The survival coven

My 99. shotgun was pressed so hard to my chest it hurt. But I didn't dare move it. Even if my life hadn't depended it on it.
They were everywhere. Unseen. But I knew. KNEW they were there. Hidden in the shadows. My heart lurched as I took a silent step back. My hands were shaking so much I thought I'd drop my weapon.
I slowly retreated backwards. Before I was all the way into the sunlight, which was just outside the broken-down door, my foot landed down on a small twig, crunching instantly.
I froze with fear!
Not a sound was made, even though the crack had echoed throughout the entire building.
I was quick to burst through the doorway and out into the daylight.
I took in a huge gulp of air, and realized I'd been holding my breath!
"LAYLA!" My best friend, Kathy, arose from the long grass that bordered the old building, in which the 'monsters' lived. They didn't just live there. They lived everywhere. In the shadows. waiting until some unlucky soul was stupid enough to stupid enough to venture in. The sunlight was the only killer. That, and guns.
LOTS of guns.
Kathy helped me stand, since my legs were buckling with fear.
"I swear I was a gonner Kathy." I gasped, letting the sun soak into your already tanned face.
She hugged me, and whistled for her dog, Jazzmin, to come bounding forward. It seemed less than a hundred people were survivors, and each belonged to three different colonies, which we called ours the survivor colony. Apparently, also dogs were immune to the disease which had cost so many people their former lives. Turning them into sick, wretched zombie-like monsters. And to think, all of this disaster happened because of some cure for cancer.
Yes, a cure caused death. Death of many. All over the world, people were dead. And all over the world, EVERYWHERE. . .people were zombies. And all they ever were. . .were hungry. . .
"Well, we wasted alot of spare time with your little stunt Layla. We've got less than an hour before the sun sets. We've got to get going now!" She lead me to her car, where my dog guarded.
"Maxx!" I call over the large black husky dog. He bounds forward and immediately started to lick my face.
"Get in." Kathy orders.
I opened the back door of the van, and Maxx hops in, Jazzmin rubbing him tenderly.
"I smell puppies." I said, and smiled.
Kathy glares at the road, as if she'd never seen anything more disgusting.
"I smell death if we don't hurry up!" She started the engine, and we immediately pulled off the road, and down the street heading out of the large city of NYC.
"Layla. . .do you know how agonizing it was, standing there, waiting to see if you'd ever return? You had me really terrified!" She grunted, swerving crossly around an old mailbox that lay on the road.
"Dumb zombies." She mumbled.
Of course, when the sun went down, the Zombies came out. And they wreaked havoc on anything and anybody in whom they found. Of course, when the sun was back up, they were back to hiding.
"YOU were terrified? I was the one who was nearly killed by them! I did that only because SOMEBODY had to leave the bait!" I argued.
It was true, when Dr. Robert Neville had been the first to find a cure, he never lived through it long enough to use it, although it was given to my great-grandmother Anna, and had never been tested. Until now. . .
"I know, but it was too risky. I wouldn't have brought a pile of deer's meat to lure the zombie-type-thing into an already made trap, and then have agreed to come back tomorrow and collect it! This is exactly how Robert died! The zombies wanted revenge, and they definately got it!"
I shuddered, remembering the scary bedtime stories Anna used to tell me when I was little. I slid my gun into it's black leather holster that went around my waist, and over my shoulder and chest. My black leather pants fit nice and snug around my legs. And my leather vest with a white undershirt were perfect to complete the outfit.
"I swear, if you don't catch a zombie tomorrow. . ." She pulled off the highway, and onto the deserted road that only the survivor's knew about. After a few more miles, we reached a very large solid steel entrance. She parked the car a little ways off, and we walked the dogs to the doorway and knocked.
"Password?"
"Survive the storm." I called out, loud and clear.
There is a loud click, and the doors swing open. Two armed men wearing camoflauged clothing heaved open the doors, allowing us to enter.
The survival colony was almost like a small town. There were little shacks and shelters where we all lived. If you had a family, your shack was bigger than most. There was a hospital, a little mess hall. Although it wasn't very little. A church was there too, and a nursery, for those who are pregnant. Things in the colony were different that in the real world. But to my taste, it was like living with seventy-eight family members. I knew all of them. Even Sabrina. She was the test that Robert had found the antidote in. Of course, she couldn't remember anything, and so we all pitched in to create a brand new life for poor Sabrina. Her hair had grown back from her bald head, a pretty golden brown.
Nobody knew anything from her, and I loved to visit her often. She lived in the shack farthest from the entrance. We called it the mental provision shack.
I smiled to myself as I left Kathy and walked Maxx to the dog shack. It was the shack, where all the colony's dogs were kept.
In fact, there were only thirteen dogs in the shack, although, four were pregnant. I was starting to think Jazzmin would be next! I noticed how Maxx acted around her!
I opened the shack's door, and Maxx bounded in, and sat in front of the women who volunteered there.
"I'll come for him later." I promised. Scratching behind his ears, I left the dog shack and went to the mental provision shack.
Sabrina was the only person in the shack at the time. Since no other zombies had been caughten and cured. Until tomorrow maybe. . .
"Hey Sabrina!" I called out. Sabrina appeared in the room in front of me.
"Layla!" How's Maxx?"
"He's good."
"I can't wait to see if you catch another person!" She smiles.
"Yeah, well. . .me too."
"You have to be the best zombie catcher ever!" She smiled again, rubbing her hair tenderly.
"Well, the study shack helps alot." I mused.
"I wish I could be a hunter, like you, Kathy, and Wesley are." She sighed.
"They never allow me out of this place." She looked down at her sandals.
"Well, being a part of the hunter group of the colony has it's ups and downs." I lead her to the small couch that was placed in the middle of the room.
"Like what?"
"Like when I nearly get killed. You never get over the feeling when you almost are found by a zombie. With only a gun, you feel hopeless." I sat there for a long time, telling her all my stories I had to say from my hunting ventures.
"Your colony job sounds amazing. I'm stuck here being the cure dummy." She growls, more to herself than to me.
"Well, I have to go. Dustin is waiting for me at the mess hall." I stood up from the couch, waved goodbye to Sabrina, (who was always fed in the metal provision shack) and left for the hall. Dustin, my brother, had already saved me a seat at the hunter's table. Each colony job had their own table. Like my job, the zombie hunters, and then the curists. They were the ones who spent the most time poking and prodding Sabrina.
And another, was the protecters. They protected the colony's location with the cost of their life. And lastly, the belongers. They stayed at the camp and watched over everything. Volunteered to make the mess hall meals, or stay with the dogs at the dog shack. Or if you wanted to call it a group, there was the people who just stayed around the colony camp. Like the children, or the mothers, all that sort.
Yet as I went to the hall, a thought ran through my mind. . .
End of Chapter 1