The dead are among us - Chapter 12 - Out of nowhere

The sound of a gunshot has echoed around the nearby area. Josh opens his tear filled eyes and takes his finger off the trigger. He thinks to himself "It sounded like it came from down the road towards the Nisa shop." He can't see over there as the windows are covered by the the undead and some of them have smeared blood on them. A few of them have started to move from the car and meander towards the direction that the gunshot came from. Josh feels a sense of hope at the fact that it could have been someone in his family that fired the shot. He starts to search the old car for anything that he can use to escape. He pulls open the draw on the passenger side of the car. All that's there is some paper work and some old tapes. He turns and looks at the backseats. It's an almost empty car so there is not much there that he can use. Suddenly he hears a splat. He turns to see the brains of one of the undead exploded onto the front windscreen. Suddenly Another one seems to get shot on the drivers side if the car. He realises there's now a gap that he might be able to make if he opens the door and runs for it.

Filled with adrenaline, he takes a deep breath and pulls the door handle of the car. When he opens the door he uses it to push back 1 of the undead that is still near the door. He gets out of the old car and makes a dash for one of the nearby gardens, Most of the undead don't spot him as he is being quite, and they were focused on the gunshot from down the road so were not looking. He jumps behind a small bricked garden wall and hides. The 1 undead that he had pushed with the door is now walking right up to him, as it has spotted him when he was making a dart there. It is around 1 meter away and is just about to reach for him when its head explodes. Josh is confused and isn't 100% sure where the shots are coming from as they are very quite. He peeks his head slowly over the small brick garden wall and examines the area. He is scanning the area but can't see anyone.

"HEY, OVER HERE" says a female voice. Josh looks up to a window of a house over the street and sees the head of a woman with some sort of suppressed gun. Knowing he can't make much noise he puts his hand up to her. She opens the window and throws some car keys on the grass of the garden he is on. She shouts "Go down the road slightly, there should be a red, 12 plate Fiesta. Get in it and pick me up from the front. Try lead some of the freaks away from the door if you can as they've heard me. I'll be there in 1 minute," Some of the undead have heard the woman and start heading towards the house, blocking her in.

Josh makes a quick dart from the wall he was hiding behind and heads for the grass. He picks up the keys and searches for the car. He finds it around 15 meters down the street. He presses the top unlock button on the key and gets in the car. He thinks to himself "I've got to try and get the infected away from that house. Maybe I can use the horn to drive them away?" Josh starts the car up and puts in into 1st gear. He drives down the road slightly past the house and starts franticly beeping the horn. The infected that were by the house turn and run towards the car. He quickly turns and waits for the infected to come. He drove around 15-20 meters past the house to allow them to make space from the house. Josh sees the woman exit through the front door. She is a brunette woman in he early to mid 20's. She has her hair in a ponytail with a green scrunchy. She's wearing a green t-shirt and black jeans and she is a very pretty looking girl with little to no makeup on. Josh drives forward and stops by the girl. She opens the door and gets in as he drives away.

"Hey thanks for saving me" says Josh. The girl replies "No problem, thankyou aswell. Keep going down this road and I'll direct you on where to go that's safe. I'm Laura by the way. This is my Bolt-action rifle. Got a suppressor on it aswell haha." "Awesome. This is mine. Well it was someone else's but they dropped it. Our group got split" says Josh while showing his Glock 17. They start talking for a bit whilst on the drive. Josh pulls up to a singular house that's on the suburbs of the town. It is a quite road of houses with this one being the end one. "This is my dads house. Come with me, I'll see if you can stay the night."

Josh and Laura approach the charcoal coloured wooden front door and knock on it 3 times. The door handle moves down and the door slowly opens. "Oh Laura it's you. And who the fuck is this. I told you to come alone if you decided to head down here." says the man in an annoyed tone. Laura replies "Sorry dad. he dropped me off. We kinda saved each other today. I thought" "You thought what? That he could stay? With all that's going one at the moment we don't need this." says the man angrily as he cuts off Laura. "If it's too much trouble I can just go it's fine" says Josh. The man replies "Go where? Seen as though you save my daughter I will let you stay tonight but that's it. As it's going to be getting late soon, the last thing I want is someone getting into trouble on this road." "Thankyou so much" Josh replies.

Laura helps Josh set up in the living room and the day starts to pass. Josh and Laura are sat at the dining table playing rummy. Laura asks "So, you said you got separated from your group. Who was in your group and how did you get separated?" Josh Replies saying "Well it was me and my family. We were set up quite nicely in our little Cul-de-sac. We ran into some people that tried to take all our stuff with guns and all hell broke lose. I lost a lot of people. My step-sister got bit at the start aswell as my nan. Then there was this girl that I liked. The bandits came and... she didn't make it. Then I got separated from the rest when that horde came. I don't know if they made it out alive." Josh starts to shed a few tears and Laura comforts him. "I'm so sorry to hear. I've lost people aswell. I was living way up north near Scotland when this shit started. I was living with my mum but she... Well she got bit. I then decided to move here to find my dad. He's really grumpy on the outside but he is very protective. He was the one that taught me to shoot. I'm not sure if I'm aloud to say this but he use to work as a Hitman. If I'm going to be safe anywhere it's with him, his name's Tony by the way."

They eventually go to bed and the next morning arrives. Josh is up nice and early and gets his few supplies ready to leave. Laura walks him to the door and gives him a bag with a few supplies, such as a few tins of food and some bottles of water. Josh grabs his pistol and axe and walks out the door. "Before you go, have this." Laura hands Josh a walkie talkie. "What's this for?" Josh asks. Laura responds "If you're down bad anywhere nearby and need help. You can contact us and we'll come if we can." Josh gives her a hug and Departs on foot.