Around Every Corner...

The third entry in End of Days...

Around Every Corner...
           Around every corner, there is disaster after disaster, tragedy after tragedy. No place is safe anymore. Not even the dark, dense place that is my twisted mind. Waves of the undead topple over me in my already terrible nightmares. I dream about Kevin, Robert, and Chuck. Jackson and I have been on our own for about eight months, transferring from place to place.
   Jackson sighed, "I'm tired of this s**t…" he breathed.
   "I know, me too" I replied. We got up and left our resting place. "Where we headed?" I asked.
   He was silent for about five minutes as though mulling things over in his mind. Then he finally said, "Back to the institutio- " He stopped abruptly. I followed his eyes to a suspicious spot in the clearing of evergreen trees, towering high above anything else.
   "What?" I asked with a note of worry in my already departing voice. Jackson seemed frozen with fear.
   "It's a horde…" he whispered as though he didn't want to startle something. My eyes fell back on the brush and saw in the clearing, dozens of risers shambling aimlessly towards us in a sort of fixed type of way.
   Everything seemed in slow motion. "Over there!" I yelled as I pointed to what seemed to be an empty house. We ran over and my foot smashed the door in with the little strength that I had. I bolted the door shut with 5 planks of wood as quick as humanly possible.
   "Nice work," panted Jackson. "I couldn't have done that even if I had two sets of arms." I laughed weakly.
   "Loot!" I said louder than was necessary. We sifted through the house looking for food, medical supplies, and ammo. I got to the kitchen expecting not to find a morsel of food. "Empty, empty, and empty, d****t!" I screamed. The third cabinet that I had opened was filled with more empty cans. I checked the next cabinet and found 2 water bottles, empty sodas, everything in that cabinet was useless. "Jackson, Look!" I cried. Heavy thuds upstairs marked Jackson's departure from the bathroom upstairs. He stood in the doorway a second later.
   "What?" He asked. I pointed to all the empty f*****g cans. No words escaped my lips as he looked at the cans. "That was it?" He questioned.
   "No, I found 2 water bottles." I replied.
   "Well, I found this." He boasted as he waved a medical kit under my nose. "Things are almost looking up, huh?"
   "I guess," I said in a depressed sort of way. This is what happened whenever Kevin crossed my mind.
   "Hey, don't beat yourself up about that. You were unconscious when he gave him that vaccine. You couldn't have saved him. It's okay..." He reassured. Jackson always comforted me whenever he saw I was thinking about Kevin.
   "Thanks Jackson, but I still blame myself for not taking the gun away from Kevin..." I replied. "Let's check outside, see if it's clear..." I stated. So we walked to the windows and looked through. Suddenly, a riser jumped on the window and made Jackson flinch with a tiny yelp. I laughed. "I'm gonna check the basement, okay?" I informed him with a smile. My feet barely took me down the steps and I saw immediate movement out of the corner of my eye. I pointed my rifle up and said, "Hello?".
   "Dad?" said a mysterious voice. I knew it at once, but it couldn't be, he shot himself and was bit. He got up and I looked into his face, the face of Kevin Hunter. I immediately pulled him into a strong embrace. It seemed like we stood there for hours, just hugging. I let go and examined him. He was quite the same except he was missing an arm. I looked into his face once more. Tears were flooding his eyes.
   "It's okay son, it's okay..." I reassured him.
   A few minutes later, he was up and about. It seemed as if he was still getting used to not having an arm. As I helped him, I remembered helping him ride a bike, helping him with his homework, helping him with anything...
   "John? Where are you-" Jackson's eyes widened as he pulled a pistol out and cocked it back. "Who is that?! Is he infected?"
   Kevin's eyes filled with tears once again. "NO, DON'T!" I screamed, "This is Kevin, my son!"
   "But I-I thought you said-I thought you said he was dead?" He questioned.
   So we sat there with my arm around Kevin for forty-five minutes straight explaining everything up until I met Jackson. By the end, he seemed perplexed. "So, Do you understand now?
   "Kind of, I guess..." He whispered, "But how is he here now?"
   Kevin interrupted. "I found a man and he patched me up. He told me that the bullet had barely missed my brain, that I was lucky. But he got eaten the next week after that..." His voice trailed off into the darkness of the basement.
   "I understand now." Replied Jackson. "Yeah, now we just gotta get outta here..."
   "Do you have everything?" I asked.
   "What stuff?" questioned Kevin, "There's stuff?"
   "Yeah, Jackson has a medi-pack and I got two water bottles." I laughed a short, weak laugh. He smiled. I handed him a left-over energy bar to keep him awake, we had to leave...
   "C'mon, let's go." stated Jackson. We walked upstairs.
   I noticed Kevin was having trouble walking up the steps. I grabbed him under the arms. "Try to walk, Son." I said. He walked up and I opened the door as fast as possible. "Run! To the forest!" I yelled as we all ran into the unforgiving greenery of the forest...

9 Months Later

   "Happy Birthday Kevin!" I bellowed as I handed him his present. He picked it up and looked at it with a worried look in his eyes.
   "You really trust me with this?" He asked as he cocked the M9 pistol back.
   "Yes, I do because I've seen you grow stronger and you now know not to give up like that..." I replied, "Now come on, we gotta advance through this brush." As we pushed through the brush, I saw a huge gate. There was also a speaker with a button underneath. I ran over and pressed the button. "Hello?" I said. A sudden stab of pain went through my abdomen. I turned around and saw Jackson, with a military knife plunged deep into my spine. "I...Trus-trusted...you..." I whispered. My body went limp and I fell to the ground, watching everything unfold.
   "DAD!" Kevin screamed. "You son of a b***h!" Jackson got up and punched Kevin, knocking him out. He picked him up and walked away.
   "No..." I voiced. My vision was fading as the city gate opened and two mysterious shadows picked me up and led me inside.
Everything went black...