“Are you sure he’s not here?” Evan said.

“I’ve checked twice,” Levi said, “I can’t find him.” “I can’t lose another one,” he said quietly to himself.

Some of the students were whispering among themselves, Evan stood on a chair and whistled, “Has anyone seen Red?”

Silence.

“Anybody?”

One girl, young, hungry looking, with brown hair finally spoke, “I think he went to check on the horses.” It was barely more than a whisper but, at least we had something to go on.

“Yeah, the ginger loves those horses,” Travis, the large student who had the run in with Lauren, said.

The horses were kept in a pole barn maybe 50 yards from the field house. I could never fathom why Red would want to go 50 yards through the darkness but he did.

“How did he get out?” I asked.

The girl, who I would later know as Liz, said, “I think he went out of the basement. He heard the shooting and wanted to check on the horses.”

Lauren looked at Levi, “this place has a basement?”

“Yes, he said, “but I didn’t think of it and it,” he paused.

“It what?” Lauren said.

“It has its own exit.”

The decision was swift. Evan decided that two things needed to happen. One, we had to check the basement because the infected body outside had seemingly disappeared and we had to make sure it didn’t find its way into the field house. Levi would stay on the first floor with the kids, and Lauren, Evan, and I would check out the basement.

The basement door was located in the back of the improvised kitchen. By the time we got there, the door was slightly agar, evidence that someone recently passed through it. I opened it, Evan and Lauren both raised their weapons, but nothing came. There were several candles and their soft glow illuminated the first floor, but behind the door was a rectangle of unrelenting black. The three of us clicked our flashlights on, and their beams launched shafts of light fighting the dark. Evan went first, slowly making his way down the stairs. They were old and creaky, the perfect accomplice to an already dark and scary basement. He paused after every noisy step but we didn’t hear anything. When we finally reached the bottom of the stairs, I swept the cramped basement with my little flashlight, but the only thing done there was boxes, several boxes, in fact, mostly of food and what looked like golf equipment and the requisite clothes.

And then we heard it. It was a slight but unmistakable rustle, the kind that, at this point, our senses were tuned to detect the slightest shuffle, especially when contained in a dark basement. It was coming from the far corner of the room, nearest the side where the exit was supposedly. I crept towards the source of the noise, trying not to make any sound. Up against the wall was one large box, and as I got closer, I could tell it there was something in it. Moving, the box was shaking, and rustling. I was sure there something was there. Evan knocked the box over, and I saw.

One large raccoon, eating its body weight in the food they had stored in the basement. As soon as my flashlight hit it, it scampered off. I let out a breath.

We checked the rest of the basement, to be sure, and neither Red nor anything else was in the basement. But, we followed the stairs that lead to the exit. The exit had two large doors, and one was open.

“The idiot left the door open,” Evan said, closing the door.

“What are going to do?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Evan said.

“Are we going out there?” I said.

“Why not?” Evan said.

“We can’t go out there,” Lauren said, “It’s too dangerous. And, we hardly know these people.”

“I didn’t know you at all when I saved you two in that alley,” Evan said, “we have to help.”

“And if the three of us die saving one person…” Lauren said.

“What if the kid dies out there while the three of us watch? Can you handle that?” Evan said. We waited a few moments, before Lauren finally asked what to do.

“You two are going to stay here and keep an eye out,” Evan said, “I’ll go and try to find him.”

“You can’t go out there by yourself Evan,” Lauren said.

I knew what would come next. Lauren would volunteer to go with him, but I couldn’t let it happen. I had already lost my mother and father, and Lauren was the only family left, and while she may have adapted better to out new surrounding, I knew what I had to do.

“I’ll go,” I said.

Evan might not have said it, but I could sense his relief. He didn’t want Lauren to go anymore than I did. “Yeah, that’ll work,” he said and looked at Lauren, “you keep this place under control. And tell quick trigger up there to stop shooting. If that gun goes off while I’m out there, I will throw him off that roof.”

Lauren wasn’t happy, but she accepted it. She would close the door behind us, and return to the first floor. She was really the perfect choice. Unlike myself, she was more capable in this new world, and if anything should happen to Evan, she was the next best option to defend the kids.

We departed into the night; luckily, there were enough stars and a sliver of moon to allow us to see. I could make out the large white building in which the horses were kept, and hopefully Red was somewhere near. I could hear the closing behind us, and I looked back one more time to see Lauren but it was too late. We were alone, outside the building. It was Evan and I against something dark and mysterious, trying to find a lost kid in a world that no longer made sense. I had a brief moment of panic, why was I out here? I wanted desperately to go back inside, to go back to the fire, and the food, and some resemblance of a normal existence. But in the midst of my breakdown, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Let’s go,” Evan said.

I followed Evan across the yard. It was flat land, but the field hadn’t been mowed in months and there was a slight swishing sound as we made our way through the tall grass. We took it slow, and turned off our flashlights. The small shafts of light would do little against the dark expanse, and would just call more attention to us. So we went forward to the pole barn, moving slowly, and quietly, and it reminded me of the days when we did this all day long, moving through buildings, trying to find out what was inside. Except this time it was at night. We were breaking one of the golden rules.

Evan made it to the pole barn first, but before we entered, there was a rustle in the nearby trees.

“Stay here,” Evan said in such a low whisper that almost no noise left his mouth. He went to investigate, crouching and moving among the shadows.

I was left just outside the pole barn; the large white building glowed under the starlight. I was close enough that I could hear the horses within. In fact, I was close enough that I could something other than the horses. Someone was in the barn, whispering.

From where I stood, the only entrance to the barn was the large two doors one on its front. Each one was oversized to allow machines to get access to the building, and one of the large doors was cracked open. I pushed the door open, its hinges creaking. Inside, illuminated by the light of a small handheld candle, stood Red petting Lady’s snout, whispering softly to keep the beast calm.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

I must have startled the poor kid because he nearly dropped the candle. When he recovered, he said, “I, I, uh, I had to check on the horses. I heard the gun shots and I wanted to check on the horses.”

I was glad he was okay, but also mad that I was now standing out in the dark while a crazed diseased corpse stalked us, and it was his fault. I wanted to yell at him, but It would not have helped the situation.

“Come on Red,” I said.

The small boy turned to look at the horses one more time, and eventually started walking towards me. He was half way there when I heard the commotion near the back of the barn.

“Evan?” I called out hoping it was my friend making the noise. But as I shined my flashlight back there I nearly screamed.

I wasn’t Evan.

It was one large zombie with pale skin, and large bulging eyes, it moved with large, spastic movements, and heaving the whole time. Red noticed it too, and he screamed. The monster saw him, and moved with surprising speed, unlike the rest of the zombies, which merely shambled around, this one galloped towards Red, closing the space between them fast. The pole barn was a large building, but if I didn’t help Red he was done for.

I remembered the day in the alley, surrounded by the zombies. The day my sister almost died. I couldn’t let it happen again. I ran forward, trying to keep the light on the zombie. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. We were about to collide when I raised the machete in my other hand, and swung it as hard as I could, but I missed and hit the beast on its arm, and with the blade buried too deep it was pulled from hands. I tried to reach for the shotgun I had on my back, but it tackled me, and with the gun pinned between the ground and my back. I was defenseless. I managed to kick it off, but it was back on me before I could move, and this time with my legs trapped.

I dropped the flashlight, and I could only see fragments of the horror that was attacking me. Its face was wicked, no trace of the humanity that used to occupy the body. It was a demon, and it was going to kill me. Its jaws snapping and its flailing arms attacked me, but I tried to fight back, pushing against its rotten chest. I couldn’t have struggled for very long when both of its arms latched onto to my right forearm. I was powerless. It pulled my arm towards it mouth, full of yellowed gnarly teeth. This was how I was going to die.

Suddenly, something exploded through the towering corpse’s forehead. It was an arrow protruding from its rotten skull. The body slumped to the side and I pulled myself up. I looked towards the source of the arrow. The flashlight was still on the ground but it gave some light to the room, and then as if he manifested from the shadows. Evan stepped out. He walked past Red’s candle and it blacked out his silhouette, as if he was made of night.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said.