3: Staying the Night

        It was a couple minutes later when the water became too shallow to carry me any further. I coughed and slowly got onto my hands and knees, my hands on dry rock and my knees in the cold water. My clothes clung to me and the autumn wind gave me a chill. Finally, I opened my eyes to see that we were near the bridge going over the Little Miami—the river we had been carried by—leading into Milford, the town I had planned for us to come to. I looked around me, seeing that the other three were nearby, getting to their feet. I did the same.

        “Damn, I lost my glasses,” I muttered. “And my gun.”

        “You'll be fine without them,” said Jake.

        “The gun, maybe, since I didn't have anymore ammo for it, but not my glasses. Won't help me aim if I can't see that well at a distance.”

        “You'll just have to worry about close-quarters then,” said David. “You can at least see a few feet in front of you, right?”

        I nodded.

        “Then you'll be fine—enough.”

        We walked up the steep slope leading to the road. There were more infected up there. They noticed us as soon as we got to the side of the street and came rushing at us, but Lori and Jake took them out before any of them could reach us.

        Once we were safe—or at least for the time being—we looked around. There were cars sitting on the bridge, no longer running—most likely from running out of gas from their owners abandoning them when they saw all the infected. Corpses littered the ground all over the street, some of them wearing camouflage while others looked like everyday citizens. But we ignored all of this once we noticed the ambulance that was sitting in the middle of the road several yards away.

        “Let's see if there's anything in there that we can take with us,” suggested Jake.

        We made our way over there. Jake reached the back first. As soon as he did so, the garbled cry came as a zombie shot out of the back, its hands outstretched towards the Native American as if craving for his blood, yearning for the chance to swipe away his life. But Jake quickly reacted, aiming his gun and firing—all in half a second. The lead went right into the zombie's skull, blood spraying out, some of it landing on Jake. The deceased infected tumbled out of the ambulance and onto the ground just in front of the twenty-year-old.

        “Nice shot,” David complimented.

        “Thanks,” replied Jake as he wiped the small droplets of blood off his face with the sleeve of his soaking wet shirt.

        David and I went into the back to see if there was anything worth taking while Lori and Jake stood outside of the car so that they could shoot any infected that came within the vicinity. There wasn't too much back there that was worth taking, but we got what looked handy and got out of the ambulance.

        “We found a first aid kit,” I told the other two.

        “And a defibrillator,” added David.

        “Okay,” said Jake. “That should be good enough for a while.” He looked at my cousin. “You want me to take care of that wound now?”

        “No, I'll be fine for a little while longer,” she replied. “It's not bleeding anymore anyway.”

        “Alright,” Jake said. He looked around a little. “I guess this is the town you wanted to take us to?” he asked me.

        “Yeah.”

        “Then what should we do now?” asked David.

        “Why don't we find a place to stay for the night?” suggested Lori. “It's really late now and I'm worn out after everything that has happened today. I haven't even slept that much in the past few days.”

        “Yeah, and it might not be a good idea to continue in these wet clothes,” I added. “It probably wouldn't be good if we all ended up getting colds.”

        “Alright,” said Jake. “Where should we go?”

        “Let's cross the bridge,” I replied. “There's a neighborhood up that street. We might be able to find a house we can get into and stay in for a while.”

        “Why not something around here?” asked David. “It's closer.”

        I shrugged. “I guess we could, but I was thinking we should try to find food too, and a place with beds. Besides, we might be safer in a house. Might not have to worry as much about being attacked by the infected.”

        David shrugged.

        “Let's just do that,” said Lori impatiently. “We shouldn't stand around for too long.”

        With no protests about this next plan of action, we began making our way to the bridge. Along the way, we searched the ground for any weapons. After all, there were soldiers here, which meant there might be weapons around. Fortunately, we were able to find some. Jake took another handgun and David found a shotgun he could use in place of his other one. Lori got another Uzi while I grabbed an AK-47.

        “Oh, a machete,” David said as he bent over and picked up the blood-stained blade.

        A nauseous groan came from the distance followed by a loud belch. All four of us froze in place and looked around, knowing that something was coming. Then it came bumbling in sight from behind one of the several buildings that were on the other side of the bridge. It had a few tumors on its throat, face, and bloated belly.

        “Someone shoot it before it gets too close,” said David before firing a couple shots, but the fat infected wasn't in range of the bullets. Lori tried, but the same results happened for her too. Then I tired, but all I did was miss.

        “Damn it!” I cursed.

        The infected continued advancing towards the bridge. Jake picked up a sniper rifle and looked through the scope to get an accurate aim. He pulled the trigger a second or two later, but nothing happened except for a faint clicking sound.

        “Darn, it's out of ammo,” he muttered before tossing the gun to the side. “Christopher, let me use your gun.”

        “No, let me try again,” I argued, pulling the gun from the older male's grasp.

        I aimed the gun.

        “No, don't do it!” shouted David.

        But it was too late. I already pulled the trigger, letting a few bullets shoot out and at the groaning and belching infected, which was standing near a car on the opposite side of the bridge. This time I managed to hit it. It's belly exploded, letting out blood, guts, and an odd green substance.

        “Idiot!” yelled David as multiple shouts from the Common Infected could be heard.

        “I didn't do anything!” I shouted defensively.

        “You made the car alarm go off!”

        “Guys, shut up!” snapped Lori.

        “We have more important things to deal with,” said Jake.

        He was right. Infected were charging at us from all sides. We all started shooting, Lori and I mowing down the ones that were rushing towards us from our side of the bridge while Jake and David concentrated on the ones trying to cross it.

        Then came a high-pitched scream. Before I had the chance to react, I felt myself falling to the pavement with something on top of me. I tried to struggle free, but it was no good. I was pinned. The pupil-less eyes stared at me from the hood over the undead face, a little dried blood on the front of the white sweatshirt near the collar.

        “Get it off me!” I cried at the top of my lungs.

        The clawed hand was thrown down at me, a bang heard half a second later. I felt the weight on top of me vanish, the Hunter laying dead just a couple feet away. But the shot had came a tad too late. The infected had managed to scratch me before it was knocked off.

        Jake and Lori took out the remaining two infected while David helped me up. We all turned to face each other afterward, concerned looks washing onto their faces as soon as they noticed the minor claw marks coming down from my left shoulder. There was a couple moments of silence.

        “Uh-oh, it looks like we're going to have to kill you now, Christopher,” Jake said.

        I gave a small nod of my head and looked away.

        “He's joking,” Lori pointed out. “Again.”

        I looked back at the Native American, who was laughing once more at me failing to catch the lack of seriousness in his voice.

        “Let's go,” he said as he turned around to face the bridge.

        “But are you sure?” I asked seriously. “What if I turn into an infected?” I still wasn't fond of the idea of being killed by my friends, but it would be better than me turning into an infected and badly injuring one of them—if not worse.

        “Yeah,” Jake replied. “We'll take the risk. If you do turn into one, then I'm sure we'll be able to take you out before you can harm anyone. Just let us know if you think you might be experiencing any of the symptoms.”

        I nodded, feeling a bit relieved, but I still couldn't help but to feel worry in the back of my head.

        We resumed walking, weaving our way through the cars that were turned every which way on the bridge. After going up an incline on the street just a couple yards from the bridge, we reached the neighborhood I had told the others about. Like everywhere else we've been, there were zombies up here too. Not a single light was on in the neighborhood either, and it wasn't because of the time of night.

        We went to the first house we came across so we could get to safety as soon as possible. Fortunately, the front door was unlocked. We walked in cautiously, me taking up he rear and quietly closing the door behind us. There were a couple infected standing around in the living room and Jake took them out before we briefly looked around the rest of the house for any others, making sure we wouldn't have to worry about any surprise attacks later on in the night. Lori and I also took the time to close the blinds and curtains to try to reduce the chances of any of the infected noticing we were in here. It might not reduce that possibility completely, but it was better than nothing. Anything was better than nothing if it could keep us from being attacked for at least a couple hours.

        Once we felt we were safe – for the time being – the others went back downstairs while I looked through the room upstairs. I found myself loitering in the master bedroom the most. It was in disarray like the rest of the house, the only things remaining neat being the pictures hanging on the walls. They were of the family members of whoever happened to live in this house before. By the pictures, it looked like the married couple had three kids—two teens and one boy who couldn't have been any older than ten. Besides the other things in the house, these pictures were the only things that kept them in memory, showing that they once lived in this house. It was kind of sad to think about all the people that were lost to the infection. How many survivors were even left besides us? It was hard to say.

        And my family wasn't any different from this one. It was also torn apart due to the infection. My cousin's family was either killed by the infected or they turned into them, and my sister and her family and the rest of my relatives had probably suffered the same fate. And then there was the one I killed. I looked down at my hands, my palms facing up. The realization of it almost made me feel terrible. For some reason, it was okay to kill the others. Probably because I didn't know them. But it was different when I had to kill my own mother. And what made it even worse was the complete change in behavior, how, like the rest, she went from logical thought processes to acting like nothing more than a mere animal. I didn't have much of a choice but to kill her, though. It was either that or let her kill me, if not the others.

        I sighed, letting the thoughts go, before looking around the room a little more until my gaze came to rest on a pair of glasses that were sitting on the nightstand on the right side of the bed. I walked over to them and picked them up. They had pink plastic framing. Mentally cursing at myself for it, I put them on. They were a little tight, but they definitely helped my vision. I searched the rest of the room in hopes of finding a better pair, but there were none. I was stuck with these, but they were better than nothing. At least I might be able to aim better with them.

        “What are you doing?”

        I jumped a little before turning around to see Lori standing in the doorway. Her face lit up upon seeing the pink glasses I was wearing and she giggled. I blushed out of embarrassment, but I didn't bother taking the glasses off.

        “Nice glasses,” she complimented.

        “Thanks,” I replied. “Did you want something?”

        “No. You've been up here by yourself so I wanted to make sure you weren't attacked or anything. It's not good to stray away from the rest of the group for too long. You never know. Something could still attack you from up here.”

        I shrugged. “I guess so.”

        “So do you feel any different?”

        I quirked a brow at her.

        “You know, because of your wound. You don't feel strange or anything, right?”

        “Oh, no. I feel like my normal self.”

        “Good. Hopefully that won't change.”

        “Yeah.” I looked around the room a little before looking back at her. “Let's go back downstairs with the others.”

        She nodded. We made our way downstairs.

        “There's hardly anything in this house to eat,” complained David.

        “I don't know,” began Jake. “There's plenty fruit and candy. That's something.”

        “Yeah, but that's it. Not much to survive on.”

        “It's better than nothing.”

        “I guess. . .”

        Lori and I walked into the kitchen where the other two were. They had cleared the junk off of the kitchen table and replaced that with the food they had scavenged from the rest of the kitchen. To my surprise, they had stripped off articles of their clothing. Jake had taken off his shirt while David was left in nothing but his boxers.

        “Oh God,” Lori murmured as she looked off to the side.

        The two looked at us. It was a second later when they started to laugh.

        “Christopher, what lovely glasses you have,” said Jake.

        I blushed from embarrassment once more, but I still didn't make a motion to remove the glasses.

        “They work, alright?” I mumbled. “It's better than nothing, especially since I can't be missing all the time while I'm shooting.”

        “David, put some pants on!” Lori shouted.

        “No, they're wet,” argued David. “I don't like them clinging to me.”

        Lori gave an irritable sigh. She gave up and stopped trying to keep her gaze away from the two, but it was clear she was making sure not to keep her gaze above the table.

        “Is this really the only food we have?” asked Lori.

        “Yeah, everything else is expired,” replied David.

        “No, this isn't the only thing,” argued Jake. “If we have to, we can always resort to cannibalism.”

        David gave Jake an appalled look, which only caused the Native American to laugh.

        “It'll have to do,” I replied. “It's better than nothing.”

        “Yeah,” agreed Jake. “We need some kind of meat after all.”

        “I wasn't talking about that,” I mumbled. “I was talking about the food we have on the table.”

        “We should probably make sure to save some,” suggested Lori. “We could bring it with us when we leave tomorrow.”

        “But we don't have anything to carry it with,” David pointed out.

        “I think I remember seeing a backpack or two upstairs,” I said. “We could use those.”

        David shrugged. “Guess we could.”

        “But let's not worry about that now,” said Lori. “Let's just eat.”

        None of us had any protests. We all sat down at the table, eating a little of the little food we had. I didn't even realize how hungry I was until I started to eat. It had probably been a couple days since I ate, and the food tasted good, even if it wasn't much. I could even feel myself temporarily forgetting about survival—well, not entirely. It still remained in the back of my head, but I was able to forget about it enough to stay calm as I sat there with everyone else. The little food we only permitted ourselves to eat wasn't nearly enough to satiate my hunger, though, but it was better than nothing.

        After we all ate, we decided we should get some rest, but not without assigning someone the duty to keep watch. We may have been in a house, but that didn't mean we would be safe forever. However, no one was too fond of the idea of keeping watch. Everyone wanted to go to sleep, to try to let themselves drift off into another realm where they could hopefully forget about everything that had happened thus far. To solve this problem, Jake got a few straws from a cup that was sitting on the kitchen counter and cut one of them to make it shorter than the rest. Afterward, he closed his fist around them, each straw appearing to be the same size. David, Lori, and I drew one before all four of us looked around. I had the shorter straw.

        “It's settled then,” said Jake. “You'll keep watch for a few hours, Christopher.”

        I nodded, albeit reluctant of being assigned this task.

        “David can keep watch after you,” continued Jake.

        “What?!” exclaimed David. “Oh come on! I don't want to keep watch!”

        “Neither does anyone else, and Christopher isn't God. He'll need some sleep too, so someone else will have to take his place later on.”

        “But did you have to volunteer me to do it?” questioned David. “Why can't you do it?”

        “I could, but you're younger,” Jake pointed out.

        “What's that got to do with anything?”

        “Everything.”

        “Like what?”

        “You're younger. You don't need rest as badly as old people like Christopher and I.”

        “You're not that old,” mumbled David.

        “But we still need the rest more than you youngsters. Otherwise we'll be too tired tomorrow and we might cause all of us to die.”

        “Then why can't Lori do it? She's younger than me.”

        “Hey, don't volunteer me!” yelled Lori.

        “She can't do it because she's a girl,” Jake said. “We can't trust a girl with our lives.”

        “Yeah, especially one that's as ditzy as Lori,” I added with a smirk.

        “Hey, I'm not that bad!” Lori defended.

        “Alright, fine, I'll keep watch after Chris,” David grumbled. “But not until after I get a few hours of sleep.” He looked at me. “So don't wake me up until then, okay?”

        “Okay,” I said.

        We all headed upstairs. David, Lori, and Jake went into each of the three rooms while I sat on a chair I had brought up from the kitchen. It wasn't long until everything was quiet, the only sound being the seldom snore coming from one of the three rooms, leaving me in the complete dark to keep watch.

 

Reviews

[Eidolon Michael]

That was funny at the end. It helps the reader remember that the characters are human when they argue over something as silly as sleep lol I liked this chapter ^_^