literature

Haze p11

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Those words destroyed Chrystyn just a little more than what she already was. We could all see it in her expression. Her eyebrows melted from her face, her eyes fell to the ground, and she nearly stopped breathing.
We kept to ourselves though. No one brought Rebecca up; no one said a thing. But Rebecca was the only thing on Chrystyn's mind. Losing your best friend would be like losing your limbs; you just wouldn't be the same. Times like those, such as losing someone you care about, are truly shitty. Not to mention in that particular situation, where losing your best friend to an undead person during the apocalypse. That's twice as bad, I believe. Harsh truth is, though, regardless of how hurt you are, you have to keep trying to go on. You have to fight to stay alive; physically and emotionally.
More specifically, at that time, we had to make sure no one found us. And by no one, I mean the hooligans that were trying to get us. Chrystyn mentioned that the children following her had a conversation. Talking about a man named Nico, and that if they 'got us' they would have been protected from the flesh eaters. Whether they meant to kill us, or kidnap us was not of our concern. We could've cared less as to what they wanted to do with us. But the fact that they did want us was what kept us going. We needed to be left alone and go our own way. We decided that we shouldn't trust anyone we didn't know.
Not only did we have the flesh eaters to worry about, but we also had living humans. They could've been watching us the entire time we walked.
The first time I walked during The End, it was for about an hour and a half, and most of that walk was with Julia. Compared to what we eventually have done, that was a walk in the park. Because since then, we had walked everywhere. Driving a bit, but mostly on our feet.

Before leaving the area, we made one more quick stop at the gas station and picked up food and drinks. In a few parked cars outside, we found one backpack. We evened it out by one person carrying it each hour, then switching.
The road stretched on for hours. Went into night. Once we felt tired enough, we found our way through the darkness and the grass, and slept in the woods. We didn't make a fire. Maybe if we had an actual camp, or more people. But it was time for rest. We needed an actual sleep.
It felt like it was six in the morning, and it was absolutely freezing. The grass had frosted tips and my glasses were fogged up. Considering I was the only one awake, I looked around our new found beds, making sure it was clear, then walked to the road. It was quiet. Peaceful. It was early and you could smell it in the air. It was more peaceful than the day before when I was up in that tree. All that could be heard were my thoughts, and birds chirping in the distance. Still, I was freezing.
Down the road - the direction we were headed - seemed to turn into nowhere. The trees blocked what was up ahead. I walked back to the group, and I spoke out loud, "alright, now, it's time to get up. It's early and you know we've got a big day ahead." The three of them turned over and grunted and moaned and said, "just a couple more minutes."
"No, no. Come on, get up now." They slowly got up, fixed their hair so it'd be comfortable enough, and collected their things.
The walk towards the curved road seemed like it took forever. Start of the day, I suppose. Chrystyn was on the outside of us, and noticed something before anyone. "Guys, guys!" Within a second we looked at her, ran to where she was looking, and noticed some cars.
"What - oh it's just some cars," Hugh said. As we walked closer towards the new discovery, we saw that we were on the bottom of a hill. And what laid on top of the hill definitely caught us off guard. On top of the hill, right at the edge, were small buildings.
"Okay, wait. Before we get too excited, and run off, we need to check the cars out first." Hugh leaded.
"Why? We can go inside and be somewhat warmer, with beds, and a door!" I talked back. Hugh demanded we didn't get too excited, but over time, I couldn't help it anymore. Sleeping outside, continuously running from dead people and children. It was exhausting for all of us, and he was pushing us to our limit; a tad bit further each day.
"Chris. Are you kidding? What if we run through the cracks of these cars and the kids are crouching behind vehicles, waiting for us? Or we don't see any eaters, and the come right at us!?" Hugh paused, waiting for an answer, but I didn't give him one.
"We have to search," he spaced out his words, showing his irritation with me.
So we quietly reached the vehicles, and the first one was a blue Toyota, door open, keys in the ignition. We continued through the spaces between the cars. Footsteps and slow breathing were the only things to be heard. We were halfway through the line of cars when Hugh suddenly turned his body to us, and whispered, "get down!"
We shot down, bending our knees forward, our ears open, listening for any dragging feet. We heard shoes being scraped against the concrete. I looked towards the ground, as if putting my ear closer will make me hear better. Whilst I had my eyes glued to the ground, I saw my breathe steaming from my mouth in my peripheral vision.
I looked to my right only to see Hugh rising higher as he pointed his gun forward.
"Hugh!" I whispered a little louder than I bargained for. He swiftly threw his head towards me and asked, "what!?"
"How many are there?"
"One, maybe two."
"Dude, that'll attract way more. We'll just go cut them!"
He looked at me for a moment, made a face that read, 'you disgust me,' and turned back to kill the monster.
"Hugh! For real!? Save your ammo, man, come on."
"Chris! Shut up, I got this."
"Hey, man, you shut up, lower your gun, and we'll take the quiet route."
By that time, his gun was down, and his body was turned completely towards me. Crouching down he glared at me, as if I smelled like one of the eaters. Nose scrunched up, eyes squinted. He turned back to the eater, pulled his gun back up, and quickly shot it square between the eyes. Shot another one which I wasn't able to see. Blood flew across the air, and it made a splattering sound when it hit the cold concrete, separated from the body falling. All the while, I was in his background raising my voice, "Hugh! You're so stupid, you shouldn't have done that!!"
"You know what, man? You need to lay off. You let me do my job, and you do yours."
"You have a job now? What - since when? When the fuck were we assigned jobs?"
"Chris. I swear to God. Shut the fuck up. It's nothing. I don't see any eaters in sight, and we can see pretty far."
"What about in the woods? What about in the rest of the cars? Or the town? What if they're coming from each direction right now, and we don't even know it. We'll be trapped, you idiot!"
He stared at me for a few moments, evidently pissed off at me.
Hugh and I don't fight. Best friends normally fight, just as couples do, but not us. We usually agree on everything, or immediately work it out. We've had a couple fights in the past, but nothing big. I've never seen him so mad before, and it was towards me.
I was just trying to save some ammo, and a possible herd.
He angrily turned around, and began walking towards the town, passing each car. Chrystyn and Julia stood there staring at me, waiting. Waiting for what? For me to cry? To burst out and to run and punch him? To kill him? To walk the opposite way? No. They each slowly turned away and began walking. I went with them at the same time.
Eventually, we caught up with Hugh, and sadly enough, no one said a single word. From that spot, to the first step into the town, it was pure quietness. Everyone had their own thoughts. Rebecca, surviving, families, Hugh and I fighting, how the world has gone to shit. Or maybe it was just those two provinces, or all of Canada and the rest of the world is safe. Maybe the world doesn't even know about it and they're playing video games, and getting a good night kiss from their mom, or significant other. Maybe Canada was thrown in the ditch and we were forgotten about. Those were our thoughts in silence.
Either way, no matter if that was true or not, we still had to survive, and to have Hugh mad at me at the same time made it all worse.

Everyone was exhausted from walking. From running, and getting angry at each other, and fighting off the dead, to walking up the first steep hill in a long time was death. Our legs burned and ached and screamed at us to stop. But we had no other choice. The sun was up and about, shining on us, giving us light and heat. But finally, after what felt like forever, we made it to the top. And it was glorious.
We walked past some old looking businesses. A barber shop being one of them, and on the opposite side of the road was a pet store.
Very small town, I bet everyone knew each other when it was still alive.
We approached an intersection, still saying nothing when Chrystyn got attacked. A flesh eater had knocked her to the ground, tried to eat away at her skin and have a feast right then and there. I stepped over and smacked the side of its face with the blade of my axe. It all happened so fast I barely comprehended it.
But then, as Hugh helped Chrystyn up from the ground, a herd of eaters came from the left and right turns on the intersection. They weren't in a straight line; they were everywhere. We were more confused as to what they were all doing that far into the middle of nowhere.
As we tried to run past the intersection, they were already meeting, and had split us into two groups.
Before we split up, I grabbed Julia's hand, and as I looked back, I could only see Hugh's face, and the top of Chrystyn's head as Hugh was over six feet tall.
I yell out a plan over all the moaning and screaming of joy from the monsters, "meet us at the end of this road, east!"
On the road, and off the road.
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