Day 35

Will and Jeff decided to travel west from the run down military base in hopes of finding any trace of humanity. The days were cold and the nights even colder, they were afraid of lighting any fires to keep warm. Not only because of all the undead but also because of all the bandits that were created after the great turning. “We need to find some shelter soon; the night is almost upon us, Will said to Jeff as a puff of smoke escaped his mouth. Jeff nodded in agreement, “It looks like there is a small rock cliff off to our left. Let’s see if we can find anything.”

As Will and Jeff approached the cliff wall they noticed what seemed to be a small cave. “I’ll go first”, Will insisted, as he took off his pack. Will crawled into the hole and while doing so knocked down some loose rocks. That made the entrance bigger. “Well, now we can both fit no problem”, Will said in a giggled tone. Will and Jeff were lucky enough to find some thermal blankets at one of the many campsites they had discovered on their travels. Putting one on the ground to lie on and using the other to cover up. The deathly cold air at night was more bearable.

Will woke up in a fright one night, “NO!”, panting, Will looked around and saw nothing but a fresh layer of snow on the ground. “You have another nightmare?” Jeff asked, sweating from his dream, Will turned to Jeff, “Yeah, this time it was about her” Jeff’s eyes widened and then kind of hazed over, “I see her in my dreams sometimes too”. Will with a look of relief on his face, turned his head back around to look outside.

A single ray of sunlight began to break the darkness that surrounded the two inside the cave as the sun gave birth to a new day. Will and Jeff had already been up and gathered all of their belongings, “Let us be on our way, shall we”, Jeff said as he placed his hand on Will’s shoulder. Will sheathed his knife and began to crawl out the mouth of the cave. As they exited the cave, they noticed that they were close to an old abandoned train station.

Will pulled out his map and tried to find where they ended up, “Fucking shit!”. Jeff looked at Will with a worried look, “We fucking went south instead of west instead of heading to Utah we’re almost to New Mexico”. Will drew out his knife and stabbed the nearby tree in anger and let out a monstrous yell. “Feel better now?” Jeff asked. Will looked at him and let out a little laugh and yanked out his knife. As Will was putting his knife away, they heard some shuffling in the bushes behind them.

They ducked and hid behind a tree and a rock then turned and watched was coming up behind them. Jeff had his hand on his pistol ready to draw and Will at the ready with his shotgun. They both sighed a sign of relief as a rabbit busted through the bush and ran past them. Jeff holstered his pistol and Will put his shotgun back on his shoulder, “I was sweating bullets there”, Jeff said. Will chuckled and the two turned back around to continue heading south. “Well, since we are so close, we might as well go to New Mexico” Will mentioned. Jeff agreed and as he turned to Will, some blood landed on his cheek.

“WILL!” Jeff yelled as he caught him from hitting the ground. Suddenly there was a faint crack that rang out through the air, almost as if someone had taken two bricks and banged them together. Jeff collapsed to the ground with Will, “Are you okay?!” Jeff yelled panicky, “I’m okay, it hit my shoulder” Jeff started looking around for any traces of where it came from. “I don’t see anything” Jeff said, “That sounded like a hunting rifle, they could be far away” Will answered back. “Then what do we do?” Jeff asked, “We wait them out or we can run into the woods” Jeff turned his head and in the direction of the forest, “That seems awfully far, can you make it with that wound?” Will sat up and with a grin on his face almost as if he was enjoying it, “Just another day in paradise”.

As Will and Jeff sprinted for the tree line. Then a small horde of undead decided to make its presence known. Jeff drew his machete, “Cover me!”, Jeff yelled to Will as he charged the horde. Will grabbed his pistol and began to fire at the zombies as Jeff plunged the edge of his machete into the forehead of the last zombie. Jeff wiped off his machete with a piece of clothing that he ripped off the body that laid in front of him. Will walked up, “We’re still in danger let’s move.” Jeff put away the machete and they continued to run towards the woods.

Jeff and Will had been walking for about an hour without any signs of anymore undead or of the sniper. Suddenly they heard a faint noise in the distance. “Will, do you hear that?” Will stopped walking and listened for a second, “It sounds like…music”. Jeff and Will looked at each other confused, so they decided to investigate. They headed in the direction that they heard the music playing. After a few minutes of walking the music was getting louder and louder. Will and Jeff noticed that the trees were starting to thin out and the music was getting louder, “It looks like there might be a clearing up ahead” Jeff said to Will. As they walked through the clearing, their eyes took in the site of a dilapidated airport.

As they stood there looking at the airport, they noticed that the music was pretty loud at this point. “It sounds like it is coming from the other end of the air strip” Will said. Jeff looked over and noticed that there was a giant hole in the ground in the direction of the music, “Shall we go check it out?” “Let’s see if we can find anything at the hangar and tower first” Jeff agreed and the two started walking towards the tower.

Will and Jeff made their way into the tower and started climbing the stairs leading to the top. “Times like these, I wish the power grid was still up” Will said to Jeff as they reached the half way point, “Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one” Jeff answered back. The two reached the top of the tower and found a stock pile of cans of food and bottles of water, “Well, it would appear that we have found somebody’s stash” Jeff said.  Will and Jeff began to fill their packs with as much as they could carry, “I think we should hang out here for the night and gorge ourselves” Will mentioned to Jeff.  Jeff looked up with a smile, “You read my mind”.  The two then commenced to opening cans of food and began to stuff their stomachs.

As the two sat and ate and drank their fill, the night time was soon upon them, “Well, I guess we should just stay the night in here since its already dark.” Jeff said.  Will stretched out and let out a big yawn, “You take first watch then” Will said as he rolled over and covered himself, ”Yeah, don’t worry, I got it” Jeff said as he threw an empty can at Will. Jeff got into what he thought was a good lookout position and as he began to look out, he could see zombies walking towards the pit and falling in.  “Whoever came up with that idea is a smart bastard” Jeff thought to himself.