Gym Socks

Chapter 22

(Sorry to have kept y'all waiting, I was busy af with school, now on to the chapter)

The sun finally sets and now for our great escape. I travel light, just a knife, a gun, and some extra clothes. Mark is already waiting by the door for me impatiently he carries nothing with him he just wears his hood over his head covering his eyes. A usual habit of his, I swing my bag over my shoulder as he towers over me.

"Ready?" I ask as he gives a simple nod. We run out of the door and into the fresh air, something about it is... freeing. I run as fast as I can with Mark slightly behind to the gates. I use bolt cutters to get through it and once again we run. We make it a mile up the road and stop to catch our breath. I debate on taking a vehicle, but Mark objects to it. He's probably right, we don't want to leave any trace of us behind. We just want to be gone, swept with the wind. I agree with him, especially once I see how beautiful the night is. Stars fill the sky, there's not a cloud in sight. It's a bit of a cool night but not cold enough to freeze as we walk. We walk for what feels like days but really has to have been a couple of hours. Mark watches the moon, where it is in the sky, to keep track of time. He's smart like that.

We walk past a stream where we stop to drink not even worrying about if it's contaminated or not. This is survival, you take the risks. We decide to camp out for the night setting up a small fire. Mark retreats into the woods to hunt, some animals are more active at night. And for those that aren't, they are easier to catch asleep. I stay back and make sure the fire stays burning. I can feel the temperature dropping and we will be sleeping on the ground so this fire burning is pretty important for us tonight.

I begin to boil the remaining water just to be sure it's clean. We still haven't decided where we are going, but we'll know it when we get there.

Mark returns with a dead snake, I honestly didn't even know that there were snakes in this area. He skins it as I begin to cook it. I'm almost surprised when I see him pocket the skin, but I guess nothing should go to waste these days.

Silence is common between the two of us. It's not the awkward unsettling kind of silence, it's the kind of silence you find when you're at peace. It's almost comforting. It's funny, a couple years ago I was worried about sports, school dances, boys. I never would've guessed I would have ended up in the middle of the end of the damn world eating skinned snake with some stranger. Never guessed I'd be running away from my gym teacher. Or that he would be some cold hearted, sex driven, bat-wielding murderer. Okay... well maybe I would've guessed the sex driven part. But that's the thing about life I guess. It's unpredictable.

The night drifts on I stand to my feet and string up some cans. I wrap them around some trees so we can hear if the dead ones are coming. I lay back down and get lost in my thoughts as I stare at the stars. Eventually sleep overcomes me.

I'm awakened to someone kicking me in the side, I open my eyes and immediately squint at the brightness. It's not quite sunny out yet, in fact the sky is still kind of dark. I then hear rattling coming from the cans.

Mark stands above me pointing to the few stray dead ones headed our way. I stand to my feet and reach for my knife. I take a few of them down with ease but then suddenly there is just more and more coming.

"We can't take all of these." I say having an unsure feeling as five or ten more appear. We make a break for the opposite direction to try to lure them away. I keep eye contact with Mark the entire way so we don't lose sight of each other but it is then something, or someone, reaches out and grabs me from behind a tree.

Hmmm... predictions, predictions anyone? Who do you think grabbed Brooke? The next chapter or the chapter after that will probably be the end of the story! But fear not because there may be a sequel in the future.