What Walks Among Us (book one)

Hey Sunshine

Adam woke me up around dawn, and I nearly punched him in the face, which made Ben laugh. After apologizing, I got up and gathered my clothes from the bathroom and put them in my bag. I also grabbed the book that Abby still held in her sleeping arms and placed it in her bag, before joining Ben outside, the bow he had given me in my hands.

He looked up as I came out, and tossed an apple towards me. I caught it easily and after looking at it for any hidden worms, took a big bite. He watched me while I did this, and I shrugged in an innocent fashion. I honestly wouldn't put it past him to try and prank me with a worm infested apple.

He grinned as if reading my mind, and agreeing to my accusations. As the sun came up, Ben said he was going to get some firewood for the day and see if he couldn't catch something to eat. Which left me to sit on the log that we had played I-spy on last night, and listen for anything that shouldn't have been in the woods.

Watch duty was fairly simple, and I didn't hear anything until the sun had fully risen beyond the horizon. At first I thought the twigs snapping were due to Ben, but they were coming from the direction of the compound that we had left the previous day. I stood up, on high alert, and after shoving away the flood of hope that it was someone I knew, I aimed the bow roughly in the direction in which the sound was coming from.

As the sound got louder, I picked up on it. There was more than one, but apart from that, I wasn't able to tell how many. Light on my feet, I hid behind a tree so that if they were just zombies, I wouldn't be spotted first thing. The wait seemed to take forever, and I was starting to gather a light sweat on my hairline.

As the first body broke into my line of sight, I nearly let the arrow notched in my bow fly due to pure shock. Luckily for Trish, I came to my senses and released the tension on the string without letting the actual arrow impale her. The shock however, was broke when I saw who was behind her. Sam's ever cheerful eyes cut around the area surrounding the safe house, pausing on the log, and then on my back pack that I had left near the front door.

I put the bow on my back and ran over, his eyes found mine and he dropped the hatchet that he had been holding. I didn't care about the blood or dirt all over his clothes as I hugged him, and when his arms wrapped around me it all felt real. He was was safe.

"Hey Sunshine," he whispered, rocking me side to side.

"I'm so happy you're okay," I mumbled, not pulling away until was sure that I wasn't going to break down in tears.

Trish cleared her throat, looking at me. She was silent for a few moments, before she gave a tired smile, "I'm glad you made it Kodi," she said, sounding honest.

In that moment there was a small truce between us, whatever initial dislike there had been was gone, and we were left with a mutual goal of survival. I smiled back tentatively. Both her and Sam looked as if they had been through hell and back, Sam had a swollen lip, and his shirt was torn, while Trish's dark hair was matted and had a cut on her eye, making it dark with a bruise.

"Who all is here?" Sam asked, tilting his head while trying to look behind me for the others.

I swallowed, "Well, Beck and Adam are inside sleeping, so is Abby. I'm on watch duty with Benjamin, and now you two are here," I said finishing up lamely.

The information that I withheld rolled around my stomach like a spiked ball of dread and guilt.

Sam's smile fell a little bit, "Who is definitely not going to make it here, that you know of?"

I looked away from him them, the tears pricked at my eyes, making me wonder how long I would feel this way, "I don't know about .. about Cody but. Chester.." I felt my throat close up a little bit, "Chester's not going to make it to the safe house," I finally said, silent tears fell down my cheeks.