In The After Life

Chapter 5

"You know I've never actually seen the sun like this before" Miles says and I push him jokingly as of course he wouldn't of seen it like this.

"Miles it's night of course you haven't seen the sun like this because it's not there" I huff but all he does is sigh longingly. I look around us and feel my mood dampen.

We ran a couple streets over to find the start of a forest. Gunner said he knows where he's going so we all let him lead whilst we formed almost like a barrier so we all get an eye out for any unwanted zombies.

This lead us to be here on the forest floor after spending the day trekking through the never ending forest swatting away the millions of bugs and crawlers attacking us any chance they could.

Not having the four walls of Gunners home to give us a protective layer has made me realise that out here with no cover is much more dangerous than I thought.

I miss the comfort of Miles bed and the warmth the house gave but now I have to get used to the damp dirt and bitter wind instead. At least we're alive. Plus who's to say if we make it to the safe haven we'll have a nice warm bed and food welcoming us.

"Hey get up it's your turn on watch" Daniel taps my side with his foot and I scold myself for not getting at least a tiny bit of shut eye. The fire gives a low light enough to know where everyone is.

Gunners fast asleep close to the fire and then Miles right next to me and Evelyn to the far right up against a tree, mouth open which is worrying thinking what could crawl in her mouth whilst she's asleep.

"Yeah I'm up I'm up" I say and so Daniel goes to try and get some rest. I sit up and grab one of my knifes from my waist pocket and twiddle with it. No one mentioned the selfish choice Daniel made to comeback. He kinda just seems dazed which is understandable as he watch people he loved die without being about to help them.

"You know being on watch requires you to walk around a few times to double check if it's clear" Miles says with his eyes closed. I glare at him knowing he actually caught me not paying attention.

"You know you can take my shift if you're just going to stay awake anyways" I whisper back just to not disturb anyone else and he chuckles as he turns over away from me.

"Not my fault you took Evelyn's watches" he says sarcastically. Yes I took her shifts as well as mine so I'm up now for two hours and then a further two after Gunner and Miles have done their shift.

She knows about taking shifts to look out but I told her that there was enough of us that she didn't need to do one and of course she said she'd split mine but I said there's no point.

Quite surprised she believed me but everyone heard us discuss it and no one said anything not even Daniel who's seems to have a negative personality so far. So here I am standing up to go check around the perimeter Gunner set up.

"I'll be back" I say and he just hums finally dropping off to sleep as he knows he'll have to be up soon. I keep my knife gripped tight in my hand as I shine the torch around me since I'm a few meters from camp.

The crunch of the twigs and couple of dry leaves beneath my feet are the only worrying sounds so far. The owl noises seem to spook me as they catch me off guard every time.

I'm half way through my walk around the perimeter when I spot a lone figure. I halt immediately in my tracks and shine the light on the figure.

It just stands their swaying on its feet. Surely if it was a zombie it would've attacked by now? "Psssst hey you what are you doing?" I whisper yell but it seems to not have reached the figure