Left 2 Survive

 Two weeks since the Green Flu had blown through and infected almost everyone. Those infected were noticed for the pathogens causing extreme aggression, mutation to the body cells, and loss of higher brain functions; turning them into zombies. With cities and towns in chaos and civilization crumbling before the world’s eyes, few of the immune were rescued by the military and the rest were left to survive.

The group of survivors made it out of town and into the woods. As they traveled deeper into the woods, they came across less and less infected, and more and more trees. When it had been a long amount of time since they had ran into any zombies, they took a break. The sky was grey and the air was near frozen. The woods lingered with a dull lumber scent and all life was still except the insects and few birds overhead. “Where are we headed?” Rose asked. Rose was a 26 year old Mexican woman who had left her town to take her son to a military safe zone. She made it successfully but it was overrun, separating her son into safety and her back into the dangers of the cities. They kept vigilant for zombies while resting between two fallen trees. She turned to Stunna who remained silent as he organized all his equipment. Stunna was a 20 year old Black rapper from Texas who was visiting his grandma in California when the flu outbreak happened. Like Rose, when he managed to get his family to safety but was separated by the overrun. He and Rose stuck together after that. With no one answering, she looked away then opened the question again. “Hello?! Where are we going?!” she demanded.  “Huh?” Cee asked, he looked at Rose then nudged Manish so he could give her an answer. Cee was the 20 year old Black and Cuban martial artist son of a priestess and Manish was his 23 year old Puerto Rican and Black ex-gang member turned martial artist cousin. Cee and Manish had barricaded themselves in a gang safe house until they ran out of supplies, then ventured into city where they met Rose and Stunna. Manish turned and looked around with uncertainty, “Um I don’t know but as far away from the city as possible.” He answered. Manish and Cee were so on edge and wary of their surroundings, they almost oblivious to their comrades. “Well we need a plan, we can’t just keep walking around without knowing where we are going. It’s almost dark.” Rose said. “What do you think, Manish?” Cee asked his cousin. Manish grabbed his sword and stood up “I don’t know but we will have to make camp soon. If we keep travelling at night who knows what we will run into.” He answered. “Who knows what will run into us if we camp out too.” Cee pointed out. Manish cut Cee a look that could kill and started to chew him out but Stunna cut him off “I think there is some abandoned barracks close to here.” Manish and Cee turned their attention to Stunna. “Are you sure?” Manish asked with surprise. “Well, yeah we are already close to 6 miles into the woods so they should be close to here.” He answered. “We should go there!” Rose agreed.  Cee looked at Manish with a questioning look. He was unsure if it was a good idea and had looked to Manish for answers. There was a sense of anticipation for Manish’s answer in the air. The sound of leaves crunching startled the group and they all drew their guns. They watched and waited for the zombie to climb over the tree.The crunching got louder and louder and then stopped. A squirrel ran over the tree and dashed across the woods floor into the bushes. Everyone put their guns down sighed with relief. Rose sighed, pulled her backpack onto her back, and waited. “ Damn nigga, I really thought that was a zombie." Cee chuckled. "Is it worth a try? To try the barracks?” Manish asked Stunna. Stunna remained silent and answered with an unsure nod. “Yeah?” Cee asked for Manish's approval.  Rose’s impatience was showing when she began fidgeting and moving the stuff in her bag it was clear she wanted an answer right away.  Manish looked at her then back at everyone else;. “Come on, it’s worth a try.” He sighed “Everyone have bullets?” Everyone checked their guns and nodded. Manish drew his sword and said “Alright, every get your stuff ready. We’ll leave in 5 minutes, Stunna you’ll lead the way.”

Just before sunset they made it to the abandoned barracks. Hidden deep in a dense forest of cypress trees, the four rectangular 3 story buildings stood parallel to each other. From the outside the group could see that all the windows on the bottom two floors of all the buildings were broken; they decided to set up on the top floor would be the best idea. They cautiously entered the abandoned build. Broken glass, wall plaster, and broken furniture littered the floors.The walls were covered in holes and graffiti and the building reeked of dust and old metal. It was clear that the buildings were used as hang out spots for taggers before the break out. "What now?" Rose asked. Everyone was stuck for answers, Cee took Manish's sword from it's sheath and slapped it against the steel support beam. A loud clang rang out and echoed through the hall way. Scared and confused Rose shoved him and Manish just glared at him. He handed Manish back his sword and drew his gun. "If there are any zombies, they'll be attracted to the sound." Cee said. "Cuzz, warn us before you do something like that!" Manish scolded his cousin. Cee gave his cousin the "yeah, whatever look" and chuckled. They decided that the coast was clear and made their way to the third floor.

They got to the top floor. Same as the two lower floors, the walls were vandalized but this this time there was no broken glass. On both sides, there were long narrow hallways with doorless rooms. To their left there were 20 rooms, 10 on each side but was blocked off my a huge over turned cabinet and to their right there were 16, 8 on each side. The intense smell of cypress trees told them that there was a window open somewhere in one of the rooms. "Well. I guess this where we're staying." Rose said lightly, unsure if her statement was going to touch anyone's nerves. Everyone looked around but none moved more than a foot from where they were standing. The light from the windows of the open doors was fading, sunset was almost upon them. "This side is perfect to set up for the night." Stunna said, breaking the silence. "Yeah. We just have to check the remaining rooms." Rose added. They turned and looked down the right side of the hallway at the 16 rooms. "Yeah okay, alright. Um, let's move this cabinet to block the stairs too so we won’t have surprises. Stunna help me real quick." Manish said. They lifted the cabinet and pulled it to block the stairs and the hallways. "Alright, let's check the rooms Stunna you take the three at the end on that side and Rose you take the other three. Me and Cee will take this side." Manish told them. "What room are we going to use?" Rose asked. "The room that's the cleanest." He answered "Three of us will stay in the room while one of stays guard and we'll switch shifts every two hours." They agreed that that sounded like a good idea. They walked down the hallway and checked the rooms. Most were empty with either broken clothes cabinets or rusted bed frames. Luckily for the group there were no broken windows and no holes in the walls. Rose and Stunna found that their rooms all had both bed frames and cabinets. In a room nearby, Manish got distracted by a sound that came from the first room in the hallway and turned around to investigate while Cee decided to check out the last room on their side. Cee was hit by gust of wind as soon as he came to the doorway. "Well I found the open window." He told himself. He took a step in the room and heard whimpering. "Hello?" he asked. The room was dark from the cypress trees that eclipsed the window so he turned on his flash light. He moved slowly into the room, trying to locate the sound of the crying. He walked around the first cabinet and shined his light inside. Seeing nothing, he turned and walked toward the next cabinet. "Hello? Do you need help?" He whispered as he got closer to the crying. It got louder and louder as he neared. He turned to the front and shined his light inside. His flashlight illuminated the face of an extremely thin young woman with pale skin, blonde hair, sunken red eyes, and a bloody mouth full of sharp teeth. "Oh shit!" he yelled startled by the grotesque sight. She let out an ear splitting shrill and began slashing at him with elongated sharp fingers like a wild animal. He stumbled backwards, hands shaking from being so scared he couldn't get his hands to find his gun. The witch like zombie wailed again and began launched herself at him. Unable to get his weapon, he hurried and pulled a bed frame between them. "Guys! I need help!" he called out. The witch continued to charge at him, pushing him and the door frame backwards. He became more and more scared the closer he was to his back being against the wall. He stared at the ravenous zombie, who's only motive was to reach and tear him apart. His heart was beating so hard he almost couldn't hear his own thoughts. The witch thrashed and clawed violently, only a few feet from her victim. Afraid of his own death, Cee finally managed to gather himself enough to act. He kicked the bed frame as hard as he could, knocking her over, and ran for the door. "Zomb-" before he got a chance to warn the rest of the group he tripped and fell. In no time the witch was on him trying to claw his face. He barely managed to keep her away by holding his backpack between them. Rose heard the commotion and walked out of her room. She seen what was going on, and froze in fear at the sight of the zombie. The gruesome build of the witch and super violent fury she was in left Rose stuck. Her hands were shaking and her heart pounding out of her chest; she called for help but the words never left her mouth. Cee looked over at her desperately. Stunna walked into the hallway and yanked Rose into a room. "Stay here." he told her before returning to the hall. "Cee, got you!" he said as he sharply aimed his pistol at the zombie. "Hurry up!" Cee yelled back. A few rooms away, Manish was alerted by Cee's yelling and shifted his attention from the window to the hallway. Barely able to keep the witch off him the zombie had slashed at him and almost caught his face. Cee yelled "hurry up" again. Stunna aimed carefully at the crazed zombie and squeezed the trigger. The shot hit dead on and knocked the witch off of Cee. He took this chance to get up and took off running. "Get back in the room, nigga!" He yelled at Stunna. Stunna clumsily slipped into Rose's room and turned to the door with his gun ready. Cee ran down the hall, ready to hurl himself into the room with Stunna and Rose. The witch was on his heels, he could hear her panting, snarling; her claws scraping the walls. Only three rooms to pass until he got to the where he needed to be. He passed one room: her footsteps got closer. He passed the next room: her breath was almost in his ear. Stunna and Rose waited anxiously for their signal, to blast the witch away. Cee passed the next room: there was a flash of light and the sound of a blade ringing. Cee reached his room and jumped in with Stunna and Rose. Everything was still and silent. The Witch didn't follow Cee in the room. "What the fuck is that?" Manish asked. Stunna poked his head out with gun still ready then left the room followed closely by Rose and Cee. They cautiously left the room to see that in the split second the Witch had passed the third doorway, Manish had decapitated the zombie with a swift slash of his sword “It's clear.” Manish called out to Stunna and Rose.  Everyone stayed silent and glared at the motionless corpse. They all walked over, stood over the decapitated body, and inspected it. Their fear and uneasiness lingered deep in the air “That isn’t a regular zombie.” Rose stated. “What the hell is that?” Stunna questioned. It fell silent again for a moment and then Cee responded “A witch.” A witch. It described the zombie perfectly. “Next time nigga, listen to what the fuck I tell you and you won’t almost lose your life.” Manish said scolding Cee.