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the bunker—towards their safe haven.
    “Hayden, we can’t stand around here. We have to let Sarah and Clarice know. And we have to get away from here.”
    Hayden stepped back over the frosty grass. He kept his eyes on the things approaching. The stench of rotting was strong, the cold wind making it even more intense. The sound of them was unlike anything Hayden had heard, too. A thousand gasps, all echoing over the landscape.
    He blinked. Rubbed his eyes. Tried to make sense of what was marching up the hill.
    It didn’t make any more sense when he saw it this time, but he understood what it meant.
    The fields at the bottom of the hill were filled with undead. They were clearly undead because of the way they were staggering along, the way some of them at the front of the pack jogged up the hill and in Hayden and Newbie’s direction. There were so many of them. More than Hayden had ever seen in one single place.
    Shit. More than Hayden had ever seen put together.
    Coming for him. For his friends. For his sister, and for the bunker.
    He turned and jogged back towards the bunker. His legs were like jelly. As he moved, he couldn’t avoid the sounds of the echoing groans drifting up the hill, drifting towards him. He didn’t know what to do. Where to go. The fences of the bunker had to hold. They just had to lay low. Keep quiet.
    The fences would hold strong.
    Hayden and Newbie ran through the grass and saw the bunker close by. Hayden just wanted to get back. Back to his sister. He had to know she was okay. He had to be there for her. They had to fight through this, one way or another.
    Hayden was so focused on getting back to the bunker that he didn’t see the three zombies approaching through the trees on the left until they were clutching at the sleeves of his coat.
    He swung around at them. Pushed the one grasping him away and sent it crashing into the two behind it, and then he kept on running, kept on moving towards the bunker. It seemed like the nightmare he had where the stairs felt like they were stretching further above him. He was tired. Exhausted. He wasn’t sure how much further he could run, only that he had to.
    He had to, because he had to get back to Clarice and Sarah.
    He had to get back.
    Hayden and Newbie emerged from the edge of the trees. Hayden could see both Clarice and Sarah in the grounds in front of the bunker, but they hadn’t seen him yet. He wanted to shout, but he knew shouting wasn’t a good idea because it would only draw the mass of zombies right to their doorstep.
    He pushed the gate aside with shaking hands and noticed that the padlock was broken from earlier. Shit. They hadn’t had time to replace it. It wouldn’t hold. The doors in the bunker wouldn’t hold.
    Shit shit shit.
    Clarice and Sarah saw Hayden and Newbie when they rushed inside the yard of the bunker. Sarah smiled, Clarice frowned. “Guys, what’s—”
    “We need to get out of here,” Newbie said, panting. He turned and looked at the trees. So too did Hayden. No movement. No sign of the oncoming mass of zombies yet.
    But they were coming.
    They’d be here for them soon.
    “Wait, slow down,” Sarah cut in. “What’s going on?”
    “At the bottom of the hill,” Hayden said, struggling to catch his breath. “There’s …” He tried to put what he’d seen into words. “Zombies.”
    “We can handle—”
    “More zombies than we’ve ever seen,” Hayden said. “I mean … hundreds. Probably thousands. All—all together as one big group. All coming this way.”
    Clarice frowned. She had a bemused look on her face like she couldn’t quite take her brother’s words seriously. “How … what …”
    “I don’t know how, I don’t know what and I don’t know why. But we need to get inside the bunker. We … we need to get inside the rear exit tunnel. We need to hide down there and wait for them to pass.”
    Newbie turned and frowned at Hayden. “You can’t be serious.”
    Hayden could hear the