The Wilderness Within: A Fanfiction (Draft)

Chapter 27

The three of us were tied up and thrown to the ground like sacks of potatoes, wrists and ankles bound. They hadn't done a thorough search on us, and I was thankful to still feel my pendant pressing on my chest under my shirt. All we could do was watch as the men dumped out our belongings and tried to wrangle our horses. Except Kami, who had no problem shouting all sorts of things at them.

"Put that down, you cow!" she screamed. "If I ever get out of this, I swear I'll find a shiny new knife and hunt you down!"

The man that seemed to be the leader smirked at that and walked up to us.

"You've done it now, Kam," muttered Alex.

The man bent down and lifted Kami's chin. "Sweetheart, who said we'd ever let you leave?"

The bushes shook.

The man looked around for his other two companions, who were staring warily at the trembling branches.

A red eyed zombie burst from the forest and snarled, his nails curved and especially sharp.

We all screamed, and the bandits vanished into the trees while the rest of us tried in vain to inch away to safety.

We kept screaming, even as the red eyed man relaxed and stopped baring his teeth, looking at us in concern.

"Are any of you hurt?" he asked, his eyes reflecting in the sun.

We were stunned into silence, staring at him, unsure if he was our rescuer or just a different threat.

He waited for an answer but got none. "Okay, since I'm not smelling any blood, I'll go with no." He looked straight at Kami, "You were saying something about a knife?"

She nodded, her mouth dropping open.

The man headed over to our things, and dug out a knife from the wreckage. "If I toss this over, can you free yourselves? I don't want to get too close."

I broke out of my stupor. "Yes, we got it." He tossed the knife to me, and I squirmed around, cutting the cords behind my back, then getting my ankles. I turned to the others and quickly freed them before turning back to the red eyed man. "Thank you," I said.

He shrugged. "It was no problem."

I stayed put, uneasy. "Aren't you a Runner?" I asked cautiously.

The man nodded. "Yes-"

"-But you're sane?"

He smiled at me. "Yes. I see you're not completely unfamiliar with sane zombies. I turned in the first wave, but I've managed to keep my sanity."

Alex piped up. "What's the first wave?"

The zombie looked at him. "The first wave of the sneezing sickness that turned a lot of people. It happened about three months ago. I think that the second wave is about over by now."

Alex nodded, not any less confused. The zombie turned back to me. "So you've met a sane zombie before?"

My eyes glazed over. "Yes. A Nightstalker. The leader of our Stronghold only let her inside to trap her though. I know she was shot, so I'm not sure if she got away."

"I see."

Kami brushed the dirt off her sleeve. "How did you know we were in trouble anyway?"

"I noticed you when you got to the edge of that town back there. We don't get many visitors around here, so I thought I'd keep an eye on you. I noticed that you have a map of the area."

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you mind if I mark the locations of some nearby settlements? I'm sure you'll find that information pretty useful."

I blinked. "Sure. The map is somewhere in my-," I trailed off, remembering the pile of things the bandits had made in the middle of our campsite.

"I'll be quick. I don't want to spook your horses any more than I already have," he motioned to our horses, who the bandits had managed to tie to nearby trees. They did not look happy. "I'm Ivan, by the way."

"Georgia," I replied. "It's a pleasure."

We watched as Ivan dug out our map and a pen and stepped away for us to clean up our things. We had carefully repacked our saddlebags when Ivan carefully passed back my map. "There's a Stronghold on an overpass right down the highway. If you keep going this way, you'll end up straight there." He pointed east.

"Thanks so much." Kami held out some dried meat and a few lollipops. "I don't know if you still eat this sort of thing, but-"

Ivan grinned, his sharp teeth shockingly white. "No, thank you very much! I still have quite the sweet tooth, actually." He cautiously took the gift and headed back into the forest. "Safe travels," he said, and then he disappeared.

We stared into the trees.

"What just happened?" Alex mumbled.

I turned and pulled the others to the horses. "Better get going. We can eat on the road, but we're losing daylight."

I opened up my map once we got moving, and smiled in wonder at all the markings Ivan made. "Look at this," I showed the others. "All of these settlements exist. That means a lot of people survived!" I grinned.