Bitters

Everything was quiet. The only thing I could hear was my own breath. I had one eye closed and the other one was watching the deer through my rifle scope. It was a big one, if I get to shot him we could have food for the rest of our camping. I moved my head away from the scope and looked at where my dad was hidding. He nodded and mouthed 'You can do it'. I looked through the scope again, put my finger on the trigger and I aimed at the neck of the deer. I took a deep breath and shot. I got up to see the deer dead on the ground, I sighed in relief. I did it.

My dad ran to me and hit my shoulder 'You did Mitch, you really did it. That was an amazing shot son. Lets go get it' he said.

We walked towards the deer and stood in front of it.

"Uh he is big, probably heavy and we are kinda far from the camp"

"Don’t worry dad I can carry it, and besides this is my trophy" I said laughing, I was really happy I could shot that deer and make my dad proud. I handed him my rifle and lift the deer over my shoulders.

This was our third day camping and I was loving it. We came with our neighbors, the Harts, they had 2 boys, Mark and Ryan, both were 17 and we were having so much fun hunting, fishing, swimming and else. That day the boys decided to swim with their dad while I went hunting with my dad. My mom stayed at the camp gossiping with Mrs. Hart.

We were walking back to the camp and talking about random things, the sun started to set and everything was calm, but when we got near to the camp we heard screams and a gunshot.

"What the hell?" my dad said.

I looked at him and my eyes widened "Oh my God mom!" I dropped the deer, took my rifle back and we ran as fast as we could.

When we got there I couldn’t believe my eyes. Mark and Ryan were dead on the ground, there was blood all over them and it looked like they attacked by animals. But they weren’t animals, they were people and they were now literally eating Mrs. Hart. Mr. Hart was laying on the ground crying in shock. I ran to him.

"Mr. Hart where is my mother?? MR. HART LOOK AT ME. WHERE. IS. MY. MOTHER??" but he wasn’t answering me. I let go of him and started looking for her in the tents.

"SON" my dad shouted "Over here" he was near the lake, I ran to him and I saw a trail of blood.

"No no no no please no" I stopped by his side and started sobbing. She was there, but she was dead. She had part of her neck missing. I guess she crawled to run away from those things until she couldn’t handle it anymore.

I kneel down and took her in my arms, I couldn’t control my sobs. My dad walked back to where those things were and started shooting them one by one. I heard him screaming and cursing them. Then he stopped and walked back to me.

"Come on Mitch, we need to get out of here"

"No. I won’t leave her" I said still crying.

"She is dead son, there’s nothing more we can do, we need to go before more of those things show up" he grabbed my arm trying to make me stand up, but I was still resisting.

All of a sudden he screamed in pain and I felt blood spill in my face, I turned to see Mr. Hart biting my dad’s shoulder.

"NO, NO MR. HART STOP WHAT ARE YOU DOING" I shouted and tried to push him away.

"Use your knife… argh… hit his head, that’s how I killed the others." my dead said.

I grabbed my hunting knife and hit his head, he fall on the ground. I took my shirt off and used it to press his shoulder.

"Son, stop. Look at me"

"No dad we need to stop the bleeding"

"It won’t work. Look at his chest" I turned to Mr. Hart and saw a bite on his chest.

"He was dead when I went back there. I don’t know how, but he came back. He looks dead, but he is walking like a living person."

"But that doesn’t make sense"

"I know, maybe it’s some kind of disease that turn people in animals and make them want to eat everything"

I was shaking, that was too much. My mom was dead, people were eating others, Mr. Hart came back from the dead and bit my father. I didn’t know If I could handle it.

My dad put his hand on my face and said "Son, promise me you will survive. Promise me you won’t let this things get you."

"Dad why are you asking me that?"

He sighed "You will have to kill me"

"WHAT NO. I CANT DO THAT"

"MITCH STOP. YOU HAVE TO." That was literally too much. "If you don’t  do it I’m gonna turn into one of those things and attack you. And… you will have to do the same to your mother. She might come back just like Mr. Hart."

I was sobbing again, I couldn’t control the tears anymore

"I can’t do that"

"You can. Here, take my car keys, grab every supply and weapons you find and go back to the city, find Sheriff Smith and tell him what happened. If he doesn’t believe in you bring him here and show him these things.’ He cleaned my tears away and looked me in the eyes ‘You are strong son, you can survive. Do it now." He said and laid on the ground.

I grabbed my knife again and kissed his forehead. "I love you dad" my voice cracked a little. I raised my arm, he closed his eyes and a few seconds later I finally hit his head. Then I did the same with my mother.

I stood up and looked around. What the fuck was going on? What were those things? How could a dead man walk? Why were this happening to me? These and a bunch of others questions were popping in my mind. Maybe someday I would get to find the answers.