Innocent Death.

Chapter 13: Alive,Barely Breathing

Morning rose. It was quiet. Too quiet for Zoe and Sierra's comfort. They bursted up with alarm, only to see each other and the empty forest. Max was still gone. Zoe fixed her hair,and looked towards the ground. Sierra sighed as she stood up and stretched.She walked over to Zoe,holding her hand out to her. Zoe sighed,looking up to Sierra. She grabbed her hand and stood up.

"Are you feeling better?",Sierra asked," You know, about the whole Max thing?"

"Better?No," Zoe answered,"I just forgot about him for a moment. I can forget about the thought, but I'll never be better."

"He was just some guy though. If we survive this,you'll meet more."

"And if we don't..?"

"Then,we can say we lived a hell of a life."

"I want to say Max was in it until the end. But he wasn't. He probably isn't going to be."

"He might come back,Zo."

"You don't know that."

The girls grabbed their weapons and continued their journey to who the hell knows where.

The forest was infinite. Endless. It all looked the same as the forest behind them. The silence was eating away at them. They were tense, waiting for something to pop out and try to kill them. They were also waiting for Max.Just waiting for that moment when he would pop out of the endless woods, and hug them. Zoe waited for him. Sierra waited for him.

But nothing appeared besides the endless trees and forest ahead.

"This is boring," Sierra said,"We should do something or go somewhere."

Zoe looked over to Sierra, a look of concern on her face.

"Sierra," she said,"There's nowhere to go. Nothing to do. It's an apocalypse, not a boring summer day."

"I know, I just meant like go on a hunt.I'm starved. We haven't eaten in days."

"Sierra, I'm starving too. We have no time for it."

"Now we do."

"What if a creature is infected?"

"We'll examine it before we cook it."

"Sierra, hunger isn't a desire anymore."

"Everybody has to eat.We eat to live. Who knows when a month comes? We'll starve to death."

"No. Don't be silly."

"It's the truth."

"We won't die."

"And what if we begin to starve to death?"

"Then death with be an awfully long, big adventure, now won't it?"

"Not a pleasant one."

"Sierra, stop."

"I'm going to hunt,Zoe. You can stay here if you want."

"No, if you're going to hunt,Sierra, I'm going too."

"Great, then let's go."

Zoe rolled her eyes,and followed Sierra as she held her gun on her shoulder.

. . .

A couple hours passed, and the hunt was going nowhere. Zoe sighed,looking at the sky seeing it was still bright, so it wasn't night yet. Sierra had her eyes fixed on the forest,her gun nex to her cheek as she is still stanced.

Suddenly, something rustled in the distance. Sierra tensed,and Zoe kept her eyes fixed on where the sound was coming from. Then, it popped out.

A deer.

It leaped from the rustled area. It gracefully pranced across the woods, its step soft and quiet. It stopped, twitching its small,brown ears. It was listening to every small movement.Sierra kept her breath tight,quiet,and steady.Zoe tried to follow Sierra,but ended up holding in her breath. The deer took a couple small steps,still listening.Then, it happened.

Sierra pulled the trigger, and the deer fell right to its side,onto the ground as the leaves flew in the air,some landing on the deer's corpse. Sierra stood up, as the girls ran to the corpse. The bullet went straight to it's liver. The animal layed limp, with a small blotch of blood on it's belly where the bullet had hit.Zoe bent down, and wiped the little leaves off of the body, and used her fingertips to gently caress the body,quickly scanning it for bites or anything suspicious.

"No bites," Zoe said," no scratces either.We should look for any other internal signs."

Sierra nodded,now bending down beside Zoe and scanning the corpse as well.

Nothing suspicious was to be found of the dead deer.The girls then stood up,Zoe swinging the limp animal over her shoulder.

"I could carry it.",Sierra offered.

Zoe shook her head no.Sierra shrugged,as they walked on.They didn't know where the were going anymore.All they had to know was when to stop and rest.

. . .

Hours passed,yet Sierra and Zoe kept trudging.The sunlight started to die,and they knew they had to rest and make a fire soon. They stopped all of a sudden,as Zoe threw the corpse onto the ground.

"We gotta cook this thing,"Zoe said,"let's set up a fire."

Sierra nodded,as the girls started collecting twigs and branches.Sierra then pulled out an old lighter with a cross on it.It used to be Alec's.She started the lighter up and set the flames onto the twigs and branches,setting them on fire.The flames danced,but it wasn't anything special and comfortable anymore.Sierra had piled twigs like a checkered pattern and stood them above the flames,like a grill. She set thin layers of the meat after Zoe had skinned it and cut it up.Blood covered Zoe's hands.It didn't bother her,however.She was used to this.

The meat simmered.It was cooked to perfection.Blood oozed from the meat,landing into the flames with a sizzle. As the girls bit into their meat,the taste of food was almost too much to bear.It was so rich,so fulfilling.The girls savored each bite they took,letting it sit in their mouths for a while before swallowing.

Max still wasn't back.3 days have passed by.Zoe constantly wondered what happened to him.Had he turned into a zombie? Had he been killed?Is he alright? These questions took over Zoe's mind.Every night footsteps would be heard in the far distance,and every sound heard Zoe would hope it'd be Max.

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Sorry this chapter was really short.Ive been so busy lately!!! But next chapter is going to be VERY intense.Just a little warning.