Last One Standing

Chapter 1: Breakdown

"What are these things?" I asked out of breath as we stood on top of an over turned 18-wheeler. Sarah gave me a look. I had asked that question more than 20 times in the past 10 minutes. I sighed, "I know, I know." The sound of Roamers echoed in the air around us. "It's getting late." Sarah said, looking at the orange-yellow ombréd sky. She was absolutely terrified of the dark. Those days, I guess you could say everyone was afraid of the night. I nodded, taking her hand in mine. "Jump from the far side and run. I have you covered." She held her rifle close to her body as she clutched her bag and jumped, running as fast as she could. I swallowed hard watching as the Roamers directed their attention to her and began to run after her. As she turned to shoot, I picked up my crossbow and aimed it at them. 1 down, 15 to go. After using all 10 of my arrows I sighed, hopping down and running up to one, kicking it down from behind and driving my knife into it's head with a loud crunch. It felt like all of the air had been knocked out of my body as I fell to the pavement. That's when I felt it, the slimy secretion of blood that dropped from the mouth of my newfound 'friend'. I could barely move but I knew I had to keep going. I managed to flip over onto my back and pushed it off, snapping one of it's arms of in the process. I growled with anger and stabbed it. Even after it was dead I continued to plunge my knife into it's forehead repeatedly. I looked up and saw that Sarah only stood a couple of feet away, the barrel of her gun pointed directly at the Roamer. She was crying and shaking with fear. I quickly jumped up, slinging my crossbow over my shoulder and ran to her , wrapping my hands around her neck. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm okay." She lowered her weapon and began to sob into my shoulder. "I-I thought.." she stumbled over her words. Sarah had been a nervous wreck since everything started. Jumping at every little noise or movement, hearing things that weren't there. I pulled back slightly and looked into her chocolate brown eyes, keeping my arms around her. "How about we find some place to hang for a while?" She swallowed hard and nodded, strapping her rifle to her shoulder. I took her hand in mine and we ran off into the cover of the forest.

Once we had found perfect hanging trees, I tied each side of the hammock around the base, high enough to be far from any Roamer's reach. Sarah stayed perched on a branch while I tied our packs to a steady part of the hammock. I did most of the hard work while Sarah watched, and that's how I liked it. Once Sarah was comfortably in the hammock, I crawled in after her, handing her the last of her anxiety medicine. She swallowed it, immediately becoming drowsy. Today had been the most productive day she had had since everything started. Sometimes I would stop to think about how I should be the one in shambles, worrying about everything but I always come to the conclusion that she was mentally weaker than I was and I would do anything for her, even if it meant pushing my own feelings aside for her benefit. I cringed as her fingers slid under the hem my shirt, tracing up and down my scar that was almost completely healed. It was a bittersweet memory that was now long gone. "Do you ever think about it?" Sarah asked sleepily. I shrugged, pushing the thought to the recesses of my mind. "Well I do. All the time." I couldn't speak. "Then at times I think that nothing better could've happened." My heart ached. "Sarah, just stop it. Go to sleep." Sarah always enjoyed pouring her heart out to me. Yet every time she did, she would trace her fingers up and down, up and down. Soon her palm fell on top of my scar as she was sound asleep. I placed my hand above her's and began to drift away slowly.