After 30 Days

Seven - Day 36

The ground never got any more comfortable to sleep on. It was cold, oddly so, considering just how hot the days had been getting. A rogue stone kept jabbing me in the hip every time I rolled over. And some sort of creepy crawler had scuttled across my face in the night.

I groggily rubbed at my cheek in distaste at the memory. Not so long ago, I would have woken up screaming at the feeling of an insect crawling on me. Back when zombies weren't a thing, and I slept in my cozy bed at night.

Waking everyone up with a scream was no longer a very good idea, for more than a few reasons.

Rolling over, I found the spot next to me unoccupied. Shawn had woken up before me. Trying to stretch the kinks out of stiff muscles, I awkwardly climbed to my feet.

Rex was never far from me while I slept. Jumping to his own feet, he shook out his fur. The tags on his collar jingled loudly with the movement, reminding me that I'd been meaning to remove them. The only reason I hadn't done it already was the fact that they were on there with S shaped hooks that I needed pliers to open.

"Morning," Shawn handed me the bag containing the last of the trail mix with a conspiratorial wink. "I hid this for you."

Grinning back at him, I dumped it out into the palm of one hand. After everyone had taken some the night before, there wasn't much left, but there were a few pieces of chocolate in the small pile. Happily, I popped one of them into my mouth, "Thanks."

Around us, the camp was coming to life. Bill and Maya were on watch. The others huddled near the small fire, talking quietly. I'd been the next to last one still asleep. Luna was still curled into a ball under the one blanket our group had.

Reaching over, Shawn grabbed a raisin from my hand and ate it. I bumped his shoulder with my own and handed him the other raisin. I didn't mind giving them up. Raisins were gross.

Both of us happily chewing on our respective treats, we wandered closer to the fire, and into the conversation.

"Should we try to find her?" Alex spoke around a mouthful of something.

"Maybe she won't want to be found," Charlie said matter of factly.

Maggie finished tying her hair up into it's usual pony tail before answering. "What if she got herself into some trouble out in the dark? It would be terrible to just leave her if she needs help."

The group lapsed into silence. Birds sang from within the trees around us. The morning sun tried to break through the trees. Crunching on a nut, I stayed quiet about the Jackie situation.

As much as I felt bad for what the woman had been through, she wasn't one of us. I'd prefer to not waste energy looking for her when she was the one who wandered off in the first place. But I wasn't in the habit of disagreeing with Maggie, unless I really felt strongly about a subject.

"Well, if you all are determined to go looking for her, I'll stay back and keep an eye on Luna. And our stuff."

Charlie didn't have to add that she was worried that if we left it unattended, the suv would be gone when we came back. The calculating looks that she had been giving Jackie all through the previous day made it clear she did not trust our newest member. Fairly typical for Charlie, she'd taken a few days to warm up to us when we first stumbled across their home, but her distrust was contagious. I had to admit, at least some of my apathy towards Jackie, probably stemmed from Charlie's dislike.

"Alright," Maggie nodded her agreement and stood from her spot on the ground. "We'll split into two groups and look around. Don't get too far from camp. If we don't find anything in a half an hour, we'll assume we're not going to."

I brushed the crumbs from my hands while Maggie caught Bill and Maya up on the plan. In a matter of minutes, Maggie, Shawn, and I had entered the woods to our right. Bill, Maya, and Alex went the opposite way.

Away from the road, the trees and underbrush quickly closed in. Moving silently became impossible. Twigs snapped as we worked in a widening semi circle around the camp.

Panting, Rex trotted along with his nose buried in the leaf litter that covered the forest floor. Trying to keep both Shawn and Maggie in sight, I scanned between the trees for any sign of Jackie.

Fifteen minutes in, as I tripped over a hidden rock for the umpteenth time, I decided that my original assessment was correct. This much effort for a stranger wasn't worth it.

Slapping a branch out of my face, I huffed out an exacerbated breath. "I don't think we're going to find her," I looked over towards Maggie.

Frowning, she replied, "Yeah. You're probably right. Let's give it a few more minutes, and we'll go back. I hope she'll be ok out here on her own."

We were working our way along the bank of a small stream when the first hint of zombie stink reached my nose. Looking to Shawn, I saw that he had noticed it too. Looking around alertly, he tried to find the source of the smell.

Maggie pulled her knife from her belt, also searching for the zombie. Staying still, we listened for the sound of it shuffling through the brush.

The only things making any noise were the birds, and Rex. Unconcerned, the dog sniffed under a bush.

I frowned. Normally, Rex was the first to alert us to an approaching zombie. If we all had smelled the thing, surely he had too.

"I think it might already be dead," I barely whispered, but the others heard me.

Nodding, Shawn slowly started working his way forward again. I followed him, and in a minute we found the zombie. Someone had already stabbed it in the head. The blood that had leaked from the wound was dry.

"Who do you think did that?"

"Jackie, maybe?" Shawn answered me, but it sounded more like a question.

"Did she have a knife?" I tried to recall if the woman had had a weapon of any kind. I couldn't picture her with one.

"I don't know."

We looked to Maggie, who was also staring down at the zombie, her forhead wrinkled a little in the wsy it did when she was thinking. Finally, she looked up.

"I think it's time to go back to camp."

I wasn't about to argue. I didn't want to be out there in the first place, and something about the dead zombie left me unsettled. We were in the middle of nowhere. What were the odds of anyone else staying in the same area that we had? That left Jackie as the person who stabbed the zombie, but if so, she kept her knife hidden, unlike the rest of us who always had some sort of weapon easily at hand.

We had wandered deeper into the woods than I'd thought. After several minutes of walking, we still couldn't see the camp. I was hopelessly turned around and relying on the others to get us back. Just as I was starting to think that they didn't know which direction to go either, and we had been traveling the wrong way, the smell of smoke from our fire hit me.

Relieved that we weren't hopelessly lost in the trees, I picked up the pace. Up until a month ago, I'd never been in a forest before, and I was still a little uncomfortable with the way the trees closed in and made it impossible to see very far.

The relief was short lived, however, because a shrill scream ripped through the trees.

My heart immediately leapt into my throat as Rex took off towards the sound. We were right behind him. Luna would never have made that much noise unless she had a real reason.