Oblivion {n.h.}

Chapter 27.

Jade had awoken and the group had left, leaving behind only the graves and parts of our happiness that had been buried within them.

The young girl was absolutely fine, just had passed out from blood loss. All she really needed was water and a bit of food to get her going again; nurse Danielle succeeded again.

I had hopped into the back of the jeep with Niall, Liam and Jade up in the front seats. Everyone else rode in that ammunition truck that has helped us immensely in the past few days.

"We need to start thinking of a plan." Niall calls up towards the front seats, shouting over the engine to start conversing with the other three of us.

"What do you mean?" Liam asks, looking back at Niall through the rear-view mirror just above his head, his brown eyes soft and relieving somehow.

"Where next? We need a plan- a destination, there's got to be some refugee camp or lab that's trying to work up a cure." Niall explains; having a better point then I gave the guy credit for.

His arms snakes around my shoulders, squeezing my right one close to his body.

"How do you suspect we just go searching for that?" Jade asks, not turning around to look at Niall from where she sits in front of him.

"That's what we need to talk about."

"I think there's better things to talk about right now." Liam tells us, suspense in his voice as he slowly stops the jeep just behind the ammunition truck in front of us.

"Why'd we stop?" I call towards Liam, who is already fast-walking up to the front where the vehicles had parked ahead of us.

"I don't know." I can hear him faintly call, not looking back.

I hop out just as he did, followed quickly by Niall and Jade, all of us wondering what the hold up was in the first place.

Fear rumbles around in my stomach as everyone stands in a group, staring into the street as if they'd seen a ghost; and these days I wouldn't be surprised by that.

I squeeze through Jackson and Carly to take an eyeful of what everyone had been staring at, and as soon as I did, I had begun to wish that I hadn't.

Two bodies, both young women lay in the road, being eaten by two guys who had been snacking on them for what seems to have been a while now.

I slide my machete out of its socket, creating a large 'SHING' noise as it releases. Stepping forward, I grab one of the walkers by the back and spin him around, his teeth chomping and arms outstretched in order to grab me; but my machete never makes contact.

Alex.

Alex Fitch and Greg Horan; both snacking on a woman and who looks a hell of a lot like what used to be Andrea.

Niall makes his way up beside me, and I can hear his voice shaking as if he's breathing into a megaphone.

I shove who used to be Alex away, that thing isn't one of my close friends anymore. The limp monster falls to the ground and gets back up slowly to come back for more.

Whimpers escape Niall's throat and I can tell every inch of his body has gone limp; his brother is dead.

Everyone had ignored the fact that the three of them had gone on a run the night of the mansion fall, knowing they could take care of themselves and defend whatever got in their way as long as it meant getting back to the group.

Alex speeds up on his rotten bones, quickly noticing that the food before his eyes is far fresher than his old leftovers upon the street.

By what it looks like, I can tell he'd been bitten on the shoulder, probably being snuck up on from behind. Greg having the same bite mark, also having a few scratches on his back and neck. No telling what happened to poor Andrea in the street; she's too chewed up to find out.

Alex growls beneath his breath, taking a step toward the group, also catching Greg's attention below him.

In the faintest glimpse of his eye, I could see a hint of remembrance, evil swirling through the rest. The foggy pupils search left and right, staring at every single on of us from the group, taking another step forward, Steven had known what to do far before I'd gotten the idea.

He steps forward to Alex, making the dead boy believe this will be his first victim. Before he could even follow through with that wish, Steven pulls out his pocket knife and drives it into Alex's temple, letting the boy's eyes close softly, and allowing his body to hit the ground not as softly.

Greg takes another step forward, totally ignoring Steven right by his side, he won't take his eyes off Niall. The boy weak and helpless, he can't do what he's supposed to. By the time Greg tries to lurch onto his younger brother, Niall is already crying and pushing the older man away.

I hand him the bat, the same bat that Josh had once called his. Niall takes it from my hands, angrily bashing in Greg's head, over and over again; whimpering and grunting aggressively before he leans the other way and nearly falls onto the old bodies that had once been our friends.

He sits on the cold street, his fingers turning pink and purple as he touches the icy ground. I make my way over to him and sit behind him, wrapping my legs around his waist and snaking my arms to the front of his torso.

No one speaks, all I do is hug Niall, hug Niall and never stop. Thankfully he had actually given in and hugged me just as tightly back, I let him cry on my shoulder, cry into my chest and snot however much he's able to onto my back.

We make our way back to the cars and again; silently continue the journey, not far off now. Something always has to go wrong; always.

My mind wanders back to Andrea, I never met the girl, but I believe I over-estimated her.