During The Storm

Chapter Six- The Road

Three days later as everyone walked with dread on them Ed was the first to pass from an illness which sadly took his life leaving the group filled with sadness as they lost someone very close to them. The clouds filled above them as the buried their beloved friend who's also consider family by many others who worked with him.

As Leon finishes burying him. "Today marks a sad day as our beloved Friend Ed is gone." Luis said as the rain slightly began to drop. "We shouldn't look to the past but to what lays ahead in the future as he would like to see us move ahead but never forgetting who he was as a person."

Everyone goes their heads down and prayed followed by an amen at the end and began to walk up as Leon sticks the shovle into the dirt.

Leon gently puts his hand onto the shovle. "Rest brother, you deserve it after the amount of pain you went through." He desperately tried to fight the tears but in the end fell.

Next came Brian. "Rest from now on, we'll miss you Ed." He head off faster and sat by a tree.

Luis stared at the shovle, placed his hand on the shovle and left it there for about a minute. Luis didn't say anything but everyone could tell the amount of pain he was going through snice Ed and Luis had their common ground and got along as if they were family. He headed off to the woods.

Sarah came with tears. "We thank you Ed, for everything so of you here us know we miss you." She placed her hand on the shovle for a few seconds before going after Luis.

Last came Zoey who was hurting the most, even though she's a mid teenager they're still consider a child until sixteen years old. Zoey cried the most and didn't say anything but held the shovle with her hand and fell on top of the grave. She only been hurting snice the last three days all Zoey and Ed would do is talk and laugh but snice her new friend is gone she has nobody to consider a friend beside the group she still has as family.

The rain started to poor down on top of them all as if Ed heard their goodbyes and felt the need to join with their tears.

Leon turns to Brian. "We're going to need food if we want to make the trip, some of us hadn't eaten in two days already." He turns to Zoey as she was told two days ago Ed wasn't going to make it.

"Yeah I know." Brian said as he reached into his pocket and grabbed a candy bar. "Give it to her, I'm going hunting." He tosses it to Leon and turns around to the woods with nothing useful to kill besides his own hands.

Leon walks over to Zoey who's still crying slightly as if the wind took her voice away. "Here." He stuck his hand out to Zoey so that he can give her the candy bar.

Zoey stared at it and deny taking it, Leon sat beside her. "You ever wonder how being alone truly feels?" Zoey asked Leon who didn't say anything but chose to listen instead as it may be better for her to let it out. "It hurts as if you yourself died snice no one knows you, Ed was mainly the only person who talked to me for the past three days." A pause. "And I don't mean it that I hate you guys because I don't but I know how busy you all are trying to keep us alive, but a little talk from time to time is all we need to feel more alive then dead." She sat up.

Leon thinking carefully on what to say. "I see your point Zoey but no matter how busy we are we don't ever stop thinking about you. I promise to have more time to talk to you from time to time but you have to promise me your keep on fighting to stay alive." He hands her the candy bar. "Its what Ed would want."

Zoey takes it. "I promise." She then opens it and eats it slowly as she tried to calm down.

Somewhere within the woods not far from Zoey and Leon, Luis is looking around for berries to find so that he can have something to eat then starve. Sarah walks not far behind him and spots something moving between the tree's.

"I'll be back." She said still feeling upset.

Sarah heads around the tree's that go downhill towards the river and sees it stand slunched over making it hard to tell if it is human or not. All Sarah can assume is it is male due to his short hair, soon he turns to face Sarah and slowly walks to her. Sarah doesn't run off knowing that the feeling she has to The Runner is calm as The Runner walks slowly to her, glowing light and reviewing how he looked before he became a Runner. Sarah was shocked to see he was no other then a child with blond hair and blue eyes dressed all in white. Soon The Runner fell to the ground glowing even brighter and soon becoming nature itself as the body began to deteriorate into flowers.

"Did you find anything." Luis said just to see the last events of a dying Runner.

"I found the gift of life." Sarah said as she turned around and headed to the river.

Luis following along. "You know we spent so much time killing those things we spent little time trying to see what happenes at their end stage and I think we just found it."

Sarah quickly takes a drink from the river which isn't the cleanest but will do for now as the rain would take longer. "Yeah." She wiped her mouth to remove the taste of a somewhat filthy river. "Once they walk we know they're nearing their end part of life and then blossom into nature." She stood at a bush with berries across the river.

Luis looking where she stared. "I'll get them."

Brian is slowly approaching Sarah while looking at the river calmly flow through the forest, Sarah not noticing Brian coming as she's to busy looking towards Luis so that nothing happens to him and she is to blame. Luis looks up after he gotten most berries off the bush, then looks to Sarah and back to Brian. Sarah stands up and moved aside as he passed by looking no where else but the ground below his feet which slowly moved.

Sarah made her way to Luis. "Talk to him." Luis said.

Sarah in the middle of the river. "He looks angry as if he doesn't want to talk." Not moving.

"He wants to talk now go." Luis said and went over to the other side so that he may return to Leon and Zoey with food.

Sarah slowly moved to Brian. "We have to go back."

Brian looked over and nodded, he then followed Sarah back to where everyone else is. Once everyone had reunited everything was feeling better, Brian and Sarah were talking while Zoey, Leon and Luis started walking. Zoey singled back to Sarah and Brian who followed behind the three as they walked on the main road with trees surrounding from the left and the right. The three on the front spotted Runners and slowly approached them so they can attack.

"They need you too Brian." Sarah said calmly as she stared at the three fight the Runners.

"I know." Brian said as he sat down.

Sarah looks at Zoey yelling for help as she was pinned to the ground. "Life can be hard but this is what we have left, sooner or later the road ahead isn't gonna get any easier for all of us." She turned to faced Luis who kills the Runner on Zoey saving her from being bitten.

"Your right." Brian said as he got up, pulled his knife out and stabbed a Runner who was behind Sarah. "Lets go."

After killing the last Runner Zoey sits down covered in blood around her leg making Luis a bit concern but loses it as the rain washes it off.

"Alright everyone let's go before more come." Brian said firmly as he led.

Everyone followed in, Luis was to the Right side of the road while Leon was a few feet to his right, Brian in the middle, Sarah to his right and Zoey to the far left making sure they could check what they can see so no one could sneak up from any angle.