Chapter 2

Boom.

A gunshot echoed somewhere in the forest, followed by a high pitched scream.

Without thinking, I leapt to my feet while clenching a large rock in my hand.

Boom.

I flinched at the next gunshot, and then I was running.

Trees flew past me as my legs traveled towards where I'd heard the gunshots.

Another wail tore through the air, followed by a voice, "Come here Rosie...Come to Daddy. You don't wanna be stuck all alone in the big bad forest, do you? Come here, baby doll...Everything is gonna be alright..."

I hesitantly walked towards the voice, being careful not to step on any dry leaves or twigs. The world around me suddenly seemed calm, yet silent.

The birds had stopped singing. The wind had stopped blowing...

The world was quiet.

Then, a high-pitched childish sceam pierced the air. A little girl who looked no older than ten, was being yanked out from under a bush by an insane looking middle aged man, "You little demonic creature-"

I listened as the man laughed maniacly as he pulled out an old looking pistol and pointed it at the little girl. She looked so terrified. Her eyes widened in horror as his finger tensed on the trigger.

"Her eyes..."

Her eyes were blue like the ocean, and crystal clear as they glowed.

"She's like me."

I lunged forward, out of my hiding spot, while swinging the rock in my hand towards the man's head.

He fell down quickly, dropping his gun. I didn't have to check to know he was dead. The rock I had hit him with was large enough to do some damage, but with my strength, there was no possible way he'd be able to survive after the blow.

The little girl scrambled away from me the second the man fell, "Please! Don't kill me, just let me go! I-"

"Why do your eyes glow?" I ask.

The little girl stares at me as if I'm from a different planet. She just saw me kill a man, who I'm assuming was her father, and the first thing I say to her is "Why do your eyes glow?"

"I don't know," The little girl mumbled, "They just do...ever since-"

"You're like me, aren't you?" I say, more than ask.

"It depends," She whispers, "What exactly are you?"

"She has a point. What am I?"

I shrug, "There's not exactly a name for what I am."

I can feel the girl staring into my eyes, and wondering why they're gold; Why they glow like hers, "Here's a hint though: I'm dead, and I know you must've died too, but you came back. You woke up."

She looked shocked at what I'd said. Maybe she didn't know what she was. Maybe she didn't have many memories of her death, like me. Maybe she didn't know she had died at all...

"I'm Liz by the way," I say softly, holding my hand out to help her up.

She gulped and reached for my hand, "I'm Rosie."

"Nice to meet you, Rosie."

She nods.

"How old are you, Rosie? You look a bit young to be wandering around the forest with maniacs," I try to sound light, and laugh a little. Rosie looks like she could use a good laugh. She looks like she's been through hell.

"Eleven," Rosie whispers, "And that maniac was my father..."

"Eleven?"

Rosie looked like a little nine year old girl. Her hair was pulled back into knotted pig-tails, and she was wearing a worn out, torn pink dress. I never would've guessed that she'd be eleven.

"I just turned eleven when I...you know, died..." Rosie must've sensed my confusion, "A lot of people think I'm younger than I actually am," Rosie added awkwardly.

"That doesn't explain why your father almost shot you, or why you were with him in the middle of the forest anyways."

Rosie stands up, and brushes some of the dirt off of her dress. Her eyes look sad as they look at something behind me.

I jerk back when I see what Rosie was looking at.

A few feet away from me, a girl with tangled blonde hair was laying in a puddle of her own blood.

She'd been shot.

"Rebecca," Rosie says, "Her name was Rebecca. She was my older sister..."

I felt a pang of sadness in my heart looking at Rebecca. I didn't even know her, but I felt sad for her death.

"I haven't felt sad in months..."

"We were running away from home," Rosie shrugged her shoulders as if what she was saying wasn't important, "People from our town didn't like us. They called us demons, and monsters. Our parents stopped talking to us, they wouldn't even refer to us as their daughters anymore. They said their daughters were dead, that they died from the virus.

"Rebecca and I did die though, but we came back!" Rosie nearly yells, "We came back, and nobody cared!

"One day, Becca and I heard our parents talking about us," Rosie whispers, "They wanted to kill us. They didn't care how, they only wanted us dead again! So, Rebecca and I ran away. But, our father came after us. He acted nice at first, telling us he loved us...that we should come home, but then he pulled out a gun and shot Becca. It was almost like he was insane! He kept chanting the same things over and over again: "Demonic little creatures! Go back to Hell!"

"He wouldn't stop laughing at our fear...He said our deaths would be a gift to the world, and that we should be thankful he cared enough to do this for us; To put us out of our misery!"

"They hated you because you came back to life..." I mumble.

"We...we rebooted, well you did too..." Rosie says quickly.

"Rebooted? What are we, computers?" I scoff.

"That's only what I heard people from my town call us: Reboots," Rosie retorts.

"Reboots?"

Rosie nods her head, and her pig-tails bob up and down.

I finally notice how tired she looked, and realize that she may act older, but she's still just only eleven.

I shift back and forth on my feet for a few moments awkwardly thinking over what I should say, "These woods are dangerous for an eleven year old...If you wanted to, you could stay with me for a little while..."

Despite all that she's been through in the past few weeks, Rosie broke out grinning, "OK."

"How can she have so much hope, when the world that we know is pretty much destroyed. How can she still smile when everybody she cares about has turned their backs on her?"

"C'mon then. We better start walking."