After The Crash

Chapter 3

   As we made our way down the trail in the early morning light there was a soft noise of birds chirping. For the first time in a long time, everything seemed quiet. Mark lead the way down the trail, Jace behind him, and I was last in our line. It seemed odd at how peaceful our morning was becoming, but I wanted to enjoy it, so I didn't question it.
  
   "Isn't this nice Pa?" Jace smiled
  
   "It is." I agreed
 
   After a few minutes I watched Jace become uneasy on his horse as he stared into the woods, as if he saw something I didn't. Suddenly he grabbed his bow and one of his homemade arrows and shot the arrow into the woods. I saw the figure that he shot at, it kept moving towards us, it looked as if it were running.

   "What the hell?" Mark yelled

   "We gotta go. Kick your heels into the horses and hold on tight!" Jace yelled as he took off on his horse, still shooting at the figure

   I did as Jace said and tightly gripped the saddle horn.

   "Don't let go of your reigns! These horses aren't trained by touch, they were trained to follow the pull of the reigns!" Jace yelled to Mark as his horse drifted towards the edge of the train

   "It's got going down." I said to myself

   "Good job captain obvious. We aren't going to be able to out run that either. The horses may have won racing competitions but they can't keep this pace for long." Said said

   "You mean we're gonna have to fight that thing?" Mark asked

   "We don't have a choice." Jace said reaching above to grab a branch above his head, pulling himself onto it

   His horse kept running for a moment but went into a trot as it realized Jace was no longer there. Jace stood on the branch for a moment, the zombie getting closer by the second.

   "Jace, what the hell are you doing?" Mark yelled

   "This!" He yelled back as he jumped off the branch, landing on the zombies shoulder, snapping its neck

   I stared at him an amazement as he climbed back onto Trigger.

   "Stop staring at me. I was an army cadet for 4 years before moving in you. Survival training was my favorite thing. I knew they shouldn't have let the fuckers off the island." Jace sighed

   "Jace, explain?" Mark asked

   "During last year, I was still 15 at the time, some kids found something on the island where they'd send us for survival training, a vial or something, and they broke it open. That vial caused the first exposure of the virus. I stayed at the camp that week working on my marksmanship when I heard the call. The zombie mutation isn't new, Most people just didn't get it because of their immune systems, it mutated to over take that. We were all quarantined for three weeks before we were aloud to go home. Out of a thousand kids, twenty of us went home." He explained

   "How did the public not hear about that?" I asked

   "The government hid it. No idea where the vial came from. They told the parents who lost their kids that we were bombed, then they bombed the camp before we went home to make it look real. The surviving cadets we told that if they said a word they would be killed. The youngest survivor was a 12 year old girl, there for her first time." Jace sighed

   "They did that to kids?" Mark asked

   "That explains the scars on your back." I said remembering the one time Jace took his shirt off to go swimming

   "I saved a girl. Everybody else tried to run, or didn't hear the plane. I jumped over her when the bomb hit because she was... stuck." He explained "They aimed for the kids, trying to get as many 'Risks' out of the way. I don't think they realized how easily this spread." Jace sighed