The End is Near

Chapter Thirteen

             ~Keith's POV~

     "Where do you think they could've gone?" I ask Karson, exasperated. We've been looking for them for hours and there's no sign of them.

     "I don't know. Just keep looking, they've got to be around here somewhere." I sigh, nodding.

     "Ok, but we're gonna have to find somewhere to sleep, it's starting to get dark." I don't like being out in the open when it's dark, it leaves me too vulnerable to attacks.

     "Maybe we should just head back to the house and get some sleep, start looking again in the morning." I sigh again, looking around one more time, then nod.

     "Yeah, that would probably be best, by the looks of it, it's going to be dark by the time we get back." Karson nods as we turn and start walking in the direction of the town.

     "Every time we catch up to her, she just seems to run off again." I say, chuckling quietly. Karson laughs, nodding.

     "It's like she knows we're here and tries to stay ahead of us." I fall silent at his words.

     "Do you think she could know that we're following her?" Karson shakes his head.

     "She's been too focused on staying alive, she's barely noticed her surroundings unless she has to." I nod.

     "Yeah, that makes sense." We're silent for a couple minutes. "What do you think we would've been doing if we hadn't of decided to go after Cassie?" Karson doesn't answer. I'm about to ask again when he starts talking.

     "I don't know. We probably would've been holed up in some store, barely surviving off of what's in there. Maybe we would've found people, or maybe we would've died that first day. I'm not really sure, I just know that I'm happy that we made the decision to follow Cassie. What about you?" I think for a minute.

     "I don't know, I guess. There's really no way to know unless we would've gone down that path. I'm happy that we came this way too." We're silent again as we walk. "Cassie would've been dead right now." Karson turns to me, looking confused and horrified.

     "What?" He sounds terrified.

     "When I heard that scream and walked into the room, she was being attacked by a walker. Her own roommate. She was about to bite her when I pulled it off her." Karson is silent.

     "Wow, it's a good thing we heard it then. I can't believe I tried to get you to stay in the room. I'm glad you chose to ignore me." I laugh, nodding.

     "Yeah, me too. Julia would've died that day too, Cassie saved her."

     "How do you think she died?" I sigh.

     "I don't know, she ran into those woods really fast, maybe some of them followed her and she couldn't fight them off."

     "Julia almost got Cassie killed, she would've died if Blake hadn't of helped her." He says his name venomously. I shake my head at the thought of him.

     "Do you think that he's ever going to come back?" Karson shrugs.

     "I sure hope not, but by what you told me, it sounds like he plans on it. I don't know how he'd ever find her again, though." I nod.

     "Yeah, I guess he wasn't really thinking it through. It'd be nearly impossible to find someone in this world. Maybe she led him down the wrong path, told him that she was going to Montana, then go the opposite direction." Karson nods.