Episode 4: Predicted

Episode 4

"Predicted"

(This Part of the Story is From Kayla's Point of View)

I backed away from Brandy, I was scared. What if he turned any minute. He kept trying to tell me he fine, but I wasn't sure.

"Kayla! I promise! This isn't from a strangler!"

I pulled out my pistol and pointed it at him, I was really scared. I didn't want to have to kill my own friend.

"Kayla please! You aren't thinking this through!"

"How do I know it wasn't a strangler? What if you're lying to me?"

"You can trust me! I'm not going to turn! I would never lie to you! Please Kayla!"

I sighed and put the gun down, I could never shoot Brandy. I would never do that. Even if he had turned into a strangler, I wouldn't do it. I might have just left him. I couldn't do that.

"Thank you." he said breathing heavily of relief.

"Why are you sick then?" I asked.

"I'm not really!" he said, "I just don't feel too good! That's all!"

"Okay, I believe you," I said, "But if you turn, I'm going to be very pissed you lied to me."

We left the abandoned cabin with Doug, and started walking through the frozen forest. It was cold, but we had to leave sometime. We'd never find the group staying in there. Brandy was slow, but he followed behind me and Doug as best as he could. I pet Doug on the back, and he was shivering.

"Are you cold?" I asked him.

He didn't make any sounds, he just kept walking beside me. Now that he ate something and was hydrated, I think he was doing a lot better. I just hope the group is doing good too, my dad must be worried sick. He is probably out there looking for me right now. I hope he be's careful, I'll be fine. I hope he will.

"Wait up Kayla." Brandy panted as he ran to catch up to me.

"It's really cold, are you sure we shouldn't wait inside the cabin for the rest of the day? Maybe tomorrow will be warmer!"

"No, we need to find the group! The longer we stay in one place, the further we get from the group."

"Alright, but keep in mind we don't want to die of hypothermia while looking for them."

"We won't Brandy, stop being such a wimp."

"I'm not! It's just that, whatever." he gave up.

We walked through the forest for a long time, but everything looked the same. Just trees and more trees. It was getting weird. I was actually starting to get a little scared. I was pretty confident that we would find the group, but now it's been a while, and there is absolutely no sign of them anywhere. There are no footprints in the snow but ours. I didn't see any human activity anywhere.

We kept on walking, for hours it seemed. I'm not sure we were walking for that long, but it sure felt like it. Brandy kept up, and Doug was doing pretty good too. I don't know how much further he can make it though. I tripped over a tree stump and fell face first into the snow. I got up and wiped the snow off of my face frantically.

"Shit! That's cold!" I yelled.

Brandy was laughing at me, it must have been funny to him. I gathered up some snow and put it into a snow ball. I threw it at him, it hit him right in the face. He fell over and looked at me. A big grin appeared over his face. He threw a snowball at me, and I threw some back. We had a pretty long snowball fight, even Doug had fun. He started running around and trying to catch the snowballs in his mouth as we threw them. After the little war, we sat in the snow beside each other.

"Man we should have thought that through before whipping snow at each other." Brandy said.

"Why? It was funny." I laughed.

"Yeah but now we're even more cold."

I picked up more snow and slapped him in the face with it.

"Now you're even more, more cold."

He looked a little pissed at that, but he couldn't help but laugh. We sat around in the snow for a little longer, just talking. I think talking to someone is the only way to keep you from going crazy in this world. Something my dad doesn't like to do, talk about his feelings. Maybe that's why he's a little crazy.

"Can you even remember what the world was like before this?" Brandy asked me.

"Not much, but I lived in an apartment with my dad in Chatham. I went to school every day except the weekends, and I thought that was bad. I'd give anything now to go to school again. It may have been boring, but it was a happy place for me. A million times better than this world."

"I still think about my grandparents every day," Brandy said, "My grandpa was such a cool grandpa, he bought me lots of things, and he was just cool. I couldn't believe it when he turned on us when the apocalypse started. I really felt betrayed. I- I still really miss my grandma too." he started to sniffle up.

I hugged him.

"It's okay, we've all lost something."

Doug started barking uncontrollably, but I couldn't see anything. He was staring into the distance. What did he see? All I saw was snow. Just white snow and frozen trees for miles.

"Doug what is it?" I asked, petting him on the head.

He growled, and I squinted and looked into the distance. I leaned in closer, what was he seeing? I still didn't see anything.

"Do you see anything?" Brandy asked, walking and stopping beside me.

"No, I don't."

"I wonder what Doug is all upset about."

"Whatever, I'm getting kinda creeped out. Let's get moving." I said.

I turned around and started walking away, Brandy followed. Doug stayed there and kept on barking at nothing.

"Come on!" I yelled.

He jolted backwards like he was scared. He then ran for us with his tail in between his legs. Something scared him.

We started running, I didn't want to stay there any longer. I was just focused on getting out of here. I just want to find the group already. What if we have to live by ourselves forever? I can't think about that, I will only upset myself some more. Just keep running Kayla, get away from whatever was back there. You'll be safe. You've made it this far for a reason. You're not dead yet, which means you have to keep fighting. Brandy started coughing, and coughing. He collapsed on the ground. Doug and I stopped running to go help him out. His skin wasn't looking too good, and he kept on coughing.

"I don't feel very well." he said, still coughing in between words.

"You're sure you're not infected?" I asked him.

"No, I would have known if a strangler scratched me. I promise Kayla. I must have scraped this off a branch or something." he said, looking at his wound on his arm.

"Then what do we do?" I asked, "You can't make it much further. You're not looking so good."

"I'll be fine, let's just keep moving. Maybe we'll get lucky and stumble across a medic or something." he laughed, but it just wasn't funny.

"Brandy now is not the time to joke," I said, "And even if it was, that joke wasn't funny."

"Whatever, let's hear you crack a joke." he smiled.

"Enough jokes," said an unfamiliar voice behind me, "We got you guys just where we want you."

I slowly turned around to see an older man with a beard looking at me. He was grinning, like he was plotting something bad. There was one woman beside him. She armed and pointing a gun at us. I raised my hands.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Doug started barking and growling at them.

"Someone shut that damn dog up!" the man yelled.

The woman pointed her gun at Doug, I couldn't let that happen though. I pulled out my pistol in a split second and shot her in the arm.

"No!" I yelled.

The woman screamed and fell to the ground, holding her arm and cursing. The man grabbed my gun and threw it into the snow.

"You little shit!" he yelled, getting closer, "What the hell was that all about?"

"Don't touch my dog." I said.

"You're quite the little pain in the ass aren't you? Where is your group?" he asked.

"Close," I threatened, "If you do anything they will skin you people alive and feed you to the stranglers!"

"Stranglers don't eat," the man laughed, "Alright, enough of this. My name is Blake if you were wondering. You are?"

"None of your business." I said.

"You guys don't have a group do you? You're all alone out here."

"N-no!" I stuttered, moving away from him, he moved closer.

"Why don't you come with us? We'll keep you safe." he put his hand on my shoulder.

This guy was freaking me out, my dad always told me not to talk to strangers before the apocalypse happened. Now I know why. There are some messed up people out there. I don't know what this guy is planning on doing to us, but I don't like it. Doug growled and bit his arm. He screamed and let go of my shoulder. He then started wrestling with Doug. He picked him up and threw him off of him. Doug got back up and bit his face. He ripped off a chunk of his cheek. Blake picked Doug up and threw him at a tree. Doug whimpered and lied on the ground helpless. In all the chaos, I ran and grabbed my pistol from the ground. The woman was still on the ground in agony, she can't do anything. I pointed my gun at the man.

"Let us go, or I'll kill you." I said.

He grabbed his bleeding cheek.

"You don't scare-"

I didn't let him finish his sentence. I shot him in the face. Except I missed, and skimmed his face. He fell to the ground and immediately passed out. We need to get out of here. We need to find the group.