by Lake, D. K.
"What is that?" I spun around and backed into Drew as we hid behind the tree and we spotted the Jeep bouncing through the trees.
"What are they doing in the woods?" I asked.
"Hunting."
"For what? They didn't see us. We ran away before they could."
"Let's go."
Drew led me away and we crept through the trees. A strangled cry filled the air and we both stopped dead still.
"I think that was Josh."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, it definitely sounded like Josh. I think it came from this way." I started to walk in the direction I had heard the cry.
"No, stop!" Drew grabbed my arm.
"We have to go back and help him."
"He said nothing about going back to help him if he got in a mess."
"We can't just leave him back there!"
"Did you do the math? We are outnumbered. If you go back there you'll get killed."
"I'm not leaving him, and we still have to find the others."
I shrugged him off and he tried to grab me again but I twisted away from him and he pulled my bag off my arms and I let him have it.
"Alex! Stop!" he growled.
He dropped my bag and came after me and he was quicker than me and grabbed me around the waist and tried to haul me the other way.
"Drew, stop it!" I struggled against his arms and kicked my legs out until he finally dropped me and I grabbed my bag and took off running.
"Really?!" he called as he chased after me. "Get back here!"
I zig-zagged through the trees but Drew soon caught up with me.
"I told you to stop!" He grabbed my bag again and spun me around and I went to kick him.
"Stop trying to kick me!" He pulled my bag off my shoulders and seized me around the waist and held my arms down. "Calm down."
I stopped struggling, and he rested his chin on my shoulder.
"Stop trying to run away from me."
"Why, so you can drag me away somewhere?"
"Don't give me ideas. I just want you to stop and listen to me for a sec."
"We have to find Josh."
Drew sighed, knowing I wasn't going to back down.
"All right, but if you want me to find your friend then you don't run away from me again unless I tell you to. You listen to me, and you stay by my side and don't do anything without me, you got that?"
"Ok."
"Ok?"
"Ok! Now can we find the others, please?"
He released me and I picked up my bag again. His eyes searched the trees and he nodded his head at me to follow him. He crept ahead of me with his crossbow raised and ducked down behind a tree and I crouched down next to him and looked through the bushes and could see Josh laying on the ground.
"That's Josh!" I was about to jump through the bush when Drew clamped a hand on my shoulder.
"Wait! It could be a trap. And did I say you could move?"
I scowled at him and peeked through the bush.
"I don't see anyone."
"Shh. Wait here. Don't. Move."
Drew quietly left me and ducked behind a tree and was gone. I looked through the bush again and could see Josh squirming around on the ground, holding his leg, and then I noticed he had got his leg stuck in a bear trap and I suddenly remembered the sign I had seen warning about bear traps.
I wanted to crawl over to him but Drew had told me to stay put for a reason. I waited and watched Josh and a second later Drew came back to me and tapped me on the shoulder for me to follow him and we hurried over to Josh. Josh looked up, relieved to see us.
"It's my leg." he winced.
As we got closer I saw just how much damage the trap had done to his leg, slicing off skin and cutting deep, and I could see the bone it was that deep.
"Josh," I went over to him and crouched down behind him and held onto his shoulders while Drew looked at the trap.
"We're gonna have to pry it open." Drew grumbled. "Alex, get over here."
I got up and went over to help, but even with the pair of us it was a struggle to get it to budge, it was old and rusted, and too big.
"It's too stiff. We need something to pry it open." Drew searched for anything to use while Josh tried to stay calm but I could tell he was in a lot of pain, and he was losing too much blood.
"We need to stop the bleeding." I said as a gunshot went off behind us somewhere and echoed through the trees.
I looked at Josh and saw him signaling to Drew.
"Take her!" Josh urged.
"What? No, I'm not leaving you like this!" I said as Drew hooked his arms under mine and lifted me off the ground.
"No, I'm not leaving him." I said firmly but another gunshot went off, this time it sounded even closer, and Drew picked up my bag, and pushed my machete into my hand and took my other hand and dragged me away. I turned back and saw a guy with blacked out eyes walking towards Josh.
"No...Josh!" I breathed, my voice a scared whisper as Drew led me away.
"Put this on." Drew pushed my arms through the bag straps as we moved through the greenery. Another gunshot went off. I had been counting. That made three.
"Drew," I said with tears in my eyes.
"Shh. We're gonna run now, ok?"
I nodded dumbly and held his hand, and we ran as fast as we could while checking for bear traps along the way. Another shot went off in the distance. That made four all together. I didn't know how long we had been running for, the sweat was dripping down my face and I could hardly catch my breath.
"I need-need to stop." I puffed, letting go of Drew's hand and falling against a tree. I dug into my bag and pulled out a water bottle and gulped it down while Drew paced back and forth.
"C'mon, we need to move." He took me by the elbow and made me start walking while I packed the bottle away.
"I heard four shots. Four dead." I mumbled to myself.
"We don't know that." Drew replied.
"Josh is dead." I said, breathing hard.
"He wouldn't have made it anyway, he was losing too much blood." Drew said casually.
Did nothing affect him? Would he be so nonchalant about me if I died?
I felt numb. This was it. There was nowhere to go from here. If the others were dead then what did that mean for the cure?
"I hate this. The blood. The bullets. Always running for our lives. It's never gonna get any better than this is it?" I slowed down.
"I'm not letting you give up that easily." Drew said and reached back and pulled me along with him.
I felt like giving up. Everything all seemed a little pointless without the others. And I didn't want to do this anymore, live like this. Drew put his arm out in front of me and stopped me and I looked up and saw two deadbies.
"Wait." Drew told me, and took the machete from me, and slid his crossbow around so it was on his back, and walked over to them and started slashing the guts out of them. I think he was pissed and using the deadbies as a way to vent his anger. He pretended not to care about anyone else but I didn't believe him, I think losing Josh had got to him, and to a bear trap of all things.
I walked around the trees to where he was waiting for me to catch up to him and as I stepped on some leaves the ground moved, the leaves fluttered and I was suddenly captured in some kind of netted-rope. It lifted me off the ground so quickly and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I swung back and forth, holding onto the rope, looking at Drew down below. I would have used my machete to cut myself free but Drew still had it. The rope was really thick and I was really stuck.
"Don't move." Drew said.
"Where am I going to go?"
"Shut up." Drew replied, knowing how stupid that sounded.
He searched for the rope to cut me down and just as he found it I saw them coming out of the trees in all directions, quietly creeping up on us.
"Drew!" I screamed and he spun around and saw them. We were outnumbered. "Go!" I told him.
"No." he said quietly with his back to me.
"NO!" he barked and raised his crossbow at the nearest guy that was getting closer.
Drew went to take a step back and lost his footing and fired his crossbow at the guy in front just as he was about to speak. The guy looked down at the arrow sticking out of his side. I didn't know whether Drew misfired or whether he missed hitting him in the head. It all turned to chaos after that as they all came at Drew and he tried to fight them off but he didn't stand a chance. One of them knocked Drew on the back of the head and he went down to the ground and didn't get back up again. The rope had stopped swinging and they all looked up at me. I didn't know if Drew was dead or not, but the back of his head was bloody. They all watched me and didn't say anything which made it worse. A few of them gathered around the one with the arrow sticking out of his side, blocking my view of him. One of them hurried over to the tree and used a pickax to cut me down and I fell to the ground with a bump, my bag breaking my fall. I was lucky I didn't break anything, but I think my luck had just run out, I knew this story only had one ending. I left my bag on the ground and got back on my feet and looked at each of them as they studied me. One of them took a step toward me and I dived across the dirt and grabbed the machete and they all backed off but four of them kept eyes on me and circled around me.
I needed to break the circle, and I was about to charge at one of them when I heard Lane calling me. He was still alive. I had to try and get to him. I pretend to make a run to the right but I ducked to the left and under one of them and took off running. I ran as fast as I could, I didn't look back and just kept running in the direction I thought I had heard Lane calling me.
I jumped over a log and saw another one of them running towards me so I changed direction and ran under the drooping trees.
"Stop! Don't go that way!" the guy behind me yelled.
Yeah, right. I thought just as I lost my footing and the ground disappeared underneath me and I was suddenly falling. I fell straight into a large hole that had been dug out, and it reminded me of a grave.
I hit my head on a large tree root that was sticking out the side of the dirt and hit the bottom with a hard thud. My head hurt like hell, and something warm trickled over my face. I tried to open my eyes but everything went a little blurry and then it all went black.
Epilogue
My head hurt before I even opened my eyes. My whole body felt sore. It took me a moment to remember what had happened. I opened my eyes slowly and as my vision cleared I saw a hand-painted sunshine on the roof above my head, with intricate swirls and patterns inside it. I should be dead so why was I still alive? Why had they kept me alive? I heard movement in the room and a second later a shadow covered my face and a girl with big black eyes and a drawn on smile leaned over. She reminded me of the Joker with all the face paint. She smiled widely and showed all her teeth, creeping me out, and the first thing she said to me was, "Welcome to Eden."
To be continued....
Note from the Author.
Sorry for the cliffhanger but I had to do it, but there is still plenty more to come. Book 4 in the Zombie Zovels, Missouri Madness, will also be out in October 2018. I would love some feedback on the book, Amazon reviews, Goodreads rating/reviews...pretty please xx