How I Survived (Zombie Story)

Chapter Fifty Five

Jim finished working with the wires and the car shivers to life. He backs away and turns to us, giving us an assuring nod. We quickly get in me in the backseat with Talor and the little brat named Fred who was shooting me evil glares. Niommi hops in the front with Jim, and we're gone before I can look back at the cabin.

The car rumbles as we drive down the pebbled trail, I concentrated on Jim who was staring at the road. They did look alike. Very alike. Niommi was looking at the rear mirror, her eyes focused on Talor, who was holding Fred close, who was crying.

He looked at me with hatred and turned back the window, fighting from Talor's embrace. Talor held her stomach, her soft eyes burning with what looked like tears.

I don't say anything about her crying. I lean against the car door and close my eyes... I would finally see my friends again... we would finally be reunited.  

I feel asleep for a while, dreaming of an endless night of having to sleep in the woods alone with broken legs... In my dream, a walker seems to crawl fast towards me and grabbed my thigh, and then I woke, feeling like someone had touched my thigh gently making me jump. I was still facing the window so I saw the dark sky, and the stars... it was night time and we were still moving.

Jim was still driving, and Niommi had fallen asleep.. something I had never seen her do, was be unalarmed and sleeping but hey.. everyone gets tired. I turned to look at Talor and Fred, a pair of two eyes were staring widely at me, which was disturbing. Fred and Talor were up obviously, staring at me with what looked like hatred.

I uncomfortably turned my eyes away from them. Gees that was creepy. I focused on the window, and then I hear a swift movement.

I turn my head to see Talor, holding a shiny object. My knife. She leaned forward and so did I, but my seatbelt pulled me back, and she slammed the knife into Jim's chest and yanked the knife backward to stab again. My heart lurched as Jim's face paled, Jim's boney hands slowly eased from the steering wheel and clawed at his chest. The car seemed to fly from its calm pattern. He gasped and the car swerved. Everything seemed to go by fast, I knew I had been screaming as the car flipped, next thing I knew I was knocked out cold by the impact.

I felt my own heartbeat, reminding me I was alive... barely.

My eyes slowly opened. I was face to face with a walker. Not the way I wanted to wake up, my heart lurched again. I scream and moved backward, the walker groans. It was upside down, So was I. It didn't take long for me to realize who the walker was. The walker was Talor. Her blonde hair was tangled with dried blood and her teeth snapped at me. I move away from her in my seatbelt which was holding me upside down.

She groans again and reaches for me. My eyes drop to the bloody knife, which was lodged in her stomach. She must've lost her baby when the car flipped. I assume... She growls and snaps her teeth, and I reach for the knife.

I cringe as I remove the knife. I stab the walker in its head and it grunts before it dies. I sigh...

I look forward to seeing Jim's dead body slumped in the front seat, he didn't have his seatbelt buckled.

Niommi was hanging upside down beside him, her black hair was the only thing I could see hanging upside down. Was she... no. She couldn't be dead. I reach up to the seatbelt and it clicks and I hit the roof of the upside-down car without realizing it would happen..

I cry out, my body had been cramped up the whole time. I reach for the door, and it opens and I topple out... I roll out on the grass, looking at the cloudy sky. I hear a walker growl and quickly sit up. I had been wondering how Talor had turned into a walker. The car door on the other side had been opened and a walker had bitten her and tried to reach for me.

The walker made its way around the car and I killed it quickly. The walker was Fred. I sigh, exhausted.

I quickly go to the passenger seat door and open the door. I unbuckle Niommi's seat and she falls but I quickly pulled her body out onto the damp grass.

"Niommi?" I whisper. She blinks and her eyes open wide. She was staring at the sky.

She sits up and stands. "Niommi?" I call again, following her as she walks to the front of the car, she opens the car door and begins to pull Jim's dead body out.

"Niommi!" I shout and turn her around. Her eyes were wide and watering. "Why didn't you leave me here to die?" She asks.

"Why would I?!" I ask, looking at her with confusion, "You're not giving up." I say, and I pat her back. "Let's bury him... he's in a better place." Is all I can say. Niommi nods and helps me pull Jim out.

I take a stick and I begin to scrape the dirt. Useless. Niommi wasn't even beside me anymore, she had gone to back of the flipped truck. I waited and then she jogged to me with a shovel.

"They were in the back of the truck." She whispers, and I take the shovel. "I'll dig the hole." I offer.

She shakes her head. "I need to do it." Is all she says. I nod and give her the shovel.

While she is digging a hole I try my best to clean up Jim. He had a stab wound to his chest and his head had been bleeding. After a while, I began to make a fire and Niommi had still been digging the hole. I sat near the fire, staring at the road.

Every now and then I would glance at the truck. Was there anything else in there? I silently stand and walk over to the truck. Where it had been flipped near the back, stuff had fallen out. I stare at the stuff, I see a shotgun and I quickly grab it and then I see a bow and arrow. I look over at Niommi. She still had hers.

I reach for the bow and arrow, and then something grabs my hand. A walker. I push back a scream. The walker was trapped, but it had grasped my wrist. I yank myself backward, hitting the ground.

I cautiously reach for the bow and arrow, staring at it with amusement.

I didn't know how to shoot bow and arrows.

Maybe it was time to learn.

While Niommi dug the grave, I ventured into the woods, searching for any sign of wild animals. I would see a squirrel scurry up a tree, a bird tweeting, and bugs scattering up tree trunks.

I remove my bow and arrow when I catch glimpse of a rabbit, hopping right into view.

"There we go.," I mumble. I tried to mock Niommi's movement. The rabbit's ear twitches, and I inch backward to make it seem like I wasn't around.

My foot crunches on a branch, and I jump. The rabbit runs, and I sigh. I kick the tree. "I'd do the same too...." I say aloud, staring at the rabbit that was running.

I turn around and leave the woods, the leaves crinkling under my boots, I step out to where Jim's grave was going to be and I help Niommi with the rest of the grave. I grab a stick and use a cloth from Jim's shirt to make a makeshift cross.

Niommi stifles and for a moment I think she is crying so I look up, but now she is laughing. It was a lighthearted laugh that sounded out of place in a world like this. The only time I had heard a laugh was... when I was with my group.. and it seemed strange to hear her laughing anyway. "You really don't have a name.. so you let cannibals name you after a bird?" Niommi laughs.

"My name is Lara," I say, staring at the ground... I felt like I had forgotten my name over those days. "The name they gave me was Raven." She tells me. She closes Jim's eyes, and she sighs.

"His name was Ostrich." She says, brushing the hair from his face. I felt sorry for her, as she stared down at her brother silently.

"Jim told me to save you." She says, "He said you were worth it." I start to laugh too, I don't know why I slowly look up. "I can't believe... I'm still alive." I blurt. Now I know why I'm laughing...

Because I'm still alive.