The First 30 Days (PUBLISHED)

Thirty-One - Day 17

     We were all tired of being soaked to the skin. The trees all around us seemed like they would never end, and they dripped constantly with the light rain that was determined to constantly fall from the sky. Huddled together under a particularly thick old tree, we did our best to shield ourselves from the chilling rain.

It wasn't really working.

"That was the longest night, ever." Fallon groaned. Shifting slightly, she attempted to stretch out muscles that must have been stiff from spending the night crunched up in the cold. I certainly felt like I'd gone a couple of rounds with a professional fighter, and lost big time.

"Does anyone know how far it is between towns out here? Devon?" Carrie asked as she stretched too.

"Um, I'm not sure exactly how far up the road the next town is. It takes about twenty minutes to get there by car."

A shred of hope lit in me at hearing his words. If it took about twenty minutes to drive from Devon's home to the next town over, it couldn't have been more than 15 miles between towns. We had walked along the road for hours the day before, and before that, had been trying to work our way in that direction through the forest. Granted, that first night and day in the trees, we had been hopelessly lost and could have been traveling in a variety of directions. Still, the town couldn't be that much further up the road.

"We have to be getting close." Shawn echoed my thoughts.

"I think we are, but I'm not sure. The trees all kinda look the same."

Devon wasn't kidding. I had been very relieved when we finally stumbled on the little road the day before. The close trees and foreboding sky had made me feel trapped. The open road gave us a bit of breathing room, and a sure direction to travel.

Someone started passing around one of our few remaining bottles of water and I took a few small sips when it made it to me. In an unspoken agreement, our two groups had merged into one, sharing our limited resources and watching out for each other. I was grateful for the four new people, even if their coming to our camp was probably what had led the horde of zombies to us in the first place. They certainly hadn't meant to get our hideout overrun, and their skills had been what kept us alive that first night as we desperately tried to avoid the undead in the thick fog. The time that they had spent on the road had taught them more about killing zombies than the rest of us had learned while hiding in the camp.

Not that that meant that we were completely helpless. We had encountered a few zombies wandering in the trees, and all of us had taken out at least one of them by now. The rotting, overall wearing man-zombie that had been my second ever kill, had been just as terrifying as the camp zombie. But I had managed to get the job done.

"We should probably get moving." Bill interrupted my thoughts.

Everyone climbed to their feet with audibly protesting joints. A long series of cracks from my own spine accompanied my standing up. My sneakers squished uncomfortably and water trickled down my neck from my hair. While a town came with a higher number of zombies, it also had shelter from the rain and food. After a couple of days spent never managing to get dry, having a roof overhead and some dry clothes sounded worth the risk.

The backpack that I had slung over one shoulder was getting lighter. Seven people went through a lot of food, and there wasn't much left. Following the rest of the group down the steep bank that led back onto the pavement, I unzipped the bag and pulled out one of the remaining granola bars. While I held the bag out, everyone else took their share. When I put the bag back on my back, it felt completely empty. Maya's bag was still full, but I was fairly sure that she had mostly packed things like medical supplies, with maybe some food and water filling up the remaining space.