Run.

Chapter 6: The Cabin

A cabin with a small light shined from a window, along with a parked red car in front of it. There was smoke coming out of the chimney like someone was in there unaware of what was going on in the real world.

"Well, are we going to just stand here or..?" Rick slowly began to walk forward until Angela suddenly stopped him in his tracks.
"We don't even know if it's safe."

"It doesn't hurt to look!" Cameron began walking towards the cabin.
"It won't be my fault if you get shot!" I yelled out to him before we began to slowly follow him from behind.

Cameron began to knock on the door,"hello? Anyone in here?"
No answer. He tried a couple times before checking the knob. Fortunately, it turned and opened along with the creaking noise of the rusted bolts which held the door in place.

"Nobody is in here, but the fireplace is on.. strange." Evan commented.

"We probably shouldn't be here.. who knows what could happen." I looked around a bit worried someone might think we're trying to steal stuff.

"And who knows what could happen out there. We're better off being in here than out there." Cameron replied.

Ryan was the last to come in as he slowly backed into the cabin and closed the door to make sure nothing would sneak up behind them.
"We'll be safe here until the morning. As soon as the sun comes up we need to get a move on."

"Who's on night duty?" Angela responded.

I pointed to Ryan and walked up to him,"Ryan and I will watch for a few hours or until we start dozing off." He just nodded in agreement.

"Okay, Rick and I will cover the next shift. Cameron, Evan, you guys will be the last ones to wake up when its your turn." Angela spoke and began setting up a space to sleep.
"Goodnight guys." Everyone but me and Ryan were off to get some energy for the morning.

"I still can't process this in my head, all this apocalyptic nonsense." He quietly said to me as he paced around the cabin looking through windows as he passed them.

"I can't either. It's just surreal, you know? Something you wish was a dream that you'd wake up from any second." I replied, while watching the windows.

"Yeah. A nightmare."

After the fire died down, we sat on a bench back to back waiting. Watching. Listening.
"Should we wake them up yet?"

"No, not yet. Unless you're tired." He looked over his shoulder.

"Not really. I'm jus-" A sudden crackle of leaves being stepped on distantly grew louder from outside startled the two of us, causing us to jump to our feet while quietly preparing to swing our weapons at anything.

We looked at each other before slowly walking to see through the window. Nobody was out there.
"Maybe it was just a deer?" I whispered.

"Drop your weapons. Quietly. Don't speak or i'll blow both of your brains out." A man with a deep voice whispered to the two of us as he held two pistols against our heads.

We obeyed his orders and quietly dropped our weapons and put our hands up.
"Now, turn around and sit on that bench over there. Quietly." He demanded still pointing a gun at us.

How did we not notice this guy get in?!

"Tell me. What are you people doing in my cabin and how did you get in?" He stood in front of us never letting his guard down.

"You left your door unlocked." Ryan responded.

"That doesn't mean you can just take someone's property like that. How dumb are you?" The man began to raise his voice a little louder.

"Not dumb enough to stay outside. Haven't you heard the news?!" He spat back.

"Do you think i have a tv or care about the news?! I live in the woods for a reason, kid."

"Don't call me kid, grandpa!" Ryan spat back.

"First of all, i can call you whatever i want whenver i want and secondly you're lucky i haven't left you out for the wolves yet. In fact i'll do that right now-" Angela snuck up behind him and put a machete horizontal to his neck.

"Put those guns down or try me." Angela demanded.

He slowly put down his pistols and held his hands up.
"Look here, whatever you teens are doing and thinking you own this place it ain't yours! I built it myself to get away from people like you!" He spat.

We quickly got our weapons and pointed it towards him, making sure he couldn't play any tricks on us.
"Look, we can all handle this situation professionally if you promise not to try and blow our heads off when i let you go. Alright?" Angela said.

He quickly nodded and was released by her. He slowly sat down and a poured a bottle of alcohol while waiting for an explanation.
"So? Tell me. Why are you kids here in my cabin?" He drank his glass.

Angela told him the whole story which left him in disbelief. I wouldn't have believed any of the nonsense if I was told this either.

"Well, now that we're acquaintances, my name is Rufus, and yours?" He finally spoke.

"My name is Angela. This is Jennifer, Ryan and the other two are Cameron and Evan." She replied.

He smiled and nodded his head in understandment.

I ended up covering everyone's shifts and hanging out with Rufus because I couldn't sleep at all, no matter how much they told me that I should get some rest. i'm better off without it.

"Rise and shine everyone, it's time to get moving soon." I shook each one of them awake.

"Already? Just five more minutes." Cameron whined.

"Don't be so lazy you potato sack. I'm giving you one minute to stand up or i'm leaving you for breakfast to those hungry zombies." I slowly dragged him across the floor trying to make him stand up.

"Okay okay i'm up." Cameron finally gave in and stretched to wake himself up.

"We better get moving while there's plenty of light. We need to start looking for supplies and escape this city." Angela suggested.

We all agreed and began to prepare to leave the cabin.
"Are you coming with us?" I turned Rufus while putting my things together.

He looked at me with a little smile and nodded.
"I belong here. and if any of those undead shits you guys are talking about come here then i'll be ready to take on whatever hell sends at me. After all, I am a hunter."

"Be safe then. Thank you for letting us spend the night at your cabin. It was nice knowing you!" I smiled and shook his hand along with a friendly hug.

"Even though I never said I was cool with it, it was no problem." He escorted us to the door. "You kids be safe out there. After hearing about everything, its going to be hell on earth for awhile. Good luck and put 'em back where they came from."

We waved goodbye and began heading out for the long journey we had ahead of us.