HellaChloe: I like Hannah too! She's the smartest of the bunch, actually. Next chapter Merle and Demi will make their comeback, so you have to be a little patient, but it's gonna be fun! Merle is my favorite character to write so far.
Ultimate Queen of Cliffies: Yeah... He does. And you know what they say... Things will get worse before they get better.
Gosh, I think I edited this chapter like a million times. Still not completely satisfied, but it's the best I could do for now. My thesis supervisor was happy with my thesis, which made me happy, and made me feel like updating. Soon I'll be a Master of Science! Fun fact is my thesis is actually about disasters... Well, not about the apocalypse, of course. My supervisor would probably kick me if I would start discussing that in my thesis.
Victor's POV:
The city looked deserted. Fires had ravaged the place, cars were burned and windows shattered. This image that was burned on my retina seemed to come straight out of a war zone. Except there were no soldiers, only bodies. I could see from where we were standing that bodies were scattered across the street. Death was all around us.
Olivia covered her mouth with her hand, while Hannah gasped.
"Which way do you think the camp is?" The blonde girl asked me, still in shock. I shook my head.
"I'm not sure."
Actually I didn't even know if it was near the city, but that had seemed like the most logical option. Where else would they set up a camp? I remembered that police man saying it wasn't far from our town, and because of that I had assumed it was close to the city.
But maybe that wasn't the case at all.
"What happened to the city?" The little boy asked me, his voice trembling. Olivia turned to him, and crouched down so their eyes met. She put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I'm not sure, Daniel. I think the police officers tried to kill the things attacking us, and bombed the city or something, to kill as many of them as possible."
"I think we can stop searching for a camp around here." That was Ben's voice. "Nothing living will walk these streets anymore. Olivia is right, the place looks extinct. If there is a camp, it's not around here." He slurred a little.
"Maybe there's a camp somewhere next to the highway. I mean, most people fled town - and probably the city as well - via the highway, right? I think it would be a good idea to just start walking the highway, and see where that leads us," Hannah offered, while looking to the highway over her shoulder.
"That might be a plan," I responded, my eyes lighting up. Why hadn't I thought of that?
It didn't take us long to reach the highway. As soon as we arrived at the intersection, I gawked my eyes out. There were all these cars, stranded on the highway, but only on the way out. The road into the city was empty.
"All these people just... Fled in wild rage, didn't they?" Hannah asked while observing the road. She slid her arm around her brother, trying to shield him from the ghastly view.
"Maybe the situation in the city became untenable. The dead chased them out, but caught up with them on the highway anyway." I remarked, checking up the cars. There were bags in it, and suitcases, as if all these people had planned on leaving for a longer time. Something made them leave it all behind.
"But where did the passengers of the cars go?" Daniel's eyes were filled with fear.
I wasn't able to provide him with an answer. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to think about where those people were right now.
Ben opened a car door, and found a bottle of water on the passenger seat. "Ah, water. I've been thirsty for hours." He opened it and greedily drank half of it, causing Olivia to get irritable.
"Yes, I can only imagine," she mocked him. "Consuming all that liquor must have made you perch in thirst. You could have at least shared it. Jackass." He gave her an offended glance.
"Guys, guys, we're all thirsty, and hungry as well. Let's just loot these cars, see if we can find anything that's usable. I don't think the owners will come back for it anyway," I tried to calm them down.
We all moved up the road, checking these cars for supplies or new clothes. Olivia even found camping gear, consisting of a small tent and some unused sleeping bags. We decided to just take it, you'd never know when it would come in handy.
Then a staggering figure drew my attention. A man. I motioned the others to be quiet, and clenched to the hammer I had found a while back. He started pacing when he noticed me, obviously hungry. Fantastic.
As soon as he was within reach I delivered a blow to his head, causing him to fall down. I crouched down and kept hitting him until his face was nothing more than a gory pulp. I rose to my feet and turned around to find Hannah in shock.
"What was that?" Her eyes were big, her complexion pale, and her hands trying to cover Daniel's eyes. "Was that... A person?" I wiped the blood from my forehead, remembering neither Hannah nor Daniel had ever seen an undead person before.
"Used to be, yes. It's the teeth and the hands you should watch out for. One scratch, one bite; it kills."
"If there's one out here, doesn't that mean more will follow?" Olivia asked, looking nervous. She hadn't spoken her entire sentence, or I spotted another. Now everyone looked nervous.
"Why don't you just shoot it?" Ben proposed. "I'd do it, but you still have my gun."
"No, we're not shooting. It would draw out too much noise. Let me handle it." This time it was a woman, and I was on her menu of the night.
I firmly hit her against the side of her head, cracking her skull, but she was able to grab my arm before she hit the ground, dragging me down with her. I heard Hannah gasp in horror as an immense feeling of pain shot through my body.
Something had cut open my thigh.
"Shit!" Ben grabbed a metal rod from the ground and started bashing the woman's skull in, until she stopped moving. I felt the blood gushing out of my thigh and tried to stop the bleeding with my hands, but the blood seeped through my fingers with great force.
"Shit, shit, shit!" I heard Olivia curse. She pulled her shirt over her head and pushed it against my wound. "We need to stabilize it, otherwise he'll lose too much blood. Does somebody have a shirt for me I can tie around it? Anybody? Please!" Her eyes rested on Ben, and he quickly got out of his shirt.
"Did he get scratched?" I heard Hannah ask, and I saw Olivia shaking her head. "Not that I can see. He fell against a piece of metal, slitting his thigh open." I felt myself slipping in and out of consciousness.
"He's not going to die, right?"
No one responded.
Olivia put her hand on my forehead. "Stay with us, Victor. Please. Fight it." But it was already too late.
Everything went dark.
I heard birds chattering and people softly speaking. Those were sounds I hadn't heard in a while.
My eyes slowly opened, and I tried to blink a few times. My throat was completely dry and my neck felt stiff. As soon as I tried to sit up, a horrendous pain shot through my leg. I gasped and reached for it, but it was bandaged.
Vivid memories shot through my mind, making me remember everything again. Something had slashed open my thigh on the highway. But how did it get bandaged?
And where was I, anyway? It looked like I was in some sort of trailer, in a field bed. Kind of the trailers you would encounter on a camping holiday. I had often stayed in such trailers when I was still a child.
Suddenly the door swung open, the sunlight blinding me. "Vic! Oh, it's so good to see you're awake! You've been out for days, I wasn't sure you'd make it." I was pleased to see Olivia. The blonde girl gave me a bright smile, and then handed me a glass of water. I could barely hold it, so she helped me drink.
I coughed a few times. "Olivia... What... Where are we?" My voice cracked. She sat down at the side of my field bed.
"It's okay, we're relatively safe here. After your thigh got slit open at the highway, we had to go find shelter. Luckily Hannah and Daniel remembered this camping site. It's pretty shielded from the world, and I haven't spotted a single walker since we've arrived here. There's plenty of food, water, supplies... And best of all, these trailers can protect us at night."
I stared at her. "Walkers?"
"Yes, Hannah came up with the word. It sounds better than things anyway," Olivia smiled apologetically. Right at that moment Hannah came through the door. Her eyes lit up when she saw me, and her lips curled into one big smile.
"Thank God you're awake! How are you feeling?" She questioned me, placing her hand on my forehead. "Is your fever gone?"
"I have a major headache, and my thigh hurts, but other than that I'm fine. Alive," I concluded after the little inspection. "Thank you guys. Where are Ben and Daniel?"
Hannah smiled at me. "Ben decided to take Daniel fishing. He seems to be doing better. Both of them, actually." I returned her smile. "Ben was so moody when we met him, but for some reason Daniel really brings out the best in him." She let out a relieved sigh. "Hey, are you hungry? Wanna eat?" Quickly I nodded, and my stomach growled at the thought of food.
Hannah brought me some prepared fish and told me more about the location we were currently at. Apparently this used to be an old camp site, where people came to enjoy the beauty and quietness of nature. There was a large pond nearby, and we were surrounded by a dense forest and bushes. I had heard of the place, actually, back when the world was still normal, but this had always been a very touristic spot. That same tourism was what probably had saved my life now.
I smiled as soon as I limped outside of the trailer. There were a few small tents and two trailers, and all this camping equipment that had probably been abandoned by feeling people. Olivia had even found a way to wash our clothes. I watched Ben and Daniel play in the water from afar. Olivia emerged next to me.
"Isn't this place perfect? We have all we need here. We can stay here, at least until you are recovered. We can always go find the camp after that. Your recovery is what matters most now." I nodded at her, and sat down to give my leg some rest from standing.
"Yes, it's perfect for now. Thanks for saving my life," I thanked Olivia, who dismissed it with a faint smile.
"Of course. You're my friend. Hey, we all make a great team right now, let's try and keep it that way, okay? No quarrels, no inconsistencies. Just keeping each other safe, look out for each other."
I nodded. I knew what she was referring to. Ben and I still needed to talk, I was well aware of that.
But right now the sun lit my face and I breathed in fresh air. For the first time since this all started I felt like I could genuinely smile again. We had already made it this far. That talk would come some other time.
Little did I know our world was about to get shaken up again.
Ready for some more Merle? I sure am!