"Joseph, wake your ass up and let's get a move on." Lucas said as he shook Joseph by the shoulders.
It had thankfully been a quiet, uneventful night and now it was time to pack up and make their way back to camp. It was going to be slow going with having to carry the boy plus they were already overdue and he knew there would be heck to pay from Laura when he got back. As Joseph crawled out of his bag and checked on the boy Lucas rolled up his bag, replaced it in his pack and slung it over his shoulder.
"Get him as ready to travel as you can, I am going to do a sweep of the house to make sure nothing got in during the night and then we will head out."
Joseph still half asleep mumbled something and turned to the boy. Lucas made his way across the attic and down the stairs. Pulling his machete from his belt he slowly and quietly pushed the door open, the room beyond was as they had left it the night before.
He did a sweep of the house and checked the grounds outside, there were a few empties floating around but not so many that they would have any problem either avoiding them or taking them down if they had to. Back in the attic Joseph had gotten everything packed up and wrapped the boy in an old blanket.
"I'll take the first turn carrying him; we should be able to make it a good ways to camp before switching since he weighs next to nothing."
"Alright man, the house is clear and there seem to only be a few empties wondering around outside so it should be easy goings back to camp." With that Joseph gently lifted the boy from the ground and they made their way to the front door.
Lucas pushed the door open just enough to slide his head through the opening and look around, checking the immediate area for any empties. Not seeing any he opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out into the cool Maine morning. Without a word they both began moving as silently as they could to the edge of the woods making for the marker that they had left the previous day so they could find their way back to home.
Lucas paused just long enough to remove the small flag tied to the tree and began pushing through the thick underbrush. They had gone about two miles when they entered a large clearing, not paying close attention to Joseph as he was trying to watch where he put his feet to minimize noise Lucas was abruptly halted as he walked right into Joseph's back.
"What the hell man? Give me some warning next time."
"Get back into the woods, NOW!" was the only response he got from Joseph.
Looking over Joseph's shoulder Lucas saw what had caused him to stop so suddenly and he quickly back pedaled behind a large pine tree. Spread out in the field that had been empty just 24 hours before were, from his count, about a dozen empties.
"Fuck... we need to get across that clearing to get back to camp."
"This kid is starting to get heavy so let's just make our way around the edge of the clearing and pick up the path on the other side." With that he and Joseph began skirting the edge of the clearing, making sure to remain behind the trees and brush to stay out of sight.
They had made it about halfway around clearing when all hell broke loose. The child that Joseph was carrying suddenly awoke, he began flailing around and screaming, it lasted all of a few seconds and he fell back into unconsciousness but those few agonizing seconds were long enough. As Lucas looked out into the clearing he saw the eyes of every empty in the field looking directly at the three of them as if they were an all you could eat buffet...