if we survive

e i g h t

a s h

I mentally blamed myself for this. I left her and I knew now that I shouldn't have. She couldn't use a bow at this close of range and frankly, I wasn't sure if she had a backup knife or not. I placed my knife in its holster and approached the woman and Colman with my hands up in the air. The woman glared at me more lethal with every step I too towards her.

"You won't hurt her. You've no reason or motive." I stated and heard the click of a gun behind me. I turned and saw Rory with his pistol aiming it directly for the woman's skull. I nodded at him and he returned the gesture. "If you shoot her, he shoots you." I told the woman. Her gaze shot from Colman, to Rory, to me, her gaze then found Jade and menacing smile twisted in her lips. She aimed the gun at Asher in Jade's arms. Everyone froze. The woman released Colman, she ran to me and immediately placed an arrow on her bow.

"I'll kill the child and it's mother, who's the dad? I'll kill him too." The woman looked at me without moving her aim. She moved forward and I immediately noticed her limp. Her pants leg was wet with blood, she was hurt.

"You have no reason to be here. We've done nothing to harm you. Why point that gun at a helpless baby for no good reason?" I was trying to stall, maybe give someone time to think of a plan.

"We were just passing through, my husband and I, then I see a girl in the trees shooting creeps down without even needing to second guess her aim...then, a young man comes along wielding one of these arrows and stabs it right through my husband's throat. I have every right to kill one of your people. A life for a life." She stated, tightening her grip on the pistol in her hand.

I bravely stepped in front of her gun with my hands still raised.

"Ashton, get back!" Rory yelled harshly. He never used my full name unless he meant what he was saying. Colman was watching me and shaking her head.

"Ashton...brave little one." She cocked her head to the side and sized me up. "Handsome, but at close range like this your casket will be closed." She said and moved closer to me where the cold barrel of her gun was touching my forehead.

"If the only reason you're here is to kill someone then go ahead. Kill me and take my supplies in my bag. I have medical things, things that will help your leg if you use it properly." I lied. I was pretty sure nothing I had in my bag would help whatever happened to her leg, it looked pretty bad.

"Is that baby yours? You look a bit young to be a father but I've never seen someone so willing to die for a child that wasn't their own." She asked, shifting her grip on the gun. Her hand was sweating, I could tell by how many times she had to regrip. I could easily slap the pistol out of her hand but I was afraid she'd still have the time to pull the trigger.

"He's my nephew." I stated. She nodded and watched me for a long time before lifting her pants leg to show me what exactly was wrong. She'd been bit. I'd never seen a bite but it was very obvious that that's what it was. Her leg was dripping red and black blood, the bite was deep enough to see bone and the infection was spreading quickly. My plan was completely shattered, I couldn't do anything for a bite.

"Can you help that, Uncle Ashton?" She asked knowingly. I shook my head and looked down expecting a bullet in my head at any second. If she had to kill someone, it had to be me or I would never look at myself the same again.

"We can." Rory said blandly behind me. "One of our people is the son of a scientist who'd been trying to find a cure before she died. Our guy thinks he knows how to reverse the effects."

I glanced back at Rory who didn't even look my way. There wasn't a single hint of emotion in his voice, he was either telling the truth or lying better than he had when we were little.The woman in front of me was thinking it over. I glanced over at Colman who had her bow pointed at the woman's skull she shot me a look as if she really didn't want to let go of that string. While the woman was distracted I took the chance to wave my hand and point towards the medical cabin to tell Colman to make a run for it. I thought about trying sign language but I wasn't sure if Colman would understand so I slowly turned towards Rory. He looked at me then down at my hand like he knew exactly what I was trying to do. I was frantically spelling out Zac, Mika, and Benji through sign language then signing medical. He faced the woman.

"Our scientist is at medical." He stated and I mentally face palmed. I was trying to tell him to stay away from medical to protect Zac, he's doing the exact opposite. I didn't have time to think of an excuse to keep her away from medical but before I could make out any complete sentence out of the corner of my eye I saw Colman take off in a sprint. In a blink of an eye, the woman in front of me turns and shoots Colman in the leg without even properly trying to aim causing Colman to fall to the ground screaming in agony. I tried to run after her but the woman put caught me by the chest and placed the gun at my temple.

"You are going to take me to the scientist, if you fail she'll get a bullet between the eyes next time. Nobody follows or he dies!" The woman threatened. I glared daggers at her, itching to run for Colman. If I ran, I'd be shot and so would everyone else, if I stayed still Colman could bleed out. Colman saved my life and I was itching to save hers but I just couldn't. I couldn't risk the life of everyone else so I started leading the woman to medical without allowing myself to look Colman's way. Her painful whimpers made me want to cry along with her, but I kept my eyes forward and tried to cut out any sound coming from Colman. Halfway to medical, we were out of sight of the tents and you could barely see the cabin. I stopped in my tracks and faced the woman.

"I don't know who the scientist is, I don't know how he has a cure, and I don't know if they were telling the truth but there is a little boy in that cabin who is already terrified of these undead monsters so when he sees one of them holding a gun to my head he's going to try to run to me, if you even point that gun in his direction I will behead you myself." I said forcing eye contact so that she knew I was serious. She scoffed and nudged me forward.

"You have too big of a heart for a world like this." She said as we began walking again.

"I tried to kill myself two days ago and that girl that you shot was the person who saved my life so I'm sorry that I feel obliged to save hers." I said rigidly. "And for the children, they haven't had the chance to live and they deserve it just as much as the rest of us."

"Oh so you're depressed with a big heart?" I could here the humor in her voice but I didn't find it funny.

"Inside this cabin is a young boy and a mother of a missing infant, if either of them die I'll have your head on a spike and that's a promise." I threatened again. I had to make sure she knew I was serious.

"Okay, okay, geez kid you've got problems."

We walked up the cabin steps and I lightly knocked on the door. Within seconds Mika's face appeared in front of me. She looked relieved until she saw the gun on my temple. I desperately wanted to scream for Benji to take Zac and hide but I knew I wouldn't live seconds after I made a wrong move. At this point, I didn't care if a bullet went through my head as long as the others weren't touched and I knew as soon as I was out of the picture this woman would shoot survivors until she was killed by one of them.

"I need to see the scientist with the cure, and if I don't, we all die."