One.

Faded green grasses crunched beneath her feet with every tired step she took. Days upon days of walking blindly through thin forests and across overgrown pastures had taken its toll on both her and her younger brother, who trailed feebly a few feet behind her. Relentless sunlight beat down upon them, tanning their exposed flesh. A burn was developing on the girl’s nose and it stung when she touched it.

“Can we sit down for a second?” the boy grumbled as he climbed over a stone embedded in loose soil. “We’ve been walking all day,”

“I know,” she replied, her eyes scanning the area ahead of her. Her gaze settled on a lone tree in the distance. “Let’s go to that tree over there so we can get out of the sun.”

She led him through tall stalks of grass, leaving a flattened path in their wake. The boy dragged his fingers along the grass to his sides until it became too short for him to reach. Gnarled roots gradually appeared, looping into and out of the dried earth below them.

Finally they reached the shade. The boy threw himself down at the base of the tree and leaned back against the trunk with his eyes closed. After swinging the light package off her back and brushing a few ants away, the girl sat down next to him and let out a sigh.

They sat there for a while, letting the sun sink lower in the sky and lose its intensity before heading out once again. For now, the shade granted by the wide leaves suspended above them provided welcome relief to their strained eyes and worn bodies. The boy quietly dozed off against the side of the tree under the watchful eye of his older sister, who longed to do the same. She knew that if she did, an animal might come by and steal their only food, or a storm would roll in over the plains without their knowledge and barrage them with a heavy downpour to which they had no real shelter from. A person could even walk by and kill them both in their sleep.

This was unlikely, of course. Neither of them had seen another person in days, and every house they had come across was vacant and raided: glass from broken windows covering the floor, bedrooms torn to pieces, and kitchen cabinets bare – save for the few things that were past or near their expiration dates and would not keep.

As the sun began to set to the west over a far ridge of mountains, the girl gently shook her brother awake. “Brian,” she called. He stirred.

“Hmm,”

“Come on. You should eat something.”

“Did you catch another rabbit?” he wondered quietly, his dark brown eyes barely open.

“No,” she said, opening the backpack held securely between her knees. “It’s just what’s left from earlier.”

“Oh,”

She pulled out the strip of fabric that held the last few pieces of charred rabbit meat and unwrapped it. The chalky smell of smoke and cooked meat wafted up at them. To her dismay, there were only three pieces left. She hurriedly grabbed two chunks and handed them to her brother, saving only one for herself before he noticed and refused his share. They ate their dinner slowly, consuming what she knew would be their last meal for a while if she didn’t catch any more.

Darkness settled quickly over the prairie. She didn’t light a fire because it wasn’t unbearably cold or breezy that night. Brian had moved slightly farther from her to a softer spread of ground to lie down on. Time passed and she figured he was fast asleep. She took a long look around. There wasn’t much to see in the moonlight-washed darkness, other than the wide open field whose grasses rippled like water in the wind.

Water. They hadn’t had any in a while, leaving their lips chapped and throats raw. To do tomorrow, she decided, tilting her head back and shutting her eyes.

“Jen?” asked a quiet voice from near her. She opened her eyes.

“Yes?”

“Where are we going?”

She stared across the land to where the black horizon blended with the edge of the Earth. “Away.”

—

Early morning sunlight radiated across the pastures and was filtered through the wide leaves of the tree, forming a patchwork of light on Jen’s face. The bright light shook her from her startlingly unpleasant dream of her parents and everyone else in their hometown who was swiped away by the epidemic. Entire countries and continents were decimated, including most or all of North America. For all Jen knew, she and Brian could have been the only two people left. This idea, although of great doubt in her mind, was a possibility that she was not ready to face head-on.

Brian was still asleep in the same position he had dozed off in, on his side in the dirt. He was so exhausted he hadn’t ever moved in his sleep. The same could be said of Jen, except for her foot that had slid off of a tree root.

Suddenly to her left side started a quiet munching. She flicked her eyes over without moving her head. A brown rabbit had hopped up alongside her in her sleep and was nibbling on some grass poking out of the ground. It was so close that if she reached out without extending her arm, she could pet it. But there was no time for that. She and Brian needed to eat.

Without another second’s hesitation, she pounced on the small animal and caught it beneath her. It wiggled free and took off; she scrambled to her feet and lunged at it, moving faster than she ever thought she could except out of desperation. Her forearm landed on top of it with a crunch as the rest of her body’s weight rained down on the creature. The rabbit struggled for another moment before becoming still. Jen winced. Sorry, little guy.

She carefully grabbed the rabbit around the neck and stood up, carrying her prize back to the tree with her. She had never caught a rabbit with her bare hands before – the first one, which they finished off last night, she had thrown a pocketknife at. The very same tool, stored away in a compartment in the backpack, was used to skin the animal.

She set a fire with loose twigs, some dead grass, and stone, and raised the rabbit above the flames on a splint. The smell of cooking woke Brian.

“You got another one!” he said, walking over to the fire. Smoke billowed up around them.

“Yeah.”

A few minutes later, she deemed the meat edible and pulled it off of the splint, dropping it onto the strip of cloth and cutting it up with the pocketknife. She gave two pieces to Brian and ate two herself before wrapping the meat in the fabric and zipping it away in the backpack.

“Alright, let’s keep going,” Jen decided, rising to her feet. They kicked dirt on the fire to smother it and continued on in the same direction. “We have to find water today. Keep your eyes open.”

As the sun rose higher above the horizon, the heat beating down on their faces intensified. Sometime midmorning they reached the crest of a tall hill and stopped for a break. Brian sat down in the grass but Jen remained standing, her squinted eyes fixated on a dark line at the edge of the field. It was a forest.

“There are trees over there,” she said. “Maybe there’ll be a stream or a pond nearby.”

“And what if there isn’t?” Brian wondered.

She stared at him. “Then we keep looking,” she said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “There has to be water around her somewhere.” Determined, she continued toward the small forest just out of their reach. Brian jumped up behind her and followed. As they approached the trees, individual leaves could be discerned blowing in the wind from the mass of green that lined the horizon.

The fields gradually faded into the wild foliage of the forest. Birds sang in the trees and flitted from branch to branch, oblivious to the state of the world around them. Beneath Jen and Brian’s feet, gnarled roots slithered up to the surface in an effort to trip them, stretching outward from the wide trees that towered above.

“Try to listen for running water,” Jen instructed her younger brother.

“I am,” he said.

They continued on into the darkness. Golden light streamed down through the branches above them and spotted the decaying forest floor, revealing small vegetation that rubbed against their legs. A jagged branch stuck out from one bush and scraped Jen’s hand as she walked by. She was starting to worry. The chirping of crickets and the singing of birds pierced the air and seemed so loud that it would be impossible to detect a stream. After half an hour she figured they wouldn’t be seeing any water at all. But their luck held: Brian had slid off the path while looking up at the canopy and not down at the uneven ground and fell onto a slope that led directly to a narrow flow of water. It was nearly inaudible and sounded more like the wind blowing than anything else. It was hidden behind dense foliage and if he hadn’t fallen they would have passed it. They rushed at it and like wild animals drank the cool water as though they hadn’t had any in weeks, when really it was only a few days since their last sip.

Jen filled the empty water bottle she had been carrying in her backpack to the top and stored it away somewhere on the bottom.

“I want to get out of the forest before it gets dark,” she said.

“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to stay hidden in here?”

“No,” she replied. “Not if there are bears. Now come on, I could see the field through the trees a little while ago. We can go out that way.”

They turned around and carefully retraced their steps back the way they came. After a little while Jen’s back started to hurt. The filled water bottle added extra weight to the backpack, making it more laborious to carry around.

“Do you think we’ll find any houses soon?” Brian asked.

“I have no idea. I don’t even know where we are, Brian,”

Jen’s excellent sense of direction enabled them to easily escape the darkness of the forest and return to the field. Brian tried protesting, saying that it would be better if they stayed in the forest, but Jen wouldn’t listen to him. They’d be better off in the grass than getting mauled by a bear in the middle of the night. After another two hours of walking, their legs cried out in protest. Sharp pain shot up from the base of their feet and their muscles ached to the bone. Brian asked if they could sit down, but Jen made him wait until they found a shady place to rest. Finally they came upon a young oak tree and collapsed gratefully below it. Brian laid down in the shade to take a nap and Jen sat down in the dirt. She soon laid down as well to relieve her sore back.

She was shaken awake by a hand on her shoulder.

“What is it, Brian . . .?” she asked sleepily. The sun had moved considerably across the sky and was now beating down on her. Her brother didn’t respond, but a twig snapped somewhere nearby. “Brian?” she opened her eyes and found herself looking down the length of an arrow, pulled back and ready to fire.

Her breath caught and she pulled herself upright. The young man aiming at her with the bow was somewhere around her age, and his tanned face was expressionless. He wore a gray T-shirt and green cargo pants, and an arrow sheath was slung over his shoulder. It was full.

The instant his eyes met Jen’s, his hardened expression faltered. His uncertainty could be read on his face like words on a page. An instant later his stiff appearance returned. “Who are you?” he asked. His voice seemed so foreign to her, so alien. She hadn’t heard a voice other than her brother’s in weeks.

Jen’s eyes flickered to the right. Brian was still lying on his back, hopefully fast asleep. “I’m—no one,” she said.

The stranger pulled back a bit more on the arrow, confident that it would not fly until he was done interrogating her. “Why are you here?”

“We have nowhere else to go—” The metal-tipped arrowhead glistened in the sunlight.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know,” she said truthfully. “We couldn’t stay in our town anymore. No one was left.”

He watched her steadily and then nodded in Brian’s direction. “Who’s he?”

There was no point in lying to him. He was holding her life in his hands, dangling it in front of her like bait for a fish. “My brother.”

“Asher!” A shadow jogged up beside the stranger, cast by another young man who was about the same age. He wore dark jeans and a black T-shirt, and his dark brown hair brushed his shoulders. “What’s going on here?”

“I went out to get supplies and I found these two asleep out here,” Ash said, never lessening his hold on the bow.

The newcomer looked down at Jen. “Where are you going?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Anywhere other than where we came from.”

“Are you with anyone else?”

“No,” she said.

He glanced around, almost as though he were suspicious someone was preparing to ambush them from behind. He checked over his shoulder, sunlight glinting off his rectangular glasses and blocking out his eyes with a white glare. Suddenly he pushed Ash’s tense arms down and started, “You know, why don’t you come with us?”

“Jay—” Ash protested.

“Why not? We could use the help.” Jay extended his hand to Jen. “We’ve set up camp not too far from here.”

Jen looked uncertainly at his hand. “And why should I trust you?”

“What other options do you have?”

He had a point there. She and Brian didn’t have anything other than her backpack and a pocketknife. Imagine Ash had shot first and neglected to ask questions. “Okay,” Jen agreed, grabbing his hand and helping herself up.

Jayden was struck by how tall and thin she was. Her jeans hung loosely around her waist and bunched up around the knees. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a long ponytail and a bad sunburn had developed on her freckled nose and cheekbones. He couldn’t tell if she had always been that thin or if she had lost a lot of weight since the breakout.

“I’m Jayden, by the way. And this is Asher.”

“I’m Jenna. That’s Brian.”

“He’s asleep I guess?”

“Yeah.”

Ash slung the bow over his chest. “You both look exhausted.”

“We’ve been walking for days,” she told them. “Probably around two weeks by now.”

Jayden asked, “Did you have anything to eat?”

“Yeah, we caught rabbits. I caught rabbits,” she clarified.

“You’re lucky you even got that much,” Jayden said. “Everything around here’s been raided.”

“There isn’t a crumb that someone hasn’t found,” Ash grabbed Jen’s backpack and handed it to her. “Sorry, I moved it away just in case.”

“It’s okay,” she said.

Jayden stepped out from under the tree and checked the Sun’s progression across the sky. “I want to get back to camp before it gets too dark. Go wake up your brother,”

“Okay.” She made her way over to her brother. In hushed voices, the two boys argued.

“Why are you trusting them?” Ash asked. “They could be spies.”

Jayden gestured toward the girl kneeling over her brother. Dirt was engrained in their skin and their hair was in desperate need of a wash. They both moved slowly for a lack of sustenance, as though they were each in a haze. “Look at them, Ash. If they were spies I think they’d look a little better than that.”

“You’re really going to base it on how they look?”

“That’s all we’ve got right now—that and her word.”

“She could be a good actress.”

Jayden sighed. “Then we’ll get the kid alone and talk to him tonight. See if their stories match up.”

“I’m sure they will,” Ash shook his head. “She’ll talk to him at some point.”

“Then we keep them occupied until we can talk to him. Introduce her to Mesha and the rest.”

Jen made her way back over to them and swung her backpack onto her back. Her younger brother stayed close behind her, occasionally flicking his eyes toward Ash and Jayden. Jen and the boy had strikingly similar features.

“We ready to go?” Jen asked them.

“Yeah,” Jayden started walking back the way he came and the rest followed. “Camp’s not far.”

He led them across the field. The light summer breeze danced across their skin and blew dust into Brian’s eyes, making them water. No one spoke until Ash broke the silence an hour later.

“The breakout feels like it was forever ago,” he said. “We’ve been out here since then . . . . Started in one place with a large group and then broke off.”

“Why? You didn’t want their help?” Jen asked.

“Well, it wasn’t just that,” Jayden said over his shoulder. “We weren’t exactly welcome there anymore.”

“Yeah,” Ash continued, “then we moved out here.”

Jen stepped around a large stone. “Are you guys alone?”

“No,” Jayden shook his head. “We met up with a group of girls a day or so ago. How many of them are there, Ash? Three?”

“Four,”

By the time they were in sight of the camp, the sun had sunk another hand or so lower. Near the start of some trees were three tents, set up in a triangular pattern around the charred remains of a campfire. A tall pile of supplies was stacked haphazardly near the lightest colored tent, squared off by thin logs. Another log was laid nearby, and seated upon it was a girl slightly younger than Jen and the rest; she had tanned skin and dark hair that was woven back into a loose braid. When she heard the gravel crunch beneath their feet, she looked up.

“New recruits,” Jayden announced, heading over to the light-colored tent. “Just picked them up off the plain.”

Ash introduced them. “Jen and Brian, that’s Daniela. Where are the rest of them?” he asked Daniela.

“Kiara, Mesha, and Mackenzie ran off to get more water,” Daniela explained. “They’ll be back.”

Ash gestured toward one of the tents. “You can put your stuff down over there.” He walked over to the pile of supplies and took off his quiver. “Hey, Jayden!” he called.

“Yeah?” came Jayden’s voice from inside his tent.

“Do we have another tent?”

“Uh, probably on the bottom of the pile.”

“Of course,” Ash muttered, shaking his head. “Can you guys give me a hand with this?”

“Sure,” Jen said.

“Okay,” Daniela agreed. They each grabbed some bags and started chipping away at the pile of supplies. Ash grabbed items off the top and handed them to Jen, who then put them on the ground behind her. Daniela, working alone on the other side, pulled on a bag that was lower in the pile. Like a landslide, pots, pans, blankets, and sleeping bags came rolling to the ground at their feet.

“Shit,” Ash groaned.

Jen looked down at the mess. “Well, at least it’s spread out now,”

“Ha, yeah,”

“I’ll organize this stuff,” she offered. “You guys keep looking.” She started picking up items that had rolled to the ground and dusted the dirt off them. After another few minutes of work, Ash called out.

“Found one!” Its pieces were zipped inside a heavy gray canvas bag that had indeed been buried at the bottom of the pile. He heaved the package up onto a log. “I was starting to think you’d be sleeping on the grass tonight.”

“That’s what we’ve been doing anyway,” Jen said, rising to her feet. “Where do you want to put it?”

“Somewhere over here. You know how to set up a tent?”

“No,” she said.

“Alright, I’ll get Jayden to help.”

Jayden called out from inside his tent. “What are you volunteering me for?”

“Setting up the spare tent. I need another set of hands.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll be there in a second.”

While Ash got a head start on unpacking the tent parts, Jen and Daniela sat down on the log. “What’s he so busy doing in there?” Jen asked. “It’s not like he’s hiding a TV from us or anything,”

“He’s making maps. At least, that’s what Mackenzie said that Asher said.”

“Making maps? Why?”

“I don’t know.” She pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. “Guess it’ll help us find supplies more easily if we know what’s around.”

Jen scratched at her sunburn. It looked much worse than it was because it strikingly contrasted her pale skin. “So how did you guys wind up with them?”

“We were looking for supplies in a small town nearby. Turned the corner of a building and Jayden and Asher were coming up the street toward us. Jayden asked us some questions before telling us we’d better stick with him, that a group of girls shouldn’t be out there alone. And he’s right, we don’t know where we are or who’s out there. And if we did run into someone, we didn’t have any weapons to protect ourselves with.”

Brian walked up to them. “Where’s the water bottle?” he asked Jen.

“Bottom of the backpack,” she said. “Do you really need it right now?”

“Yeah,”

Daniela turned to Jen. “Don’t worry about the water. Mackenzie and her sisters are filling up a bunch of containers at a stream nearby.”

“Oh, okay. Go ahead, then, Brian. Big pocket on the bottom.”

Brian ran off to grab the backpack, nearly slamming into Jayden who suddenly exited his tent. The kid apologized but Jayden didn’t say anything.

Daniela continued, “So Jayden said you guys were out on the plains somewhere?”

“Yeah, we’ve been wandering around.”

“Where did you guys sleep?”

“On the ground without blankets or sleeping bags. And we had some at home, too. I thought we’d find somewhere to stay and wouldn’t need them.”

Daniela looked at the small backpack that Brian was rifling through. “So that’s all your stuff, then?”

“Yep. And there isn’t much in that bag, either.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing they found you guys. Brian’s your brother, right?”

“Yes.”

“How old is he?”

“He’s ten. His birthday was right before the break.”

“So, two months ago?”

“About that.”

“How long have you two been out?”

Jen shrugged. “Two weeks, maybe? I lost track. We left once we were out of supplies.”

“That’s what happened to us, too. Mackenzie, Kiara, and Mesha are sisters and they met up with me. We hadn’t been out for long before Jayden and Asher found us.”

“Were you alone?” Jen raised her eyebrows.

Daniela fell silent. Her eyes drifted to the side and stared distantly beyond Jen. “Well, uh, I was with a friend of mine. We knew each other from school. But he, um, he died.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” Jen said. “I’m really sorry I mentioned—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Daniela smiled. “It’s okay.”

From behind them, a new voice sounded. “Jayden! Where do you want these?”

Jen looked over her shoulder. Three girls about her and Daniela’s age were walking out from the edge of the forest, each carrying one or two water jugs. All three girls had long, striking blonde hair and similar features. Two of them were twins and the third must have been a younger sister.

The girl who had called out was one of the twins, and when she walked up to Jayden and Ash, both busy erecting the tent, she placed the heavy containers on the ground.

Jayden considered the campground. “Uh, how about over there by your tent?”

“Alright,” she picked them up. She and the other two made their way past Jen and Daniela.

Daniela stood. “You should meet them. Wait here.” She followed them over to the other side of the camp. Jen stoop up and looked around. When she caught Brian’s eye, she gestured for him to come over to her.

The sisters made their way to the newcomers with Daniela trailing close behind.

“Hi! When did you get here?” asked the other twin.

Jen shrugged. “A few minutes ago.”

The twin that had spoken earlier introduced her to them. “I’m Mackenzie,” she said and then gestured to her twin, “this is Kiara, and that’s Mesha.”

“Hi,” Jen smiled. “I’m Jen, this is Brian. It’s nice to meet you guys,”

“You too!” Mackenzie said. “Did Jayden find you?”

“Ash did,” Jen corrected. She laughed, “We were asleep under a tree and when I woke up, he was standing there with an arrow, ready to shoot me.”

Daniela gasped. “You didn’t tell me that!”

“Must have slipped my mind,”

“How do you forget someone threatened to kill you?” Mesha laughed.

“I don’t know.”

“Alright, Jen, your tent is set,” Jayden said from behind them. He dusted his hands off. “Why don’t you grab your stuff and get yourself set up??”

“Sure,” Jen said, looking back at him over her shoulder. “Thank you.” He returned to his tent without another word.

“I swear, that boy doesn’t say more than five words before he disappears again,” Mackenzie joked.

Mesha’s eyes had settled on the closed flap of Jayden’s tent. “He’s always sitting alone in there, I wish he’d come out once and a while.”

“Well, you know him,” Ash said, making his way over to them with a stack of folded blankets and two pillows. “There are for you and Brian,” he told Jen, dropping them into her arms.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. You might want to get them set up now because we’re going to start cooking dinner.”

Brian asked, “Can I help you start the fire?”

“Sure,” Ash said. “Let’s go grab some wood from the pile over there.”

While the boys headed off to get firewood, Jen walked over to her new tent. It was small but she figured it would be roomy enough to fit her and Brian, who was a little more than half her height. Ash had given her two blankets, but she didn’t think they’d need the second one. It was too warm, even for mid-September, for them to use it. So instead of returning the spare to the supply pile, she folded it in half and laid it across the bottom to make the ground a bit softer to lie on.

Outside her tent, Brian and Ash were getting themselves situated by the campfire. They placed the logs in a pyramid formation and dropped twigs around it to help the fire catch.

While trying to start the fire by grinding a stick into a flat board, Ash asked, “So how did you and your sister wind up out here? She didn’t really say.”

“Oh.” Brian watched white smoke trail up from the wood. “We ran out of supplies at home so we left to find more.”

Ash blew on the small flame that had appeared on the plank. “What happened to everyone in your town? Couldn’t you have shared with them?”

“Jen said they were all gone. That they either died or left.”

“Show how’d you guys end up here, then? Were you with anyone else?” he watched the boy closely. Everything else up to this point was matching up to Jen’s story. If the kid said one thing off the mark, he’d have a problem on his hands.

“No, we were alone. We followed the highways toward New York City and used the bridges to get to New Jersey.”

Ash took a deep breath. The newcomers were telling the truth. But just to be safe, Ash continued his questioning. “You guys came all the way from Long Island and didn’t see anyone at all?”

“Well, we saw people, but we didn’t speak to them.”

Good. “And why’d you guys come out this far, anyway?”

“I don’t know. Jen just wanted to keep going.”

“Oh, okay.” Ash stood up. The fire had grown considerably and gray smoke blew into their faces in the breeze. “I’m going to get dinner started. You should go grab your sister.”

“Okay,” Brian said, climbing back onto his feet and heading off to find Jen.

Jayden’s tent conveniently neighbored the pile of supplies, so when Ash walked over and knelt down between them to rifle through a bag of canned goods he could speak to Jayden in private.

“Their stories match up, Jayden,” he muttered. “They never spoke to anyone or received help.”

“That’s great. Still keep an eye on them, though.”

Ash returned to his feet and carried a few cans of baked beans and creamed corn back to the campfire. He cut the tops open and set them on a metal try over the fire. Slowly the group convened around him. Mackenzie and Kiara threw down a blanket on the dirt and settled themselves there while Mesha and Daniela sat down on one of the logs. Jen eventually sat with them, and Brian lowered himself to the grass and leaned against the wood. Meanwhile, Ash passed around the cans and utensils. After a few minutes Jayden emerged from his tent, grabbed some corn, and sat alone on the other log.

Darkness settled over the land quickly and engulfed everything in blackness. Millions of tiny stars flecked the sky and melted away into the horizon, which could only be discerned because of the lack of light emanating from it. The golden light of the campfire illuminated their faces and cast long shadows on the ground around them. Sitting around the campfire eating and joking around reminded Jen of the times she would visit her friends during the summer and sit by their fire pits, roasting marshmallows. They were all dead, of course. They had either died or left the country.

Jen placed her empty can of mixed vegetables on the ground and looked up at the sky, mesmerized by the brilliance of the stars and the immensity of the purple and blue stretch of the galaxy visible above them. A meteorite streamed across the sky and the bright white trail left in its wake faded just as instantly as it had appeared.

Finally she and Brian had a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs and the protection of six other individuals. She was glad they were safe.

Two.

 

Jen awoke the next morning with a bony knee jabbing her in the back. Ugh, Brian, she thought, shoving his outstretched leg away. She climbed to her feet and pushed through the tent door.

Clouds had descended upon the area overnight and blanketed the sky in a tired, cold gray. The early morning breeze was icy and it chipped away at Jen’s bare arms. Rubbing away the goosebumps, she sat down on a log and stared longingly at the blackened campfire. She considered setting a fire, but she wasn’t sure if Jayden wanted one so early in the day. The smoke could be visible for miles around and she surely did not want to bring any visitors this way.

The camp itself was quiet, save for the muted snores of Jayden and/or Ash—the sound was coming from somewhere on their side of the camp. It seemed she was the only one awake and she had no idea how early it was. She couldn’t estimate the time by looking at the position of the sun because of the rainclouds that loomed above, and she didn’t know if Jayden and Ash had a clock around here anywhere. Not that it really mattered, they didn’t have a schedule to meet. This was a different world now: no bustling cities and overcrowded railroad stations, no traffic on the roads at rush hour, and no casual window shopping in town squares as she and her friends had done so often at home.

She stretched out her legs into the grass. A single rat was to blame for this – or, at least, that’s what the public had been told. The story was that a rat somewhere in South America had become infected with the virus and then came in contact with other rats. Eventually, those that made it onto trading vessels and overseas carried it with them, infecting the larger rodent population. In poorer areas of cities the rats came in close contact with dogs or cats, who then passed the virus onto humans. The illness spread like the Black Plague and decimated the population, confounding scientists and doctors who could not develop a cure.

The symptoms were widely known because warnings had been plastered all over television, the radio, and billboards. The virus started with flu-like symptoms: chills, fatigue, and a sore throat, and rapidly developed into something much worse. Persistent dizziness and weight loss came next, majorly because of the inability to eat anything without heaving it back up again. A horrible dry cough would descend afterwards, becoming so acute that many people cracked ribs. A few days of pain and suffering would be topped off with the deterioration of muscle and organ tissue, causing internal bleeding. And if it wasn’t the bleeding that got you, it was the abnormally high fever.

People blamed the researchers that decoded the Mayan calendar. Some said that the world ending in 2012 was a lie manufactured by governments meant to brainwash the public into working toward a common end. Others agreed with this statement, but furthered the argument to say that the unknown common goal was to be prepared for the real end of days in 2014, which the government had been aware of but kept a secret. Not that any of that could be proven, of course. No one could possibly have known that a rat would develop a mutated disease in the midsummer of 2014 and spread it so widely that it would bring the world to a stand-still by August. At least there weren’t any zombies roaming around like the media proposed.

Daniela emerged from her tent, tired circles under her eyes and her hair a mess. “Good morning,” she whispered, sitting down on the log across from Jen.

“Morning,” Jen breathed.

“Gosh it’s cold!” she gasped. “When did you get up?”

“Little while ago, no one else is up.”

Jen figured that after a while it would get warmer, but it hadn’t. Daniela yawned. “I wonder what Jayden will make us do today?”

“What, he puts you guys to work?”

“More often than not,” she said. “I’ve been here for four days and I’ve already chopped firewood, set up tents, carried the wood back here, and hunted squirrels. The other three helped hunting and stuff, but still. He always finds something for us to do.” She undid her knotted hair and brushed her fingers through it. Her fingers moved quickly when retying the braid; halfway completed, her fingers froze. “Jen . . .” she whispered.

“Yeah?”

Her eyes were locked on something over Jen’s shoulder. “Don’t turn around, but there’s a man in the woods.”

“What?!” Jen instinctively jerked around.

“I said don’t turn around!” Daniela’s voice strained. The man stood just within the shade of the forest, his lower body and any possible weapons he carried hidden behind a tall plant. He stood close enough that they could see his dark eyes scan the campground, jumping from the girls to the tents to the supplies and then back to the girls. Something was tied around his waist and pulled down on his sleeveless, yellow T-shirt. Slowly he reached for it, and Jen rose to her feet to get a better look. Daniela jumped up behind her, her unfinished braid abandoned down her back.

The man pressed a filthy finger to his lips, a smile creeping up around his eyes.

“Morning,” Jayden’s voice started sleepily from across camp. He climbed to his feet and cracked his neck, the tent flap swinging shut behind him. Neither Daniela nor Jen responded. “Is something wrong?”

Daniela broke her gaze away from the stranger. “Jayden—”

“There’s someone in the forest,” Jen said bluntly. She was looking at Jayden now, too.

“What?” He made his way over to them.

“Right . . .” Daniela gestured in the direction of the outsider. When her eyes located the place in which he stood, all she saw was a dark entrance to the forest. “. . . there.” The man was gone.

“He’s gone?!” Jen gasped.

“Who was it?” Jayden asked.

“How are we supposed to know?” Daniela said.

“Well, what did he look like?”

“Tall, older than us, dark hair,” Jen remembered. “Yellow muscle shirt and he has something strapped to his waist, probably a weapon of some sort.”

“Could you determine what it was?” Jayden asked.

“No. That bush was in the way.”

Jayden sighed. “Of course it was.” His eyes settled on where the man had been. “That’s a good enough description for now. Daniela,” he commanded, “you help me wake everyone. Jen, you stand watch. If you see anything, call me right away.”

“Will do.” she said.

“Oh, and you might want this . . .” he ran back to his tent and pulled a long, black package out from inside and forced it into her hand. “I hope to God you never have to use it.”

Jen unzipped the casing and pulled down on the material to see what was inside, even though she had a pretty good idea of what it may be. A strong wooden handle stuck out on top. She pulled down on the case to reveal the longest blade she had ever seen. Never had she thought she would be standing guard at a campsite with a machete in hand.

Jayden and Daniela hastily made their way around the camp, throwing open tents and shaking the occupants awake. While Jen scanned the edge of the forest she could hear their voices: “Come on, guys, get up. Wake up, someone’s here. There’s a man in the forest, Mesha, you have to wake up.” Jen readjusted her hold on the machete. The blade felt heavy in her hands and she held it away from her at a strange angle that made it clear that she was afraid of it. Discomfort and fear were things an enemy could take advantage of, but Jen couldn’t help but to have a pained expression across her face. Just the thought of striking the blade down upon another being and tearing the life out of him with a flick of her wrist made her stomach ache, even if it would save her own life in the end. She hoped the man was gone so that she’d never have to use the weapon, but it was more likely that he hid away in the brush and watched them from a distance; sizing up the group and preparing to pounce on them like a wild animal hunting its prey.

Jayden called out to her. “Anything yet, Jen?”

“No.”

The group had assembled around the campfire looking tired and disheveled. While Mackenzie struggled to adjust her knot of hair, Jayden stepped up onto one of the logs and cut right to the chase, skipping over the Good morning’s and the I’m sorry we woke you’s. “We’re looking for a man with black hair and a yellow shirt. He was close by only a few minutes ago so he couldn’t have gotten far. Grab something from the pile to use as a weapon and follow my lead.” Everyone immediately went over to the supplies to find a blade, except for Ash who picked up his bow.

 

Jayden pulled a knife from its sheath and considered the members of his little militia. If they had to fight, it would be an Eight vs. One and they’d certainly win.

But what about Jen’s little brother? He’s ten, much too young to take on an adult man. He would have to stay back at camp—Jayden caught himself off guard. What was he thinking? They couldn’t leave camp abandoned: that is exactly what the outsider would want them to do. It must have been his exhaustion overcoming him. He hadn’t slept well that night and he felt like he was in a daze.

He cleaned off his glasses on the hem of his shirt as he walked up to Asher, who was busy filling his quiver with arrows. “Ash,” he said, returning his glasses to his eyes, “I want you to stay here with Brian. We can’t leave the camp abandoned, and he’s too young to come with us. Keep him in a tent, and Kiara and Mesha can help you defend the place.”

“Are you sure you won’t need another set of hands? What if it’s a trap and there are thirty grown men waiting for you in there?”

“We can get out if we have to. We can move faster now that there’ll be four of us, and we’ll all be armed. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Ash positioned his quiver on his back. “I wish you the best of luck.”

Jayden instructed Kiara and Mesha to stay behind, and then gathered Jen, Mackenzie, and Daniela and led them into the forest. “Keep your eyes open,” he said, cutting through the underbrush with a large knife. He had let Jen hold onto the machete.

 

They had walked considerably into the forest without seeing anything that might point them in the direction of the outsider. Jen’s palm was sweating against the handle of her blade so she wiped her hand on her shirt. She wasn’t the only one nervous, she was certain of that. Mackenzie and Daniela had likely never been faced with such a threat before.

The loud snap of a branch breaking to the right sent needles of ice shooting through their veins and to their cores. They stopped and listened intently, all eyes searching the same area while Jen covered their backs.

“Spread out,” Jayden muttered suddenly. They each stepped forward.

Jen headed off to the right of where the sound had come from, carefully walking across the decaying, wet ground. If she lost her footing and slipped she’d probably impale herself on the weapon she carried so cautiously.

A cold breeze dragged its nails over her skin and left goosebumps in its wake. What if the man had perched himself in a tree and patiently waited for her to walk beneath him? With a blade drawn he could land on her back and slit her throat without Jen ever knowing what had happened. She wouldn’t even be able to scream before death settled over her, and no one else would know what happened to her, either.

In the darkness the summer green leaves were almost indiscernible from the fall reds and browns that had emerged only recently but already coated the forest. The wind rustled the dying leaves above her and tossed her hair around. A storm was coming and it was settling quickly over the area.

She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The wind was so loud that it was impossible to hear more than the crunch of her own footsteps and the anxious pounding of her heart.

Then the wind ceased. It had happened so abruptly it was as though a window was closed on the world. She stopped moving and listened intently to her surroundings, becoming so engrossed and concentrated that she closed her eyes. A second later she jolted herself out of her trance. Not being able to see the enemy could mean the difference between life and death.

Inhale, exhale. The forest smelled of wet wood and rain, and the smell sent a flood of reassurance over her. The tension in her shoulders and back was released. Maybe the man was gone. She took a step forward.

A scream pierced the air and reverberated off the trees. Who was that? Where did it come from? She glanced around nervously. Had it been her own scream? Was she being attacked and hadn’t realized yet, or was she already dead? Air pumped into and out of her lungs. No, she wasn’t hurt. But if it wasn’t her, then who was? It clearly hadn’t been Jayden and it certainly didn’t sound like Mackenzie. It must have been Daniela.

“Daniela?” Jen called out. Her voice shook. “Daniela?!”

Another scream answered from somewhere to her left. “Daniela!” she yelled, hurrying toward the sound but careful enough not to trip and hurt herself. In the distance she could hear Jayden shout, “Daniela! Where are you?”

“Over here!” Daniela screeched. Her voice was abruptly choked off.

Jen rounded a wide tree and there, right there in front of her, was the man in the yellow shirt. He had pinned Daniela up against a tree and wrapped a filthy hand around her throat. His other hand held a knife close to her face.

Jen’s legs had rooted themselves in place. She wanted to help, she wanted to free Daniela and run far away. But another part of her wanted to melt into the forest floor and disappear. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her heart and relax her muscles but nothing she did seemed to work. She wiped her hands on her shirt again.

Daniela’s eyes were fastened to her over the man’s shoulder. From that distance, it was too dark in the forest to see the tears that streaked her face, but the stranger could see them perfectly well. Once he noticed she was no longer looking in terror at him and rather at something off behind him, he spun around; his left hand holding her pinned to the tree with the knife still secured in his fist. His cold stare landed on Jen, and then flicked down to the long blade in her hands. A wicked smile crossed his face, crinkling the mats of dirt that had been caked onto his skin. Although he exerted very little effort, he pushed Daniela to the ground with such force that all of the wind was knocked out of her. And like a panther stalking its prey, he drifted toward Jen.

Jen held her ground, adjusting her hold on the blade and taking a deep breath. Already she could feel her traction-less Converse sneakers sliding on the wet ground. The promise of winning the machete would be the end of her. There was no doubt. The fear in her eyes could be read like words on a page, and the man fed off it like a vampire feeds on blood. He was close to her now, he could almost see the tension in her muscles; before she could react and swing the blade out from her side, stars erupted across her vision and she crumpled to the ground.

“Jen!” Daniela croaked between coughs, struggling to regain her breath.

The machete skidded off to the side when she hit the ground but Jen was too afraid to take her eyes off the man to look for it. With a blind hand she clawed at the ground in search of the thing, hoping not to cut herself on the blade. And just as her fingers brushed the handle, she was pulled up onto her feet and thrown to the side.

The world was spinning and spinning and it seemed it would never stop until her back slammed into a tree. There was dirt on her face and leaves in her hair that poked into her scalp. Just a few feet away were two black boots. Would this be the end? After joining this group specifically to stay safe, would she be killed in cold blood?

Slowly the man lifted his prize from the ground, his eyes hungry to see what damage the weapon could do. With a sideways grin he approached Jen and gently he used the end of the blade to push her long hair off her chest.

“Please!” The word had escaped Jen’s lips without her permission and the instant it was out, she implored it to come back. I don’t want to die.

The man lifted the blade above his head and just as he was about to strike it down, his smile faded and morphed into a wide “O” and his arms froze in the air above him. Time had stopped, and like a slow motion video he fell to his knees and then flat onto his face, a glint of silver poking from his shirt visible only for an instant and surrounded by splotches of red. As he fell, the machete skirted across Jen’s chest, cutting her across the breastbone. She gasped; it stung like hell.

The body lay next to her, completely and unarguably dead. Jen’s mind reeled and her heart raced. It took a moment for her to pull her eyes off of the knife that stuck out of the man’s back and look up. In the distance sat Daniela, wiping her eyes while being consoled by Mackenzie, whose body was blocked by a denim pant leg. Jen looked up. Jayden stood above her and the body, his jaw set and his eyes stone cold and distant. He didn’t seem angry, and he wasn’t happy to see Jen alive, either. In fact, he didn’t even seem to notice her at all. In one quick movement he tore the knife from the man’s back and then bent down to search him.

Jen pulled herself up after carefully pushing the machete off of her and to the side. Pine needles and flakes of dirt stuck to her back and her cut stung. She dusted off her hand and gently touched the area. “Ah!” Her hand jerked away, her fingers covered in blood.

Jayden looked up suddenly as if noticing her for the first time. “You okay?”

“No—I got cut by the machete.”

His eyes fell on her cut, a long, thin line that ran parallel to her collar bones. There was blood dripping down her chest and absorbing into her shirt. “Oh!” He pocketed something and then jumped to his feet to help her up. “Grab the machete, we’ll head back to camp. There’s a first aid kit there. Just keep pressure on it for now.”

She picked up the accursed machete and made her way over to Mackenzie, who looked both tense and relieved at the same time. Poor Daniela remained on the ground and was still shaken, hot tears dripping down her face. When Jen asked if she was okay, she didn’t say anything; instead, she climbed to her feet and dusted herself off.

Jayden led them back to camp in silence. Finally the peak of a tent was visible; they had gone much farther into the forest than Jen realized. The small amount of light that passed through the clouds fell onto their eyes for the first time since waking up that morning, and they were temporarily blinded by it. Hovering on the edge of the forest just beneath the first few trees were Kiara and Ash, armed with a knife and bow respectively. Behind them, the camp was being soaked by the light rain that had begun to fall while they were deep in the forest. Mesha and Brian could be seen huddling within a single tent on the far side of camp, the flaps propped open.

At the sound of the rustle of the foliage, Ash and Kiara started, raising their weapons before them.

Jayden stepped around a tree. “It’s just us,” he said.

“You scared me!” Kiara said, lowering her knife to her side. Jayden drifted past both of them without saying a word, his hand concealing something that bulged from his pants pocket.

Ash hurried up next to him. “Did you find him?”

“Yep,” Jayden snapped. He disappeared into his tent, the flaps swinging shut behind him.

 

They ate breakfast beneath the trees in order to escape the heavy downpour that had started over the camp. Ash chopped down a few small trees with an axe he had found days ago in a toolshed and laid the logs in the grass so they could all sit. Mackenzie and Kiara sat at a distance with Daniela in order to calm her down while they ate; Jen, meanwhile, sat alone. She stared into the dirt at her feet, mindlessly picking at the bandage on her chest that irritated her skin.

Had Jayden been a second later in getting to that clearing, Jen would be dead. That man would have killed her, and probably gone back for Daniela as well.

Suddenly Ash rose to his feet and walked out into the rain. His feet sunk into the mud and splattered the bottom of his pants with every step he took, and the rain dotted his back and shoulders. Jen’s eyes followed him over to Jayden’s tent. He stood outside it and said something—she couldn’t hear him from that distance over the sound of the rain on the trees above her. He continued to speak to Jayden, but it didn’t look like he was getting a response. Finally, soaked and exasperated, he jogged back to the girls.

“He won’t say anything,” he muttered, throwing himself down on the log near Jen. “Would someone tell me what happened in there?”

Jen’s eyes stayed fixed on Jayden’s tent. “The man attacked Daniela and then me. He would have killed me if Jayden hadn’t gotten him first.”

“Jay killed him?”

“Yeah,” she said.

Mesha watched them from afar. “Did you say Jayden killed that man?”

Jen nodded in her direction. “Has he ever killed anyone before?”

Ash ran a hand back through his wet hair. “Once, I think. Yeah, once. And that was only because he was forced to.”

“Someone made him kill?”

“Yep. Last group we were with was pretty militaristic.”

“Is that why you left them?”

“No. They were falling apart, being constantly raided by different individuals. We left to protect ourselves. But I only met Jay there, I don’t know anything about his life prior to that.”

A raindrop fell through the leaves and landed on Jen’s arm. She brushed it away. “You know, he did find something on the man’s body. I didn’t see what it was because he put it in his pocket.”

“I’m sure it was just a knife or something. If it was anything serious he’d tell me.”

Impressum

Texte: Jenna Marie
Bildmaterialien: Bookrix
Lektorat: Jenna Marie
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.06.2015

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