The spread of panic was instant and profound. The crowd that was left near the woman could see the truth for themselves and spontaneously turned and fled back across the field in the direction of the dance hall. Only the woman was left, standing on her little box, and staring at the ripping, screaming carnage in front of her. Her ideology was no defence against rabid truth.
Only at the last moment when she was grabbed by a walker who plucked her from atop of the box on which she had raised herself and sunk his teeth deep in her arm that she turned to Dave. "Help me!" she pleaded with eyes filled with terror.
All the anger had drain from her eyes. Gone was the raving fanatic from a moment ago, leaving a fragile human being. Dave felt a desire to help, to throw himself into the chaos in front of him. Dave felt worn. Hopeless. A darkness gathered in his soul. Was that a hint of a desire to just give it all up? To turn away from being human and become one of the mindless dead. Is the struggle worth it when everything always turns to shit like this?
Josh grabbed Dave by the arm. "What are you waiting for?"
"What?" said Dave as if arising from a daze.
"We need to get back to the hall."
Dave looked back at the woman who's body was now feeding four of the grey dead that she had so praised before.
"There's nothing that you can do for her," said Josh tugging at Dave. "Hurry. The camp is starting to fall to the walkers."
Startled, Dave looked around the camp. The woman and her followers had distracted the nearby walkers, but on the flanks the walkers had entered the camp, and stragglers who had refused to retreat to the hall could now be heard screaming. Dave blinked at how his perception of time had failed him. The camp was lost.
"Yes," he said with conviction in his voice. "Let's go."
Dave and Josh ran through the camp. Around them were mini-dramas of despair and ultimately death. It was a daylight nightmare. A hell which the pair ducked and weaved their way through. When they got within sight of the dance hall they stopped moving. The walkers had reached the hall before them. The doors to the hall had been closed and barricaded. That wasn't the limits of what had been done. The people who had reached the hall hadn't stayed on the ground level but had fled up onto the roof. The dead that shambled about the hall seemed frustrated in the denial of the extension of their murderous feast.
"They've bloody surrounded the place," said Josh.
"We can't get in there," noted Dave with a surprising calm.
"Look," said Josh waving.
On the roof they could see Trevor and the other Army men trying to organise the people. Trevor had seen Dave and Josh and gave them a wave back. It was too far for a conversation so Dave pointed back towards the bridge that lead to Dave's old camp. Trevor nodded in an exaggerated manner before returning to the task of settling people down.
Dave was confident that if the people on the roof lay down and were quiet then the walkers would leave them after a hour or so. Less quiet was the camp on the sport's field. It was a loud reminder that Dave and Josh weren't safe on the ground. Dave tried to blank out the estimate of how many living human beings lost their life in that hell.
"Let's get back home," said Dave.
"You don't need to say that twice," said Josh.
Together they started jogging along the road back to their own camp site on top of the supermarket near the road intersection.
* * *
Dave and Josh slowed their jog and took a moment to catch their breath.
"I can't believe that we just ran all the way to the bridge," said Dave. "I wish that I had brought my bike."
"Yeah. Still, we're nearly home," said Josh.
"I'm not made for all this exercise."
Dave stopped walking and looked back the way they had come. Josh noticed and turned back to Dave, resting a hand on Dave's shoulder. "There's nothing more that you can do."
Together they turned away and began to walk over the bridge and towards their mini-camp on top of the shopping centre. They talked quietly as they walked along.
"So many died," said Dave.
"And so many lived. Think about it. You proposed that everyone shelter on top of the dance hall. They should be safe there. That suggestion will no doubt save a lot of lives."
"Could we have done more?"
"Probably. But we did what we did and there's no changing the past."
"I'm the half empty guy while you've the half full one."
A grim expression came over Josh's face. "No. Not really."
"What do you mean?" asked Dave.
"I know that this is a bit sudden. It was a sudden thought on my part. But I might leave you for a bit."
"What did I do?"
Josh shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing at all. In fact I'm really impressed by everything that you've done. Not many people have survived this far," Josh noticed and ignored a dark cloud that flittered over Dave's face, "but you've been really thinking outside the box. Out of all the people that we've met you are the only one who is actually trying to understand what's going on."
"Was I wrong? I really can't think of what else I should have done."
"No. You're good. I mean that. I'm impressed that you have actually engaged your mind to such
