Our Own Pack

“NO. oh no no no no no. Come on get up you dummy” Ash cries as she tries to pull 350 pounds of pure muscle from quick sand. “Well you're never going to get me outta here if you lift like that, use your legs!” exclaims Zeke, a regular human like Ash, but about five times larger. “ You’re in no position to criticize how I lift right now!” She collapses onto the ground with an exasperated sigh. Ash tries to think smarter, not harder. Wasn’t that what her mother always said? It doesn’t matter. She’s gone now, like the rest of them. Ash is better at medical help than intelligent puzzles or whatever all the smart kids in class did.

Surviving in the world is not the tedious task of sleep, eat, exercise, and repeat anymore. When a deadly disease was launched by the twisted government for testing, it spread faster than hypothesized, but when the disease mixed with the dominant alleles in the human body there was a battle for supremacy, in the end the alleles and disease mixed together to make an extremely contagious virus. Resulting in the first wave of “zombies.” The worst part? People didn’t know they were infected for over 200 years. Each new generation had a part of the original virus, but different, more evolved. March 3 2221, was the day the globe stopped warming, and became boiling. The heat triggered the dormant virus and made it active. Those whose family line originally had the virus lost all thinking for themselves and became mindless walking people. Thus, the start of the second wave of “zombies.” These, way more dangerous, because coming in contact with them will result in immediate zombification. It is now June 21 2322. Humans travel in packs, each family in said pack have a special skill that is important for the survival of everyone. Ash’s group got ambushed by the infected. She was the only one that survived.

“Uh, hello? Still sinking here.” said a very annoyed Zeke, who has been watching Ash zone out on him. “Sorry, Sorry. I guess I was preoccupied in my own mind.” Ash chuckles, being a part of the medical family, she knows how to try to diffuse a prickly patient. “Well, did you figure out how to get me outta here?” grumps Zeke. “No, not entirely haha,” Ash says, then waits for a response. (It didn’t take long) “WHAT?! I AM SINKING IN SAND, AND YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO GET ME OUT?!” Zeke screams-which is not a very smart thing to do in a zombie-filled society- he starts to panic, causing him to sink even faster. “Stop that.” Clear and direct, but Ash didn’t say that. Neither did Zeke. So who did? “Who’s there?!” Ash looks around frantically, then stops as a figure drops from a nearby tree, “Who are you?” Ash asks. “Information is valuable, especially names,'' said the figure, “so why would I tell you?” The figure moves closer to the quick sand pit. “Hm, do you have a rope?” the person asked Ash, “we can use it to get this gorilla out.” Ash stifles a laugh as Zeke started yelling in protest to the comment. “Shut up,” the person said, “how did you survive for so long if your only volume setting is ‘bellow.’” Ash couldn’t help herself, she started laughing so hard that she couldn’t see where the rope was in the bag.

When Ash gave the figure a rope, she stepped back to watch. The figure, who was a little taller than Ash, had a dark cloak on, and a visible knapsack. Ash observed the figure throw the rope into the quicksand and tie the other end to a nearby tree trunk. “Now pull yourself out.” Instructed the figure. Zeke did what he was told, but not without grumbling about it. In no time Zeke was out of the sand, but still in a stormy mood. “Well I better get going, can’t stay still for too long, you know how it is.” the figure started away. “Wait! You don’t have a pack. Do you?” Ash had given it some thought and all packs had some insignia that was worn on clothing. This person, however, didn’t have a thing. “So what?” said the figure, ice dripping off of those two words. Ash continues, “Everyone knows it’s safer to travel in a pack, plus our pack only has a medic and brawn. But no brains.” This resulted with a small giggle from the figure.

After what seemed like an hour, the figure agreed to join.

“Happy now Ash? We got another member.” Zeke mumbled, and then turned away. He thought Ash and him made a pretty good pair, and Ash adding a new member made Zeke feel abandoned. Soon the three of them started walking down the trail. Zeke led up ahead, and the new member was in the back. Ash tried to walk up to Zeke to start up a conversation, but Zeke humphed and turned away. Ash decided not to look into it too much and fell back to talk to the newbie. “So, can I know your name now?” Ash asked, trying to peek inside the hood of the cloak. “It’s Cass.” said the hooded figure. “Oh what a pretty name!,” Ash exclaimed, “I bet that name has a pretty face to go with it.” Cass sighed, “Oh I suppose I had to show you eventually.” She pulled off her hood to reveal her face. Cass had blonde hair pulled into a low bun, with green-blue eyes that had speckles of gold, and a beautiful heart-shaped locket around her neck. Ash tried not to stare too much but it was hard not to. Last time Ash saw her reflection it was in a puddle, and what she gathered from that is that she has dark brown eyes, with unevenly chopped brown hair, and no accessories other than a spray of freckles. Cass caught Ash staring, “I know the necklace is very eye-catching,” Cass chuckled, “here you can have it, it goes with your...well everything.” Cass took off the necklace and put it around Ash’s neck. “It-It’s so angelic. Thank you!” sputtered Ash, who has never gotten a gift before. Ash and Cass became the closest of pals, Zeke on the other hand started developing an even bigger grudge against Cass.

5 months have passed since Cass joined the pack. Zeke and Cass barely speak to each other, and Ash has been hanging out with Cass rather than Zeke.

“Look! An abandoned mall,” exclaims Zeke, “let’s go check it out.” “No, we shouldn’t. Big places like this attract zombies.” Cass explains. “Maybe we shouldn’t, Zeke.” Ash ventures, “if Cass is right, then we can’t ris-” Zeke interrupts, “Oh who CARES what Cass thinks. We are going inside.” With that Zeke started stomping toward the mall. Ash and Cass looked at each other, then headed inside. The mall’s inside looked as if night and terror had a baby. After rummaging through some old stores, Zeke called for everyone to meet at the food court. When Ash and Cass get there they see Zeke surrounded by zombies. “A little help?” Zeke grumps. Cass runs forward and with a slice of her dagger, she took out 3 out of the 5 zombies. After that was dealt with, the fighting soon began. “I TOLD you so! Why, oh, why did we have to come here?!” Cass scolded. “Well free loot, is free loot. You can’t expect us not to pass it up!” Zeke shot back. They kept bickering back and forth. All the while Ash just sat back in the shadows, too bad that was also where a zombie was hiding.”AHHHH” Cass and Zeke ran to the sound. When they got there, they saw Ash, a sickly white and holding the heart-shaped locket in her hand. “Oh no…” squeaked Cass.

What she did next took less than a second but felt like the whole world was weighing down on her shoulders.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” screeched Zeke. He knelt down to the now still body of his old friend. “I had to put her out of her misery. It’s what she would’ve wanted.” Cass blinked back tears, she knelt down and took the locket out of Ash’s limp hand and started walking away. “Where are you going? Hey! I’m talking to you! Hey...Stop!” cried Zeke, who stumbled up, but then fell back down again and started sobbing.

As Cass walked out of the mall, she welcomed the tears as she took a Polaroid picture from her pocket. It was of her and Ash, a couple months back when they found the camera. Silently she took out the old photo in the locket and replaced it with the new one. With one last look in the locket, she started toward the forest.