We're Still Alive(Book1)BEING REWRITTEN

Thirteen

Nocona, TX

          Paige tried to scream as she was dragged into the store, but a hand was covering her mouth. She saw Cobalt out of the corner of her eye. Someone was trying to lead him inside, but the sudden gunshots and shouting had sent him into a frenzy. He kept rearing up, pinning his ears down and flaring his nostrils. His eyes rolled as he was finally pulled into the store. The two people who were shooting were now closing the glass doors and were pushing shelves up against them. Cobalt reared again, ripping his reins out of a woman's hands, and Paige saw her pull back from the rope burn. She was familiar with the feeling.
          She kicked out and heard a voice telling her to calm down, but she was panicking. Now she could hear the zombies pounding at the main doors of the store. Paige wasn't claustrophobic, but at that moment she felt like she was suffocating, trapped by the zombies and the noise and the arms still holding her. Finally the person let go, and without even thinking about it, she ran to Cobalt. He was still freaking out, but she managed to calm him down for the most part. When his front hooves came down on the floor and didn't go back up again, she let out a deep breath and rested her head on the horse's neck. It was barely wet with sweat, but she didn't care. Horse sweat didn't smell close to as bad as most people. It smelled good, actually, comforting. Cobalt jerked his head up when someone walked over to them, but he didn't do anything else. Paige looked at the woman who'd been trying to pull him in and smiled despite what had just happened.
          "He doesn't get along with other people that well."
          "I noticed." The woman replied with a small laugh. She slowly reached over and pet him on his forehead, just below his bangs. Paige patted his neck and turned around. She saw the two people watching the doors with their shotguns at their shoulders, both of them men, although they didn't look like they were much older than 20. One had red hair with blue eyes and the other was shorter with blonde hair and green eyes. Standing a few feet away from them was the man who had pulled Paige in, away from the gathering group of creatures outside. He looked older than the other two, probably around 30. He had dark brown hair and lighter colored eyes. The woman next to Paige looked close to the same age as him, with medium-length black hair and brown eyes. She introduced herself first.
          "I'm Allison." She pointed to the two nervously watching the doors. "The red-head's Adam, the blonde's Jaime, and that's Curt." She pointed to the other man as she said the last part. Paige didn't say anything, just nodded as Allison listed off the names. "What about you?" she asked.
          Paige hesitated for a second before replying, "I'm Paige. And this is Cobalt." She patted his neck again. "He knew you were here, I think. He kept trying to get in."
          "He's not the only one!" Adam said suddenly. He and Jaime started leaning against the shelves, trying to use their weight to keep the zombies out, while Curt started shooting  through the gaps in the opening with a rifle. Allison ran to join them, pulling out a huge revolver, and Paige slipped her bow off her back, thankful that it was still in one piece. A couple of her arrows had broken, but she had a lot of them so it didn't make a big dent in her supply. She started walking to the group crowded at the door, but stopped when she heard glass breaking. The glass of the front door was probably mostly gone by now, and it wouldn't have been heard so easily with the gunshots. Paige turned around and watched as a zombie pulled itself in through the broken window and a small gap in between the shelves. It had to move the shelves a bit to get through, though, and Paige decided to take advantage of that. She took the few extra seconds to set an arrow on her bow and pulled it back. By the time the zombie had crawled completely into the store, Paige already had the sights lined
up and let the arrow go. The thing ran at her as she did, but collapsed before he could reach her. The arrow stuck out of its head. She looked back at the window, but there weren't any others trying to
get in. They probably didn't even think of it. They knew there were people inside, and they knew they came in through the front doors, so the zombies were trying the same thing. All except for that one. Paige didn't take any more time to think about it though. Instead she ran to join the group at the front door. She couldn't shoot her arrows through the gaps in the shelves, so instead she helped Adam and Jaime, who were trying to keep them in place. Every few seconds she felt her feet slide on the floor as one of the shelves was pushed forward, and as hard as she tried, she didn't think she could hold it there much longer. She could tell by the growls outside that there was still a lot of them, and Curt and Allison were now using the shotguns. Even with three of them pushing the shelves back, the doors were slowly starting to open. Was this it then? Paige almost wanted to let them in, to end it faster, just get it over with. She knew they couldn't get out of this. Except maybe Cobalt. He was fast, and he was big enough that he could probably push right past the gathering crowd outside.
          Then they heard it. Paige covered her ears, forgetting about the shelf, as another howl rang through the town, louder than the gunshots that stopped at that moment. Most of the zombies went still and quiet. The howl came again, and this time it was answered. Then they left. At least most of them did. Curt and Allison shot most of the ones that stayed, but a few of them ran into neighboring buildings to avoid the bullets. They did that because they were the smarter ones. Paige wanted to say it out loud, but the two were still shooting and she didn't want to distract them. But she knew. Those few who ran were smarter, like the one that had crawled in the side window. And that wasn't a good thing.