by Pero, Sara
Chapter 5:
Kevin woke up in a place he didn`t recognize, his arms and legs were tied to posts. Last thing he remembered was watching the horde surround Veronica and the baby in the truck. He hoped they had escaped somehow, Kevin wiggled his hand free from the ropes and began to work on the other ties. After he got free Kevin snuck out of the room and tried to find a way out. Kevin crawled past a guy who was sleeping on a chair close to the room he had been held captive. Once he snuck past the guard Kevin started heading for the front door his hand reached for the handle, a voice rang out behind him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Kevin spun around to see the barrel of a gun pointed straight at him the man yelled “open that door and you could kill us all.” Kevin slowly lifted his hand away from the handle, “I just want to try and get back to my friends, I meant no harm.” The man at the other end of the gun slowly pointed the barrel toward the floor, “I`m sorry about your friends but we can`t go out there right now, there`s a crap ton of rotter`s surrounding this place. I lost a lot of men getting to you, we brought you back here and patched up your wounds. As a precaution I ordered for you to be tied just incase your wounds were from the rotters. You`ve been out for a few days now, I was starting to get worried that you wouldn`t wake up.” Kevin walked back into the room with the other guy and sat down on the couch, the sleeping guard awoke and began to apologize to his friend for passing out and allowing Kevin to sneak pass him. Kevin listened to them talk for a minute before he interrupted and asked “The girl that was with me, did she make it out safely.” The two men shook their heads and replied “we never saw anyone else there with you, when we found you all the others were either gone or killed.” Kevin bowed his head, “what about the baby, was she anywhere around?” Again the two men shook their heads, “if there was a baby anywhere near the motel I didn`t see any of it left.” Kevin began to tear up, Veronica and the baby had possibly been killed and it was all his fault. If he had only gotten to them sooner they might still be alive. At least Britney and the others had gotten out safe, or so he hoped. Kevin asked them about themselves, “Where do you guys hail from? How long have you been hold up here?” The one guy told him they were from Idaho, they headed south after the rotters ripped through their town. “There were ten of us all together, but our group dwindled down to nothing during our travels. The rotter population has way outnumbered the human race by the millions.” Kevin understood what they meant, his whole town was wiped out in a matter of hours once the first case appeared. He remembered that day like it happened yesterday, he and George had been out hunting ducks in the swamp behind the cabin they had hung out in since they were teenagers, he had just shot a mallard when Britney had called in a panic. So many people had lost their lives that day. He could still hear all the kids screaming at the college as the rotters were ripping their bodies apart, the way the one girl looked as her body got ripped in half by a fast moving truck. Those were images he wished he could erase from his mind. Suddenly a rotter busted through a window behind the guard, glass shattered falling to the floor below. Kevin reached for his sidearm that was no longer hanging from his belt, the rotter grabbed on to the guard tearing his Adams apple from his throat. The guards rifle fell to the floor, Kevin bent down to reach for it. The guard’s body plopped next to him, gasping for air. The other guy shot the rotter hanging in the window, he aimed the rifle at his friend who had now turned. The guy couldn`t shoot, he stood there crying. Kevin lifted up his rifle and shot, the rotter`s face exploded into the other guy`s face. Blood and brain matter covered the man, Kevin stood up and grabbed his new friend, “we need to get away from here before more of those things bust in here.” They ran toward the front door but half way to the exit the guy stopped, “there`s a trunk full of weapons in the kitchen, we should grab what we can and head to the truck in the garage.” Kevin followed him into the kitchen, they opened the trunk by the fridge. Kevin`s eyes widened when he saw the arsenal of weaponry stuffed into the small trunk. “Let’s just grab the whole trunk and get the hell out of here.” Each man grabbed a side of the trunk and headed toward the garage door, the rotters had busted through the front door and were wandering through the house. Kevin closed the door to the garage and helped load the trunk into back end of the truck. Kevin hopped in and started it up, as soon as the other guy got in they took off busting through the garage door. Wood splintered and crashed to the ground leaving a trail behind the trk as they drove off. They headed toward the east, Kevin figured they might meet up with Britney and the rest somewhere along the way.
Chapter 6:
George and Greg had removed a door from one of the rooms and replaced the front door the horse had smashed in, outside they could hear wolves howling. Britney, Jennifer and Veronica had boarded up the windows with anything they could find, the howling got closer. This was the last thing they needed, rotter wolves heading their way, the guys moved stuff in front of the doors to block any of them from getting inside. Tina and Trent searched the house for weapons, they knew their father had always had a stash of guns hidden somewhere. Trent was about to give up when he stepped on a board that sounded different from the rest, he knelt down and pulled up on the board. Underneath he found a bunch of guns stashed away, he pulled everything out. Underneath the guns and ammunition was a note, Trent read the note from his father “Trent and Tina, if you’re reading this that means the world has gone to shit and you made your way home, your mother and I have gone to our bug out spot, you know where we are. We love you and are very proud of both of you. Mom and Dad.” Trent crumpled up the note and hid it in his pocket. He took the guns out to the others, “told you my parents had a stash of guns hidden somewhere around here.” George patted Trent on the back, “good job son now everyone grab a firearm, if we are going to make it through the night we need some kind of protection. We will all stay here in the front room, the fire should keep us warm, and we have plenty of blankets. We will watch in shifts, Greg and I will take first watch, Jen and Britney take second watch, Bruce and Trent get third. If we do this right we’ll be out of here in no time.” Greg was in the kitchen looking out the Crack between two boards when he heard a wolf howling, it sounded like it was underneath the window. A fast moving shadow ran in front of him. He walked out of the kitchen, around sleeping bodies over to George. “Those wolves are right outside the house, I don’t know how long it will be before they decide to try and break through somewhere.” George grinned, “Wolves are smart, they wait until you’re at your most vulnerable before they make their final strike. They surround their prey and once it has nowhere else to go that’s when they make their move.” Greg started to panic, “well we are cornered with nowhere else to go.” George tried to calm him, “they can smell fear brother. We have to make them think we have the upper hand. Besides we have protection, all they have is teeth and claws, we’ve been through worse. Now stay at your post, we have a lot of people we need to protect.” Greg nodded and puffed out his chest, “your right this is no time to panic.” Suddenly they heard a deep heavy roar, both men ran to the window to look out the crack. They saw the wolves scurry off into the trees, a huge shadow slowly walked passed them. At a closer glance George made out the figure of a grizzly, it`s skin was falling off it`s ribs. The bear turned and looked toward the cabin, its jaw was torn in half and barely hanging on to its skull. Flesh was hanging from its neck and chest, its left eye hanging by the nerve from its socket. “Greg, I think we are in deep shit now. A few wolves we can handle but a blood thirsty grizzly I’m not so sure about”.
Chapter 7:
Kevin saw the motor home sitting by the side of the road, he slammed on his breaks and his passenger woke up from his slumber, “what’s going on?” Kevin opened his door, “that’s my friends motor home, something must have happened.” Both men walked around the motor home, trying not to kick the bodies on the ground. He saw the tire in the ditch along with the arm, “they must have gotten a flat and judging by the look of things they were attacked.” Kevin
checked the bodies, “I don’t recognize any of these people that means they are still alive. Look there are tracks, someone saved them.” Kevin grabbed the guys arm and pulled, “come on they are heading this way, and if we hurry we might be able to catch up with them, let’s go.” They hopped back into the truck and sped off. Soon they came to the crash scene, Kevin glanced around, and realized they kept going from here. They drove on, if they’ve stopped anywhere for a rest we should catch up to them real soon, I hope Britney is okay. They drove on into the night, Kevin noticed a few tracks go off onto a dirt road, he turned to follow. His passenger looked at him funny, “I thought we were trying to find your friends not go for a joy ride.” Kevin huffed, “these tracks could be them, I wanted to find out for sure.” They continued on, outside Kevin could hear howling. He hit the accelerator, “someone is down here, even if it’s not my friends we can still help.” “Hear those howls, those are wolves, and they are talking to each other.” The guy looked at Kevin, we are going to have to fight off wolves now? In the distance Kevin saw a house, the windows looked boarded up but there was smoke coming from the chimney. He stopped the truck, “There, whoever is inside that house is trapped, let’s grab some rifles and go in by foot. Whatever is out here we might be able to take it by surprise.” They got out of the truck and walked to the back, Kevin grabbed the biggest caliber he could find and loaded it. “We need to be ready for anything, whatever has them trapped could be anywhere.” They walked slowly toward the house, on the porch laid the body of the horse. As they approached Kevin heard a deep growl from behind, both men turned to see a large rotter mutated grizzly standing on its hind legs ready to strike. Kevin aimed but the bear knocked his rifle out of his hands and pushing him to the side, it charged at Kevin’s friend as Kevin’s friend shot. The bear grabbed hold of him. Its large teeth penetrated through his clothing, ripping apart his skin from his chest. Ribs were showing, blood spilled and splattered onto the ground. The bear’s claws ripping at his body, Kevin watched the bear tear the skin off his friends face with its sharp teeth, his skull showing through, the bear continued to mutilate his friend. Kevin picked up his gun and aimed for the bears head, he only had one good shot to make otherwise the bear would turn on him. Kevin pulled the trigger, the bullet entered the bear’s skull behind it ear, and the bear’s body dropped squishing the guy’s corpse beneath it. Kevin slowly walked up to the bears body, it’s rotting flesh looked and smelled horrible, to make sure the bear was completely dead Kevin loaded another round into the chamber, he put the barrel of the rifle onto the bears skull and shot. The bullet penetrated, and the bear’s skull exploded. Kevin turned when he heard a noise behind him, his rifle ready to fire again. “Kevin? Kevin is that really you?” George ran down the steps and rushed over to Kevin, the two men hugged. “We thought you were dead, Veronica said she watched a horde of rotter’s engulf you.” Kevin grabbed George, “Veronica is still alive? Is the baby okay? Where’s Britney?” George tugged Kevin toward the cottage, “everyone is fine, let’s get inside before those wolves come back.” Kevin stopped. “ I have guns and ammo in the truck.” A howl rang out near them. George grabbed Kevin, “we don’t have for that now get to the house.” They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, Greg shut the door and moved the couch in front of the door as soon as they entered. The two men caught their breath, Kevin hugged Greg, “it’s good to see you brother.” George looked out the crack in the window, the huge body of the bear was now being ripped apart by the wolf pack. Kevin sat down, “let’s take a rest for the night, we can fight the wolves in the morning and get the hell out of this place. That bear took a lot out of me, we can get a fresh start in the morning.” Greg and George kept their visual over everyone, Britney woke up to start her shift, when she stood up she noticed someone sleeping on the couch, at first she thought Greg or George had passed out on the job. She walked over to the sleeping man who had his body buried underneath a blanket, she kicked his butt causing him to grunt, “couldn’t wait till my shift started before you got lazy huh, what’s wrong with you.” She gave another swift kick, the sleeping person fell to the floor. “Can’t a man get any sleep around here” Kevin said as he sat up, Britney gasped as she saw her brother jump up out of his covers. “Kevin, you’re alive!” She jumped on him. “Veronica thought you had been killed back at the motel. How did you find us?” Kevin smiled, “I followed your tracks, I wasn’t sure it was you guys at first until I saw George.” They sat up and talked for hours, Kevin told her about the people that saved him and how the other guy got eaten by the grizzly. Britney hugged Kevin again, “we’ll as long as your safe and we are all together again that’s all that matters.” The next morning everyone got ready to leave, Kevin and George made sure everyone had their guns loaded and ready to go. Veronica held tightly to Sunshine, Britney and Jennifer surrounded her. You all know the plan, run as fast as you can toward the trucks, and don’t stop for anything. If a wolf starts heading your way aim for the head as best you can. Kevin kicked open the door as everyone started running for the trucks. The wolves started howling and running toward them as they booked it for the trucks. George shot, hitting a wolf in the front leg, it feel over smashing into a bush. The rest of the pack was hot on their trail, Bruce shot at the alpha missing its head by inches. The wolves ran faster, barking and growling as they inched closer. Greg reached a truck and started the engine, he drove toward the girls who were being closely followed by a couple wolves. Greg smashed into one wolf, and stopped. The girls hopped into the back and Greg took off. He rammed a few more wolves with the grill of the truck, the rest of the group reached the other trucks and they were off, leaving the wolves behind. George looked back but only saw a couple wolves, the alpha and a few others were nowhere in site. Suddenly the truck got rammed, one of the wolves had ran full speed into the side of the truck causing it to swerve toward a tree. George tried to correct but he didn’t have time, the truck slammed into the tree trunk. Kevin flipped around and drove back to George, when he got closer the alpha was trying to crawl into the cab. George was knocked out, the blow from the truck smashing into the tree caused him to smash his head onto the steering wheel knocking him unconscious. He didn’t know there was a large, snarling, hungry wolf drooling and snapping inches from his face. Kevin stopped his truck and aimed his revolver, he hoped he wouldn’t hit George. He squeezed the trigger and the wolf yelped, its huge body slumped over. Kevin hopped out of his truck while Yuri and Ahmed kept watch, Kevin ran to George and removed the wolf from his window. He pulled George from the truck and carried him back to Yuri and Ahmed. They stuffed him in the cab and hopped inside, Kevin sped off to catch up with the rest. In his rear view mirror he saw what was left of the wolf pack surround the body of their alpha, the wolves started howling for the loss of their leader.