Now What?

[Erik POV]

As I got up from my couch I did a light stretch and readied myself to head out, it had been nice to relax in my home for maybe the last time and just read a book in silence.

Well, as silent as it could be considering the low groans coming from passing biters and whatnot but thankfully none of them got the urge to try and break my door down.

Packing a few more things like beef jerky, some canned soup I forgot I had and a couple of larger kitchen knives that I maybe could do something with, I made my way out of the house, ready to duck through alleys and backyards to get back to the bunker.

Walking out of my house, I closed the door behind me, made sure I wouldn't be snuck up on by some biters, and locked the door, readying my machete I made my way toward the first alley that connected to the street over where I would be heading.

Seeing the coast was clear, I decided to take the road this time as there was plenty of room for me to evade any biters or small hordes I may chance upon.

As I made my way toward the bunker house, I heard what sounded like distant screams from that direction, at first I thought it may be some survivors who stumbled into the neighborhood but suddenly as I was about to start speeding up, I heard several rounds of gunshots go.

Worried for my family and the bunker, I broke out into a full sprint as I made my way down the street, not giving the few biters here and there any mind as I made my way closer and closer to the increasingly loud sounds of panic.

Finally making it to the street where the house with the bunker was, I turned the corner at the street and was met with pure chaos, the likes of which reminded me of the university campus when this all first broke out.

People were screaming and running all over the place, some were trying their best and failing to fight off some biters while a few unlucky others had already fallen and were being eaten alive by the biters.

As I made my way closer to the frenzied horde of people and biters alike, I caught a glimpse of my brother and parents making their way toward another house, trying to duck into an alley.

While this would've been smart under most circumstances, what they didn't know that I did was the large horde of biters waiting over there.

Earlier when I first left I had seen this large collective and led them away from the bunker but it seems with all the noise they came right back.

Quickly running toward my family, a few people tried to get to me for whatever reason, that is until they were grabbed by biters and quickly consumed, a few of those biters even trying to come at me just to be met with my machete.

Lukas and my parents had barely made it into the side alley when I got there, my fears were confirmed when I saw the massive group of biters that they had almost run face-first into, thankfully some quick thinking had them stop in their tracks.

"Guys over here come on!" I yelled toward my parents and brother motioning for them to follow me

Although they were surprised to see me pop up out of nowhere, that surprise was short-lived as the biters began trying to lunge toward them, so, the instincts in their bodies screamed at them to move toward me.

As we were running, it seemed like my yelling had caught the attention of a few more people from the bunker as they were making their way over toward us.

out of the 7 that noticed me, only around 4 made it over unscathed.

'Will these people fuck off already.' I thought as I sighed and motioned for the small group to follow me as we started to head back to the street where my house was, however, I wasn't going to bring them there just in case for whatever reason.

instead, we were going to head over to one of the houses on my street that should still have some extra food in it as I didn't really loot from there keeping it as an almost hidden storage sort of place.

As we ran, some more people tried to get to us as they noticed our escape but they were only met with a wall of dead people who grabbed and bit them and tore them to pieces.

Running down the road, we were about a block away from our destination when Mom suddenly tripped on the asphalt, twisting her ankle in the process.

Since I was in the front of our moving group I couldn't get to her in a fast manner but thankfully one of the people who came with us, Damion I think his name was, helped my mom up and supported her as we moved.

after a few more minutes of making our way over, we finally reached the house, I quickly flung the door open as it was thankfully unlocked, letting everyone in I dispatched a couple of biters who were close and then I slammed the door shut and locked it, deadbolt and all, it even had a stopper for added protection.

Through heavy breathing, I took stock of our situation seeing that out of the four people who initially came with us, a few more made their way to us during the chaotic escape.

As I went to check the downstairs for any biters, I found the place to be clear and I told a couple of people to go check the upstairs since they were the only ones who had weapons, that being a couple of combat knives from the bunker.

While they were a little hesitant, the fear from me killing David and his father was still evident on their faces as they complied.

As my parents brother and I along with some of the people who came with us sat down and decompressed, we heard a loud commotion upstairs.

At this point I wasn't even scared or anything like that, I just sighed and stood up, machete in hand and ready.

"Get ready to book it out the back door," I said in a low voice to Lukas and my parents.

Just as I was about to move to the door, we heard a loud scream come from the top of the stairs, and down tumbling came one of the people who went to go check the upstairs, a large bite taken out of his shoulder.

Although he was heavily injured, for only god knows why, the idiot ran to the front door undid the damn locks, and ran out, only getting a few steps out before he was enveloped by a horde of biters, the rest of which started filing into the house.

"For the love of- alright come on head to the back door!" I said to my family and the others with us.

As we were moving more bangs and yells came from upstairs as the last guy came falling down the stairs as well, followed by a couple of biters who I'm guessing were the occupants of this place.

I quickly opened the door and started motioning for everyone to head out, first Lukas and some others went out, Lukas had his machete in his hand just in case, smart boy.

Just as the last of them were out my mom collapsed again, I went to help her and we quickly made it out of the house, I passed my mom to my dad as I went to shut the door, having to kill one of the biters first.

Making our way toward the sideyard, I broke down the flimsy wooden gate and we made our way out, to our right was the dozen or so large horde that was hovering around the house's front entrance, thankfully they were too focused on the pained screams of the two inside to notice us.

Deciding that our situation was too dire to hold out, I led my parents, Lukas, and the three people who survived with us to my house.

Once we finally got there, I was happy to see that there weren't really any biters nearby, it seems the loud chaos that erupted from the bunker led most of the hordes away.

I quickly led everyone into my house and told them to get situated as I took care of the few biters nearby as to minimize any risk.

Before I left I told Lukas and Dad to get some candles and use only a few so we don't give off too much light, I'm still not sure if these things can see light or not.

I first went for the closest biter there was and swung my machete vertically down on its head, the blade digging itself around halfway into the skull as the biter went limp I took the machete out of its head, quickly moving on to the next.

After dispatching the last few biters, I went back to my house and went in, making sure to lock the doors and barricade them with some chairs as well.

(Later)

It had now been a few hours since we had fled from the last house to my home. 

The three others with us still seemed pretty shaken up from the events of today, my mom included as she was visibly shaking at times from the sheer chaos that happened.

As I was sitting on my bed in my room reading about some survival tactics from a book I got from the bunker, Lukas came in and sat down next to me.

After several moments of what quite frankly was an awkward silence, he finally spoke up, the concern and fear lacing his tone being made evident.

"So... uh, what now?" Lukas asked me turning to look toward me, his face pale from the events that unfolded today.

"Well, I'm not really sure, we've got enough food to last us for a week at most and I'm not too keen on going out there to find more food for those useless dumbasses down there, so, I guess for now we sit tight and weigh our options.' I said before stopping to collect my thoughts some more

"You know, I was... thinking of heading back to Georgia, all of us that is," I said to my brother, a knowing expression and a small smile breaking out on his face

"Really? you just want to go back to her don't you, dont lie to me brother I know you still love her." Lukas said with a cheeky smile while nudging my side

"Haha, yeah... yeah I guess I still do huh, but not only that, you remember her father, well, he owns a pretty large farm, hopefully, if by the grace of god, we made it to Georgia, they would take us in, there is plenty of space after all, plus its nice and secluded for the most part.

After that, my brother and I just talked about some more mundane topics letting the time pass as we joked and laughed with each other, we also reminisced about Elias and how much we missed him.

As our conversation came to a close, night had finally come, with the people downstairs situated with blankets and pillows and my parents and Lukas taking up their guest rooms from before, we all went to sleep, all of our bodies exhausted from the day.

Laying in bed, I couldn't help but think of her as I drifted off to sleep.

'I hope you're doing fine out there, Maggie.'

And with that, sleep overtook me.