Innocent Death.

Chapter 14: Family

Deer skin and bones were spread across the forest floor.Dried blood scattered the leaves and bones across the floor. Zoe and Sierra had fallen asleep, bones of the deer in their palms. The forest had been quiet, as usual.

Sierra was the first to rise from her slumber, she was startled by the deer bone that lay in her palms as her eyelids lifted, chucking it. It rustled beneath the leaves as it fell, causing Zoe to jump awake. Zoe stared down at the bone that was beside her hand, lowering her eyebrows with slight disorientation and confusion. Shaking her head, she remembered the hunt last night. Rubbing her eyes and slowly using her leg strength to push her body up, she sighed. Max must've been dead by now. He would've come back, right? Zoe looked off what she saw as a blood filled sky, colored with the blood if the dead and the darkness of the undead. Clouded with the shrieks of the surviving. Sierra made it to her feet and ruffled her hair, yawning. Another day worth trying to live.

The girls walked on. The silence overwhelmed them. It almost seemed to be driving them mad. Zoe heard footsteps in the distance. The adrenaline pumped through her veins very quickly and rapidly. Sierra curved her lips to a slightly evil smirk, lifting up the shotgun and prepping it into her shoulders. This was going to be some excitement.

The footsteps continued at a faint, distant yet heard and noticed pace. It seemed slow, but progressing. The girls stood like statues, waiting for the thrill. Walkers, a piece of cake. Or perhaps maybe the demonic walkers? That would be exciting.

Soon, the footsteps got louder and quicker.The girls' heartbeats were beating out of their chests. Suddenly, moans were heard in the near distance. It brought a smirk to both of their faces, making their eyes narrow and light up with the thrill. Walkers.Zoe loaded the bow with 2 arrows, pulling them back and hovered it around them.

Suddenly, a figure popped out.

It was a bitten and already infected creature. The face seemed familiar in a way, minus the deceased, decaying look. You could tell it was a female. Her hair was ratty looking. Zoe's eyes squinted at the creature?", identifying it.

Sierra's mother.

Zoe looked over to Sierra, her eyes widened and mouth open. Sierra just stood there frozen, yet with weakened arms, her widened eyes fixed on the creature she once called her mother. There was a big decision to make now. Run and try to escape or bring a zombie along with them. The zombie groaned and moaned as it creeped up closer to them.

"Your...Your...-" Zoe stuttered.

"Mom," Sierra said, "I can't kill my mother."

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"We can't run?"

"No, we can't run!They'll eventually catch us!"

"I can't shoot her, Zoe."

"I know, I know... but if we can't shoot her, what are we supposed to do?"

"I...I don't know.."

"Sierra...we have to do this.."

"What if there's a cure?! I could help her!"

"Wait. What.."

Another zombie creeped up in the distance. It wasn't a full body, however. Split in half, the zombie had chewed intestines, and a skinned skull. The face was barely made and unnoticeable, but once it got close enough, Zoe and Sierra choked down their screams with their little breaths they could take.

...Abbey.

It was Abbey. But wasn't she dead? The creatures ripped her apart. It was an easy death. Who would've known she would've turned?