World In Chaos: AFTER THE END

Division 6

When she awoke, there was a ticklish feeling on the right side of her neck. Her weary eyes slowly opened up, the darkness still surrounding her. The moon had only moved a little in the sky but the dark grey clouds had cleared, allowing the light of the moon and stars to brighten up the night.

She was unwilling to move her head from the stones that were, surprisingly, pretty comfortable but the feeling in her neck was intimidating.

She inhaled the air that may have been toxic if this was still a normal world however compared to all the situations they had been in, the air now seemed to be the cleanest. Leaning forward, she scratched an itch on her knee and looked into the deeper part of the cave. She saw Sophia and Alex sleeping soundly but there was no sign of Eric. This tensed her up and she was now fully awake. Yet when she was about to get up and look, she suddenly realized a heavy feeling on her right shoulder.

It took her a few seconds to acknowledge Eric's sleeping head weighing down on her shoulder. And a few more seconds to realize Eric had wrapped his arms around her waist, cuddling close to her.

Though she felt extremely annoyed at the disturbance of having a 16 year old boy hugging her, his posture and relaxation of his face was too satisfying to remove.

Her frown automatically turned into a soft smile and she slowly reached out the free arm to push his messy hair back.

He was supposed to be in deep sleep but the touch of her hand made him smile back. He didn't move though and neither did he open up his eyelids. His breathing was also exactly the same as before so Erin couldn't be too sure if he was smiling at her gesture or at something in his dreams.

This didn't bother Erin as much. She looked back into the forest and road in front if her. Apart from those stuck in the sticks and barbed wires, there seemed to be no sight of Decayers walking about.

Did they calm down during the night like how normal humans would have done? Or were they all somewhere else?

She moved her gaze from the road back to the Decayers on the fence. They weren't making much noise or even any movement. Maybe they forgot she and her friends were there. They didn't exactly have a memory.

She sighed and closed her eyes again, her head leaning back to the stone wall behind her. However, minutes past by and she couldn't go back to sleep. It wasn't because of Eric, who was now mumbling quietly. It was something else. A feeling of panic. The type of feeling a person would feel when they're being watched or even chased. But other than the Decyares, who also didn't seem to be the cause of her problem, she was sure no one was there. And her friends were all asleep.

She concluded it was just one of those weird anxiety attacks and ignored it.

To take her mind of things, an idea of daydreaming came into her mind and she began thinking if a storyline to play. She closed her eyes tight and imagined the inside of a house that once was hers.

If it weren't for my sister, I would've had gotten away with all my secret birthday parties. My first one was on a cold day because, well you know, even Mother Earth decided to kick my ass. But it was the 24th of October and even though it was already cold in Canada, I was shielded by the warmth of myself.

The party room was very well decorated. I mean, not to be bragging or anything, but I decorated it, so... Yeah... 

I mean look at those -cheap-dollar-store toilet paper coloured obscurely with marker, am I right?

I chuckled, thinking about what I just said. Who was I kidding? All my birthdays went like this. Ever since I became the world's worst daughter. Ever since grade 1. But oh well I had friends... I totally had friends ...