The Broken Age

Ill intent

The days kept going on. Now that we knew Alice wouldn't die in the sun, we could actually walk during the day. Everyday it got a little colder. We would wake up in the morning and the snake wouldn't show itself. We'd scrap together whatever food we could find, and make a fire at night. Alice would talk, sometimes to me, sometimes to the snake, who would try to push her into telling who she is. And mostly to Silah who wouldn't really talk back. We'd eventually go to sleep, hungry and tired, then wake up to do it again.

But this morning was a bit different we saw a deer. And we were all excited for something new. I had made a makeshift bow with some branches and some string, the others crept in the bushes, trying to get closer. I peek my head out, seeing the deer nibbling at the cold dead grass. I pull on the string with a pointed stick, hoping this would work, but then the stick snaps. The deer's head shoots up. It knew we were there, and it was about to run. Then, Alice and Silah jump out of the bushes, as the deer starts to run, Alice grabs one of its legs, getting dragged by the deer until it fell to the ground. She bites into the still alive animals' leg, as it lets out a horrifying scream. Then Silah jumps onto the deer grabbing its antlers and making a sharp twist. There was a crack, and it was dead. Silent, except for Silahs panting.

At dusk we take shelter at another building, Silah collapses on the floor. We were all tired. Silah had been carrying the deer all day, so i had to carry any firewood we'd find. We start settling, Alice works on making a fire, when we hear a sound upstairs. Something fell. "What was that?" She asks. I slowly put down the rest of the wood "Keep quiet, I'll go see." I go upstairs, everything looked normal. If there were zombies, they would have heard us by now, but there was nothing around. A few moments later i found what had dropped, it was a long lamp that had hit the floor. 'Shouldn't we be using this time to leave?' No i kinda need the help, i couldn't even catch the deer by myself. There was a sound downstairs a growl. It sounded like Silah. I look back at the way to the stairs. But stop hearing another sound. A sort of cough, followed a shushing was it in the next room? "Anyone here?" i say. A little girl peeks through from the door. I kneel down to her height, but i didn't really know what to say. She looks at something else then looks back at me "My sisters sick. Can you help" She looked very worried, "Um, we have food, but no medicine" i say. There was talking coming from downstairs, and then more growling this time it was loud. I run downstairs. There was a man dragging Alice with him, who was holding the deer, she pushes back but couldn't "Hey!" I shout. They all look at me Alice drops the deer, the man pushes her to the ground, and grabs the deer. Alice gets up giving a disturbing growl, something inhuman, and jumps onto the man. He tries to push her off but she bites his arm, tearing out a chunk of it. The man screams letting go of the deer, and punches her in the face, getting her off. "Fucking freaks!" He shouts running away. I go to help Alice but stop as she rushes to shove the meat into her mouth and swallow. She was like an animal! After she was done, she looks at herself in horror, shaking.

She wouldn't talk, she wouldn't tell me anything. No matter what i asked, Silah wasn't much help, but i brought them both upstairs to meet the little girl. She peeks out the door again and comes out with her sister. I take a step back as the slender long creature slithers out. There were no whites in her eyes, no legs, she was taller than the doorway itself. Like a giant pale snake, the rest of her tail wasn't even in the same room we were in. I invite them to eat with us, and start making the fire. The little girl had a pocketknife with her and we used it to carve out chunks of the deer, to set by the fire.

It was really quiet. Alice still wouldn't speak. The snake woman didn't show herself, and the little girl sat next to her sister eating the cooked meat. Me and Silah were the only ones eating, besides her. "So um, I'm Zack, that's Silah, and Alice. She's the one that usually talks, so sorry if I'm awkward." I point to the others when mentioning them "There's someone else too, but she hasn't shown herself." I was expecting for the snake to respond. But she kept quiet. What did everyone see? The worst thing i saw was Alice eating someone's arm. "My names Sam." She points to her sister "This is Maggie." She says offering her some of the meat, but her sister wouldn't eat it. "So why is your sister like this Sam?" She looks at her sister, then to us "She-" then Sam looks specifically at Silah tearing apart the meat he had cooked, as his ears flapped around from his loud chewing. "She- got taken away from me, then came back, like this. Is that what happened to him too?" she points to Silah "We don't know, he doesn't really talk" I say as he carelessly continues chewing his food. 'Sounds kinda familiar.' There was a moment of silence. "Do you know who took her away?" I finally ask, She looks down at her food, upset "Would you believe it was, lizard people?" She says in a saddened tone. I think i knew how she felt. "Would you believe that there still watching us?" I respond. But she didn't seem to believe me.