Dead Men Walking

Chapter 4

Now some say life is precious. Others say you only live once. In their case, you live again. But living twice in this case can really bring out inner demons. And you can see that things really are a mystery.

Alex's P.O.V

Ughhhhhhh. I hate walkinggggggg. Id say its been almost like a week since weve been walking. We have had to make stops, which im happy about. My family is still a bit traumatized about the creature attck in the forest. Well, so am I. Id never tell them that though. I refuse to stress them out even more.

It still haunts me though. Sometimes it flashes through my mind. The black blood spilled on the ground. Its eye stared at me, seeing into my soul.

I shuddered slightly, but that brought me back to the real world. Whatever is left of it. Weirdly I hear a noise. Turning my head to the left I see something in the field. The scenery on this road hasnt changed at all. I see a blob, and oddly, its moving. Like scooting. Like its body is too big or something. I motion for Jerry, Naomi, and Kurtis to stop. They freeze and finally see what im looking at. Instincts kicking in I crouch low to the ground, I narrow my eyes and crawl to it slowly. I gotta make sure it wont notice me. If it does we could be in trouble.

Slowly approaching it, im camouflaged my the wheat and how thick it is. I froze when I hear a Low croak noise, like a clicking going along with it. It sent chills through me and my blood went cold. Peeking through I saw IT, a giant THING. It was big. It had big nasty oozing bubbles all around its body, and it was rolling. Its skin being peeled off due to rotting in the sun. The smell was so horrid. It was worse than smelling hot rotten flesh. So infected and oozing. Green and black and blue. It was like a mutation.

I stared at it, and noticed something weird. On its neck was like a collar. It was metal and it had a tiny pannel, almost like a tracking device. Im so confused. I gasped loudly when one of its bubbles squirted. 
In my horror, its head snapped up as it heard me. It began to thrash and I got up and ran. They looked on in horror as a giant squirt of acid shot up, and their blood went cold as they saw me running to them with fear etched on my face. They needed to run! " RUN! RUN!! RUN AWAY!! GO!" I screamed in absolute terror as the ground below me shook with the force of how hard the THING was thrashing and rolling. I saw Kurtis scoop up Naomi again and I reached the road as it sarted rolling down the hill. Looking back I saw a dip in the side of the road. IT WAS GOING TO SHOOT UP IN THE AIR!! "GET DOWN!" I screamed.

The thing shot up in the air and flew down into the woods. I heard something click next to me and moving me head over i saw the collar had fallen off it. Completely clean for some odd reason. A resounding CRACK echoed through the air as the thing smashes into the tree, its spine breaking. The sound sent a shiver down our spines. This world is not earth anymore. This is pure catastrophe. A tear ran down my face as stress began to make my body tremble. I tried to regulate my breathing. I bottled up my feelings. I felt a mask come over me.

"Guys cmon, itll be okay. Its alright, we will be okay." I soothed them. They didnt look convinced. "Guys its alright. Youre my family, id never let anything happen to you. We have to get used to this. Its gonna happen alot. Itll be alright. We wont be monsters just because we are used to it" I tried to comfort them. They still didnt look good.

I went over and pushed down ont heir shoulder until they were all sitting , and I pushed them together in a pile, to where theyre all touching. I sit down" yes on the most likely 100°f hot concrete, i scoot over to them. And i just wrap them in my arms. I squeeze them so close together that I can wrap my arms and legs around them. They all relax and start to sob and break down. Kurtis comes behind me and I feel tears on my neck as he wraps his arms around me. Naomi has one arm and Jerry has the other wrapped around them. I sit there and let them get it out.

A few hours later they were all okay. All asleep, and the concrete had cooled down considerably and is now a comfortable temperature. I look at the sky now around the horizon. 4:00pm. Night soon. Shit. Well, I'll keep watch. They need this sleep. It becomes dark very quickly. I hear a faint beeping and look over.

The creature's collar.

Its metal oddly still visible in the dark. For some reason I feel oddly to put it in my bag, so I do. I ponder it for a moment "Whoever made this is obviously a genius. And alive. It looks like they have materials too. Whoever this is, I WILL FIND YOU. I dont understand. It was like they were prepared or something. Odd." I choose not to mull over it.

I looked up in shock. I had been in her thoughts for at least 3 hours. Its almost 12 am by now. i feel no fatigue. Strange. I wake them all up one by one and we slowly march on and by then i started to see it lead forward endlessly. Before then, I had a bad feeling, like I had to say final words. "Guys, my family, I love all of you so very much. My sweet people. I want you all to know that I will protect you with my life. I will sacrifice my own for your survival. I love all of you. One person maybe more than I should. But Ill always protect you." I spoke from the heart, and they all looked puzzled.

Strangely I walked to the side of the road, an urge to go there. As I walk I see the vines move out of the way, straight off the side of the road.  The vines almost welcomed me in it and I heard my family gasp behind me.

I heard an odd noise. A faint buzzing. To my horror, off in the distance was a van, a white van. Now WE HAVE ALL SEEN THE MOVIES. WHITE VAN=NONO

They are coming at crazy speed and Im freaking out. SAFE. MAKE THEM SAFE. That was all that was going through my head. The van doors opened on the side and men in hazmat suits showed themselves, still driving at top speend. The ground beneath me rumbled and I saw the dirt piling up into a hill, it opened up. The men were here, and were now running at us. They had weapons and I tried to fight them.

I used my daggar and slid behind one guy and cut him. He spun and punched me in the face. Pain. Kurtis swung his bat as they were pushed back. I jumped on the back of the man who tried to grab Naomi and I stabbed him in the neck. He gargled and dropped. Behind Naomi for a second I saw the hill had opened into a tunnel that went down. I made a decision.

I backed up near the hill, still 3 more hazmat men were there excluding the one I killed. I had a deep gash in my hip where one of them got me with a scalpel and a bruise where the one punched me when I stabbed him. I spread out my arms and turned around to face Kurtis and my family.

Kurtis P.O.V

Alex turned around. She looked at me and I saw her wounds. She was bleeding and I gasped. "Be safe. I love you." she said looking me in the eyes, her blue eyes sad and shining.  White arms wrapped around her and I felt her shove me.  Jerry, Naomi, and I were shoved in the hole. The last thing I saw before it went dark was Alex with a syringe in her neck with her arms out in front of her smiling at me and a hazmat man with his arm outstretched as the hole closed. A scream ripped out of me as it all went dark "ALEX!"