The Arising: A New Start of Life

Chapter 16

Everyone went from talking to each other and being loud to being silent. I walked up to Ms. Haywood's body and checked her pulse to see if she was actually dead. There was none.

"She's gone" I said.

Everyone looked to the ground.

"What do we do now?" Alleigh said.

"We need to put her down. Then we have to bury her. That's what she would want" I said.

The sun was already down and it was beginning to become totally dark outside. I looked through the cupboards for a knife, when Alleigh tapped me on the back. She handed me her knife. I slowly took the knife from her hand and then slowly walked over to Ms. Haywood's body. I put the knife up to her skull. I kept the knife there for a while. Thinking that I can't put Ms. Haywood down. But if I don't put her down, these people will see that I'm not as strong as I seem. I saw Matthew walking up behind me.

"Here. I'll do it" Matthew said.

I closed my eyes tightly then handed the knife over to Matthew. I slowly walked away towards Alleigh while holding the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger in complete shock and stress.

*stew*

I wasn't even facing Matthew when he put her down. But I could tell when he did it. That noise, that same noise that is stuck in my head since this whole thing started. Also gun shots, screams of terror and the growling and moaning noises the Walkers make are all stuck in my head. I stopped next to Alleigh and slowly turned around to see Matthew holding the knife in his right hand. The knife had dark red blood dripping down from the point of the knife. We all stayed silent for a moment. We all looked at Ms. Haywood's dead body laying on the couch.

"Let's drag her outside" I said.

We all dragged her outside. When we got her outside we put a towel over her.

"I'll dig a hole tomorrow" I said.

We all walked inside and locked the door behind us. We all sat around the small fire we made. All of our faces were just plain and broken. We all looked scared and sad. Even though we all knew Ms. Haywood was bitten. We were all still sad. We saw her everyday for around seventy five days. We got close to her. We were family. Losing a leader like her completely changed us all. Slowly we all fell asleep except for me. I stayed up looking out at the main road. I watched two Walkers walking along. I thought to myself that hopefully Ms. Haywood's body doesn't attract them to us, that's when I felt someone hug me from behind. I turned around and noticed it was Alleigh. She had tears running down her cheeks.

"Don't look at me. Just keep looking outside" Alleigh said trembling.

I ignored her and turned around to face her. I hugged Alleigh back as a few tears fell down my face.

"This is the new world now. We just have to fight" I said.

"I don't want anyone else to die. What if one of you die. What if I die?" Alleigh said shaking and crying.

"I won't let that happen. We can beat this world I just know it. I have a good feeling about Tungkillo, we just have to make the walk there" I said.

Alleigh and I hugged each other while looking out the front window watching a few Walkers walk past. Soon after we both fell asleep.

EARLY NEXT MORNING

The next morning I woke up early to begin digging Ms. Haywood's grave. When I finished everyone woke up and walked outside to help me lower her body down into the grave. We all looked down at her body. We left the dirt out as we packed up our stuff. When we were ready. I walked back to the grave to give my final respects. That's when I noticed a bit of spit on the towel covering Ms. Haywood. I replaced the towel and filled the grave up with dirt. I put flowers over the grave, that Kiara and Alleigh picked. Then we were on our way.

When we were leaving I started to think of the spit in Ms. Haywood's grave. Who did it? I decided to keep quiet and keep pushing to get to Tungkillo. We were walking for at least three hours. When I heard a thud behind me.

"Sam!" Alleigh yelled.

I turned around and saw Kiara on the ground.

"Shit what's wrong with her?" I asked.

"I don't know she just collapsed..." Alleigh said when I interrupted her.

"Wait. Do you hear that?" I said.

We all listened in. That's when I heard it. I heard people screaming.

"I hear it" Alleigh said.

"Matthew come with me. Alleigh stay here with Kiara" I said.

"Ok" Alleigh nodded.

Matthew and I quickly ran up the road and saw a group of four survivors fighting against a small horde of Walkers. There were around ten Walkers. I quickly ran in and started to take a few out. As a team we took each one out. We all caught our breaths.

"Thanks" the survivor said.

I looked up and noticed one of the survivors looked familiar. It was Hunter. From the supermarket. She still had her short brown hair and her eyes looked a little bluer. Probably because we were out in the light. One of the survivors had long brown hair and dark brown eyes. She looked at me and nodded.

"No.... problem" I said.

I could tell she noticed me as well because she was just looking straight at me. I looked at every member of their group. There was a man there as well, he was very white and had very dark black hair. When I was looking at them all I got to a woman with short black curly hair. She looked like she was Aboriginal. I noticed that she had a Walker behind her.

"Look out!" I said.

The survivor turned around. But it was too late. She was bitten on the hand.

"Stella!" one of the survivors yelled running to take out the Walker.

"No! Stella" The survivor screamed.

Stella fell to the ground in pain. When I saw that the bite was on her hand I had an idea.

"We can save her" I said.

"How can we save her. She's been bitten" The survivor said making a strange face like I was dumb.

"At our old Safe Zone we had a guy who was bitten on the hand as well. The only way to get rid of the virus was to amputate it. That's how he lived" I said.

"What are you serious?" The survivor said.

"You can either risk her life. Or wait till she dies. But you need to make a decision fast" I said.

The survivor stood there for a while thinking.

"Amputate my hand" Stella said.

"It might not work" the survivor said.

"I'll die anyway Anastasia" Stella said.

Anastasia looked at me. She was the woman with the long brown hair and brown eyes.

"Do it" Anastasia said.

I took out my hatchet and quickly put her arm down on the floor. I looked through my bag and took out a piece of cloth. I put the cloth around her arm tightly to stop her from losing large amounts of blood, and I got ready to amputate her arm.

"Ready" I said.

"Ready" Stella repeated me.

"Argh" I yelled swinging the hatchet into her arm.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Stella screamed in agony.