Partners?

Her legs ached as she pushed them to go faster, they were gaining on her. She was too afraid to turn to look in case they were closer than she thought or worse farther away. She had a feeling if she slowed down she would stop. She couldn’t do that until she found a safe place to rest. The buildings seemed to close in around her as she ran through the maze of streets. She felt fingers on her back, the fear pushed her to run faster. A hand shot out grabbing her arm and dragging her down an alleyway. The person looked normal so she followed them through a door into an abandoned factory. She bent over her knees panting loudly.

“I saw that they were about to get you so I thought I’d help.” The man said

“Yeah, thanks. I thought I was done for, how long will this place be safe for? Won’t they find us?”

“Hopefully long enough for you to rest then we can crack on. The names Craig”

“Clara”

They shook hands.

“Craig and Clara, we make a cute couple. Now we need a plan of action.” Craig said when Clara had recovered enough to keep going.

“Well, I had been running in the right direction according to the map but I probably got turned around when they started chasing me. They are faster than I thought they would be.”

He nodded in agreement. Then said

“I was thinking about the roof, they might not be up there.”

“Good idea but what if we can’t get down? or across? What if this is the only open door? I think we should stay safe and boring, stick to the shadows and creep around them instead of trying to outrun them.”

Craig nodded again.

“I think you were going in the right direction, so let’s keep going your way. I like the shadow idea.”

They crept out of the building looking around and seeing no one around. Clara grabbed his hand when she heard a noise close by. They smiled at each other. It was dark, there were plenty of things on the streets to hide behind like skips and large bins. So far they had come across no dangerous open spaces. That did not mean that they would always have somewhere to hide though. They zig-zagged through the streets, staying clear of anyone they saw. Not knowing who was safe and who was not. Every so often they would stop and talk in hushed whispers if they needed a new plan. It was almost romantic, standing so close to each other and whispering their plans. One street was covered in crispy brown leaves that made too much noise when they tried to walk through it. They had turned and tried the next street that seemed to lead in the same direction. They rounded a corner and came face to face with a group of five people in torn and red-colored clothing. The seven of them stared at each other for a second before Craig found his fight or flight response and he took off running in the opposite direction dragging Clara behind him. The five people chasing closely behind them. They gained a good lead on the five behind when their luck ran out and they nearly crashed into three more people in front of them. They were running too fast to change course so they plowed through the three and kept running. Clara felt nails on her arms. She pushed herself to go faster feeling Craig running slightly behind her as he normally did as she was a faster runner than him. She smiled to herself, she liked being faster, it gave her the edge. Clara rounded a corner and saw a large bin. She threw herself behind it and stopped to catch her breath. Craig did the same.

“That was a close one” Clara panted whilst checking her arms for scratches, She had a red streak on one arm, it hadn’t touched her skin though so she was fine.

“We have to be close to the end now.” Craig said.

Clara agreed. Once they were both back to breathing normally. They went on. Keeping close together.

There was light at the end of the street. They walked towards it carefully. It opened into a football pitch. The open space stood between them and the finish line. Unfortunately, the football pitch was full of zombies, all eyeing the two of them up. They looked at each other. Craig offered Clara his hand, she shook it.

“Best of luck.” he said and started running. Clara was right behind him and overtook him easily. Together they skillfully avoided the zombies. Clara was close to the finish line when Craig overtook her, pushing her back into the hoard as he did so. She stumbled briefly back into them. Narrowly missing being marked with the red paint in their hands. She crossed the finish line, running into Craig pushing him forward. He fell to the ground.

“What the hell Craig, I thought we were partners.”

“We were, but at the end, it’s survival of the fittest love and I just won the Halloween zombie run”

“You cheated, you pushed me, you betrayed me!”

Craig smiled

“Oh, come on Clara, we had a good time, I thought I felt some chemistry between us.”

Clara smiled back, it was true. They had shared a moment or two.

“That’s not the point!”

“OK, I got through first so I’ve won £50, Why don’t I take you out to dinner, as an apology for feeding you to the Zombies?”

Clara summoned up her most girly gracious smile for him, he really was cute.

“I accept. But, what if you had sacrificed me and you found out you came in 2nd with only £25 prize money? Or worse, you won nothing but still beat me?”

“Then, I would still take you out. I’d like to get to know you more.”

“Really? That would be so nice. ZOMBIE!” She yelled at him pointing. A judge came over to check them. Sure enough, Clara had come first and was free of any paint touching her skin, Craig had a smudge on the back of his neck.

“What? how?” he asked confused

“When we ran into the three zombies, they got you but, you didn’t notice. I did. I also noticed that you deliberately ran just a bit slower than me, I had a feeling you would betray me in the end.” They smiled at each other.

“A double betrayal,” Craig said. “Well, I’d better do my zombies duty, then I will take you out after? I may have betrayed you, but normally I’m a Zombie of my word.”

He walked off to change and get his make up done. Clara smiled at his back. Maybe next year they could do the couple zombie run.