If We Survive

Chapter 2

We walked for three days without seeing anybody. Vaguely, I know that I should be going home from camp today, back to the comforts of home. But we haven't had time to think. We over many miles everyday, and I sleep as soon as we stop.

Even my sleeping has changed, in the past three days. I sleep lightly, waking up at the slightest sound. We switch off on watches, like any other team would do, when navigating the mountains at night. Also, it's cold. I know the Rockies are cold during the summer, but I never knew like this. Despite the thermal sleeping bag, and an extra blanket. I wake up with frost on my face. 

I wonder about the zombies- or whatever they are, when my brain wonders during the laborious hikes. We came across one, a few days ago, and it seemed human. It had figured out how to use a knife, a big buoy, that I handed over to Zack, who was the only one of the three without an actual weapon. He's bloody efficient with it. 

Today, we came across the camp. Not our camp, no. There were tents, chairs, and supplies for all of us. The place was abandoned- by the looks of it, the people here sufffered and attack, or maybe bacame the monsters, but the thing was, it was all ours. 

The people here were clearly planning a long trip, because me found more than enough canned soup, a kerosene stove, two tents, and many water bottles, all of which we needed. Dispite the fact that we came across a stream or river every 12 hours, we still ran out of water pretty quck, because we only had a small bottle perserson. This fixed everything p almost instantly.

"We should stay here the night." Says Stephen, sitting down near the stove. 

"Is it safe?" I ask, pushing Zack's knfe into a can of clam chowder. 

"Must be." Replies Zack. I pour the soup into a bowl, which I then pass off to Stephen.

That night, we had a feast. There was pleanty of soup to go around, and we finished off the staling food we found at the parking lot. 

I was alloted to take first watch, which I wasn't too happy about. Eventually the drowsiness too over me, and I began to drift off. 

I don't now what wakes me up, but I forst notice that it's much darker than it should be. The stars in the mountians are usually bright and cyrystel clear, but there must be cluds out or something, becuse it's near pitch black. 

I roll to a sitting position, looking around. I can hear something aside from the twins' usual snoring. It's breathing, but it's so quiet that it could be the wind. I rise slowly, staying in a semi croucing position. I pull my gun oh-so-slowly from it's place on my back, riasing it. 

It's more lear now, the breathing, and I know it can't be any of the boys because it's seperate. Ten yeards to my left. I pick up my flashlight, and I trun it on.

The flurecent light illuinates a single person, about my age. Her mouth is covered in blood, along with her fingers. She's one of them

I shout something as two more of them appear brathing raggedly. Both Zack and Stephen leap up, but I'm too preoccupied, because the first one is sprinting twards me. I let off a single shot, which catches her in the chest, only a few feet from me. 

The others come at me with unimaginable force, just as more appear. Ten, Then fifteen. They all are running at me, unimaginably fast. 

Without a single thought in my mind, save survival, I scoop up my pack and run. I don't even bother to find out what direction I'm going- just run. 

For a few minutes, I think I can hear them behind me, but when I check behind me, they aren't there. I slow to a jog, my backpack still hanging off of my sholder. I hike it back up, checking for pursuit again. 

My horizon is clear. 

I don't have my blanket- I left that at the campsite; I have a waterbottle, the big one, my single change of clothes, two things of canned soup, which will last me less than a week, my gun, all of the extra rounds, a small multi-pourpose knife, my sleeping bag, and my hat. This won't do, not if I pan on surviving. I don't even know what plants here are eatable. 

I also just lost my only hope of hunting, because both Stephen and Zack are skilled hunters, and they had the rifle. I feel a pang of guilt for leaving them. I know they both ran, too- the creepers weren't after them, anyway. 

I'm prbubly much worse off than them, I tell myself. 

Thinking of which, why were there so many? The most I'd seen together at one time were two, from a distance. They're not really zombie, if you think about it- they're more human than anything else. The ones we've found know how to use weapons, and clothe themselves according to the waether- the one with the knife that we killed was wearing a huge womon's coat with fur- not something that they'd wear in true contousness. 

They acted like teenagers, too. 

All of the ones back there, as far as I'd seen had been young. We had come across bodies of people, from mid-thirties, to sixdies, but no kids. Most of the bodies showed sighns of being gnawed on by human teeth. 

So maybe those kids changed together, and smelled us. 

But that still didn't make since. Where could all of them had come from? It was the middle of summer, so it couldn't be a school group. I didn't think it was a summer camp, like ours, because that just sisn't seem to fit the picture quite right. 

So they had banded together in the past few days, figuring out that they could score more meat together than apart. That meant that they were truly intellegent creature- not like a human- like a wolf. They traval in packs. 

The part of my brain that is a scientist wanted to know what caused this. Why wasn't I walking around, craving human flesh? Why were they? Why did all the adults die? Did some survive? Could it be linked to the zombie syndrome? As far as I'm concerned, I'm not too different than them- so why don't I change?

Or maybe I am.

Back when I was fouteen, my parents found out that something was wrong with me. I couldn't do certian things, because my brain simply wouldn't let me. I couldn't copy someone else's motios like in basketball, but I could copy handwriting perfectly. During my yearly checkup, the doctor ran tests, and I was laking in mirror nurons, something that I had already figured out, when reading a book erlier that year. The doctor said she had never seen anything like it- and I could be the gateway to the extinsive study on the brain.

I wanted to be their little test subject, but my parent wouldn't let me.

Parents. They ruin all the fun. 

So why were Zack and Stephen still alive? They were related, but the producement of mirror nurons has nothing to do with genes, and the chances of two siblings having the same disorder is near zero. 

Genes. Maybe a genetic defect allowed us to live, like we're wired differently, meaning that my family might still be alive, too. The though is momentarily comforting, until I hit Earth again, and realize that there's no possible way for me to find them. Rockey Mountian National Park is a big place, too big. Like finding a needle in a haystack. 

I find my way to a grove of trees- I don't think the creepers can climb, and it appears to be my olny option. It's nearing dawn when I reach a think branch halfway up, but I'm so tied it hardly matters. 

I wake up in a nightmare again.

Surronding my tree are them. The same kids that ried to kill me at the campsite, but this time, I can't run.