A/N: Welcome to my little corner of the Internet! Will that ever get old? No way, man! Anyways, Ben and Michael are making their way to Grimdale and let's just skip to when they're running? Cool? Good!
_(=I=)_
They had found the dusty road that snaked through the forest and curled around hills to the mysterious Grimdale. It was at that point that across the bright morning sky a few dark clouds had started to gather and an inhuman cry came from behind the two. Currently they were running away from a hoard that was quickly sprinting towards them, distorted hands reaching out to swipe at them. Michael and Ben looked at each other and back at the hoard with wide eyes.
"How did this happen?" Michael asked, "where'd they come from?"
"No idea," Ben huffed out between a few shaky breathes, even with his long legs he wasn't making up much ground and Michael could see that he was starting to fall behind. "What should we-" Ben started but suddenly with a cry of panic Ben twisted on something on the road and Michal could see that he crashed to the ground. Struggling to pull the sword from its loop Ben let out a scream as the hoard quickly fell on him, quickly making a rough circle around him.
With a million thoughts running through his mind Michael pulled the sword out of its loop and sprinted back to the hoard and quickly began to hack away at them. Bringing the blade down on the neck of the nearest creature he heard a harsh snap and watched the thing crumple over. Swiping the back of another it let out a grunt and squirmed momentarily before Michael brought the sword slashing through its neck which brought it down the road.
Peeling off of Ben the hoard was now looking at Michael who impaled another creature and kicking it back into the hoard where it crashed into two of the other walkers. Swiping the blade across the face of an approaching walker the creature writhed and sent pale fingers squirming at the bloody blur that was its face. Aiming at another walker Michael managed to send the flat blade of the sword into the thing's ribs sending it toppling over.
One of the things suddenly rushed at Michael with hands outstretched. Bulleting forward the walker sent black claws slashing through Michael's wrist, sending him scrambling over. Taking a few twisting steps Michael felt himself stumble down to the ground and land on the gravely slush of the road with a thud. One of the creatures leaned forward with rotting lips bared open, showing rough teeth glistening with some kind of black fluid; it came forward to deliver a bite when Michael heard a crunch.
Looking up with a scream half out of his mouth Michael could see a sudden wave of scarlet fill his vision, and then the headless corpse of the walker already starting to twist away. Blinking, Michael then could see the body collapsing on the road with a wave crimson coming from the stump of the neck. Feeling a sudden urge to vomit, Michael twisted away and could see Ben back on his face taking down even more walkers with quick stabs and twists with the sword.
Jumping up Michael watched as Benjamin let his sword break through the walker's chest and then let the thing fall on the side of the road. "Oh good God…" Michael said trying to resist the feeling of vomiting again, "what the hell are those things?" he asked looking at Benjamin he could see the tall man's face was twisted with disgust. "Like… are they dead? Are they like walking dead?"
"I would guess," Ben said with a frown on his face as his eyes swept over the damage, shaking himself Ben looked away and down the road. "Well, I'm pretty sure they are. However they came here is beyond me," exhaling Ben squinted at something in the distance, "okay so a little bit ahead there's that sign that says 'Grimdale' so I guess we're in the right direction."
"Alright," Michael coughed as he gathered himself; dropping the sword back in its loop Michael followed Ben as they made their way down the gravel road. Michael let the headache in his head fade away as he looked down the road, he could see a backpack sitting in the road far ahead, resting near the small Grimdale sign. Going to Ben's side he tapped his shoulder and pointed to the backpack, before asking what it was Michael watched as Ben's face seemed to pale.
"That belonged to someone named Ana I believe, she was a part of the Black Hand thing I think. I saw her heading towards the beach after she dropped her backpack," looking down at Michael, Ben saw it was Michael who turned pale this time. For a few brief seconds Ben could see a look of confusion storming on Michael's face before realization split through as he suddenly snapped to the backpack and started to sprint towards it, but still trying to be quiet.
"Um, okay Ben," Michael started to explained as he looked at the backpack, "okay so before I ran into you I was kind of going down the beach and kind of right as the sun was setting this girl came running out of the forest. She had an arrow in her side and she was really messed up; do you think that's the Ana you saw?"
"Yeah," Ben said as he stepped toward Michael, "but why are you so content on looking through her backpack?" he asked, crinkling his eyebrows.
"Well another guy I met on the beach said that she had been 'exiled' from the Black Hand thing. There has to be a reason, right?" Michael asked as he started to look through the backpack.
"I already checked it," Ben coughed, "there's nothing-" but he watched as Michael turned it over and suddenly a strange object fell on to the gravel road with a crash. But there was nothing there; I checked it Ben thought to himself as he watched Michael bend down to pick it up, but suddenly the memory of the whispers behind him; how the backpack had moved. The whispers that were always around the Man in Black… Benjamin found himself whispering it, "he put it there…"
"Who?" Michael asked as he looked over the object, Michael looked down at the shape and saw it was a leather bound book with a small latch on it. Undoing the latch and opening it up to the first page Michael looked up at Ben who seemed to be spaced out, clearing his throat Michael tried again, "Ben? Who?"
Abruptly coming out of the strange spell Ben shook his head and then started to speak; "it's just that I saw someone in the forest before I ran into you, like a man in black" he tried.
"Well shit son," Michael said as he started to stand up straight, "like a guy dressed all in black, couldn't see his face, massively tall?" Michael asked as he started to look through the book.
"Yeah," Ben said raising an eyebrow, "I take it you saw the same guy?"
"Yep, same guy same everything," Michael said as he looked through the rest of the backpack, "and I know what this is," he said as he shook the small book in his hand.
"Well… what is it?" Ben asked Michael started to flip through the book. Apparently finding something, Ben watched as Michael snapped the book close and held it up.
"I'm not entirely sure yet but I think once I'm done…" Michael trailed off as he looked at Ana's Black Hand parchment that had been left in her backpack.
"Then…" Ben pressed and Michael gave him a smile.
"I think this journal has our answers."
_(=I=)_
"Should we attack now?" Peter asked him.
Frowning back at him, Randall exhaled before answering, "no, if we attack now we're gonna risk one of them running off into the forest and escaping, we need both of their invitations to the Black Hand." For the past several minutes the two bandits had been watching Michael and Ben from off the road, occasionally looking through the trees to spy on them. Both of them had invitation to the Black Hand, Randall saw. "We have to wait until they get to the city, Grimdale, and then we kill them," he stated flatly.
"Alright, it looks like they're moving again," Peter remarked and pointed off to the road ahead of them where Ben and Michael were moving forward.
"Let's go," Randall said with a twisted grin.
_(=I=)_
Sorry for the long wait guys, life has been busy as of late but this series will continue. Also, because some of these chapters will be written weeks apart don't expect 100% accurate continuity; but according to a certain internet critic we're all living inside a giant plot hole so it's alright. Either way, I'm going to set some time aside and I'm going to write as much as I can; maybe 10 pages worth of story and then I'm gonna break it apart into MineZ chapters for you guys. Hang in there, this story had just begun.