A Will To Survive

Chapter 1 The sun set on the unforgiving landscape, and the sound of running was heard through the woods. The leaves were crunching under the travelers’ feet as they ran. One of the travelers swung her crossbow from its position on her shoulder and into her hands. She loaded the bow, and aimed behind her. Zombies started to limp out from the woods as the girl fired, hitting one straight between the eyes. The boy she was traveling with pulled out his machete and grabbed one of the zombies, stabbing it in the skull. The crossbow wielder grabbed her dagger and copied the boy’s movements. Before long, the pair had finished off the zombies, and went back to traveling. “Nice job back there,” the boy, Michael said, a glint in his green eyes. Sonja stared back, smiling. “Well, I mean if anyone’s going to kill you, it will be me.” The two shared a laugh as they sat down, starting to make a fire. It had been two weeks into the apocalypse, and so far, the two of them had made it. Together. As the flames flickered, illuminating their faces, Michael opened a can, passed it to Sonja, and then got one for himself, also passing her a spoon. They dug their spoons into their cans, eating as if it would be the last thing they ever would, which it might be. The next morning, the sun"s rays glared across the makeshift camp. Sonja woke first, ending up looking over at Michael"s sleeping form. Before she could do anything else, she heard her least favorite sound: a zombie. She readied her crossbow and stood up. Seeing the ugly creature as it stumbled forward, she shot, adding to her kill list. She went to retrieve the arrow, when she spotted something. What Sonja saw was a sliver of black in the ground. The girl dug up the dirt surrounding it, wanting to know what it was. To her surprise, the thing in the ground was a pistol. Sonja ran back to camp, excited about her find. She wanted to tell Michael, but when she got back, he wasn"t there. Sonja immediately feared the worst. She thought her traveling partner had just been killed. “Michael!!!” she shouted, three times. Just as she was about to give up and move on, the sound of leaves crunching made her spin around, crossbow aimed. It was Michael. A sigh of relief escaped her as she slung her crossbow around her back. She handed the pistol to the boy. “Here. I found this. Oh, and by the way, never leave again.” The two packed up their camp, and continued through the woods. Just as they thought they weren’t going to find anything, they spotted a highway. Michael ran towards it, a sliver of hope in his heart that there might be something worth it. Sonja followed him, her hair flying back behind her, whipping in the wind. Michael arrived on the highway and saw many cars, some with doors open, others closed, even some with no doors at all. He jumped into the nearest one, and tried starting it with no luck. Sonja started to help Michael, and tried a few other cars. None of them working. Then she saw a pickup truck. In the back, she thought she spotted a duffel bag. “Michael, follow me.” As the pair went towards the truck, they started to hear zombies, again. “Get down!” she shouted, Michael immediately following her orders. The two teens got under the truck, as they saw the feet of zombies start to go by. Sonja cut one of the pipes, resulting in gas spraying over the two. Once the herd passed, Sonja got back up to claim her prize. She grabbed the duffel bag out from the back of the truck to find: keys to the car, five cans of food, two more pistols, three kitchen knives, a hatchet, and one shotgun. “Dibs!” Michael said. The messy haired boy opened up the car, spotting a new t shirt and jeans. He grabbed them as Sonja looked at him. “Why do you need those? You just got some yesterday. You can"t just think about being clean anymore.” “Well, you did just spill gas all over mine, and either way, you"re a girl. Shouldn’t you be all about clothes?” Michael snapped back. Sonja pretended to ignore his comment, and found a container of gasoline. She picked it up and started to pour it into the truck as Michael got changed. Once the truck was filled, Michael stepped out fully changed. “Eh?” he asked. Sonja was sitting in the passenger seat as Michael drove the car out from the highway. They were driving on the side of the woods for quite some time until they stumbled upon a cutoff. “Where should we go?” Michael asked, quizzically. Sonja looked over to the left, the road leading down through the woods. The two drove down the dirt path, which lead them to a bridge, with another cutoff. One of them lead to a safe zone, the other to nothing. Sonja was about to say that they shouldn’t go to the safe zone, but Michael was so overjoyed from the thought of finding his family. The truck drove down the path, leading to a parking lot full of cars. They parked there, and the second Michael opened the door, a zombie slammed into it. “What the hell!” Michael shouted, stabbing the zombie in the head, causing it to fall to the floor. He stepped out, then seeing that zombies were pouring out from the safe zone building, Michael slammed the door, but it was too late. The zombies had seen him. The reanimated dead stumbled towards the car. Once they arrived, they started to slam into the doors and windows, causing the one on Sonja’s side to start cracking. She screamed. Michael readied his gun, as Sonja did with her crossbow. “Ok, on three, we make a run for it,” Michael told her. “One, Two, Three!!” He shouted, the pair opening the doors, slamming into zombies. Michael started firing, causing the zombies to go after him. “Michael!!!” Sonja shouted, firing towards her friend and shooting a zombie. As the two teens started running out from the compound, they realized that they didn’t have the truck, which had some of their supplies. “We need to go back for it!” Sonja shouted, starting to break down. “No! We can’t make it through there, not again, it"s too late for that stuff.” Michael said, calming her. Sonja heard the low growl of a zombie. She spun around, and kicked it into a tree. The zombie came back, and she kicked it again, pulling her knife. The zombie advanced for a third time and she finally stabbed it, causing it to fall to the ground. Sonja placed her dagger in its sheath and walked off, arms stiff. “We’re leaving,” She said sternly. Michael followed behind, slightly scared. As they were wandering through the woods, they heard the roar of a motorcycle. Sonja had her eyes glued to the road and put a finger to her mouth, telling Michael to be quiet. The motorcycle rider rode past. Michael pointed to his bag that was on the back of his motorcycle. “Guns,” he said. Michael and Sonja followed the motorcycle, seeing that it had parked slightly off the road. Sonja saw the blazing light of a fire, then looked back to the motorcycle. The bike still had the guns on it. Sonja smiled, and grabbed the guns. Just as she was about to leave, she also saw the key to the motorcycle. Michael came through from the clearing, to Sonja. She motioned towards the keys. “Should we take them?” Sonja asked in a low whisper. “Yeah,” Michael replied, grabbing the keys. The teens hoisted the bike from its hiding spot, and were able to get it onto the road. As Michael started the bike, Sonja watched the camp. The guy inside heard the motorcycle stood up and ran towards them. Sonja saw this, and as the man was about to attack Michael, she aimed her crossbow. “Drop it.” she stated sternly. The attacker spun around. “‘Oi, girly,” the man said. “Why don’t you just lower the crossbow, and maybe we can ‘ave some fun. Hmm?” He asked. Sonja kept her crossbow raised, not moving for a second. “I said it before. Drop the knife.” The man started to charge her, and she fired, hitting him square in the chest. The man grabbed his chest in pain. Once the man fell over, dead, Sonja walked over and grabbed her arrow. Then she plunged it back into him, this time in the head. Michael started up the motorcycle, and they drove off into the night.