Rot || ONC2024

──●Twenty Six●──

    Using all the strength I had, as well as Yarrow's shoulder, I limped my way to the tree line.

    "Mara hurry," Yarrow whispered frantically. 

    "I'm trying I'm trying!"

    While the sun began to steadily sink below the horizon, the glow of the humans was coming closer and closer. Their chatter was beginning to leak into the air.

    "Do they have guns?"

    "It's a whole ass raid, Yarrow. They probably have all sorts of weapons."

    "Oh my good gods." Yarrow was growing more frantic by the minute.

     "Wait Yarrow, you still got that grenade?"

    "Mara, now it not the time to be talking abo-"

    "Yarrow!"

    All he could do was nod.

     I pointed to the part of the camp that still remained. "Pull the pin and throw it there. It should created enough of a distraction that they won't notice us."

     He quickly reached in his pocket, shakily pulled the pin and lobbed it towards the base. A dull thunk could be heard, shortly followed by a monstrous boom.

    Yarrow quickly threw me on his back, then took off towards the tree line.

    "Yarrow!" I screeched. 

    "Shush it!" 

    Being on Yarrow's back felt like I was riding a wild horse. I was jostled around like a sack of potatoes.

    As we entered the forest, Yarrow slowed his pace. Surprisingly, he set me down gently on the plush grass below.

    "What was that for," I interrogated. I sent a sharp glare in his direction.

    "Sorry for wanting to survive." He rolled his eyes.

    "We were! That's the whole damn reason I got'cha to vault that grenade!"

    As his response, he turned me around so I could face the scene that was unfolding in front of my very eyes.

    All that remained of the camp was bathed in a golden fireball. Flames licked the sky above hungrily. The Walkers that were still in the camp fell to the ground, either by the fire or by gunshot. Human hollers and the shrieks and cries of Walkers filled the air, punctuated by the occasional boom of a grenade and bang of the guns. 

    "I hurried so we wouldn't be caught in that," Yarrow remarked. "Plus, it's pretty damn cool to watch, don't 'cha think?"

    He sat down on the grass, and I did the same.

    "What do we do now," I questioned. "We got no home no more."

    Yarrow smiled. "We'll find a new one, Mara, don't worry. There has to be more abandoned buildings here than this one, right?"

    I nodded. "Yeah..."

    Yarrow pulled me in close beside him. "We could take a note from the humans and build underground. There's some pretty nice mountains up north that could work. It'll be a good change of scenery. We can have a farm, a whole camp. We'll make it better, Mar."

    A smile spread on my face. "It'll just be me and you against the world, Yarrow, just like old times. We'll have a whole camp to ourselves, that's pretty sick."

    "And it'll be better than Al's camp ever was."

    We laughed, then returned our attention to the show in front of us. Walker screams would fill the night for hours and hours to come.

     Call me a sadist, but I loved the sound of their screams.