Unfortunate

Chapter 4: Blake

The bright blue sky above was clear, not a cloud in sight. The sun beamed down, beads of sweats slowly trikeling down my forehead. Nothing beats the heat on these days, especially when potable water wasn't as easily accessible as it used to be.

The trailer park was well fenced in, the wooden posts standing around eight feet tall, keeping anything from getting to the trailers inside. The front gate was on wheels and was slightly open to get the vehicles in and out of here in case of an emergency. 

I walked around the border of the trailer park, patiently waiting for Lisa to return. I gazed up at the sun, squinting my eyes. Judging by how far the sun had moved from last seeing her, she's been gone for at least two hours. Where could she be? She said she'd be back within the hour. I always worry about her for some reason, not like she needs it. Lisa is pretty headstrong and does whatever she wants; she'd make a great leader someday.

I should have gone with her. Something inside me tells me that she's ok, but all I can do is worry for her safety. The wind blew softly, rustling the leaves in the trees along the border of the park. A few slow ones stood outside the park, banging on the fence boards. Some of the dead were slower than others, and none of us were too sure what the cause of that is. Jack thinks it could be caused by any dieseases anyone had previously before dying, which is as good a guess as anyone. Most of them could still run at a jogging pace, but they did eventually slow down due to the endless hunger eating at their insides. I guessed that the hungrier they were, the slower they became because of not having enough energy to run. But who knows.

I climbed to the top of an old trailer and knelt down. I watched the people in my group from above, assuring that everyone was safe and accounted for. 

Jack was leaning against the hood of his car, his hands placed down on the map as he studied the area. His glasses were at the tip of his nose as he traced a few things onto the map. Cindy and Bev were sitting near the edge of the campground next to a stream that ran through most of the place. They seemed to be chatting about something to do with the stream. Maggy sat a few campers away, taking stock of the little amount of food that we had left since we last stocked up. I looked up at the sun again; the group will be moving on soon. I hope she makes it back in time. If she doesn't, I think I'll stay for another hour and wait for her. Even if we're not with the group for a while, we'll find them again. We always do.

I had left the group for a whole day once, which to some may not seem like a long time. A day in this world, unlike the old world, anything could happen. I had found the group again; it wasn't that hard. They leave spray painted clues on landmarks about where they're going and where they've been. We started to do that in the beginning in case there were still other survivors out there. Now we do it just in case someone from the group gets lost. I mean, it's not that easy to get lost anymore, but if we get separated again, finding the group isn't too hard.

Lisa, Beverly and I had been separated from the group for a few days because of a herd of undead; they had separated us that day and we almost lost everyone. Ex-Corporal Andrew was as dumb as a doorknob. He killed Bev's younger brother Hunter without hesitation when he coughed.

And not quietly. He shot the little boy in the head in the middle of an empty street. He had no remorse for Bev's mother either. That's when the herd had found us. Any kind of sound seems to attract them. The once quiet, abandoned street swarmed with them within seconds. Lisa had grabbed Bev by the arm and started running up the street and I swiftly followed along on their tail.

Cindy, Maggy and Jack had grouped together as well, running in the opposite direction. Bev had been so scared, I mean she had just lost her younger brother and her mother in such a short time.

They had gotten separated, and Bev ended up with us. Her mom got separated from everyone else as well, and the hoard of infected went straight for her. I watched it happen. She had picked her son's body up off the ground and was struggled to run with him. If she would have just left his body, she would have made it. But she refused to leave him behind, and he was too heavy for her to carry. When she finally gave up on carrying him, it was already too late. She was cornered. She was surrounded to the point where I could no longer see her, but I could hear her desperate screams until it fell into a faint gurgling. I shuddered at the memory, shaking free my shivers.

Bev had no idea what had happened, and I knew I had to tell her. Once we were safe at an empty street, I sat her down at a bus stop, held her fragile hands in mine, and told her what had happened. I knew I couldn't hide it from her; she needed to know and would have found out one way or another. I decided it was better now than find her body later. She didn't cry. She didn't move. Lisa went to console her but she wouldn't even look at her. She just stared at me for a minute, then got up and walked away. I knew then I probably shouldn't have told her, but keeping it from her would have felt even worse.

Lisa had given me a solemn look and put her hands on my shoulders for a couple seconds. She squeezed them slightly and then went to follow Bev who wandered aimlessly. Poor girl, having to go through all of this in such a short time, at such a young age.

We had run for a while after that, avoiding the dead in the area as we tried to find the rest of the group after the heard cleared out of the area. After about a day of looking and almost giving up all hope of finding them alive, we found the ones who were left. We went back to where it had all went down and we had only found the remains of Bev's mother. There wasn't really much left of her, she had been torn up into pieces and the stuff that was left on the ground were the parts of her they weren't hungry for. I tried to hold Bev back from seeing her mother like this, but I failed when she punched me in the groin and she pushed past me.

That's when Beverly lost her sanity. She had run off crying. We chased after her but she somehow evaded us. Hours later, we had found her in a house where she was sitting in a corner crying. From the looks of it, it could have been her old house. She was in a light pink bedroom, clutching a small teddy bear as she sobbed quietly, staring into space. I had sat down next to her, and she threw her arms around me, crying into my shoulder. Tears welled in my eyes. The world was so messed up, and she was so young. I could barely handle this, I couldn't even begin to imagine how she felt.

"I'm all alone now. I have no one left. My family is all gone." She whispered between sobs. Lisa walked into the room, helping Bev up so she could give her a hug. We all spent the night at Bev's old house, Lisa and I taking turns on watch as we let the others sleep and Bev grieve. We then went out the next day to look for the rest of the group for closure.

We found the remains of our old group, then we decided to burn them, to have sort of a little funeral. We then moved out of the city, realizing it was no longer safe. 

Nowhere was safe.