Trystan
Hurst
Outbreak- Week 4
The stench of dead flesh fills my nose as I enter the cabin.
The smell glues my feet to the floor, and I freeze not even breathing. The
roamer stands in the middle of the living room slowly walking and looking for
his next meal. I contemplate what to do in my head, whether or not to turn and
run or tackle him. Before I come to my decision, I realize I’m on the ground
with this thing coming for my face. I
throw my arms up over my face and punch him in the nose and struggling to throw
it off of me. I didn’t have much of a chance to assess this roamer, which looks
to have been a grown man. As I struggle against his surprising strength I
wonder who he was. I’ve encountered roamers in packs but never really taken
into account that these were once humans. Now that I’m face-to-face with one
and he wants to devour my flesh I try to imagine what he was like.
Before I can imagine who he was, his crushing weight is
lifted off of me. I blink rapidly at Bri who has returned the favor of saving a
life. After living in this cabin for almost a month, this is the first time we
have both encountered roamers alone. We have killed several while we have been
here, but they have never been very close to the cabin, let alone in it. Most
of the roamers stay around the lake in search of anything living, mostly bears
and wildlife which is good for us. I pull myself off the floor to help Bri who
seems to have taken my spot glued to the floor. She stands right in front of
the roamer who just tried to eat my face wide-eyed and shocked it seems. In the
few seconds she has to stare incredulously at this creature we have seen
several of, I grab the sword from her hand and launch at the roamer. I want to
kill it before it can kill either of us and I aim for its head but before I
make it to him, Bri has tackled and pinned me to the floor.
“Do you want to kill us both?!?” I shout in her face but it
doesn’t faze her. She is still staring at the roamer as if seeing one for the
first time, and to my surprise he isn’t trying to attack us. He is standing
about 6 feet away, and then I realize he is not a roamer. He is not dead. I
shove Bri off me and she looks at me as though she forgot she had just tackled
me when I was trying to save us both. “He’s alive.” I whisper. She throws a
finger up to her mouth, hushing me. She studies the man a few moments longer
and cocks her head and turns to me. “That’s my uncle.” She says as tears begin to trickle down her
cheeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment