Janet

Land Of The Dead 2 Stories (Living Amongst The Dead)
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cosmo
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Janet

Post by cosmo »

Janet’s story


Janet peered cautiously over the rooftop parapet, nothing, no signs of movement down there. It had been almost 2 days since she had seen any of those things wandering about. But she was still afraid…after all, she had watched her parents, brothers and boyfriend ripped to pieces by those things, her boyfriends last act had been to get her into the car…he didn’t have a chance to join her before half a dozen of those creatures pulled him to the floor and began devouring him. Almost her entire family….gone. In some ways she was glad her younger sister had gone to a friends sleepover, at least there was a chance she was still alive. Janet had driven the 18 miles or so to town, she had had to abandon the car just outside and had been pursued the rest of the way by some of those things, she had ran into this building in a panic. She had been lucky, there were no creatures in her way. She had made it to the roof, and had been stuck there now for nearly a week and she was starving. She knew she had to find some food and maybe a weapon of some kind…..but she really didn’t want to go down there. The only thing driving her onwards was her sister Gwen, she was only 14 and a bit of a handful sometimes, but they were close. If there was any chance Gwen was still alive, she would find her.
Janet looked around, there was no way down from this side, she would have to jump to the next building, which at least had a fire escape, she could also see a length of old pipe laying on the other rooftop, not much of a weapon, but better than nothing.
With a huge leap Janet made it to the next rooftop, catching and tearing her dress as she landed and rolled, she would have to add some proper clothing to her shopping list. She picked up the pipe and went to check the rooftop door…..it seemed quiet……



………it seemed quiet…… Janet was about to open the door when there a was a tremendous explosion from behind her, she span round , and could clearly see the huge cloud of smoke and flame, there also seemed to be a shower of debris raining down in a large area around the cloud………Janet didn’t even see the piece of wood that hit her, it struck her on the shoulder and side of her head, knocking her unconscious.
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Re: Janet

Post by cosmo »

Janet’s story, part two



Janet had been holed up for three days, her food was gone and she only had about two cupfuls of water left. She would have to chance moving tonight, she couldn’t hide here any longer, she checked her watch, two hours of daylight left.
On the first day of her enforced confinement Janet had watched as a constant stream of stenchies staggered past heading for the compound. There were few sounds now from the compound, only the occasional gunshot or terrified scream, which was quickly cut off. The second day there were still some small groups and a few stragglers shuffling past, but she hadn’t seen or heard any of the things for the past several hours, had they all vacated the town and headed for the base? She could only hope so.

Janet would have preferred to travel across the rooftops, but the next rooftop was on the other side of the road, so that wasn’t possible. As darkness began to fall she collected her things together and crept quietly down the stairs and waited by the main door until she was sure it was clear outside. She slipped the bolt back, and waited to see if any stenchie came to investigate the noise, nothing. Axe in hand, she cracked open the door, making sure she kept the door between herself and whatever might be out there. She couldn’t see anything moving. She crept out and crouched in the doorway, she checked both sides but there was nothing in sight, she cocked an ear and listened but it was almost silent. With so little sound, she knew she would need a change of foot-ware, her heavy boots would make too much noise, trainers would be better for sneaking around. She needed to locate a sports shop, but she had no idea if there was one in town.

Janet carefully crept to the doorway on the other side of the street, she still couldn’t see any stenchies, perhaps the town really was clear of them. She decided that she would have to move down the street going from doorway to doorway in a zig-zag fashion, that way she would be able to scan the area she would move into next. It was better than moving down the same side of the street and into a doorway only to find a stenchie waiting for her. Her axe still in her hand she set off.

She had gone about six blocks and stopped to get her breath back. She needed to find somewhere to replenish her supplies, she just hoped the town hadn’t been drained completely yet. There were no stores nearby that would be of much use, a dry-cleaners, a butchers, there was a delicatessen opposite, but it looked like that had been burnt out a long time back further down the road she could see a hanging sign in the shape of a hammer, a tool shop. Janet had her axe and machete, but she might find something useful there, after all, you never knew when you might need an extra hand-axe or two. She moved off again.

She was maybe halfway down the street when she suddenly stopped, she again crouched in a doorway, instinctively she lifted her head , the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Someone or something was watching her, she could feel it.
She heard a faint scuff back along the road she had just come down, but could see nothing. Damn, had one of them seen her? Was it now following? Leading others toward her, she cursed her luck.

She decided to head inside one of the shops and wait. If there was one of those things following her she would have to kill it out of sight of the others. She headed off looking for any shop that still had a relatively intact door. By a quirk of good fortune, the first shop that she went into was a camping gear shop. She closed the door to and crouched by the window, looking to see if anything was coming along behind her, just for a moment she thought she saw a shadow move behind a building, but then her attention was drawn to a couple of decayed stenchies shuffling along the middle of the road, heading in her direction. She was so focused on them that she didn’t notice the upper torso dragging itself towards her from the back of the shop, it was only when one of its arms rubbed against a box that she became aware of its presence, she spun round and slammed the axe into its skull. The creature’s skull was split in two and what was left of its brains spilled out, its arms twitched and then it was still. The impact had split the wooden axe handle, damn, she would have to find something else till she made it to the tool shop, if she made it past the stenchies and got that far, at least she still had her machete. She looked around and saw a rack holding a few ice picks, she smiled to herself, those will do for now. Janet made her way over and took a couple of the picks out, she thought about it and grabbed a couple more, just because she had only seen two stenchies, that didn’t mean there wasn’t more.

The door was pushed open and the stenchies entered, looking at her with hungry eyes. There were three, not two as she had thought, but at least they were inside, if she could only dispatch them quietly, she might get away with it. She stepped forward and slashed at the throat of one of the things, if it had still been human, it would have been a fatal cut, passing through its windpipe and severing the main arteries, but the thing kept coming toward her, with her other hand she brought one of the ice-picks down embedding it in the front of the second stenchies skull, it dropped to the ground without making any sound. She slashed again at the first corpse and this time its head rolled away from its body, that just left one. It reached for her knocking her arm, causing the machete to spin from her grasp, she kicked the stenchie in the chest knocking it away and scooped up another pick from the pile beside her. The machete landed on the floor beside her making a lot of noise, she only hoped there were no more stenchies about to hear it. She swung upward hitting it beneath the chin and driving the pick through the face of the last stenchie, she would have hit it again but the pick was firmly stuck, she let go of it and reached for another one, no need, the stenchie dropped like a stone. She collected her machete and a few more picks and headed back to the window. God, she hoped there were no more out there, she didn’t know if she had the strength for another battle, she was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. She crouched by the window for sometime, she wanted to be absolutely sure there were no stenchies arriving to investigate the noise. As she scanned the street she thought she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked, there was nothing there.

The street looked clear so Janet cautiously crept out into the shop doorway again, her eyes where everywhere, looking for any sign of stenchies. She checked the doorways on the opposite side of the road, picked the one she wanted and set off. It was a small grocery store, Janet hoped there might still be some goods in there. But it was too dark to see anything. That was something else she would have to get from the tool-shop, a torch!

The groceries would have to wait, she couldn’t risk blundering about in the dark, she was bound to knock something over and attract the stenchies, she would head for the tool-shop first and then come back.

Janet was so focused on the street she didn’t see the two stenchies up on the roof a few doors along from where she was. They tumbled over the edge, Janet was moving slowly along when they landed on the tattered awning in front of the shop, their momentum carried them straight through it, one of their arms caught Janet on the head knocking her to the ground. The first stenchie landed on its back, its head smashing against the sidewalk, the second landed on top of the first its hip shattering as it landed.

The broken hip didn’t stop it and a moment later it was dragging itself toward Janet, she was still stunned by the impact and the stenchie almost had a free meal. Janet snapped back just in time to see its rotten cadaverous face a few inches above her own, she reached out and grabbed its shoulders, trying to keep the snarling teeth from ripping into her. It started lashing at her wildly with its arms and she could barely hold the thing at bay, it gripped her arm and dug its claws in.

Just as Janet thought she was lost, the things head exploded, showering her with brain, blood and bits of bone fragment. What the hell? A second later there was a loud crack, someone had shot it. But who? Could it have been Gwen? She looked down the road but could not see anyone, where was her mysterious benefactor?

She couldn’t hang about looking for her unknown saviour, the noise would have attracted more stenchies. She pushed the bloody corpse away, and wiping her face on her sleeve, got to her feet. She needed to be away from here as quickly as possible, she looked around, she wasn’t to far from a road junction and on the other side of the road was a building with a fire escape. Perhaps she should head for that and get to the roof. It would mean having to make a mad dash across the open ground, exposing herself, but it was better than being on the ground and in the open when the stenchies arrived . If she was lucky she could get up and withdraw the lower part of the ladder, leaving the stenchies unable to follow her up. She would hopefully be able to move across the rooftops before the stenchies could block her in.
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Re: Janet

Post by cosmo »

Janet’s story part three



Janet made it to the building, pulling the ladder up behind herself, there were no stenchies in sight, “ odd“ she thought to herself, “ they must have heard the shot, perhaps they were now hunting down her saviour”.
There was nothing Janet could do to help them now, she just hoped whoever it was had found a secure place to hole up for now. She scanned the rooftop, It was clear and the door to the stairs looked solid enough for now. She decided that she would stay and rest here before attempting to get to the tool-shop, she would have to re-supply before she headed for the far side of the town, it would be light soon.

Janet sat with her back to the door but she found it hard to get any sleep, she was too worried about the stenchies, everyone at the compound must be dead by now, they would be here soon enough, she just hoped Gwen had the sense to stay concealed for now. “ don’t worry Gwen, I’m coming “ she thought to herself

As darkness started to fall, Janet got to her feet and walked over to the ledge to check if the street was clear. The tool shop was on the other side of the road and she figured she could get there with a quick sprint. Janet cautiously crept down the fire escape as soon as she landed on the street she took off running, hoping desperately that there were no stenchies close by, she didn’t want to get trapped in the shop, there may be no back way out of there.
She made it to the doorway and pushed the door open, it was too dark to see much, she struck her lighter to provide some light. The first thing she needed was a flashlight.
She went behind the counter and found some batteries, then she looked around, in one of the display cases were the lamps and flashlights, she grabbed one and inserted the batteries. That was better, she did a quick scan of the shop, being careful not to let the light show through the windows. She found the display with the axes and grabbed a small sturdy one, it fitted nicely into her hip holster. Suddenly a hand reached round and grabbed her mouth “ don’t struggle girl, you’ll only make noise and bring the stenchies “ whoever it was began dragging her into the back room, when he stopped and released her she spun round “ who the hell are you? “ she demanded, his response was a right hook, which caught her squarely in the jaw, the lights went out.

Janet slowly regained consciousness, she was smart enough not to open her eyes straight away, instead she laid there and listened, whoever had hit her was quiet, she risked opening one eye. He was over at the window watching something, his back to her. She looked down, her clothes were ripped and torn, “ the bastard had raped her while she was still out cold “ she thought
She looked around as quietly as she could, she could see her belt with her weapons, it was within reach, but her machete wasn’t in its sheath, it must have dropped out when she hit the floor, she carefully opened the strap which held the axe in place and felt the weight of it in her hand. She looked over at her attacker “ was this the guy who had shot that stenchie “ she wondered, no matter, he was going to die. She raised the axe and threw it, her arm was weaker than she had realised and the axe buried itself in the top of his thigh, it didn’t penetrate deeply though it was enough to make him let out a howl of pain, he spun round and with a look of absolute hatred, unsheathed his sword. As he hobbled towards her Janet started to back up trying to get away, but there was nowhere to go, her hand touched something hard and cold, a crowbar, it was’nt the ideal weapon but it was something. He swung downwards with the sword and Janet rolled to the side and lashed out, the crowbar hit him squarely on the top of his arm and the bone shattered, his arm dropped uselessly to his side, he swung again, Janet was easily able to duck underneath the blade, she swung the crowbar again, this time catching him in the side of his head. He went down, his eyes closed. Janet wasn’t taking any chances, she grabbed some wire from the floor and grabbing his one good arm forced it behind his back where she tied it off to his belt. she gathered her clothes together as best she could and went to check the window. There was a mass of stenchies at the far end of the road, that’s what he had been watching….. It gave her an idea.

She grabbed him by the shoulders and started dragging him into the street, it was laborious work but she finally managed to get him there. She ran back into the tool shop and grabbed a roll of chain and a couple of padlocks. She looped one length of chain around the base of a streetlamp and padlocked it, she then went back to him and wrapped the chain around his ankle and locked that off as well, she did the same to the other leg, looping the second chain to a telegraph pole on the other side of the road, that should keep him in one place, she moved behind him and sat him up, draping the damaged arm in his lap. The first thing he would see when he regained consciousness was the mass of stenchies heading toward him, and he would know that there was no escape. A fitting retribution she thought, unless the stenchies actually gnawed his legs off completely, when he turned he would still be tied to the one place and the hunger or whatever it was that drove these things would be intense. He would rot here where she left him.

Janet quickly ran back into the tool-shop and gathered her things, she grabbed the flashlight and returned to the road, the stenchies were getting ever closer, she would have to grab those supplies very quickly, she ran down the road and into the grocery store, grabbed the supplies and ran back out into the street, the stenchies saw her and let out a dreadful moan, she turned and ran, she ran past him just as he was staring to come to. “ you bitch, im gonna kill you “ he screamed at her, she didn’t bother to reply, she just ran past him, his gaze following her. She stopped and looked back at him, then she looked down the street, his gaze followed and he saw what was coming toward him, he began struggling furiously. He started pleading with her to let him free, Janet just turned and continued up the street.

Janet was almost at the end of the road when his screams began, the stenchies had reached him, good, that would buy her a little time, she was now at the edge of town but there was still no sign of Gwen, maybe she hadn’t made it, “ no “ she thought “ she shouldn’t think like that “. but still, where could she be?
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