Journey Towards the Light

First Steps

Beads of sweat rolled down Ayda's face as she followed the man up the mountainside. Her hands were cracked and bloody, her feet almost limp.

They had, apparently, been venturing to this place for a day and a half without rest, as there were no safe houses in the area. The two had heard from a dying man about a countryside, a place outside of Harran city, where people were "immune" to the virus. Crane, being a man of divine purpose, knew he had to seek this out. Ayda, trying to prove HER purpose, ventured out alongside him.

She wasn't prepared for a trek of this magnitude, though.

Crane was already atop a cliff in between two large mountains, Ayda dragging her feet behind him. He stood looking down at the countryside, his fists at his hips.

"We made it." He smiled proudly.

"How are you... Not tired.." Ayda breathed heavily, resting her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm exhausted. We need to find a place to stay, for now." He looked down at the girl.

The setting sun illuminated her tired face, and Crane swept her up off her feet and spun her around in his arms. "We made it!!" His face beamed. "We're one step closer to saving your people."

"Right.." Ayda wiped the sweat from her brow as Crane set her back on the ground. She took a few small steps forward, looking down below them. "That... That's at least a hundred meter drop right into a stream."

"So let's jump." Crane said, rubbing his hands together.

"Jump??" She said in disbelief. "There is no way that stream is deep enough to break a fall this high."

"Well, I'm jumping. There's no way I'm climbing down the face of a mountain. That's suicide." He said and prepared to jump, bending his knees and squatting down comically.

"It's suicide if you jump!" She pleaded.

"Whatever you say!" He smiled at her before looking down and jumping right off the side of the cliff.

"Crane!!!" She yelled angrily and ran to the edge, looking down. "Jesus Christ."

Crane hit the water with a splash, and Ayda waited in suspense for him to surface.

He did, and he yelled "Just fucking jump, you'll be fine!" He began to wade to the shore.

Ayda sighed. She wasn't afraid of heights in the least, but it was a serious risk on her life whether or not she would hit the bottom of the stream and break her legs.

"Come on! I'm going to leave without you!" Crane yelled as he stood on land. He looked like an ant from up above.

Ayda took a deep breath in and a few steps back before running and leaping off the ledge.

Time seemed to move slowly as she fell, the wind whipping her hair back. Her body braced itself as she formed a nose-dive position. She hit the water, her body gracefully parting the waves as she sank deep.

"Fuck!" She yelled as she surfaced, her long brown hair sticking to her back. She waded to the edge and trudged her body out of the water, shaking herself off like a dog.

Crane sat in the sand, wringing his shirt out. Her eye caught his bare chest as she looked over his flawlessly chiseled body. Her heart fluttered.

"Told you you'd be fine." He smiled up at her as she stood with her arms crossed.

"Now I'm soaking wet." She frowned.

"But you're alive."

"Yeah.." She sighed and lifted her yellow t-shirt off that was clinging to her body.

Crane watched her as she did the same as he, gripping onto her wet shirt and letting the water fall onto her boots. Her white sports bra was soaking wet, allowing him to clearly see her perky breasts underneath.

"Would you knock it off?" She snapped. She knew him better than he knew himself.

After drying off a few minutes, the two set out on their original journey, walking down a dirt path with trees surrounding them on either side.

"It's so peaceful here. It's almost like.. Everything's normal." She looked around, clutching onto her pack over her shoulder.

"Right.. I wouldn't say that." Crane said as the two reached the end of the path overlooking a clearing. It was a crop field, but more importantly, it was filled with biters.

Ayda sighed. "That didn't last too long." She looked around, taking in the scenery around them. "There's no clear way around them.. Is there?"

Crane squinted. "The water pipes, coming up from out of the ground. They're high enough to run along." He looked down at her. "And they lead right to that farm."

Ayda squinted as well, using her hand as a visor to shield the sun. "Those pipes are pretty narrow.. You think we can run along them?"

"Only one way to find out." He said and gripped onto his pack before running down the hill towards the field.

"You ass, wait up!" She yelled as she ran to catch up with him. Ayda was extremely athletic, but her stamina was low from scaling the mountain to get there, so she couldn't quite match his speed.

They reached the pipes and she watched as Crane pulled himself up without breaking a single sweat.

The dead that were mingling around heard the clang of his boots hitting the copper pipes and began to shamble over. "Get up here already!" He said and held his hand out.

"I don't need your help!" She spat and pulled herself up, knocking his hand away.

The zombies had just missed her and clawed lifelessly at the pipes as the two stood next to each other. Ayda tried to keep her balance steady, but combat boots weren't exactly the best shoes for the occasion.

"It's not even a mile to the farm. It's gotta be like.. Half that. You'll be fine. Here.." He reached out and picked up her entire body from under her arms and set her down in front of him. "You go ahead of me, that way I can watch you-"

"I don't need watched, Kyle." She hissed at him and turned, sprinting ahead.

Kyle sighed and ran along the pipes behind her.

There were at least a hundred zombies roaming the field alone, and Ayda tried to focus on the path ahead rather than the zombies below. It wasn't long before they reached the farm, where they saw a man standing on one of the rooftops pointing a rifle at them.

"Stay where you are!" He yelled.