Almost Surviving

Chapter Three

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Chapter Three: Movement

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Sitting in the corner, elbows pinned to his thighs, Casien puts his head in his hands, Kain lying on the bed dwarfed with four blankets.

Slight wheezing was heard from the unusually still blankets every now and then. Fingers shaking, Casien takes his hands out of his hair and looks straight at them, eyes blank, unfocused. He puffs a terrified breath and stands up to get ready.

Casien is stiff with every movement, not unlike a doll, played with by the gods.

He grabs two prescription bottles one of Ibuprofen and one of Acetaminophen. He takes out one of each and hands them to his brother.

The child's face is pale, sweating profusely, but shivering heavily, teeth clicking. The fever is breaking.

Kain picks up the pills and swallows them both without struggle, quickly looking hopefully up at Casien he speaks quietly.

"I'm fine." He murmurs regretfully.

Casien says nothing and shifts his eyes down. He sits on the bed and mouths 'I love you' eyes tearing up.

Casien reaches for his helmet already dressed in his outdoor clothes and buckles the straps.

Looking at his brother he smiles and closes the guard. He walks towards the door armed with only the knife, and a small backpack filled with two bottles of water, a can of food, and a bag of several lines of rope, made with braided pieces of unmanageable fabric.

All in an even tinier bag, tucked in the small bag. One jar is quickly stashed into the outer bag, filled with bleach the lid of the jar is open and instead, there is a small piece of cheesecloth, that when stashed in the half-open backpack is spilled across the entire inside of the bag.

A burning in the back of Casien's throat causes him to exhale and swallow to try and help the burning.

He opens the door, and shuts it quickly as he locks the door, once again slipping the key under but this time with a silent tear. Looking forward, he shivers and straightens.

The ransacked house is covered in dried blood from being cleared out, some of his own handprints and boot tracks leading towards their room.

There is a pungent rotting smell from every room, a stark difference to their room. A room that burns with the smell of bleach, bothering everything in the vicinity. Armed, knife held with his blade facing towards him.

Casien walks forward. He approaches with cautious footsteps, toward the door straight down the hall that slowly turns into a small empty kitchen and living room.

Back to the farthest wall he slowly turns the handle towards him and pushes it open. There are several groaning sounds heard but none come closer. He waits diligently in complete silence.

The groaning slows to a stop and he slowly creeps out the house, the shadows of the night hiding him as he creeks the door shut again.

The noise of his leather gathers a few of the smaller things but they ignore him when they get closer. Seemingly dismissive of the new, unnatural smell and dark, squared figure.

Casien jimmies himself up a mounted ladder stationed past a window in the backwater apartment. One that used to be there for regular maintenance.

Making only a few noises which are only slightly noticed, he is looked at briefly but ignored once again when they catch a whiff of the horrible smell. Casien shifts up the ladder onto the roof.

Out of sight, he closes the knife, relaxing his hand. He moves his wrist in a circle before sticking the knife into his pocket.

Slinging his bag off his shoulder he rips it open as quickly and quietly as possible. The first bag is filled with only a few waterproof belongings and opens the smaller bag inside, fishing out the makeshift rope.

He quickly rings the rope around his arm. Temporarily tying the end to keep it from falling off.

With one hand on the backpack to keep things from making noise. He puts the hand not on the bag on the branch slightly above him and pulls himself up with practiced ease.

Climbing from the first branch to the branch on the other side, hugging the tree as he moves. Slowly making his way higher towards the mid-range of trees, he climes to the closest branch on the other tree that a dead body is played against.

Flies, ants, and other insects have overtaken the decaying corpse that was too mangled to make out as human, if not for the clotheslining the body.

Most likely, if seen by another person would look like a dead animal of some kind because of how torn apart the body was.

Casien, in response, bows his head slightly and quickness his pace. Unwrapping the rope from his arm he ties it tightly to the branch stretching above him that, on his level, was too far away to climb up.

He squats down as to check if it was stable and when he was sure he squeezes his eyes shut and slowly wraps a hand around the rope.

After pulling himself up with a bit of effort, thankful for the time he learned to tie a climber's knot. He hoists himself onto the branch, taking a while to unite the now tightened knot. He continues this way for a while, quick but careful in his movements.

By the time he reached the small town, it was already midnight, the darkness becoming even more of a shield to him.

Sore and panting quietly he hangs his shoulders low. Before climbing down he dragged out a bottle of water taking a small sip before screwing the lid shut and stuffing everything into their respective places.

Casien slowly slides his way down the tree making it halfway, then sitting for a second to retrieve his knife, opening it, and hooking it in his hand quickly to continue onwards.

As soon as his feet touch the ground he sprints quickly to the edge of town. Slowing down to a small shuffle. He begins to circumvent every group he could see or hear.

When he couldn't see or hear both of them he would speed up a little to save time. He eventually gets to a back street that would connect to the main street, where the pharmacy is located.

Trudging forwards along the path, when there is a building he ducks and slows even more. He circles them checking for groups and for fire escape ladders to climb up.

Eventually, he finds his way to the pharmacy, but the windows are busted open and there are several groups spread throughout the main street. Obviously, there is food otherwise the undead wouldn't join groups like this.

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