The End is Near

Chapter Eleven

~Cassie's POV~
I breathe in deeply, looking at the group of ten coming towards us, six boys and four girls. Walter looks back at me, smiling.
"They may look intimidating, but trust me, they're nice. They'll like you, don't worry." I raise an eyebrow, looking back to the laughing group, they don't look intimidating at all, more like a group of puppies. I don't think they'll like me, they seem like a pretty close-knit group. They get to the porch and fall silent when they see me. Some narrow their eyes while others start to raise their weapons. My hand twitches, wanting to grab my katana, but I stop myself. I raise an eyebrow at the ones raising their weapons, none of them are holding anything right and their arms are weak and unsteady. I need to join this group, they're my only chance and I'm their only chance. Walter raises his hand, stopping them.
"There's no need for that hostility, she's ok. I asked her to join the group, she passed the test. Any objections?" The group relaxes, some starting to smile. They trust too easily. Walter motions for me to step out from behind him. I take a deep breath and step into full view of the group.
I open my mouth to speak when a loud growl cuts me off. Everyone freezes, tensing. All thoughts leave my head as I stare at the four monsters shuffling towards us. I grab my katana and walk to the walkers. I swing the blade, killing two of them and pull out my knife, killing the last two. I breath out a sigh and turn with a smirk on my face.
"The name's Cassie. Nice to meet you all." My smirk grows as they stare at me in awe. A teenage boy steps out from the group and walks towards me, a confident smirk on his face. He stops in front of me, looking me up and down appraisingly. I raise an eyebrow as his eyes meet mine.
"Well, Cassie, I'm Cody. I have a feeling that we're going to be pretty good friends. What you did to those things was amazing. How did you learn to do that?" I smirk, proud of my skill.
"I've known how to do that since I was 10. It's a gift. And I don't do friends." Amusement fills his eyes and he raises an eyebrow. All I do is raise an eyebrow back.

     "Everyone has friends, and I'm making it my mission to be yours." I narrow my eyes and shake my head.

     "Good luck with that." I mumble, turning to the rest of the group, they all smile and start to introduce themselves.
"I'm Peter." A tall, blonde, middle-aged guy says, smiling.
"I'm Natalie." The girl next to him, the one with the katana, says. She needs a lot of help to be able to use one, she doesn't know what to do with it, she favors the gun in her hand. They keep introducing themselves until I know everyone. There's Cody, Peter, Natalie, Danny, Samantha, Zack, Diana, Owen, Zoe, and Patrick. Diana is Walter's wife and Cody's mother. Natalie and Danny are together, Samantha and Zack are together, and everyone else is single.
We spend hours talking, when a thought hits me. I abruptly stand up and walk to the window, cautiously looking out.
"Cassie, what's wrong?" Cody speaks up from behind me. I turn and find Walter.
"There's a horde, a gigantic horde, coming this way. I ran into them on my way out of town. I had to come back, that's how you found me." Everyone's faces turn serious and they grab their weapons.
"Ok, so we can't stay here. If we get caught by this horde, if it's as big as you say it is, we won't make it out. Let's find a way around it and keep going." Diana says, putting her bag on her shoulders. We all nod in agreement and start putting our packs on. I grab my bow and load it, then stand by the door with everyone. Walter counts to three and we all pile out of the house, looking for any sign of walkers around. When we find nothing, we all relax a little and look to Walter, waiting for his plan.
"Ok, let's find a way to get around them and find a place to stay. I don't like going out in the dark, but now is the only time. Stay together and keep quiet. Got it?" We all nod. "Ok, let's go." We all start walking in the direction of the horde. I start to get anxious when we get to the area I first ran into the horde.
I'm in front of the group, watching for the horde. Everyone is starting to talk quietly when I hear something. I hold my hand out to stop them.
"Shhh, I heard something. Everyone stay quiet and stay here." Everyone nods and I cautiously walk forward and look around the corner. As soon as I turn the corner, I'm jumped by a walker and pushed to the ground. I clench my teeth to stop the scream that wants to come out. I hold the walker back with one hand and use my other hand to reach for my knife. I push my hand forward and bury the knife in the walkers eye. It goes limp and I push it off me and stand up. I look down at myself and check for any bites or scratches, all I find is blood, lots and lots of blood. Great, now my favorite jacket is ruined. Maybe I can find a creek to wash it in. Yeah, I'll do that. Nodding to myself, I look up and immediately stagger back a couple steps before turning and running as fast as I can. The horde didn't get very far, they're right behind me. I run faster when I feel a walker try to grab the back of my jacket.
"Run! We can't get passed them, there's too many!" I'm almost to my group when a walker grabs my hair and throws me to the ground. I can faintly hear Cody yelling my name as I hit the ground. I cry out as I hit the back of my head on the asphalt and turn before the walker can bite me. I grab it's head and throw it to the ground next to me, quickly getting up, I step on its head, smashing the brain in. I turn and run to the group staring at me in awe. "We have to go." They don't move. "Now!" I yell, snapping them back into focus. I start running and can hear them behind me. I ignore the pounding in my head and keep running. "Walter, I need you up here!" I yell behind me. He shows up next to me quickly. "Where's the safest place to go right now?" I wait for him to answer impatiently. He doesn't answer for minutes. "Walter! You need to focus!" He shakes his head, starting to focus.
"Um, the town we were just at. The prison should be the safest place." I nod, remembering passing it on my way into town.
"Ok, faster everyone! We need to stay ahead of these things! If they catch us, we're dead!" I start running faster and hear them speed up behind me.
The prison is a couple miles out of town and takes us about an hour to get there, running. Once we reach the gates, I look inside and my heart sinks. It's overrun. There's no way we could get in there unscathed. I look around, then to the forest. That's the safest place right now. I turn to the exhausted group behind me.
"We can't go in there, there's too many of them. The safest place right now is the forest. Everyone climb a tree, stay close to each other, two to a tree. Let's go!" I start running again and start climbing a large tree. I reach a large branch in a couple minutes and sit on it, waiting for whoever started climbing up after me. Walter and Diana are in the tree next to me, Natalie and Danny are in the tree next to them, Samantha and Zack are in front of me, Zoe and Patrick are next to them, and Owen and Peter are on my right side. That just leaves Cody, who pops up next to me.
"Took you long enough, did you fall asleep on your way up?" I tease, looking over at him. He rolls his eyes and grins.
"Not everyone is as skilled as climbing as you are. Did you grow up with monkeys or something?" I make my face as serious as possible and turn to him.
"I actually learned how to climb from my biological parents. We lived in a small village in the forests of Brazil, for dinner everyday, we'd have to climb trees and pick fruit." I make my face sad. "They died gathering food when I was 6. I had to move to America when I was adopted." I look down. "That's why I never fit in anywhere." I look up at Cody through my lashes. He looks sad and guilty. I have to hold back my laughter.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I had no idea." I shrug my shoulders.
"It's ok. Nobody really knows. Only my best friend knew. But now she's gone too."
"Oh, I'm sorry. What happened?" My face hardens, the cold exterior returning.
"I don't want to talk about it." Cody raises an eyebrow.
"Why not? You'll feel better after talking about it." I turn to him, my face cold.
"I said I don't want to talk about it."
"Cassie, you'll have to talk about it at some point, if you don't, all those emotions you're bottling up inside you is going to explode and people close to you will be caught in the cross-fire."
"No one's close to me. No one is going to be close to me. No one is ever going to be close to me. Not anymore." There's just too much to risk. It's better if I distance myself from everyone. That way, no one will get hurt, I won't get hurt.
"Never say never, Cassie. I'm going to break down your wall, just wait." I don't say anything, just turn my head, glaring at the trunk of the tree we're on. Good luck, I'm not letting anyone get close to me. Not anymore. With that thought, I lean my head against the trunk and close my eyes, trying to get some rest.