Chapter 2 - Time Goes By

The sun was barely below the horizon before I decided to make my way back to the house. The smell of death hung in the air as I opened the door, refusing to look to my left as I turned right to gather some supplies. I went into my parent's bedroom to see what I could find to help me out along the way. I grabbed my dad's old military backpack, as a memento and its multiple pockets, from his closet. I then turned to his gun cabinet and used the katana to break through the glass. I've never really used a gun in my life, but my dad taught me the basics on how to hold, load, and fire a shot gun, so I grabbed the first one I saw. I laid it on their bed as I bent down to open the small compartment under the case to house the ammunition. I grabbed as many shells for the gun as I could find before sitting myself down on the bed to load the gun, making sure the safety was on the whole time.

I slung the gun onto my back, grabbed the backpack and rushed up to my room to grab some essentials; my favorite throw blanket, iPod, toiletries, my stash of tobacco, some first aid supplies and a sharp kitchen knife I had up there just in case. I stared at my reflection in my closet's mirror as I packed some extra clothes and was disgusted with my reflection. Dried blood matted my skin, clothes and hair, my eyes were red and looked swollen, and was that some left over sick at the corner of my mouth? Ew. I could worry about my appearance later; right now I just had to get away. I closed up the backpack and lastly grabbed my keys from my night stand, both car and house keys were on the ring. I don't even have my driver's license, but who's going to give a fuck since it's the end of the world any way?

As I came down the stairs one last thought entered my mind; I should leave a note for my parents just in case they came back here looking for me. I meandered back into their room to find some paper and a pen, scribbling a quick note to let them know where I was and what was going on.

Mom, Dad,

I'm sorry that I left and stole the car, but I need to go, need to find some form of safety and get away from them. I love you both and will miss you dearly. Also, I'm sorry for all the things I've said and done over the years, and taking you both for granted. Thank you for being in my life.

Love, always and forever,

Ravei.

I took in a shaky breath after finishing the letter, letting the pain seep into my heart, but not shedding any more tears over it. I grabbed up all of my supplies, double checking to see if I missed anything I would need then headed out of the door. I pulled out my iPod and set it to shuffle as I got into the compact, green, geo metro and started it up. The song that came on brought on a new wave of emotions to me, but I quickly shook it off and focused on driving away from the house.

Getting a glance at the sky as I started the drive to the nearest town, which was about ten miles from my current location, I noticed that it was strangely overcast with sickly gray clouds. I checked the gas gauge, trying to determine on how much I would use on the drive to the town but figured that I would get there with enough to spare. The drive itself was calming enough, making me focus on where I was going was keeping my mind from wandering back to what had transpired at home. I had to lay my foot heavily on the breaks as I finally got to the larger town; cars were blocking the main road, most being abandoned in haste to try and get away from the undead roaming near by.

I shut the car off, pulled the keys from the ignition and threw them into the back pack before pulling it onto my back. I slammed the door closed when I was sure I had everything I needed on me before venturing out into the dead city. I used my katana to cut down any of the dead that came close to me, avoiding the use of the gun due to it making a lot of noise when fired, and continued onward, not knowing exactly where I was going or what I was going to do.

That was when my mind stepped out of it's haze, taking note of four figures firing guns and watching one another's backs through a throng of the zombies. There were three males from what I could see and one female, blasting through the horde that got in their path. They did not seem to noticed me, nor the creatures circling around out of their line of sight. I dashed forward to help them, cutting down a few of the shambling figures that were creeping up on them. They acknowledged my presence then as we fought off the rest of the zombies, returning them to how a corpse was supposed to be, unmoving.

The group and I found a shop to rest in, to which I took in their appearances. The girl had a mass of chocolate hair that came just passed her shoulders and glowing green eyes. She wore a sweat shirt sporting the local high school's logo and a pair of blue jeans with tennis shoes. The tallest male, sporting a clean shaven head, wore the typical police uniform of the area, giving me the idea that he was trying to lead the other three to safety. The second male was kind of scrawny, but with slight muscle definition. He had a short, blonde mohawk and piercing blue eyes and was wearing a dark blue trench coat. The last one was a dark skinned man, with dreadlocks falling into deep pools of brown. He wore a rastafarian colored hoodie and tan shorts.

They all smiled at me and gave me their thanks for the help I provided as I looked them all over. They did the same to me before the balding man spoke to us. "Look, we've all got to get somewhere safe." He seemed out of breath as we made our way from the shop, the mohakwed man pointing up at a building across the road that had a sign out front of a spray painted house with a plus sign across it. We darted inside and found a reinforced steel door, flew inside the small room and locked the red door behind us. We all seemed to deflate with relief at the security of the small room we took shelter in.

As we settled, everyone started to introduce themselves to one another. "My name is Veronica." The brown haired girl was the first to speak. She looked familiar to me and it dawned that I had once gone to the same school as her. "I'm eighteen and just graduated from the high school this year." She bit her lip in thought, her eyes downcast, but refrained from saying more.

"Name's James." The mohawked guy spoke. "I'm twenty two and was in the army reserves for a few years before this." He gestured around, indicating the situation we were in. "Part time I worked for a near by mall." That's where I remember seeing him from; he had worked at one of my favorite stores.

"I'm Rutherford." The bald guy started. His voice was gruff, the typical police officer voice. "Thirty-seven years old and worked at the local precinct before this happened. I also visited schools to teach kids not to do drugs." He was probably the officer that came to the high school to do those stupid D.A.R.E. presentations.

"I am Tomas." The last guy spoke, his accent definitely Jamaican. "I am twenty six and worked at a burger joint down the road. I came to this country a few years back… I never expected any of this to happen." He shrunk into himself slightly. None of us really expected the damn virus to randomly appear.

They looked at each other, sizing themselves up before their gazes all turned to me. "My name is Ravei." I sighed, my voice small, and not meeting any of their gazes. "I'm nineteen, came here hoping to find salvation from the terrors outside… and from what I had to do at home…" I lowered my head as they gave me pitying looks. I said no more and they gave my my peace, seeing the dried blood adorning my clothes. There was a bout of silence before I pasted a smile on, looking at each in turn. "If you have any minor cuts or scrapes I can dress them, I have some first aid supplies with me." I thumbed to the backpack over my shoulder, getting smiles in return from them.

What felt like weeks passed us by as we moved from one safe house to the next, becoming a sort of family along the way. We were an odd little family, but we watched out for one another, cared about each other and never left anyone behind. Most of the safe houses were stocked with food, ammunition and medical supplies so we didn't have to stray too far from an intended path to get what we needed to survive.

The things that really brought us all together in this bond was that during the first week or so we had all shared the horror stories of what brought us to this point. I had told them of what happened to my friends, and how I had to murder them to save myself, and what remained of their memories in me.

Veronica had experienced some of the same; her older brother had saved her since he was home, visiting from his college. Their father had come home one night with a horrendous bite mark on his arm, that their mother fretted over. They had watched the man die and resurrect like my own friend had and attacked their mother, who also turned after death. Her brother had killed them, but had been bitten in the process and ended his own life to make sure his sister was safe. She had decided to survive and keep going on in this world in memory of her brother.

James had just returned from military leave and went straight home to his girlfriend. He told us that she had seemed fine, if maybe a little pale due to her pregnancy. She had been hiding the fact that she had been bitten by a stranger as to not worry him when the outbreak started to take hold. In her panic, and his horror, she felt herself a threat to him and ended her own life, and their unborn child's. I felt extreme pity for the man after he told us, but he had only shook his head and told us to not dwell in the past.

Rutherford on the other hand, had still been a batchelor and was on patrol with his partner when the man complained of a stomach ache. He was too busy paying attention to the road to notice his partner turning, the thing that made him realize what was happening was the man lashing out at him, groaning. He had been lucky the man had his seatbelt on and couldn't figure out how to get out of it when he turned. With the troubles in the car, Rutherford had to swerve and ended up crashing the police cruiser into a pole, choking his once partner enough on impact for him to get out of the car and shoot the man. He had hit a vital point but the man kept thrashing, trying to get to him until he shot the man in the head.

Tomas was working when all of this had started. He was making his customer's food when one of his fellow employees attacked him. He scrambled back away from the person at a break neck pace before it caught up to him and threatened his life. He had found his saving grace in the greasy grill he was using and grabbed the employee by the neck, sending his head into the sizzling top of the grill. The manager had come out of their office to see what all the commotion was about before finding the turned employee on the grill, and closing down the restaurant the next day.

I was the last to tell my story and got looks of pity from them, before replying with the same words James had used right back at them. We didn't talk about the stories anymore and continued on with scavenging supplies and keeping one another safe for the next week.

We were on route to the next safe house, having killed at least one-hundred of the infected in our path and it was starting to take its toll on us. Yet it was strange, I felt in the best health and spit on one of the corpses that had fallen to our gunfire. I was laughing, making the others look over at me as if I had gone crazy, though maybe I was starting to. Rutherford was the first to snap out of his staring, leading us onwards. In the short time he had become the leader of our group, planning out routes and leading us through the dead city. It made some sense since he was an officer, and since he had some experience in the shoot and go tactics. James would also step in to help now and then, with his military training coming in handy. Ruth as we started calling him, became like a father figure to the rest of us.

We were running along one of the streets, looking for a safe room to spend some time in when an ammunition store came into view. We were all running low, especially me since the shot gun I brought with me was only able to hold eight shells at once and I didn't pack nearly enough. "Everyone get to the store, I'll bring up the rear!" James called from behind us. He always called rear guard as Ruth lead us forward. This was an easy task, right? Get into the ammo store, restock on what we needed for our weapons and then find a safe room. This run was anything but easy.

We heard coughing, and I was the first one to look up at the roof of the closest building. A shadowy figure, surrounded by acrid clouds of smoke, stood at the top coughing and calling out a storm. Its long tongue dangled down to its chest as it watched us carefully before shooting the appendage out at us. "Smoker!" I shouted, having seen the name on one of the safe room walls, as well as names for the other infected that mutated.

The tongue danced through the air before wrapping around Veronica, pulling her up into the air and forcing her weapon from her hands. She screeched before the tongue tightened around her and her voice came out as a whine. I aimed up at the creature, as the others were engaged in their own battles. I crouched down as I pulled the trigger, the gun slamming into my shoulder as the buck shot struck the infected. It released a large cloud of smoke upon death which made the tongue release its captive.

Veronica dropped, breathing heavily as she unwound the tongue from her body. I picked up her weapon and ran over to her, slinging the shot gun around to my back before checking her over. My hand rested on her back as she coughed in much needed air before looking up at me with a smile. "Thanks Ravei." She said as I handed her her weapon and helped her to her feet.

"No problem, Ve." I winked before drawing out my katana and running back into the fray. I slashed at a few of the zombies that got close to the other girl as she recovered before rejoining the boys. I sliced some down and she would come in behind me and finish off the ones I incapacitated. Once we regrouped we ran toward our destination, but stopped when the sound of crying reached our ears.

We had heard the crying before, but had skirted around the infected that had made those horrible wails. A gut feeling told me that we weren't going to be lucky this time around. Ruth opened the door to the shop, quickly scopeing it out before beckoning us inside. There, thankfully, seemed to be a safe room in the back of the store, but we held our ground as the crying became louder. I got to look around as James and Tomas started to gather things to put in front of the door to keep some of the infected out.

"Don't make a move." Ruth spoke as he looked around in the dim lighting that faded through the boarded windows. The rest of us froze in place as the sobbing continued, the man looking around for the source of the noise. Tomas got our attention as he inhaled sharply, his finger pointing to the far corner of the room, directly in front of the safe room door. The witch, as this mutation was called, was sitting there with her clawed hands in her lap and haunched over crying. She had her back turned toward us as she wept, her cries sending shivers down our spines. We were so close to safety for at least a night and now there was a huge obstacle in our way.

"Damn it!" I heard James scoff as he paced in his spot, running a hand through his mohawk and gripping the back of his head in anger. I could feel tension in the room, so thick that you could slice through it with a knife. When the witch reached a softer point in her crying another sound was brought to our attention, a shriek from inside of the safe room. The sound was feral, almost sounding like a howl with low growls following. Scratching came from the door as the creature inside tried to get out.

"Oh god, there's a hunter in here too! Of all the damn luck!" Tomas hissed through his teeth. Ruth then tapped on my shoulder, gaining my attention.

"Ravei, I know that you probably don't want to do this, but you remember the one wall a few days back that we stayed in? It talked about how witches can be 'crowned' with a shot to the skull from a shot gun." His eyes bored into mine for a moment before looking back at the crying infected. "You're the quietest out of all of us when it comes to walking and the only one with a shot gun. I want you to try crowning her."

"What if it doesn't work, Ruth?" Veronica voiced the words for me as she gazed up at the man, her eyes glowing slightly in a shaft of light that rested right on them.

"If it doesn't work, we'll just have to run in and back her up." Ruth looked at me, determination rolling off of him.

"I'll try." I whispered, pulling the gun from my back and checking the ammo quickly.

"One clean shot to the head, be as quick as you can. We'll need you to open the door afterwards so we can take care of the thing in there as well." His gaze went to the door, a far away look in his eyes.

I sighed, removing the backpack and katana from my body and tried to steel myself. Tomas rested a hand on my shoulder, a sign he was telling me 'good luck'. I smiled back at him before letting my eyes focus back on the witch in front of us. I didn't want to do this, I was scared out of my mind. What if I failed and put the rest of them in danger?

I couldn't and wouldn't let that happen.

I built up my courage and stalked forwards to the infected. I watched my feet a few times as to not bump into any debris and alert her to my presence. I aimed the gun in front of me, taking a stance as I got closer with one foot in front and one out to the side, pressing against the door. The witch turned as if she sensed me and started to rise up, her glowing eyes focusing on me as she started to growl. Tears were still streaming from her red eyes as I aimed toward her forehead. I gasped as my foot by the door slipped, nudging it open to reveal the creature inside.