The Death Of Us

Chapter 2

Katie P.O.V.

Location; Forest in NY 

I stick my head out of the door, to watch out for zombies. I am moving my finger, signaling that the others can follow me and Mariah gives me a confused look so I try to signal again, she raises an eyebrow and I throw my arms up in exasperation. "That way!" I say annoyedly and realization dawns upon her.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Mariah asks shaking her head and I let Brandon take the lead, since he knows the way. We all are ready to kill those bastards, if we get attacked, I look back at Mariah to make sure that she is okay.

"what?!" Mariah mouths with an attitude. I shrug and glare at her. I talk back "maybe if u could move your fat ass a little faster, I won't need to look at you all the time".

The sound of leaves crackling under our boots fills the air, and I start getting nervous, that maybe some z's can hear it. I mean if we can hear it, the z's can too. We end up walking 40 minutes, before we all are a little more relaxed, so maybe it would be a great idea to start a conversation with Brandon.

I mean we don't know anything about him, and before we can trust him, we should at least know a little bit about his story. Or about his daughter.

"tell us a little bit about your daughter?" I say, Mariah gives me a disappointed look, I know it's not a topic that he wants to talk about, but I need to be sure that he can be trusted.

"well, my daughter is named Antlia" he snaps back at me. "Antlia has red/orange hair like her mother, and green eyes like mine" he says, after a long pause he starts talking again. "she is actually about your guys age; she is really talented with a bow too". We get interrupted by a sound. The sound is coming from zombies, we are still unsure where the growling comes from, so we run behind a bush to get a good sight of the situation, and obviously not to be seen by any of them.

There are about 4 of them surrounding an animal to eat it, I think it's a rabbit, maybe a squirrel.

"should we, kill them?" Mariah asks, before I get a chance to answer, Brandon does "it will be a waste of energy to do so" he continues to take small steps "we need to find Antlia" he says.

I am actually surprised, I thought that he would be the kind of guy who would get himself killed, because he would try to play hero all the time. Maybe it's worth trusting him, but I won't take the risk yet. We are still following him, and by each minute that passes, he gets more suspicious.

"You know, if you wanted to kill us, rape us or steal from us, you can just do it by killing one of us!" I take a short pause, "why run around with us for almost 1 hour". My voice is getting louder, he continues to ignore me and is still faced with his back towards me, angering me even more.

"Katie" Mariah says. "no!" I snap back at her. "don't think that we are dumb teenagers, we survived more than people your age" I yell at him now. He turns around, stares at me, and is about to say something back. We get interrupted by a scream, followed by Brandon calling out a name "Antlia" and him running after the screams.

Mariah looks at me with an expression that says "can you at least try to make friends". I ignore it, and we both run after Brandon. He is actually really fast for his age, Mariah has a tough time following us both, but it does not surprise me at all. She's always been unathletic.

The screams of Antlia get louder, but also closer. As soon as I saw her standing there in the middle of all z's I am sure that she won't survive. But of course, Brandon needs to play the hero this time. Maybe, its how the relationship of a father and daughter works, but how would I know. I was alone my whole life, and an outcast. But it doesn't bother me, I like it that way.

Brandon is hammering his hammer in all these z's and Mariah is joining, I am the only one standing and watching. Questioning, if I should take Mariah and leave. But then I call after Brandon. "give me that fire rifle, I make sure nobody gets hurt from distance". He looks at me curious, I think that he is unsure. Maybe he thinks that I will run away, but I won't leave Mariah behind!

He gives it too me, and I immediately start shooting at the z's coming close to my people. My people? I don't even know 2 of these, but it's the first time in my life that I feel like protecting people. It's an unknown feeling, before I was all alone, the only person who ever actually gave a fuck about me was Momo but now she's dead, because of us, because of me.

I shoot a Zombie that tries to sneak up on Mariah before I'm all out of ammo. I groan and throw the rifle to the ground before pulling out my gun and start to shoot a Zombie in the head, an arrow whizzes past my head into the skull of a Zombie that was about to bite.

"Holy hell, that was awesome!" I hear Mariah yell impressively and I look towards the source seeing Antlia holding a bow and some arrows. Mariah grins at Antlia who smiles back gently and Brandon looks so happy to finally see his daughter again.

"Antlia, you're alright?" Brandon breathes probably doubting if this was real and is just one cruel nightmare. Antlia smiles at her father in the same way as him. "I am, dad, I am" She says and Mariah and I grin at each other. We all hear a sickening growl and my head snaps towards Antlia, a Zombie on the ground at her leg.

"Antlia!" Brandon yells loudly, but it's too late, the Zombie bit her in the ankle. I shoot the z in the head, and run towards Brandon and Antlia. It can take between 20 seconds to 1 day to get turned. But looks like it will happen fast with Antlia, she's already starting to turn a little grey skinned.

"No! No, Antlia" Mariah has to hold back Brandon to not run towards her. Antlia's eyes hold fear and Mariah's hold sympathy, by now I'm pretty sure mine does too. "Let me go! I'd rather die with her than live without her"

"No, dad! Please! Promise me this, that you will live" Antlia says holding onto her stomach before falling to the ground, tears streaming out of her eyes. "Promise me dad! Promise me" She yells at him and Brandon is crying too.

"I can't" He whispers and Antlia shakes her head. She's holding back her transformation for that one promise? That girl is strong and she's certainly impressing me. "Please dad!" She cries and he finally nods.

"I will, only for you" He whispers, his voice cracking and Mariah lets out a shaky breath, her eyes glazed over. I don't know if it's because of the situation or because she might be remembering something she wishes not to.

"please, kill me" Antlia says and her change starts to happen. I give Mariah a look and she leads a reluctant Brandon away. I walk towards her, I give her a sympathetic look, then look at her bows and arrows. Brandon might want this. I grab them before holding my gun to her head and she snarls at me.

"I will take care of your dad; I give you that promise" I say

...........................

Writers; Kaynad M. & Maryam S.

Word count; 1331