BITTEN

Chapter 13

The camp felt pretty much okay except for the fact that we still mourned the death of Isaac.

Nathan slowly walked up to me, sat beside me on the itchy grass and started a conversation.

"It's going to be okay."

"Yeah, should I believe that?" I asked.

"Look, I was gonna come back for you. There was just too much going on. We went through a whole lot before we got here and I'm afraid a lot is still going to happen."

"I never had a doubt." I gave him a smile.

Our conversation was interrupted when we heard gunshots. We got up in a jiffy and with a lot of anticipation. Not too far from us was a hunter with thick grey hair. He appeared to be shooting at birds. Pow! Pow! The gunshot sounded again as a bird fell from the old looking tree. There was a smile of fulfilment on his face.

"This will make a good meal." He repeated twice.

He raised his gun again, ready to fire but I wasn't going to let that happen. As I stood behind him, I pulled the gun away from his hands.

"Hey," he screamed, "give it back to me."

"I have nothing against you and your bird.. or your gun, but do you realize that you may just be drawing the zombies?" I explained.

"What the hell are you talking about? You can't tell me what to do. You should be glad that I don't want you dead." He spoke rudely.

"Calm down," I told him.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" He raised his voice even louder.

It didn't take long before we had a crowd watching the scene.

"What's the problem?" Abraham the eldest man in the camp asked.

"He's the problem!" The hunter began. "I was shooting at birds peacefully, then he stopped me."

"John," said Abraham, "what's wrong with that?"

Before I could speak, they all took sides with the hunter. Most of them murmured in support of him.

"Don't you get it?" I spoke. "Shooting at birds randomly draws the zombies. We all need guns, but if we must use them, it must be for a good reason. Killing birds isn't."

"You're just a bother. I see why your mother ended up like she did," he muttered.

I couldn't help but clench my fist in anger. With rage, I punched out one of his teeth. He never saw it coming. The look on his face said it all.

"My tooth!" He cried out.

"Don't you ever bring my mother in this. You hear me?" I uttered angrily.

I stretched out my right hand again for another punch, but I was stopped by Nathan.

"The island is changing," I told the crowd, gesticulating with my hands. "So much is changing, and if you're not ready for it, you may be found lagging behind. Most of you have been under some sort of intensive care or something and you don't have the experience in dealing with zombies. You don't know how things work out now. Change is here, but you're not ready for it."

"Somebody, please help! My son is in danger!" Someone yelled in the crowd.

He led us into the woods where we saw a little boy who was trying to save himself from a zombie. The zombie was already on him trying to bite him but he fought really hard. Someone raised a gun, but Nathan warned against it.

"Drop the gun down!"

Hurriedly, I brought out a knife and I pierced it into the zombie's head. The young boy laid on the grass, still in shock before he ran into his dad's arms.