Chapter 23

" I hope that I will come across a snake" says Tobecca. Spencer raises his eyebrows in shock. " You actually want to see a snake Tobecca" asks Spencer. Tobecca smiles. " Of course. I love snakes although I won't want to grab them because I can't afford to get bitten now." We walk down the bridge. There are mini animal statues on the left and right side of us. A hawk about to grab his prey is on the left side of us and a rattlesnake showing his fangs is on the right. There are so many. " Sometimes I wish that I could do art stuff. You know, like drawing and painting." says Tobecca. " I can teach you when we get the chance" says Lily. Tobecca smiles. " I would like that a lot. Thanks." A joke forms in my head. I go to the reception area. " Four tickets please and dont make me wait." Everyone starts laughing. " This place is not getting funded anymore" says Spencer. " The animals will finally get to live in peace now without the loudness that we humans uses to make" says Lily. " This place used to have so many people having picnics. I used to have picnic here all the time. It was fantastic. If you go futher down you can see the river" says Tobecca. I want to see the river. " I used to play in the river when I was a teenager. My parents would not allow me to play in it as a kid. All the slippery rocks" says Tobecca. " Let's go check the river out" I say. We walk to the river. "Amazing nature is" I say. Everyone nods in agreement. We see the fish splashing in the water. We sit there on the grass in silence for about half an hour just watching the fish and letting the breeze touch us. Eventually Spencer gets up and looks ahead. " Hey. Let's go on the nature trail. We can take in the views" says Spencer. I am excited. " This is officially a break from our journey" says Tobecca. I can go with that. We approach the steel bridge that leads to the trail. Lily sighs. " What's wrong Lily" I ask. Lily looks at me. " I hate bridges. I always get scared that the bridge will collapse." " But you went on that other bridge to enter the facility" I say. " Yeah but it wasent a bridge per say as it was inches to the ground." I hold Lily's hands. " I will help you." Lily smiles. We make it slowly off the bridge. Spencer and Tobecca are waiting on the other side. " Do you think that there could be any zombies in here" asks Spencer. " Let's find out" I say. We begin to walk on the trail. I enjoy the breeze. I hear the crunching of leaves from under our shoes. It takes us fifteen minutes to find a waterfall. " Whoa" says Tobecca. The waterfall is such an amazing view. It feels like all my problems have been washed away. We are at the bottom area of the waterfall looking from the bottom. I decide to sit on the sand and everyone follows suit. We watch the waterfall in silence just like what we did with the river. " I used to go on hikes with my dad. It meant the world to the both of us" says Spencer. I wish I could have gone on hikes with my parents. I did a few times with Mary. I enjoyed those. " Funny enough I never actually wanted to go on these trails as a kid but after actually going and experiencing the experience myself, I came to like them. I miss the old days" says Lily. Tobecca smiles. " How about we celebrate and make a great day out of today" says Tobecca. I raise my eyebrows in confusion. " Let's dance under the waterfall. Plus we need a bath anyway so it's a win win situation. Grab a partner" says Tobecca. Spencer, Lily and I look at each other. " Please" says Tobecca. We get up. Lily walks to me while blushing. " I choose you Andrew" says Lily. Tobecca runs up to me and grabs my arm and moves me away from Lily. " Sorry Lily. I want to dance with Andrew." As we are moving away I see Lily give Tobecca an angry glare before approaching Spencer. Spencer's face turns red. No one wanted to dance with him. I feel bad. Then again, a small part of me dosen't. I smile. Our feet are now in water. The water source is not deep and only covers our feet. Tobecca pulls me closer to her. We are so close. We are under the waterfall. The waterfall isn't big so not much damage can happen to us. " You know, I think that these type of moments are romantic. Even better than candles" says Tobecca. I blush. Why is she talking about romance all of sudden? I am starting to get uncomfortable. " I think that I need to tell you something" says Tobecca. " Okay" I say. Tobecca kisses me on the cheeks. I turn red. I notice that Lily is luckily not paying attention if my guesses about why she was angry is correct. " Sorry. I had to do that." Now Tobecca turns red. " Its okay" I say. Tobecca smiles. " I am going to tell you a secret. I think that you are super attractive. That is one of the main reasons why i wanted to come along on this adventure." I didn't expect this to happen. " whoa. You are super attractive too." That is my response that came to my head. It is true though. Tobecca gives me a hug and a kiss on the lips. It is quick. Eventually Lily comes to us. " I am going to try get dry now. I suggest we all do the same." We all follow suit. Luckily for us we have spare clothes in our backpacks so that we can change. Lily and Tobecca get dressed near the waterfall while Spencer and I get dressed a bit futher away. Once we are done we return to Lily and Tobecca. " I enjoyed our fun in the water" says Spencer. " Hey. What's that noise" asks Lily. We all listen. The sounds sound like sticks being stood on. All of a sudden seven zombie mutants run towards us. I have my revolver in my hands and shoot one of the zombie mutants in the head. It collapses near my feet. A zombie mutant tries to scratch Tobecca but Spencer shoots the zombie mutant in the head from the side. Lily gasps as a zombie mutant attempts to grab her head. I fire a shot and it goes down. Four of the zombie mutants remain. They just stand there looking at us. We are all confused. We decide to make the most of it and start shooting. We successfully shoot down three of them but the last one dodges sideways fast. We are shocked. Then it starts running towards us. A gun shoot is heard. The zombie mutant collapses. We look at each other not sure who fired the shot. We turn around and notice a man who has brown hair with some of his hair covering his left eye and wearing leather clothes. " Hello there. I mean no harm. My name is Richard. Richard Quest. Thanks for helping me kill those zombies." " Thanks for helping us on that last one" says Tobecca. " Indeed that was the last one. I can tell you all about it if you want" says Richard. " Okay" says Spencer. We all sit down on the grass. I hope that he is alone. I don't want a surprise attack. What if Richard is part of a cannibal group? " I live close. I know this place very well. Before the apocalypse happened, I was a volunteer here at the nature valley. I made sure that there was no litter and that people followed the rules. Sometimes people would like to sneak in or stay longer then they should but I would always bust them. When the apocalypse happened, I ran into the nature valley so that the ordeal can sort itself out. I thought that I would stay here for awhile until supplies ran out which they did. I had to make my way back when I stumbled upon a community that was living in the valley. I was shocked. It seems as if coming into the valley was not my own idea. I was hesitant at first since I didn't know their intentions. I was going to slip right past them when one of them saw me. They called me to come. I was going to run when I saw that they had food. I was really hungry. I approach them and a woman came to me. Her name was Jessie. She told me that she was the leader of the community and they were staying in the valley. She had a philosophy of sorts. She said that the best way to survive would be amongst nature. I agreed with her and asked if I could have some food and then I would be on my way. She laughed and said that I could stay with them. I agreed of course. I didn't have supplies and I was desperate. I have hunting skills so i volunteered to teach some of the people there so in case I died, they would be self sufficient. The routine would be breakfast at seven and then hunting an hour later. We did manage to catch some animals. It was a relaxing environment since there was no zombies. We have the river as a source of water. Everything was going right until about three days ago. One of the community members said that they were feeling itchy. I thought it was caused by stress or a bug bite. I was wrong. After breakfast I decided to hunt alone. When I got back, the community members were zombie mutants."