Two figures trudged along in the tall grass, one lagging behind as he was reading a note in his hands.
I'm sorry for abandoning you like this, but I have no choice. I was bitten when I went looking for supplies. That's why I yelled at you to go back to your room after I came home. I'm sorry for yelling as well, but it was the only way I could make you leave me alone long enough that I could write this.
I don't know how much longer I have left, so I'm leaving you with everything I have. Please don't come after me when you read this. I don't want to you find me, or whatever I become.
I'm sorry that I couldn't take care of you, Alex. I love you.
Alex stared down at the note, reading it over and over again. He's done that so many times that he had gotten to the point where he could recite it in his head. But he would never throw it away, for it came from his mother.
"Alex, you okay back there? You've been awefully quiet today." The taller figure looked back at him, a small smirk on his face.
Alex nodded and looked over to a tall hill in the distance, purposely avoiding eye contact.
"You ever gonna tell me what's on that note?" The other one asked, this time his smirk was gone and he was being serious. He knew that whatever was written on it was important to Alex, important enough that he didn't trust anyone to see it.
Alex just shrugged.
The two were on their way to an abandoned boat in the distance, where the rest of their group should be rendezvousing at.
"We shouldn't go back."
"Three hours into this walk and that's the first thing you say to me?" The taller boy shook his head.
"Aaron, I'm serious. I don't think we should keep going." Alex stopped walking, clentching the note in his fist.
Aaron turned around, crossing his arms. "Why do you think so?" He asked.
Alex could hear the annoyance in his voice as soon as he had said it. It was burning hot outside, and they'd been walking all day in it to get to this stupid boat. Now suddenly, he didn't wan't to keep going.
"Do you really trust those people? We don't know anything about them, what if they rob us as soon as we get there? Then what? We'll have nothing! Or what if they kill us? What if-"
Aaron grabbed Alex's shoulder, staring at him.
"You worry way too much, kid. It's going to be fine, okay? You trusted me when we met, so why are you so worried about them?"
Alex just shook his head. He didn't really know, but he just felt something...off about them.
The group they were heading to consisted of three other people, Sam, Claire, and Nathan.
Nathan, or Nate, was the leader of the group. He always wore this gray hat backwards and loved to hit things with his baseball bat. He was the one to bark out orders at people. He did do a good job at keeping everyone alive though, so he remained the leader.
Sam was the rather quiet one, who stayed back during fights to take notes. Literally. He'd probably rather write down how one of us was being eaten over actually helping. He was the one who showed us how to create things for our advantage, like traps and gun upgrades, as he called them.
Claire was pretty useless to be honest. She was Nate's girlfriend, so getting rid of her wasn't an option. The only thing she was good at was being a smart ass and getting us all into trouble. Alex hated her, mostly because she was rude, but also because they got into an argument once, which led to Aaron and Nate's fist fight. It was her fault that Aaron had a bloody lip and a broken arm. She almost got them kicked out of the group as well.
The only thing keeping us in was the promise of food and safety.
Alex never really got that whole 'the more the merrier' thing, he prefered just traveling with Aaron. Big groups tend to fall apart easily.
But Aaron wanted to stay, and the group decided to keep him because he was excellent with weapons of any sort, and had an undying loyalty to do what he was told.
One of these days it's going to get him killed.
"Aaron? Can I tell you something?"
Aaron looked at him funny for a second, but thought that it could be about the note, so he didn't want to pass this chance up.
"Sure, kid."
Alex sighed, "The last group that I was with, right after the outbreak happened, was like this. Everyone seemed to be normal. We thought they were friends. But they weren't."
Aaron took notice of the "we", but let him continue.
"It started out slow, like some of our food went missing, then we were excluded from other things, like going out to get supplies and eating together. Then all the sudden I wake up with a knife to my throat."
Aaron's expression didn't change as Alex kept going.
"All I remember was my mom bursted into the room and...and..."
"And?" Aaron took his hand off of Alex's shoulder.
"She killed him. Shot him right in the head. His blood...it was everywhere. On me, too. But he didn't die immediately. His body just fell to the ground, right next to me. He looked at me as he died." Alex shook his head, trying to get the memories out.
Aaron wasn't sure what to say, but he didn't want to not say anything, so he sighed.
"What happened after that? You run off? With your mom?"
Alex nodded.
"I'm assuming that you don't want that to happen again, so that's why you don't want to stay with them?"
Alex nodded again.
Aaron thought for a minute, staring at a single blade of grass, swaying in the wind.
"Well don't you think we should go and get some stuff to take?"
"We can't tell them we're leaving!"
"Why not? What are they going to do?"
"You never know! I don't want to risk anything, or you for that matter."
"Well we still need supplies. We only have our bottles of water and two fucking rounds of ammo left after that hoard back there! What are we going to do when we run out?" Aaron crossed his arms. "Don't even get me started on food."
Alex looked up at him angrily, with tears forming in his eyes. "Fine. We'll go." He tried to trudge past him, but Aaron stopped him with his arm.
"Listen, kid. Let's just stay until night, then when everyone is asleep, we'll take some stuff and book it, okay?"
Alex eventually nodded and Aaron removed his arm.
TIME SKIP
"There it is." Aaron pointed to the rather large boat, stranded on the shore. Algae and all sorts of plants were growing off of it. A huge opening was in the side of it, like someone set a grenade off inside of it there.
Three figures sat inside of the hole, huddled around a fire.
Aaron made his presence obvious, so 'friendly fire' wouldn't be the death of either of them.
Alex followed quietly behind, staring out at the horizon. He admired simple things in life sometimes, like how the ocean seemed to swallow up the sun, and how pretty it looked despite how the world would actually be if that happened.
Well with how hot it was today, it probably wouldn't be much worse. Alex smiled to himself, but tried to erase it before anyone saw it.
"What are you smiling about, Asswipe?" Claire shouted.
Too late. That fucking idiot is going to get us all killed with her screaming. I don't see how Aaron can even want to stay here.
"Hey, Asswipe, you listening? I asked why you smiled." She said.
Alex rolled his eyes. He hated his little nickname, but it was kind of his fault, since he told them that was his name when they first met.
He looked at Aaron, annoyed, but he just stared back blankly.
"What, did he give you a little smooch before you got here? Is that why you're smiling and not telling me?"
Alex glared angrily at her. "No! It's none of your business whether I'm smiling or not, so shut the fu-"
"Alex, quit!" Aaron whispered.
"It's not your job to tell me what to do." Alex seethed.
Yes it's true, Alex does let his anger get the best of him, but he'd be fine if stupid people would stop talking to him.
Either way, he stopped himself. Claire however, didn't.
"Okay, am I the only one that doesn't understand why he's allowed to stay here?"
Alex glared back at the sunset.
Everyone was silent until Nathan spoke up.
"Yeah, why are you here, Alex. You don't seem like you want to be, so why stay?"
Alex didn't respond.
"He's here because I am. Leave him alone guys." Aaron said.
"No! You know what?" Alex bursted. "Why are you here, Claire? What's your purpose in this group? Sure, I may not be the best at shooting, or an engineering master, or a leader, but at least I'm not some annoying, rude, loud, bitch-"
"Alex!" Nathan snapped.
"-that's going to get us all killed one day!"
Nathan stormed up to him in a matter of seconds, gripping him by the throat. "You know what you stupid piece of shit! How about I just-"
Aaron shoved him off of Alex, standing in front of him as Alex rubbed his throat.
"Fuck you! If you seriously think that you can keep protecting that piece of shit, then you can leave with him. Tonight." Nathan said, cracking his knuckles.
Alex snorted at Nate's feeble attempt to look tough.
Oh, how this is working out.
Nathan glared angrily at the two of them, before storming back to Claire and Sam. "Get the rest of your shit and get out of here."
"Finally." Alex mumbled.
Aaron grabbed his backpack from the ground, checking inside of it to make sure everything was in there before putting it on.
"Well, let's go."