The Arising: The New World

Chapter 2

THE NEXT DAY

Everyone stayed up late last night, sitting around the campfire. It was an emotional day, for all of us. But today Lauren and I are gonna go out and try to find Sam again. We still have so much area to search, and because we don't have cars, it will just take longer.

I slowly walked behind Lauren. I tapped her on her shoulder. Lauren turned around and faced me. I looked at her and she knew it was time to go. She stood up and walked with me to the armoury. We both grabbed spears that were made by Kane before he died. We then walked to the horses and jumped onto them. We rode to the gate and the guard opened it. We then rode out heading back towards Underdale.

This time we went a different route, hoping that we would find another clue of where Sam could be. We rode down the freeway, riding past Crafers. We stayed as far away from the Crafers entrance as possible.

"We need to kill them. We need to kill them all" Lauren said.

"We don't have the fighters, and without Sam no one will have the confidence to fight back. There's no point" I said.

"There's no point! Everyone will stand up! They would fight against these people! They killed goddamn Kane for gods sake! Your boyfriend! You really think they just get a free pass? We have to fight back. Even if we lose. At least we would of tried. I don't want to be a coward anymore" Lauren said.

I stayed silent. Thinking about what she said. But I know what Sam would of done. He wasn't looking for a fight. He didn't want anyone else to die. He didn't want anyone to die. If I want to lead just like Sam did I need to start thinking like him. I need to start acting like him. That's what these people need. That's what they want, and that's what they will get.

I looked over at Lauren. She looked back at me waiting for a response. I looked forward, I saw something in front of us. There was dried blood and organs all over the place on the road. Lauren and I stopped in front of it. I got off of my horse as quickly as possible and ran to it. As I got closer I noticed that it was a horse. It was a white horse. Eaten by zombies.

"Do you think Sam lead the horde away on horseback?" Lauren asked.

"I don't know" I said.

The horse didn't come from the Adelaide Oval or Mount Barker. It had a saddle on the floor next to the horse though.

"Do you think it's from Port Adelaide?" Lauren asked.

I picked up my walkie talkie.

"Let's find out" I said.

I turned on the walkie talkie and changed to channel five. The channel Port Adelaide is on.

"Hey. This is Ana from Mount Barker. Did you lose a horse recently?" I asked.

Soon enough someone responded.

"Hello Ana, this is Connor. No we have all horses accounted for. Why?" Connor said.

"No reason" I said turning the walkie talkie off and putting it back onto my belt.

I walked back to my horse and got back on. I then looked over to Lauren.

"You wanna have a quick break?" I asked.

"Ok" Lauren said.

We both rode over to a house with a garage. We both got off of our horses and put them into the garage. We closed the garage so zombies couldn't get them. We grabbed our bags and climbed to the roof of the house.

We carefully crawled to the edge of the roof. We then dangled our legs over the edge and opened our bags. I grabbed my sandwich and started to eat it. I looked over to Lauren as she smiled.

"Wait. Don't tell me you brought it with us?" I said.

Lauren pulled out a bong from her bag. She then rested it on top of her bag and looked up at me.

"You want a hit?" Lauren asked.

I looked down at the bong and back at her.

"You know what, fuck it. I'll try. It's not like it's the end of the world or nothing" I said.

She searched in her bag and brought out a bag full of weed. She then took out a little bit and rolled it into a ball.

"Where the hell did you even get this crap?" I asked.

"I found the bong and weed in some rich guys house. Pretty good find isn't it?" Lauren said.

"I guess, yeah" I said.

"Alright here you go" Lauren said handing me the bong.

I took it from her hands and grabbed a lighter. I held the top of it to my mouth and put the lighter to the weed. I started to smoke in. I then quickly let go. I started to cough.

"That's some strong shit" I said.

"I know" Lauren said.

I handed the bong to Lauren. She quickly got another lighter and started to smoke. She let go and rolled her head back.

"Ah! That's so good" Lauren said.

"Haha" I giggled.

Lauren and I looked into each other's eyes. Our faces went serious. She closed her eyes and slowly moved in. I let her. I forgot all about Kane, for just a few seconds and kissed Lauren.

CLAIRE

It was time for Paul's lunch. So I made a tomato sandwich and walked over to the prison cells. As I walked in Paul looked up at me. I pushed the sandwich underneath the prison bars.

"Eat" I said.

I turned around about to walk out.

"Why don't you stay for a little bit? Let's have a chat" Paul said.

"Why would I want to talk to you?" I said.

"Look I'm sorry. I was just sad about Jemma that's all. Look if you can get the keys we can both run away. Together. We can get out of here. These people wouldn't let me out. So let's move to Port Adelaide. This place isn't for us" Paul said.

"No Paul, this place isn't for you. Eat" I said.

I walked outside slamming the door behind me. I didn't like the Mount Barker prison cell. Apparently Sam was beaten in there by Thomas at the start of everything. It's not pleasing.

As I walked away I saw that the bonfire was still going. I stood still and watched it burn.