Chapter 7

My eyes snap open, I swing my fists wildly. The commotion wakes Cassie up.

     "What are you doing?" She asks, running the grogginess from her eyes.

     I look at my arms, legs, and pat my stomach, nothing seems to be out of order.

     "Just a nightmare, thank God." It's not until now that I realize it's morning.

      "I thought you were supposed to be on watch duty."

      "Yeah, well, we know how that turned out already." I say with a sigh. Cassie climbs back into the front seat and stretches. She looks at me.

     "What?"

     "Remember your promise?" She asks, already knowing I do.

      "Where do you live? That's a good place to start."

     "Take a right after leaving this parking lot, then I'll guide you from there."

      I start the engine and we're on our way, the city looks even worse in the day time. All of the bloodstains are visible. All of the chunks of flesh and pieces of bone that were masked by the dark of night give the city a much more grotesque look.

      Cassie break the silence, "What if my parents aren't there?"

     "I'm sure they are, Cass." She nods and then goes back into her thoughts.

What if her parents really aren't there? I ask myself. What am I supposed to tell her?

     "Right here, this is it." She points to a brick house. The windows covered with black shutters. The porch decorated with various flora.

     "Wow, nice place you have here." I say, as we step out of the car. Screams fill the air in the distance, unknown if they are human or belong to the undead.

     Every now and then the sounds of gunfire cut through the air. Down the street a pack of zombies chase something into an alley way, but it wasn't human. Might of been a rat or something.

     Cassie walks up to her door. It's locked.

     "That's a good sign, could mean they're still in there." She turns to me, her eyes lighting up. She pulls a plant from its pot and reaches in, a spare key, no doubt. She places the plant back in the pot and unlocks the door.

     "Mom? Dad? It's Cassie." She calls out. I follow her into the house. The hallway leading from the door to the living room is decorated with family pictures, an old French looking table with a fancy cover over the top and an umbrella holder.

     "Are you guys upstairs?" Cassie asks aloud. The sound of her ascending footsteps can be heard through out the house. In one picture it shows Cassie as a baby. She's being held by her mother who's a spitting image of her.

     Her mom is standing next to a man in a wheelchair. Her father, no doubt. Another picture shows Cassie accepting a trophy with a huge crowd behind her. I walk down the hallway to the living room.

     A couch sits in the middle of the room with a glass coffee table in front of it. Two glasses of water sit on opposite sides of the table. A large T.V is mounted to the wall.

      Cassie comes running down the stairs, "maybe they're in the basement." She says, her voice losing the hope it had when we entered the front door.

     I walk to the kitchen. The fridge has been left open, and the water in the sink is still running. Something isn't right. Cassie comes into the kitchen, tears streaming down her face.

     She pulls out a chair from the bar counter and sits down. She stares at the wall for a few seconds before laying her head down on the counter and crying.

     "Hey, Cass, it's going to be okay, we'll find them." She continues to cry. "Cass, come on."

     "You don't get it, Jack!" She yells. I take a step back, "My parents are all I have left!" She swipes everything off the counter. Cups and plates shatter and a stack of papers that sat at the edge flutter to the ground.

     "I promised you we'd find them. I plan on keeping that promise." She begins to sob. She lays her head in her arms on the counter.

     I turn around to check out of the window to make sure her outburst didn't attract any unwanted attention.

     Nothing in sight, but that doesn't mean mean that nothing is out there. As I'm walking back over to her I see a small piece of paper on the ground that has 'Cassie' written in big letters on the top.

     I bend down to pick it up, it reads, Cassie, sweetheart, if you're reading this then that means you're okay. You're father and I didn't abandon you, I promise. A group of military men came to the door and forced us to leave. I had time to scribble this letter before they started using force. They're taking us to a military base in Charelston, South Carolina. Please, if you're reading this try to make it down there. The note ends there.

     I walk over to a sobbing Cassie. "Hey, Cass, read this. I think you're going to like it." She sits up, wiping the tears from her eyes. The whimpering slowly begin to stop all together. A smile begins to form on her face.

     "They're alive!" She looks at me, her eyes have a new found hope in them. She hops off the chair and wraps her arms around me in a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, so much, Jack!"

     "You're welcome, Cass." I hug her back. She's beginning to feel like the younger sibling that I never had. She releases me and looks to the ground, hiding her blushing cheeks. It's crazy how the apocalypse can bring two strangers so close in only a day.

     "What do you say we get on the road to Charleston?" She looks at me, looks at the note, then looks back at me.

     "Is that even a question?" She asks, sarcastically. "I need to pack, give me 15 minutes." She runs off upstairs somewhere.

      I head back to the living room and have a seat on the couch.

     Why would the military be escorting civilians so far away? It doesn't make any sense to me, but I hid that from Cassie. I don't have the heart to crush her hope.

     I have a feeling that things aren't what they seem. There's a doorway on the back wall of the living room. My curiosity gets the better of me. I stand and walk to the door.

     Behind the door is the master bedroom. This is where Cassie's parents slept. Everything seems in perfect order.

     No drawers had been left open, no clothes splayed about in an attempt to rush through packing. Everything is normal, and in this situation, normal is not good.

     What am I going to tell Cassie? That question is on a loop in my head. I walk out of the room just as she's coming down the stairs.

     "What are you doing?"

     "Nothing." I fight myself to tell her what I think, "Just admiring your parents decorative decisions." I lose the fight.

      "Stop being a weird ass." She says as she walks down the final steps. "I'm ready whenever you are."

     "Alright, lets go then." I walk out of the house and wait on her to come out. You idiot, Jack, she's going to hate you once you tell her the truth.

     "She comes out holding the picture of her as a baby with her mom and dad. On the back of the frame there's an engraving. It reads, To Thomas Goodman, the leading scientist in biochemical advancement.

      She locks the door and turns around with a goofy smile on her face. "Well, don't just stand there."

     "Sorry, got lost in thought." I say with a chuckle. I walk off of the porch and climb in the car. Biochemical advancement? Could they be taking him to make a cure?

      I don't like this one bit. Things aren't adding up. I start the car and we're off to Charleston. The car is silent for a good thirty minutes so I decide to see what's on the radio.

     I flick it on and skim through the channels. On most of them it's a message set on a loop telling any survivors to stay in their homes. But then I come across one with the president speaking.

     "Ladies and Gentleman, we are facing extremely dark times right now. I'm speaking to you from the presidents bunker, I know, cowardly. But I'm leading the design and fabrication of a cure, just be patient with me. We have faced many turmoils through our history, yet we always come out of the other side smiling. I have no doubt..." he's cut off by the sounds of gunfire. Screaming ensues.

     "John, bar the door!" Someone else in the room says.

      "I'm fucking trying, there's so many of them. FUCK!" Wood slams against wood, the sound of someone gurgling can be heard followed by screams and moans. I turn the radio off. It finally hits me. The world is ending.

      I look at Cassie and she looks back. Her eyes snap towards the road "Jack, look out!" She screams and points.

      A huge truck comes barreling down the intersection, I slam on the brakes we're moving too fast. The car won't stop sliding, the truck comes closer. There's a loud crash, a scream, and then everything fades to black.

                                   ...

     When my eyes open its dusk. The sun barely visible over the trees. My vision spinning, I look around. "Cassie?" I ask, barely making a sound. I try to stand but my hands are tied. The grogginess begins to fade.

     I blink my eyes a couple of times to get the to adjust. "Cassie!?" I call out louder. She's no where to be seen.

      I'm in the middle of the woods, tied to a tree, there's nothing around me but trees. "Cassie!" I scream louder. In the distance birds scurry from tree to tree.

     "Oh, would you shut the fuck up?" A deep male voice comes up from behind. "You wouldn't want to attract the bitten ones now, would you?"

     He enters my vision. He tall and built like a bull, he's wearing free army fatigue pants with a black shirt. His head is as bald as it can get. He has a scar that runs from the corner of his right eye all the down to his jaw.

     "I'm sorry, but who the fuck are you?" I ask, trying to be a smart ass.

     "That's funny." He says, scratching his head. "Let me show you." He bends down and looks at me for a couple of seconds.

     Out of no where a punch comes rocketing towards my face. It connects. He's fast. I thought to myself as I tasted the blood beginning to fill my mouth, good to know.

      I spit the blood into the leaves and look him dead in the eye.

     "We got ourselves a tough guy, huh?" He asks. He said ourselves. There's more than just him.

     "Where's Cassie at, fuckface?" I demand, letting the anger in my voice seep out just a little.

     "The girl? Oh, yeah. That's right, my boys are having their way with her." Every single part of my body began to tingle with pure rage. I keep a straight face though.

      "Wow, you cold hearted son of a bitch, not even a facial gesture." He says, trying to make me even more pissed off.

      I say nothing, he stands up and turns around. I notice a knife hanging loosely from his right back pocket. A plan starts to form in my head.

     "Hey, asshole." He turns around. "You got a real fucked up face, you know that?"

     A smile appears on his face. He walks a few steps towards me. As his left leg rises to take a step I sweep his right one. It works. He falls on his right side.

     His smile quickly turns into a grimace. "You piece of shit." He says getting to his feet, he walks over to me and grabs the top of my head. This ought to teach you.

     He sends his knee into my temple. My vision goes blurry but doesn't go black. The trees are spinning once again. He lets go of my head and his footsteps lead away from me.

      As my vision starts to go back to normal I see a glint in the sun where he fell. His knife.

      I pull it closer towards me with my heel. Once I get it as far as it can go I start to scoot in a circle so that I'm on the opposite side of the tree.

     I begin to scoot forward so my hands lower to the ground and stretch behind me. Pain starts to explode in my shoulder the further I scoot forward. I've got to keep going. I say to myself.

      I stretch even further, my shoulders creak and pop awkwardly sending pain through out my entire body. My finger tips barely touch the knife. I grit my teeth a scoot one more time.

      My right shoulder pops out of place and the pain is like a fire erupted inside. I bite my tongue, but I got the knife held tightly in my left hand.

     Finally, after what seems like hours, the knife cuts through the rope. I get to my feet, my right arm hanging limply at my side.

     I push it up and forward and a little bit. This is going to hurt like a mother fucker. I run shoulder first into the tree. It doesn't pop back into place and pain flares through my shoulder.

FUCK!

     I try again, the joint and bone snapping back into place relieves a lot of the pain. I let out a deep breath and gather my surroundings. Nothing but trees and the distant sound of natural water.

      I follow the sound of the water, hoping that I'll find the group somewhere along it.

      My instincts are correct, after about five minutes of walking along the river I hear the sounds of four male voices. I take cover behind a nearby bush.

      They're all sitting by a campfire talking. Five tents sit behind them. A table sits by the campfire piled high with non-perishable food items.

     "Can you believe the snag we go today?" Says one of the guys, with a laugh.

     "I know right, as soon as Greg is done hitting that, I'm gonna tear that sweet little piece of ass up." He's talking about Cassie.

     The warrior inside me devising a plan to kill every single one of these sick mother fuckers.

      I spot a suitable rock for his plan, and chunk it across the river.

      "What the fuck was that?" One of them says as they all stand to look at the direction of the noise."Huntley, go check it out." The same one says. Huntley, a blonde haired guy wearing sunglasses on top of his head walk over to the river.

     The blood thirst killer in my laughs maniacally. It brings a smile to my face. I grab another rock and burst from the bushes. The three by the campfire fumble to raise their guns. I sling the rock into the closest ones face.

     I flick open the knife sprint into a slide. I draw the knife across the back of his knee and he drops to the ground.

     I yank his pistol from his belt. The holster comes with it. The other two are raising their guns and the one by the river, Huntley, is just beginning to realize what's going on.

     I fire the pistol, the bullet rips the holster from the gun and flies at hundreds of feet per second through the heart of the next closest asshole. He puts a hand over the wound before falling to his knees.

      Huntley fumbles with his automatic rifle before opening fire. I quickly roll out of the way and send two bullets his way. One through the head and another through his chest.

     A pain explodes in my calf. I've been shot. I look at the asswipe that was telling Huntley to investigate the noise and smile. The warrior laughing inside of me. A look of fear crosses his face his gun trembles.

      I spring forward, he tries to shoot me again but misses multiple shots. Fear does that to a man. Makes him sloppy. I send my knife into his gut. Blood spurts from his mouth. I put the gun to his temple.

     "Pl...please... I'm sorry." He struggles to get out.

      "Fuck you." I say and pull the trigger. A hole the size of my fist opens up the opposite side of his head. His body falls to the ground.

      A tent opens up and out walks Greg. The bald headed mother fucker that sucker punched me. He's in nothing but his boxers.

     "Oh. It's you." He says. I drop the gun, I want to make this asshole pay. "So, it's a fair fight, huh?" He asks with a smile.

     "I'm going to kill you." The warrior in my drooling at the fact that I get to make another kill.

      He charges me and tries to tackle me. I oppress his charge and he wraps his arms around my waist to try and body slam me. I send an elbow into his upper back. He heaves and lifts me off the ground, but doesn't get enough hold to slam me.

     I slip from his grasp and take a step back, he try's to take my head off with a haymaker but I duck just in time. The wind of the hit barely touching my hair. I spring up using the propulsion to uppercut him.

      The force of the blow sends him on his tip toes. His head knocked back and blood spurting from his mouth. He looks at me and spits the blood out, along with a good sized chunk of his tongue.

     He charges again but I sidestep and sweep him. He hits the ground with a loud thud. He gets to his hands and knees but I kick him hard in the side of his head. He falls over onto his side and spits out a few teeth.

     I wrench the knife from the body I left it in, kick Greg onto his back and straddle Him. I put my knees on his arms and wrap my left hand around his neck and squeeze with all of my strength.

     "Let me help you with that scar tissue." I say, a nasty smile crossing my lips. As he's struggling to breath I trace the line of his scar with the knife. Blood covering the right side of his head.

     He kicks and struggles but to no avail. As the blade reaches the of the scar I drop the knife and wrap both hands around his neck and squeeze with all of my might.

     His eyeballs begin to bulge, his face starting to turn purple. His trachea snaps and his tongue -or what's left of it- sticks out of his mouth. I let go and get off of him.

     He struggles to draw in breath, but it does nothing but rattle the brokenness of his trachea. He kicks at the air, which eventually turn into small twitches. He looks at me one last time, struggling to breath.

     "Oh, shut the fuck up. You wouldn't want to attract the bitten ones, now, would you?" I say with the smile of a killer. Anger seeping into my words like venom. He twitches one last time and then the life leaves his eyes.

     I walk to the tent he came of, there huddled in the corner is a trembling Cassie. She's in nothing but her bra and panties. She's got a split lip and her hair is a mess.

     She looks at me once and springs up at me. She wraps her arms around me and sobs into my shoulder.

     "Did he...?" I can't finish the sentence.

     "No, but he tried and almost did before you showed up." She says between sobs. I hug her tight.

     "Shh. It's okay now, they're not here anymore." Her sobs continue for a while. She's traumatized. I help her find her clothes and leave the tent so she can get dressed.

     When she comes out she's wiping her eyes. Rivulets cut in the dirt on her face from when she was crying.

     She looks at my leg. "You're bleeding ," she says with a gasp.

      "The bullet only grazed me, don't worry."

     "Sit down." She rips a sleeve from her shirt and lifts my pant leg enough to see the wound. She ties it tight around the cut.

     I suck in air. "Sorry, sorry," she says as she finishes tying the knot.

     "Looks like we're two and one now, huh?" I say, rolling my pants leg back down.

     "I guess so," she says with a sigh and eye roll.

     I walk back into the tent and grab a duffle bag full of clothes and dump them out.

     "What're you doing?" Asks Cassie.

     "We're going to need food for the road, don't you think?" I ask rhetorically.

      "Don't be a smart ass," she says with a smile. I pack the bag until it can't fit anymore. We also grab the weapons that were stolen from us, Cassie finds a shoulder strap that she attaches to the shotgun.

     "How did we get here?" I ask.

      "After they ran into us with the truck you were knocked unconscious. They dragged us both out, I tried to fight them.

     That's where I got this." She points to the busted lip. "But the threw me in the truck and you in the bed and drove here."

     "Where's the truck?"

     "Parked behind some trees over there." She points down the river.

      "Okay, let's get out of here before any unwanted attention shows up." Nights beginning to fall as I search Greg's pants for the keys to the truck.

      I find them and unlock the doors. It's an older model, 4 door, blue F-250. Cassie climbs in.

      It doesn't crank on the first try but the spark plugs ignite on the second go. The engine is loud. I don't like that, its going to attract too much attention. I put it in reverse and back up to a dirt road.

      Night has completely fallen as we get back on the highway.

      Charleston, here we come. I thought as we barreled down the highway.