The Wilderness Within: A Fanfiction (Draft)

Chapter 17

I pushed the door wide open and Marc carefully stepped inside. I followed him, not having anything except my wire cutters.

Noah was sitting in the chair, blood running from his nose and his hands still awkwardly tied behind his back. Beside him was the woman from before. I still couldn't see her face, but I imagined she wasn't happy to see us. She threw up her hands and backed away from Noah.

Marc kept his eyes on the woman as I ran to Noah and cut his restraint. "Are you alright?" I said carefully.

Noah nodded slightly. "I don't think she likes my sarcasm very much," he said as he lightly touched the stream of blood dripping down his face.

"Guys get over here!" I yelled to the rest of our group.

Marc had the woman backed up against the wall. "What do you want with these people?" He hissed. "We have done nothing to you."

"This is our land. We had to investigate."

"If you wanted us off of your land, we would have been open to a peaceful chat. There was no reason to resort to kidnapping my people." Marc pressed the knife against her throat.

"You could have been dangerous. You all could be dangerous."

I scowled at her.

Marc gritted his teeth, glaring.

She smirked. "The world you knew doesn't exist anymore. It's destroyed. Dead. Civilization as we know it is all over, and all because of what you call modern medicine. When a tree is sick you cut off the offending branch so the tree can live. Society couldn't just let the weak die off. Now you all could be infected."

"Don't bother. She's crazy," I heard myself say.

Marc pressed the knife closer. "I don't need to be infected to make you hurt, permanently. You will let me and my people go. Leave all of us alone and we will be long gone at first light." He stared at his reflection in her plastic goggles, daring her to make a move.

"Fine," the woman sputtered. Marc released her and she grabbed at her neck, feeling for the thin red line the knife left on her.

Watching her carefully, I pushed Noah out of the room. Marc followed, equally cautious, and pulled the door shut behind him.

The others had finally caught up to us, and after retrieving the bags the foraging group had dropped we all hurried out of the building and into the snowy night. Normally I'd be more than a little uncomfortable at running into the woods at night, but I wanted nothing more than to put as much distance between me and the huge house as I could.

We stumbled down a gravel driveway on a hill until we jumped into the trees at the bottom. Those who had their bags pulled out flashlights to light our way over malicious roots and piles of long dead leaves to follow the snowy footprints back to camp.

It seemed like hours before we left the trees and saw the our camp in the parking lot, the three trucks slightly illuminated from the inside by the small fire I left seemingly days ago.

We all hurried to the safety of the camp. Three people were perched on top of the trucks, two watching us and the other guarding in the opposite direction.

"Hey!" one of them yelled.

Marc waved his arm. "Rebecca, it's just us!"

Rebecca jumped into the cab and on the ground. "No, behind you!"

We all spun around and saw a single zombie hurrying to catch up to us. We screamed and rushed to the barrier the trucks made. Rebecca, crowbar and belt knife in hand, dashed past us to apprehend the zombie, and James reached her soon after as backup.

The rest of us hurried inside, our backs to the fire. We didn't need anyone to tell us the zombie was successfully dispatched when a minute later Rebecca and James climbed back on to the trucks.

I allowed myself to breath. We are fine, we are safe, I told myself over and over.

Marc looked to Rhys, who was sitting by the fire with Ian. "How long until sunrise?"

Rhys pushed up his sleeve to check his watch. "About an hour I believe."

I shook my head in disbelief. Marc turned to the rest of us. "We need to be well on our way out of here in an hour, but if you think it's worth a short nap then go for it. We have some leftover soup from this afternoon we can heat up."

We each had a portion of soup and a few went to sleep in the tents. Some of the others intended to stay awake but began dozing in front of the fire. I stayed wide awake.

It didn't slip my notice that Alex and Kami were sitting a lot closer than I'd seen them before. Alex had an arm wrapped around her shoulder, as if he was afraid she would float away.

I leaned over towards a truck. "Do any of you need a rest? I know you all have been up there all night."

Rebecca didn't look at me. "I'm fine, what's another half hour?" James grunted in agreement and Todd didn't respond. I turned back at the fire and gazed at the red sparks as they floated through the air and turned to ash.

They reminded me too much of the hallucinations I saw. I tore my gaze away.

"Are you okay?"

I looked up at Marc. He was watching me, concerned. I didn't answer. "Sorry, stupid question, I know." He sighed and sat down beside me.

"It's fine. I'm just... Worn out, I guess," I shrugged. "You weren't going to leave them, were you?"

He shook his head. "Not a chance. They are my family, and I have a responsibility to get them to that Stronghold as safely as I can. None of this should have happened."

I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder. When I realized what I was doing, my face heated up and I froze. He didn't say anything, just let me be, something I was extremely grateful for.

We stayed like that until the sky began to get noticeably lighter.

Everyone shook each other awake and packed up camp as if it were a normal day, but as I loaded up the truck bed I couldn't help but keep a wary eye on the woods.