Kids Just Want To Survive

Chapter Nine

Rachel

After a loud shout of swearing coming from my father's voice, I am woken from my uncomfortable sleep. I turn to my side and see that Matt hasn't woken up yet. I decide not to wake him. Judging from the darkness I see outside it must still be early in the morning. After getting up and following my father's cursing I find him outside with Lee. By the looks of things, my dad is seriously pissed.

As I approach my father and Lee my dad lets out a kick against the minibus which he moved away from the shops' door.

"Woah dad whats going on?" I ask.

When he notices I'm there he seems to relax. He forces a smile.

"Morning sweetie, this piece of crap won't start that's all," he answers. I can hear the tension in his voice and I suddenly understand why. My father knew that we had to get out of populated areas like the cities but he didn't have a specific place in mind, only a general area. Now with the bus not working, that was going to cause a lot of problems.

"What about the other car?" I ask hopefully.

This time Lee answers.

"No good either. The engine is completely done. I tried my best to work on it but nothing gets it running," he says while running his fingers through his hair.

He still has his husky morning voice and his hair is messy but it looks amazing. The rough dark stubble on his face makes him look even better so I'm glad he didn't shave when he had the opportunity.

"I don't think there's anything we can do now," my father says. He's tired now and I think Lee notices this because what he says next surprises me.

"Uncle Eric, why don't we go ahead and see if there isn't a place where we can stay for all of us, we cant keep staying at the petrol station," he says, determined.

"Who's we?" my father asks.

"Well uh, I dunno maybe say Matt, Rachel, and I. We could go ahead and look for a place and if we find something then we'll come back and lead the way," he replies.

"I dunt know," my father's comments doubtfully.

Before I stop myself I'm on board with Lee's idea.

"Dad we'll be fine. And while we go out looking for something everyone can take some time to get some much-needed rest," I say, making a case for Lee's idea.

After a few moments of my father thinking in silence, he finally agrees and I go and wake up Matt and then the three of us start getting ready for a long walk.

Lee

We've been walking for a while now. The road ahead has stopped and turned into a dusty gravel path. Wherever Uncle Eric was headed it sure was far away. He told me he had a place in mind but he never shared where it was exactly.

While we're walking Matt and Rachel are busy yapping away about some karate moves they would use against a zombie. I can hear that they are joking, thankfully, from the lightness in their voices. I can appreciate a bit of light-hearted talk with all the hectic things going on right now.

"Let's take a break, yeah?" I say.

"Agreed we've been walking for ages!" agrees Rachel and she dramatically sits down on the huge boulder.

I smile and nod my head. She's not wrong. We started walking around five-thirty in the morning and its almost five in the afternoon now. While we sit at the top of the hill overlooking the rest of the mountainous valley we sit down and drink a bit of water and take a bite of our chocolate bars. When you're hungry and have been hiking all day, a chocolate bar tastes better than it should.

Suddenly we hear the bushes shuffle behind us and out of the bushes comes a small boy. He must be about ten or eleven years old but he looks very calm.

"Hello, I'm Johnny," he says while approaching me and holding out his hand to shake it,

A bit confused at first I take his hand and shake it. Rachel and Matt are watching the kid with wide eyes. Even though they are obviously staring he goes to both of them, introducing himself and shaking their hands.

"What are you doing here?" I finally manage to ask.

He shrugs his shoulders and answers," I was just going for a walk."

"How old are you?" Matt asks.

"Ten turning eleven," the strange kid replies.

"Where are your parents Johnny?" Rachel asks concerned.

"I dunno," he says and shrugs his shoulders

After a moment of awkward silence, he talks again.

"You guys want a place to rest? You look exhausted," he offers.

I take a moment to consider what our next course of action is. Soon it will be sundown and we don't have a place to stay at the moment. I decided right there that we follow this little boy.

"Please, lead the way Johnny," I say.

He looks pleased with my response. How long has this kid been out here alone? A part of me doesn't even want to know the answer.

****

After about thirty minutes of walking, we arrive at a little farm. There are wide spaces of open land and a big house there too. During the walk, the little boy started talking. He's a cheerful little kid and he seems to grow more and more excited to have some people over.

We step on to the porch with the boy still leading the way. Out of nowhere one of the monsters attack and take a huge bite out of little Johnny's neck. He shrieking fills every part of the land. The sound, what a horrific sound. He was going to turn eleven.

Finally, after fighting the zombie off we turn to Johnny. Within a matter of seconds, he's gone. Matt tried to stop the bleeding but we all knew that wouldn't help anyway. Once he's gone we make sure he's dead and won't wake up as one of them again.

Then we enter the house. For some reason, I have a sense of guilt. Maybe if he didn't find us he wouldn't die, but I try and shake it off.

"The house is a mess," Matt says.

"Yeah we're gonna have to clean it up," replies Rachel.

After looking around the house we slowly start clearing up all the rubbish lying on the floor.

"I'm going back to Uncle Eric. They should know we found a place," he says.

"You can't go out there alone," I protest.

"I'll be fine Lee really. Plus I found a motorcycle in the garage while you guys were checking out the house. It has enough fuel," he replies.

Rachel goes over and gives him a hug, "Be safe," she whispers in his ear. He looks over to me. He looks more hopeful than before.

"Be careful Matt," I wish him.

Soon he rides out into the night while Rachel and I watch him go.