Unfortunate

Chapter 12: Paul

Rita, Cassie and I sat in the back of a semi-truck on this four by six feet bunk bed behind the driver and passenger seat. We sat and we waited.

There were tons of groans and moans coming from outside. The bitters walked forwards towards the place we had just come from and we sat and waited it out. The truck almost shook at one point because of the bitters that kept hitting the sides of the truck unwarily. Rita's leg kept shaking, bouncing up and down in a rhythmic pattern. You could tell she was nervous, maybe even scared.

Her sister tried to keep her calm as she kept shaking. Cassie said soothing words in their language quietly as she tried to keep her sister calm. I took a careful peak outside the front window.

"Holy shit.." I muttered, and Cassie did a quick up down on the bed, looking out as well.

"Man, we're going to be stuck here for a while." She whispered quietly, laying back. Her sister kept shaking.

With every bump, Rita started to shake more. Not even her sister could calm her. She was definitely terrified.

Rita and Cassie were adopted sisters from Africa. Rita was younger, but she was already 24 years old. She had been shy when we first met, but slowly started opening up. She was also more jittery than Cassie, who was 27. Rita had a young face, and Cassie had more sharp features, giving her an edge. She was tough, well built and strong, unlike her younger sister who was more on the skinny and easily scared side. Rita had her natural hair covered by a light red bandana that had black polka dots scattered around it. Cassie had glasses but rarely wore them, saying that it wasn't necessary seeing as she had nothing to read. Her hair was in braids put up into a high ponytail wrapped around itself in a bun.

Hours seemed to pass by. It was a painfully long time in that truck, keeping quiet. We spent that time searching the cabin of the truck for anything useful, but it seemed to have been emptied in a rush. There was the driver's log tucked under the front seat and a mouldy sandwich in a plastic bag. There was a raided first aid kit under the passenger seat, but some gauze and a few bandaids were left that would eventually become useful so I quickly stuffed them into my bag.

I closed my eyes at one point and took in some deep breaths to slow my heart rate. We sat in the truck for what felt like an entire day, when the heard started to slim down. There were only a few stragglers left, but what got me was that these stragglers seemed to be different from the rest. They held themselves higher than the rest, shoulders more back and they stood without a slouch. I watched as they passed by, then looked over at Lisa who looked at me with confusion. These bitters looked well fed and seemed to be more in shape than the others. It was very odd, and we had both obviously never seen anything like them.

I looked ahead again to see that there was only one left straggling behind. This one was slow, and more of the normal type we've seen around. I saw something move from under a car.

It was Karen.

She rolled out from under the car and got up behind the straggler, stabbing a hole through its skull with precision. She was good at that kind of stuff. Karen was our leader, there was no doubt about it. She was fearless and strong, some of the many characteristics that made her amazing.

A scream pulled at my attention. I turned quickly to see that the fit ones we had just seen were banging on Bev and Kye's car windows. They weren't just banging on them. They were actually trying to smash through.

Most of the infected didn't have that kind of strength or put the same amount of effort that these ones were. It was scary to watch. It was almost as if they were smart.

Cassie got up beside me and looked to see where the scream had come from. Rita was practically in tears now, and she was starting to rock back and forth on the bed, holding her knees to her chest.

I looked out at Karen who was crouched against Lisa and Blake's car. Blake got out along with Lisa, so I took the opportunity to get out as well, stretching out my legs as fast as I could. I was careful not to smack my arm on anything while it was in its sling. It should almost be completely healed but I didn't want to chance it for a few days unless I absolutely needed to. My one leg had that numb feeling that sometimes happen when you sit for too long, and my foot was tingly.

Cassie came with me, and just about closed the door on her sister, when she started to freak out.

"Stay inside. I'll be fine." She said, and Cassie and I went over to Lisa's car. We all huddled near the car planning out our move quickly when another scream broke out from Bev.

I half stood up, still crouched behind the cover of the car. One of the fast bitters had broken through the back window and was trying to get inside.

"If we're going to do something, we need to do it now." I said, when I looked back to see Cassie was no longer there. She had taken off towards the bitters, holding her machete in her right hand.

She got up behind one of them and slashed at its neck, its head coming clean off. Surprisingly, the others noticed her and made a sort of growling sounds. They ran at her, catching her off guard when she took off running away from us. Bev and Kye got out of the car, coming back towards us. I stood up and ran after Cassie, along with Karen who ran at my side.

"We need to help her!" I said quietly, but loud enough for Karen to hear over us running together in a pattern. To be completely honest, I was scared. Terrified actually.

Bitters in general were not my favorite subject and these new things had me worried. Especially because they are different from normal. Normal bitters would have been such an easier situation. But this was completely different.

Why did it have to be different?

By the time we thought we had caught up to them, we had only found two things.

One of the fast bitters dead corpse, and blood, lots of blood.

One thing we knew for sure about biters is that they didn't bleed..

The rest of the group caught up to us, and we stood staring down at the dead bitter. Karen took out her hunting knife and cut into its scull, pulling its body over slightly to cover the blood on the ground so the others wouldn't freak out.

"Just in case." She said, and we all looked around.

"Where's Cassie?" Bev questioned and I looked at Karen for help.

"We're not sure. But I think she's gone." She said, her eyes dropping to the dead bitter. She knelt down next to it, poking at it with her machete. I looked at Lisa who was looking back towards the road.

"We should probably go get Rita." I said, walking back towards the road.

"Someone has to tell her. And it's not going to be me." Karen said, then she looked from Blake, to Lisa, to Beverly.

"I'll go." Lisa said, following me towards the road. We walked through a few cars until we reached the truck.

"This is the truck." I said, and looked at Lisa.

Lisa climbed up the metal steps to open the door when I stopped her, grabbing her hand on the handle of the door and squeezing it.

"What?" She questioned and I pointed at the window. There was blood smeared across the inside of the windshield. But it wasn't smeared. It was writing.

I can't do this without her

it read, and before I could open the door, the moan from inside made me back up. Lisa stepped up on the side of the truck and peered into the truck. It was no longer Rita inside the truck, but a mere image of her.

Rita was gone.

All that was left of her was a bitter.