After Life

Chapter Twenty

Home. A large gray house on the edge of a street. It has five bedrooms and a garage that is attached to the rest of the house. There is a huge back yard with a small creek running through the back of it, and a small play set near the patio, and a trampoline on the other side. Just big enough for five people, a family with three little girls and a mother and father. My family.

"Why are we going home?" I ask him.

"I used to have some guns that I used to hunt with, before we left, I hid them. We could really use them right now considering the circumstances. Hopefully they are still there." We are going home. I wonder if any of the stuff I used to have is still there. I can't wait to get there.

Ty speaks up, "We need to find Zoe first." I almost forgot about Zoe.

"I know." Al says.

We pull out of the gas station with five people, seven bags, and four spare gallons of gas. We pull onto the street with the motel on it. It's mostly empty, all the walkers that are usually here have been drawn to the noise at the end of the street. There are still a few that remain, half of them are roaming towards the motel. Ty scans each one until he can confirm that Zoe isn't one of them.

"Look quickly, and be very cautious. Ben, do you want to stay in here? We could lock the doors and you could hide under a blanket or something. You'd be safe." Al says. Ben nods.

We all agree to stay on the street and if we need to go out further, let the group know. Once we carefully hide Ben in the very back seat, we take a deep breath and open the doors. Ty springs out followed by me, than my dad and Al get out. We clear the road of any walkers that could harm us, than we say our goodbyes and start off.

I head to where my designated searching spot is while keeping a hand on my gun. After a few minutes of looking and finding nothing, I exit.

Two failed buildings later, we meet back up at the car.

"Nothing?" Ty asks. We all nod and he drops his head in defeat. "We look on the next street then. And if that fails too, we go onto the next than the next. I'm not stopping until we find her." He goes to enter the car. It's locked. He slams his fists down onto the hood. A few seconds later the alarm starts. My dad scrambles for the keys to stop the alarm. A minute later the road is once again silent.

A walker with crimson hair drifts out of a building about a block away from the motel. It's small and walks with it's head down, greasy red hair in it's face. Her skin is gray and muscles stiff, she wears a stiff red shirt the color of blood. There is a hole in her chest the size of a nickel.

"Walker." I say as I pull out my gun, and aim

"Wait!" Ty says, as she turns her head to the side to reveal patches of golden hair. She looks back at us and starts dragging towards us again. "Z-Zoe?" He asks her. She looks up and the hair parts to reveal a face.

Zoe's face.

Ty lets out a strangled cry and drops to the ground.

"Zoe?" my voice is barely a whisper.

She looks at me and tilts her head. Her eyes aren't their normal dark brown color. Her pupils big and cloudy, they look gray. Her hair is not greasy, it is soaked with blood. Her blood. The hole in her chest is a gunshot wound, her shirt isn't the color of blood, it is blood. She's so close to us now, her teeth are bared. Who would do this?

"Zoe?" I ask again. Her gray eyes dart to me and she walks in my direction. I look behind me to Al and my dad. My dad's face is blank, Al's face though, is anything but blank. His eyes look at her in disbelief and... hurt, he is about to cry. I've never seen Al cry.

I look back to her, I picture her smile on the blank face that is in front of me, we've only known eachother for seven months, but it feels like much longer. She's about seven feet away from us, but I can't bring myself to raise my gun and pull the trigger.

It's Zoe, but it's not. It's only a monster wearing her skin. I whisper,"It's only a monster wearing her skin." That's Zoe, it's not, it is, it isn't. I can't look away from her, but in my peripheral vision, I see Ty stand, and pull and pocket knife from his pocket, Zoe walks to him. He rapidly plunges the blade through her eye, and she falls, but so does he. 

*I'm sorry.... Please, to show me that you are reading, please vote and or comment, at this point, I'm not sure if anyone is reading. 

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