We Aren't Safe Here(BwWm)

Chapter 36

Amora's Pov

I am not here.
But My body moves one foot infront of the other
I am not here
But my chest still goes in and out from my breathing

Emi is not here
But I am still here.

My mindless legs trip over a tree root sending me to the ground,
Allister's hand shoots out to latching on to my arm catching me
"Guys let's take a break" I drown out his words
As he leads me to sit against the cool concrete of a convenience store
He pulls a water bottle out from my bag and moves it toward me
"You need to drink."
My mind empty unable to process his command
He pushes the bottle towards my lip
My eyes take in the clear liquid
The label ripped off
Suddenly I realize how parched I truly am
I allow him to pour the water in my mouth and I swallow painfully
The water coating my dry mouth
"How long have we been walking." My raspy voice questions
"7 hours, it's now 2 pm" he twists the lid back on the water.
7 hours... she's probably gone already.
She looked just about to pass when I left her.
I sniffle feeling the tears beginning to come back
But I stop them
I push them down to the darkest deepest part of my soul
Never to come out again
I seem to be doing that a lot lately.
I shove my body back against the concrete wall and stand up
Allister observes my weaken state and hovers
Feeling uncomfortable with all this attention
I pick my bag up off the floor and turn away from Allisters squatting position
I hear his sigh before he follows behind me
I lag behind as Jenny and Dante lead us through the ruined city
Cars crashed into building
A printing store covered in ashes
Glass littering the floor
It seems to go on for ages, my heart squeezes for the people who lived through this.
And although I feel guilty that others had to live through this soul wrenching sight and I didn't, it feels good to have a distraction.
The town seems to be coated in a thick dark soot from all the past fires.
We walk past a sandwich shop when a small body scurries past us.
We all freeze
Allister grabs my wrist pulling me against him.
We all turn to the left and continue walking sideways very slowly
Keeping our eyes on whatever just ran into the alleyway
Our eyes go wide as we pass the alleyway and make out a woman and child covered in dirt and filth
The woman holds the child against her chest. the child looks probably around 8, he glares up at us from his mothers chest
He looks malnourished
His eyes sunken in, his lips chapped from dehydration.
The woman bares her teeth at us and flashes a blade at us ushering for us to move forward.
We stand still shocked, she slowly moves forward and we can clearly see her face covered in dirt leaving her pale eyes to shine out. She bucks again revealing her bruised body.
We heed her warning and continue on slowly passing by the woman, And deeper into the city .
As we make our way through Our eyes catch on every sound and crack.
If we look long enough we can make out a person or a child lurking in the darkness and ruble
It's been somewhere around 3 or 4 months since everything started
I can't believe people have been reduced to this.
I guess we got lucky making it this far...lucky- what bull shit, what happened to Emi was not lucky.
I press my hands against my forehead angry that my mind forces me to remember what happened.
Allister places his warm hand on my waist guiding me as I shake the depressing thoughts from my head.
We pass buy a drug store and take in the warm inviting smell of burning meat
In this alleyway A small and shriveled old man covered in dirt, wrapped in a green blanket Sits buy a small fire roasting some kind of meat.
It smells so good.
And I'm so hungry.
He spots our group
His face is tired but his expression is welcoming. He takes in our appearances before lending us a missing tooth smile and tipping his dusty blue hat down at us
He quickly waves us over.
I point at our group in confusion, He nods hard this time waves us over even more eagerly.
Is this some sort of trap to steal our belongings. I glance at his sides making sure he has no weapons when I'm sure he's harmless, something in me urges me to step forward. He reminds of a stereotype 70 year old grandpa you would see on tv, or what I would imagine my grandpa looked like if he had a rough match against drugs, or if I ever met him.
I take two steps making sure everyone is with me, Dante seems more concerned on what he's eating then if he's a threat.
We gather around the garage can fire Taking in the small slender round pieces of meat pierced by a stick that lays over the fire.
He seems to be sitting on a makeshift wooden box.
I kneel down by the fire
The old man seems withered down.
"He-Hello, are you thirsty?" I reach for my water in my bag to offer it to him
He shakes his head
Before picking up one of the sticks and handing it to me
I shake my head
He must be starving compared to me, I watch how the skin of his wrist barely hangs off his bones.
"I can't sir, please you enjoy."
He shakes he head firmly and shoved it closer to me
I give in and take the stick from his dirty hands. He hands another one of the sticks to Dante. We look at each other before turning back to the food.
I turn over the charred piece of flesh examining it ny eyes catch on a glossy chipped piece of reflective surface
I hold it closer to figure out what it is
What type of meat is shaped like this, boney, slender...
It's just like my hand, like a ...finger
Repulse recoils through me
A human finger
I toss the finger away and slap the stick from Dante's hand as well.
I hold back my bile and try to scramble back to Allister
When the man reaches out grabbing my wrist
"Eat." He yells and i look from our conjoined hands up to meet his now wild eyes and yellow teeth covered in filth.
He realizes his mistake in the way my face had morphed into fear, he shakes his face in apology and offers me a smile "so you can live." He places another hand on my wrist.
Allister wraps his hand around my forearm and forced me away from the man
I'm pulled away, my eyes still watching the man as he hoots in laughter and takes a huge bite of the finger barely avoiding the bone.
I gag covering my mouth
"What the hell?!" I turn my eyes away
Allister pulls me far enough that we are no longer in eyesight of the man.
I tap on Allister's so that he will let me go. The second he does I fold over
Retching up the last bit of food I had in my stomach.
I wipe my lips
Jenny leans next to me rubbing my back
"this what the world has come to." She says staring off
I stand up and shake the nerves off
We need to get out of here, now.
*****
3 hours through the town, we reach the city limits
We made sure to be quick and avoid any zombies or any loud sounds.

"From here on out it's going to be a lot of woods and back roads," Dante says reading the map
"Maybe we should find a car?" Jenny asks
"We go as far as we can on foot, and then we can find a car or something after that." Dante fold the map back up and places it in his cargo pants.

I uploaded again! Wow can we get a round of applause ladies and gentlemen, 3 uploads in one month?!
I think I have a new record, lmao
Anyways I hope you enjoy, please vote <3
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