We're Not Alone

Chapter 15

"Oh my god! I remember this place!" I say in amazement.

We're at the place where my parents first met, the school playground in Cleveland. They met on the swings on their second day of school. They instantly became really good friends and they always played tag with Nirvana and Paisley's Dad all of the time. The four of them turned to best friends when they were all in the same class in their fourth year of school. I've always been so envious of how they met, because the only person I've known for that long is Paisley, and we were destined to meet any way.

As we passed through the school Dad and Nirvana suffered from major nostalgia. I still can't get over the fact they had been seeing each other for over two years and never told us about it.

We tramped across the grass field leaving footprints in the thin layer of slowly melting snow. The bright sun shone onto the snow, glaring back to my eyes, and making me squint.

"They could be anywhere by now! But let's check through here anyway!" That all too familiar booming voice yells from not too far away.

Luckily we are only about ten feet away from some bush. We scramble into cover and prepare ourselves for combat.

"Who are these people?" Kyle asks as I load my guns and ready my bow and quiver.

"Soldiers, they've been after us since we first started running away," I explain. "Somehow they know where we're going, all of the time."

I see two soldiers walk out into the open, though they are too far away and I cannot get a clear shot of them. As the beginning two creep closer towards us more fill the grounds.

The moment I get a clear view of one of the soldiers and pull my bow out and shoot him through the back into his chest. He falls dramatically to the ground without a sound. Paisley shoots the other with an arrow in the head and he drops without a sound as well.

A few of the other soldiers see the two dead and instantly become more alert.

"Joel and Sam have been killed, they're around!" Another of the soldiers yell.

I manage a clear shot on two other soldiers before one them spots where the arrows are coming from and he creeps toward the bush. Before he sees us I shoot him in the chest and he falls making a loud crunching sound in the twigs.

The others hear the sudden noise and they all rush toward us. I pull my El Diablo out and start firing at them.

In a matter of minutes, and the help of all six of us, they are all dead, and we are free to escape.

We sprint out of the school grounds and don't stop running for two kilometers.

"Oh... My... God... Can... We stop... For a... Second..?" I beg between pants.

"Yeah," Dad says as we stop in front of a cafe.

We enter through the front door to the smell of stewing coffee. To me it smells horrible, to the others it's heaven. I stumble to the fridge and pull out six cans of Arizona.

"Arizona is my favourite, but I haven't had it for over two months," Kyle explains as I hand him a can.

I hand cans to the others and we crack them open almost simultaneously. I skull half of the can in one shot.

"So, Dad, how far are we from Maine now?"

"About 1230 kilometers."

"Are you kidding? That is going to take forever!"

"I'd rather be safe, then fighting all of those things that are out there." As Dad says this I hear a shrill cry from the back of the shop.

A middle aged lady comes sprints into the front of the shop, followed by three trackers. Nirvana pulls her shotgun out and shoots the three of them until they are dead.

"Oh, thank you so much," the lady with a Canadian accent thanks Nirvana.

"So, is this your cafe?" Nirvana asks.

"No, those trackers were chasing me since my house, and I was passing through here. I'm so sorry to startle you."

"No, no, don't be silly. We were being attacked by soldiers back at the school and we ran from there to here. We just stopped in here for some drinks and to get away from the main road."

"That's a far way from the school to here, where are you going to?"

"Portland in Maine," Nirvana explains.

"Oh, wow, that's quite a travel."

"Do you care to join us?" She asks.

"No, thank you, I need to stay here, but really, thank you."

"That's completely fine, well come on guys we should..." She gets cut off by infected running down the road.

We squat behind the counter and I peek my head out to see what is happening. There's a middle aged man running in front of them, obviously being chased. The mob of infected and the man run past the shop so we all make a break for it out the back.

We jump over the fence to the backyard of a house out the back, but unluckily we are faced by close to twenty tickers.

When Kyle jumps over the fence he lands with a loud thud and aggravates the infected. They scramble towards us and I pull out any thing I could find first. The little, mini, pistol.

Fantastic choice Jamila, you're going to do so much damage with that...

I shoot using all of the bullets I have left.

Once I'm out of bullets I pull my knife out as fast as possible and manage to stab two in their guts. Paisley is struggling with one so I help her out and stab it in the head. That was the last of them.

"Well that was great, I used all of my bullets," I say with a sarcastic tone in my voice.

"We find bullets everywhere, don't worry about it hun," Paisley says flopping her arm over my shoulders. "Thanks for saving me back there anyways, I was dreading getting bitten."

"Yeah I'm glad yo...."

"About getting bitten," Kyle cuts in. "Hypothetically, if I was bitten what would happen to me?"

"In one day you would slowly turn to a tracker, and a day after that a ticker. It's slow and painful," Dad explains. "Why are you asking anyways?"

"Uh..."