The Wilderness Within: A Fanfiction (Draft)

Chapter 14

We hurried back, more cautious than before. We kept our eyes open for zombies and more survivors in masks, but every street we crossed was eerily empty. It seemed like hours before we were back at the camp.

"George!" Alex pushed past the trucks fortifying the camp to rush to me. He wrapped me in a hug and lifted me off the ground.

Marc jumped up on a truck bed. "Get inside," he said, looking around. Alex put me down and we rushed through the barrier.

"You said Kami was missing," I said. I stared Marc down, my nails cutting into my fists.

"Kami and the foraging group. The group hasn't responded to any of our radio calls in the last hour, and Kami vanished around the first time you checked in with me. I didn't want to worry you."

"Maybe Kami went to get cleaned up, or their radio is dead?" I suggested.

Marc shook his head, anxiously rubbing the back of his neck. "Normally I wouldn't worry too much, but after you told us about the survivors," he sighed, "I'm more than a little concerned."

Alex grabbed me by my shoulders. "What exactly happened with these survivors anyway?"

I looked to my side. Ian was clinging to Rhys with a look of determination and fear. Rhys had the same expression. It was amazing that I hadn't noticed before how alike they were.

"They were luring in zombies and trapping them. We heard them talk about burning the place down before they shut the doors and left," I said.

Rhys spoke up. "I think that's why we haven't seen any zombies around here. If we go further into town I'm sure we'll find more burned buildings where they must be trying to get rid of them."

"Did they see you?" asked Alex.

I shuddered. "I hope not. They closed that door behind them. We were trapped inside with those things for a good minute before we were able to get out."

A man from our camp ran up to Marc. "We think Jess and Paul are gone now too," he gasped.

Marc cursed. "Get everyone except essential perimeter guards over here now for a headcount."

The man, Lewis, rushed off to gather everyone. We all stayed deathly still as Marc counted heads. Thoughts swirled around my head, making me dizzy. Is Kami okay? What happened to her? If I stayed could I have stopped it? Where is she?

Marc broke me out of my thoughts. "That's ten, including Todd and James up there taking watch. I'm considering adding another guard since whoever is taking us has no problem coming so close to our camp."

Rebecca raised her hand easily, and went to join Todd and James on watch.

"What are we going to do?" said Lewis. "We aren't safe here."

"We can't just leave them," said Rhys. "Somewhere they have almost half of us. They can't just get away with that." Ian looked up at him with a pensive frown.

Alex massaged his forehead. "If they can take us from our own camp so easily, they must be nearby, or at least have people nearby. They could be watching us right now."

"Then if anyone goes alone they'll be targeted," said Marc.

"Not necessarily," said Rebecca. "They had no problem taking a decent sized group of us already. We all need to watch our backs, even now. And we should leave the area as soon as possible."

"We can't just leave them! How are we going to get them back?" I shouted angrily.

Everyone was silent.

I stormed to one of the trucks and sat up against a tire, quietly fuming. Alex looked at me as if he wanted to say something, but started pacing.

Too soon the sun was setting. What few of us remained huddled together around a small fire. Rhys kept an arm wrapped tightly around Ian, as if he would float away when he wasn't looking. Rebecca and Todd were still keeping watch, and the rest of us tried to sooth our churning stomachs with some leftover soup from that afternoon. I sat beside Marc, across from Alex, but I didn't say a word the whole time.

The air was icy fresh on my cheeks. For a minute I stared as large white flakes began to float down from the sky.

I got up, brushing off my trousers, and walked towards the edge of the camp barrier.

"Woah, where are you going?" said Marc sternly.

I looked up and saw that Alex was frowning at me too. "Yeah, you're not going after her alone, are you?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm going to the bathroom. I won't go far, I'll be right back." I made a show of grabbing my trusty baseball bat before heading over to a patch of trees.

Alex grabbed my wrist. "You already played hero once today. Nothing stupid, alright?" I shook him off.

Nearly as soon as the trees surrounded me, I heard a branch snap. I whipped my head towards the sound, drawing my bat in front of me.

I stared into the shadows, eyes searching for movement.

A rough fabric bag was quickly forced over my face. I shouted in alarm and squirmed as I felt several hands push me against a tree and tie my hands behind my back. I yelled and kicked around me until the hands lifted me up and slung me over a tall shoulder, knocking the air out of me. I gasped. "Let me go! Help! Alex, Help!" The bag muffled my voice, but I prayed that they at least heard something from their distant fire.

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