FOREST MAZE

The 3 stayed there exhausted and sweaty. Then they start to worry about the others. Upon realizing that they have been separated with one another immediately, Zach and Orlando starts to panic. They cannot see anything as well, and before they can get a grasp of things they have hit a biter. It fell down with them and its fragile bones went through its legs. Zach stood up and stomped its head, through the window one of the biters jumped through it and landed on the ground directly. Its legs on its head, it starts to crawl towards them and the 2 ran into a nearby house. The door is open and they got in, only to got out as they are unwanted visitors. More biters came out from the house.

Orlando tripped and Zachary grabbed him and piggybacked him. He jumped around trying not to trip, the dead in this area are slower than the once on the city, probably because they did not see anything that they can imitate. Despite this they appear seemingly out of nowhere, Zach cannot navigate properly because of how thick the grass has grown. Zach dodges some of the dead by a hair, some almost grabbing him or Orlando. Orlando stayed strong trying to not cry as to not attract the dead around them.

Zachary sees an open window and jumps through it with his back first. They landed on it and it collapsed to the basement. With sheer luck they landed on a heap of corpses cushioning their fall. Orlando drops down to the flooded basement, the water is only about as tall as the grass outside. The water is murky because of the sunken corpses. He grabbed the pieces of plank on top of the corpses to see a short spear, struck from the skull through the chest. He pulled it off but the dried up blood makes it hard. Orlando looks around to see if there is anything around, he sees the stairs and points it out to Zachary.

He sees wet footsteps on the stairs in a slightly unnatural way, something walked up it from this basement. It filled him with shock, he looked up the stairs and sees a swollen biter. The skin looks dried prune, obviously it has been in the water for long. Zach realized what Orlando is seeing as he moved slowly towards him.

"hey"

"Look"

"Yeah, lets try this"

He showed Orlando hammer and he threw it to the door. The biter seemed unbothered, the hearing must be impaired by the water and resulted in a swimmer's ear. Despite this he cannot risk making a risky move. He walked back to the hole and it is higher than what they have expected. Their wet clothes makes it harder to jump up. Zach looks around as Orlando walks back slowly, the big footsteps alerted Zach. It might be deaf, but it is not blind.

'slowly' Zach whispered. Orlando looked back and Zachary actioned by covering his mouth and walking around the big guy. Orlando nodded and does as he is told, he makes the smallest and slowest movement, fearing that it might kill Zach as well. The big guy which Zach identified as a 'Spittler' bumps on Orlando, the boy starts to cry as he knows what is coming for him. Zach looks for something he can throw at the boy.

'did.....I scar... you?' A accented voice came from the swollen creature. Suddenly it raised its hands and grabbed its head, twisted it and takes it off. An old bearded Russian appeared from it, Orlando being afraid fainted but he managed to grab him. Zach holds the short spear in a defensive manner.

"Follow.. if you want....live"

"....."

Zach nodded and followed the man as he walked slower, he gave Zachary Orlando and they headed up. He starts to get rid of his suit made from animal hide. Zach stands in shock and confusion the man asked him if he is 'bad man' to which he replied with a 'no'.

"Here, Vodka.. good for body"

"Thanks"

He grabs the alcohol and handed it Zach, as soon as it drank it he spat it out.

"Sorry, you must be kid"

"Yeah"

"Water"

"Thanks"

"You fall on trap"

"I guess we did"

The Russian grabbed a Russian-English dictionary and put on a pair of glasses. He skimmed through the book and says a word for every page he reads. 'Your....name' He asked with the thickest accent, Zachary failed to understand it. He leaned over and the man repeated it about 2 times, then he got it. Zachary introduced himself and Orlando, the Russian skimmed one more time through the books.

"Nice...meeting you"

"Me too"

"I'm Bogdan... nice meeting you"

Bogdan closed the book and offered his hand to shake, Zachary obviously accepts it. Bogdan smiles, he then pointed his fingers up to the ceiling as if he remembers something. He looked through bag in the corner of the room and grabbed a small juice bag. He gave it to Orlando with a smile.

"Not...cold.. but good"

"Thank you sir"

"Welcome"

Bogdan sat down and starts to write down simple phrases in order for him and Zachary to communicate properly. Zachary took a peek at what Bogdan is meticulously writing, his penmanship is quite good for writing in English. The phrase that he wrote was all about how he ended up in the village. He went to Phoenix for a vacation with his family, they wanted to have 'Great American Dream' but they did not. As soon as they got out of the airport a early form of the dead was already washing through the city. The military came and created a place where everyone can be extracted, but it was useless. He and his dog followed the Interstate in order to leave the city, they have been cooped up in the town since their arrival. He walked through both villages and grabbed everything he can find including the dictionary.

Until one day he wanted to wait for his family, news came by from the radio announcing the President's death. he soon realized that his dog was his only family until one day it became hungry, it jumped out through the window and chewed on a infected corpse. The dog slowly turned from showing the same symptoms of Rabies from it, he sadly had to take his dogs life. He stayed in his house surviving on the non-perishable that he had stocked up on. He booby trapped the whole village, only trapping them as he cannot bring himself to kill one.

"How'd you make the suit?"

"Animal skin... and clothes... and dead bones"

"Oh, smart"

"Sorry for... scaring"

'Sorry' and 'Scare' were one of the first words that he learned as he heard it screamed at him by a boy he once knew. The boy was bitten and he did not know how to cure it, he took care of him until he fully turned. He threw the boy through the window and stayed inside until it was also his dog's time.