And Then They Came

Chapter 10

It looked to be two people just from how big the puddle was. I had no way of knowing. They were way to crushed to tell. Dante walked to edge and crouched down inspecting what was there.

"It seems to be two people. By the looks of it, a man and woman. " he said standing back up.

"How can you tell?!" we all said looking at him in disbelief.

"Look here." he said pointing at a particular spot in the mush, "That's breast meat. There isn't enough to be two women so only one. Plus there's two smashed pelvises. So a man and woman."

 He pointed at the different places while saying what it was. At that moment I couldn't hold it in any longer, this was just too much. I ran out of the shack going straight for a tree, bracing myself against it as I choked up whatever I had eaten in the past few hours. Graham put down Rachael and came over to hold my hair for me. He rubbed small circles into the crook of my back, which he knew calmed me down.

"What's in there?" he asked Jade and Rebecca as they came to check on me.

"Tons of weapons, which will definitely save our lives, plus some people who are now basically a mushy puddle." Jade said sitting against a tree, propping one of her arms up on her knee.

Graham didn't say anything and just held my hair waiting for me to calm down. When I did, I dropped the bow and everything else on the ground and slumped against the tree. Rebecca walked over and put my hair into a messy braid with one of the many hairbands she kept on her wrist. I quietly thanked her with a raspy voice as she sat next to me. I laid my head on her shoulder and felt my eyes grow heavy. I welcomed the darkness and fell into a deep sleep.

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She was out cold before we knew it. I bet she was exhausted from the whole ordeal. She was the one to always take the nightshift and stay up the whole night. You could just tell from the bags under her eyes. She looked so peaceful when she slept though.

Her easy breathing, the slow rise and drop of her shoulders, the calm expression on her face. She looked beatiful. Her dark brown hair tossled in a braid, her slim figure leaning against Rebecca, her beautiful bright blue eyes closed. The way her face seemed to relax, and not the worried and scared expression that they usually wore these past few days. I tried to shake those thoughts out of my mind but nothing seemed to work.

She was always on my mind.

"You should just tell her." Rebecca said giving me a devilish smile.

"I don't know what you talking about." I said sitting down across from them not looking her in the eye.

"Oh come on. I see the way you look at her. It's the same look you used to give your brother-"

"Don't you dare talk about him." I said glaring at her.

She was the only person in the whole friend group who had met my brother. It was when we were really little so I doubt she'd recognize him now.

"That's not my point." she said glaring right back me with those icy eyes, "What I'm trying to say is that you look at her with eyes full of love and admiration."

"I never will look at my brother like that, ever." I said turning to look at the shack everyone was in.

"You did. When you were little. I know you love her, Graham. You just need to tell her." she said her eyes softening.

"Sometimes I swear we don't act 24 and 25. I swear we act like we're teenagers again." I said chuckling.

"Me too." she said giggling, "But promise me you will. When this is all over?"

"Rebecca-"

"Graham, promise me. You deserve to be happy, especially after everything you have been through. I think you're the one who deserves to be the most happy. I know you're still hurting. I can see it. Ray also agrees with me on this. He can see it to. You also have to promise me one other thing. Swear to me that you will keep this little one safe. Keep her safe from anything and everything. If you can do those two things for me, then I can die happy." she said tears welling in her eyes.

"I can and I will." I said staring at her as her smile grew wide with happiness and tears started to fall down her face.

"What are you crying about?" Rachael asked sounding groggy.

"Rachael your up!" Jade said running over to her.

"Yeah, I couldn't leave you guys. You're my family." She said grabbing her head in pain, "But what were you crying about Beck?" she added concern soaking her voice.

"It's nothing important right now. You're the most important priority at the moment. We'll talk about it later." she responded with a weak smile as she whipped the tears from her eyes.

Rebecca got up and went back into the shack before anyone could say anything else. Rachael looked at me trying to search my face for answers. When she couldn't find anything, she shrugged and laid back against the wall of the shack.

"So, what did I miss?"

After she was caught up with everything, we decided to move on. I carried Mia on my back as we searched for anything else to salvage. We searched the surrounding area and found nothing. Not even tracks to give us an idea of what thing smashed the two people. We, then, moved on and started to follow the road that edged the forest. After a couple of kilometers, we ran into a bridge.

I ran ahead trying to see if it was safe, accidently bouncing Mia a bit to hard and shook her awake. She looked around her half asleep before realizing she was on my back, which seemed to jolt her awake. I continued to run to the bridge as if I didn't realize she was awake, but this time going a little slower. She seemed to believe it and relaxed on my back again before nuzzling her head into the crook of my neck, falling back asleep. I couldn't help the blush that creeped across my face.

Ahead of the others, I slowed to a walk so she could rest peacefully. I wanted that moment to last forever, or at least longer than it did. For, when I got to the bridge, I saw what I couldn't have imagined. There was a wide highway that lead to a small city, from where we were I was guessing it was Kansas City, Kansas, only, this highway was filled to the brim with cars trying to leave. The highway going into the city was completely barren with absolutely no cars whatsoever. From where I was standing, there were no people at all. The cars were filled with belongings but no one in sight.

The only sign of life, if you could even call it life, was a huge hoard of zombies of about 40 to 50 walking mindlessly through the cars. What made my heart drop was when the entire hoard stopped and started to look around as if they smelled something. I knew we were all cut and bleeding and the fear of them being able to smell it was overwhelming. Then the lady in front who was leading the group laid her eyes on me; she then, ran at incredible speed at the hill the lead to the road we were all on, with the entire group following at her heels. I sprinted back the way I had come trying to scream to the others what was coming. They were about a few minutes behind me and I knew they wouldn't be able to see the zombies coming from the hill, so I tried to scream to them. They didn't seem to understand me because they continued walking my way. At that moment fear and doubt gripped my heart as I realized Mia would be the first to be grabbed if they caught up to me, so I ran with a newfound speed screaming at the top of my lungs. I knew we would have to fight or run our way out of this and I knew which one would be more likely.