Wasting Away

Friend or Foe?

"Parker... Parker..." Parker's eyes slowly opened. He squinted as the bright morning sun glared into his eyes. Alice was crouched next to him. "I wanted to ask you a few questions before Liz woke up." Alice told him. "What do you need?" He sat up. "I remembered hearing that broadcast last night, remember what they said about setting up a perimeter?" Alice asked him. "Yeah?" Parker nodded. "Why don't we pick a direction, and walk until we reach it, and hopefully escape this Hell hole." She suggested. Parker thought about. He looked over at Lizzy, who was still sleeping softly. He smiled. "Yeah, good idea." He stood up, and grabbed his backpack.

The trio where deep in the woods as they continued trekking to the quarantine perimeter. Lizzy hopped up onto a fallen log as she tried to balance across it. "So where are we going?" Lizzy hopped off the fallen tree. "We're trying to get to the quarantine perimeter and hopefully escape this disease." Parker informed her. "How much further do we have?" She looked up at him. "I don't know." He shrugged. "Maybe Mom and Dad made it." Lizzy sounded hopeful. Parker but his bottom lip and gulped. "Yeah, maybe." He didn't want to give her false hope.

The three of them were walking across a dirt path winding through the woods. Lizzy was skipping in circles around Parker and Alice, humming to herself. "Come on! We have to make it to the perimeter!" She excitedly hopped in place. Just then Parker heard something, it sounded like rustling in the woods, but he couldn't be sure, but even so, he unsheathed his knife and gripped it firmly. "Did you hear that?" Alice stopped. Lizzy stopped skipping and looked nervously around. Parker heard more rustling off to his left. He gritted his teeth as his heart started pounding. "Who's there?" Alice held up her nine millimeter. "Are any of you infected?" A voice called from the woods. "No!" Lizzy shouted back. Parker grabbed her mouth and whispered to her to be quiet. A figure in tactical camo faded from the forest, he had a gasmask and bulletproof armor. He had his M-16 pointed at Alice who had her nine millimeter pointed at him. "Put the gun down." He said. "You first." She replied. The strange man stood there, not moving a muscle. "Girl, put your gun down, I don't want to hurt you." The man in the gasmask said more firmly. "Alice, put the gun down." Parker told her. Alice gritted her teeth. "Alice, put the gun down." Parker looked over at her. Slowly, she crouched down and set her gun of the dusty path. "Kick it to me." The man said. Alice stood there. "Just do it, Alice." Parker told her. With her foot, Alice slowly pushed the gun to the man. He turned to look at Parker and Liz. Lizzy cowered behind Parkers back as he turned to look at them. "Do you have a gun?" He asked. Parker shook his head. "Her?" He pointed her gun at Lizzy. "No!" She exclaimed fearfully. The masked man slowly lowered his gun and reached up to his gas mask. Before pealing it off to reveal his face. He was middle aged man, Indian by the look of it, with a young, almost blemishless face. Parker noticed he had a patch with the British flag on his left arm. "What's your guys names?" He asked, his voice no longer muffled by the thick rubber mask. "Uhh, I'm Parker. This is my sister Lizzy." Parker said. "And this is our friend, Alice." Parker motioned to her. "Hey." Thean said. Alice just huffed. The man sighed and kicked her pistol back to her. Immediately, she snatched it up off the ground and returned it to it's hustler. "I'm Batsa, soldier in the Royal Gurkha Rifles. I was sent here by the World Health Organization to help reinforce the quarantine perimeter after a huge wave of infected swarmed one of the outposts." Batsa introduced himself. "So, uhh, why did they need help from the British?" Parker asked. "They deployed Navy Seals into the black zone, but the comms went dark after a couple hours." Batsa told him.
"Are you guys trying to get to the perimeter?" He asked them. "Yes! Can you take us there?" Lizzy asked excitedly. "I can, and you're lucky to have come across me, or else they probably would have gunned you down as soon as you arrived." Batsa said. "Come on, there's an outpost this way." Batsa said, drawing a large, curved knife from his belt as he bagan slashing at low laying branches. Alice and Parker exchanged a glance, before shrugging and following after him.