Chapter 7 : THE FIRST NIGHT

The power had gone out at exactly midnight.

We went from the glow of a warm yellow farmhouse in to the deep night all in the blink of an eye.

All I could hear was the howling winds outside and the frantic beating of my own heart.

"Generator."

I said as I stood in the pitch black room.

Adrian knew what he was talking about when it came to generators with his experience in the military.

Minutes later we had the power back up with a soft glow to this side of the farmhouse.

But we were not safe.

Outside the deep silence of the night was deafening.

I picked up my crossbow and stood by the window overlooking the valley below.

Just beyond the lights the distant blinking lights of a city slowly turned off one by one.

I looked at the clock.

"How long will we have?"

"The first infected will be on foot in an hour.

First hours are always the worst.

People tend to panic easier at first.

They're in a state of confusion"

I nodded as I loaded my crossbow,

"We make sure they don't make it this far"

The first zombie came crawling along side of the tree line at just about one in the morning.

It was hard to make out any features of the figure other then the fact that it used to be a man with tattered clothes and sickly grey skin and instead of eyes, two white orbs, it moved with a stiff walk and twitched its head from side to side like it could smell the stench of the farm.

I raised my crossbow at the creatures head.

"Wait, let it get closer.

We don't want to waste bolts.

" Adrian said.

I stood motionless as the rotting corpse crawled closer to the window, dirt flying with every step until it was about thirty yards away.

Twenty.

Ten.

I pulled the trigger and the first bolt found its mark in the zombies forehead.

With a twitch of its lifeless body the creature dropped to the floor in a pile of black dirt.

"Nice shot."

"Easy guy.

They don't come alone."

I said as I reloaded.

I was right.

Within minutes more figures began to stir in the trees beyond the fence.

Five.

Then ten. Then twenty.

Soon there was a pack of rotting corpses stumbling out of the woods with grunting moans echoing through the night.

Adrian raised his pistol.

"I take the left, you take the right"

"Don't waste bullets, aim for the head, make every shot count."

We worked in a synchronized pattern, loosing bolts and rounds every few minutes.

I felt strange, calm even, as I drew my crossbow and sent another bolt into a writhing mass of flesh, with every pull of the string a new supply of bolts appeared and the occasional pouch of healing salve or a drink of water danced across my vision showing me what I needed.

The first wave of infected had lasted close to two hours.

By the time the sun began to rise behind the farmhouse, the field in front of the doors was covered in rotting corpses.

I counted to myself, one, two, three...up to forty-seven corpses littered the ground, My hands ached from the pain of the string and my fingers were sore from the rough texture of the bolts, My clothes were stained with black blood and dirt.

"We need to burn the bodies.

They will only attract more if we leave them.

" Adrian said as he pulled himself up from a kneeling position next to a corpse.

"Not yet, listen." I said as I set my crossbow down by the door.

Adrian paused and pulled his pistol from his belt as he listened to what I heard.

The low rumble of a motor pulling up to the house.

I picked up my crossbow as I walked to the iron gate by the driveway, Adrian taking a spot by my side.

A battered pick up truck pulled up to the edge of the yard and the door on the passenger side opened to reveal a woman in her mid forties with sunken dark circles around her eyes with a clutch of a toddler in her arms.

"Please, we need help.

Please, We have children," The woman said with a pleading voice full of fear.

I raised an eyebrow in suspicion, "How many people are with you?"

"Six, three adults and three children, We ran out of gas and have been walking for the past few hours" the woman said looking over at me then back at the truck.

Adrian gave me a look.

"Its your call" He said.

I eyed the woman then to the back of the truck where the rest of the family stood.

Other then the fear in her eyes and the dirty worn look of her clothes, she seemed harmless enough.

"Stay there.

I'm coming to check you out.

" I said walking up to the truck where the rest of the group gathered around the mother and child.

As I got closer I could see the other two adults standing back near the tail gate talking with a couple more children, they didn't seem threatening at all, until the side passager door opened and fourth adult stumbled out of the truck.

My blood ran cold.

"Well, Well, if it isn't Sarah, I heard you had gone crazy, seems like the rumors were real after all"

It was Trent, Jason's best friend from work, the same man who had laughed in my face when Jason handed me the divorce papers, who had mocked me calling me a "useless, barren wife" in front of the entire office.

He looked a little thinner and dirtier then I remembered with a fresh gash on his cheek but the same smugness crawling across his face.

"Trent, I should have known you'd be one of the few to survive.

Cockroaches always tend to crawl the longest when its time to shuffle off this mortal coil"

He chuckled at my remark but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Still got that sharp tongue I see, listen we just need somewhere to lay our heads for the night, We'll do our part as well"

I looked back at the grieving mother with the child in her arms, she met Trent's gaze with a disgusted look crossing her face before she turned back to me, the other adults refusing to make eye contact with me at all.

They weren't his friends, they were his hostages.

I locked eyes with Trent and gave him a toothy grin that wasn't fake in the slightest.

"If you just want to 'do your part', fine by me, Just remember I make the calls around here, and if you so much as glance at me wrong, I swear on my fathers grave I'll put a bolt in your skull"

His grin faltered for a moment and for once in his idiotic existence, Trent looked afraid.

"Welcome to the farmhouse, try not to die" I said as I moved aside so he and his group of followers could enter the house.