The Dead, The Living and The Broken

Chapter 2: Cabin In The Woods

        Kiara stepped through the door but Damien pulled her back inside and put a finger to his lips, signalling them to be quiet. He looked both ways before carefully stepping outside into the chilly spring air.

        A couple of creatures that looked slightly human were dragging themselves across the ground weakly and others stumbled around lost.The sun was lowering and they didn't have any means of light which meant they had to move quickly before they were left in the cold and dark night.

        “Shouldn’t we help them?” asked Piper.

        Damien shook his head, “They aren’t human anymore, there’s no helping them now.”

        Cassandra was shocked by how quickly the virus seemed to spread, she couldn’t seem to believe this was real and was convinced this was all a dream she was having after dozing off in science class but she wasn’t about to shoot herself to prove her theory.

        They crept around the houses silently looking around corners before continuing, avoiding all the infected.

        Piper had to hold back tears at the sight of the walking corpses with whom she used to previously pass in the halls at school. She glanced back at Cassandra but the girl’s face was a stony mask and staring straight ahead analyzing all the thoughts swirling in her mind.

        Upon seeing two of the undead feeding on a human body, Piper gasped loudly. Swiftly, Damien clasped a hand over her mouth and pulled her behind one of the houses. Erin, Kiara and Cassandra quickly followed them into hiding. The world seemed almost completely silent, the only sound was their heavy breathing.

        Cassandra peered around the corner. “Guys,” she whispered, “there’s two infected coming this way.”

        Erin glanced around the corner and sure enough the two previously feeding corpses were looking in their direction. One of them stood and hobbled towards them. Its hair was long and brown but was streaked with dried blood.

        “On the count of three, we run into the forest, alright?” said Damien.

        The girls all nodded.

        “One,” he said. The zombie was nearly upon them. “Three,” Damien said, skipping two and taking off running.

        They sprinted, leaving the school behind them and entered the darkening forest.

        Damien was ahead of the pack guiding them through all the twists and turns of the woods. The dense forest seemed untouched by the virus, for now. The zombie quickly lost track of them, allowing them to stop running.

        After about 30 minutes, they stepped into a small clearing and viewed the two-story worn out cabin that stood before them. The cabin was falling apart. The roof lacked shingles and small holes were littered across it. The steps were virtually not there considering large parts of the planks were missing. The walls were the only thing that didn’t have holes in them but the exterior logs of wood were falling off.

        Kiara walked towards the door mumbling about how her feet hurt and opened the door before entering the rundown shelter. The rest of the group entered the house going to sit down on an old couch that was pushed against the far wall but became petrified when they heard a voice.

        “Damien!” someone called angrily from the staircase. The source of the voice lumbered down the stairs and came into view, revealing that it was Oliver. “You said one person. You told us you were just going to go find Piper and come back. Instead you bring back four? And they’re all girls! They'll just slow us down.”