Wicked Game

Where Is My Mind?

The highway was a graveyard. 

Cars piled up all along the road, hastily parked and abandoned. The remainants of people's past lives strewn across the road. Annie picked her way carefully through the maze of cars, holding her knife in front of her in readiness for an attack. 

She could see the remains of some bodies left to the side of the road. Clearly marking that the infected had come along. She said a silent prayer for those people. She couldn't begin to imagine what it must have been like for the people here. Trapped in their cars while the infected overwhelmed the area. Seeing their loved one die, right before their eyes. The pure fear that they must have felt. 

She carried on through the traffic before reaching a car that had its trunk open. She peered inside and saw an unopened duffle bag. Carefully she pulled on the top zip. She hoped that it would at least hold some food and water and if she was lucky, some survival equipment as well. The bag slid open and amongst the pile of clothes, revealed three small boxes of nutrigrain bars. Success! Gleefully she pulled out the boxes and stuffed them in her bag, taking one of the bars out to eat first. She hastily opened the wrapper and devoured the delicious bar. After three weeks of eating nothing but rabbit and beans the sweet taste of chocolate and cranberry was unparalleled.

As she was eating the bar, she heard a noise. Instantly, she went into attack mode. Crouching low and readjusting her knife in her hand so she would have a better position to attack. Her eyes darted around searching desperately for the source of the noise. She crept silently down the side of the car. 

She could see something moving very slowly at the opposite side of the car. 

Once she was round the side of the car she readied herself for an attack. In a flash of movement she was up. She saw the source of the noise and swung her knife up high ready to plunge it in. 

"Stop!"

Annie dropped her raised arm suddenly as she realised what she was looking at. 

It was a woman.

A woman and a little boy. 

They were curled up together, the boy wrapped tightly in his mother's arms. His mother was holding one arm up in surrender as her head was pressed tightly against her son's. 

"Oh my God!" Annie gasped.

She took a step back in shock. The mother looked up at Annie, her eyes pleading for mercy. She didn't know what to say. After three weeks of no human contact, Annie couldn't believe her eyes. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch the pair, in an attempt to see whether they were real. 

She continued to stare at the mother and son in shock for a moment, until a man's voice broke their silence. 

"Olivia!" He shouted.

Annie turned and saw the man running towards her his gun raised in his hands. She immediately threw her hands up in surrender dropping her knife to the ground.

"Don't move!" He ordered.

His eyes flickered towards the pair on the ground. 

"Are you two OK?" he asked, concern covering his face. 

"Yes. Yes we're fine." Olivia replied her arms unfurling from around the little boy.

The man focused his attention back on Annie. She noticed his hands shaking slightly from the adrenaline and sweat forming, plastering his blonde hair to his forehead. 

"Please, I'm not going to hurt you." Annie pleaded her hands lowering slightly.

"No. Keep them up."