Katie walked slowly and steadily over to Isaac who had disbelief showing clearly in his green eyes. She carefully wrapped her arms around him, and he did the same. She buried her face and began to cry.
After a while, Isaac decided to break the silence.
"Hey, Katie, we should really go and find somewhere for the night. I think a basement of one of the buildings should do, just for one night." He said softly
Katie raised her head ever so slightly, pausing for a moment to pull away and wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket, and then replied.
"Yeah, I guess that will do for tonight, then tomorrow we can go and explore, and hopefully we can find somewhere better to stay. Who knows how many bodies are going to be in those buildings." She sniffled.
The two of them began to head across the scorched land towards the city in which they had once lived.
They stepped inside one of the buildings and shuddered. The building was freezing and there were bodies scattered around the room, and the smell. Well, the smell was horrific. All you could smell was the rotting of flesh. They tiptoed passes the rotting bodies to a back door. Katie looked at the door. It was made of solid steel and held a sign reading;
STORAGE
There was also a lock on the door.
"Damn it Katie, let's go find another room. It's locked." Isaac muttered in annoyance.
At that moment, Katie whipped a bobby pin out of her hair and placed the curvy edge into the lock, and then took out another pin and did the same, but this time with the flat edge. She gently clicked them to the right and the door slowly creaked open. Katie twisted round to look at Isaac.
"Wha... How... What the..." Isaac was cut of rapidly by Katie.
"It's all about the tumblers." She acknowledged as she turned back around and smiled to herself as she walked through the doorway.
That night was the longest night Katie had ever experienced. All night she could smell the rotten flesh and she could hear Isaac snoring, and every now and then his curly hair would fall across his eyes and he would blow it away, and sometimes he would slap himself in the face thinking it was a bug.
In the morning Isaac got up and went to sit next to Katie.
"Morning." He yawned
"Morning. You slept well didn't you?"
"Yeah, I did thanks. Did you?"
"No, I didn't thanks to your snoring."
"Sorry, but you know I can't help it."
"Yeah, but you should know I'm joking. It was the smell, but let me be honest, it was your snoring too."
"Ok ok, you've made your point."
And with that, the two of them got up and walked out the building without another word.
They explored the city, but all they found was bodies and buildings in ruins. Then, all of a sudden, a loud crash came from one of the buildings on their left.
"W-w-w-hat was that?!" Katie stuttered
As Isaac was about to reply, the doors of the building smashed open to reveal some sort of zombie/creature that came running towards them. It's skin was burned and it was covered in large blisters. It's hair was an oily black, or, what was left of it anyway, and it's face. It's face was terrifying. The creature only had one eye, it's mouth was lopsided and hanging open, and it was covered in large open wounds and bruises.
"RUN!!!" Isaac shouted as Katie screamed louder than she ever had before. The two of them ran as fast as their legs could carry them, but when Isaac looked back, he saw that the creature was catching up with Katie.
"KATIE RUN FASTER!!!" He screamed
Katie sped up but tripped over a piece of debris and the creature looked as though it was going to catch her, but luckily Isaac reached her first. He scooped up the debris that Katie had tripped on and waited for the creature to get closer.
Katie stopped running and turned round. Then she saw the creature leap into the air above Isaac and she screamed. Then, Isaac lifted the debris and swung it round, smacking the creatures face causing it to fly across the street and smash into the wall of a building. Isaac dropped the debris, wiped the sweat off of his forehead and slowly walked over to the creature. He nudged it with his foot.
Nothing.
He nudged it again.
Nothing.
"Hey Katie, its dead. Let's get out of here before another one of these things comes out." He called.
The two of them ran out of the city and over the sand dunes. When the city was out of sight, Katie sat down dramatically and huffed.
"You ok?" Isaac asked
"Yeah, I'm ok. Just tired."
"Ok, so am I. We can sit for a bit but we need to get further away."
They rested for about an hour before Isaac decided to talk.
"So, umm, should we start walking again?"
"Yeah, sure." Katie replied bluntly.
They travelled for the rest of the day with no more breaks. Both of them were dehydrated and starving. The last drink they had had was in the bunker and their last full meal had been before the Apocalypse with their families. They came across an old mining town that had been completely destroyed. There were minecarts scattered about and sections of rail everywhere. Isaac kept picking the rails up and would chuck them to the side, or he would kick them out of the way. Katie was just behind him, covering her face with her sleeve to avoid inhaling any sand whilst scuffing her boots on the coarse sand.
