The End is Near

Chapter Thirteen

     "Yeah, hopefully." We're silent as we walk down the road. We travelled about a mile away from the town looking for Cassie, we should be halfway there by now. I'm about to talk again when a branch snaps loudly behind us. Karson and I whirl around, raising our weapons, but don't see anything behind us.

     "What do you think it was?" Karson whispers.

     "I don't know. It could've been a walker, but I sounded like a person. Let's just keep going." We turn and start to walk faster, keeping silent, listening. Another branch snaps and I can hear someone talking, cursing quietly. "It's a person." I look back to the woods, still hearing voices, there's more than one. "Hey! Who's out there!" I call out, Karson smacks my arm. "What?" I say, looking at him, confused.

     "Why would you do that?! They could be dangerous." I shrug, looking back in the direction of the voices.

     "Maybe, but we have weapons, we can defend ourselves." Suddenly, a person comes walking out of the trees. He doesn't have his weapon raised, but he has it in his hand. Five people emerge after him, holding their weapons. There are four guys and two girls in all, all staring at us cautiously.

     "Are you dangerous?" The lead man asks.

     "No, we're just trying to stay alive. Are you?" I ask, sizing them all up.

     "No, we're the same as you, just trying to stay alive. What are your names?"

     "I'm Keith, this is my friend Karson. What are your names?"

     "I'm John," he points to a blonde haired guy, about my age, "this is Keaton," he points to the guy next to him, he has brown hair and looks to be about my age as well, "this guy is Jack," finally, he points to the last boy, he has dirty blonde hair and looks to be about 30, "and this is Mike. I'll let the girls introduce themselves." The first girl to step up has dark brown, almost black hair, and looks to be about John's age.

     "I'm Debby, John's wife. This is my daughter," she points to the girl next to her, she steps up and smiles flirtatiously at me, I refrain from rolling my eyes, I only have eyes for Cassie, "Jessica." Jessica walks over to me, pressing her chest against my arm and puts her hand on my chest.

     "It's nice to meet you Keith." She doesn't even glance at Karson. I roll my eyes and lightly push her away. I look over at Karson and see him trying to contain his laughter. I roll my eyes at him and glare playfully. He just chuckles and looks back at John as Jessica walks back to her mom, pouting.

     "So John, were are you guys headed?"

     "We're going to California, gonna try to get a boat to live on the water. What about you guys?" I look at Karson, raising an eyebrow, silently asking if we should tell them about Cassie. He nods.

     "We're trying to get back to a friend. She joined another group and we're just trying to find her." John nods, looking at his wife. They seem to have a silent conversation until Debby finally nods and John nods back.

     "Would you like our help? Maybe we can all join together, a big group is better than a small one." I look at Karson, who nods immediately.

     "That would be great, thank you John. The last time we saw her was a couple hours ago, she had run off with the group, saying something about a giant horde coming this way." John's eyes widen.

     "That's where we're coming from. We ran into the horde trying to get out of town, had to come back this way and ran into you. I guess that's a good thing." I chuckle and nod.

     "Yeah, I guess it is. Wait, how long ago did you run into that horde?"

     "About 20 minutes ago, why?"