Afternoon Jog

He had his bag, my bag, and Brandon's bag full of what looked like water, snacks, and jerky, if he had anything else I couldn't see it through the open zipper. He was offering a hand to me with a panicked look on his face. I shot one last glance at Brandon and took Trey's hand pulling the zipper closed as I threw the heavy bookbag onto my back properly, and bolted out of the door that leads to the cabins. We hit someone or something on the way through the door but didn't stop to care. Halfway through our "jog", I noticed the corner of something that kept hitting me in my lower back and it was starting to hurt.

"Are the textbooks... Still in here?" I was getting tired and almost slipped four times now.

"I was in a rush, give me a break." I smiled and tried my best to match his stride.

It didn't work.

There was a portion of my brain that wondered what we hit on the way out of the door so, I looked back to see the man that Tiana chased away sprinting after us bloody and chewed up with Tiana and two others hot on our trail. Needless to say, I picked up the pace matching stride with Trey pretty easily now.

While running down the shoveled wooden trail it turned into ankle-high snow in the most shallow bits and knee-high in the deepest which heavily affected my ability to keep pushing forward. I was slowing down but so was Tiana and her zombie posse. Trey who had pulled a head shot a glance back at me and waited, starting to pull me along when I caught up. We passed about four cabins before he said anything.

"What number of cabins are we?" I shot a look at the cabin to our left reading 778

"we're close to 777... Cabin 777." It made me uncomfortable that we were now stopped

"Shit... Get the keys ready and hold them tight." I looked closely at the door of cabin 778

Okay, two locks.

"You ready?"

"Yeah come on." Trey then turned to face where we had just ran from.

"Good." I looked at the zombie group three cabins down and closing fast as Trey bolted forward dragging me with him. The run back was made easy because of our previous footprints in the snow

"Uh... Trey?" I white knuckle gripped the keys to ensure I didn't drop them

"We passed the cabin. Come on". With the zombies two cabins away, Trey yanked me onto the porch and turned to face the zombies while I unlocked the door. Trey held Brandon's bookbag as if he was ready to swing it.

I fumbled with the keys trying to get the thin metal to turn my cold fingers struggling to grip the flat round surface properly. The bottom lock turned with ease; it was the top lock that was stuck. I was still struggling to catch my breath while I fought with the lock. I refused to turn and see the zombies, I was under enough stress.

"Any second... "I could hear his concern in his voice.

More concerningly I could hear the wheezing and gasping of the zombies closing in.

"Bax!"

"I'm trying!" I pulled the sleeve of my peacoat over my hand and used it to protect my fingers as I gave it one last strong turn. The top lock locked open and I pushed the door in. Trey did not immediately turn to run in so I turned with adrenaline on full throttle and yanked him so hard he fell to the cabin's dark wooden floor and shoved the door closed locking it as well.

Our lovely guests impatiently banged on the door whining and wheezing on the other side.

I was still huffing and puffing from our afternoon jog and was hopped up on adrenaline. I took a sweeping glance at the first floor and decided to pull the sofa to add extra support to the door. Trey then scrambled to his feet and helped. After five minutes of the zombies trying to knock and bang their way inside, they left. We occasionally heard a scream or plea for help from a poor cornered survivor, But other than that... no new knocks on the door. Tears started to well up in my vision as I sank to the floor and started to softly sob. I felt a sudden rush of nausea as I remembered the mangled look of some of the zombies and how they left Brandon. I rushed to the kitchen and puked in the sink using the water to wash my hands, face, and mouth out. I then turned off the water and searched through all the cabinets locating fourteen cups and some saran wrap as well as a large number of canned drinks and food.

Trey stared in confusion and stayed where he was.

I continued to cry every so often I would stop to sob more or wipe my face while I filled each cup and wrap them. I found one deep pot and started filling it with water as well.

"What are you doing?" he tiptoed closer.

"Collecting water while it's still available. We don't know if it will stop being available... or when."

"I see. What should I do?" Trey whispered.

"Look for anything that could be useful, we're going to need it."

I took a second to look around. There was a second floor so I finished filling the pot, wrapped it up and made my way up the stairs. I took a good amount of caution quickly checking each room but I confirmed all of them were clear and whispered to Trey that I would start looking for things that would help upstairs. I found an old-fashioned sled and thin linen in the same closet I pulled them out and placed them in the middle of the room. I checked the drawers and only found safety pins randomly strewn about. I checked the nightstand and found a Bible and a notebook so I pulled the pillowcase off of a pillow and threw the small things into it. After I added the pillowcase to the pile I searched under the beds... Nothing... Under the mattress... Nothing... I could see something at the top of the closet but I couldn't reach it myself.

shuffling over to the closet I reached up on my tippy toes and still only touched the edge of the shelf with the first segment of my fingers.

Why are the shelves in this closet so high? 

I froze when I heard a shift in the hallway and when I heard the footsteps enter the room I sank deeper into the closet and covered my mouth. My nose burned as I fought the hot tears that started to blur my vision.

"Bax?" I blinked my vision clear to see the tall frame of Trey as he softly pulled me into a hug.

"I'm so scared." I squeaked out as he started to stroke my hair

"I know freckles. I am too, but I'll protect you, I won't let anything happen to you... I promise. If it comes down to it... It's me before you, you understand?"

"No, please. Don't leave me alone... Ever." I started to cry harder into his chest. He then politely tried to hush me. Both of us were still whispering to each other.

"Okay, Bax. Okay. I won't. I won't leave you alone. Okay? I promise. Shhh, it's gonna be alright." he squeezed my shoulders softly. "Did you finish this room?"

Still sniffling, I nodded my head "no" and pointed up. His soft gaze was directed upward. Then he released me and reached upwards and pulled down a medium-sized hard plastic case and handed it to me and then swiped his hand across the shelf pulling a closed dusty hand down into our view. He opened his hand to reveal a perfectly good buckshot round. We looked at each other and he stuffed it into his pocket then brushed off his hand on his pants.

"What's in that?" I shrugged and opened the case carefully but quickly all at the same time.

I unhinged the two metal clips on the case and lifted the top to reveal a flare and four bullets. I just closed it and quickly placed it onto the sled and smiled at Trey.

"Ready for the next room?"

"Yeah come on." I weakly responded. I found a small bag of expired gummy worms in one drawer and an unused scrunchy, a clean brush, and some Bobby pins in the other.

"Can you look at the top of the closet?" Trey just peered inside the closet and picked up a pen off the ground and found nothing but dust bunnies on the top shelf.

"Only a pen. Do you need it?" He handed it to me and I drew on my hand the ink was crappy... Then I unscrewed the cap and pulled out the ink... It was empty.

"No." I threw the pen to the side and pulled the linen and blanket off of the bed and neatly folded and placed it on the nightstand in the room we were in, then I returned to the drawer that had the spike brush and other hair supplies. I stared at the items in silence...

"Want me to brush your hair?"

"Huh? No. No. No. It's fine." I sat on the bed with the items in my hand.