Survival Of The Fittest

Ch. 1

Silently, I walked through the barren forest, across the snow covered ground. Following track of a deer for the last two miles.

I was hoping to bag a decent size buck, it would feed me and mine.

We needed this deer, for food was scarce now a days.

Ever since the world went to shit, things have been really different around here.

About three years ago, the world came to an end as we know it. The dead began to walk the earth. No one knows how it all happened, it just did.

One minute we were all in our homes watching TV, the next there is an emergency broadcast going out across the air, be it via TV, radio, ect.. any way to communicate was used.

It warned people to stay in their homes, to barricade all the doors and windows, that an unknown pandemic was sweeping the Untied States.

The news said to stay indoors, to avoid getting bit or scratched from one of the infected or within hours you would become one of them.

When everything went down, people thought that it was some kind of hoax, that is until it hit their town. At first people would stay in their homes, but there was just so many of the infected, they were tearing houses apart, devouring the residents inside.

That was the turning point for most people, everyone started packing up only the necessities, and vacated their homes, trying to find a safe place to go.

But by that time, there was no loner a safe place to hide.

No matter where they went the infected followed. Destroying those who were lucky to survive that long.

I was only 29 when everything went down.

I had just got out of the army and decided to visit my brother Travis in Ohio.

He lived by himself with his two little girls since their mothers death five years prior.

He lived in a remote town, just a couple of hundred people, none living too close too each other. His place was up in the woods, far from town, and was pretty much self sufficient. He only had to go to town for the doctor and the rare grocery run, when the harvest didn't yield much that year.

When I arrived at Travis's place the girls were so excited to see their favorite Aunt Sam. Tiffany and Nevaeh, we only five and six at the time.

They loved my visits, for I spoiled them rotten, hay what can I say that's the best part of being an aunt.

I had been visiting for about three weeks when the first reports of attacks came in. Me and Travis decided to avoid town as much as possible, and to never take the kids from the property.

For almost two years we avoided going to town, and in that time we began building us a safe haven of sorts.

Travis had a very large grove of oak trees, close together, and he already had a lot of steal and lumber laying around, so for the last two years we built a series of tree houses connecting all over the property. Connected by a series of extension bridges. The tree houses expanded over 40 acers of property.

They were situated high up in the tree tops, far from the ground so none of the infected can reach us. The main tree house was the largest, it had the family living space in it, while the others were used for things like storing meat, and grains. One was strictly for furs and hides of animals we had hunted.

We had been doing really well, that is until that last winter, we had snow drifts reaching five feet high, yes it killed off a portion of the infected but it also killed off a lot of the wild game that was available.

This resulted in Travis going to town to scavenge once spring had came and the path had thawed enough to walk the fifteen miles to town. When he left it was nice and sunny day, he said give him a week at the max to make it back, that's if he didn't find a vehicle that ran and had enough fuel to get him back.

So we waited and waited for him to come back, a week had passed with no sign of him. Every day that followed the girls would sit, looking out for him to arrive. By the time the second week was rolling around they began to give up hope.

But on the first day of the second week, we spotted something coming across the horizon. We watched as it got closer and closer.

Finally when the figure was almost upon us we noticed it was Travis, he was pulling a makeshift sled of some kind with all types of supplies on it. He was grinning and shouting about finding the mother load.

I had just got done in hooking the sled, that Travis helped pull up, when a scream tore though the air.

I ran to the rail, looking over the side, only to discover, Travis being bitten into by three different infected. I know there was nothing I could do for him, other than give him mercy.

So with tears streaming down my face I pulled my crossbow from my back, and aimed. All he did was yell at me to do it. All the while his girls were bawling their eyes out telling me to save their daddy.

I took aim, and told him how sorry I was, and that I would take good care of his girls for him. He smiled at me one last time as I released the string, I felt the fletching as it flew by my cheek, with a soft thud, I knew it hit its mark.

That day we moved further inward, just in case there was any more of the infected around, being even more careful then we were before.

With time the girls came around with the reality of their fathers death, and the harshness of the new world.

Slowly but surly they have been learning to survive this new world. So far they have learned to prepare easy to make food, that will last long, such as jerky's and canned foods, tanning hides for clothes and shoes, to make and prepare a fire for cold nights, to hunt and track and trap game. That's what has brought us here today.

Today the girls and I are tracking their first deer. It's a pretty good size buck if the prints are anything to go off of.

We had just rounded a big willow, when we spotted it, and I was right, it was a good 15 to 16 point buck, with plenty of meat on its bones, he will feed us for a long while.

With a slight nod of my head, Tiffany and Nevaeh took aim. They waited for the right moment, before releasing their arrows. Just as their arrows hit their target another one, one I didn't recognize hit too.

Well shit looks like we have company.