360 Days Later

Chapter 4

It was still broad daylight, and it's been hours since we left the house. We didn't know what we would find exactly, all we knew is that we needed to get out of the neighborhood and find someplace better.

"Where are we even going?" Blake asked from the back. He volunteered to walk behind the group so he could see if there's any chance of a zombie attacking us. "We've been walking for 2 hours."

"I'm surprised that watch of yours is still working," Judy said as she panted, feeling already tired from the long walk.

I looked at the map I took from a nearby store in our neighborhood and finally realized that we were already out of the town. "Well, good news and bad news."

"What is it?" Charlotte came behind me and looked at the map as well.

"Well, the good news is that we're out of the town," I explained and turned around to face them with a puzzled face. "The bad news is that we are so definitely lost."

"Great," Max sat down on the ground, chugging a water bottle. "Absolutely fucking great."

"Relax, I'm sure we'll have some shelter," I looked at the map again, trying to find out where we were exactly.

"Relax?" Max said in disbelief. "Clover, it's going to be dark, and if we don't find shelter soon, we'll be good as dead."

"Not with that attitude, we won't," I barked. Max kept quiet, rubbing his forehead. "Just give me a minute."

I scanned the map again and walked a little further, trying to see if the direction of the path I'm going fits the map.

Once I finally knew where we were, I noticed that I walked further away from the group, "Great. Now I have to find a way back to them."

As I retrace my steps, I felt like something was following me. I turned around and saw nothing. I looked around, making sure that I was alone, and when I thought I was, I really wasn't.

I didn't know it was following me until it was too late. As I turned away and started to go back to the path, the thing jumped onto me, making me lose my balance and falling onto the ground.

It dug its finger into my arms, and I screamed in pain. Kicking it away from me, I finally had a good look at the thing that attacked me.

It wasn't a zombie but something else. 'Clicks Clicks.' That's the only sound it makes. It didn't have a face. In fact, the face was like a skull, half opened with what I assumed was fungus sticking out. It had spores all over the body and especially the head.

'Clicks,' the creature didn't have eyes, but it sure as hell knew where I was. It launched onto me, and with my arms still bleeding, I knew I couldn't get out of this situation.

Before it could get to me, I moved to the other side as quickly as possible, making the thing fall. I took out a knife from my bag and stabbed it.

As I took the knife out from the creature, it didn't move. I saw this opportunity to strike at it. I quietly sneaked up behind and stabbed it right through its head. It went in, but that thing was still fucking moving.

I stepped back when the thing turned around, with my knife still in its head. It's long arms stretching out for me. I looked for something, anything that can kill this dead walking bastard.

The thing ran up to me and again, tackled me to the ground. I held it back, it's slimy mouth just inches away from my face. How many times did my face almost get eaten today?

It pushed itself onto me, the slimy substances dropping onto my face. God, it's even stronger than the regular zombies.

I felt my hands getting weaker and weaker. Dammit, if I was going to die like this, make it more peaceful, instead of having my face chewed off by whatever the fuck this shit was. It's disgusting breath crept closer to my face, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the moment to happen. 

That's when something watery splashed onto my face. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a sharp knife pushed through the head of the creature, which was barely touching the brink of my nose. "Are you okay?" Judy's voice spoke out as I peeked to the side only to see the others there.

Blake took the knife out of the creature, and it laid on me lifelessly. I roughly pushed it away from me and crawled backwards, "Thank God, you guys came on time."

"What is that thing?" Charlotte kicked it to the side so we could fully see how these thing look like.

"I don't know, but it's terrifying as fuck," I panted as I looked at my bleeding arms, "do you guys have any bandages or anything to clean this up?"

They all looked at my arms and panicked. "You got hurt?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, it jumped on me and stabbed it's fingers in my arms," I explained. Judy got her backpack out and took out her supplies.

"I got some bandages and rubbing alcohol."

"That's perfect. So while Clover is patching herself up, we can finally talk about where we are going to go and where we are going to stay," Charlotte stated.

"I mean, I don't hear any more of those things, so I guess we have time," Blake sat down on a massive rock while the others made a circle and sat next to each other. I sat next to Judy as she poured the rubbing alcohol onto a cloth, "Not going to lie, this will hurt, like a lot."

"I can handle it, don't worry," I reassured her.

She nodded and gently placed the cloth on my wounds. The stinging and burning sensation came quickly, feeling like little needles were poking me. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

"Hey, Clover, where's that map? Let's see if there's a place we can at least stay," Max asked. I pointed at my bag, and he took out the map. He spread it wide enough for us to all see and laid it on the group. He took a few minutes figuring out where we are and when he did, he placed a small stone on the place we are.

"Okay, so this is us," he showed us. "If you guys have good eyes, we are very far from our hometown, and the next stop we can actually go for shelter and food is the city which is, probably another 2 hours walk from here."

"We can't go into the city, it's too dangerous," Blake said, "we saw how many of them are out there, imagine the city."

"But there is really nowhere to go at this point," I chimed in, "if we want, we could get out of the state, but that itself we would have to pass the city to get to the border."

"Clover, look at what attacked you, it's terrifying and stronger than the regular zombies so who knows how many of those things could be in the city."

"Look at the map, there is literally no other alternatives except the ci- Ow!"

"Sorry!" Judy quickly apologized and continued.

Blake sighed, "Charlotte, what do you think?"

Charlotte didn't answer except stared at the map, her eyes going back and forth, seeming like she was trying to look for another way. Her eyes sparkled when she saw something on the map. "There," she pointed to the picture of an old cabin lodge. "We can stay there for the time being until we figure out what to do."

"Hmm. It's not a bad idea since it's not a long walk either," Max said as he examined the map again.

"What do you say?" Charlotte asked us all. Judy finished applying bandages in my arm and nodded, "I don't mind as long as it's safe."

"Blake? Clover?"

"I mean, it's better than in the city," Blake agreed and stood up, stretching his body, "we better move now since it's' going to be dark soon."

I'm not sure why but I don't feel right about this. Something about this cabin brings bad news. Charlotte placed her hand on my shoulder, "Hey, we need shelter right now."

I sighed and took my things, standing up, "Fine."

"Max, lead the way."