Six Months Later - Part 2

You feel at home in the woods. Nothing like nature to put you in a better mood, expect now everything is either dead or trying to kill you.

You and the three others in your group have been walking for hours, struggling through the thick forest. The air here was a little fresher, and some green spots were noticable here and there. So far, everything had been calm, but not peaceful. Rustling brought your bow up, ready to kill anything hostile. Silence only made you fell more uneasy.

"Layne," Nicholas says, breathing hard. His curly brown hair is a mess, and his button up shirt drenched in sweat. "I need to rest." He sits down and rests on a tree.

"Nicholas! We can't stop moving. If something is following us, we better not encounter it. Resting now will only make us sitting duck," you whisper. Jane and Omar sit down, too.

"He's right, Layne," Omar starts. "We've been walking since sunrise. I'm beat." You stare at them.

"Pass the water?" Jane asks. You sigh. Your team has never exactly been as fit as you. You sit and put your back to a tree opposite of them. Omar throws you a water bottle. You open it and take a sip.

"How many water bottles are left?" You ask them. Jane looks in the black duffle bag and her expression turns serious. "None," she replies. You look at each other. Water is the most important supply to have. Even more important than weapons or ammo. It keeps you going. It hydrates you when you've been pushing your body past its limits.

"What do you mean, none?" You ask. Five water bottles couldn't have gone that fast. Jane tosses you the bag. Sure enough, there's nothing in it. You throw it to your side in fustration. Water is very hard to come by. Safe water, at least.

"Where will we get water now?" Nicholas asks. Omar shrugs. A small breeze stirs up, rustling the leaves over your head. It almost sounds like soft whistling.

You get up from the tree and gather your satchel, which still contains fifteen arrows and a few energy bars. "Let's move," you say. Jane gets up and stretches. Omar does the same. Nicholas doesn't move.

"Let's move," you say again. Nicholas looks at you. "I can't," he groans. "I need to rest." You're starting to lose your patience. Something has to know you're here now.

"Nicholas, we need to move! Stop being foolish and let's go," you tell him. He sighs, and starts to get up.

Suddenly, a hand reaches up from behind the tree Nicholas was resting on. It grabs Nicholas and pulls him back down. A bald head with brown teeth and white eyes appears. Black liquid drips from it's mouth. A second, third follow. Infected.

"Help!" Nicholas shouts. You draw your bow and load an arrow. Jane pulls out her knife and Omar grabs a lead pipe from the ground. You shoot your first arrow into the head of an Infected trying to reach you. Black blood flies out of it's head and it falls in front of your feet.

You pull the arrow out of it's head and load your bow again. Nicholas screams. He's been bit. Blood pours from his neck and he stumbles towards you.

"Nicholas! Get behind me!" You shout. You shoot your second arrow and drop another Infected. Jane and Omar have been taking out Infected, too. Omar is almost grabbed from behind, but he turns around just in time and bashes in the Infected's head. Jane cleanly cuts off another's head, and it rolls on the ground, spilling black blood. After a few more, everything settles down. You make your way to each Infected, grabbing your arrows as you go.

Omar notices Nicholas, laying by a tree and grabbing his neck. The blood won't stop. "What will we do?" he asks. "There's nothing we can do," you say. Jane gives Nicholas a sad look. He laughs.

"Hey, I know what you have to do," Nicholas tells you. He takes his hand away from his neck, letting the waterfall of blood flow freely. You smile.

"You were always a good friend," you tell him. You load an arrow and raise your bow, aiming it right between his eyes. Jane turns around, and Omar give Nicholas a sympathetic look.

"It won't hurt," you say. Nicholas leans his head against the tree and closes his eyes. "Do it."

You let the string go and shoot the arrow. It pierces Nicholas' head, killing him instantly. Jane grabs the duffle bag and starts to walk away, Omar right behind her. There's no need to stick around. The blood attracts them.

You follow Jane, pulling the arrow from Nicholas' skull along the way. Another member down. You hope it's the last. At this rate, your group won't last a few more days. Especially without water.

After a few more hours of walking through the woods, the sun starts to set. But you know you're close. The military base should only be a few minutes away. Your heart starts to beat. Seeing your daughter again after such a long time is something you've wanted for so long.

"There it is!" Jane whispers, pulling you from your thoughts. Omar smiles. You see it.

Through the leaves, you see the military base. But it was nothing you expected. You remember when another survivor you came across told you the location of the base. He described it as 'small'. "No more than a few tents and a dozen soldiers," he had said.

Now, as you look up to the tall skyscraper, with glass windows completely covering one side of the structure, you realize how wrong he was. It's in a clreaing between the trees, about twenty stories high, strangely untouched by the outside world. The only thing is, there probably isn't about a dozen soldiers inside. A hundred, more likely.

"How are we going to get in?" Omar asks you, looking around the outside of the skyscraper. "Give me a second," you say.

The outside of the building is closed off with metal doors, which slide up. You could make your way to them and pull the chain holding them closed. Easy enough, the only problem is there are cameras about ten feet apart, all around the outskirts of the skyscraper. Not only that, opening them would make more noise than you would like, alerting the military inside and ultimately getting you killed, making this whole mission worthless.

"There's no way we're getting in through the front," you tell Jane and Omar, who are huddled behind a bush. "I figured," Omar replies. "How about underground?" Jane says aloud. She points to a set of trapdoors about fifteen feet from where you are. You look over to the building, and luckily, there is no camera pointing your way.

"That's it, that's how we're getting in," you say. "We can't take all of our supplies in there, they'll just slow us down. Take what you're going to need and leave the rest out here. We'll pick it up on the way out."

"Good plan," Jane answers. You put down you satchel and grab five arrows, leaving ten. Your bow is all you need, although a five star meal and a nice, cold drink would help. Jane grabs her throwing knife, and Omar carries his trusty lead pipe. "I'm ready," Omar tells you and Jane.

"Well, ladies first, right?" Jane says with a wink. She stands up and jumps over the bush she was hiding behind. She stealthily makes her way to the trapdoors. Once she reaches them, she tries to pull them open. They won't budge.

"They have a lock!" She says, cupping her hands around her mouth. "I'll go," Omar says. He runs over to Jane. He looks at the lock, then raises his pipe and brings it down. It smashes the lock, making a loud cling! They quickly open it and Jane grabs the ladder underneath. She makes her way down, disappearing into the darkness below. Omar follows.

That leaves you. You take a deep breath and jump over the brush in front of you. You run across the grass lawn, the trapdoors in your sight. They are a rusted brown. You reach them, and look down, spotting Omar and Jane waiting below. As you put your foot on the ladder, you make sure to close the trapdoor above your head, shutting off all light from above.

You land on the concrete floor. You are in a sort of tunnel, complete with concrete walls and pipes running every which way over your head. A subtle, blue light is illuminating the walls.

"Well, where to now?" Jane whispers, her voice bouncing off the walls. Omar smacks his pipe against his hand. There is a fork in front of you; you can either go left, or right. Your daughter was right-handed.

"Right," you say.

You and your team turn right. The dim blue light helping you make your way through the tunnels. A constant dripping is the only sound you hear, besides your breathing. After a few minutes, Omar holds his hand up, motioning you and Jane to stop.

"What is it?" You ask. Omar doesn't answer, but he doesn't need to. You've come across another fork, but from the right, you can hear someone talking. More importantly, it sounds as if it's a conversation. Soldiers.

"Naw, she's the only immune in the whole god-damned planet. We can't afford to not go through wth it," a voice says.

"She's just a girl," you hear another voice answer.

"So what? Better her than us, right? Besides, little brat landed an arrow on my shoulder. I want her dead."

They are really close now, and you motion to Omar that you will take one, and he takes the other. He nods in respI onse.

"I don't know, sounds harsh, don't you-"

The soldiers reach the fork you and your team were hiding behind. You jump out and grab one, taking his head and smashing it against the concrete wall. His head bursts open, blood spilling out of the crack in his skull.

Omar had swung his pipe, connecting it to the other soldier's jaw, breaking it and a few teeth, too. The soldier is still conscious, grabbing his mouth and moaning.

"Leave him," you tell Jane and Omar. You kneel down, face to face with the soldier. His face and hands are smothered in crimson blood. You pull his pistol from the floor, and look him in the eyes.

"Where is she?" You ask, your voice a single monotone. The soldier stares at you, his eyes filled with hatred. You grab his neck, pushing up and forcing his broken jaw into the roof of his mouth.

"Ah! Fuck!" He shouts, his words a mumbled mess. 'Where is she?" You ask again, calm. "I don't know who you're talking about," he tells you. He's hard to understand.

"Listen. I don't have time for this. Tell me where the immune girl is, and I won't kill you." The soldier looks at you, then at the silenced pistol in your hand. He takes a deep breath.

"She's on the fifteenth floor, being prepped for surgery. Floor's heavily guarded, you won't be able to even access the elevators to get up there."

You look back at Omar and Jane, then back at the soldier. "Surgery?" You ask.

"Yeah, she's immune. Little bitch is immune, can you believe that?" He laughs, and your heart starts to pound.

"After the surgery, we'll have the vaccine for this shit. Yeah, she's gonna die, but imagine the thousands we're gonna save! Millions!"

You stand up and start walking. You've heard enough. "Take care of him," you tell Jane. She pulls out her knife, a smile on her face.

The soldier panics. "What the fuck! You said you'd let me live!" He screams.

"I said I wouldn't kill you."

You hear him gasp for air as Jane makes the fatal cut in his throat.