Zombie Exodus: Aftermath, Scene 4 (Patreon)

Continued from Scene 3 

“Hey, Violet,” Butler says. “Go ahead past me. There’s a bunch of our people heading south along the creek. Catch up with them as soon as you can.”

You hurry through the wide open gate, followed by your companions. A packed dirt road leads away from Tempest Point to the southwest. A trail of commoners runs ahead of you by a quarter-mile, high-stepping through the tall grass as the field reaches the creek.

Gunshots call from behind and you look back while still running. Butler stumbles through the gate, his rifle hanging loosely from his hands. He takes two steps and drops to his knees. A figure in a red mask steps through the gate and behind Butler. He holds a long rifle with a blade attached to the barrel and shoves it through Butler’s back. The blade pokes out of his chest, and he grips it with his hands. You hear a shriek from behind you, and Xander runs past you on the left.

“Look forward, everyone,” Jesse shouts. “We just have to make it into the forest.”

Fifty feet ahead, the woods start with a row of trees packed in a semicircle. Yellow weeds poke from one side, and in it the carcass of a rodent holds a swarm of insects, seeming to give it life. The crack of rifle fire ripples through the air, but you keep your eyes forward. You’re breathing fast, heart racing. As you approach the forest, the grass grows knee-high, forcing you to slow your approach.

“No one’s following us. Are we safe?” Portland asks, chasing after you.

Twenty feet now from the edge of the woods, and a decaying trunk of a split tree bursts with an explosion of splinters on Jesse’s right. She crouches and enters the embrace of the trees which hide her from sight. You glance back and see rifles aimed at your group, held out by a trio of Reds standing atop the southern fence. You reach the treeline along with Xander and Portland, and the three of you squeeze through the brush to escape the gunfire. Jesse has a dozen paces on you, and you catch her in glimpses as she maneuvers through the overgrowth. Running and running, on and on, you keep a constant pace in the hike through the forest.

Fifteen minutes pass, and the woods thin. Jesse sits on the ground with her back to a tall rock, and she pants and clears sweat from her forehead with a rag. Portland bursts into the clearing, bumping into you and then rights herself, sweat covering her arms and hands. She collapses to the ground, lying on her side, and buries her face in the grass. You hear her soft sobs.

“What…do we…do now?” Xander asks through heavy breaths.

“We have a few places we can go but none of them are close. Looks like we’re going to be surviving in these woods for a few days at least,” you say. “We move by day and rest at night.”

“Yeah, these roads ain’t safe. Reds must have taken the zone. I’m not traveling when they got that kill-on-sight mentality. Assholes. We’re all trying to survive, and they keep killing and taking,” Jesse says. She plucks a blade of grass and chews it in the corner of her mouth.

Portland sits up, her eyes red and puffy. “How are we going to survive? We don’t have much with us, no food, barely any water. If we got to a river, we can fish but it won’t be easy without a rod or line.”

“I’ve been on watch duty for the last six months. My survival skills are out of practice,” Xander says.

Surviving in the woods may be the current concern, but then there is life after you find a new community or even just a place with four walls and a roof. 

Continue to scene 5