"Quick, pull it in before it gets away!" Sheila laughed as I managed to catch another fish.

I quickly pulled in the struggling fish. Alex had made good on his word. There was now a class dedicated to fishing where they taught us how to use any method that might possibly help us catch a fish, although they drew the line at dynamite and explosives. They even included about a dozen ways to cook fish with a wood fire.

This was our first day using the archery method. It was harder than it looked since the light hitting the water caused a visual magic trick called refraction, making the fish look higher up than they actually were. I triumphantly held up the fish once I had removed the arrow. I threw it in the bucket before peering into the water to hunt for another fish.

It had been two weeks since I had graduated and nothing had really changed. Same work, same zombies, and nothing really eventful. Kailey and Evan had been making some serious progress in their relationship and were no longer hiding it. I fully expected them to request a room for themselves in the next few weeks.

We fished for a while longer before our group walked back while pulling several small kids' wagons full of fish. The lack of zombies was proof that a Raider group had been luring them away from our location while we fished. I still kept a watch on the trees around us since it was always possible for someone to miss a zombie.

We managed to get back without incident and left the fish with another group who offered to clean them for us. Instead of splitting up like we usually did, all of us headed towards the showers, teasing one another that something smelled unusually fishy today.

       I killed an hour studying a book before heading down to dinner. I paused in the hallway as I noticed someone giving ten people a tour. I didn't recognize any of their faces. The wet hair and new clothes led me to believe that they were newcomers, which was kind of surprising since it had been over two weeks since any new people had arrived.

Kailey probably already knew their names, positions, and birthdates... That girl lived for gossip almost as much as she loved junk food. With that in mind, I continued towards the mess hall.

Kailey and Evan had already eaten half of their meal when I sat down with my plate. Kailey didn't need any prompting to spill the beans on all the details she knew.

"We have new people! They heard our radio broadcast and have been travelling for about a month to get here. They came from somewhere in Montana, and apparently, there are a lot more zombies down there than up here. That is probably due to their larger population originally. There were eleven of them travelling together. One ran out of insulin, so the Nurses are trying to stabilize her in the nursing area."

I swallowed my mouthful of fish. "I saw ten in the hallway being given a tour, and I thought they were new. It has been a while since we had someone new show up."

Kailey nodded as she was eating. We talked about the upcoming graduation ceremony, the state of the kitchen supplies, and other things. They were trying to convince the Raiders to bring back several beehives since we would run out of sugar sometime next summer at the rate we were using it.

The Raiders may be willing to climb into buildings that potentially held zombies, but they were quite resistant when it came to hauling boxes containing a few thousand angry bees... From the sounds of it, the Foragers and Raiders may end up escorting a livestock group to collect as many hives as we could. I hoped they skipped my group for that run.

*        *       *

        The sound of the fire alarms going off woke me up in the middle of the night. Groggily, I stumbled out of bed and scrambled into my clothing in the dark room. I didn't realize I had grabbed shorts instead of pants until I was pulling them up. Too late now. I stuffed a set of pants into my backpack for when I was outside of the burning building.

 Kailey beat me to the door, and the smell of smoke wafted inside when she yanked it open. I inhaled in dismay when I saw the crowded hallway. Grabbing Kailey's hand, I tugged her into the hallway as everyone else also tried to get out of the building. I let go of her hand as we simply went with the flow.

As we began descending the stairs with dozens of others, the whiff of smoke grew stronger. Others around me realized that this wasn't a drill and began to move faster. No one wanted to be caught inside these wooden buildings during a fire.

Noise and shouting began to reach my ears as we neared the exit. It sounded like a lot of people were panicking further ahead. The smell of smoke was slowly getting stronger, although it wasn't thick enough to see yet.

The sound of gunfire had us all ducking – who on earth would be shooting a gun in here? For all of our training with weapons, we didn't take them out of the training room since some people had hot tempers. I had a belt knife but that was it. Gritting my teeth, I decided to bring that up with my Group Leader the next time I saw him.

None of those around me were equipped to handle gunfire either. I was being jostled as people tried to turn back the way we had come in an effort to get away from the gunfire. The hallway was extremely crowded now, and movement was limited.

We were packed shoulder to shoulder in the narrow hallway. I craned my head, realizing that Kailey was no longer behind me. Despite my best attempts, I couldn't spot her in the sea of faces either. No one around me was really getting anywhere, even though we were all trying to move. People from deeper inside were trying to push past us in a panic as the fire alarms were still sounding while those in the other direction were trying to get away from where the gunfire had come from.

"Run! Zombies!" Screams echoed down the hallway.

Oh no. My heart both dropped and sped up in the same moment. Sure, I saw and lead zombies for walks on a daily basis, but not in close quarters and never indoors. I saw a Raider in the crowd, but without their protective gear, they were just as vulnerable as anyone else. More screams erupted in front even as I heard more gunshots echoing behind us.

Guns behind and zombies in front. Trapped. I looked around in a panic and saw a door.

I yelled, "Braydon!"

The Raider looked my way, and I pointed to the blocked up narrow backdoor to the mess hall. The mess hall had several exits, some of which had been closed and used like a small storage area. He was much closer than me and quickly shoved through the crowd to pull boxes of supplies away from the closed door.

Others near him quickly saw what he was doing and started helping him clear the doorway. It felt like an eternity before they managed to open it although only seconds had passed. People started pushing towards the new escape route the moment they saw it. I wasn't about to remain in this deathtrap of a hallway and also made my getaway as a seemingly-endless stream of terrified people spilled into the mess hall and out various exits.

I stepped to the side of the room, looking around. I still didn't see Kailey or even any of my group members. The smell of smoke was much fainter in here, but the sounds of terrified screams were getting more prominent.

As a Forager with zombie training, my help was going to be needed if zombies were inside the fence. Despite basic zombie training being mandatory, many here were acting like horses around a large fire. Since there were zombies, I really needed a decent weapon.

The weapons hall was now my destination, and I started moving once more. I finally got outside and froze in my tracks, discovering that the situation was worse than I had anticipated. Someone had turned on the outside flood lights to allow people to see in the darkness, but the light showed a horrifying scene.

People were running in every direction as screams of fear and pain filled the air. Several zombies already had victims in their arms while others were in pursuit of prey, trying to grab the frenzied people around them with outstretched arms.

All of the zombies had name tags or badges and sported injuries severe enough to have caused a nearly immediate turning. Any trees that were big enough to climb already had people seeking safety in their branches. Tall objects in the kid's playground were becoming similarly occupied. But far too many people were still trying to dodge the zombies on the ground.

Chaos. Complete and utter chaos.

A zombie lurched in my direction, snapping me out of my daze. There were too many people and too many distractions for me to try leading the zombies away like we did when Foraging. I started running full tilt, weaving my way through the crowd as I headed towards the distant weapons room.

Taking a shortcut, I entered a side building that had a corridor leading to the weapons hall. I heard hysterical crying just before I saw a child scamper into the hallway with a zombie in hot pursuit. I hesitated for a moment before my eyes landed on a broom. I had to be crazy to be considering this. A broom was not a spear or an axe... The little girl didn't see me and ran into one of the larger bedrooms as the zombie tottered after her with outstretched hands.

I bolted after them, and just before I reached the room, I heard the scream of the little girl. I put on a burst of speed as I slid into the doorway to see that the terrified girl was cornered – and the zombie was rapidly approaching her. I darted up behind the zombie and swung the broom like a baseball bat. The zombie staggered two steps to the side from the force of my blow. He turned in my direction and his bright red eyes locked onto me. It headed in my direction with a snarl. Shit.

I shuffled backward as I stuffed the broom in his face and shoved as hard as I could. He fell backwards and hit the window, breaking the glass. The zombie fell to the floor, still growling at me, and struggled to get back on his feet. Glancing over my shoulder, the girl was still cowering in the corner near an open closet, watching us with wide eyes.

I yelled, "Run! Go to a different bedroom and close the door!"

There was no way I could kill a zombie with a broom, so even if there were zombies outside, staying in this room was suicidal. A snarl had my head snapping back toward the zombie, which was now standing and stumbling towards me once again.

My heart was racing as I faced the zombie once more. It lurched towards me with its bloody hands reaching out. Thinking quickly, I grabbed a pillow off one of the beds and threw it at his head.

The zombie wrapped his arms around it and bit down hard. I darted behind him as I pushed the broom against his back. He stumbled from the force as he kept biting the pillow. Another shove pushed him into the closet. I quickly slammed the door, and my feet skidded on the floor as I hastily pulled one of the big bunk beds in front for good measure. The zombie had already started pushing and rattling the door, but the bunk bed was too heavy for it to get out.

My shoes crunched a few shards of broken glass as I staggered backwards and leaned on the window sill to catch my breath. My heart was racing, and the adrenaline pumping through my system was making it hard to think straight. I looked around the room, but the girl had fled halfway through the fight. I hoped that she was unharmed and had managed to lock herself inside of a bedroom.

I felt hands grab my right arm and yank down. Pulled slightly off-balance, I looked down in shock just in time to see a zombie outside the window bite down on my wrist. Pain erupted in my arm.

In a panic, I twisted and yanked my arm as hard as I could to the side, slamming the zombie's head into the window frame. The jolt broke its jaws loose, and my breath hitched with the pain of the impact. The zombie growled at me; the sound was distorted due to the serious injuries on the left side of its face.

I jerked backwards, but it still had a painfully tight grip on my arm. I tried shaking and twisting my arm, but the zombie was lower than me and pulling down. Its heavier weight was threatening to pull me out the window. It snarled, and its teeth clacked together as it tried to bite my arm again.

I frantically kept jerking my arm back and forth so it couldn't land another bite. My heart was beating so hard that I could feel it thudding in my chest. My arm throbbed as I tried to unsuccessfully wrestle it free.

I looked around in desperation, and my eyes landed on the window's roll-down storm shutter. I grabbed wildly at it with my left hand and pulled it down. The shutter bit into the top of the zombie's arms, blocking its ability to bite me. It didn't let go, and kept trying to pull my arm towards it, but the shutters had pushed its arms into the remaining glass in the bottom of the window frame, effectively pinning them.

Awkwardly, I fumbled for my belt knife with my left hand. Once I grabbed it, I put it on the zombie's wrist joint and pushed as hard as I could. After three or four attempts, I must have damaged the tendons because the zombie's grip started to loosen. It squeezed harder for a moment and I winced at the thing's grip; I was going to have major bruises. I twisted my arm at an angle and tried to pry its fingers off my arm. After what felt like an eternity, I finally broke out of its grip.

Breathing heavily, I staggered backwards and looked down at my wrist. The zombie's teeth had broken the skin, and the blood from its severed wrist had splashed on my hand as well. The bite wasn't too deep, perhaps because the jaw was too damaged to deliver a strong bite. I watched in growing horror as blood seeped out of the bite wound.

Bitten. I was a dead person walking. I felt like crying. I felt like screaming.

Other screams shook me out of my shock. I may be as good as dead, but I had at least twenty minutes to help those who had become my family and friends. With a force of will, I wrenched my eyes away from the death sentence on my wrist and staggered to my feet.

I hastily cleaned the blood off my arm with a bed sheet and, without thinking, quickly cut a strip off to wrap around the bite. My training made me wrap it; it wasn't as if I would live long enough to be worried about keeping my wound clean.

I exited the room and ran down the hallway towards the weapons room. Other Raiders, Foragers, and Guards were already there as they handed out weapons. Some people had blood on them while others had tears running silently down their cheeks as they worked.

A voice I didn't recognize shouted, "Here!"

I turned to grab the handle of the axe that had been thrust at me. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to work. Ensuring I had a good grip on it, I ran back out into the fray.

While running down the hallway, I saw someone was trying to hold off a zombie with a baseball bat and immediately altered my direction as I went to help. Like a silent flash of light, I suddenly realized that I had lost my fear of zombies – all of my fear. The previous worry and caution had disappeared as if it had never existed.

I was no longer scared of zombies. In fact, I was going to be one soon enough. My anger bubbled up at the injustice life had handed me. I narrowed my eyes at the zombie as I got closer, my knuckles white from how tightly I was holding the handle in my rage. How dare they take away my life and all I had worked for! I rarely got mad, but I had never been so angry in my life.

I finally reached them and darted to the side of the zombie as I swung the axe into the front of its neck, just like in training, so the blood would spray away from the one it was chasing. It went down with the impact, but my strike had not been a clean cut. The head hung to the side, only connected by muscles and skin.

The zombie was trying to get back up again, even though I had managed to sever the spine. I hastily swung the axe again, causing the head to roll away – only to reveal that the zombie had been a guy who often ran track at the same time I did. My stomach turned violently, and I swallowed hard as tears pricked my eyes.

I had never killed a human or a zombie before. Even though he had been a zombie, all of my other memories of him were from when he was human. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy with the baseball bat come over. He carefully put his hand on my shoulder and gently shook it. I turned my head to face him, tears in my eyes.

He spoke softly to me, "Thank you. We will mourn later, but for now, we need to help those who are still alive."

Alive. Was I classified as alive or dead? I didn't know anymore. Still in a daze, I nodded and continued down the hallway since I could still hear some screaming. I paused when I came to a major hallway intersection. Six Raiders in full gear blocked two of the halls.

One said, "These two hallways and buildings are secure. Most of the screams are coming from the direction of the showers."

I ran down the indicated hallway, passing by the bodies of headless zombies. I entered the main waiting area just outside of the showers and saw a zombie eating a body in the far corner. The victim hadn't turned yet, but it probably wouldn't be long before that point. Another zombie was closer to me and saw me enter the room. After a two second standoff, it moaned and tottered towards me.

Gripping my axe, I took several steps forward and swung my axe hard. This zombie had a slender build, and the axe almost completely severed the neck. Almost. Axes truly were substandard zombie weapons since they could not sever the neck in one hit. I turned as fast as I could on the slippery, blood-splattered floor and struck again. Dead. Soon I would be dead too. My heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest with the emotional pain.

I heard the thunk of a weapon hitting flesh and turned around. Two Raiders had killed the zombie in the corner. They also cut the head off the victim so he wouldn't turn later on. The blank red eyes of the zombie stared at me, and I felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over me. Kailey. She had been the zombie in the corner. No. No, it couldn't be possible. Not Kailey. She was my friend – a Cook – not a flesh-eating monster. I shook my head, but the image did not change.

"Kailey... No..." My strangled voice was unsteady and practically breaking. My barely audible words succeeded in catching the attention of the two Raiders. I recognized both of the men, having worked with them in the past. Even with that familiarity, they approached me cautiously. I was obviously stricken with grief, and possibly not in my right mind. A bloody axe still resided in my hands.

Kailey was dead. I was dead. I was still standing. She wasn't. Soon, I wouldn't be either.

My head was spinning, and I felt like I should be having a mental breakdown, but my mind refused to snap out of survival mode to let me go down that route. My emotions were so strong that I could feel each beat of my heart. It was sending the blood in hot bursts throughout my body. I was hyper-aware of everything around me, and I could see everything in horrendous clarity - the bloody handprints on the wall, the headless bodies, the concern and grief on the faces of the two Raiders.

Closing my eyes to block out Kailey's zombie face, I took a moment to try and simply cope with this terrible discovery. My ears rang with the silence – no one else was screaming or calling for help.

Hearing footsteps, I once more opened my eyes as I turned my attention to the approaching Raiders. I waited in a half daze as they approached closer.

The older one had tears in his eyes. "Is everything clear behind you?"

I nodded silently. I doubted that I could get words out of my throat since it felt tight with my grief. He sighed and pointed behind him to the other hallway.

"We just came from that way, so this building is clear. It looks like it is almost over."

Tears rolled down his cheeks, even as mine silently flowed. He had no idea how true that statement was for me. My remaining minutes were trickling down like sand in an hourglass – and there was no way to reset it.

The other Raider came forward. "It is all clear here. Let's go outside and see if they need any more help."

A task, a direction, perhaps there was something else I could help with before I died. My twenty minutes were almost up, but if I went into seizures, the Raiders were perfectly capable of ensuring that I did not stand back up. If I had longer, I would leave. I would not put my family through the grief of having to kill me.

I followed them back outside where things had calmed down. Headless zombie bodies were scattered here and there, and people started forming back into their groups for a headcount. I looked around for familiar faces. I managed to spot Evan's Group Leader and jogged over; five others from his group had already assembled. The Group Leader saw me approach as I examined his group in hope. Tears were in his eyes.

I was desperate for knowledge and tried to speak. My voice sounded odd, but it was understandable. "Do you know where Evan is?"

His eyes closed and his sobbing reply answered me. "He was attacked and turned."

No. This cannot be happening. Evan... Kailey...

I shook my head, taking a few unsteady steps backwards. I could tell that I was starting to go into shock.

My body couldn't take much more at this point. In hopes that he could have possibly been mistaken, I desperately asked, "Are you sure?"

"I am so sorry. Yes."

His answer caused my mind to partially snap. With a small cry of grief, I took off running, although I had no clue where I was going. Pain was not a physical direction, but this place seemed to be the destination.

The memories of Kaily and Evan were too painful to bear, even more than the reality behind the throbbing in my wrist. 

My time was up. 

Tears blurred my vision as I ran. People turned within twenty minutes and seven days. At least thirty minutes had passed since I had been bitten. Every second was a gift that would let me get away before I put someone else in danger. My feet blindly followed the running track as I tried to find the closest exit through my tears. 

Screams suddenly erupted ahead. I veered toward the courtyard to see what was wrong, and the scene almost made me stop. Three people were running as fast as they could – and the zombie behind them was catching up. A Swift.

Somehow, my axe was still in my hands. My mind had been filled with grief, but now it turned to anger. A raging anger.

I was already dead, the least I could do would be to try and save them.

I charged.

Two of the three people were running in my direction as the Swift followed them relentlessly. I went between them and ran as fast as I could towards the Swift. The terror that Swifts had once evoked in me was gone. I was just too angry. It focused its red eyes on me as it raced towards me.

It slowed down as I continued to run towards it, and it came almost to a complete stop, almost as if it was confused as to why I was approaching it. I didn't slow down, and once I was in range, I swung the axe full-force at the nearly stationary zombie. The strike blew through the spine and back part of the neck.

I barely swerved to the side in time to avoid a full-on tackle. I landed badly and felt muscles pull in my legs, arms, and sides as I lost my balance. The axe slid out of my hand as I skidded on my knees. I quickly staggered to my feet and grabbed the axe once more.

The Swift was still on the ground, lying on its back with its head twisted backwards and face-down in the dirt. It looked like it was making snow angels as it attempted to get back up. I desperately swung again, and the body finally stilled. I left the axe where it had lodged itself in the ground.

I had to leave. Now.

I quickly climbed over the chain-link fence and hit the ground running.

I ran. The Fort floodlights had been turned on during the fight, but they didn't cast much light beyond the fence surrounding the Fort. Within seconds, I was surrounded by darkness. My only light was the moon and stars.

Luckily, it was a clear night, and the random path I found was relatively flat. A few branches scratched my arms; one of them snagged the strip of blood-stained cloth wrapped around my wrist and pulled it off. I didn't stop – I had to get away from the Fort before I turned.

My mind was numb and hazy, and my heart was racing from my running. I felt some warm blood drip down my legs from my badly-skinned knees, and I finally slowed to a jog. My wrist had stopped bleeding, but I didn't want to look too closely at the wound.

My mind wasn't working quite right, although my first aid training told me that I was likely going into shock. Mind feeling numb, check. Feeling out of it, check. Cold and clammy skin, no... my skin was hot and damp with sweat. Things were not adding up, but my mind was too numb to care.

I pushed myself past my limits as I stumbled through the darkness, jogging for who knows how long. I had no idea what direction I chose. Exhaustion made me stumble, unable to continue jogging. I had lost track of time, but I must have been going for hours. My muscles were screaming in pain, and I was about ready to fall over.

I wasn't thinking clearly at all. I slowed to a stop and looked around in a befuddled daze. There was a blackberry patch nearby; the sprawling bushes had huge thorns which should provide some cover. I crawled underneath the branches until I was in the middle of the patch and fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.