13 Years of Struggle

Chapter 35

(Warning ending may make some people uncomfortable. I'm sorry. But enjoy...I guess.)

1 week later...

Everyone of us walked silently on the desolate abandoned road. No one spoke or said anything. We were all exhausted. We had now completely ran out of fuel and we had abandoned the cars 3 days ago. We had walked god knows how long.

Our food and water were getting low and our energy was depleted. We all looked like shit. My hair was greasy and tangled and it was getting bad. Very bad. No new clothes we could find ment we wore the same for days. It smelt of very bad body odor emitting from all of us. I didn't even gag or get nauseous at the smell anymore because my nose just got used to it.

The road was surrounded on all sides by woods. Other than passing by a few wrecked cars that were all on the road. We didn't even know where we were going when we were walking this road.

I walked with Anais and Kolson. Kolson was holding his stomach with his hand and I looked at him with a bit of a confused expression. " Kolson, why are you holding your hand over your stomach?"

" I'm starving." He replied as he rubbed his stomach with his hand.

" We all are Kolson." I said, looking at him. " But don't worry. We'll find food soon."

" Alright Claire." He replied back, still clutching his chest.

We continued walking for a while longer afterwards. I sighed as my feet were killing me so badly. I just felt like they would give out from under me. I looked over at Anais. She was just talking with Jesse about something. I tried eavesdropping but couldn't figure out what they were talking about.

" Ugh this heat is the worst." Amani remarked. Wiping the sweat off her forehead.

" Yeah. Worse than North Carolina." I replied. Blocking the sun from shining in my eyes with my hand.

" Yeah at least it was cooler than here." Amani replied back.

" Not really." Anais butted in.

Amani shrugged her shoulders and she sighed and she started walking ahead up towards Xavier and Janet. While me and Janet were happy to be reunited it was kind of awkward in some way. I hadn't talked to her for a few hours. I don't know, I just found it weird.

" Can we please stop? My damn feet are killing me." Gemma said as she walked towards Amir.

He turned to her. He nodded. " Yeah. My legs are starting to cramp up already."

" How about over there?" I pointed with my finger towards a small clearing to the side of the road.

" That'll work. Good job eagle eyes." Amir teased.

I rolled my eyes not feeling in the mood. We soon walked over towards the clearing and sat down in the grass one by one. My body ached as I finally sat down on the grass next to Noa and Kolson.

I felt with my hand around in the grass and picked up a small stick and as I was bored I stabbed it into the ground in front of me over and over. Noa was just staring as I did this. No one said anything and just sat there in silence.

But then we heard the sound of a stick break on the other side of the road off into the woods. All of us immediately shot up from where we were sitting and I had pulled my gun so fast out of its holster, almost dropping it.

A Rotter stumbled out of the woods and fumbled to the ground. It was a boy one. His thinning hair was a shade of gray and he was dressed in cargo pants, work boots, and a dirty ripped white tank top. There was a gruesome bite mark on the side of his cheek and one of his arms was missing.