Sorry for the long wait! Now that the holidays are over, there definitely will be faster updates. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Jake watched from afar as Marley slept on the dirty old couch peacefully, wondering how the hell she could possibly sleep so soundly at a time like this. For the past week, he had barely gotten a wink of sleep from all the paranoia.
"Doing okay?" Ryder asked.
Jake took his eyes off Marley. "Yeah, man."
Ryder took a deep breath and sat next to his friend. "You know we can't stay here forever, right? Once more of those biters come, this place will be overrun. We should make a plan for when that happens."
"Do you honestly think it will get to that point?" Jake asked. "Shouldn't the government, or the army, or whatever be taking care of all this?"
"For all we know, everything's wiped out. We're all on our own."
"I can't believe this is happening," Jake said, running a hand through his short hair.
"Yeah, I know." Ryder nodded sadly. "So what are we going to do about the girl?"
"Marley?"
"Yeah."
"She comes with us," Jake said without hesitation. "There's no way we could leave her."
"Dude, what if she slows us down?"
"We're not leaving her," Jake repeated sternly.
"Well you're going to have to tell her that there's no way in hell she's finding her friend."
"You don't know that," Jake said. "I didn't think I'd ever see another living person again since this thing started, and then somehow I found her. She was scared and alone. I feel like I need to make sure she's always safe, you know?"
"Dude, you've known her one day and you're already in love with her," Ryder snickered.
Jake rolled his eyes. "I'm not."
Ryder just laughed in response.
Marley was back in her hometown, Lima, Ohio. She could clearly see the multiple identical brick houses and the tall, luscious trees that made up her neighborhood. Everything was peaceful and quiet as Marley walked towards her old house. Up ahead, she could make out a blurry figure. The closer she got, the clearer it became. "Mom!" she cried out in relief when she reached her house. "What's going on? Where is everybody?"
Marley's mother reached out and hugged her daughter. "I'm so glad you're here," she said. "I've been looking for you."
Out of the corner of her eye, Marley spotted something walking towards them. Only it wasn't walking. It was more like limping. And it was making noises. "Mom!" she yelled. "Watch out!"
But it was too late. The disfigured creature lunged forward and grabbed onto her mom, sinking its rotting teeth into her neck.
"Mom!" Marley cried, stepping back. Her vision started to blur, and suddenly, all she could see was red. There was so much blood. Once the creature was done with her mom, it made its way towards Marley, ready to attack. It came closer, and closer, and closer, and-
Marley jumped up from the couch, her eyes popping opened as she screamed in agony. She screamed and screamed until Jake and Ryder ran towards her.
"No!" she screeched, mistaking them as the things that killed her mother, as she was still very disoriented. "Get away from me!"
Jake took a seat on the couch and calmly rubbed her back. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said soothingly. "It was just a nightmare."
Marley looked around the room, her senses finally coming into place. "I-I'm sorry," she said, suddenly feeling embarrassed.
"It's okay," Jake assured. "I have nightmares about it too."
"It was my mom," Marley sniffled, using her sleeve as a tissue. She then realized that the clothes she was wearing were the only clothes she had.
"Did they get her?" Jake asked.
Marley wiped away another tear. "Yeah. A-And I'm sure it wasn't even a dream. It probably actually happened. She's probably dead right now."
"Don't think like that," Jake said. "I have nightmares just like yours about my mom and my brother Puck, but I still have hope that wherever they are, they're safe."
Marley nodded. "You're right."
Ryder cleared his throat in attempt to get Jake and Marley's attention. "Um, guys, I hate to be a buzzkill, but I think Marley's screaming attracted some of the biters."
The two of them joined Ryder in his spot looking out the window. Sure enough, three of them were headed towards the house.
"Crap," Jake cursed under his breath. "Hand me a knife."
Ryder walked to the kitchen as quietly as possible and took a large cutting knife out of the drawer, passing it to Jake and taking another one for himself.
"I thought you had guns," Marley said, eyeing the knives.
"Like I said earlier, any loud noise attracts them. If I fire my gun, any biter within miles will hear it," Jake said. He opened the front door and waited for them to get closer.
"So you're going to stab them?" Marley asked, her voice shaky. She still wasn't used to the whole killing thing.
"Yep. Right in the brain," Ryder said.
"Stay here," Jake instructed her. "Just watch how we do it."
"O-Okay."
"In three, two, one." And just like that, Jake and Ryder ran towards the biters, plunging their knives through their heads as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
"And that's how it's done!" Ryder high-fived Jake. "Dude, that gave me a major adrenaline rush!"
"I bet," Jake laughed.
"Are you guys serious?" Marley said, getting over the initial shock of watching the two boys stab living-well, nonliving, things in the head. "That was fun to you?"
Ryder shrugged. "You gotta do what you gotta do."
"You get used to it," Jake added. "It gets easier every time."
"I don't think I could ever do that," Marley said, still staring at them in disbelief.
"Well you're going to have to sometime," Jake said, handing her his bloody knife. "Better practice now."