Chapter One

Taka ran. His breath came in short ragged gasps as his lungs burned for the oxygen they desperately needed. His legs felt as though their muscles had been doused in oil before being set alight. But he couldn’t stop now. This was his life that he was running for. An intense race: run and succeed or succumb to the exhaustion and die.

Taka’s unusually spiky and charcoal black hair was glued to his forehead by the icy cold sweat that ran down the sides of his face and down the nape of his neck to his back. The food pack that he’d managed to successfully steal thudded against his back. The metal flasks inside clanged with every bone-juddering step he took. Luckily, the food pack and water inside was light, enabling him to run faster and tire less easily.

Their howls pounded through the air, hitting Taka in his back as he sprinted along the corridors, turning this way and that, hoping that his steps were taking him closer to the base �" to safety. Their footsteps trembled through the floor, becoming stronger and stronger as they began to catch up with Taka. The adrenaline and fear that pulsed through Taka’s veins gave him the extra little bursts of energy that he needed to move his lead-heavy legs. But Taka knew that these last bursts of energy would not last long before they outran him.

S**t, s**t, s**t…

Taka turned another corner, their demonic screams slamming into his back, each scream more intense and powerful than the last. His grip on the cricket bat �" his only weapon �" tightened, his knuckles turning bone-white from the tension underneath his fingerless leather gloves.

The corridors of the office block were almost like a maze: the doors leading to different rooms and hiding the content inside. The group’s hiding place was only a few more corridors away and Taka would finally be in the safe hands of his comrades.

Exhaustion was already beginning to take its toll. The burning in Taka’s lungs and throat had intensified. It felt as if someone had forced his mouth open and poured a powerful acid down his throat.

Taka turned down a corner and skidded to a halt, his eyes wide with disbelief and horror at the sight in front of him. He had reached a dead end, something that he thought that he’d never see. His heart leaped into his mouth and the last weak flame of hope inside him flickered for a fleeting moment, and died without a trace.

No, it can’t be…

Taka glanced back, his head swivelling as he searched for a way out, perhaps another turn down a different corridor back the way that he had come from. But that would only lead him back to them. The ones who killed every living creature in sight without a second thought. The monsters.

Fighting back the tears that threatened to gather behind his eyes, Taka sprinted to the end of the corridor, backing up against the wall as far away as possible from the corner. He’d been so sure that he’d known the route to the group’s hiding place, running through the crumbling building and trying to outrun those things. He had spent hours with James memorising the block’s corridors, learning the layout of the building from a hastily drawn but accurate map. Those hours had all been for nothing.

Taka’s heart hammered painfully against his ribcage and the blood rushed in his ears, accompanied by the sound of his gasps. His eyes darted back and forth, desperately searching for a final hiding place. He spotted a large door made of oak with a golden keyhole beneath its metal handle.

Without a second thought, Taka darted over to the door, releasing his grip on the bat and letting it clatter to the ground beside his feet. He gripped the door handle with both hands and pushed down on it, pulling and shoving his body against the door with all his strength and might.

The door didn’t budge.

Taka tried again, rattling and pounding the door, his terror shooting upwards with each passing moment as the realisation of the situation hit him.

F**k, f**k, f**k!

Taka let out a yell of frustration and anger, the scream tearing through his throat and hollering down the corridors. He lifted his leg and kicked the door, the lock in the door letting out a rattle of protest.

Taka grabbed his bat and sprinted back over to the wall of the dead end. He could die fighting or die being a coward and Taka knew that he’d rather die fighting. He clutched his chest, his fear rising with each footstep that pounded through the hollow ground.

A mental image of himself lying in a pool of blood with one side of his face ripped away, exposing the nerves and muscles beneath; with his stomach torn open containing his shredded guts; and his eaten away arms and legs with the horribly white of his bones peeking through his flesh and blood came to Taka’s mind. He closed his eyes, his eyelids searing against the gathering tears. Now he could see them, their rotting flesh and silently snarling and blackened mouths. A sob burst from Taka’s lips. These would be his final moments before he would be turned into one of them.

I’m sorry, Mum. I’m sorry, Fa…

Tears coursed down Taka’s cheeks as he opened his eyes, his chest heaving with sobs.

Then they came into sight.

There were three of them. All were badly mangled in one way or another from the infection that ravaged a sufferer’s mind and body. Two were men. One wore what seemed to be the remains of a once expensive dark suit. It was stained with crusted and dried patches and flecks of blood all over. Half of one trouser leg had somehow been torn away, exposing the grey and lifeless skin. An arm of the suit had been torn off completely, displaying horrific scars and weeping wounds. One of his cheeks had been ripped away, allowing his blackened teeth and gums lined with a red substance to peek through. A bloody and gooey mass had taken the place of one of his eyes. The other eye had sunken back into his skull, glaring out from the shadows.

The second man wore a simple dark green t-shirt stained with blood and holes and tears where it had been ripped. What had once been trousers clung onto his skeletal legs, severed above the knees and revealing the pinkish-grey flesh. His feet were bare, leaving his feet vulnerable to damage. His toes had been reduced to small bloody stumps, leaving smears across the polished floor where he tread. One of his arms was missing completely. In its place was a gaping wound, fresh by the looks of it since it still dripped with blood.

Drip, drip, drip…

Every drop of blood pattered against the floor in Taka’s mind, the high pitched sound ringing in his ears.

The next one was barely recognisable as a woman except for her chest, otherwise Taka would have suspected her to be a man. Most of the woman’s clothes had disappeared from her body, leaving her semi-naked. Taka couldn’t tell whether the remains covering her pelvis was once a skirt or trousers. The wrappings barely covered the woman’s upper torso. Her mouth hung open, saliva snaking from the corner of her lips. Bald and bloody patches dotted her scalp amongst her long and frizzy hair. Her feet were a sickening sight: before she had turned, she had been wearing high heeled shoes strapped on firmly with buckles. Unable to walk in them, she had taken to running and standing on the sides of her shattered and badly mangled ankles. Splinters of bone shone through the skin, tiny spikes that guarded the ankles and torn flesh. Twisted and bloody masses joined at her ankles.

Their eyes were filled with an inhumane hunger, an animal hunger that could never be found in humans. The three had all but lost the traces of their humanity.

Taka’s teeth chattered in fear but he couldn’t bring himself to swing his bat and kill them as he stared at them. The ones who had destroyed the world he had once known, the world that he had come to love and hate, the world that he had been brought up in.

They charged.

This is it…

Taka closed his eyes. He hoped that this new cruel and cold world would grant him some mercy before they sunk their teeth into his flesh. To black out and die a painless death before he joined the millions of others who had perished before him.

I love you, Mum. I love you, Fa.

Then everything changed.

Taka felt a warm substance suddenly splatter against his cheeks. His eyes snapped open to see one of the men collapsing to the ground, his head bouncing against the floor once before he lay still. The other had a large gaping hole in his chest. His mouth was hung open in a silent and chilling scream. Taka raised the bat, readying to strike.

The man let out a blood-curling scream, a haunting scream that sliced through the air and seemed to strike Taka from all directions. Taka felt as though his eardrums were about to burst as the shriek pulsed through his ears. He didn’t notice as the bat slid from his nerveless fingers or hear it clatter to the ground. Taka clamped his hands over his ears in an attempt to stop the pain, squeezing his eyes shut as his muscles turned to water. The pain grew white hot as Taka stumbled backwards, his back slamming against the walls of the corner. He sobbed in agony as he slid to his feet and pulled his knees to his chest.

Taka’s ears rang with a high pitched whistling sound and the air throbbed with the man’s screams. Tears coursed down Taka’s cheeks, soaking his skin and leaving clean trails through the smears of blood and grey brain matter.

The woman lumbered towards Taka on her ankles, smashing her teeth together and exposing her rotting and raw meat coloured gums. Then, she too, crashed to the ground without a single sound erupting from her mouth. A split second later, the man’s screams ended abruptly, the last of the shrieks echoing through the corridors before plunging everything in the vicinity into silence, save for Taka’s heaving sobs and cries of pain.

Taka trembled with fear and pain, his body shaking with sobs.

The pain…

Footsteps trembled through the ground, but this time they were quick and light. But Taka didn’t care.

…Make it stop!

He only wanted the pain to stop.

Taka felt a light and gentle tapping on one of his knees. Someone had come to rescue him, he realised. He was safe now…

He slowly opened his eyes, the bright and harsh light of the corridor piercing at first. Through the film of tears, Taka could see Niamh’s distorted face, her long and wavy blonde hair flowing past her shoulders, molten gold in the lights of the corridors. Another figure stood behind him, silhouetted by the lights behind him, his shadowed face unrecognisable in the light. His group had found him at last.

Niamh…

Fresh tears made their way down Taka’s cheeks, silent and quick. Blurred shapes moved in front of Niamh’s face and her mouth formed jumbled words. She was signing, Taka realised, the only method of communication that he could understand without his hearing aids.

We’re here, Taka, her hands signed, Let’s go.

He could see the frantic urgency in her signing: the shaking and the trembling. She was scared, although her face expression was incomprehensible, one of many that Taka struggled to grasp the concept of.

Taka continued to cry.

Please, Taka, we have to go! Her face was now contorted with fear, a fear that hit Taka in waves. He had never seen Niamh this terrified before. She was one of the leaders, one of the strongest people in their group. Seeing her this terrified made him feel…it made him feel…

It was enough to halt Taka’s sobs and cries.

For a few moments, their eyes locked: Niamh’s emerald green eyes and Taka’s oceans of never ending blackness. They were immersed in silence, a trance that seemed impossible to break. Then the spell shattered and Taka lowered his gaze to the floor, a chill running down his spine and a wave of unease washing through his body.

Niamh reached out, her hands hovering inches above Taka’s hands. The gesture immediately caught Taka’s attention and he held his breath. His heart faltered in its beats for a split second as he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the pain to come.

But the pain never came.

Niamh’s fingers brushed softly against the leather of Taka’s gloves and gently grasped his hands. She prised them from his ears and the air immediately rushed in, pulling him back into the world of sound. Taka’s eyes snapped open.

“Taka,” her voice was muffled and distant, but even with his damaged ears, Taka could still hear it was firm and strong without any hints of weaknesses. “You’re safe now. Let’s go.”

Taka nodded once, his limbs still trembling from the adrenaline that laced his veins and the ebbing fear from the attack.

“Can you stand up by yourself?” a tone that Taka found himself unable to understand lined Niamh’s voice.

Taka slowly nodded and silhouette stepped forward into the light, revealing its face: it was James, the one who almost always never lost his temper and had the patience of a saint.

James held out his hand. It was open. He was offering to help him up, Taka realised. Taka slowly reached out with his own hand, his breaths shaky. He gently grasped James’s slender fingers, almost afraid that they would snap with the slightest pressure. James’s grip was strong as he pulled Taka to his feet, grunting slightly with the effort.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” this time it was Niamh who spoke, her voice catching Taka’s attention.

Taka turned to face her.

I’m fine, his hands trembled as he signed and his breath shook. No injuries.

Bites? Scratches?

Taka shook his head, letting his hair fall into his eyes. It was a miracle that he hadn’t obtained any bites or scratches. That was how people turned into one of them. He had seen it before: a boy in their group who had taken a hit for another member. Later that same evening, he had come down with a high fever and a weakness that rendered him unable to move. Taka had watched as the boy had stopped moving, all traces of life gone from his body. Then he had suddenly risen, a snarl curling back his lips and glaring black pupils. Damir had killed him right there, stabbing him through the head and ripping into his brain. That was the only way you could kill them, or at least that was what the group had learned so far.

Taka could see the relief already breaking across Niamh’s face, her face softening. He felt a light tap on his shoulder and turned around.

“Here,” James held out Taka’s once forgotten and abandoned weapon by the head, surprising him. “You dropped your weapon.”

Taka stared at the bat for a few moments, studying the dirt ridden handle and the bloodied wood from smashing through the skin and bones of many other undead before. He slowly reached out and gripped the handle, letting his breath hiss through his teeth. The handle was slick from the sweat that had leaked from underneath Taka’s gloves and still warm from James’s grip. It felt weighty in Taka’s grasp, adding a feeling of safety and security as he tilted it from side to side, examining the dried blood splatters from previous strikes.

“You ready to go?”

Taka nodded, his mind numb and drained of emotion and his mouth dry, as if he hadn’t touched a drop of water for days. He watched as James glanced in Niamh’s direction. Their eyes met and they nodded.

“Let’s go,”