Quarantine

Bygones

All six of us sat crowded in the back of the van. The banging of the rotters against the sides didn't help our nerves calm down one bit.
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We had decided to make more room in the van before they shows up. Then, the gunshots went off. We all froze, and I looked around. They were close enough toile me worried. The sudden frenzy of shots was silenced, and then nothing carried through the wind.

Whoever that was is dead now... they must have been overrun.

"How big is the horde again?" Charles seemed worried as well.

Brent gave me what seemed to be an exaggerated answer. "Who knows. Could be anywhere between one hundred to three hundred. They're likely to pick up strays along the way to pick up mass."

"Wouldn't they have wondered apart by now? They focus on attention, not just one direction forever."  Charles was also in disbelief.

"Exactly. The random things they encounter keep them herded together. The ones in front knock things over, so the ones in the back keep following them because of the noise. The ones in front keep gong forward because of the mass behind them. Simple thinking." Brent had this down. No wonder he survived this long.

"How much more time do you think we have?" I wanted to get in the van before they showed up.

"Twenty minutes top. Let's keep moving this stuff." Bree spoke this.

Bree was the other woman here, the younger mans name was Kyle. They had passed James around once I had woke up Charles. I nodded my agreement, and with Charles help moved a box full of saw blades outside.

We had one hole shelf cleared out, and had placed it as a small barrier around the door to keep it unblocked. The silence was deathly to me, and the cold was making me want to get in the van.

A break in the silence put us all on guard. More twigs snapped in the woods, but nothing more.

"I'll check it out." I volunteered, and picked up my crowbar.

I went around the van and tried my best to look into the woods. The moonlight helped, but I still couldn't make anything out. Then, movement caught the corner of my eye.

I swung around only to see Megan watching me from the safer side of the van. I gave her a smile, and waved at her, but was met with big eyes. I was put off by the look, and then her mouth pulled into a silent scream.

I turned around just in time to go chest to chest with a Rotter. It pushed me to the ground, and my crowbar skirted out of my grasp. Megan stood there mouth agape, and didn't move at all.

The Rotter had me pinned against the ground, and I pushed my forearm into its chest to try and keep its snapping jaws from my face. Another Rotter came out of the woods, ignored me, and walked towards the van.

"Kyle! Rotter!" I let this out while trying to keep the Rotters hands from grasping my shirt.

Kyle came around the corner, and pulled Megan back. "Brent. We have a problem."

"My crowbar is over there." I didn't point at it in fear of being bit.

I tried to flip it over, but it was completely on top of me. It's breath horrendous, and its body covered in its last meal. One arm was caught off just above the elbow, and I was happy that it was. I would have been dead before I could have done anything.

I brought my knee up to its legs, and tried to dislodge its weight from my chest. I reached for my knife in the boot, but couldn't do it fast enough. The Rotter was overtop of me again, and I didn't know what else was going on else where.

I forgot about the knife, and grabbed the rotters neck with one hand, and his left arm with the other. I slammed my leg up again, and pushed to the side. It rolled over, and I scrambled back in time to watch Kyle smash its skull in with my crowbar.

I looked around to see three other Rotters lying on the ground. All if their heads pounded to a pulp. Kyle stood over me, hand extended, and covered in blood.

I grasped his hand as he said. "Sorry it took so long."

At that moment Brent came around the corner with the rifle. "What in the world...." he stopped when he saw the dead bodies lying around.

He slipped the rifle on, and spun around while talking to everyone. "That's it. We've got enough room in the van. Everyone inside now."

Kyle handed me my crowbar back, and I glanced around. It was quiet again, and it made me nervous once more.
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All six of us sat crowded in the van. The banging of the Rotters against the sides didn't help out nerves one bit.

It had been going on for almost an hour now, and didn't seem to be close to stopping. We all were holding some sort of weapon, and fiddling with it. Bree was scraping the mud from her shoes with a knife. Brent was twisting the strap on his rifle. Charles was balancing his crowbar on his knee. Kyle was constantly loading, and unloading his pistol, and I was looking into my knife blade.

"Charles. How many people have you seen die?" I was bored, and wanted a revelation moment.

Everyone looked at me except for Megan. She was sound asleep, and I was surprised at how she could keep at a time like this.

"Why do you ask me?" Charles stuttered.

"I'm gonna ask everyone except for Megan. How many people have you seen die?" I was thinking hard.

The banging of the Rotters reminded me of the banging of the gun, the fence, and the horde right next to me. It reminded me of running through the streets. Megan...

"You know I've met two girls named Megan in the apocalypse? Ones dead, I killed her..." I was closing my eyes now.

"After that I killed two others. A police officer, you know. He was supposed to be protecting us. He tried to rob me, and I killed him, and his partner. That was in the Quarantine.... then, I left it..." I started rambling on.

The banging gave  me to many thoughts to keep in. "Then I watched you crash your car. I didn't think much about you once we split up. Found a road that led to a small town. Lost my pistol there, and got another rifle. Turns out it was broke when I shot it. I sliced my side open, and wondered though the woods. Then Dan found me... fucking Dan's dead now, Samuel ate Shelly.... Ann's probably dead, Jackson and Ross were probably those gunshots... the fucking military compound....."

Everyone was blank face when I opened my eyes, and looked up.

Kyle answers their thoughts by the looks of it. "Your from inside the Quarantine zone? No way."

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We have one chapter left before I end this book!!

Now what will they talk about in the next chapter?

P.S. in the next Chapter I'll be asking how you think the next book in this series will start out at. Just a heads up.

Please enjoy.