Alone

Chapter 8

I woke up after a deep dreamless sleep. The others were already awake, and I could hear them in the next room. That was the best night of sleep that I have gotten in a long time, and I felt like I could do anything in the world with how great I felt. My stomach made a noise so I got up, found a brush on the bed side table, and slowly combed through my hair. God, it's been so long since I have been able to do that.

I slowly opened the door to the room and everyone turned to look at me. No one said a word to me as I walked down the hallway to meet them. Talk about an awkward situation.

"Well good morning Sleeping Beauty," Jack tells me for the second morning in a row.

I ignore him and say hello to the other two. "How'd you sleep? Hope you were comfortable all night," Stacy excitedly says.

"I most definitely was, best sleep of my life," I grinned at her.

"We can't waste too much time here, we have to get going," Luke said, breaking the jovial atmosphere, "Angie, go grab something to eat, we left it out for you. After you're done, you need to get dressed and then we have to leave." Man, he was so blatant.

Without a word, I did as he instructed me to do. Some clothes were laid out for me and a brand new sword. My old one was becoming dull and useless. Underneath all of my clothes was a small handgun. When I was little, before my dad became ill, he used to take my sister and me out to the shooting range and he'd help us as we fired off rounds at random targets. That was far in the past now. I hadn't fired a gun since then.

Suddenly, Jack came in and I jumped at the noise.

"I, uh, dont think that I can use this," I told him, holding the gun out for him to take from me.

Instead, he took my hands and curled my fingers around the gun, and looked me dead in the eyes, "It's for safe measures, it only has one clip in it for emergencies. We've never actually had to use them before, and we try not to because they attract too much attention...but in case something would be to happen, we'll have them."

I reluctantly took the handgun and gently placed it back onto the bed until I was fully ready to go. There's no need to hold that thing longer than I have to. Jack smiles at me, revealing the whitest and brightest smile I have ever seen. He then leaves me to finish getting ready.

"Alright, let's go," I say with as much enthusiasm as I can muster when I enter the main room.

"Oh, thank The Lord!" Luke exclaims. He seemed distracted and edgy today.

The send off wasn't much of anything. Four people stood at the gate to open it and gave us a few more supplies before we left. I sighed as the gates opened. Great, back into the world, I thought to myself.

My feet were still aching and stinging from the open wounds, but I had adapted to being uncomfortable and in pain at all times.

A couple miles out, we found a potential building that the missing three could be holed up in. We unsheathed our weapons and slowly made our way to the front door. As it creaked open, I heard a scurrying noise come from inside.

"Hold up, did you hear that?" I asked, alarmed.

"Probably just a rat, Angie," Luke tried to comfort me, but he looked just about as uneasy as I felt.

The door was pushed open even more by Jack and we snuck inside the house. Even though it wasn't night out, houses and buildings were always a place of caution because that's where the sick ones liked to go during the day. This situation felt all too familiar for me, and I was about to bow out from the mission, and go on my way, when suddenly, there was a low growl from the next room.

We froze. Whatever was in here with us, knew we were there as well. I tried to slow my heart rate and breathing down, but I couldn't. All I could do was stand there until either one of made a move.