75 Days of a Zombie Apocalypse (Complete )

Chapter 10 - Alone

It was silent last night. We all had headed to bed, sleeping as comfy as we could even though we were sleeping on hard gravel. There was a small breeze, not a sharp cold breeze when it came by, but a soft warm one. The summer heat came during the day and stayed during the night, letting our bodies be filled with heat but at the same time, too much heat that our bodies couldn't handle it. Everyone was in their own spaces like always, but this time, Ross slept a little closer to me. No one seemed to notice, or that they cared really, but he moved closer once he knew everyone's eyes were shut. I felt my lips move into a small smile as I felt the heat come off his body and tried to mix with mine. A tiny touch of his fingertips on my arm made shivers run down my spine and gave me comfort. I swore that I opened my eyes to look at him, for I saw his face and how he looked when he was asleep, but it was just a sleepy daze, nothing that could get me out of it until I woke up or something sharp entered the bubble and popped it. 

And that sharp point was a male's scream. 

Everyone opened their eyes and a few of us sat up. I saw Zedd looking around as Demi held Rosey tight to her. Cher was looking around as well but Louis just laid there. I saw Dave looking at me and then my father, my father, and Dave sending and receiving looks from each other. When we heard the scream, I felt Ross' body and hand move away, and when I looked at him, his eyes fell to the ground as he was more than a foot away from me. 

"Where's May and Yon?" Cher asked as she met eyes with Zedd.

Zedd quickly got up, same with my father and Dave, they all ran into the trees with their weapons. Soon enough, Louis followed them. We ended up staying the night at the dirt where we stopped hours before. We weren't quite ready to leave the trees but we weren't ready yet to head into town. Zedd thought it would be a good idea to stop and a rest a day, "We have all the time in the world now," was the end of his statement. 

With all the men gone except for Ross, you could feel the tension going through everyone as Cher stared us down and looked at us whenever we would move a bit. 

"Mommy, what's going on?" I heard Rosey ask.

"Nothing sweetie, shh...It's alright," Demi said, her voice shaking as she began to rock her and Rosey back and forth. 

The movement of the trees appeared as the wind picked up a bit. A few minutes went by and nothing of the men in the woods came again. The tension went down a bit, we all found a safe place in the events that were taking places while we were all scared of what was going to happen next. Demi looked at Cher really quick than at Ross and I, before her eyes wondered behind us, her face showing terror as she opened her mouth, but nothing. 

I quickly turned around and tried to grab Ross' hand, but nothing was there as I soon found a hooded man, having a knife to Ross' throat. Ross was scared at the moment, I think we all were, but he was more because he didn't know if his life would end at that moment. 

"Move and he'll die," the man said as Cher was about to get up. 

"What did you do to May and Yon?" Cher asked

The hooded man turned his head a bit to the right, "What they asked for. It's easy when you come across a pair of lovers making out in the trees, what's not to get off about the sight of their blood dripping down across the green leaves?" 

This man was a psychopath, I see it now. We shouldn't have jumped to the conclusion about May and Yon getting murdered, but what else was there to think about? A stranger tells you that your people are murdered, what would you think? Bushes behind us were moving as the footsteps appeared and stopped on the gravel. I heard Demi sigh a little relief but not as much.

"We mean no harm," I heard Zedd say

"No, I do," the hooded man said and moved the knife closer to Ross' throat, him wincing. 

"Please, don't hurt my son," Demi said, "Please," 

"All sons and daughters die soon, even the fathers and mothers, but some...die whenever they need to, doesn't matter the order in which they came." the man said

We all went silent. We don't know how many people he has killed before, and we don't know when he'll stop either. 

"Tell your friends what you saw," the hooded man said, "The death of your friends," 

"They..." my father started, "They were cut open." 

"And?" 

"Body parts were missing." 

I stopped moving for a second and felt myself shut down again. I had lost hope that we were gonna get out of this like I lost hope about everything else before. I thought we were gonna die of natural causes or zombie wounds, not actually by another person. 

"We'll give you what you want," Zedd said, his voice echoing.

I heard the man chuckle a bit, "No, you can't." 

"And why not?" Zedd asked

"Because what I want...I already have." the man said.

The man brought Ross fully to his feet and put him over his shoulder swiftly, Ross screaming as the man began to run away, as Zedd, Dave, my father, and Demi followed the man. Ross's screams echoed in the trees as my group yelled after him. I wanted to get up and help, but something held on to me, the same feeling that made me watch my mother's death. I feet little hands touch my arms as Rosey began to cry. 

"Jess?" she asked

But I didn't answer, tears rolled down my face as I slowly looked up towards her, seeing Cher standing behind her. 

"You're stupid, Jess," she said as she grabbed Rosey and sat her down somewhere behind her.

"What are you doing?" I heard myself say, my voice changing as I spoke

"She doesn't need to see this," she said as she pulled up her sleeves, and moved closer "After all, she's just a child." 

I saw Cher's hand raise into a fist and come closer to my face as I felt a sharp pain, causing my body to fall on it's back while my body fully shut down. 

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I woke up to the sound of birds singing in the trees. The sound was so peaceful, reminding me of days when I was younger and would play outside all the time. My mother found it was sweet of me, for I was only a child and she thought I found grace in having my bare feet in the wet warm green grass. My father didn't really like when I cracked dirt inside the house, neither did my mother, but she had fun cleaning it up knowing that I was just being a kid, minding my own mind and doing kids stuff. The bird's singing reminded me of when I would dance to their singing, my mother recording it every time she came outside with me, only to see me dance. She would pull the camera out and press start, but I didn't mind the fact that she made memories out of me, but the fact that the birds were happy every morning, at six o'clock, and would continue their day singing until the sun was fully up and gave them some heat. My mother would always answer when I asked her why they sane every morning: "They're happy to be alive, like us." 

I always nodded, showing her that I agreed with it even though I never truly understood what she meant. I told myself that I would share that thought to my own kids one day, but that day never came, but the day that I finally caught what the statement meant. 

I opened my eyes to see that dawn was still passing. I pushed myself up with my arm, pain coming and going as I fully sat up, seeing no one was with me. I was confused for a minute, realizing what was going on. Then flashbacks of the night before came flooding my mind, causing my head to pound as I felt the blood rush to my head. I didn't pay attention to the flashbacks but only when Ross' screams came to play, it's when I realized I screaming too as the flashbacks stopped. My screams had turned into loud sobs and yells. I hit my hands down against the ground repeatedly and had gotten up, only to be falling back down. I don't understand how last night took a very odd toll on my life right now, but it caused me about the same amount of pain as everything else. Once I had stopped crying a bit, I pushed myself back up and stood there, heavily breathing, thinking about why no one had come back. 

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