When The World Ends

Backstabber

"Be quiet!" A thick, raspy voice broke out as heavy footsteps approached. "I said be quiet!"
Abiona gasped as the leaves in front rustled and the glint of a blade slashed at the vines. "Jana, be quiet!" He yelled.
Abiona darted back a pace, crouched behind a tree and held her breath. She almost gasped in surprise when a figure passed the tree and squinted into the forest.
He was tall, his face covered by a helmet fitted awkwardly over his neck. He looked like an overfed pig, his big, pink hands grabbing wildly in front of him and his feet stumbling, poking out of his shoes.
A noise turned her head as she saw a girl to her right. She was about fifteen, at the very most. Her long, dark hair flowed from her shoulders and down her back as she crept through the forest, taking care not to make a sound.
Abiona glanced back at the man for a moment, then turned and sprinted towards the girl, making as little sound as possible.
She crouched down at a tree, her eyes locked on the girl. As the girl, supposedly Jana, walked past, Abiona saw large gashes on her arms and legs. She had a black eye and her nose was broken, but she was still astoundingly beautiful.
"Jana," Abiona whispered. "Jana!"
The girl turned her head, eyes wide as all colour drained from her face. It only took a moment before she took off in the opposite direction between their two camps.
Abiona took a quick glance back, before racing after the girl. Jana limped onwards, fear washing over her and Abiona advanced. The knife in her hand caught the rising sun and she realized why that girl was so afraid. She clearly wasn't stopping anytime soon, but had slowed down and wasn't nearly as quick. Abiona narrowed her eyes and carried on.

"Wait!" She called without a response as Jana quickened her pace.
'This chase must look hilarious.' She thought to herself as the two ambled along, Jana in too much pain to keep going and Abiona too tired. Tears fell down Jana's cheeks as she dragged her bleeding leg along behind her. She had been in this situation one too many times before and wasn't going to fall for it again.
Abiona picked up the pace. They had been going for what felt like hours and must be miles away from the camps. Despite the burning in her legs, she broke into a sprint and launched herself at Jana, taking her to the ground.
"I'm sorry," she immediatly blurred out. "I'm not going to hurt you, it's okay." She panicked as the girl started screaming. "Come on, I'll take you back to my camp."
Abiona helped her to her feet and they ambled back to the camp, following the campfire smoke in the near distance.
"That man, was he your dad?" She asked.
"Yeah."
"How many people are in your camp?"
"Oh, it's about two hundred. We had to evacuate the town so a lot of us are here now."
"I guess you want to go back soon, then-"
"No! Uh, I mean, no, thanks. Actually, you're a perfect excuse to get away from there for good. I'll probably stay in one of the beach huts, I guess."
"No, no, I'm sure Maya will let you stay with us."
"Really? How many people have you got?"
"Uhh... five. We need to get back quickly, though. We'll be moving soon. Probably." She added.
"Is this it?" She asked.
They arrived back to the clearing as they saw the group all outside the tents.
"I mean it, Zander!" Maya screamed, "Where is Abi?"
He was backed up against a tree with the three surrounding him, blades at his throat.
"I'm here, Stop that, what the hell are you doing?" She shouted as she sprinted towards them.
"Thank god." Zander groaned and collapsed to the ground. "They've literally been at my throat for hours. Where the hell have you been?"
"And who's that?" Maya asked, stepping forwards.
"Jana. Is it.. uh.. can she "
"Stay with us? Sure." Sage grinned.
"Why don't you just bring the whole town in while you're at it?" Zander whined.
"Uh, you don't get a say." Maya glared.
"What? She's here now, I did nothing wrong!"
Maya ignored this and glared at the girl.
"No, I'm with Sage. She can stay." Ethan put in.
"Regardless, we don't have enough food for an extra person, Abi. She has to go."
"Agreed." Zander put in as Maya turned and glared.
"We can't just send her away, look at her!" Sage pointed to the girl, standing behind Abi, red-faced with tears in her eyes.
"Yeah, have a heart!" Ethan put in. Maya smirked.
"What?" His face turned red and he backed away defensively.
"It's just that- well, back at the asylum, uh..." trailing off, her eyes flicked over to Jana and her face turned red.
"Come on, spit it out," Ethan moaned impatiently.
Maya bit her lip. "You killed twenty people and laughed at them when they screamed."
Abiona backed away from Ethan. Sage did the same. A hint of a smile came to Zander's face as he took a step towards him.
"Okay." He announced. "Jana can stay."
"What? But you... Uh, fine." Maya groaned. "Abi, give her some water before she drops dead. Sage, get the med kit." She turned to Jana and glared. "But I swear to god, I'm not wasting any more materials on you than I have to."

Two hours later, Maya gave Jana some sleeping pills, the three boys had gone to bed and Maya sat outside the tents with Abi.
"One question. How did you know there was an entire town within walking distance?"
"At the beach huts, I could see smoke from a clearing and when we got there, there were tyre tracks in the dirt leading over that way."
"Wow. So how many people are there?"
"Jana said about two hundred. Speaking of which, shouldn't we be leaving soon? I mean, now that we know people are nearby and we've got one of their residents, isn't it a bit dangerous?"
"I guess. We'll leave tomorrow."
Maya lay down in the clearing and dropped off
Jana opened her eyes in panic. Taking quick breaths, she sat up and frantically glanced around. She couldn't believe she was here, and yet a small part of her wanted to go back. Ethan, who has seemed so kind, had killed a person.

Just being here seemed so surreal as nothing has ever happened in her town. Well, until now. S
he lay back down and tried to stay calm, although wondering how many more of her new friends were the same. That creepy boy she had seen surrounded when she first arrived, she could understand, but even Abiona? No, she wouldn't. But she still couldn't shake the thought from her head and she tried to fall back asleep. Her head ached as she rolled over to her other side, and shivered at a draft.

"I need to leave." She whispered to herself. "Abi and I, we'll leave one day. We can get through this."