I woke up to the little girl shaking me. I was the last one asleep in the truck. She kept saying, "Wake up, we need to be ninjas!" Better way to wake up than knowing you'd have to go to school in half an hour. I pushed myself up and moved my left shoulder to see how it was doing. Wrong move. Pain shot up my arm, but I ignored it instead of screaming.
The little girl pulled me out of the truck. Allen stopped me and whispered in my ear, "You're riding in the trunk. Me and Hannah are headed out to get gas on the horses. Everyone needs to be ready when we're back." I nodded to him, and he ran off to the horses.
"What are we going to do first? Ninja star throwing? Be sneaky? Climb things?" I could tell she was extremely excited. I knelt down in front of her and thought about it. Giving a five year old girl knives? We weren't in that much danger yet, but better late than never. Being sneaky? I could teach her that. Climbing? There were trees everywhere!
"I'll show you how to be sneaky in the trees." I ran towards the trees and she followed me. They didn't have many low hanging branches, but they existed. I found a low hanging branch a good ten yards into the woods.i pulled on it to test if it were sturdy, and it snapped. I grabbed another one, and it was too bendy. I threw the limbs on the ground, and as I did, my hand brushed against the knife in my pocket. I ran my fingertips across the blade and thought. I turned to Maddy and asked, "How about we sneakily explore?" She nodded her head in excitement.
I took my beanie off and put it in my pocket, pulling my hoodie over my head. "Why'd you do that?" she asked.
"Bright colors are easy to see, and since my jacket is a dull grey color, it's harder to spot." I noticed she was wearing a bright pink shirt with bedazzled butterflies and a rainbow tutu. "We'll get you some new clothes. Now, follow my lead." I ran through the forest, hopping on tree limbs to avoid the dead, crunchy leaves on the floor. She did well enough to follow my lead, but she tripped and fell when we heard a scream.
She stood back up without crying. This was a tough five year old. I dusted her off and got the twigs out of her hair. I heard somebody scream my name this time, then I realized it was Justin. "Piggy back ride!" I said quickly, kneeling so she could jump on my back. As soon as she was on, I took off towards the camp, hopping from limb to limb to avoid noise. I had to shush her from time to time so she wouldn't attract unwanted attention.
What I saw next surprised me. Justin and Morgan were on top of the Jeep, surrounded by a herd of zombies. Some had one leg, some had one arm. Others were laying limp with a hole in their head where Justin and Morgan shot them with a pistol. On estimate, I had to say around 25 zombies, all adults. Were the young people the only ones that knew how to survive?
I sat Maddy down next to the fire and told her, "If anything comes your way, yell my name ok?" She nodded, and started to play with the bendy and brittle stick I didn't know she grabbed. I asked her, "Can I see the bendy stick?" She handed it to me. I wrapped it around my machete and stuck it in the fire. Yeah! The machete blade was glowing, and the stock was on fire. Flaming machete! Pyrotechnic one, zombies zero.
I ran in the direction of the herd, and just as I was getting near, one of them turned and lunged at me. I slashed its neck, and I saw as its head fell to the ground, the spinal cord was burning on each end and the fire spread to the rest of the body and head. I slashed through the herd while Justin and Morgan used the pistols. As the herd died down, they hopped off of the truck.
"How in the world did all of those get here?" I asked, throwing a knife into a skull then pulling it out.
"The wolf came back then scared the horses," Morgan explained, "and the horses made tons of noise which brought them hear. You didn't hear it?"
"Sorry, I thought I was still in earshot of the camp." I turned around and beckoned for Maddy to come to us, "Well, I kind of was in earshot since I heard you calling. But not close enough for the horses. But we should probably go soon. California is a long way, even with a car. We were lucky to get that Jeep." I saw Allen and Hannah riding up.
Allen asked, "What the fuck happened? It looks like a bloody massacre happened out here." The question was rhetorical, of course. He started filling the truck up with gas and Hannah put an extra gallon in the trunk. "Shawn, don't forget you've got the trunk."
He looked at me when I didn't respond, as if to say You got that? I nodded, taking the burnt stick off of my machete. I cleaned off all of my tools with the bottom of my shirt and climbed into the trunk. Maddy offered to get in the trunk with me, but I had here sit in my seat so she wouldn't accidentally fall on a weapon. We rode on, and I looked out of the window, twirling my bracelet and daydreaming.
