Beside the Dying Fire

Cameron's POV

"Did you hear those shots?" I asked Savannah.

"Yeah, but they can handle it. We brought those guns just so they could handle it," she replied.

We continued walking down the dark street, eyeing every building along the way.

"So," I made conversation, "Where did you get your hatchet from?"

"You are just full of questions," she told me. "After we ran from the school, we kept going for, like, a mile to Kai's house. He said he had weapons, supplies, and other things. Next to his bed, he kept a freaking machete. Anyways, Taylor took the machete and Katie took his katana. Gabe took a bat from his garage and he kept his dad's axe for himself. The rest held his kitchen knives until we found more weapons. Besides melee, his father had a Sporter .22 rifle in his basement, along with an M9. Kai took the pistol and Jacob wielded the rifle. But that kitchen knife wouldn't do for the queen. For every building I searched, we all looked for better weapons. Paige got a switchblade, Carly had a spear, Sam a butterfly knife, Macie found a machete similar to Taylor's. For a brief period of time, Sarah had a friggin' scythe! Then it broke because it was cheap. Then, I found my hatchet wedged into a walker's back. I ripped out the weapon and killed that walker, claiming the weapon as my own."

"So Kai slept next to a machete?" I asked.

Savannah rolled her eyes.

"Ooga booga," a voice echoed down the ally that we walked by.

We both pulled out our guns upon hearing this. Together, we slowly walked down the alley.

"Warmer, warmer," the voice played 'hot and cold' with us. "Warmer, hot, on fire!"

The voice came from a dumpster. Savannah carefully lifted the lid, revealing a boy sitting inside.

"Peek-a-boo!" he yelled before giggling.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm the ruler of the universe, but the humans that I once knew before called me Noah," he said. He was very annoying, but I admired how he had such a good sense of humor at this time.

"Well there's a new ruler now," Savannah gestured herself. "So we'll call you Noah then."

I noticed a huge, dark purple bruise on his forehead, "What's that about?"

He pulled out a pair of nunchucks, "That's from my practice of using these. Yeah, I'm a pro with 'em now."

He whipped the around between his hands for about 4 seconds before he hit himself in the face right where the bruise was. He made a face as if he were going to cry, but didn't actually do it. He climbed out of the dumpster.

"Why were you in there?" I asked.

"I wanted to scare you," he giggled.

"God, you're annoying," Savannah groaned.

"Your mom's annoying," he laughed at himself.

"My mom's dead," she said with a straight face.

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"What the... how does... why... what?" she was so confused.

"Hehehehehehehe," he chuckled.

"Shut up."

"Don't tell me to shut up," he responded to Savannah's sass.

"Shut up."

"Okay," Noah said quietly.

"I know that at some point, I will deeply regret this," I told Noah, "but would you consider joining our group?"

"Yes," he said without laughing.

Savannah elbowed me in the gut.

"We're on a run for more food and we could use a hand," I said.

"No problemo," he giggled in a very bad Mexican accent. "I got plenty of food in the dumpster."

Sure enough, it was full of canned goods. Not just a few measly cans, no, half of the dumpster was full of food crates. The 3 of us unloaded it all and began to walk back to the precinct. Then, a searchlight blinded us from above. The quick spinning of a propeller was within earshot.

"IT'S THE CHOPPER!" I tried yelling over the noise.

"NO SHIT!" Savannah yelled back at me.

Sure enough, the whirlybird came into sight and slowly maneuvered to the ground. While the blades we're still turning, Savannah, Noah, and I hopped on.

"Thank God the bandits didn't get to you!" Sarah exclaimed into the mic.

"Bandits? Was that all of your gunfire?" I asked.

"Ye ye," Kai left the 's' of of the words.

Noah cleared his throat to gather our attention.

"Oh, sorry," I said. "This is Noah. He gave us plenty of food, so we invited him to come with."

"Cool," Sarah responded. "This is Yaaseen. He offered seed packets so we did the same."

I noticed Kai clenching his elbow.

"What happened, slick?" I asked him.

"A laser shark threw a grenade a a fragment grazed my arm. What do you think?" he said sarcastically.

"Geez," I made him feel bad.

After a few hours, we landed back at the base, just as the sun began to rise. We all hopped out, but something wasn't right. The place was trashed. Not only typical garbage like cardboard boxes and empty cans, but also blood and bullet shells. Growling was heard from a ways away. Soon, a few walkers came rushing towards us.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!-click

Every corpse fell to the ground. I looked over at the infirmary entrance. Danny stood, one hand keeping his balance with Kai's cane, the other holding the Desert Eagle that formerly belonged to Sarah.

"Thank everything that you're all back," he said softly.

"What happened here?!" Kai yelled. "Did the walkers get in?"

"No," he told us. "It was the citizens. They were waiting until most of us left on a run. They were going to take this place. They didn't want us in control after we had killed Swetha. Those who were loyal, they fought back. Leo and I were in the infirmary, and Tyler and Antonio made their way in there too. Their still there, healing. Most of them got away, left to come back another day, but no one on our side lived besides the 3 of us."

"So," I asked. "We're all alone now?"

"We've always been alone," Leo walked out of the infirmary, on crutches. "We were born alone, and we die alone."

"Do you think they'll come back?" Savannah asked.

"The only reason that those people won't return is if they die," Danny said. "Otherwise, we'll be under attack in no time."