Unfortunate

Chapter 16: Lisa

There were a few bitters wandering about on my old street. We kept in a tight group to make sure nothing could surprise us as we passed my old neighbor's houses. The first car we came across was a little red firefly, with a bitter trapped inside by its seat belt. It kept trying to get out of the seat and get up, but it was starting to tear into its own skin.

The street had four cars sat dead on the street and I assumed they had already been emptied by some passerby's. About 15 bitters were scattered around empty drive ways. There were probably more on the insides of abandoned houses which was why we didn't bother at the moment to check the other houses; it would be waste of time.

I myself wouldn't dare go into any of the other houses unless I absolutely had to. If I was starving and had no food or no way of getting food, that would be the only time I would force myself to search someone else's house. It would just be weird and smell really bad if anyone or anything had ended up dying in one of them. I would rather not chance it if I didn't have to.

Paul took up the rear, and I led with Karen. Blake walked behind me, then Bev and Kye, searching for any movements coming towards us. I could feel Blake's hand on my back for a brief moment, but didn't worry about it too much.

We kept walking, a few bitters taking notice of us. They started to follow us slowly, obviously not having eaten anything in a long time. They were wandering along, stumbling over any objects in their way. Most of them were dragging their feet because their mobility had been reduced to shambling. Karen had explained that to us once when we were walking. It was another thing that they had learned during the creation of these things.

One of the bitters in particular looked familiar. I think she used to be my neighbor, Annie. The day it happened, she must have been wearing a nice light pink flowery dress, which was now stained with mud and old blood. Some of her hair looked like it had been torn out from when she was bitten to the point she turned. Half of her face was missing as well, though you could still tell who she was and used to be. Annie had been kind, and she did not deserved this. No one deserved this.

"How far?" Karen questioned and I pointed ahead then stopped, letting them pass me. I looked at Annie and sighed, going over to her. I could not leave her like this. There was no way it was right to leave the ones who you knew like this. She noticed me and growled, limping forwards. She had also been wearing a pair of  red three inch heals, and she must have broken her ankle at one point, the bone sticking out to the side. Karen and the others continued as I put her down, laying her nicely on the ground, folding her arms on her chest like someone would for a funeral.

I stepped back, my gaze focused on the body on the ground for a few moments, then turned and jogged back towards the group to catch up with them. It made me think of the way my family went, and I shook my head to keep the focus back on the situation at hand.

I had to find Taylor.

We turned the corner and went onto the school's street when I stopped the group.

Karen swore under her breath, which would have been almost impossible to hear if it wasn't so quiet. Bev gasped when she looked at the school, and Paul made his way to the front of the group when he looked ahead and almost threw up. He turned away and gagged. He leaned forwards to place his hands on his knees as he began to wheeze and cough.

In the not-so-far-away school yard, there was a pile of dead bodies piled against the chain link fence around the school. When I mean piled, I mean that the bodies were almost falling over the other side onto the sidewalk, and they were piled up all around the fence. The entire school border that was the fence had a second fence made out of the dead, all around the school yard. I started forwards when Karen put a hand on my shoulder stopping me.