Alive inside (Book Three)

Collections Part One

Ch. 9

'Collections Part one'

[Richmond, VA, evening]

Smoke rose silently into the air, light flickered across the broken glass that was scattered across the cracked and fractured pavement.

Summer trotted down the street, seeing the aftermath of a vicious fight from the back of her horse.

"Blake, what do you see?" Summer called over her shoulder, analyzing the scene for any sign of Genevieve's whereabouts.

Following alongside on his own horse, Blake saw the carnage, after a moment the man shook his head slowly in disbelief. "Could she do this, by herself?!" Blake exclaimed looking at his sister in bewilderment.

A long sigh escaped Summer's lips as she weighed her response. "She is amazing, I've never seen anyone like her, even Amanda would have been impressed," Summer replied, looking at the devastation wrought by the girl she had once had tried to turn away from violence.

The duo galloped through the city undaunted by the massacre around them, the dead were out in force, no doubt brought on by warfare that had been raged by the hand of the young survivor they tracked.

A lone couple of zombies feasted on the remains of an animal, trotting up closer, Summer peered at the carcass. “It’s her horse!” Summer concluded, seeing the saddle she had made for the girl’s fourteenth birthday.

"Oh my… I can't believe she’s still going on without a horse," Summer said, taken back by the grisly scene.

Blake trotted up beside his sister as the two undead staggered back up slowly to their feet.

"Fuck, this is bad, she wouldn't try and keep going would she?" Blake exclaimed, stepping his horse away from the monsters as his horse whinnied in fear.

"I don't know, she's never done anything like this before," Summer admitted as the two trotted away from the zombies.

After a long day of riding the duo stopped up for the night, bringing the horses into an abandoned mall store that faced the street.

The duo got set up for the night, it’d be difficult to follow her trail at night, much more dangerous as well.

"She grew up," Blake said sadly, prodding the small fire he had got going.

The room they had picked was an old manager's small office, but the ceiling had rotted out and fallen in, giving the siblings ample ventilation, though not much vertical shelter should it rain.

Summer sat next to the fire inspecting the arrows she had picked up along the path to where they were. "Losing Amanda is where she grew up… I think," Summer muttered, keeping her voice low so nothing was alerted to their presence, her head hung low at the mere thought of her sister’s demise.

A sigh emanated from both people, as the thought of the innocent little girl they had known and loved, was now attempting to run a killing spree.

The horses suddenly began to get spooked, bucking and kicking and neighing, the sight of zombies nearby, had set their internal alarms off.

The horde of undead began pushing on the glass, trying to get after their next victims.

"SHIT!" Blake said as the glass started cracking, jumping to his feet to brace for the incoming dead.

[Baltimore, morning]

Blood ran down the survivor's forearm and dripped off her elbow, her muscles tightening on the hilt of her knife as she twisted it steadily into her victim's neck, carving out a gaping hole as his strength seeped away, giving in to his wounds.