We're Still Alive(Book1)BEING REWRITTEN

Sixty-five

The next morning, as soon as it was light enough, they started home. Without a vehicle, they had to walk until they found one.
   "I hate this." Jared muttered. "I feel so exposed. If a bunch of those things see us, we'll have no quick way of escape."
   "Until we can find a working car, we don't have much of a choice." Paige pointed out. She was walking at the front of the group with Cora and Aydin.
   "Go look at that car." Matt suggested from behind them. "It doesn't look like it's in too bad of shape." Paige made a beeline for the car, then slowed down as she got closer. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she agreed with Jared. The car was small, with exactly five seats so it would fit everyone. It was in good shape except for a crack running across the windshield.
   "It looks okay, but there's no keys." Paige said as Matt looked at her expectantly.
   "It's okay. I'll hot wire it." He answered coolly, then started working at the wires.
   "How do you know how to hotwire a car?" Gavin asked.
   "I had a few friends." Matt started. "They weren't exactly the most innocent kids on the block."
   "You guys stole cars?" He smiled at Cora but didn't answer her question.
   "Get in. Let's go home." He said instead, setting himself in the passenger seat. Paige and Cora exchanged a look but didn't say anything as they both got into the back of the little car.
   It wasn't long before they were pulling into the mall's parking lot. Eager to be safe inside, Paige jumped out of the car, but before she could go any further, she heard a gunshot and the ground cracked where a bullet hit in front of her. On instinct, she ducked behind the car. The others were piling out behind her, also using the car for cover.
   "What the hell are they doing?" Gavin said as he snuck a glance over the roof of the car.
   "No idea." Cora answered quietly as she held onto Aydin's collar, making sure he stayed in place.
   "Well make them stop." Matt added. "They're your group, you can do that, right?"
   "I don't know how." Jared answered. "We lost our radio in the crash." While this was going on, Paige was trying to figure out how safe her plan to stop them was. It wasn't, but she had to do something, and it wasn't fair to make any of the others do it when she was the one to come up with it. Not giving herself a chance to change her mind, she ran out from behind the car, waving her arms above her head.
   "Stop, it's us!" She yelled as she ran closer. She saw a bullet fly by, close enough to her face that she could almost feel it, before the shooting stopped altogether. She dropped her arms with a relieved sigh and motioned for the others to come out.
   "What was that? They could've hit you!" Gavin growled once he was in hearing range.
   "It worked, didn't it?" She replied with a shrug as they made their way to the door. Renee and Tom met them there.
   "Hurry up, get inside." Tom said as he pulled Paige in, and the others hurried behind. "Who's this?" He asked when Matt was inside, glaring at him suspiciously.
   "U.S. Air Force Sergeant Matthew Austine." He answered smoothly. "My partner Atlas." He pointed to the dog at his feet. "And Aydin, now Cora's." Tom relaxed at this.
   "Specialist Tom Phibs. U.S. Air Force." Matt smiled and they shook hands.
   "What was that out there?" Jared asked accusingly. "You didn't even wait to see who we were, you just started shooting." Tom sighed.
   "You guys have missed a lot. They came by again, that other group. Told us we had a week to make up our minds, and if we don't let them in, they'll try to take the mall."
   "We met some on the way back here last night." Paige added. "They tried taking us back to wherever they're staying, but..." She trailed off, remembering the events of the night before.
   "But...?" Renee pressed.
   "There were two trucks of them." Paige continued. "One in front of us and one behind. On the way there, the ones in front of us were attacked. The zombies rammed into the truck, and they tipped it over.
They got the one behind us too, when we were leaving. Then they went after us." It felt like they were all reliving the weird experience as she explained it. "After a few tries, they tipped the jeep on its side. One of them went after Jared, but  Gavin distracted it." She looked at him. "It...dragged him out of the window. He held it off until we could get to him, then it just ran away."
   "It's different." Gavin added. "Like smarter. We saw it before, me and Paige. When we were guarding on the roof of the bar, we saw him, and he saw us."
   "Why didn't you say anything?" Tom asked, looking between the two of them.
   "We didn't think much of it." Paige answered. "But there's something going on with him."
   Tom sighed. "We'll need to watch out for that. For right now, no one leaves the mall unless absolutely necessary. Alright?" They all agreed. "Okay. Cora, go ahead and show Matt around, then take him up
to the roof and switch out Louis and Jay. Paige, your horse is crapping all over the floor. You know where the shovel is, go fertilize the plants or something. Just don't put it where it'll stink too bad."
   "Fine." She sighed. There were good things about having a horse, but this was one of the bad ones.