The Dead Are Among Us

The ride home

Kaidens POV**

"No Rylie, Dont go to sleep please." I begged, bu I knew it wouldnt be any use, she was losing blood and her brain couldnt keep functioning. She slumped into me almost falling off of her horse, I caught her and pushed her back on, she weekly smiled at me. She closed her eyes and just like that she was out. I pulled her gently off of the horse, making sure I didnt hurt her. I scanned the pitch black woods around us, thankfull that I didnt see or hear any of 'them', Then I grabed one of the large blankets out of the bag that was on my saddle and drapped it over her on the ground. I didnt know much about horses, but I figured if I tied the red one I had previously been on to the black and white one that Rylie was riding, then she would follow him. I secured the bags onto the red horses' saddle, and tied her to the back of the spotted horses' saddle. They stood there calmly as I pulled the shotgun around my shoulder and tucked the pistol into my pants. I carefully picked Rylie up bridal style and put her up in the saddle, I climbed up holding her on with one arm and hoisting myseld up and onto the horses rump behind her. Although it was a lot less comfortable, I had to do it to keep us safe. I held her in one arm and the reins in the other, I wasnt sure how far the house they were in was, but I knew it would take about a day on horsback to get there.

I jerked myself awake, realizing that I was dozing off, it had been nearly four hours since we stopped and it was about to be daybreak. Rylie was still unconciouse and slumped backwards into my chest, giving me a chance to study her for the first time. Her face was soft and tanned but recent bruising began to take its place around her eye and cheek bone, she obviously hadnt let the zombie apocalypse keep her from being outside a lot, her lips were plump and pink, she definatly nailed the pouty look with her long dark eyelashes, her long blonde hair framed her face and fell into large waves swooped to the right side of her chest trailing past her breasts. She was beautiful, I wondered if she had a boyfriend before all this started happening. I also wondered if her and my brother were... intimate. The thought of him being 'affectionate' towards anyone ruled that out, he was a man of few words and fewer signs of emotion, other than anger.

The sun began to peek through the trees warming my skin and beaming off of Rylie's face, her eyes flittered drousily parting only just enough for the sun to cause her to squint. I pulled a half full water bottle out of the small pouch that hung from the saddle and opened it, "Here," I said putting the bottle to her lips, she still leaned into me. "Drink." I said softly. She parted her lips enough for the cool liquid to quinch her thirst. She finished off the bottle and I put it back into the bag, she turned slightly and looked at me, "How long have I slept?" she raspilly managed to ask. "About four hours or so, its fine, we've been moving the whole time." I told her, hoping she wouldnt worry. " You-you held me this whole time?" She asked shakily. "Um.. yeah I didnt want you to fall off, and I was worried you would go into hypothermic shock from the cold." I answered her question. "Thank you." She said turning back to face the path ahead of us.

Rylie's POV**

When I woke up I expected to be laying exactly where we stopped, without a horse, weapons, or food and water. I figured the camp Charlie was running had changed him, but when I regained consiouness from the sun beaming into my eyes, I was warm, wrapped in a blanket, and He was holding me up close to his warm chest, keeping me from freezing. I questioned him if we had rode like this all night, and he gladly said yes, we rode on into the day only stopping for lunch and we rode on into the next night. We had only seen one zombie all day and he had been crawling, missing his entire back half, so we left him to avoid making any noise to attract others. As it grew dark and cold again I began to dread the nightfall, last night we had been lucky to go unsmelled by any zombies, especially as heavily as I was bleeding. I was on my own horse tonight and Kaiden on his, we each had our guns in hand, although my vision was altered by my swollen black eye, I've always been one to shoot with both eyes open, so I should be fine. "Kaiden" I said questioningly, "Yeah?" He said speeding up so he was beside me. "How is your sister?" I asked, not knowing if I was overstepping a boundry of some sort. "She's um... she's, well...pregnant." He frowned, looking at the ground. My mouth hung open in shock, she was promised to be unharmed I thought. "I dont understand, I thought that as long as you stayed she would be unharmed." "Yeah thats what Charlie told me, but he raped her, and so did the guy you killed earlier, he let that man have her for his hard work. But I dont know whos baby it will be, she was so pure, and so inocent. I swear to god if I ever get my hands on Charlie I'll kill him so.. so.. slowly." He said with an evil tone. I rode in shock, I didnt see this side of Kaiden untill now, I didnt really think he could be violent, but I guess it just takes a little more to get him in the killing mood. "Its gonna be okay Kaiden, we're gonna get her out." He just nodded his head and kept silent. About three or four hours into the night, I started to smell smoke. "Do you smell that?" I asked Kaiden as I sniffed the air. "Yeah, its smells like burning flesh." He looked at me with his face twisted up. Someone was burning something or someone, and it wasnt really far away. I heard a low groan infront of us, both horses stopped dead in their tracks. Kaiden looked at me wide eyed, I just stared ahead pulling my pistol out of the hollster on my thigh. I held it firmly in front of me waiting for a visual on the creature. Kaiden mimicked me. Suddenly the zombie burst out of the darkness running at us full speed, his arms were dalgling at his sides like that of a gorilla, I shot once, making a perfect head shot, the monster tumbled to the ground non-moving. There was a moment of complete silence, then several moans rang out in the woods surrounding us, "Go." I mouthed to Kaiden, he wasted no time kicking Dallas into a run, and niether did I. We rode through the dark woods dodging trees only missing them by inches, limbs slapped me in the face and arms, causing pain to shoot through my already injured shoulder. I held on as good as I could, my strength was thinning by the second. Texx jumped a fallen tree jolting me upwards and harshly back down at the landing. As long as I can hold on, I'll live, Kaiden was right on my tail dodging ever tree I dodged. An arm or a decaying face would appear every few feet, it seemed as if they knew we were coming, The smell of the smoke and burning flesh grew thicker in the air the further we went. I could see a glowing light through the trees that seemed to be in an opening. I steadied myself and prepared for an open feild, loosening my grip and muscles, Texx caught me off guard when he lunged into the air over something, and when he landed I tumbled to the ground as he ran, and kept running. Im dead. I thought to myself as I skided to a stop on the ground my whole body throbbed from the new pain. I heard the tromping of Dallas as she lept over the fence as well, only Kaiden didnt loosen his grip, and that saved him his life. I crawled to my hands and knees, reaching for my guns on the ground. "RYLIE!!" Kaiden yelled as he passed me, he struggled to turn Dallas back around to come to me, but he couldnt stop her. "RYILE!! RUN!!" he screamed after me, he was helpless in helping me. I pulled the shotgun out from around my back with my good arm and held it western stlye with it tucked into my right side, finger on the trigger. I tried crawling to my feet but it was no use, something was wrong with my right leg. I scooted back from the fence and readied myself to shoot, or die. The shufling of feet clumsily running through the woods sounded like a heard of wild hogs, but this was far worse. I got a visual on two zombies, steadied my shakey hand a shot, killing them both, headshots. I loaded my gun again and shot twice at one zombie, wasted the first on on his throat. I heard them still coming, lots of them, I didnt have enough ammo for this. Seven zombies came into veiw, I pulled out my pistole and fired all eight shots, dropping the discusting creatures in their tracks. I began to crawl backwards, loading my guns at the same time. about a dozen showed up this time, running into the barbed wire fence when I didnt kill them all in time, there were five still standing, running aimlessly into the fence. They couldnt climb? they werent smart enough to go under or over? This was very helpfull. I killed the remaining zombies, leaving me three more shotgun shells, and five bullets for my pistole. "Shit" I said under my breath as I loaded my weapons for what would be the last time I got to load them. Seventeen Zombies ran from the woods smashing into the fence, ripping their skin even more than it already was, I shot my last seven shots carfully, making sure not to waste any on bad shots. I crawled backwards leaving my useless weapons behind, I crawled quickly as the stupid zombies clawed toward me from the over the fence, but they couldnt get through it. I fell backwards onto the ground breathing heavily, I was exhausted. "This night couldnt get any better" I said to myself sarcastically. Then a moan echoed from behind me. "Fuck." I said wishing that I hand'nt complained about anything just yet. I sat up the best I could and turned slowly, A huge zombie stumbled towards me, along with three others. They were about a hundred yards away, but I was already dead. I wished I had kep a bullet to use on myself. The monsters slowly stumbled towards me, two men zombies and a big woman zombie. They gained on me as I crawled sideways parallell with the fence. Then I heard it, a horse running. My eyes shot through the darkness focusing on a black and white horse running towards me with Kaiden on his back, I didnt really understand, why would he be on Texx? My attention was drawn to the three zombies who were now within throwning distance, just before the large on could grab for me a shot cut through his mushy head, piling him on the ground in a heap, then two more shots killed the others. My insides churned with nausea as I noticed just why my leg wouldnt work, it was hyperextended at the knee joint (inside out). "Rylie, Hold on for me okay?" Kaiden said in a deep voice. He jumped off the horse and scooped me into his arms, my leg dangling, "FUCK!" I yelled in pain. Tears blurred my eyes and I just couldnt conroll the pain anymore. My eyes flutted opened and closed, My vision had the same black speckles in it as my head tilted back limply. A pair of icey blue eyes met mine as I was carried, "Dawson?" I said, unable to pick my head back up fully. "Yeah its me, Im here. Your safe now." He said calmly, and that was all I needed to know before slipping back into the antagonizing dark painfilled sleep.