Trapped In By All These Mountains

"We can trust them. I can tell," Maria said, rolling up the window and looking at Lleyton driving and Brandon and Natasha in the backseat. Natasha seemed recovered from her scare earlier that day and somehow seemed refreshed. She glanced up at her and slowly smiled. Maria smiled back, a motherly smile. Maria never had children. She was married to a man named Arnold, but it never really worked out. They got divorced and Arnold just disapeared and he left all of his crap at her small house.

Thank God he did or we wouldn't have these guns She thought, looking at the hunting rifle resting at her feet.

They had gotten off on the exit and were going down a small road that led into a town called Fishtown. She had never even heard of it. The small road, with many potholes and cracks in it, were surrounded by heavy willow trees and apple trees, with no visable fresh apples on them. The leaves were all turning golden, orange, and brown in the autumn air. She didn't see any zombies, which was a good thing.

The little red car turned left, onto a similar street that looked like it led into town. She saw a few small buildings, a laundrymat, a small resturant, and an antique store.

"This place sure isn't much to look at," Lleyton said quietly from the driver's seat.

"Boring," Natasha said, contributing to the conversation. It was the first thing she had said in a while, Maria was glad. Brandon had his arms crossed against his chest and was looking at the sights.

"Where are all the damn zombies?" Maria said, thinking out loud. She gazed through all the small shop windows but didn't see any. It was scary and very eerie, after seeing so many zombies through the streets and trapped in the homes on her block. Just as she was going to speak again, something came from one the alleys near a small coffee shop. Maria almost jumped out of her seat, but to her suprise it was just a large, golden retriever.

"So the zombies don't eat dogs?" Brandon said as they turned down another street, which seemed more empty than the first.

"I guess not. Whoa! There's one!" Lleyton said, taking a hand off the wheel to point at a zombie trapped in a old, beat up truck. It was an older man, beating on the bloodied windows, trying to escape. Maria wrinkled her nose at it and said, "Well, let's hope it doesn't break out."

The little red car pulled into the parking lot of a small gas station and they followed, parking next to it. Maria grabbed her rifle from her feet and said, "Be on your guard."

She opened up the truck door and jumped out, the feeling of cement against her running shoes feeling oh so familar. Natasha got out of the car and stayed at her side, with the little butcher knive in her hand. They had run out of rifles, but Maria knew that the shaken little teenager could never use one anyways. Maria led the girl to the glass front doors of the gas sation, which was also a mini-mart. Lleyton and Brandon followed behind them as the other survivors got out of the car.

They were all looking around catiously as they got out of their vehicle. There were two females-one an older looking woman and one who looked like a teenager, just like Natasha. The other was a man. They looked weathered, like they had just been through hell and back, which was partially true. Maria glanced from them and then into the gas sation. Everything seemed to be shut up and dark inside, except for a small TV that was placed on top of the counter near the cash register. It was on, lighting up the room just slightly and she could only see the Emergency Alert System playing over and over again on the screen.

"Can you see any inside?" The older looking woman said, glancing at her. She could feel that this was someone she was going to be close to. They seemed close in age and somehow, she could sense her attitude. She had long, wavy dark brown hair that went down to her middle back and deep, emerald green eyes that seemed so serious and concentrated. She wore a wrinkled black skirt suit which seemed to be so out of place with the rifle raised in her hands. She was ready to shoot anything suspicious.

"No. Not from here. Let's just hope there's none inside," Maria said softly, opening the door with her shoulder. She stepped inside slowly, the sound of her shoes soft taps against the tile floor. It smelled like a strange mixture of gasoline and coffee inside, which smelled somewhat good. She couldn't hear anything inside as she fully stepped in with her hunting rifle raised, the others following behind her.

In the room there was the counter, on top was the cash register, TV, and a few boxes containing lighters, candies, and other knick knacks and snacks. There was a little island that contained coffee makers, shelves of donuts and cookies, and a hot chocolate maker. There were a few shelves lined up in the room filled with various items and there were refridgerators in the back of the room. Maria heard a rustle from one of the aisles. She tensed and slowed her step, causing the others behind her to slow down as well.

She heard steps which weren't her own or any of the other survivors. There was a member of the living dead amongst them.

An old woman peeked her ugly head, which was half knawed off and the remaining half a blood soaked grimace. The woman screamed as best as she could, blood spraying from her mouth. Her scream echoed across the room as she sprinted towards them, hands outstreched to grab her and eat her. Maria raised her gun higher and squeezed the trigger.

The rifle smacked against her shoulder lightly, light enough to only sting and the poor old lady flew back into one of the refridgorators, smashing the glass and causing a rack of frozen pizzas and bags of ice to fall on her. The shot had went through her chest, but somehow she was still alive. They had figured out and from the help of the Emergency Broadcast system that a blow to the head would kill them.

Buried under the pizzas and ice, the grandma tried to free herself. She didn't take her filmed over eyes from them and her mouth was open, as if she was talking, whispering to herself. Maria aimed against, for her head, and squeezed the trigger. The rest of her head exploded in a blast of blood, brain, and ice chunks.

Everyone-well, besides Natasha-was uneffected by the dead woman in front of them, the blood dripping from some of the aisles, the large blasts from the hunting rifle, the bloodied ice. Natasha looked on with tear filled eyes. The teenager who was driving the little red car slowly brought her arm around the girl's shoulders and said, "It's okay. We saved her. We saved ourselves from becoming one of them."

The teenage girl had straight, honey blonde hair that went down to her breasts and deep, emotional icy blue eyes. She wore jeans, a black tank top, and a bloody and sweaty looking teal sweatshirt. She seemed as if she understood this all too well. Something happened to her. She lost someone important to her. The man with them seemed strong, smart, and he seemed to keep to himself somewhat. He was handsome and wore a white t-shirt and jeans.

"Well. That was plesant," Maria said, breaking the silence, "Anyways, I'm Maria Bennet."

Slowly everyone began to introduce themselves. The teenage girl was named Tatiana St. Clair, the suit wearing woman was Antoinette Butula, and the man was Alex Korolev.

"From the police station we were camping out in, we used their radios to call out to any other survivors out there. We heard from someone from Raven Heights-" The woman, Antoinette began.

"The vacation town?" Brandon said, interupting.

"Yes, exactly." Antoinette said softly and firmly, "There are a group of survivors hiding out in a hotel there. There are plenty of rooms and more than enough food there. But, there are a hoard of zombies outside, surrounding the place."

"So. We go in and kill them off and stay there?" Maria asked, leaning against the counter, next to Natasha.

"Yes. Pretty much," Tatiana said. She was against the coffee island, eating an energy bar she had taken from one of the shelves.

"Is...there any help comming?" Natasha said softly from her spot next to Maria. Everyone looked at each other. The probability of help comming was slim to none. Who knew if any of the police officers, soliders, or any of the national guard were even still alive. This plague was around the entire country, it seemed.

"We're not sure," Alex awnsered her simply. He was leaning against the back of the cash register.

"Whats going to happen to us!?" Natasha burst out, her danity voice cracking and she burst into tears, bringing her hands to her face. Her body shudder into sobs and she cried. Maria frowned and put her arms around the girl's slim frame, the sobs shaking her body as well. Seeing the helpless teenager cry wanted her to as well. But there was nothing to cry about. They had to survive. Who knew what was going to happen to them. They didn't have time to sit and mope about it.

"Nothing will happen to us. We're going to live and we're going to move on, honey. Everything will be okay," Maria said gently to her in her best motherly voice. Natasha just sobbed on her shoulder, not stopping. Maria glanced up from Natasha's curly light blonde hair to the other survivors who just helplessly looked on.

"I think I speak for all of the people who came with me," She said quietly, "We're going with you."

They decided on taking her SUV, it had more room. She and Antoinette chose who was doing what job-filling up gas canisters, gathering food, or reloading the weapons. Maria had decided she would gas up the SUV and some of the dirty gas canisters laying around with Tatiana. Maria filled up the SUV and would guard them while Tatiana filled the canisters. Antoinette, Natasha, and Brandon were packing up some of the snacks in the mini-mart into some backpacks that were for sale. They were packing things such as bread, bottles of water, and other foods that could come in handy.

Alex and Lleyton were slowly reloading the guns with the packs of ammo they had taken from some of the duffel bags in Tatiana's car.

It was about maybe 1 in the afternoon, Maria guessed. The sky was cloudly and a chilly wind blew, but the wind felt so good going through her hair and across her face. She really didn't like the small of gasoline, but it was a plesant smell to her now. Her SUV was almost out of gas when they got onto the highway, it scared her. She couldn't imagine being trapped on the highway, surrounded by the zombies and the zombies trapped in their cars, trying to escape. It made her shiver.

She kept her brown eyes scanning to the left and to the right, hunting rifle raised.

Fishtown seemed like it was a pleasant town once, the type of town where everyone knew each other and where everyone was friendly, a town where there was no real crime. The type of town she wanted to live in. But she had decided to move to the big city with her then husband Arnold, where he worked as an executive at some huge company in the city. But then he started drinking heavily and lost his job. she was a stay at home wife, because at that time, Arnold's job was more than enough money for them to get by on. They lived comfortably.

But, that was a long time ago. This was definately not a time to be thinking about any of that.

Antoinette and Natasha were bringing out the backpacks of food. There seemed to be a backpack for everyone, a little emergency kit almost. Tatiana closed the cap on one of the gas canisters and lifted it up with a tad bit of difficulty. Maria took it from her hands and carried it to the back of the SUV and set it in next to another canister. She wiped a layer of sweat from her forehead and sighed. They were lucky enough to not have any zombies around while they were doing this.

"Here's the last one, Maria," Tatiana called out, lifting up the canister. She walked slowly and set it in, groaning at the weight of it.

"As you can tell, I was not a weight lifter when things were normal," Tatiana said, her voice light and joking. Maria giggled but stopped abruptly.

She heard footsteps.

She raised her gun, pivoting on her heels glancing all around. She still heard them. Where the fuck are you?

Tatiana slowly moved, back against the side of the SUV. She had a cool, calm look to her face, but Maria could tell she was self-destucting in freight inside. She slowly bent over to grab her rifle that was set on the side of the truck and Maria screamed out as the zombie finally revealed itself, sprinting towards Tatiana who had dropped her gun, the zombie's and her eyes meeting.

The zombie pinned Tatiana to the side of the truck, but she wouldn't let herself die easily. She screamed out, her voice high-pitched, her hands locked around the zombie's bloody, grimmy wrists, fighting it back. Maria ran up and aimed, scared that she would hit Tatiana in all the commotion.

She had to believe in herself. She had to save her compatriot.

She squeezed the trigger and was instantly covered in gray brain matter and sticky, running blood. The limp body dropped on its knees and then on to it's side, very much dead and headless now. Tatiana, still stiff with freight, took her eyes from the body to Maria. Her face was red with blood and we clothes were now drenched. She let out something between a sigh of relief and a short, forced laugh. She ran up and hugged Maria, squeezing her tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you!," She cried, her voice cracking, "Holy shit, that thing could have killed me! I would have...been one of those things!"

"But you're not. You fine, honey. Don't thank me," Maria said, patting her back with her free hand. Alex and Lleyton, guns in hand, ran out of the gas station.

"What happened!?" Lleyton cried, running up to them, "Are you guys okay? Is anyone bit?"

Tatiana turned to them, with her arm still shakily around Maria and said, "No. No, its okay. We're fine. Maria just saved my life, so i'm good."

Maria blushed a little bit and she said, "Yeah. Can we get out of here now? Who knows how many more of those things are just hiding out here."