Everything has happened so quickly that Emily barely remembers it all. When she thinks back on the events it's all a blur. She was only ten when the disease hit and took everyone she knew and loved from her, and now she lived here in this cold dismal place, while the infected run free outside. They are smart, vicious and normally kept to themselves unless they needed food. Emily knew though that they weren't human. They were something so much darker than humans.
Slowly Emily's makeshift family has been dying off; either to the disease or the hunts. She was twenty-one now and she was a freedom fighter. Almost all the kids became freedom fighters to protect the compound; if they found you worthy enough. Emily was one of the firsts. They trained you like soldiers, brutal soldiers. People were scared, she knew that. They didn't understand what the disease did to their loved ones and because of that they made this place.
The walls were thick slabs of concrete with pure silver panels on the outside. They rose to almost twenty feet. The compound was big enough to be considered a city, but it was dark. It rains constantly now as if the earth is trying to cleanse it's self of the disease or even of Emily's people. Emily felt like sometimes her and her people weren't the normal ones. The ones not welcomed; that they were the one's that were weak and missed out on some evolution theory to help their DNA. What it really came down to was the whole circle of life mumbo jumbo. They were food to these now advanced animals that were once humans, and they just fought back.
"Hey Em, where are you going?" The voice that called out to her was smooth and deep. She placed it instantly like any one would have if you've been living with the same people for twenty-one years.
"Dray, I'm heading to Boston's store to get a few supplies. The hunt is tonight remember?"
"Yeah, I know I remember. I'm already set to go."
"So then I'll see you tonight."
Emily turned and left him standing there heading to the store. She needed to grab more bullets and armaments before the hunt tonight. She knew why they hunted, to protect themselves and keep the infected population down, but they loose so many good people to the sick. Sometimes Emily wondered if it would be better to talk with the leader of the infected, if they had one, and work some kind of deal out. She wasn't sure what exactly, but what she did know was that they didn't need a lot of blood to feed. They needed just enough to keep their systems running, which is more than Emily could say about this city. Food was scarcer and scarcer every day.
The hunt came soon enough, almost too soon for Emily. Her hair was pulled back into a pony-tail and she wore black yoga pants because they gave her freedom to move more. Everyone in the hunt always met by the garage to load up in the two infested protected vehicles. She was the first to arrive, always early to arrive to anything. She leaned against the Lincoln Navigator waiting.
"You're always early to jump the gun. I tried calling your house. The hunt is off." Brayden, the town's leader more or less stood now at the entrance of the garage. "The danger zone out there is to hot. Way hot. They're smart and they've picked up on the days that we hunt. So now I have to configure new days. Surprise attacks to their nests."
"I'm always telling you, you're not giving them enough credit Bray. They aren't mindless animals. You of all people should know that."
Emily walked past him gently rubbing his shoulder. "If you need help, you know exactly where to find me."
