Eli was barely staying afloat before the apocalypse. Working long shifts, taking care of his younger brother, and just trying to figure out what to do with his life.
When he finds his mom trying to take a chunk out of her youngest son though, Eli...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The bags on my back were weighing me down, the familiar weight made me think back to other times when I had made many similar trips like this. We weren't going as fast as I wish we were, Amelia was still healing from giving birth and Masons ribs were extremely sensitive.
Amelia was carrying the baby as Harry was at the end of the group, I was leading. The newbies were between Harry and Amelia, as much as I didn't want them to follow us, Harry insisted.
So now it was my responsibility to keep us all alive.
Thankfully they weren't complaining about the pace we were keeping up. Harry and Amelia were used to the grueling pace, as much as I wanted to keep pushing us forward, I knew we were going to need to stop soon.
My bat was swinging by my legs, a chunk of flesh hanging off of it from the dead we encountered. I was right in my assumptions of more dead thawing the closer Spring came.
As we came into a clearing, I tensed. I wasn't going to stop out in the open again, not when anything could be lurking in the woods.
I pressed forward until we were surrounded by trees. "Take a quick rest, were almost to the coastline." The group collectively sighed as they dropped to the ground, resting their weary legs.
Amelia fed the squirming baby, as I squatted beside Mason who was looking extremely pale.
"Are you okay bud?" I helped him sip the bottle of water and eat a handful of blueberries we had found while walking that everyone was snacking on.
His eyes were half-lidded, blinking heavily as he nodded. "I just want to see Mom." My heart fell in my chest as I nodded.
"I know Mace, I do too." The sight of his blue-stained lips from the berries had me smiling, he looked like a little kid. Which is what he was.
I looked over my shoulder at the Tunnelers who had joined us. They were all pale and weak, the consequences of living underground.
Our bodies needed fresh air and sunlight. Being holed up underground was slowly killing everyone down there, and all that time staying alive and all the doctors they have down there, they were all going to slowly rot.
The single entrance wasn't a smart strategy either.
"Are you okay to keep going?" At his nod, I helped him up and turned to the others.
"Let's keep going, we should be there in another two hours." Harry and I helped Amelia up before I started walking as the others were all arranging their bags on their backs.
Ever since the crossing of the river, the terrain had been easy to navigate and cross. Nothing like it was before the river. I wasn't complaining, at this point I was happy for any help available.
I pushed forward, stalking through the woods. I had to carry Mason as we began to walk up an incline. The closer we got the harder it seemed to breathe.
