He carefully looked across the neighbouring farm land squinting against the light of the setting sun. He could see at least three figures moving on a hill top against the horizon a few miles away. "More every day," he whispered under his breath.

Walking to the lifeless corpse he slung the rifle over his shoulder and took hold of its legs and dragged it the 50 feet to the edge of the ridge. Carefully averting his eyes from the site below, he let the body's centre of gravity slide over the ridge and it rolled and flopped down to join the 30 or so others already at the bottom of the small trench. Flies disturbed by the impact of the new corpse scattered into the air, but quickly settled again.

Harris turned, gave another quick glance across the surrounding country side, and headed back for the house.

Opening the kitchen door he saw his daughter sitting at the kitchen table counting the bullets in his cardboard ammunition box. "Could be more on the way Karen if they heard the shot. Be here tomorrow morning probably", he said closing the door behind him.

"What are we going to do? There's more of them all the time!" Karen replied.

Harris bolted the door at the top and bottom. "We'll take a drive over to Roseville in the morning and see if there's anyone out there. See if we can get some supplies too."

"Roseville, that's over 90 miles away. What's wrong with trying Frenson?"

"Too big," her father replied. "I don't want to get near a major place like Frenson. It'll be crawling with those things. Frenson will be a dead town!"

Karen and her father hadn't seen a living soul for over ten days now. They hadn't believed what they had heard on the radio. Without the telephones working after a few days they had decided to drive the 10 miles to Grady's, their nearest neighbour. Stepping out of their pickup truck outside Grady's house they found four figures shambling across the dirt track towards them. Harris found it hard to shoot the first two monsters, and even harder to shoot the second two, Mr and Mrs Grady.

Karen was only nineteen and had taken it all pretty well, but she found the nights the hardest. The power was down so the house was pitch black. She found her self laying in bed completely still listening for sounds. A few nights earlier she had heard one of those things outside. Her father didn't want to take any risks in the dark so they sat quietly in the kitchen until daylight, listening to the thing wandering aimlessly outside. At one point it came right up to the kitchen door, scuffling its shoes on the wooden porch. She held her breath listening, trying to hear what it was doing, until with a low groan it moved away from the house. She wandered if it knew they were in the there. When she could sleep it was disturbed. She kept picturing her mother, who had died earlier that year of cancer, deep underground in her coffin fighting and clawing to get out.

Looking through the boarded up window she could see her father walking quickly across a field towards a small group of trees. Looking more carefully she could see why. A pair of figures emerged from the trees and flailed towards her father. Two shots rang out in quick succession and the figures dropped. Her father headed back to the house.

As the two of them ate breakfast neither said a word. Both of their faces were blank as their minds wandered.

Karen picked up their plates from the table. A voice from outside shouted, "Hello." The plates fell and broke on the tiled floor. Again, but louder the voice came, "Hello." Karen and her father looked at each other and scrambled to the boarded up window. Outside, about 15 feet away, they could see the owner of the voice looking at the house. He was a tall man with a backpack slung over one shoulder, and a rifle over the other.

"Come on out, it's all right!" the man shouted.

"Jesus!" Karen said as she scrambled to open the door. Her father's hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder stopping her dead in her tracks. "Hold on, I'll go," he said quietly.

Unbolting the door Harris walked outside.

Harris looked at the man, who looked tired and unshaven. "How you doing?" Harris said.

The man smiled and walked over, "All right! I lost my transport last night and been on foot since."

"You look hungry. Come inside, we'll sort you out something to eat," Harris said patting his hand on the strangers back. He turned to lead the way back into the house.

With both of them inside the kitchen Harris turned and started bolting the door behind them. He started a sentence, "I'm Peter Harris and this is my daughter, Kar.." but it was cut short as the stranger brought the butt of his rifle down hard on the back of his head.

He could hear Karen crying. Fighting the pain he looked over his shoulder to see her sitting in the corner of the kitchen. Her clothes were ripped and one side of her face was red and coming up in a bruise. She raised her eyes to meet his, they told him what had happened. She shook her head slowly, and through her tears started, "I tried to stop him..."

"Gets kinda lonely out here," the tall stranger interrupted, grinning at Harris.

Harris looked over at the stranger. His face had some fresh marks down one side. Seeing Harris' gaze the man raised a hand to his face and touched the scratches.

The stranger looked over at Karen and then back to Harris. "How rude of me Peter, I know your name, and I've certainly met Karen, but I haven't introduced myself. My name is Evans," he said still grinning.

Harris took a deep breath to clear his head. "Look we haven't got anything valuable. Please just take what you need and go."

"You got exactly what I need, that pickup truck outside," Evans replied.

"Take it and go!" Harris said solemnly.

"It ain't that easy. You're gonna show me where to get some supplies. I'm not gonna get caught like I did last time," Evans said grinning again.

"Your kidding," Harris said looking down at the floor.

"Now don't get me wrong Peter. I like you! But I think I like the young lady more... any trouble, and, well it won't come to that. Will it!" Evans' grin had gone.

"No. It won't come to that," Harris said, looking over at Karen.

Evans pointed with his rifle towards the kitchen door.

The two captives walked hand in hand to the door and Harris unbolted it. He Peered between the boards covering its glass, and then open it. Evans gestured again and Harris and his daughter continued outside. Evans followed a few feet behind keeping a close eye on them. "Nice day for a drive," he grinned.

When all three were outside Harris and Karen stopped to face Evans who was now looking them up and down. "Right this is how it's gonna work..." Evans began.

Something caught Harris' eye. Looking over Evans' shoulder he noticed a figure appearing around the far side of the house, about thirty feet away. Knowing full well that Karen could see it as well he gave her hand a hard squeeze as if to signal in some special way not to react.

"...you drive, and me and the lady will just enjoy the ride..." Evans continued.

Harris tried not to let his eyes wonder to the figure, but instead concentrated on keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Evans. He noticed how quiet the figure was shambling towards them. It's bare feet made no noise on the short grass.

"How far is the nearest town?" Evans said, still unaware of the ghoul now only twenty feet behind him.

Harris started to reply, "Frenson's about 40 miles East of..." but he was cut short by a low groan from the figure behind Evans.

Evans panicked and span around to find the source of the noise. Harris instantly made a run for him. This was his chance, possibly his only chance! Hearing his prisoner start towards him, Evans turned around once more in a reflex movement, but he was too late. Harris launched himself and Evans' rifle went flying. With a thud the two men fell to the ground.

With the men wrestling on the floor Karen's eyes flicked between them and the approaching monster. Her mind span. The thing was now only a few feet from the two men who seemed completely oblivious to it. In a few seconds it would reach them.

She managed to break her eyes off and quickly looked left and right. Leaning against the house near her was a large thick plank of wood. She ran over to it and picked it up. The monster was less then ten feet from the men. She ran passed the scrambling men and brought the plank down hard square on the monster's head. Knocked backwards by the impact it fell to the floor. Karen stopped for a second. The monster sat upright and looked up at her. Without a second thought she brought down the plank a second time, but this time harder. She heard a loud crack which she thought was the wood splitting, but the plank was still whole. The monster slumped backwards.

Behind her the two men were still wrestling. She turned to see them wrapped around each other. Evans was on top of her father and leaning forwards towards the rifle. His fingers scrambled in the dirt a few inches away from the weapon.

Evans made contact with the barrel and slid the rifle towards him along the ground. Aware of the rough direction the rifle was now pointing, he leaned forwards and calmly pinched the trigger. The gun jolted as it fired. Harris' right thigh exploded above his knee. Screaming in pain Harris released his hold on his attacker. Evans, now free to move, wrapped his hand around the rifle to pick it up, but his fingers went stiff as the plank of wood hit him cleanly on the back of the head. He slumped on top of the grimacing Harris.

The truck went over a bump and Evans swore as he realised how uncomfortable he was. Wriggling against the side of the truck he forced himself upright, his hair blowing untidily in the wind.

Sitting up he could get a better view. The truck was going along an empty main road. Wide expanses of country side to one side and hills to the other. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened... I was just scared! I didn't want to take any chances and things just got out of hand", the figures still didn't react.

He knew it made sense. They would have to guard him day and night all the time worrying if he would get free. He wondered where they were going. Maybe they were headed for some friends, but it would still be the same. "I don't know where you're taking me, but it'll be a lot easier if you just let me go! There's no law left. It'll be harder keeping me than letting me go!"

Harris gave a quick glance over his shoulder at Evans, but then returned his gaze forwards. Evans decided that he would have to wait. They weren't going to listen to him at the moment. In a couple of hours they may of calmed down enough.

The truck continued down the hill and stopped a few hundred yards outside the town. This time leaning backwards he could look around the cabin and get a clear view of part of the town, now only a few hundred yards away. A fire had indeed broken out at some point. Evans could make out the remains of a gas station and concluded this was the culprit. The few shops and houses he could make out looked like they had been broken into. Their doors and windows smashed or gone.

He looked at the figures in the cabin and wondered what they were waiting for. Over the idling engine Evans could hear a strange sound, an unearthly wailing.

He lent forwards to look through the cabin. He could see the road continuing into the town and through the dirt on the windscreen he could just make out a mass of figures slowly coming out along the road towards them. "J-e-s-u-s..." he said slowly. He lent back trying to get a better view of the figures, but he couldn't and lent forward again settling for the view through the cabin. Some of the figures were now less than a hundred yards away and there were dozens, if not a hundred of them. Their strange wailing made him shiver.

"What you waiting for?" Evans shouted.

As if woken up, the truck lurched forwards. "What the hell," Evans said under his breath.

The truck turned ninety degrees and stopped abruptly making Evans lose his balance and topple comically over. It then reversed through another ninety degrees to complete its three point turn so it was facing away from the town. "Thank God," Evans said in a relieved voice.

He expected to feel the truck lurch forwards again, but instead he heard one of the truck's doors open and foot steps coming to the rear of the truck. There was a bang as the bolt on the rear door of the pickup truck was released and the flap swung down. Although on his side, Evans now had a perfectly clear view of the road leading into the town. He stared, hypnotised, at the on coming army.

Evans' eyes were fixed on Karen as she jumped into the back of the truck. Stepping over him she sat down behind him with her back towards the cabin. Evans' mind span, his eyes were now transfixed once again on the ever nearing army. He felt Karen's feet against his back. She pushed and he slid forwards towards the edge.

"Oh no! Please no!" Evans started pleading. "Please don't do this!" He felt another push and he slid another foot towards the edge. "Please don't do this," he repeated, this time almost crying. He felt another push.

Evans rolled off the back of the truck and fell the three feet to the tarmac. Unable to break his fall he hit the ground awkwardly and groaned at the pain. He opened his eyes and saw the rear wheels of the truck. Karen jump off and landed beside his head. He saw her feet walking around to the front of the truck and disappear as she climbed back in. The drivers door slammed shut.

"No! You can't do this!" Evans screamed.

He heard the truck rev as it moved away. It was only a few seconds before the noise of its engine was lost to the unearthly moaning coming from behind him. He knew if he tried he could easily twist over onto his other side, but instead he made no effort.

Karen glanced at the rear view mirror. She could just make out the lone figure lying on the road. A few feet behind it she could see some isolated monsters approaching. Further back an almost solid mass of them followed.

She returned her gaze to the road in front of her, "You're right, Frenson is a dead town. Let's try Roseville."