NOTE: I'm actually going up to mount Oord tomorrow (yes, it's a place) and I'll take pictures to show you what it looks like. I have already been In the trails around that area and I swear to cock it's like super-desert, but less than 3 miles away it's a green forest. Anyways, it'll be interesting to know what the setting of this story looks like. Too bad it's May so it'll be a lot more dry than it is in the story. Oh well.
"Are you guys sure about this? It's going to be dangerous and you can't carry that many supplies," Alice stated.
"Yes, I'm sure, I've survived off of eating prickly pears for Christ's sake," I joked.
"Yes, well we have back packs with 6 water bottles each, about 10 pounds of food each and we packed plenty of ammo. Ready?" Caden asked. Me and David nodded. I can't believe I'm doing all of this to save lives I said to myself, but internally, I was happy about it. David and I expected to be gone for about a week, I was more worried than I appeared.
A few hours later, me and David reached the bottom of mount Oord.
"We're lucky it's February," I exhaled as we reached the bottom. We both sat down and opened a bottle of water.
"Hm?" He questioned.
"Well, we are close to the pines, and since all of the snow is melting it's cool and green," I said with a big smile.
"But in a month it'll be as dry as an old nun's vagina," he murmured back as he took a sip of water. I didn't expect him to say that so I burst out in laughter as a reply. "Shut up Floyd, there may be saggy, dead assholes waiting for any noise to jump out!"
"Then don't be funny you jerk," I retaliated. He sent me a mock glare before we both started to laugh. We were interrupted shortly by someone screaming for bloody murder. Damn it, I wanted to rest.
Me and David sat up and ran towards the scream. We saw a group of about 10 of those creatures chasing after a little girl. I took out the nearest weapon I could find and started shooting the crap out of them. I looked to my right expecting to see David, but he was gone. I looked back at the group of the dead and started shooting again. I noticed David picking up the little girl and running.
"We're out numbered, we need to go!" He shouted. I looked back at the group and began to run as fast as I could, the dead followed.
"We still have to fight, these mother fuckers are running fast!" I gasped. The little girl began to cry, I felt bad for her, she didn't even get a chance. I pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot behind me but my aim was off. I knew I had to stop to get a good shot.
"David, keep heading straight and I'll fight these guys off!" I screamed. He nodded and continued to run. I took out another gun and began to shoot the line of the dead nearest to me. I hit one of them in the head and he did not get up. I think head shots keep them down!
My aim was spectacular, I acquired that from personal experience. It didn't matter though, because in less than a minute they all surrounded me. I had a feeling I was done for.
"Get down!" I heard a voice scream, so I followed the order. In 10 seconds the threat was gone. I looked up to see David, the little girl and 3 other people.
"Jesus Christ," I screeched.
"I couldn't leave you behind," David smiled looking right at me.
"You're lucky we were here or all 3 of you would be goners," a man I didn't know stated.
"Well thank you," I said in a slightly sarcastic tone. I looked at myself to realize I was covered in blood and guts from the waist down.
"What are you folks doing In a place like this?" One of the strangers asked.
"We have a camp, but decided to leave it to scour the desert for helpless survivors," I explained.
"You know there are a lot of bandits right? It's dangerous to leave your camp out In the open."
"We have 2 friends in that camp," I replied.
"Why didn't you leave your little girl with them?"
"She's not ours, we found her alone."
"Well, we have no where to go so we'll join you, we only have a little food and some weapons," a woman explained.
"That's fine with me. David?" I looked over at him to get his approval, he just nodded a little.
"Um, I'm Becky and these are my 2 brothers Chris and Kyle," the woman said, shaking both of our hands.
"I'm Floyd and that's David."
"Floyd? What kind of name is that!?" Chris laughed. I just shot him an awkward smile and he shut up.
Hours passed and our small group found a cave on the side of a small hill. Everyone was tired and covered in blood. If we found so many survivors so soon I couldn't imagine how many more there must be. The part that freaked me about it out was how many infected we found in one spot. I thought there would be an easy survivor to dead majority.
"I'm saw a small puddle about a half a mile from here, I'm going to go back and collect some water. Hand me your empty bottles," I sighed.
"Are you insane? Going that far in hostile land for some dirty water!?" Becky gasped.
"I can sanitize it. You don't know how many times I've lived out here."
"It's your neck not mine!" Becky laughed. Everyone handed me their bottles. I couldn't believe that all of them were empty except one in David's back pack. As I got up to leave the little girl ran toward me and wrapped her arms around my leg.
"Okay, you need to get off now," I said sternly. Everyone started to laugh until the little girl cried. David had to get up and force her off. I felt so bad for the girl, she had probably just lot her parents and din't know what was going on.
I left the cave with a few guns and a bag full of empty bottles. The trip to the puddle was pretty uneventful, which was kind of disappointing. Even though I felt bad about my past that doesn't mean I don't like to shoot things. Now, in my new world, I had a perfect excuse to go trigger happy.
About half way back I ran into David. He didn't say anything, he just took the bag out of my hands and started to walk back with me.
"What are you doing out here you could've been killed!" I said in a motherly tone.
"I kind of felt bad about running off and leaving you behind, and now you're going on a long walk to get water by yourself."
"You had a child with you."
"I should of handed her to you and let you run."
"Why would I deserve that? I've killed people over $100. Not only that but I'm a good shot, you probably would have died," I smirked.
"Just shut up and let me feel bad." I nodded as we walked the rest of the way back to the cave.
"Can you get this annoying piece of shit to shut up!?" Chris whined, motioning his hands to the little girl who was crying her eyes out. When she saw me she ran right over to me. I don't know why, but she seemed to like me. I probably resembled her mother…
"This is hard enough for an adult to go through, you don't even know how this is to her! She'll never get to drive, go on dates or experience half the things we have without fear. She's going to live her life in fear if she even lives that long," I growled, glaring at Chris. I picked up the child and took her outside the cave.
"Can you talk, Hun?" I asked her.
"Y-yes," she shivered. "Are you going to hurt me?"
"No, I'm not, we're going to take you to a place where there's food and water and really nice people," I smiled.
"Where's mommy and daddy?" After she asked me that my heart sank. I didn't know what to say so I just hugged her.
"We'll find them, I'm sure they're fine," I lied.
"Floyd, how do we sanitize this water?" Kyle peeked out of the cave to ask.
"I'll be right there." I took the little girl and lead her back into the cave. We had a large fire going. I knew that it would attract unwanted attention, but we had to use fire to sanitize the water.
I filled a metal cup with unsanitary water and set in on a large rock we put In the middle of the fire. The water began to boil so I put a piece of plastic wrap above it. The steam began to form a dew on the plastic which dripped into a water bottle. It took man hours but soon most of the water bottles were full.
"Do you think we should look for more people or come back early?" I asked David.
"We should raid a town. I hear there's one close to our location," Becky mumbled, pulling out a map of the area.
"I know of a small town about 3 miles from here, trust me, I know it can provide a lot of help," I said with a smile on my face.
"And we can trust your crazy ass?" Becky spat.
"I can't believe I'm risking my life for people like you, we should just take the little girl and go back," I hissed.
"Well, I'm sorry you stupid bitch but you don't know everything. I don't want to die out here!" Becky screamed, looking at her map to make sure I was right.
I began to grip one of my guns tightly. David looked at me, shaking his head in disapproval and I let go of the weapon. To keep my mind off the gun I squeezed my hands together. By the look on David's face, he too wanted to shoot the whore's head off.
"I know this area, I've been here hundreds of times," I calmly informed her.
"So what? You're stupid so I can't trust you."
"How do you know I'm stupid?"
"You had a good place to stay but you left that to go save lives. It's called survival of the fittest sweet heart."
"Becky, just shut the hell up," Chris rolled his eyes. "We would be dead without them."
"Okay, I guess we leave for this so-called 'town' tomorrow," Becky finally said. "Even though it's not on the map."
"It doesn't have a name," I argued. She just glared at me.
I put out the fire because it was just begging for robbers and the dead. After everyone was asleep, I crept out of the cave. I walked a few feet and looked down on the huge basin of shrubs and cacti. I sat down and sighed, I looked up at the sky which was covered in a thick layer of clouds. A few rain drops touched my face, and it was silent, just so silent…But what could I expect in a place like this?