Pt Four-Five

5

Emily got back the next morning, short one person. She proceeded to tell the traveler the story of what happened when they had left the camp. They had walked for about five hours and it was of course extremely dark. Emily’s eyes were good in the dark and she didn’t have the need for any kind of light source for her to be able to see her surroundings. She couldn’t say the same for the two people in her group. She had told one of them to watch the back of the line while they were walking and he had concurred saying he would keep a close watch on the flank. After awhile, Emily put her hand back to signal the two to stop.

“I think there is something in front of us,” she whispered to the two, “Probably about twenty five feet or so. You two hold back and wait I will be right back.”

The two men protested heavily at first, not sure if they wanted Emily to go by herself just in case they were needed. She assured them that she would be perfectly fine going by herself and that she had been in this situation on more then one occasion. They finally agreed and she slowly made her way to the objects that she could barely make out in the dark. As she drew closer she could her the familiar moaning and groaning that was associated with zombies. There were three of them that she could make out and after watching and examining for a few moments making sure there weren’t any extras wandering around she decided to make her move.

She withdrew two curved knifes that she was practically fond of, she had found them almost a year ago in an abandoned warehouse a couple miles outside of Pittsburg. Calvin had been with her then. She quickly fought back the memories that tried to come back and flood her. It was no use thinking of him now, he was probably dead he had been taken by the men almost two days ago. And where he went no one ever came back from. Emily knew she would see him again someday, in another time after her time in the world was past, but that time was a long ways off.

Emily rushed the zombie that was most to the rear it’s back was turned to her so she easily walked up behind it, put both the knives together so that they resembled a pair of scissors and squeezed them together. The zombies head rolled forward as blood squirted into the night sky. Emily felt a few drops splash against her cheek but she paid it no mind. She was so use to it now it no longer bothered her like it use to. They were no longer human and she had no reason to feel sorry for any of them. They were now agents of the enemy and had to be eliminated. One of the zombies started to turn in her direction, she hit the ground and rolled to the opposite direction and came up thrusting both knives into the zombies back and then pulled them away from each other. Both halves of the zombies body fell away from each other, the top half was still moving the zombie was moaning and groaning louder then before and the third one noticed. Emily walked over and put one of her knives into the second zombies brain before she focused her attention on the third and final one.

The last zombie was almost on her it arms were outstretched, trying to grab Emily but she was faster then it was. With one knife she sliced at the zombies left arm at the elbow, blade met flesh as the arm fell to the ground, Emily could her the spraying of blood but the zombie came at her unfazed trying to grab her with it’s other arm. She rolled once again under its swipe and came up, thrusting a knife into the zombies belly. Before it could get a chance to sink its teeth into her, she brought it up all the way to the neck, sending all of it’s organs splashing to the ground. She brought the other knife around, colliding it with the zombies neck, sending its head flying into the night.

Emily crouched down, she viewed her surroundings trying to sense if any other ones were out there. She realized she was looking towards the two men that she had left waiting twenty five feet behind her. But now she could make out three shapes in the dark. She immediately ran towards them not yelling because she didn’t want to alert anymore zombies that might be close to them. She was not fast enough, just as she was about to reach them a yell of pain filled the night and then gunfire soon after. She approached the location, the zombie was dead on the ground the other man had shot it directly in the head. Not bad for a rookie, Emily thought. But their companion the second man was on the ground holding his neck, he was shaking uncontrollably, going into shock.

“What are we going to do,” The marksman said.

Emily crouched down to the man on the ground and put a hand to his neck. Blood was coming out of the wound almost non-stop, every so often their was a spray against her hand which meant the worst.

“It looks like they hit the artery,” Emily said looking down at the man. “You are going home today brother.”

She removed the mans hand from the wound and took both of his hands into hers. She closed her eyes and began to pray, leading her brother home with a peaceful end. After several moments the man was completely motionless, Emily reached over and closed his eyes and kissed his forehead as a tear streamed down her cheek. See you around, she thought to herself.

Those moments from the night before were playing back in her head as she rejoined the group the following morning. It had to be no earlier then five or so but there was already activity all around her. He didn’t die for nothing, Emily thought, at least we got somewhere to go out of all this. She came to the tree that the traveler had spoken such brave words the day before and as she saw him she could tell that there had been a change in the man, even just overnight. He smiled as he saw her and she smiled back feeling safe and secure in this new era of their life.

“Welcome back,” The traveler said, looking over the two returning people, “Weren’t there three of you?”

“We lost one.” Emily said a somber look on her face.

“Well,” the traveler said with a look of sadness on his face, “Lets hope his loss was for nothing. At least he is in a better place now.”

“Yes he is,” Emily said nodding, “And his loss was for nothing. I found somewhere that’s perfect for us.”

She continued to describe what they had found in the early hours of the morning. A series of caves about six hours away, with almost nothing in sight of it as far as she could tell. She didn’t go in too deep of course, not without backup in case they got loss but she felt really good about it and felt it was where they needed to go.

“Alright,” the traveler began, “Luke, I want you to start rounding everybody up. Tell them to gather as much as possible make sure you take everything that you found with you. Leave me an MP5 and some shotgun ammo the rest goes with you. Emily I want you to show everyone where this place is, take them straight there with no detours.”

“Where are you going?” Emily asked.

The traveler thought over his next words very carefully. He knew that she wasn’t going to like them regardless of what he said. The traveler wanted to make sure she was safe and the only way that he could make sure that happened was to be far away from where he was going.

“Marcus and I have somewhere else to go. We have to go alone though, no one is to follow us. You are in charge Emily, keep them safe until we get back.”

“Are you kidding me?” Emily asked.

The traveler stood there, the expression on his face as serious as it had ever been. He shook his head instead of speaking knowing that nothing he said would change the way she felt.

“After everything that has happened now I get to baby sit?” Emily asked once again, “Do you think I can’t handle it? You know I can handle it you have seen me against them they don’t stand a chance.”

“You are the only one I trust to lead them to where they need to go. Marcus is a soldier, Luke is too young, you were the closest to Eli, you are the one that makes the most sense.”

Emily was to going to once again object but she was suddenly empty and the realization came upon her that the traveler was right. She was the only one that made sense, she knew all these people she had spent the last two and a half years or so with them, so it did make the most sense for her to lead them where they needed to go.

“Very well,” She agreed. “Don’t you two do anything stupid, especially you Marcus.”

“Me?” Marcus asked with an innocent smirk on his face. “I wouldn’t think of it.”

The four new friends began to laugh at the joke enjoying this moment together. They all knew that after they split up there was a good chance that none of them would see each other again alive.