Chapter 1
Finding Sanctuary
"Dad watch out" I screamed out as I spotted a thing come close to him.
My father and the women we picked up, Andrea, quickly moved from there spots and started to run back towards the RV which was where Amy, Andrea's sister, and I were stationed. As soon as my father got in he started to drive away from the man they were trying to help.
Ok you may be a little lost about whats happening so let me start from the beginning, you see my father brought me with him to a little work camping thing that was meant to bring them all closer together. But after half a day of talking to no one but his bosses daughter, Andrea and Amy, nothing but bordum was driving me on.
The biggest coincidence happened then just as I was mentally asking god to do something to liven the place up a bit a man who looked just like a victim of some disease stumbled into camp and started to eat people, eat people.
My father and I automatically started to run towards the RV and after I made it there in record time I noticed Amy and Andrea get surrounded and it felt like I just Had to help them there was no ifs or buts about it. So as soon as my father reached the RV I got him to drive as fast as he could over to them knocking a few of the things over and managed to get Andrea and a bawling Amy on bord without getting bit (I found out later that she was crying because one of the things that surrounded them was their father). And then started our little adventure.
So know it is because of that very reason that I get to say these words; I, twenty year old, Matilda Lynn Horvath (but everyone calls me Mattie) am a survivor of an apocalypse that has only left the world with so few survivors.
I never got thought I would ever even get the chance to say those words. I mean sure messing around my friends and I would ask each other what we would do if it happened but I never put much thought in it since I alway's thought thanks to my girly girl quality,that I wont kill one of gods creatures and have no fitness at all that I'd be one of the first to die. I was wrong apparently.
"Hey Mattie you gonna sit there all day or are you going to help me check Andrea'a leg" Amy's frustrated voice booms through my head and snaps me out of my thoughts straight away.
"Yeah sure, what you do to it anyway 'rea" I ask her while making my way over to the first aid kit.
"I cut it off some glass on the road as we were running away" The women's normally zen calm voice is replaced with one of anger and frustration. "Dale I can't believe you thought that man was alive how in the name of god do you make that mistake, jesus" She questions my father.
"Don't take the lord's name in vain" The reply I give almost comes without thinking about it I have done it so much.
"And you kid..." I can almost hear her rolling her eyes from behind me. "How long are you going to keep that up? Haven't you realised that if there is a god he has given up on us a long time ago" She tells me but as I turn around and see her face I can see she immediately feels guilty about it. "Mattie.." I cut her off
"It's ok Andrea you don't have to apologize I get why your feeling like this" I tell her as Amy and I wrap a bandage around her leg.
"Damnit girl it is suuuuchhh a shame you never got a chance to finish college and become a councilor, you defiantly had the right job in my for your future anyway" She tells me and from the way she's smiling now I can tell all the awkwardness and anger has disappeared.
"My Matilda has always been like that, always worrying about others before herself, never getting in trouble in school, never even had a boyfriend.." As he says this I feel my entire face burn in humiliation. "Always was my little good girl"
As I get up then from my place kneeling in front of Andrea I make it look like I'm just going to stretch and reach over to get something from the passenger side but I secretly manage to whisper in my fathers ear.
"Please, Please try not to embarrass me anymore dad please" I say quickly to him, my whisper to low for the others to hear. He must have thought what I said was funny for some reason since he started laughing then.
All chatter and noise stops then as we dissolve into an awkward silence. There's been a few of these over the past months since no matter how hard we try we can't forget how we met. What's werid about this one was that Andrea wasn't the one to break it with an inappropriate joke, it was my dad.
"Kids theres a boy out there getting chased" My father loudly tells us getting up from his seat after he stops the RV but still keeps his head glued to the mirror.
"Oh ya like there was back there? If you think were going to fall for that again you got another thing coming Horvath. Your Gandhi wannabe personality is going to get us ..." Andrea doesn't get to finish her sentence as gun fire is being deployed outside the RV.
My father was never a smug man but there that moment as he turns back to face us with a smirk on his face and an eyebrow raised he looked like a cocky boy half his age.
We just stand there and watch in pure shock as my father walks to the back of the RV and grabs two guns before going back to the door only stopping when he finally realises no one's following him.
"What are you waitin for Andrea they might need help and you are the only one besides myself that can shoot a gun" My father practically roars at Andrea which makes all of us gasp in shock. He never so much as raise's his voice, but all the same it got Andrea moving towards the door, handgun in hand.
As they both move out the door Amy and I are left alone. We both stood frozen in shock listening to the gun shots fire and people scream and shout but still can't do anything. It's times like this that I hate being so helpless.
Finally the gunshots begin to quiet down and eventually stop. Hopefully because all the things are dead and not that the people are dead.
Amy and I both let out a huge sigh of relief as we hear two knocks followed by a break then another knock on the RV. Our little groups code to let the other ones know it was them.
The door then opens and Andrea is the one that first comes inside followed closely by my father both with gigantic smiles on their faces, I am so caught up in watching them and trying to figure out what is happening that I miss the younger man come in behind them.
"Who are you and what are you doing in here" Well it appears Amy didn't miss him.
"Girls relax, this is Glenn a very nice young man who we helped save and because of that he is going to bring us back to his group" My father happily states resting his hand on the squirming chinese man's shoulder.
I don't know about what Amy is feeling in this moment but what I'm feeling is shock and betrayed. Don't they know he could bring us back to his group and they could be all serial killers or rapists, I can't believe him so I turn to Andrea for support and find her smiling the same as my father.
"Women and children are there to Mattie, not just men. Imagine seeing children again. I thought you and Amy would be the last kids I get to see" I hide my offence to the kids comment thinking that it wasn't the time for that (but from the way Amy let out that scoff I can tell she don't feel the same way) but can't get my mind away from what she said.
Women and children. Women and children. Women and children. If this is true then it would mean that all the innocent little children who never did a thing to hurt anyone didn't die.
That would mean God had a plan for the future and kept them there for that future. He didn't give up on.
"Ammmm...you guys..d...don't...have to worry..w...were..s..s..safe we even have a ...c..cop as the leader"It appears the Chinese man could feel our unease about the situation and was trying to help in his own stuttering innocent way.
Sure his attempt at helping was pitiful but at least hw was trying and from how scared he was it was obvious to to me why dad and Andrea trusted him. It seemed like he couldn't lie at all.
"OK now that's all settled let's get a move on I wanna see our safe haven and meet the new people" She pause's then and looks like she just got an idea and from how she looked at Amy and I it was easy to tell the idea involved us. " Hey Glenny you don't happen to have any cute guys in this camp that like devirgining girls coz if you do there's two here wide open" As soon as she finished dad made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat and walked to the driver's seat.
I swear I was going to find out could you actually die from embarrassment in that moment. I'm pretty sure the only thing that stopped it was the fact that both Glenn and Amy had got completely red to and Glenn looked slightly more scared.
"W...we..well.. I...I..don" Thankfully my father cut in and stopped Glenn's stuttering answer which was making the thing more embarrassing.
"Alright young man why don't you leave and go to your car we'll follow along and Andrea stop behaving even younger than the kids" He tells them both and Glenn's out the door doing what dad said before he even finishes talking.
"Don't be mad just because I can have fun and you cant" She retorts back good naturally as she sinks into the chair.
Instead of joining the conversation Amy and Andrea were having about what was going to happen in this new place I stayed off to the side thinking that maybe some of Andrea's words were true. We are going to find our Safe Haven.