Breathing Fear

Chapter 7

Sorry this is so short!

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Chapter 7

The forest was scarier than I had even imagined it would be. The trees were a bit taller than the ones from our society, and thicker. We had to clear pathways to find our way through the thick branches. There were shadows everywhere and I was afraid that behind them one of The Dead would emerge.

We ended up deciding to follow a river, one that must empty into the ocean. There was a great bet that civilization would live on a river, it’s a great source for survival.

We haven’t seen any of The Dead yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out here somewhere. Maybe they haven’t caught our scent yet. And no matter how hard I tried to relax, this thought haunted me.

After about two hours of walking towards where we thought the smoke was, we stopped for a rest. I sat down next to my friends and tried to relax. Everyone made a fire and water again to drink and I found myself looking at where we were heading. What if no one is there and this whole walk was pointless? How will we survive out here? If I were going to die, I wouldn’t ever want it to be from starvation, I want to die with a fight, if I could. How could I fight if my body is unable to?

I stared at Levi and Clara, who were now sitting next to each other and holding hands tightly. Mason was helping his dad find wood for the fire in the forest. Clara’s parents were sitting at the fire and staring at it in a sort of trance.

I found it hard for myself to believe that this was all we had left; this small amount of people, forty-four to be exact. I looked up at the sky and for a moment I felt a little bit of hope, that maybe something more was out there, a surviving society, a big one. But when I looked back down at real life that hope disappeared… and with that so did my little ounce of optimism. I felt like I was one of The Dead now, numb, emotionless.

“Avery,” a voice said, and I looked up at Bennett.

He was gripping a knife, and the sight brought a sickening turning in my stomach. It had to be the same knife he had used on my mother; I couldn’t help the awful images that appeared in my head just by seeing it.

Seeing him stabbing her with it.

“Please, no,” I whispered.

“What?” he asked, confused.

This caused him to lift the knife and bend down next to me. I jumped up and stood away from him.

“Avery?” he asked me, still very confused.

I shook my head. Knowing he was the one who killed my mother, even if the circumstances made sense, it shook me to the bone. I couldn’t stand it knowing he was the one who brought my mother’s life to an end. I tried to remember it wasn’t him- it was that Dead woman, but it was hard.

“The- the knife,” I stuttered.

He looked down at the knife and realization hit him, he quickly put it in his pocket and it was out of sight. The saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ didn’t exactly fit here, because I was still shaking, and I could still just see Bennett holding it.

He sighed and said, “I’m sorry- I- I guess that wasn’t a proper was to apologize. I came here to tell you I was sorry for your loss.”

I took in a deep breath and tried to calm down. “It’s okay. Thank you.”

He shook his head and said, “That was incredibly stupid of me…”

I just looked at him apprehensively.