Bridge Street.

The Alleyway Zombie Gauntlet.

He sits down, swirling around the jack to mix with the coke, taking a swig after putting his glass down, picking his phone up, and he starts to text; while the ladies are keeping watch outside, the others are sorting through the trolleys with we can see is outside the kitchen door.

George stands up, puts his mobile in his pocket, and finishes his drink. He notices two people stealthy walking on the other side of the street.

George asks, “Girls, you see them two as well?”

Aida responds, “Yes, I do. They are not looking Z to me.”

George goes to take the chair that is stuffed under the handle also into the doormat, unbolting the door and poking his head out.

George loudly whispers, “Pssssst! Over here!”

They both stop at the bus stop after realising that it’s not a flesh-eating Z that is calling them over for their next meal. The guy has something in his hand, talking to each other while crossing the road to George when an elderly Z man swerving across the street towards the two of them on a red motorised scooter.

George shouts, “Watch out!”

*Wham!*

Shane swinging his brown hockey stick, hitting the elderly Z off the scooter, which tilts but doesn’t fall on its side, instead it is stopped by a curb. Before the Z can make it back to his feet, Shane is smashing Z’s head with the hockey stick, blood spurting upwards with every hit.

Shane is saying angrily, “These things are starting to piss me off!”

The young woman he is with, drags him away from the Z into the restaurant, away from any other Z’s that could have been alerted.

Tony, behind the bar, is pouring a drink for Shane alongside Summer, which has just introduced themselves, in front of them is George offering them a cigarette; Amelia also Aida are standing on either side of George, and Adam is sitting on a chair beside him, cleaning his yellow handle knife. while Carlo sits guarding the back of the restaurant. They both take a cigarette, the same as George takes one out, putting it between his lips, lighting his then theirs, don’t worry, Aida has already disarmed the fire alarm; otherwise, they would have been overrun by now; it would be to the Z’s what a cop car siren is to a robber.

George asks, “What happened?”

Smoke exhales from George’s mouth while Tony hands them their drinks while Shane explains.

Going into a flashback, Shane is narrating while you're watching the events unfold. “We were with five others who worked behind the bar of the night club we were in; now only us two are left, the whole dance floor turned to flesh-eating pricks quickly, people instead of dancing, drinking, touching to kissing, you know, enjoying a night out on the town, it turned to eating one another, only god knows the cause. Anyway, from having a piss in the toilets, I heard someone moaning in agony, turned around to see the toilet attendant getting eaten; thank my lucky stars for deodorant and a lighter, mate. I got to burn my ex-misses as well; I enjoyed that! Set a couple of other people on fire on my way down the stairs, f**k right off; I am getting eaten. I managed to make it to behind the bar, where I met Summer along with the others.”

“We got to the back door escaping from the Z-filled nightclub; for a split second, I even believed we were all safe. We reached an alleyway behind the club, where many more Zombies were waiting for us. Blocking both exits to the streets, also tight squeezes in the alley because of the big f**k-off bins, you know, the red ones with the black lids. There are three of them in a row; cigarette butts lay heavily on the ground mixed with a couple of condom packets and also half-filled condoms poorly stuffed in the bins, already spewed out, in a pile on the floor.” (You can almost hear any woman go, “Eww that’s disgusting.”) “Someone kicked an empty beer bottle that alerted the Z’s, and they came running from both sides towards us. The bar people tried fighting off the Z’s but failed, s**t I saw a Z bite a chunk out of this man’s neck and eat it while blood was squirting like a like a lady on her period being sexually active. So I jumped onto one of the bins and felt a tug at my ankle. I looked back to see Summer. I helped her up; we ran like hell over the bins; which is f*****g hard, by the way, and doesn’t help with Z’s trying to grab your legs, anyway, then we ran out of the alleyway, don’t think a single soul survived, most probably they are still in the alley, eating each other.”

“We were walking down the middle of the road, the supermarket coming up on our left, and a person laying face down in front of the supermarket. I could see a group of people ahead of us with a trolley. We were walking towards them, folks. Well, that person on the ground had gotten up, he grabbed ahold of me, which made both of us jump, but Summer screamed. I swear that it wasn't me. We wrestled a little as I was trying not to be bitten, he flung me into the sports shop front door that swung open on my impact; I fell onto the ground, and Summer ran in there to help me up before the Z could. I quickly grabbed ahold of the nearest thing I could, which was this hockey stick. We could hear moaning also rustling behind us, so we got out of that shop as fast as possible. I quickly beat the dead out of the Z, which was just in front of the door, that Summer closed, now we are standing in front of you guys. Oh yeah, we see the Z with a swung-around head near the ice cream stand.

Back at the restaurant, George is standing while stubbing out his smoked cigarette.

He says, “Oh right, well, you guys can defiantly stay with us.”

Summer responds, “I appreciate that.”

Aida, along with Amelia are quick to take her under their wing, as they help clean up her, makeup smeared all over her face, while Adam is keeping lookout.

Shane shakes George’s hand while saying, “Same, it is appreciated bro.”

George says, “There could be more survivors out there; we must go back out there and help.”

Adam says, “Yeah, I will come; it beats waiting here.”

Shane says, “You got my attention; I am in.”

Tony says, “Yes, bro, I am on that.”

George says, “Alright, go get Carlo to stay down here with the women, even though they are safer with the Z’s.”

Tony chuckles and nods after walks down the corridor to the others. George makes himself a drink.

While saying, “Lads get something to eat, drink, and smoke because it will be five minutes before we go, I need to drop the kids off at the swimming pool; I am starting to turtle head.”

Amelia chuckles while saying, “You’re grim!”

George puts his drink down while quickly scampering in panic towards the toilets.

While he responds, “That maybe, but I am truthful.”

George to himself mutters, “I don’t think I can make it; I will have to use the disabled ones.”

He turns the corner while Adam gets up to get a drink as Shane is watching the outside, eyes scanning everywhere to spot any flickering of movements.

Back to the bouncer alongside the young girl, that has nearly broken her ankle, having to walk in her shiny heels, when you are trying to be quiet, they are not the things to be wearing. The pair continuing to walk down the street, broken glass and dead bodies all over the place, blood spilled on the pavement, abandoned cars mostly taxi’s. They have made it down to the bottom of one road to a t-junction, without having a Z encounter.

Tracy says, “I need proper shoes because these heels are killing me off.”

Bobby, the bouncer, says, “Let's get you some. We will go to the Grafton Centre.”

Turning left away from the armed police roadblock, which they are unaware of, it would have been their safest bet of survival. Lifeless bodies lay everywhere, some smartly dressed, others wearing casual clothes. A homeless couple lay in their sleeping bags at a closed shop entrance; they look like they are sleeping but could also be dead or, worse brain devouring walking dead. The devastation has wrecked the streets above, bus shelters smashed, rubbish everywhere, taxis are burning with crispy corpses inside, even inside the city one bus has all the lights off, doors look shut, but the bus driver didn’t get far, I almost hear you ask how do I know? Because he lays beside a black public bin half eaten.

Tracy says, “f**k going down there, we are certainly not making it through to the other side alive; you know some of them f**k nugget Zs are just laying there sleeping, one slight noise, they are going to be on our tails.”

Before Bobby can respond, Tracy’s left heel snaps; he decides to sweep her off her feet so she doesn’t cut open her feet; putting her over his right shoulder, she throws her heel-less shoe on the ground.

Bobby says, “Watch my back; we will go a different way.”

Tracy stretches back, grabbing her other heel off; Bobby puts his corkscrew between the marriage alongside the middle fingers on his left hand.

Tracy says, “If they get too close, I will stab them with my heel or this knife.”

Bobby responds, “I would appreciate it if you did that.”

They are walking past a bank that leads to a poorly lit alleyway that runs through behind the bus depot to the Grafton centre.