PetrA

Chapter thirty-seven: Daniel

Daniel was looking down on a camp that somebody had recently abandoned in panic. Two dead soldiers were dragging themselves along the ground, growling and eating anything called flesh they came upon. Gordon was perched in the tree beside him, waiting for Daniel to tell him what to do. Just from looking at the camp Daniel wanted to smack who ever set it up. First of all, there had been far too many people in it, that was obvious from its size. Second, it was far too close to the city, it was a death trap just waiting to happen. Thirdly, if somebody is this stupid then they deserved whatever fate handed them.

Daniel moved in the tree, the dragging soldiers must've registered it because growling they turned towards the tree. Flesh and intestines stuck between their teeth. Yum. Daniel thought. Gordon sat so still that even the birds seemed to think he was a part of the tree. Daniel thought about using the gun they'd found, but that would make far too much noise, and frankly he did not wish to have more company than needed. Even though, that the only living dead in the camp was the two soldiers. All the rest had bullet wounds in their forehead. The soldiers must have had a little brain after all, Daniel decided.

He waved off Gordon and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. It provided a shelter of a sort. As the rain poured down around them, it was the first rain they'd seen in several months. Daniel blame it on the global warming, not that it would continue after all this. Suddenly he heard a movement in the tree to his right. He glanced left to see Gordon curled up in his sleeping bag with a rope bound tightly around his waist and a thick branch to keep him from falling. Frowning he moved slowly careful not to make any unnatural sounds as he scouted the tree on his right. The branches swayed in the wind, but some of the thicker moved with heavier and faster movements. Something large or someone was in that tree.

Daniel kept himself hidden in the tree as he watched the other. From time to time, the heavier branches would move unnaturally, and then about a couple of hours later a figure appeared. A human figure, the person couldn't have noticed Daniel or Gordon because it appeared that he or she was watching the camp. The soldiers had gone off to munch on some of the dead people, as in stone dead. Not up and walking about dead. Although, he didn't risk alerting the person about his presence. Daniel bound himself to the tree so he wouldn't fall out and fell asleep.

Daniel didn't have the faintest idea of what time it was when he woke up. The sky was still thick with dark grey clouds that promised even more rain, but for the moment it had stopped and Daniel looked around. Gordon was in the tree wide-awake watching him, no... not him. He was watching something behind him. Daniel turned his head around, he could clearly see the person he'd seen last night sleeping in the tree, curled in a nook of three arms in the tree. In the little light, he could see that it was a girl. She was smart though... she'd made a railing between the three branches to keep herself from rolling over and into death while she was sleeping. She'd covered herself in leaves, which didn't look very warm to Daniel.

He couldn't tell much about her other than she couldn't have been very tall, and that she most likely was the smartest of the lot down there. Deciding to wake her up Daniel gathered whatever he could scavenge from the tree and threw it at her, one after one the things hit her and she woke up. She looked around in alarm, she caught sight of Daniel and looked stunned to say it the least. Guess she hadn't expected to see anybody else camping casually in the trees. He looked down at the munching soldiers and decided that they'd have to kill them and get out of there, faster the better. He pointed at them and gestured to brain them. The girl seemed to understand because she undid her ropes and stuffed them in a small bag. She clumsily crawled down from the tree, Daniel followed and Gordon just jumped down landing silently on his feet like a cat. How he did it, was a mystery to Daniel. The girl hurried over dragging her left leg after her, Daniel backed up "Are you bitten?" He asked. The girl rolled her eyes, "No, gunshot wound. That big ox eating away on poor Ian over there shot me in the leg as I fled last night." She said. She lifted the torn fabric of her trousers to reveal self-made bandages from clothes. Blood had already soaked through them.

"Seriously, who set up a camp just outside a city with so many people?" Gordon asked appearing beside the girl. He studied the bandages and poked it. The girl winched, "Don't do that!" She hissed. "Sorry, it's just you'll need to change them, before it gets infected." He said. "Would be a shame to go out like that." Their voices must've carried on to the big ox as the girl had called the big fat deadling dragging himself over the ground. He screeched and growled as he dragged his body towards them. The other in a soldier uniform still had one leg, but it didn't help her keep her balance in the afterlife. The girl watched them with distaste, "For starters, they put up the camp. Michel and Teresa, there was a third soldier too, but my guess is that Michel killed him for pulling a stupid prank, and I agree with you kid. It would be a shame to go out because of infection, but I can't really see any hospitals around here." Gordon didn't look faced by her sharp tone. "Oh but there's one just a few blocks into the city, on the..." She broke him off "I know where the damned hospital is, I used to work there." Gordon shrugged.

"Just trying to help." The girl sneered or it could have been a grimace from moving her leg. "You can help by shutting up." Daniel quickly decided that he liked this girl. Anyone who told the kid to shut up was all right with him. "How about we brain those suckers. Not that there was much brain to begin with." She picked up a random metal pole and dragged herself over to the big one and crushed its skull before it could even grab a hold of her. Daniel hardly blinked as he smashed in the dead girl's head. "We should get out of here." Daniel said. "No shit Sherlock, but we'll need to be careful. There was a mass wandering last night towards the north. There's probably not any food left for them in the city anymore." The girl moved slowly in the woods, but she didn't complain about her leg.

It must've been midday when they stopped and Gordon started talking again. "Maybe we should make a fire the best way to close your wound is by burning it." The girl stared at him. "How old are you?" Gordon blinked at her "Nine, why?" Now it was her turn to blink at him. "Nine? A nine-year-old should not know stuff like that." Daniel sighed. "He's like his older sister and brother, annoying and a know it all." The girl just shook her head, "I'm Stella by the way." She held out her hand. Daniel shook it "Daniel and the midget is Gordon." "Sadly the midget is right, the best way to keep infection away is by closing the wound with something very hot, of course I'd have to clean it first." She plopped down on the ground and pulled out three water bottles from her bag.

She unwrapped the wound, the blood around it had dried, but a slow trickle still came from it. She examined it herself, poking around. She then sighed, "I don't suppose you have a knife?" Daniel pulled it out for her to see, "I've used it for killing, so uh yeah..." she made a face, "Squirt get some wood and try to find some dry leaves or whatever. Don't go far, they could be in this area. The mass travelled this way." Gordon nodded. Although, he didn't look happy with being called Squirt and Midget. Stella cleansed the wound after her best abilities with the little water she had. Gordon came back soon after with a large pile of timber in his hands and amazingly he'd managed to find dry sticks and leaves.

Gordon hardly needed help putting up the fire, he used some matches to light it. It took a while before the fire took over. Stella took the knife from Daniel and stuck it in the fire. He started to protest, but stopped himself when he saw that it was only the blade. "That's really cool. Heating the blade to kill bacteria, so it can burn your skin to close the wound." Daniel found it a little disturbing how the nine-year-old kid knew things like that, but he figured that it wasn't so odd when he'd lived in the same house as Ellie and Timothy all his life. He must've heard many odd conversations. They watched as Stella put the strap of the bag in her mouth and slowly pressed the glowing blade straight onto her wound. The strap of thick cloth muffled her cry of pain and probably protected her teeth from shattering. She pressed it harder against the wound until she couldn't take it anymore. It fell to the ground revealing an ugly red patch that would never go away.