That Zombie Novel

The familiar black emptiness that had plagued my dreams since the start of the outbreak began to creep back into my life, surrounding, suffocating and silencing me; the only noise that disturbed the darkness was the rhythmic thuds of my heartbeat. And like always, just as I was about to be entirely consumed by it, a bright piercing light and a voice vanquished it.

"Rise and shine John, we have guests." Tom spoke as he shook me awake.
"Guests?" I grumbled sleepily, "Like, good or bad ones?" I squinted, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light.
"Good, actually. They are across the street, some girl and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend has been hurt though." Tom explained as he helped me to my feet.
The shotgun fell off of my chest, apparently I'd gone to sleep cradling it, looking around the shop, bags had been packed and filled, a nice gas cooker was on cooking up some bacon and bread for breakfast, Molly stood with a marker and a whiteboard pressed against the glass facing the opposite shop. If you squinted, you could see across and make out the girl holding a pair of binoculars and a boy sat, slightly slumped holding his injury. Molly brought the board down and held a pair of binoculars to her eyes to read what the other girl had wrote.

"What do you know about them?" I folded my arms across my chest and scanned the room for anyone else.
"Well, it's Tally." Tom answered a slight smile on his face, trying to hold in his excitement.
"Tally, as in slightly crazy, midget, maniac, Tally?" I began walking over to Molly and the window
"Yes… the one and only…” Tom replied, smirking.
"Well why on earth haven't we gone to get her, and is she still with that dude or whatever? Is he the injured dude?"
"Yeah, she's with Luke."
"Well, what time is it?" I said, searching my pockets for my non-existent phone.
"Just gone eight, we're going to go get them at ten." Tom replied then went back to where his maps were.
"Right then, Molly, just keep an eye out, just in case we need to do an emergency evacuation…” I smiled at her and she completely ignored me.
“Okay then Molls, in your own time sweetheart.” I growled
“What happened to Tag-Along?” She looked up at me with a straight, emotionless face.
“What do you mean?” I asked startled by the question
“Well, Alex has been dodging the question, saying she was only there to keep guard not to document what went on… So John… what happened to her?” She stood up and stared dead into my eyes
I looked over at Alex, who was helping James with the cooking, and then I looked back to Molly, “She said she wanted to leave us all, that she would be fine on her own.”
“Soshe just left, just like that.” She knew something wasn’t right
“Pretty much, yeah… she thought she was getting in the way of us…” I smiled at her and leaned in, I caught James watching us out of the corner of my eye
“There is no us. I know you’re up to something John De Lone. I have work to do so please leave me be.” She sat back down at the window and began writing in a note book
I smiled satisfied that I’d won and then walked toward the makeshift kitchen.

"So what did you do while I was away?" I asked him.
He looked up and said, "We went out looking for resources and then packed bags with long lasting food and water."
I sat down and watched James cook for a while.
“So how did everything go with the gun mission?” James broke the silence
“Erm, well,” I’d been caught off guard, yet again, I looked to Alex but she just shifted her gaze, “We got to my grandfather’s place, searched for the gun, found it then made our way back…”
“So when did Tag-Along ditch you?” He questioned
“Well, right after we’d got the gun, she started saying she needed to go find someone and she’d be fine on her own…” I swallowed hard trying to suppress the memories of the day before
“So, you just let her go?”
I nodded; I really didn’t want to be interrogated any longer.
James got up from where he was cooking and went and spoke to Molly, presumably about breakfast.
I looked around the room and saw, Tom and Danny conversing, poking and prodding, drawing and rubbing out all over the map, sometimes raising their voices and disagreeing.
Alex had finished pulling whatever mold was on the bread, there wasn’t much but it helped our appetites if it was gone.

James had walked up to me and had started talking to me again "...Breakfast John?"
"Hm?" I stared at him bewildered and dazed
"What should we do about breakfast?" He said poking the bacon with a wooden spoon
"I thought you were cooking it." I replied.
"Yeah, but do you want it now or in a bit?" He rolled his eyes
"Now please, we're going to head off a little early to get Tally."
"Alright,” He handed me a plate with a bacon sandwich on, “TOM!" He yelled as he walked away.