Characters

Emma:
Emma is a wonderful girl with a determined mind. Her hair is the color of freshly stirred chocolate; Her eyes match her smooth hair with strands of beautiful golden brown swirling into the dark abyss of her pupils; Her skin is like the color of honey, but her heart is a diamond vault; never to be opened.
Skills: a long distant runner, climber, and can take charge of most situations.

Rachel:
Rachel is a girl with persistence, and will not give up. Her hair is the color of milky caramel; Her eyes are sky blue, and are filled with compassion and worry; Her skin is the color of an arctic wolf, and never have you met someone so devoted to her twin brother, Ryan; sometimes gets in really bad arguments with Ryan.
Skills: Can climb, fish, and can move heavy stuff, and can shoot guns.

Ava:
Ava is calm and collected girl, but is fun and always knows how to make someone smile; Her hair is the like the color of gold with darker lowlights in them; Her eyes are a mixture of Caramel and a Lime peel outlining the caramel; She has a peach white skin to complement her caramel eyes, and her heart is pure and she always has open arm for the people that are wounded in the heart.
Skills: knows how to shoot, fish, climb, and runs pretty fast.

Chapter 1
Ava's POV

     Ever since the virus spread, my friends and I have been running for our lives. You know, I find it funny that we have been alive for eight years, even though we were right by the town when the explosion happened. Our first mistake was going to check it out. Emma, and Rachel and I all lived with each other at the time, and we all wanted to see what the loud bang was. The village looked terrible, and don't get me started on the people. The people looked awful, sitting there unmoving, flesh decaying and some were still moving.

     These past eight years have changed me for the better. When my friends and I
were 18, we wanted to see what had happened. I don't think anyone expected to see what we saw. Zombies--they were on every road, the dead eyes staring at us, not to mention there were mutilated bodies everywhere, that had fallen victim to the zombie's hunger. When we saw this Rachel's eyes widened and became shiny with tears that fell and quiet sobs escaped her mouth. Emma was silent and a dark shadow was casted over her face, but you could see the silent tears running down her face. As for me, I could feel the liquid streaming down my face and my cheese sandwich rising in my throat. Small hiccups escaped my throat, I had to cover my mouth to keep the vomit from coming out.

         I quickly turned to some bushes and I vomited. Well, there goes my lunch. Someone rubbed my back to help calm me down I turned around to meet Rachel's sad gaze. I glanced past her to see Emma, her fists were balled up and she was tense and seemed to be staring at something. She tilted her face and her eyes were so dull, the bright happy light was gone, I glanced at Rachel's eyes; the light was gone too. I looked past Rachel, Emma had moved and was picking up a large pointy stick. She quickly turned to us and started running towards us with a look of determination. I heard a faint groan, Rachel and I quickly snapped our heads in the direction of the noise. Rachel screamed and I froze and shut my eyes fearing for the worst, I could hear Emma yelling at us to move.

         As the Zombie neared us, it suddenly dropped dead and its internals spewed all
over Rachel's and My clothing. I snapped my eyes open and saw Emma breathing heavily, blood staining her clothes and the stick. She glanced at Rachel and I could tell that she was scared and mentally scarred. Calming her breathing she shakily dropped the stick and her knees gave out. Small sobs escaped her mouth and a river of tears flowed down her face.

      "E-Emma, are y-y-you ok?" Rachel asked, her voice shaking, Worry showing on her face. She was clearly shaking, still scared from what had just happened. No words can from Emma's mouth just small sobs. She tried to stop sobbing, and eventually did.
     "Rachel, Ava I-i-i don't know what is going on, I'm really scared," she looked at us and pulled us into a hug.The thing you have to know about Emma is that she is almost never scared. I heard a groan in the distance and saw a hoard of zombies limping toward us. I quickly grabbed Rachel and Emma's hands and pulled them towards the car we drove in. Rachel called shotgun while I drove, and Emma sat in the back collecting her composure.
     "Ava, Rachel, do you realize that we will have to kill those things in order to survive," Emma said worry lacing her voice. I slammed my foot on the break and whipped around to look at her, Rachel looked at her too. Her hair was covering her face, but she moved it to reveal her swirling pools of dark chocolate, only to stare back at me. Confusion and worry were carved onto her face before her face turned upwards in to a smile. There was a long silence, before Rachel spoke and I started giggling.
     "Ummmm......I don't mean to break the staring, laughing, giggling, whatever contest, but we have company," she said while pointing out the window.

     "Let's get out of here," I said. But when we turned around, we saw a little boy crying. He had dark black hair and had one dark brown eye, he had a pair of white cat ears and a tail. In his hand, he was tightly clutching a little brown teddy bear.
      "Hey little guy," Rachel said while she stepped out of the car. "What are you doing out here all alone?" Not responding, he clutched the teddy bear even tighter. Then Emma had the brilliant idea, of basically what I would call kidnapping, or taking him with us.

     We went back to our house and made sure to protect the little boy as we were
driving. We got to our house, went inside and tried talking to the little boy.
      "What's your name?"  Rachel asked. He just stood there; and from the looks of it,
he was to shy to tell us.
       "Well, what's your teddy's name?" I asked in a soothing voice, I love children.
        "Teddy." He said quietly.           
          Emma asked, out of the blue, "Where are you from?"
          "I dow't know. I have been awone for a while, my Mama said that I was a frweak.
My Papa Dwesn't spend time wif me, pecause he swid I was weak and useless. And I guess pecause he's the mayor." The boy answered. Rachel, Emma, and I just stared at each other. Rachel and I had to fight the urge to cry, while a shadow covered Emma's face. His dad had probably died. Emma took a step towards him, only to result in him stepping back. She gave him a curious look, before walking up stairs. Once she left, he walked closer to us.
           "I heard a vwoom, so, I went to see what was going on, but when I got there I
onwy saw you guys. So I hid, I was scwared you'd huwrt me. I twust you two," he said, while pointing to Rachel and I, "but I dow't twust her." He said, pointing up the stairs, where Emma had disappeared to. Emma walked back down the stairs holding two backpacks. She had changed into different clothes and her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. She tossed the backpacks on the couch, and looked at us.

    "Rachel, Ava go change into something you can easily run in, I have packed some extra clothes and other utilities," she said in a commanding voice. She seemed really tense and kept glancing at the boy, making him uncomfortable. I walked upstairs to change. Once I changed, I walked to the guest room and grabbed some of my brother's old clothes and brought it to the kid. I walked down stairs and the kid was staring at the Tv. A small smile appeared on my face.
      "Hey, I brought you some clothes, I thought you might like to change," I spoke as I set the clothes next to him. He suddenly had a bright smile on his face. He grabbed the clothes and ran into the bathroom to change.

   "The kid is really cute," Rachel said while sneaking up on me. I giggled at Rachel's statement. Emma walked in carrying another backpack and some weapons. I gave her a questioning glance.

   "Those things are dangerous, we'll have to take them down with these weapons," she said as she put them on the couch. There was what I thought was a Katana in its sheath, two axes, a baseball bat, a bow and quiver and two pistols. She quickly grabbed the axes and put them in her belt loops. Rachel cautiously took the katana and slipped it out of the sheath, examining it before putting it back in the sheath and strapped it to her back. I looked at them before grabbing the bow and quiver. I gave them a small smile, before Emma handed us each a bag.
   "Rachel you are carrying the one with clothes, Ava you are carrying the one with the first aid, batteries, flashlight, and so forth, I am carrying the one with the food and water." Emma stated.

       "Ok, so let's talk about this black smoke the boy saw."  I said.

Written by Ava
Wolf Point Montana
March 2024