"Nikki? Nikki they're at the door again, please Nikki... Wake up!" And with that Nikki was pulled from her nightmare into an even worse one, the waking world, she sat up in her small bed and looked around, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness, it must be the middle of the night, the only light in the room was a thin strip of moonlight coming from a crack in her curtains. Her eyes were bleary and she was still half asleep, however some deep part of her made her get up out of bed. Jack looked terrified, all shaky with dark rings around his eyes from lack of sleep, he had every right to be scared, the world was terrifying now. Really terrifying. Not like back in the old days, when the worst thing either of them had to worry about was wether their mum was going to be happy, giggly drunk or scary drunk. No, Nikki shut those memories out quickly before they could fester and make her sad and useless. After a moment she got up and wearily stretched out her arms to loosen the muscles, there was a job to do.

Picking up the bat was the first step, it felt as heavy as lead in Nikki's hands, her mum had kept it under her bed in the next room in case of a burglary and now it was Nikki's weapon of choice. "Go to your room and hide, take the knife." Jack nodded his head hurriedly and scarpered, closing his door with a click. Creeping down the stairs Nikki could feel her heart thudding in her chest, she desperately wanted to be sick, but that would be wasting food, and they were running out. Already she could smell them, the awful stench of raw sewage that filled her nose and made her eyes water, they were scrabbling at the door and the boards over the windows, grunting and hissing as they tried to reach the kids inside, too stupid to use tools to remove the admittedly weak barricades.

As Nikki watched in silent horror from the stairs, the cluster around the window in the living room managed to get their fingers under the boards covering the front window of the two bedroom council house and started to pull them away, one by one, oblivious to the rusty nails that sliced their rotten fingers as they threw the boards onto the gravel driveway with a crash and peeked their ugly faces inside. The grownups. They were an ugly lot, most of them missing limbs, one without eyes, all of them were rotten, with huge glistening, pus-filled blisters covering their bodies. What seemed to be the leader of the group started to climb over the broken glass, cutting himself and spilling blood and god knows what else onto the carpet. Nikki jumped down the last couple of stairs before racing into the living room, even though she wanted nothing more than to go back to bed and sleep she knew that she had to stop the group before they got through or else it was all over, Jack was depending on her.

Swinging the bat with all her might Nikki brought it down with a crack on the fathers shoulder, he had managed to wriggle about halfway through the broken window but he was having some trouble getting the rest of his body through, he didn't seem to register that his ripped, filthy shirt and thick leather belt was caught on some glass that was sticking out of the pane. Nikki would've laughed if she wasn't so tired, if it wasn't so tragic. The hit had dislocated the father's shoulder but hadn't stopped him as he continued to pull and wriggle himself through the gap, one arm hanging down, useless.

Nikki was terrified, the adrenaline coursing through her veins making the bat shake, she brought the bat up again with an animal howl and hit the father in the head with a strong swing fuelled by rage at how unfair it all was. The effect was immediate, half of the fathers skull caved in to reveal the horrible pink and grey brains underneath. The grownups behind him immediately pulled the fat father back out of the gap with their horrible scrabbling fingers and Nikki barely had any time to catch her breath before a mangy mother appeared in the window and bared her yellow teeth. This grownup was quicker than the other had been and scrambled into the room before Nikki could stop her. Hissing and snarling she lunged at Nikki who threw herself to the side and rolled over, she had lost her bat in the panic and was now relying on the knife that she kept in her dressing gown pocket.While she was fishing it out the mother had risen, and along with another mother and a father, lunged towards the panicked girl.

Nikki had managed to free the knife and held it up to defend herself, as they came forward, dead eyed and slobbering, she began to swing it across in front of her, desperately trying to keep their dirty fingernails and snapping teeth away. By some sheer stroke of luck Nikki managed to slice one of the mothers across her stomach and she opened like a bag, spilling her grey intestines across the carpet as the girl jumped back to avoid the falling body. That was two down, but how long could she hold out? Her lungs were burning and every muscle ached from the short but intense fight, the remaining mother looked mean and tough, with her nose missing and long nails that might've been brightly coloured acrylics once upon a time, the father wasn't much to look at, he was skinny and short and seemed to stick very closely to the mother.

Nikki held out her knife and started to slice the air in front of her as the mother snarled and swung at her, ripping her shirt and scratching her in the upper arm and causing it to bleed. The scent of blood sent the pair of grownups into a frenzy and Nikki had to duck to avoid their grabbing hands. Almost without thinking she sliced the small fathers ankles and he went down with a howl of rage. Now it was just one left, backing up to the other side of the room Nikki picked up her bat from where she had dropped it and swung at the advancing mother, however the hit was weak and bounced off of her arm harmlessly as the girl dashed to the other side of the room. Nikki was tiring fast and couldn't hold out much longer, the bat was growing heavier in her hand and she reckoned she had one swing left before she could do no more.

Gripping the bat in her hands Nikki watched the snarling and slobbering mother advance across the room, trampling the bodies of the other grownups without seeming to care, she stepped on the neck of the father and crushed it under her feet, silencing his moans and groans permanently. As the mother lunged for her Nikki brought the bat across and it connected with the side of the mothers neck, twisting it sideways and killing the light in her eyes as she slumped to the floor, dead.

Surrounded by three bodies in the house she had grown up in Nikki dropped her bat and fell to her knees, howling with anguish.

|Authors Note|

Thought I'd try and revamp this story with a much better thought through plot, criticism and suggestions are welcome!

Thanks,
Nancy