ALONG THE WAY

"The infected are full of surprises, huh?" Alfred asked, trying to converse while we were walking back home. I know what he is saying because he saw those infected inside the grocery store hanging upside down like bats and those infected inside the fridge like they were hibernating. I can't imagine the danger they could bring if we woke them up.

"I wonder where all the people are?" He asked while I kept on opening the car door that we could use as a ride back to Don Algo.

"You know how to drive?"

"Yes, but I don't have a license", I answered.

"Shit, that doesn't matter now," He said

"I don't have a license to use a gun as well," He said, which made me smile because it doesn't matter now.

"I didn't know that the situation was this serious. The city was dead. It is quiet and messy with no people around, only blood and torn bodies." He added while looking around.

"Where were you when this all started?"

"I am at home waiting for my sister."

"I am at home too. I was ready for my first day of work when I watched the news before every station shut down and saw how the people were eating people. The soldiers got panic. Most didn't survive, while some hid inside Don Algo." He said and readied his gun because he heard something.

"Are you going to shoot me now?" Jaxx asked, checking for a vehicle to use too.

"Jeezes, you scared the hell out of me," Alfred said, but Jaxx just laughed at him and continued what he was doing.

"Jaxx is one of the soldiers who survive. Their troop survived. He saw how his brothers turned and started biting each other. It started with the woman they helped, turning and biting one of them until all his brothers started biting each other and turned into zombies. They ran to Don Algo, and at first, we were hesitant to let them in, but we saw how worst the situation was outside. Humanity kicks in, and we let them in, which is the start of closing the gate of Don Algo. Even we still have family outside. Ready to go home after the night shift, going to the market to start their Sunday," He added, and he paused and whispered, "I never saw my sister and my dad since they left home, and I don't know where they are right now."

"It is like, once you go out, you will never get in", He added and took a deep breath.

That made me pause finding a key because I remembered Craven and realized that I was still lucky because I knew where my sister at and I still had my mother. Then I continue searching again, and I found a bus with a key in it. I went inside the bus full of blood and pieces of flesh, but it didn't matter because we had the most accessible way back home.

"Hey!" I called everybody's attention and told them to ride on a bus because it was working.

Jaxx will be the one who will drive while Roel checks the body at the back to see if it is dead or just a sleeping zombie. It is an older woman whose body was torn apart. We heard her breathing slowly because she was still alive and infected but not the aggressive one. Roel pulled his knife out and struck it to the woman's head to kill her. Even she is not aggressive. She is still a danger to us.

I sat beside Luis, and Alfred sat behind me. I noticed Luis was quiet the whole time, so I asked him what was wrong because he looked so bothered.

"I am worried about my dad and my sister," He answered.

"I want to go to Makati", He added.

I know how bothering to see a situation like this, but I don't think it is safe to go to Makati. Now that every place around Don Algo is dead now. I looked at him silently because I didn't know what to say. I was not in his situation, so I tapped his shoulder to tell him everything will be alright someday. Even I don't know when is that "someday" will come.

I looked at everyone and realized that everyone has their own story of losing a life and a loved one because of this happening. We are like a game of the survival of the fittest. We didn't know if we were still alive tomorrow because everything happened so fast, and nobody was prepared for this. The radio stations were shut down like the T.V. stations, and no 911 either. It is "us", only us, who will protect ourselves because even a soldier can't fight the infected alone. Nobody knows how this one started, and nobody knows when this one will end either, which is the sad truth.

I looked at the older woman dead at the back. I imagine how she suffered when an infected was eating her, and she couldn't do something to fight because she was weak. Her body was torn and couldn't be recognized, and I didn't want that to happen to me. I knew from the start when I saw my sister turning that a danger was coming, but I didn't expect it to be worse than the pandemic five years ago.

Jaxx turned on the radio, hoping to find a station that would tell us what was happening because we didn't have a clue, but he couldn't find anything. All we could hear was silence from all the radio stations.

"The Manila is a living hell now," Ferdinand said, standing beside Jaxx, holding his gun and preparing for what will happen.

Nobody knows if the base is still safe. The Tugegarao in the north and Legazpi and Sorsogon in the south because we can't find any information about them. We don't know if they knew that they were some survivors left in Don Algo either because the wifi connections or even the phone signals are gone too.

"This is not the life I wanted," Jaxx said to Ferdinand, and He turned off the radio when he couldn't find any working station.

"Well, this is not a life," Ferdinand said, which made Jaxx laugh.

"Yeah," He said.

"I am about to get married next month. When my fiance turned into one," He added.

"I am sorry to hear that," Ferdinand said

"Yeah, shit things happened."

Silence filled the bus because everybody wanted to go home before the night came. It is dangerous for us to stay outside long because we don't know how dangerous those hibernating zombies are once they woke up at night until we hear a sound from the ice cream van that breaks the silence, the typical ice cream music playing whenever the ice cream van is there to attract children playing in the park. The sound filled the air when Jaxx said, "Oh shit!"

The group of zombies were slowly moving while looking up at the sky. Maybe they were fascinated with the sound. When one of the zombies saw us, that caught the attention of others. They start growling and run to us. Jaxx immediately maneuvered the bus and drove fast, but the infected were following us, and they would never stop until they caught us. We fire at them, but they are fast, and we can't shoot them all. Some fall to the ground, get up and start chasing us again. That is why we can't see zombies walking on the street because they are on the other side of the city, fascinated with the sound they can hear. Until they saw us, and we broke their silence. Now, they are following us wherever we go.

We keep shooting them because we cannot go back to Don Algo with a bunch of zombies following us, but shooting them is useless because we can't aim for their heads. They are too fast and move from everywhere, making it hard to shoot their heads.

When we saw the zombies were near us. Alfred put down his gun and told Les to cover him. He opens his bag and gets the bottle with a cloth on it. He lit it with the lighter from his pocket and threw it to the zombies that created a fire once it touched the ground. The zombies were burning but still alive and running. He got another bottle inside his bag, lit it and threw it again. Same with the first one, it burns the zombies, making them slower this time.

"Aaahhh!"

I saw one of our team pulled by the infected out of the window and start feasting on him, and in just a second, his body was torn into pieces like he was grinding inside a blender.

"What the fuck" I whispered when I heard footsteps at the top of the bus.

They are at the top of our bus now while the others are still behind us and in front of us. I heard a growl when one of them got inside the bus by the broken window and was followed by the others. They started attacking us, and three from our team got bitten while fighting those infected inside the bus, and they immediately turned into one of them in just a snap. The virus spreads fast once you get bitten, and I can't believe it. The soldiers I was with a while ago are now one of the zombies and have started attacking us like the others.

The bus starts to run zigzag because Jaxx is driving too fast while Ferdinand is protecting him from the zombies to keep him from driving because it is not safe for us if we will stay in a place full of zombies. Those infected were getting inside the bus was getting plenty, but we didn't stop killing them all; otherwise, they would eat us, and I didn't want to be on their menu. My mother told me to go home, and I will do that. I will not fail her. I kept shooting those zombies, and when I ran out of bullets, I used the. I immediately took the knife in my holster and stabbed the zombies attacking me.

"Aaahhh!" I heard Luis scream when the zombies were on top of him. I pulled those zombies one by one away from him and stabbed them in their heads.

Luis immediately stands up and starts fighting. I pick up the gun on the floor and use it to shoot those zombies. They are too many, and we don't know how to get rid of them until the bus hits the post, making the zombies fly out of the bus. They immediately stood up and started attacking us again without giving us a chance to go out of the bus.

"Cover me again, and we will blow those zombies down!" Alfred shouted, and that is what we did. Luis and I cover him while he gets the bottle inside his bag. He lit it again and threw it away to burn those zombies for us to leave the bus because the bus was not working anymore.

He threw the bottle at the zombies, unlike the first two he threw a while ago. The bottle he threw right now exploded, killing the zombies instantly. That clears our way out. We ran because they were still zombies following us, but they were only running like ordinary people this time. We kill all those aggressive ones, but still, we are not safe because those infected will not stop until they catch us.

We went inside the building and found a room to hide. We immediately closed the door and blocked it with tables and chairs. We heard them banging on the door because they were trying to open it. They know that we are inside, and they will never stop. I sat on the floor and checked the bullets I had in the gun.

"Shit", I whispered when I saw that I didn't have enough bullets left and lost my knife.

I broke the leg of the table because I needed to use it as my weapon now that I would run out of bullets when I saw that we were only four. Me, Luis, Alfred and Les while Ferdinand, Jaxx, Roel, Macky and Aaron are not with us. We got separated from them.

"Tell me you are not bitten," I said to Luis when I saw him bleeding and gasping. I went near him and checked if he got bitten, but thanks to God and Goddess, he was not bitten, and the blood was not his.

"Stay close to me," I told him when I saw Alfred roll his eyes.

TUG

TUG

TUG

TUG

We heard a noise behind the closed door inside the room where we were hiding.

"I am sick and tired of those mother fuckers!" Les said she opened the door, grabbed the infected, and smashed it to the wall before it attacked her. She grabbed the office rotary sharpener and smashed it on the infected's head. She smashed it repeatedly until the head got broken, and the brains scattered on the floor.

We noticed that the brains of the infected were black and full of moulds. Maybe it was the virus infecting the brain. I look closer while wondering who made that kind of virus because I don't believe it is nature's will.

"I think they are gone," Alfred said because we couldn't hear any noise outside.

"You think it is safe to go out now?"

"We can't hide here forever."

"Yeah, we don't have a choice."

We slowly remove the chairs and the table we block at the door and check if the zombies are gone. When it was cleared outside, we immediately ran outside the room and went out of the building to find others, even though we didn't know where to find them. I hope they are all okay.

"Let's go back to Don Algo now," Alfred said

"What? We can't leave them behind."

"But we don't know where they are."

"We will find them."

"But it is getting dark already, and it is dangerous for us to stay here."

I walked near him, looked into his eyes, and said, "We need to find them."

"Okay... okay"

We walk to find the others because I have a gut feeling that they are all alive and they are finding us as well. I hope that there are no more aggressive zombies that will see us. We checked every street, hoping to find them immediately, but they were not there—only a female zombie eating her victim, lying dead on the ground. She didn't notice us because she was busy with every flesh she could eat on the dead body.

"Quick, here," Les said, and we hid behind the car because we saw a group of zombies walking again like they were following something.

We heard a noise from the can scratching the ground that attracted zombies. They blindly follow the sound as if they were hypnotized. We are wondering who is making the sound to lure zombies to get inside the building. We waited for them to pass until we get surprised to see a girl walking with the zombies while pulling a big can that created a sound.

"What was that?" Alfred asked.

"Did you see it?" He asked again because he couldn't believe what he saw.

I can't believe too because the girl looks normal. I don't see any blood on her white dress, and he looks familiar. The zombies are not biting her, and I don't know how is that possible because all the infected are crazy with an endless hunger for human flesh and yet there she was luring the zombies to get inside the building. Is she the one who made a sound to put the zombies in one place?

"Let's go", Les whispered when the zombies were inside the building.

We walk fast but quietly because we don't want to let the zombies know we are here. We continue finding the others because we need to go home before the night comes. We kept looking around until a white van stopped in front of us. The door opens, and it is good to see Ferdinand.

"Get in," He said, and we immediately went inside. I am glad that they are all safe.

"Nice to see you again, team."

"Who are they?" Luis asked while looking at the woman and the child.

"We found them."

"We are not infected," The woman said, and they looked terrified.

"I got these wounds when we jumped off the building", She added because we were looking at them. She hugged the child close to her.

"What did you know about the girl?" I suddenly asked her

"Who's the girl?" She asked back when she suddenly remembered to who I was referring.

"The girl whit a white dress," She said

"She hid us when she saw us struggling to escape the zombies." She answered, took a deep breath and kissed the child sitting next to her.

"We were at the mall when everything started. The military was starting to evacuate random people they can save---" She said and then paused because she was about to cry but was stopping herself.

"I saw how it happened. I saw everything. Before the military truck left, people started to attack and bite each other, and the ones who got bitten started to attack other people and... and... I lost my husband." She cried. She hugged her son and started kissing him again.

"Thank God that you found us", She added.

I sat back while thinking about the girl with a white dress while looking around, hoping to see her again because I knew there was something in her that the zombies were not attacking and biting her. She is the one who saves this two, and she is the one who saves us. I need to find her because I feel she knows what is happening, and I need to know it too. Who is responsible for this, how did this all start, and how can we end this?

"We are here," Ferdinand said, and the gates of Don Algo immediately opened to let us in.

I saw Edwin waving at us with a smile. He is at the post with Anton, and I smile back at him.

"Alice", My mother said. She hugged me and kissed me.

"I am glad you're back," She said.

"Are you alright, huh?" She asked and checked if I had a wound.

"I am fine, ma."

We put the supplies we found, and I thank God and Goddess because they keep my mother safe while I am not with her. I lay on the bed because I was so tired while the girl I saw was still in my mind because she made me curious about her. I know someday I will find her, and I will know the reason behind this, and when that "someday" comes, that would be the end of the virus.