Into The Darkness

Chapter Three

I woke up in the middle of the night, a loud banging noise startled me. SHIT! I didn't mean to sleep that long. I sat up to see that the truck was surrounded by infected people, all aggressively banging on my truck. My heart was racing as I started the truck and stomped on the gas. Unfortunately I only made it a few feet before I got stuck. My tires just spinning on what I could only assume was a large pile of the infected stuck under my tire.

Shit!

I looked around, trying to figure out what to do. I didn't really have any option other than to run, so I grabbed the bag and my gun.

"You aren't going to die!" I told myself then swung my door open as hard as I could. A few of the infected were knocked to the ground, kind of making me a path to escape. As I ran for the tree line, I raised up my gun and shot at a few that got too close, again only dropping a few and they were headshots. Maybe that's the only way to kill one? I got through the trees and ran blindly through them. It was too cloudy for the moon to give me any light, so it didn't take long for me to run right into an infected person. I kicked it hard and it stumbled backwards, so I lifted my gun to shoot but all my gun did was click. Out of bullets. So the only thing I could think of doing was hitting it in the head. I turned my gun around and bashed it in the head with my pistol. To my surprise my hand and gun sunk into it's skull and it fell to the ground. My hand was covered in rotten smelling bile. I gagged but began running again.

I ran for a long time, then I finally realized I was no longer being chased. I slowed my pace and tried to walk as quietly as possible through the woods. I kept my eyes forward, and noticed a small light up ahead. As I got closer, I noticed it was a light inside of a tent, someone was inside!

"Hello? Is anyone there?" for a moment all I could hear was my own heavy breathing, so I decided to walk closer. Suddenly a crazy looking man jumped out of the tent at me. I jumped back and fought back the urge to scream.

"What do you want?" He spat, eyeing me cautiously.

"I need help, I'm trying to get to the city."

"What the hell for?"

"My sister... She is there and I need to get her."

The man was quiet for a moment, then began to let out a cynical-sounding laugh

"what the hell is so funny?" I thought, growing impatient with him.

"Help? You want help? Well that is an impossible thing to get now, there's no help for anyone anymore. Not even your sister. We're all dead, her too I'm sure."

My stomach dropped, I knew she could be dead... but actually hearing it out loud made me begin to panic even more. "You don't know anything." I spat.

"I know that all we can do is run until we die. And if you go into that city you will die sooner than later." the man said, then began rambling, but I couldn't make anything out.

"Maybe if we stick together we can help each other out, maybe put off dying as long as we can..."

He shook his head "No kid, I'm going home." Then he disappeared into his tent.

I let out a frustrated sigh and walked towards his tent, thinking I can talk some sense into him. But before I could reach the door, the sound of a gun going off made me jump out of my skin. After a few seconds, it dawned on me, he just killed himself.

I stood outside of his tent for a while, trying to work up to going inside. He probably has supplies that can help me get to the city. I took a deep breath and ducked inside the tent, immediately met by the smell of rotting flesh. I covered my nose, this guy only just died, so someone else must be here. I grabbed the lantern off of the table and quickly searched around the tent. On the floor was a woman, a bullet hole in the center of her forehead, rot had definitely set in, the smell was horrific. Suddenly I doubled over and threw up the contents of my stomach all over the floor.

"Get it together." I said aloud, taking a deep breath. I began searching the tent for anything useful. A backpack, water, a few cans of food, and a blanket. I shoved everything into my new bag and turned around to see the man's body in the chair, clenched in his dead hand was his gun. I slowly pried it from his hand, trying not to touch him then ducked out of the tent.

"Okay Rose, I'm coming for you."

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I tried for weeks to get back to the city, I was only able to make it one time, but the same thing happened. I was swarmed by the rotter's and they chased me out of the city. Each time I was pushed farther and farther out away from the city. I managed to find a car, but it broke down shortly after. Eventually I came to terms that it was just too dangerous to walk back to the city. So I decided to just keep running from the infected, just trying to stay alive.

It's been raining for the past few days, and I'm out of food and energy. I just keep following the yellow line on the road, getting drenched in rain. I haven't passed anything to hide under to get out of the rain, at this rate I'm going to get pneumonia and die. I sighed and looked towards the horizon. The rain clouds looked like there was no end in sight, but, through the fog and rain I could see something flashing ahead of me. I wiped the rain from my eyes for the millionth time and focused.

"A car!" I screeched and began to run towards it.

The flashers were on and the driver door was open, as I got closer I noticed a body in front of the car. Next to the body was a rotter, a gnarly rotten monster that used to be human. It was making the owner of this car its lunch.

I pulled out my machete and shoved it into the rotter's head, it fell to the ground dead. I quickly shoved my knife through its victim's eye socket then got into the car. That's two less rotter's in the world, it won't really make a difference, but at least those two won't infect anyone else.

"Thank you Jesus!" I screamed when I got in the car. It had a full tank of gas so I cranked up the heater to try to warm up my bones. I stripped my wet clothes off, rang them out on the passenger floor board and sat in my underwear in front of the heater vents. It took around thirty minutes to warm up, but while I sat there I did find a few granola bars in the glove box, along with a map. So I ate and looked for a way to get back to the city Rose is in. I have to try one more time to save her, I would like to know one way or another if she is still alive...

I got on the road and drove for a few hours until I ran into a traffic jam. Of course nothing can go smoothly for me. Most of the vehicles were badly damaged or burned so I didn't see a reason to risk getting out to check for any supplies, it was probably all burned. I was able to get through the traffic jam without too many issues, my car got a few new scrapes and dents though.

Once I was free of the traffic jam I made it a few more miles down the road when I found a nice pull off. I locked my doors and curled up in the driver seat. I haven't had a good night's rest in a very long time. Rose will have to wait just one more day.