BITTEN

Chapter 16 - Mystery death

                *John's pov*

Rose's body was found laying dead behind across the itchy green road the next morning. I was quickly informed about the shocking news. Rose, dead? I already had enough to deal with.

"How did she die?" I asked Nathan who came to the scene before me.

"Well, its looking like she was stabbed with a dagger that ran straight into her heart. Her chances of survival were zero."

Nathan was right. Who ever the murderer was, made sure she wasn't gonna survive.

Mavis, Rose's sister wept bitterly at the sight of her lifeless sister.

"Who ever did this has to pay," she said still weeping.

"Where did you see her last?" Alex asked intelligently.

"We were at our garden before she got inside our tent. Seconds later she told me she had to see someone."

"Did Rose tell you who she was going to see?" Alex continued.

"No, she doesn't tell me things like that. Maybe she told my dad just to assure him that she wasn't going too far." Mavis spoke sorrowfully.

Rose's dad was really old.  I wouldn't be surprised if he was ninety years old or thereabout.  He had been paralysed for 4 years now after a terrible illness condemned him to the wheel chair. I really felt sorry for him, not knowing how he would handle the news of his daughter's death. We told him about her demise and asked him if he knew who Rose visited last night.  Of course this was a daunting task as he could neither speak nor write since he was terribly ill.

"Can you tell us who your daughter said she was visiting last night?" I asked curiously.

His jaw shook as he tried to let go of his inability to speak. I could see it in his eyes, he was desperate to tell us. 

"This is not working." Nathan muttered while he brought out a pen and a sheet of paper.  "Here, can you right the person's name."
Nathan placed the pen in his hand but yet again writing wasn't going to be easy for her dad.  He managed to get a light grip on the pen using all the strength he had in him at that moment. The pen shook in his arms rapidly as he placed the pen on the paper.  I started to muster a bit of hope when he finally gave his first mark on the paper with his pen. Unfortunately that was all he could do as the pen slipped away from his hand. 

"Aah." he winced in pain.

"Stop! You're hurting him." Mavis uttered. 

Before I could react, Nathan tapped me from behind.

"I just got reports from the nearby village that the zombies are already infesting the whole village. By noon there will get here. We are not ready yet."

Fear engulfed around the camp.  This was no time to start looking for guns. No, it wasn't the time to start looking for what was lost. It was the time to start using what we had.

I looked at the crowd that had gathered in front of my tent looking for solutions. The murmuring gradually died down when I opened my mouth.

"Listen up everyone. We know that they are coming but so also are we. These creatures drove us from our homes. Now they want us to become divided but we are not going to let that happen. We are going to take the fight to them."

Now they seemed to be a glimmer of hope in the air.  I glared at Nathan who kept on whistling in my ears.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"em.. You addressed the crowd so well so I thought I should add a little bit of sound effects." he replied with a smile.

"So what's the plan?" Austin asked as we got into my tent.