Episode 3: Long Road Ahead

Episode 3

"Long Road Ahead"

We went back inside, and fell asleep for the rest of the night. It was hard for me, but I eventually fell asleep. I woke up early in the morning, everyone else was up too. This place didn't have any food in it, so nobody could eat anything. Patrick was already telling people about Toronto.

"We think the military must have cleared it by now, once we get there we can all be safe. No more of this!" he waved his arms around the small house.

"I hope so," Kayla said, "I'm really damn hungry."

"Kayla, watch your mouth, you're only five" I reminded her.

"Six in a few more weeks." she added.

"Either way, I don't want you swearing until you're at least ten." I said.

"Nine?"

"Want to make it eleven?"

"Fine, but do you think Toronto will be safe?" she asked.

"I hope so, we can't check the news, because the power is out. Along with the water as well."

"We kinda figured that out when you were sleeping." Sabrina said.

"Damn, it's only been a month into this apocalypse, and shit keeps going downhill. Let's hope Toronto can be a beacon of hope for us." Patrick said.

Once we were done discussing, we headed off. Patrick knew the general direction, since he travelled there a lot. I followed behind him, with Kayla by my side. Everyone had their pistols in their holsters, ready for when they need them. We travelled down the dirt road, passing Patrick's house again. This was the only way to Toronto, we would have to pass the house. I didn't want to, but we had no choice. Once we passed it, Patrick teared up a little. It was still overrun by stranglers, they were just roaming around the house in the distance. I patted him on the back.

"It's ok," I said, "Things will get better."

"I sure damn hope so." he said, wiping a tear from his eye.

Once we passed the house, we were back on a dirt road. It went through some trees, and we could be jumped any minute, it was quiet, almost too quiet. Kayla latched onto my pant leg and clenched her fists, she was nervous.

"What do you think Toronto will be like?" Barry asked, "If it is secured."

"Who knows," I said, "Maybe it will have big walls, or traps everywhere. Once we get there we are going to have to be extra careful, we know what people are capable of."

A strangler stumbled upon us, it was behind us. I heard a rustle, and footsteps. We all turned around to face it, this one was scary looking. It had red veins running all throughout it's body like normal, but it's eyes were wide open the pupils were gone. It had a big gash in it's stomach, like it had been ripped apart, guts were hanging out. Kayla let out a whimper and hid behind me. I pulled out my gun, then it screamed. More of them came out of the trees area, surrounding us. I looked around us, there were about five of them. They were smart to surround us, but that confused me. Earlier, when Sabrina threw the flare they forgot about us. They were dumb back at Patrick's house. Now they were suddenly smart in surrounding us. It's almost like some of them are smart, and some of them are dumb. Everyone pulled out their guns and pointed it at all of the stranglers, they all started screaming, calling more of them. They moved towards us, making sure we couldn't escape.

"Dad!" Kayla screamed, I turned to see a strangler run for me.

It was shot in the head and dropped to the ground. I turned to see Sabrina pointing the gun, she saved me.

"Thanks." I said.

Another one darted for Mark, I shot it this time. The stranglers realized that if they went one by one they were going to lose. They all went at us at once.

"Don't let them get near you!" I yelled, as I shot one in the head.

Patrick shot another in the chest, it fell to the ground dead. There was one more left, but it was gone. Where the hell did it go?

"What the-" Barry started, then he was jumped by it.

It came out of the trees area and tackled him onto the ground, it screamed in his face and dug it's fingers into his stomach. Patrick shot it off of him, it dropped to the ground. We all ran for Barry.

"Oh god, are you ok?" Patrick asked him.

Barry was holding his stomach in pain, Patrick removed his hand to reveal something nasty. I covered Kayla's eyes. The strangler had dug it's fingers into his stomach, and he had his stomach partially ripped open. Blood was pouring out of it. Patrick took his shirt off and wrapped it around Barry's stomach, making a bandage. Barry was trying to hold his screams of pain in, he knew if he made any loud noises, the stranglers might be attracted. It was too late though, I heard screams in the distance. They heard the gunshots, everything. They were coming this way.

"We need to go!" I yelled.

Patrick picked up Barry, and I picked up Kayla, and we ran off down the dirt road.

"Keep running!" I yelled back to the group, but Barry was slowing Patrick down. I handed Kayla to Sabrina, and ran back to help Patrick out. I grabbed Barry from him and let Patrick run up and catch up. I looked behind me, they were gaining on us fast. The stranglers were only about a hundred feet away from us. I ran as fast as I possibly could, but Barry was slowing me down no matter what.

"Just leave me." Barry cried.

"No." I said.

"We're both going to die if you don't. You already know the best choice. You're just denying it."

"Dammit Barry," I panted, "I'm not leaving you."

"You have to stop risking your life for people, I'm probably going to die of infection anyways."

"I see a town ahead!" Patrick yelled, "We can hold them off there!"

I kept running, and saw that he was right. There was a pretty big town up ahead, we could hold off in a building and kill the rest of the stranglers. I looked behind me to see where they were. The stranglers were only about fifty feet away from me now, there were about twenty of them, all screaming. They really wanted to catch us.

"You don't happen to have another flare do you?" I yelled up to Sabrina.

"No I don't!"

"Damn."

Barry finally had passed out from the blood loss, he was unconscious in my arms. I really hope he wouldn't turn into a strangler in my arms. He could be alright though, I survived many times in strangler encounters.

"Stay with us." I said to him.

We got closer to the town, but the stranglers were practically breathing on my neck, they were going to get me. There are only so many times you can get lucky in this world, and I think I have gotten lucky one too many times. This might be the end for me. I felt one grab my shirt, but their hand slipped off. I was done, unless I did something drastic. I really didn't want to do this, but I had no other choice.

"I'm so sorry." I said, then I dropped Barry.

The stranglers stopped and piled onto him. I looked behind me, they weren't chasing us anymore. They were ripping Barry apart. A tear swelled up in my eye, I kept running though. I ran back up with the group. Patrick looked to see I wasn't carrying Barry, then he looked back at the stranglers piled up against something. He put the pieces together. He looked at me, and tears fell down his face. He didn't say anything though. We kept running until we reached the town, I took Kayla from Sabrina to give her a break. We ran to the first building we found, which happened to be a doctors office. Mark kicked open the door and we ran inside. I shut the door and immediately piled stuff up against it. Desks, chairs, anything. I did this really fast, the stranglers could still be following us. Once they are done with Barry, they will come this way. I looked around the office, it wasn't looted yet, which was good. It was only one room, with filing cabinets and papers scattered everywhere. Sabrina looked in one of the desks, it was loaded with medication. Pills, first aid kits, everything you needed.

"I would rather go for food," she said, "But this is good."

"Alright," I said, "We need to-" I was punched across the face.

I fell into a filing cabinet, it toppled over and knocked tons of stuff over. I looked to see Patrick, he was really angry.

"You killed him." he shouted, he ran at me and pinned me against the wall, and started punching me in the stomach. Kayla was screaming in the background for him to stop.

I head butt him in the nose, he fell to the ground.

"Listen Patrick, there was nothing I could do. We both would have died if I didn't drop him. He was going to die either way."

Patrick didn't want to listen though, he tackled me into the wall again, and I heard a smashing sound. I think we put a hole in the wall.

"I'm giving you one last chance." I said.

He punched me in the gut again, that's when I lost it. I had enough of this.

I kneed him in the stomach, and he bent down and held his gut. I took the chance to take him down. I grabbed his neck with my hand and threw him onto the ground. I jumped on top of him and kept on punching him, over and over again, until he couldn't defend himself anymore. Mark pulled me off of him, and Patrick was lying there holding his face. My fists were pretty damn sore as well.

"You gonna kill me too?" he asked.

I didn't say anything, Kayla was hiding behind Sabrina, away from me.

"Everyone be quiet!" Sabrina hushed.

I listened to heard footsteps outside, a bunch of them at once. The stranglers were here, and they were passing by. I don't think they saw us enter this place, so as long as we stay quiet we should be good. We all crouched on the ground, and waited for them to pass. We sat there for what had to be five minutes, just making sure they were gone. After that, I got up and looked out a window. There was nothing, they were gone. We need to stay quiet in here though, we'll stay here for the night and leave tomorrow morning.

Later that night, I sat at a desk and just thought about things. Today was a terrible day for travelling, Barry is dead, and Patrick blames me. I think my whole group is afraid of me as well. I looked in a drawer and found a map of Ontario, we could get to Toronto easily with this, I packed it into my pocket. Sabrina was bandaging Patrick's face up, and Kayla was still avoiding me. Mark came and sat me with.

"I know you had to do it." he said.

I looked over at him, I wasn't sure how he felt about me either.

"I know you had to drop Barry, I saw you guys back there. I thought you were going to die too. Patrick knows that too, he's just angry his best friend died. They just got reunited too. Just give him some time, and don't be too hard on him."

"I had to protect myself," I began, "He was going to keep beating me if I didn't stop him."

"I know, I know." Mark got up and went to bed, it was a tiring day. I drifted off to sleep at the desk, I put my arms out and used it as a pillow. I was woken by banging on the door, I snapped my head up and ran to the window. I told everyone to stay down. I saw a normal looking woman outside, with a kid holding her hand.

I moved all of the stuff out of the way in front of the door. I then got my gun ready, just incase. Then answered the door.

"Please help us!" the woman cried, she was covered in blood.

Her kid was a little boy around the age of five, like Kayla. He looked mentally scarred. He was just standing there shaking. I let them inside and they huddled in a corner. I shut the door and moved everything back in front of the door, barricading it again. I still kept my gun handy, this woman did not look stable at all.

"What happened?" I asked, "Are you ok?"

"My name is Jamie," the mom cried, "And this is my son Brandy."

Jamie was a bit older, she was younger than Margaret was, but older than me. Maybe early fifties. She had curly, long, blonde hair, and glasses. She was very skinny. Brandy was small and had brown hair shaped into a bowl cut. He also had glasses on, and overalls. He was shaking in fear.

"What happened?" I asked, "You two look scared."

"My husband, he tried to kill us. He wasn't right in the head, I was forced to stab him." Jamie said, shivering in fear.