, who, as a result of the shock, floated away. Taking his equipment, he began saving her life. Emil watched this closely, standing motionless. Drops of blood from the axe dripped onto his boots, something strange began to happen to him. He felt strangely fulfilled, being able to cause such pain to Klara, he himself did not know why he felt this way. The inner hatred may have been released at least a little, but it certainly wasn't the right thing to do. He covered himself by staring blankly at the girl's face. He decided to leave the shed before he did something he would later regret because he feared his second nature. On his way out, he felt relieved, put the axe down on the ground and sat down himself, trying to get his mind under control.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

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  Day 25

  "What would you do if you managed to escape?"

  Emil entered the shed at night, trying not to wake anyone. Klara was awake and thoughtful. The presence of the boy did not surprise her, they had often talked over the past few days.

  "Is it important?" She answered, covering her stump with a blanket.

  "Yes."

  "I don't know, Emil." She nodded, thinking. "I would run away. As far away from here as possible. And tried to survive, if there is still something to live for."

  "You have to leave. You are here solely because of your leg and using our food. It's been eight days now. The group doesn't like it."

  "I haven't eaten anything lately." Tthe effects of these words could be seen because she was overtired and very hungry.

  "Why?"

  "Stop pretending to care. We both know that if I died it wouldn't make any difference to you."

  "Why do you think that?" he inquired.

  "You hate me." She looked into his eyes. "Our relationship destroyed everything."

  "I wanted to fix it but you left. You left me."

  "It was a bad time for a relationship." She sighed, breaking eye contact. "You were so obsessive, I couldn't speak to you. It didn't make sense."

  There was a brief silence. They exchanged glances, waiting to see which of them would take the subject further or end it.

  "We didn't talk about it."

  "Because you were impulsive every time." She looked at him again, her gaze fixed on Emil. That gaze was sad, full of memories, good and bad ones. "I really loved you, but we simply did not fit together. I know that you have changed now. I can see that. If we met now then maybe it would look different."

  "If I could go back in time I would never get involved. I shed too many tears on this relationship." His eyes glazed over. The boy held back tears. "I almost took my own life."

  Klara also felt sorry, listening to Emil. Their conversations two years ago were more of an argument than any substantive exchange. Only when the world hit were they able to talk in peace about their feelings. It was quiet, peaceful. Just the two of them surrounded by the dark night. They could barely see each other's faces, locked in the shed. Emil's anger, which he had held inside for years, left. Of course, this did not cause him to forgive the girl for all her mistakes and attempts to kill him or his loved ones, but he was able to stop the senseless pursuit of revenge, which was only devastating him mentally. He felt an inner peace. Their gazes met for a longer time, and they both knew what it meant.

  "Would you like to sit with me a little longer today?" She asked, feeling comfortable around Emil again, just like in the old days.

  - Yes...

  In the morning, Emil was awakened by the barking of a dog. It was coming from under the shed door from the outside. However, this didn't surprise the blonde, the real problem was that it woke up in the shed. Klara was still asleep, not even the loud barking could wake her up. Emil scratched his head, wondering what he was actually thinking by staying with Klara overnight. When it got to him how it looked, he feared the reaction of those close to him. But finally he opened the door of the shed and the dog, the same one Kaja had fed a dozen days ago, jumped around him sniffing from all sides. When he was done with him, he ran up to Klara, waking her up. The girl was as surprised as Emil had been a moment ago. The boy called the dog quickly and closed the door, pretending that nothing had happened, but the canny Kaja just appeared behind Emil's back. She was the one who let the dog in and played with him outside.

  "What were you doing there?" She asked innocently.

  "I was checking to see if everything was okay." He lied, but after all, he will not tell his younger sister that he slept in the same shed with a girl, in addition to Klara.

  "All night?"

  "When did you get so curious?" stroked the dog, which still did not give him peace, tickling.

  The girl just looked at her brother without saying a word. She stared straight into his soul suspiciously. Finally, she waved her hand.

  "I already know everything." She giggled.

  "Never mind." He changed the subject. "Klara is leaving today. Let mom prepare some food for later. We won't let her go without anything."

  "Mom is still sleeping, just like everyone else in general. Only dad is tinkering with something."

  "What is he doing?"

  "Something at the car. He said he wants to use it to find supplies from farther away."

  Emil returned home, leaving Kaja in the yard with the dog. He picked out some supplies himself and prepared them for Klara's departure. On his way out of the house, he took from the storeroom the wooden cane he had prepared earlier, intended to help the one-legged girl move about on her own. He went under the shed again, and had to take a breath before entering because the situation of the previous night embarrassed him. When he stepped inside, the girl looked up. Her face was expressionless, there was no telling what she was thinking about. Seeing Emil with some kind of bag and a walking stick, she knew it was time to part ways. She got up with his help, took the cane and headed for the gate. Miko?aj, from the garage, spotted them, helped them to it with only an able hand and went back to work.

  Passing the gate, the boy first looked around to see if it was safe and only let Klara continue. They walked a few meters along the road and stopped. Klara was a little further away, turned around.

  "I hate goodbyes." She pulled her nose, Emil heard it although it was very subtle. A moment later, the girl turned toward him.

  "But why don't we change plans and you stay?" last night gave him food for thought, hence the sudden change.

  "I don't want to. This place is killing me. Here I lost everything, I can't stay here."

  "All right. But live. I want you to live. Make a life for yourself somewhere else. Find people."

  Klara nodded. Emil handed her a bag of supplies and pulled out his knife, giving it to her. He decided to hand over one of their weapons despite the small amount because he knew that in this world without a form of defense one would not survive. A strong wind picked up, clouds covered the sun. It became cloudy, but there was no sign of rain. It was steamy, but one could feel that the warm days were slowly coming to an end. The wind blew away the girl's hair, a sight that reminded Emil of Klara's beauty. He had seen a similar image in his dream the day Igor appeared at the shelter gate. He smiled involuntarily but that smile quickly disappeared from his face.

  "Maybe one day they will meet again. In a month, a year, five years, I don't know. Until then, don't get yourself killed, Klara."

  "May you be in one piece when that happens."

  "Farewell."

  And they parted ways. Klara moved slowly in her own direction, opposite the city. Emil looked at her for a while longer, he didn't know if the girl could manage on her own with only one leg. It would have been logical to force her to stay, but the boy respected her decision. In truth, he himself wasn't sure what he wanted. On the one hand, feelings flared anew but on the other, it was certain that nothing could be done about it anymore. Their love had died, leaving only a bittersweet aftertaste. Emil finally let go and turned on his heel, returning to the safety of his asylum.

  "Conflict does not always have to end with the death of one of the sides. At least in this case. I don't know if I did the right thing by letting Klara go, but do I regret it? No. Since when are we the oracle who judges others? We ourselves are trying to survive, doing the best we can. I don't blame her. I just hope she takes advantage of this opportunity."

  ~ The Kaczmarek Chronicle (2023)

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  Day 40

  Kaja squeezed her hand through a small gap left by broken glass in the door. She reached for the handle, turned the key still inside and opened the entrance to the gas station building. She looked around carefully, hitting the doorframe a few times before entering to lure out any dead bodies. A deafening bang was heard from one of the rooms. Something had fallen to the floor. The girl stared at the place where the sound came from, and suddenly a zombie started pushing at the door. He was throwing himself, moaning. It was relatively safe because the door could not be forced so easily, in addition, it was locked and blocked by a pile of various junk.

  Forty days after the outbreak, the survivors found traces of other survivors. Before that, there were only like places stopped in time, houses, everything remained in its place. In this part of the world, civilization collapsed quickly, giving no time for people to react. Before they knew it, most of them were dead, hence the huge numbers of walking corpses that were spotted a few days ago on the outskirts of the city. It was feared that the horde might reach the village because it was slowly, gradually moving toward them.

  Kaja walked between the shelves of groceries. Much of it had been looted or eaten by former residents. However, what little remained, so the girl opened her backpack and began packing supplies. There was no water or any drinks anywhere, this saddened the girl because that was the biggest problem, in addition Dawid had to drink a lot in his current state. Circling through the shelves, she spotted the ajar door of the restroom. She headed there stepping carefully and quietly. There was a lot of blood on the walls, guts and severed limbs scattered on the floor. She almost vomited at the sight. There must have been some kind of massacre here. She went deeper, avoiding human entrails. She wanted to see if there was a surprise hidden in any of the cabins. Slowly she opened the cabins one by one. She felt apprehension each time, but when she opened the last one and it was empty, she calmed down. The zombie locked in another room kept banging away. Kaja was used to it by now. Groaning, moaning, the corpse-like stench, it was a daily reality of the new reality. She turned the tap of the faucet and, to her surprise, water still reached the place. Overjoyed, she took all the bottles she had brought with her and began filling them. After everything was done, there was still water left so the girl leaned over the tap washing her face. The water shortage was severe enough that the survivors rarely had the opportunity to take care of their hygiene.

  Suddenly there was another, stronger impact. The door collapsed, the locked corpse broke free. Kaja was terrified, she remained still, knowing that if she ran out at that moment she would go straight into the paws of the dead man. She took the knife borrowed from her brother in her hand, squatted as far as possible against the wall opposite the door and waited. The sounds were more intense, and the girl doubted whether it was definitely just one of them. Finally, the toilet door was forced open and Kaja's eyes saw two corpses charging toward her. She froze in horror, completely not expecting such a turn of events. She was about to be bitten when, in a flash, Miko?aj appeared in the doorway, pushing the corpse back and running into the one in front, hitting his head several times against the wall. He split his skull open. He immediately turned to the rising zombie and pinned him back to the ground with a strong fist blow.

  "Quick, get your backpack and let's go." held the corpse on the ground with his foot while pulling out the knife with which he killed the dead man a second later.

  He ran out quickly after his daughter. The girl managed to run out of the gas station at that time. Miko?aj started running, unfortunate that the sounds of fighting and the corpses scattering things lured more of them. The zombies smashed the windows, going inside. They had to hurry. The man ran out quickly, leaving death behind him. Kaja packed quickly into the car, standing by the distributor. Miko?aj was right behind her. He even jumped into the driver's seat, starting the engine. He put it in reverse and started off, but unexpectedly hit a large group of zombies. The corpses appeared from all sides, pushing their way through. Several of them bumped into cars standing in the parking lot, which set off alarms on impact.

  "Go!" she shouted, seeing her father analyzing the situation.

  He changed gear, pressed on the gas and drove away. He couldn't manage to dodge all the zombies, some of them were smashed. One of the corpses slammed head-on into the windshield, shattering it. Miko?aj was covered in shards of glass, but he didn't have time to worry about it, he had to get his daughter to safety. He maneuvered the car, throwing the corpse off the hood, and drove out in a skid onto the main road. The car faced the town. The gas station was located just outside the city. At this point, Miko?aj and Kaja didn't know what to say. The alarms of the cars left behind summoned a huge horde. Hundreds of corpses were walking along the road, the number approached perhaps a thousand. The alarms went off, the only source of sound was the engine of Miko?aj's SUV.

  "Fuck." He whispered quietly and jerked the steering wheel violently, making a U-turn. He stepped on the accelerator with momentum, running away as fast as he could.

  The horde followed the survivors. They could not catch up with them, but the direction of their trek clearly indicated that later that day the army of the dead would stand at their gates.

  About five minutes passed when Miko?aj and Kaja reached the shelter. Tarhos opened the gate for them during his guard. Miko?aj turned off the engine and left immediately without unpacking. He called everyone to him, his gaze telling the rest that something bad had happened.

  "We saw hundreds of dead bodies under the city." He spoke quickly, almost tangling his tongue. "They are coming here."

  "Well, we have a problem..." Isabella fixed her disheveled hair, having recently risen from a nap.

  "This is not just a problem. We're screwed as fuck." Miko?aj replied.

  Emil was working at the time cutting wood. Winter was approaching and they had to be ready for the cold weather so the boy had been cutting trees from the forest a dozen meters from the back gate for the past few days. He left home very early when everyone was still asleep and had only recently returned. Hearing the conversation, he approached his relatives. He put the ax on the ground and picked up his T-shirt, left on the table under the house, which he then wiped the sweat from his forehead. Aurora, standing beside her father looked at Emil surreptitiously. Admittedly, it was the second time she had seen him shirtless, but she still felt ashamed. She stared like that for a while longer until Emil sensed her gaze on him and measured the girl with his gaze.

  "Today we have to wait it out at home." continued Miko?aj.

  "In how long will they be here?" Dawid asked, resting on a chair and listening to their conversation from a few meters away. His wound was healing, but he still had to be careful.

  "It depends on what pace they move at. I think at most in fifteen minutes, maybe thirty."

  The long-haired boy scratched his head, casting a quick glance around the fence. The most vulnerable areas were protected by barricades. The problem, however, was the number of corpses heading into the village, such an invasion the fence could not withstand.

  The women were terrified. Judyta experienced the epidemic the most of all, she was a person easily panicked. In addition, the death of her son caused her to become withdrawn and isolated, which did not help her adapt to her new lifestyle. Isabella took care of her every day, so now she took her aside when she noticed how her cousin was starting to shake with fear.

  The survivors stood for a moment longer, talking about safeguards. Then the male family members, along with Tarhos, set about preparing for the horde invasion. They had to seal off possible passages, holes that didn't need to be patched beforehand. The women, on the other hand, busied themselves with cutting off the shelter from the outside world, hanging blankets and other materials on further parts of the fence.

  Kaja ran up to the dog, thinking what to do with him. After all, a dog will not behave the same way as a human, once it sees dead bodies it can blindly run at them. The girl did not want the death of the pet so she took it in her arms, despite its weight she managed and ran back to the house. Inside in front of her was already Aurora, who was looking into the glove box, taking out her revolver. Seeing the number of cartridges she broke down, there were far too few for the horde. The young Kaczmarek descendant let go of the dog, closing the door behind her. Aurora looked at her, turning her head.

  "Were there hundreds there?"

  "Y-Yes." she stammered, thinking of those countless numbers of decaying bodies. "They were everywhere, the street was flooded with them."

  "Not enough bullets for us." She growled, slamming the locker door. Sighing, she banged her head against the wall.

  "Maybe we won't have to use them at all."

  Aurora sold her a look full of doubt in her words.

  "You say that every time. We can no longer rely on luck." She got angry with her friend. The impending threat was working even on someone like her.

  "Well, apparently so." she saddened. "But zombies are stupid. If they don't notice us, they'll just move on, won't they?"

  "They should."

  Kaja went to the living room, no one had returned from outside yet. She walked quickly to the window, looking to the side where the danger was coming from. The view was slightly obscured by a tree, but it would be possible to see if something was approaching. For the time being, however, it was quiet. The group still had some time to prepare.

  Emil ran to his room, putting on the last of his clean T-shirts before heading back outside. He made sure the back gate was well locked. The horde was coming from the complete opposite direction, but he made for it in case they changed direction or their nightmarish moans lured the surrounding corpses. The rest concentrated on reinforcing the front part of the fence anyway, completely letting go of the rear, which was a huge mistake since the fence on that side was badly chewed up by time. The boy checked most of the nooks and crannies, never having been as careful as he was then.

  "It's been about seventeen minutes, they'll be here soon." Miko?aj passed his son, putting away the unused nails under the garage.

  Anna, Judyta and Isabella, hearing Miko?aj's call, hurriedly ducked into the house. In fact, they all made their way to it except for Tarhos, finishing patching the fence at the gate. The blond man noticed him and watched for a while. Veredi at that moment heard footsteps, thousands of feet walking towards the village, accompanied by the moans of the dead. The sounds were quiet, but the distance was decreasing every second. Something strange happened. The footsteps were drowned out by another source of sound, louder. They were also footsteps, but they were faster, like running. It was out of the ordinary, Tarhos was surprised to see a blanket hung over the gate and on the other side stood one of them, looking straight into the Hungarian's eyes. The man was frightened, covered the gate quickly back and moved away. The moans became clearer, more aggressive. As if something aroused the corpses, gave them an order. A few moments passed and they began to bang on the gate. Tarhos retreated silently to Emil, who just turned around and froze. The gray-haired man walking backwards bumped into the boy, looked at him and then at what he saw.

  "How do they know where we are?" he whispered more to himself.

  "What the fuck?"

  A large group of zombies appeared on the other side of the lot, behind the fence. They walked from the side that no one expected them to come from, as it was completely on the opposite side. They couldn't have been zombies from the neighborhood either because they had all been culled in recent days. They threw themselves at the fence, their mass individually wouldn't have made a difference but there were enough of them that everything collapsed in the blink of an eye. They started running to the house. One of the women, Anna, opened the door for them, seeing what was happening. Everyone gathered quickly in the living room panicking. The zombies would knock on their door any moment, they had to think of something fast.

  "Something is wrong, after such a distance there is no way they would know where to look for us!" Miko?aj closed all the blinds and locked the windows.

  "Maybe it has to do with what we discovered with Emil?"

  The family looked at Tarhos without understanding what was going on.

  "A dozen days ago, on the day Igor died, I took his body. He showed traces of consciousness." The man continued. "I was not convinced, but now it is confirmed. They know everything."

  "But why did we come across only mindless corpses before?" Emil asked.

  "Fuck, how to I know? The virus is just crawling, perhaps it's an evolutionary stage, or fresh corpses retain some of their memories."

  "God." Isabella looked at the cross hanging over the door, praying for help.

  At the same moment when the woman wanted to say something, a violent banging sounded on the door. The zombies did not give the survivors time to think. The dog, hearing the intruders, began barking very loudly, which was certainly not helpful. Isabella looked out into the hallway to look through the window in the door. Fortunately for them, the door was the only way the corpses could get inside. The windows in the house were too high to reach because the first floor of the house is above ground level. Miko?aj also watched the door, holding his terrified daughter in his arms. Suddenly, before they could blink, the zombie smashed the window with his head then slid his hand inside. With his hand gliding along the door, Miko?aj ran up quickly seeing this, trying to stop him. He did not manage to do so. The corpse pulled the handle. Emil's father stopped in front of the door, which opened centrally in front of him. The dead were coming at him.

  "Everyone upstairs!"

  Miko?aj stood between the passage to the living room and the kitchen. The corpses charging cut off his access to the first room, and having no way out, he retreated to the kitchen. He grabbed the door from the room and quickly closed it. Two zombies blocked his door. Enraged, he swung the door and hit it with all his might, splitting their skulls. He had a moment because the slain zombies made it difficult for the rest to get to the door. He was in a no-win situation. He could try to escape by jumping through the window or wait for death.

  At the same time, the rest of the survivors ran up the stairs to the floor. The dog, completely unaware of the scale of the threat, ran to attack the intruders. Kaja shouted for him to come back and a moment later broke into tears when she heard the animal whimpering. Emil pulled his sister by the hand behind him. The dead made their way from the hallway to the living room in a fraction of a second before pushing forward up the stairs. The survivors were losing hope, they were about to be devoured literally in a moment. Emil stood with his axe in front of the stairs. The first corpse was close enough for the boy to plunge his weapon into its brain. The corpse fell inertly, affecting the defense of the group favorably. A moment later, he killed another. Dawid rushed briskly into an empty, never-completed room that officially served as another storage room. There was a window and behind it part of the roof. The idea of getting out of the zombie-invaded shelter immediately popped into his head.

  "Fast, come on!" he shouted, tugging on the window handle.

  It had not been used for a long time so it rusted but he still tried. The force he used caused damage in the hinges, the window was almost torn out. He ordered everyone to go through the window to the roof, and so they did. Priority was given to the children, then the rest of the women. Emil successfully fended off the zombie attack for a few moments but eventually their strength overshadowed the boy's efforts and he was forced to flee. He ran after the family, with Anna barely out the window. Dawid pushed his cousin to the window, waiting for him to jump to the other side. Sam did so right behind him, but at that moment one of the zombies grabbed him by the leg, trying to sink its teeth into him. The blond man helped Dawid, hitting the corpse with a stab to the head several times. The man's leg was freed, he crawled away into the depths of the roof. The zombies, even with their remaining human consciousness, could not manage to jump through the window. A mass of hands protruded from inside the house.

  The survivors stood watching the surroundings. The army of the dead had overrun the entire shelter and most of the village. They found themselves completely trapped. They lacked any words to describe what was happening.

  "Where is daddy?" Kaja asked everyone in tears.

  She got no answer. Seeing the invasion, it was certain to them that if Miko?aj had stayed downstairs then he must have already been dead. Emil looked out for his father among the dead but saw no one, although he had no view of the inner side of the plot, only part of it and the main road.

  "We can't sit here and wait." Tarhos pulled out his King Cobra, looking for an opportunity to get down to the ground relatively safely and quickly.

  "And what should we do?" Isabella asked.

  "They are not going to leave here so soon." He knelt down, preparing to jump off. He also nodded to Aurora to do as he did. "Either you stay and starve to death, waiting weeks for the corpses to disperse, or you try to escape with us. The choice is yours. "

  The group's heads were cloudy. Both options carried the huge specter of death. The situation looked like it was the end for them, the chance of escape was slim. Of those present, not counting Veredich, only Dawid and the young Kaczmarek showed the will to live. The rest had given up, losing hope. Emil stood on the edge of the roof, listening to the groans of the dead deafening everything. From inside the shelter he could hear glass breaking, furniture falling over. The shelter was unfit to continue living, even if they got rid of all the zombies.

  "We have to leave." He turned toward them, clearly angry and frustrated. "This place is lost."

  "We have nowhere to go!" Anna replied, sitting on the roof tile, resting her head against her hand.

  "I know that!" He raised his voice, scaring his sister with it. "Pull yourself together or we'll all die. You will come with me even if I have to force you to do it. "

  It was hard to convince the group to try to escape. The women were afraid of contact with the zombies, already individually they were frightening to them let alone the whole horde. Nevertheless, Isabella was the first to be convinced, her stoic calm was disturbed by fear, she barely resembled the person she had always been. She agreed to Tarhos' plan. Her commitment pushed Anna and Judyta to do the same.

  "Fuck, Do we really have to do this?" Dawid looked at the vastness of the corpses on the road, the sight of them made him doubt his abilities.

  "Do we have the other choice?" The blond man stood right next to his cousin.

  Tarhos looked incessantly at the corpses, looking for an opportunity when there would be the least of them in the most advantageous route for them. Finally that moment came. The survivors jumped off the roof one by one, there was no turning back. Tarhos ran first, holding a loaded revolver in his hand. It mattered little to them at that moment to save ammunition, the man shot the corpses in the heads with incredible accuracy. The entire horde knew perfectly well from the shots that the living were not far away, the charge towards them began. Unexpectedly, Tarhos ran into two zombies who tried to bite him. Barely able to cope, he was helped by Dawid's momentum by stabbing one of the dead attackers through the eye socket. The other Veredi pushed back, however, his knife fell out. He didn't manage to pick it up because a cluster of zombies cut them off. Emil, Kaja and Judyta were on the other side of this wall of death. The woman picked up the gun while her nephew defended his younger sister from the corpses, himself falling to his knees pushed by them. There were a few bullets left, and she wanted to use them. She aimed once, squeezed the trigger and bang. She hit the corpse in the body without doing anything to it. She fired another shot, this time accurately. Turning around, hearing a zombie approaching behind her, she took another aim. However, something happened that no one could have predicted. From the retinue of corpses, something began to move at a speed unusual for zombies. Tarhos was busy fighting for his own and his daughter's lives, but he noticed the same thing. What he thought of when he saw the dead in front of the gate came true.

  "Get the fuck out of there!" he yelled, clearing his throat.

  Emil turned around, hearing Veredi's voice. At that moment he saw one of the corpses literally run at Judyta and, being very close, he made a leap, throwing himself at her. The woman screamed in terror, falling to the ground. The zombie aggressively and savagely devoured her alive in front of everyone.

  "They can run?" He muttered on his knees, watching his aunt lose her life.

  His psyche was seriously affected. Time seemed to slow down in his mind. Corpses were coming from every direction. He picked up the revolver that had fallen out of the already dead Judyta. At first he believed they would be able to escape, but underestimated the advantage the dead had. He put the gun to his head, losing all hope. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and mastering his breathing. All he wanted was to forget everything for a moment. His finger was on the trigger and he was ready to pull it.

  "This could be the end for the living and a new beginning for the dead."

  He was close to taking his own life when suddenly his sister's voice brought him back to reality. The girl screamed his name, she needed help. The corpse knocked her over, Kaja tried to hold him down so he wouldn't bite her. Emil, seeing this, immediately changed the target of his shot to the corpse. One bullet was enough to kill him. He felt that he was going crazy, that he was close to insanity. The loss of his and his family's security, the loss of a loved one, all this translated to him. After his sister called out to him, he realized that he couldn't leave her alone to die and simply run away from this world. He got up and ran to her. He handed her the gun for safekeeping and grabbed his axe again in both hands, with which he struggled to push himself and Kaja northward, in the opposite direction to the rest of the family. He turned his head for a moment, looking to see where the rest were running, but things weren't too interesting on the other side of the corpse wall either, and they were cut off.

  They were all doing their best to escape. With no way to reunite, they fled separated to different parts of the world.