Paradise

Chapter Six

The next days went by quickly and before I knew it we'd been on the road for over a week. We walked almost all day, making few stops to eat/rest and loot before moving on. Every time we ran into skin eaters Liam and Aiden took care of them. I was starting to feel a little weird that I'd only killed one. We made it to Wamego, Kansas on our eighth day and Aiden decided it was time for us to just rest.

We were sitting in an area of town between ruins and car wreckage. There was an area the shape of a rough triangle that was sat in, talking and discussing our plan.

"Do you know how any of this happened?" I asked Aiden.

"Unfortunately, no," He said twisting a flower in the hand, "Like I said, We were born after all this happened. Our parents never mentioned anything about it either."

"I don't see why it matters. All we need to know is that the people before us fucked shit up." Liam said. He had been listening to our conversation.

"Don't you want to know what happened so we don't make the same mistake?" I said.

"I don't see how any of this could possibly get any worse." Liam retorted.

"I guess then we're just curious." Aiden smiled.

"You said he'd warm up to me." I said in a low voice to Aiden a few minutes later.

"To be honest, I thought he would." Aiden had his thinking face on. His bright blue eyes were narrowed and concentrated, his eyebrow was raised as well.

"I think he just flat out hates me." I muttered.

"No, I don't think that's the case. We recently lost someone we were very close to. I think he blames himself."

"Oh." I glanced over at Liam.

He was tense, I could see it in his arms. His muscles were tight and his hands were clenched tightly around his shotgun.

"I wouldn't worry, he'll come around." Aiden flashed a smile.

I nodded and looked back at Liam. His eyes were blue, but not warm like Aiden's. His eyes were icy blue, almost gray they were so light. They were weary and wise for someone so young. I noticed he was staring at something behind Aiden and I, possibly why he didn't notice me staring. I turned around a bit and searched for what he might've been looking at. I couldn't see anything so I turned back to him.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

Liam shook his head slightly and carefully propped his gun against the bumper of a car, "Hand me the binoculars." He ordered.

Aiden reach in his bag, "What is it?" He handed the binoculars over. His question was ignored as well.

Liam stood slowly and held the binoculars to his eyes, "We need to go." He brought the binoculars down abruptly.

"What, why?" Aiden asked.

"There's a horde." He said.

"What?" I grabbed my bag, I wasn't sure what I was asking.

We were packing up and shoving our things into our bags when a low raspy growl sounded from behind me. I saw Liam reaching for his gun. I started to turn around, when Aiden grabbed my backpack and yanked me towards him. I hit his chest hard and I think in knocked the wind out if the both of us. Liam had his gun drawn and aimed at a skin eater that was stumbling towards him.

He fired and being only a few feet away the bullet tore through the skin eater's head. Blood splattered my face and Aiden's hands that now rest in my shoulders.

"How are they already here?" Aiden asked frantically, grabbing the binoculars.

"It must be a big hoard, there's no time for this," Liam said pointed at the binoculars, "Or talking."

Liam began jogging away, remaining stealthily low but moving fast. We copied his movement and followed behind. We passed a shipping truck that had been tipped over and now laid on it's side. Liam turned the corner and practically ran into a group of them.

"We're surrounded!" I shouted over the growls and screeches

"Up here!" Liam yelled.

Aiden helped him a top the overturned truck. Liam reached out and I took his hand. He pulled me up with him surprisingly fast. I crawled up next to him and shouted at Aiden who was still in the ground, firing at skin eaters.

Aiden sprinted toward us and jumped up, grabbing Liam's hand. Liam was pulling him up when suddenly something tugged him back down. I peaked over the edge and saw a skin eater grasping his leg. It leaned in and bit his boot, gnawing on it. Aiden kicked it away and I grabbed his backpack to help Liam pull him up. Once he got atop the truck with us he scrambled away from the edge and quickly took his boot of.

His foot had no sign of blood or marks of any kind that might indicate infection, "I'm clean." He sighed with relief and slid his boot back on.

"Good," I nodded and took a deep breath, "but where do we go now?"

I scanned the area around us. We were surrounded on all sides, like sitting ducks. Eventually looters would find us and kill us if we didn't get down, and the only way we were getting down was if the skin eaters left us. I knew that the longer we stayed up there the more skin eaters would come. We were trapped.