Author's Note: Yay, 20 chapters! Sorry it's taken so long, hopefully I'll be posting more often now. However, I have to write an entire book for school, so my attention is divided at the moment.
BAM! BAM! The gunshots stung Alice's ears, as she slashed with her knife, desperate to keep the mutants away. Things became more chaotic, as she lost sight of Gina and Dylan among the mutants. As she continued fighting, she began to notice a small opening in the mutants, just to the side. Charging through several lone mutants, she managed to escape the bulk of the herd, escaping to the side. Climbing atop a nearby van, she did her best to kill the mutants from above with her knife, bending over the side.
"Gina, Dylan! Over Here!" She yelled, signaling to the two survivors still fighting among the group of corpses.
Gina and Dylan made a run for it, shoving several mutants to the side. Alice cleared a path for them with her gun, doing her best to save ammunition. Once the mutants to the side of the van were cleared, Gina and Dylan joined her atop the van, slashing at the corpses below. The herd had now surrounded them, the arms of the mutants grabbing at their ankles. The entire neighborhood was littered with corpses, some alive, some dead.
"How the hell are we gonna get out of here?" Gina yelled over the noise.
"We'll have to wait it out," Dylan said loudly, "they ought to lose interest eventually."
"That'll take too long," Alice rebutted, "we should try to find a way out."
"With a herd this size? Are you kidding me?"
"If we cover ourselves in their blood," Alice explained, gesturing for them to help her hoist a dead mutant onto the van, "they'll think we're one of them. As long as we're fully covered, we ought to be able to walk through the herd."
Dylan and Gina gave her doubtful looks.
"Trust me," she assured, "it'll work."
The three survivors got to work, hacking apart the corpse of a mutant atop the van, being careful not to fall, and covering themselves in blood and insides. Before long, their clothes were completely covered in blood, their faces painted as well. Alice looked at the others for approval to go into the herd.
"Don't look at me," Gina said, "you're going in first."
Alice slowly descended down the windshield of the van, lowering herself into the herd cautiously. The mutants eyed her curiously, but didn't attack. With one glance back at Gina and Dylan she began to slowly walk towards the forest, nearing the edge of the herd. Slowly, the other two began to follow, looking nervously at the mutants as they entered the herd. The corpses around them were mostly oblivious, but occasionally turned towards them, causing Gina to grip her gun tighter. Eventually, all three reached the forest, out of the herd.
"Let's hurry," Dylan said, leading Alice and Gina back towards Safe Haven, "the others are probably worried about us."
"That's the last time I go with you two on a supply run." Gina joked.
Slade rested his chin on his knuckles, as he contemplated his next move, his eyes surveying the chess board for the best option. Jacob sat across from him in the tent, impatiently anticipating his next move.
"Stop taking so long!" Complained Jacob eagerly. Slade grinned, and with one swift, confident move, put Jacob in check. His brother was getting harder and harder to beat, as he rapidly grew in skill.
"Check." He announced.
Before his brother could respond, Lana poked her head through the tent flap without warning.
"Alice's back." She said plainly, then walked off.
"We'll continue this later," Slade said, leaving his brother alone in the tent.
Allen and Mal kept their heads low, as they scouted the mysterious border of vehicles from afar with binoculars. From what they observed, a small road was next to the camp, sprinkled with snow from the night before. The camp border was patrolled by two survivors at all times, and there seemed to be a good number of people within the camp.
"How many you think are in there?" Asked Mal.
"Too many to take as it is," Allen replied analytically, "we'd need to take them by surprise."
"What about the sentries?"
"We don't need to worry about that. Once we take out the walls, the biters will do the rest. If we got enough blood on us, we'll be able to sneak in and take what we need without too much trouble."
"You sure this will work?"
"I'm sure. Let's get back to the others."
Alice settled into her bed, tired from the day. She enjoyed the feeling of brisk winter air in her lungs. Or was it winter? She couldn't tell, but enjoyed the snow nonetheless. Winter had always been her favorite season, between Christmas, the snow, and the nostalgia, it was simply perfect for her. Snow had just started to show up a week or so previously, around two months after she arrived at Safe Haven.
[As much as I loved winter, it was still a concern. Safe Haven couldn't stay a small camp in the woods forever, especially not with Lily's baby on the way. The others had only found out just after we reached Safe Haven, but I think most of them had suspicions prior. All it would take was a big herd, and the camp would be overrun. The border of cars could easily be crawled under or passed over by looters. We had been keeping our eyes out during our supply runs for a new place to live, but nothing stood out. The area was mostly decayed neighborhoods.]
Despite feeling exhausted before, Alice found it difficult to sleep. Hours passed, yet she stayed wide awake, occupied with her thoughts. Tossing and turning, she eventually decided it was useless. Her sleep schedule had been quite twisted lately, often taking naps mid-day.
Suddenly, she began to hear a noise. Footsteps, just like the ones she'd heard that night just after arriving. She'd heard them before a few days back, following the same pattern. She slightly opened her tent flap, just enough to see the person pass by. It was too difficult to see. The person climbed over the border of vehicles, and began to walk off into the night.
This time, however, she wasn't willing to give things up. Letting her curiosity drive her, she cautiously exited the tent, following the figure, who was already over the wall. Lining herself up behind a car, she squatted down to see underneath. She could see the person's boots casually walking away. Maybe it was just someone going to the restroom. Yet once again, the footsteps kept going. Past several of the nearest trees. Past the small gulch near the road. It appeared that the figure was simply taking a walk down the road. Puzzled, Alice began to crawl through the space under the car, into the forest.
It was becoming difficult to see the mysterious person anymore, as they continued to casually stroll down the road, ignoring the mutants around them. Alice was forced to follow them cautiously from behind trees, being careful of mutants in the dark. Luckily, it was a bright evening, with a shimmering moon to give her light. The disappearance of man completely destroyed light pollution, making the stars were easy to see. It appeared that whoever she was following was a man, from what she could tell. What was wrong with them? Several mutants came quite close, but whoever it was simply kept walking as if nothing happened. Finally, one of the mutants touched him.
As if something had triggered inside him, the shadowy figure spun around, quickly dispatching the attacker with his knife. Alice quickly ducked behind a tree, as the man was now looking directly in her direction. Eventually, she peeked back out. The man was gone.
Puzzled, Alice began to walk back. It wasn't safe out it the forest anyways. She tried to minimize the crunch of snow beneath her feet, now keeping an eye out for anyone who might be nearby. She continued walking back down the road, looking back often. Several mutants were following her, but she was walking too fast for them to catch up. Becoming accustomed to the footsteps, she failed to notice a different set until it was too late.
Suddenly, a strong arm grabbed her by the shoulder. Yelping in surprise, she turned to face glaring eyes, bright even in the dim atmosphere. Francis?
"Francis?" She whispered, catching her breath.
"Why were you following me?" He replied loudly, with a somewhat angry tone. Several mutants were approaching, but he didn't seem to notice.
"I- I didn't know what you were doing...I thought maybe you were-"
"Next time stay in bed." Without another word, he walked away, back toward camp. He had an oddly unconfident tone in his voice, sounding somewhat nervous. Maybe even embarrassed.
"Wait," she whispered, struggling to keep up with his quick pace, "what were you doing out there?"
"H- why do you care?"
"Normal people don't take walks at night with five mutants following them."
"Just forget this happened. It's not a big deal."
Alice reached out, and tried to grab him by the shoulder. He jolted around, surprising her. Apparently he didn't like being touched. He relaxed, shrugging her away with his shoulder.
"Good night," he said, walking off into the forest instead of taking the road, "Alice."
"But-"
"Good night."
Riley pushed his messy hair from his face, groggily opening his eyes. He hated the mornings, especially in winter. Being someone who got cold easily, he simply wasn't designed to wake up in the freezing air of the winter mornings. After about thirty minutes, he finally sat up, groaning. As much as he didn't feel like moving, the cold air forced him to make effort to get dressed.
He was hungry, but the thought of exiting the tent weighed down his desire for food. He laid back down, but was quickly disturbed by Alice, who peeked her head in.
"Breakfast's almost gone," she announced, "you coming?"
"Mhm." His eyes were barely open, his voice low and tired.
"Sometime today, if possible." Alice grinned, and walked away.
Allen stood in his camp, working to pack up a tent. Josiah approached from behind, prompting a nod of greeting.
"This camp you told us about-" he said, "How many people?"
"I'd guess about thirty," Allen replied, "if not more."
"You really think we can take 'em?"
"If we're smart about it. We strike at night, quick and easy. They won't see it coming. We let the biters do the work for us. Once it's over, we go in and take what we need."
"It's too risky, if you ask me. We've got enough supplies to last. Why bother?"
"This is how we survive, Josiah. There's enough loot at that camp to last us weeks."
"W- what if we just joined them?"
Allen turned around.
"Is there a problem, Josiah?"
"No, it's just-"
"This is happening tonight, with or without you on board. We can't afford to be soft. You may be fifteen, but you still have to contribute. That means helping us take down this camp."
"Yeah...I know."
"You better."
Lily's day passed quickly. She took a nap, as usual, ate dinner, then lied down to sleep. She found herself being tired more and more often nowadays, something she didn't like. The others said it was natural because of her pregnancy, but the feeling of being a liability to others made her nervous. Between the vomiting, sleep, and pain, pregnancy wasn't as she expected. She and Jay had discussed it before the outbreak, but she'd never really known what it would be like.
She began to lose herself in the sound of crickets, drifting into sleep.
Mal nervously inserted the keys into the minivan, rehearsing the plan over and over again in his head. It was dark, but even in the night he could see the border of cars in the distance down the road. The smell of the blood on him and his companions pierced his nose, but from the way the biters around were ignoring them, it was working.
"You know the plan," Allen urged, "we don't have time to wait."
"Give me a second," Mal snapped, "okay? I don't see you volunteering to drive the van."
Allen fell silent.
Taking a deep breath, Mal started the van, and began to drive, slamming on the gas pedal. Once the van had gained enough speed, he opened the door, and jumped out, letting the adrenaline guide him.
Hitting the ground with force, he rolled along the snow, but his heavy padding and jackets kept him relatively unharmed aside from a couple scratches. Then, just as he regained his breath, he heard the crash. The car had slammed directly into the border, smashing a hole through the wall of cars, and setting off the car alarm, catching the attention of all the nearby mutants.
With that, Mal and the others began to move in.
Car alarms. Gunshots. Yelling. Alice's mind was racing, as she was abruptly woken up by chaos in the camp. Normally, she was dazed upon waking, but tonight she was wide awake. Running out of the tent, she looked around with bewilderment.
Somehow, a car had smashed through the border of vehicles surrounding the camp, turning the circle of cars into a noise machine made of car alarms. The sound was difficult to hear over, but the movement of people in the camp told her everything she needed to know. Flashlights were waving all over, and the only noise that prevailed over the car alarms were the gunshots. Most of the mutants were pouring in through the breach, while some crawled underneath the wall from all around.
As soon as she came to her senses, she became far more aware of the mutants around her. Running to the side of the camp, she climbed atop a car on the border to get a better view. Even with her flashlight, it was difficult to tell which bodies were mutants or other humans, but she did her best to shoot those that she knew for certain were corpses. But in the end, until the car alarms shut off, there was no stopping the onslaught of mutants. Several of the other Safe Haven residents had also gotten atop the cars, firing at the mutants inside.
Among the chaos, she spotted Vera and Dylan desperately trying to navigate their way to the border. They didn't appear to have flashlights, pushing their way through the mutants.
"Hey," Alice yelled over the noise, shining her flashlight on them, "over here!"
The two survivors made their way through the camp, running to the border of cars as Alice covered them with her gun. Finally climbing atop, they turned to Alice, who was still firing with her gun.
"Alice," Vera yelled, "we have to go! There's too many of them!"
"What about everyone else?" Alice yelled, not diverting her attention.
"They'll meet us out on the road!" Vera grabbed Alice, who sighed, and followed her off into the forest with Dylan.
Alice took one last look back at the ravaged campsite, then kept running.
[And just like that, I was back out on the road. I wasn't even sure how it happened. All I knew was that I needed to make sure the others were okay. For all I knew, everyone from my group was dead. Of course, I knew that was unlikely, but it was difficult to keep my thoughts under control. But above the others, there was one person I was most worried about - Riley. Maybe it was because I had been with him the longest. Maybe it was because I trusted him. Maybe something else. Whatever it was, I knew I needed to make sure he was okay.]
Riley kept his knife raised, as he, Daniel, Slade, and Lily made their way through the chaos of the overrun camp. He saw Daniel say something, but couldn't hear over the sound of the car alarms. Finally, they reached the border of the camp. Lily went first, climbing over as the others covered her. Next went Daniel, then Slade.
As Greg climbed the border, Riley noticed something odd. One of the nearby mutants was moving strangely, less chaotic than the rest. Suddenly, it hit him. The group that broke through the wall was after their supplies, probably covered in blood to stay undetected. He didn't have much time to think however, and followed the others over the border after a moment's hesitation.
As he and the others ran off into the forest, Slade hesitated.
"You guys go on," he ordered loudly, "I need to find Jacob."
"Slade," Riley said with little confidence, "he'll be fine. We need to stay together."
"Just go, I'll meet you at the road!" Without a word, Slade headed back to the camp.
Lana did her best to keep from panicking, as she made her way out of the overrun camp. She had managed to drag a mutant into a tent and cover herself with its blood, going undetected through the herd. She'd noticed other people doing the same thing, those who she didn't recognize. She couldn't be sure, but they were likely the group who attacked the camp. But, she was too far away from them to attack.
As she walked through the hole in the border, she noticed a body on the ground, being devoured by a group of mutants. Nathan. She hadn't known him all that much, but as far as she knew, he was only fifteen. One of the several bodies she'd recognized on the way out.
Pushing her anxious thoughts to the side, she focused on her footsteps, ignoring the chaos around her. But, she couldn't help but wonder where she would go from here. Would she find the others? Who was still alive?
No. Worrying wouldn't do any good, she told herself.
Just keep walking.
Author's Note: Out of all the recent chapters, this one was the easiest to write. I felt a lot less writer's block than before, and I felt pretty motivated. Unfortunately, I have to write an entire book for school by early May, which means that will require most of my attention. Review(1-10 Rating is appreciated) if you can, please!
Reader-made OC Credits:
Abby - Created by TheInternetSassQueen
Vera - Created by FromTheClouds
Francis - Created by FromTheClouds
