When We Were Humans | Book I

Chapter 8: The Prey

Viewpoint: Eli

I ran with the others towards the forest. As we entered the cover of trees, I stopped to look back at the burning house. The house was engulfed in flames. Pieces of wood from the house started to fall and crumble as the fire burned its way until the house was reduced to nothing but a burning pile of ash.

I turned around and saw that Mr. Brooks had stopped. He dropped down to his knees as he looked back at the burning house. The rest of us stopped running and watched as the house was eaten by flames. Black smoke clouds erupted from the house and plagued the air with its horrid smell. This no doubt attracted Lurkers, and we had no idea from which direction.

"God dammit!" Mr. Brooks shouted, as he pounded his fist on the ground. Both Annie and Chloe embraced him.

"What now?" Joel asked.

"We have to get as far away from here as possible," I started. "They might chase us."

"I could just kill them all now," Mr. Brooks said, in a sinister tone.

"Daddy? Don't talk like that..." Annie said, in a concerned tone.

"They will pay for what they've done to our family," Mr. Brooks said, as he clenched his teeth.

"With all do respect sir, you can't possibly think of committing murder," Nate said, in a slightly surprised manner. Nate was right, we don't kill other living people.

"You kids don't understand," Mr. Brooks said, as he turned his head towards us with tears almost in his eyes.

"Nonetheless, it's getting dark. We need shelter," Zoey said. "I doubt that any of the neighbors would call a ceasefire, so I guess we're camping tonight."

We went deeper into the woods and made a makeshift bed from a foundation of branches covered by a large tarp that we happened to find.

"We can't all sleep at once," I started. "One of us has to keep watch and we can keep alternating every hour."

"Sounds good, I'll take first shift," Dwayne said, as he posted himself just a few feet from the tarp. We all crawled on the uncomfortable 'bed'. It was a tight fit because there was eight of us.

"If anything starts to move or you hear Lurkers, wake us up. Don't engage them alone Dwayne," I said, as I patted him on the shoulder. He nodded and turned to face the other direction. I noticed that baby birds were singing their song. A small part of me wanted them to shut up, but I repressed the thought. I rested my head on the 'bed' and tried to sleep. It's impossible, there was too much going through my head. I decided to just clear my mind and close my eyes. I didn't realise how tired I was, because as soon as I closed my eyes, I fell asleep.

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About an hour later, Dwayne woke me up as it was my turn to take watch. Nothing's happened yet, so I had high hopes for the morning. It was pitch black and we didn't have any flashlights because they went down with the house. Dwayne crawled into where I was sleeping and fell asleep almost as quick as I did. I paced around the rest of them and just watched them sleep. Sounds creepy, I know. Then, I saw that Mr. Brooks was still wide awake.

"Can't sleep sir?" I asked, in a slightly hushed tone.

He just nodded his head and closed his eyes. He must be under a lot of stress.