Free The Zombie Evolution by Rowan Burke Page A

didn’t have a watch on and had discarded my phone back at the flat, but time really now meant nothing anyway as every day was rolling into one. The vision was low though; it was near on pitch black, so I knew it must have been pretty late.
     
    The blackness of the night was only exacerbated by the lack of buildings and street lights, further accentuated with the high trees from the deep woodlands arching over us from either side of the road. We were very much so out in the open, but quietness of an unpopulated area meant we could easily hear if something was coming, plus a lack of people hopefully meant a lack of zombies too.
     
     
    “How are you feeling, princess?”
                  Smarmed Lance.
     
    I didn’t answer. I was really embarrassed for the passing out, but also for the injury; I’ve never been one to show signs of an injury weighing me down or admitting a weakness, but everyone knew that this was going to be a huge detriment to our survival. I couldn’t run, and although Phil had carried me all this way, he simply wasn’t strong enough to do it continuously, nor would I expect it of either him or the other three.
    The boys had made me a splint too, strapping bits of discarded wood presumably that blew out of the flat window against either side of my foot to hold it in place. The tourniquet was doing its job in that I wasn’t bleeding out, and they seem to have done a pretty decent bandaging job as well; not bad for a quartet of drunken louts acting under pressure. I was impressed, but I was more thankful, indicating as such with a look down at my strapped up foot followed by a smile at all four of them. They smiled back as if to say don’t mention it, but this was no time to stand around and kiss. I hopped into the woodland to find a reasonably thick branch offcut, snapping it down to a size that matched my height. I knew the guys would help me as much as they could, but I didn’t want to put them out, plus I was far too proud or stubborn or maybe even stupid to accept their help. This was my struggle and I’d just have to man up and deal with it. Using my new home (or forest) made walking stick, I trundled back into the road where the others were slowly getting back to their feet in order to start moving again.
     
    These guys had my implicit unconditional trust, so the concern was not where we were going, more so how far away it was as I feared my stamina was not going to be up to much. I couldn’t quite make out where we were in the Rushmoor roads, but we were deep enough in the woodland area to know we were a couple of miles before hitting anything of note in any direction. The entirety of the stretch was about four miles which was predominately woodland and went through an army training area before leading you into Aldershot; a heavily populated military town. The latter fact struck me as the most probable reason as to why the lads had picked this as their destination, but exactly what purpose I was unsure.
     
    “Are we heading to Aldershot?”
                  I panted, using my walking stick to avoid any excruciating contact between my foot and the floor.
     
    “Yep”
                  Denoted Jon. 
     
    “For the Military?”
    I probed.
     
    “Erm…yep…”
    Jon vaguely and bluntly responded.
     
     
    I didn’t wish to question this too much as the debate had probably already taken place whilst I was unconcious. Lance, Jon, Derek and Phil were all strong minded, all opinionated, and all very smart, so I imagined the discussion had various suggestions from each party, with various pros and cons for each, argued directly and convincingly by the subsequent campaigner. Although I didn’t wish to question the decision, I did want to know a little more about it so felt the probing to be personally necessary, yet had to make sure I was doing so in a careful, considerate manner; everyone was getting tired and ratty, the last thing we needed right now is