End of the Living

Chapter Two

I woke up to the sound of a loud groan, cracking my eyes open I remembered I was wrapped up in the coat like a cocoon and poked my head out. The sun was rising over the horizon, which meant less of those things would be roaming the area.

During the day, those things were rarely walking around except a few stragglers or in the forest area. The only place during the day they'd be thriving and stumbling around were in cities and large towns, which is where I tried avoiding. Wandering into one is signing a death wish. I sat up on the room, putting on the heavy coat, I stood up and peered over the edge of the roof. A small herd of walkers was stumbling around or crawling, if I was fast enough I could hop onto the dumpster and make a run for it, but that's if my luck was good enough so none of them were running ones.

Ones that ran were rare but made it harder to escape sometimes and you could never tell which ones run or which walk. Either way, it annoyed me, I hated walking and hear or see a zombie running at me with flailing arms and an inhuman screech. It was moments like that I used my gun, they were going to fast for me to quickly stab them without any injury to me. 

I quietly walked over to the ladder and peered over, no zombies in sight, I climbed down the ladder and hoped they couldn't hear the metal creaking from my weight. I landed on my feet with a light thud and bolted around the corner, weaving around some of the walkers before running from the station and onto the main road. Once I was a safe distance away from the station, I sighed and slowed my pace until I stopped completely. 

Letting out a breath of relief, I tried to calm my heavily beating heart and the adrenaline as I got back to my normal walking pace.

I was fast, but never the most athletic person.

During the apocalypse in movies, there was always some loud noise or screams of people getting shredded, but it was incorrect. The area couldn't be more silent, it was almost deafening to me if it were for my heavily beating heart pounding away or my breaths and my boots thudding on the ground. Even in the pure silence, no screaming or chaos, it was still eerie and gave me chills. 

Soon enough a road sign was there, it read in peeling white letters: "Dusty County".

I knew of this town, it wasn't far off from my hometown, RoseWood, but I knew nothing about it. I wanted to avoid it and the risk of getting injured or turned, but I really needed to stock up on some food and water. Without any other choice, I wandered in the direction of Dusty County. Not too far up ahead, I could see the silhouette of a small town, it's rooftops stood out and the small houses being cast in their long shadows. I sped up my pace and walked faster towards it, wanting to get in and get out without an incident and gather up what I need.

I walked past the sign reading "Welcome to Dusty County!" in bold, rusted cursive on the white sign. Just beyond it though, it was like I had said before: A disaster. from what I could see the town was in shambles, some buildings had massive holes in their walls either with cars stabbed through them or just massive holes, windows were cracked or shattered with glass shards scattered about on the dirt and pavement, cars were flipped over on their sides or backs or even wrapped around poles, a few bodies were laying on the sidewalk or flopped over inside the wrecked cars. 

It was like a storm had come through here, leaving the devastation and death in its wake. 

I walked further into the town, ready to grab either my knife or gun for whatever came walking out of the shadows to tear into me, and kept glancing to my sides and over my shoulder for whatever may come. The town was quiet, a deadly silence filling the air, leaving a tension for me to feel in the pit of my stomach as I walked on. Before this, this kind of silence would have suffocated me, I wouldn't be able to breathe without feeling a lump in my throat and my stomach twist with awkwardness, but now it's like a comforting blanket of silence to me.

 No screams of agony as the things tore into their bodies, no sounds of terror as people fled from the creatures, and no screeching of tires against the asphalt before ending in a deadly crash.

Just quiet, pure and utter silence.

Before I could take another step, I heard a sound that sounded out of place, something so quiet it was almost hard to hear if there was any other noise a little louder than it. A woman sobbing. I could hear the faint sounds of a woman sobbing nearby that echoed through the empty houses and walls. It came from the middle of the town, in the small square garden, a weathered gazebo stood small against the trees, it's dirt and blood stained white paint chipping to show the rotting wood underneath. Inside the aged gazebo, a figure of a woman hunched over sat kneeling on her knees slumped over as her body trembled with sobs.

Her back was to me, but from a small distance, I could see her appearance. She wore a white tank top and panties, smeared in dirt and blood, her long, greasy blonde hair going past her shoulders in a tangled mess, her body and feet were caked in layers of dirt, grime and specks of blood dotting them, her skin is unnaturally pale.

I took a single step forward, my first mistake, and my foot stepped on a twig that loudly snapped under my boot, my second mistake.

The sobbing stopped.

The woman suddenly jumped to her feet like she was just shocked with electricity, whirling around to face me I realized she was one of them. Her eyes glowed an almost demonic red as small greasy locks of her hair dangled over them like torn drapes, her lips and teeth were stained red as she screamed an inhuman screech and raised her arms like she was ready to fly away. 

And that's when I noticed them.

Her nails, no, her fingers were long, probably longer than her head, and were long until they stopped with a sharp looking needle type of talon. Ready to cut me open with everything she has. I barely had time to reach my gun as she quickly darted at me, her dirty feet pounding against sharp rocks and the pavement, I raised my gun to shoot her but she was too close and raised an arm to slash down at me.

Knowing I had no chance of shooting her from her speed, I shut my eyes as I expected the sharp pain of her talons digging through my clothes and flesh like it was paper...

But instead, I heard a loud gunshot.