A.N: Oh? Do you guys hear that?

Sounds like... ANOTHER UPDATE! Woohoo! This one is super short I know. But you'll see why by the end of it.

Again! Thank you all for sticking with me through this! And thank you to those who have Followed and Favorited.

I love you!

Without any delay. LETS GOOOO!

ENJOY!

Chapter 28: Lost Memories Deep Within Can't Stay Hidden Forever

After about two to almost three hours of rest, the four teens made their journey through the forest. They stuck close to the road so they wouldn't get lost. It was hard as hell walking through the dense greenery after everything they had been through.

Jack felt so out of it, he was certain he looked almost like a zombie himself. The fact that he was walking bare feet wasn't helping at all. He would occasionally wince at the pricks the soles of his feet got. Ugh, he never hated nature so much until now.

Rapunzel seemed to be happy with leading the pack for now, though she seemed just as tired as the next person. Every now and then she would comb her fingers through her shortened hair and twirled the ends.

Hiccup huffed in exhaustion as he concentrated in putting one foot in front of the other. Why did stamina have to abandon him like this? Gosh, he needed to exercise more. Work on his cardio or something. His motivation for now was his ever faithful companion. If Toothless can do it, so can I. The canine skipped happily beside his master; sometimes stopping to sniff the air or a sniff the ground and do whatever dogs do.

Merida lagged behind the group. Each step she took caused her anxiousness to spike up. She didn't understand why but the forest was making her extremely uncomfortable. The trees and bushes, the grass and leaves, everything seemed to be taunting her.

What the hell is wrong wit' meh?

She wiped the sweat off her brows. It was a cool night but still Merida felt hot and clammy. She touched her forehead as she felt a headache coming on. Jus' perfect! She hadn't been concentrating on her surroundings and bumped into Hiccup when the latter stopped abruptly.

"Oi, what's the big ide-" Whatever Merida was about to say was silenced by her friends.

"Shh…"

"Do you hear that?"

Merida listened more intensely for any sound that was out of place. The rustling of fallen leaves and twigs made by the small critters that came out only at night were gone, the winds had slowed done to almost a complete stop, and the crickets too had gone silent.

It felt like everything around them had come to a complete stand still. It was eerie.

Just then they heard noises to their left. Leaves and twigs snapped as if to indicate that someone was walking on them. The four of them listened and waited for any kind of movement in the woods.

Just as the noises began it stopped and everything went back to being eerie silent again. They waited some more and then began to relax.

"Must've been an animal…"

But no sooner were those words spoken by Rapunzel, a ravaging zombie jumped out from the bushes and tackled her to the forest ground. She went down with a sharp yelp.

"Oh no you don't," Not again. Jack growled. He rushed to Rapunzel's side and yanked the zombie away from her.

He grabbed ahold of its shoulder straps and heaved with every ounce of strength he had. When the zombie let go of her, he shoved it away from them.

Only then, were they able to get a good look at the monster. It was none other than the guy who had shot Hiccup back at the convenient store. He must've wandered into the forest in a last ditch effort to escape the zombie infested town but inevitably turned into one himself.

The zombie got back on its feet, like a puppet rising at the puppeteers command. It growled low and moaned. Jack helped Rapunzel up quickly and took defensive stances. All previous exhaustion forgotten.

Merida brought her bow and arrow up and aimed it at the zombie's head. She had a clear shot. She narrowed her gaze and prepared to fire just as the zombie launched itself at her.

Then suddenly the tree around her changed its type and the zombie morphed into a demonic animal and Merida just… froze.

Voices filled her head and her hands shook involuntarily. Memories flashed rapidly in front of her eyes. Painful memories. Memories that were better off forgotten.

'Please stop' Merida whispered to her mind. 'I don' wanna remember… '

Please Merida, please don't let it kill meh!

I don' wanna die!

Help meh…

It hurts!

I promise I'll protect ya,

Noooo!

"MERIDA!"

Merida jolted back to reality just as Hiccup slammed into her; forcing them both to the hard unforgivable ground.

Rapunzel threw heavy rocks at the zombie, hoping to get its attention away from her two distraught friends. Well, it worked.

The zombie, having missed its initial target turned to Rapunzel and charged again but it didn't get even remotely close to her.

Jack delivered a bone crushing blow to its abdomen using a long hard staff like object that strangely resembled a shepherd's crook. The zombie crumbled to the ground and lay there twitching for a few seconds.

Before its body could recover from the shock, Jack hopped and stood over the disgusting creature. He raised the staff high above his head such that the sharp end was pointing at its disfigured face. Jeez, talk about déjà vu. He brought the staff down hard and fast and pierced the neck of the zombie. The wood went straight through and lodged itself into the ground.

Blood and ooze began gushing out from its putrid neck, soaking the ground around it with the rancid liquid. It feebly clawed at Jack legs as he walked away but soon, even that movement stopped and it lay there as a creature of the dead once more.

Hiccup scuffled off of Merida and sat by her side. Anger bubbled inside him at his reckless friend.

"What the hell, Merida?! Why didn't you take the sho-" Hiccup bit his tongue when he saw the red head's face.

"Merida…" Rapunzel said crouching down beside her friends. "You're crying…"

"Wha-" Merida hadn't realized that. She brought her hand up to her face to touch her cheeks and sure enough, it was wet. She was crying but she was too shaken up to care.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked softly. "Are you hurt?"

Merida shook her head and broke down completely. She cried till she couldn't anymore. The other three teens exchanged worried glances as their wild haired friend became lost in her memories once more.

Short but sweet...? heh... heh...?

SHOUT OUTS!

thewindyguy: Looolll IKR! Sorry about the horrendously long wait. But here it is. I'm back and ready to traumatized our babies some more. hehehe. Cookie? (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)

And with that. I will see you all next time!
Take care all. I love you
Stay safe!
Byeeee!