Whoah don't mind me updating this like a year later, nope, no, you've been reading this continuously the whole time!

The Survivor's Guide to Surviving the Infection

Chapter 13: M is for Military

Three months, ? weeks, ? days after first Infection

They heard them long before they saw them. Really, they found evidence of them long before they heard them. Tire tracks, scattered bullet shells, and the bodies of the Infected sprawled out in the snow with an outline of red around them. Her Hunters had their noses to either the sky or to the ground, sniffing out the trail left behind by this foreign enemy they had yet to encounter.

In all honesty, Divine was surprised they hadn't encountered them sooner. But it seemed like she had walked out of her apartment a little too late, after all the people had gone and the country's protectors with. Her ragtag group had scavenged through abandoned outposts, seen blown out shells of strongholds, all signs of previous human life.

Until today.

This wasn't some large platoon or soldiers or anything, couldn't be. One, maybe two cars at most. How many men she couldn't tell, but she prayed that she and her boys could stay behind them and then eventually get away from the trail and keep on trekking to wherever they were going. But on the other hand, this was the first sign of fresh human contact Divine had seen in months.

Other people. Live people. People with healthy pink skin who could talk like normal and had an appetite for real food. People like…her?

As they followed the trail, Divine's mind buzzed with thoughts of encountering these soldiers. She wanted to have deluded fantasies that meeting them would go well, that she'd see them, and they'd see her, and they could connect on a human level. But she knew that couldn't happen, not with her boys at her side. And while Divine loved her Infected companions dearly, she knew if anyone else with a gun saw them, they would be shot on sight, no questions asked.

It was something Divine hadn't thought about before. Just what would happen if she encountered other healthy humans? If they saw her, how receptive would they be to her? Would they welcome her or try to ward her off? Would she be friend or foe? Divine didn't think herself much of a threat. Five feet and four inches, probably weighed lass than she did at the start of all this with a meager shotgun, oh yes, she was very terrifying.

But her boys? Even Antonio, who hovered only a few inches over her, was still an incredible threat to anyone who underestimated him. Then with Zachary above him, and Ryan towering over them all, a menacing group they suddenly became. It's what Divine really feared most, that her boys were bigger targets than they were protectors. To the horde, they were a challenge. But to a human? Might as well paint red Xs on their backs so they stood out better against the snow.

Night fell soon enough, but they didn't stop following the tracks. Divine guessed the roving band would be stopping soon, and hopefully they were far enough ahead to where they wouldn't meet. She and her boys decided to stop as well, dangerous to travel in the night, better to huddle up and stay warm.

Yet Antonio refused to bed down, still eager to move, to go, to follow. Ryan pulled him back, and while he stayed, he never took his eyes off the trail, and his heavy inhales lulled Divine to sleep. He took the lead early the next morning, frantically following the trail like a bloodhound.

When asked why he was so interested, only one word was whispered from between his lips,

"Jorge."

x-X-X-x

The sky darkened overhead, the winter sun blocked out from gray clouds, and white specks floated down on top of them. Antonio screamed in absolute agony. The trail was getting covered up, fresh snow erasing scents, everything they had been following was disappearing before their eyes. The green clad Hunter screamed again, and took off running.

They ran after him, Divine calling his name, "Toni no! Toni come back please, wait!"

The sudden flurry of snow increased more and more until they couldn't anything in front of them. Her remaining Hunter and Smoker pulled her back, pulled her away and they huddled up under the shelter of some nearby trees. Antonio didn't come back. He didn't turn up well into the evening either. It was long after nightfall when the snow stopped, but the clouds remained heavy in the sky and blocked out the moon and stars.

"We'll find him," Ryan promised. "In the morning, when we can see, we'll find him, don't worry."

x-X-X-x

It was gone. It was all gone. Yet they walked along the now invisible path, in the direction it was all going. They were walking along sparse farmland now, cutting through fields upon fields of unbroken whiteness. The only signs that anything had passed through earlier were wooden fences with sizable gaps between them. But other than that, there were no tracks to follow, no dead bodies, nothing else to show that life had once been here.

They walked and walked until finally, a sign. A lone farmhouse at the edge of one property with a covered truck parked outside it. Even from their distance, Divine to could see the tall figures moving around the house or see them momentarily shadowing a window. So there they were, holed up in the first sort of building they could find. Establishing a safe house maybe? Not all safe houses had the welcoming red metal doors, but there was always something to use for supplies.

The trio moved along carefully to better cover, less these men have snipers on the lookout. From there, Divine didn't know what to do next. If these soldiers were holed up in the house for now, she ad her boys could keep moving, get ahead of the men and out run long before they revved up their truck again. But Antonio still hadn't come back. And Divine really needed to get into that house for supplies herself.

So they waited instead. They backed off into the trees once more, keeping the house in sight, but hopefully far enough back to avoid being spotted. Divine thought and planned, sat against a tree truck and made inventory. She was down to the last of her current rations. She only had one box of shotgun shells left. Her socks and underwear were soiled, they needed a good washing (or replacement).

Yeah, she really needed into that house.

x-X-X-x

Zachary's head snapped up, and the Hunter was instantly on alert. He tensed up and stepped towards the direction of the house. Divine and Ryan watched with guarded interest.

"Toni," he whimpered and looked back at them. "I heard him. Gonna get killed."

They were instantly on the move. Through the foggy gray night, they scrambled towards the house. The house itself was a beehive of activity. All the lights were on, and the men were running circles around the place. Their shouts drifted around the area, and Divine could just make out what they were yelling,

Hunter.

Divine prayed it was some other Hunter, some other bastard that had wandered along thinking it had an easy meal to catch, or maybe a Hunter that had been following the group longer than they had. But Zachary whimpered again and repeated Toni's name.

"Find him," Divine hissed. "Zach, please, go get him before he gets hurt."

The Hunter in blue leapt away into the night. Divine and Ryan started running through the trees edging the property. Ryan of course, had to pause several times, coughing and hacking as he did. He slapped a hand over his mouth when at one point, a new shout rose, "Smoker!"

'Good,' Divine thought. 'Let them come.'

She grabbed Ryan's arm and began dragging him deeper into the trees. The Infected saw better in the dark anyway, easier to lose themselves out here, easier to evade men bumbling through the dark and snow. Until the beams of light started slicing through the dark and bouncing off tree trunks. Ryan took the lead then, and they zigzagged through the trees while he still hacked and coughed.

The lights, unfortunately, were beginning to close in. A wavering beam danced around them, its source unknown. They couldn't keep running, Ryan had to stop, doubling over to spit out phlegm and gasp for air. The light came closer, Divine could see it coming.

"Hide," she commanded, and pushed Ryan away. The Smoker groaned and scrambled away, rushing even as he heard her shotgun click. Divine waited, her gun pointed in the direction the light was coming from. She inhaled as the light finally struck down by her feet, and she heard the source swear.

He moved closer, gun drawn out as well, flashlight taped to the top of the gun barrel.

"Holy shit," he cried. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Go away," Divine said.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Away."

"No, you need to come with me, it's not safe out here-"

"I know it isn't. Now go away."

He wasn't budging, but he lowered his gun anyway.

"Peace, sister. I'm with the military, they can protect you!"

"Where's my Hunter?" Divine demanded to know. The man's head tipped off to the side.

"Your Hunter? You crazy, sister? Yeah, there's a Hunter out there! And a Smoker! I'm telling ya, it's not safe out here!" and he moved forward to try and grab at her. Divine snarled and swung her gun at him. The man jumped away and his rifle was back on her. "Try it again, I dare ya!"

"I told you to leave," Divine hissed. "Now get out of here."

"You're going loco!" the man cried.

"Leave!" and she shot at his feet. The man jumped back with a cry, a splattering of buckshot painting the snow. The man scrambled away, shouting more obscenities at her. Divine reloaded and took aim again, because she wasn't gong to miss on purpose again.

"Wait no, don't-"

She heard Ryan shout, then a Hunter screamed, and Divine was knocked down to the ground. A shot rang out, the bullet piercing through the tree tops.

"Hunter!" the man cried. "Don't move!"

The flashlight was on the two of them. Divine held out an arm towards him, a plea to stop. An arm in green hover over hers, hand splayed out the same as hers.

Antonio.

"No," Toni croaked. "Jorge, no!"

The man froze. Toni slowly stood up from his crouch over Divine, and just as slowly reached up to push his hood back, his one good eye dilated immediately and squinted up. "Jorge," the Hunter said softly.

"Antonio?" the man whispered incredulously. The Hunter let out a low whine in response. The man seemed to falter for a moment before snapping back. "No," the man shook his head. "No no, he's dead. You're supposed to be dead! You're not him!"

Toni practically crumbled.

"Jorge."

"No, no don't, you don't know that, you can't!"

Divine glanced between the two of them. This is what Antonio had been looking for, had been so worked up about. He knew this man, this Jorge. But how…and who…She didn't know what the fuck was going on anymore, but she felt the need to do something about it.

"Gonzalez?" she offered. "Antonio Gonzalez."

The gun wavered in the man's hands.

"You can't," he repeated. "You can't."

He looked down at Divine.

"He ran after the dog," he told her. "He went back for the dog, and he died. They both died. They never came back. Cause they died."

She shook her head, cause no, no the Hunter standing above her was still very much alive.

Shouts could suddenly be heard around them. They all whipped around to look through the trees. The rest of the men Jorge had been with must have heard all the screams and gunshots and were coming to investigate. A bunch of guys. With guns. Shit.

"Run," Jorge said, looking back at them. "Go, run. Antonio please if it is you, run. I don't want you to die again."

And so they did.

Divine and Toni got up and away, grabbed a still hiding Ryan, and took off. For their own safety, the didn't look back.

x-X-X-x

"They're gone," Zachary announced to them the next day. "They left this morning."

Divine and the Infected crept out out from the trees towards the now abandoned farmhouse. There was a mess of tracks all around the house, and tire markings were imprinted into the snow. But they were gone, moved off to wherever it was they were going.

Thankfully the inside of the house was relatively untouched. It looked live in of course, like the men who were here had been there for a while, and they left in a hurry. But there were clothes, and some rations, and it was all Divine could ask for.

And like any other safe house, there was the writing on the wall.

They were mostly notes to other survivor's, that the soldiers had been here, they were a splinter group from the Army and they were headed to wherever. Very basic, nothing new. Except hidden in the corner, there was a note neatly written in Spanish.

Divine pulled Antonio over to read it. Well, she read it for him at least. Her Spanish wasn't great, and she tended to fumble over the words and pronunciation, but she read the note addressed to him regardless. And while her Spanish wasn't great, Divine still guessed at the end said; love, Jorge.

Antonio was a practically unmoving rock next to her. He blinked slowly at the note despite not being able to read it himself. She waited for some kind of reaction from him, something, anything. Did everything she read go through one ear and out the other? Had he really heard her?

Divine gently reached out to place her hand on his shoulder. Antonio finally glanced at her and whispered, "Jorge."

x-X-X-x

Alright I have a serious question for you all. I've been working on this story on and off since 2011. And I've grown so much as a writer and a storyteller, and when I go back to read the early chapters of this story, I get a little weirded out. I look at my old writing and think, "I can do better than that now". I feel like I've grown past what I've written before, and I can take it and make it better.

So basically what I'm saying is, I wanna re-write the first ten? chapters of this story. Not replace mind you, but re-write. Like have a remastered version on the side while still keeping this one online. Would you all be interested in reading that? What are your thoughts on a separate rewrite? I really want to have a major spark for this story again since other fandoms have taken over my life. I still have a bigger and larger story to tell with these characters in this world, and I feel like going back to its roots might help. I just wanna know what you all think, because I'll probably still re-write it anyway for funsies, but I like hearing your opinions because I love you all so much.

Thanks again for sticking with me so for long, you're all amazing.

Edit;; Thank you all for being really super supportive. A re-write won't come any sooner of course, but it will come along way faster than another update to the main story!