Death By Dawn

➽Chapter 5

One step.

Two steps.

Soon he stood directly in front of Alexander, his powerful figure staring down at the teenaged boy.

"Yeah..."

"Well, if you say so. I'm taking a group out to forage and we can use all the help we can get. Come."

"Isn't there enough food here already?"

"This camp has 21 persons, you make 22. What we have won't last forever." Cap stated, turning his back to Alex and beginning to walk away.

"I guess you are right." Alexander said, following Cap's lead. 

The two walked in silence until they met up with a group of about eight other men. They were armed with metal baseball bats, two knives and one pistol each, except for Henderson. He was armed with the same shotgun that threatened to take Alexander's life earlier.

Around their arms were pieces of strong leather, used to protect them from the bites of the creatures that sought to devour them. They all wore long-sleeved clothing and the collars around the neck of the shirts had small strips of leather sewn neatly into them. They stood well prepared in their loosely fitted jeans, ready for any danger that would present itself, or so they believed.

"Get dressed boy. We roll out in 5."

➽~➽

The group huddled together in a square-like formation, three at the front and the back while two covered each side.

"There are two hostiles moderate distance away, southeast of us Cap." a man informed, his dark blue eyes focused on the two zombies staggering towards them, too far away to cause an immediate threat however.

"Good eye Scott but we're almost to our destination. We'll worry about them on our return trip."

The squad increased their walking speed, further increasing the distance between them and the hostiles.

Alexander surveyed the surroundings as they walked through a small town once known as Witchroad. Once it was populated with the endless smiles of both men and women and the joyous laughter of children, echoing throughout the entire town as they played. 

Now it was deserted, life at a complete standstill while the undead roamed restlessly. 

"Richard's farm right?" Alexander questioned.

"You're clever boy. How'd you piece that together?"

"Well, Cap, this is Witchroad isn't it? If you're foraging for food it's obvious you'd go for the farm. I'm young but I ain't stupid."

"Hm. We're almost there. Break formation, Jason, Barry, Nathan, scout on ahead. Any signs of those zombies, signal back immediately. I want numbers. Take care of any around the perimeter that you can handle, if you can't just retreat. Dying foolishly is not heroic."

Three men broke from the formation, nodding their heads as they made their way pass Cap, changing pace to a jog.

The rest of the squad halted, Alexander looking at them in a state of confusion.