"Good morning, How did you sleep?" Zack nudged me softly awake. "Good morning" I mumbled as I leaned up into a sitting position in our bed. " I slept alright and you?" I asked. "I slept great" Zack said smiling at me. "I suppose we ought to get up and start our day now" I yawned before getting out of bed. "Yea probably so" He agreed. We got dressed in silence before I went to check on Sophia.
"Good morning Sophia" I greeted when I walked into her room and saw she was already awake. "Hiya" She greeted back as she finished brushing her hair. I walk over to her and sat down. "Do you want me to braid your hair today?" I asked. "Sure, I'd love that" she smiled, handing me the brush. I began working right away braiding her hair into a French braid before securing the ends tightly.
"I think we're going to go out for a small foraging trip today" I said thoughtfully. "Really!" She cheered. "Yes, I feel you're ready for this. You know your herbs and mushrooms well enough to be able to go foraging with me and your a decent shot with your bow now" I said proudly. "Just make sure you stay with me and listen carefully to what I teach you. It's a lot different out there to in here" I warned seriously. "I promise to listen and stay with you" she agreed. "Ok let's go get some breakfast and gather our things for our trip" I said standing up.
We made our way from the treehouse to the main house for breakfast. After we ate we went to the store room to get foraging baskets for the trip. From there we made our way to the training area. The training area has a small canopy style shack that all of our weapons save for personal knives and guns are stored. I grabbed my bow and quiver and my dual swords before helping Sophia with her bow and quiver. I usually keep my throwing knives on my person at all times. "Alright, you ready?" I asked looking over Sophia to make sure she was ready. "Yes ma'am" She nodded.
We made our way to Jen at the gate who gave a nod when she was ready. "Keep your bow ready, stay with me and only engage the undead if there are too many or they're too close to avoid them" I instructed. I readied my swords checked Sophia had her bow in hand then nodded back to Jen to open the gate. Sophia and I made our way out the gate while staying close to each other and far from the undead.
Sophia kept right next to me the whole way through the forest. After an hour walk we made it to one of my best herb foraging spots. "Ok Sophia look around and tell me what herbs are in this spot and what we use them for?" I questioned. I swung my basket from off my shoulder and set it next to me to start harvesting from the patch nearest me.
"I see Elderberry bushes, Yarrow, Stinging Nettle and Feverfew" Sophia said while picking some elderberry. "Very good Sophia" I praised. We continued harvesting around an hour while making small talk and keeping ears out for undead. "We should move on to the next harvesting spot we shouldn't take everything from one spot we need to leave enough for new plants." I said to Sophia as I stood up. We collected our baskets and started back through the woods to the next foraging spot I knew.
We continued foraging from the different spot I knew for a couple more hours before deciding to head back to the hollow. "Willow do you think before we head back we can look at the highway really quick for my group?" Sophia asked me. I thought about her question for a minute. "I suppose we could look briefly" I said after some thought. I didn't get very far up the highway before being run off by a herd of undead yesterday and I have a bad feeling of something similar happening today as well. "We should go from where I got to last time and go up from there" I said to Sophia.
We started our trek to the spot I visited last at the highway. "I hope we find them or something that leads to them" Sophia said hopefully. "Me too" I agreed. I'm holding out as much hope as possible that her group is still alive somewhere relatively close by us.
Once we got to the tree line by the highway we stopped. "Let's quietly check things out but stay close to me alright. It may still be really overrun with undead from yesterday" I whispered to Sophia. We carefully crept up to the highway and hid by a van to look around. I don't see any undead anywhere nearby thankfully. "Ok do you recognize anything here?" I asked. "Um no not really" Sophia answered nervously. "Ok let's look around for supplies and make our way up the highway until you recognize anything or we find anything that can help find your group" I decided after some careful thought.
After searching the vehicles near us we found a few can goods, one can of formula which I will collect for Erin and a half case of water bottles. I went ahead and packed everything up in mine and Sophia's baskets before we went further up the highway. We kept our search up for a few hours moving further up the highway. "I think I recognize this area" Sophia suddenly chirped looking around. "Oh good maybe we'll find something" I said relieved. I followed closely behind her as we may our way thru the vehicles till she suddenly stopped. There on a car was a small amount of food supplies and a blanket and flashlight which unfortunately looks to have all been rained on and something written out on the car window. The letters have washed off from the past rain so I can only make out a few words.
'Spha We will, everyday' is all I can make of the message. "We will what everyday?" I wondered. "They're still looking for me" Sophia cried clinging to me suddenly. "I knew they would be" I assured her while rubbing her back. We stood there as I comforted Sophia for about 5 more minutes before we stepped apart. "Now we will have to find a way to leave them a message back so we can get you back with your family" I said looking around for ideas on what we could use for our own message.
Author's Note
Hello and Thank you to everyone who is enjoying my story! I apologize for how long it is taking between chapters I have been working a lot of overtime lately and haven't had a lot of time to work on my story like I would like to. Rest assured I am working on new chapters every chance I get during my busy schedule and I promise to have another chapter asap :)