Episode 43: The Blueberry Fields

The group of survivors were amazed at what they saw as they entered Breanna's camp. At least a dozen wooden houses were built high in the trees with thick rope ladders and rope bridges connecting each one.

"My God! It's like Star Wars...or Lord of the Rings." David said in awe.
"It's necessary for survival. Zombies can't climb." Breanna said chopping a rope from a tree. A ladder unraveled and fell by her feet. "Let's go."
Everyone began to climb but David was still on the ground in awe. He heard a grunt and felt warm breath on his shoulder. He looked up and saw the behemoth of a man looking down at him. Scared, he gulped and ran up the ladder.
"Don't worry!" Breanna stifled a laugh. "That's just Rufus. He's harmless...unless you cross him."

They entered what seemed to be the largest of the tree houses and Breanna took off her shoes. She looked at the others who understood that they should take their shoes off too. She went to the center where a large ruby cushion sat on the floor and set herself on it facing towards the rest of the group. Rufus arrived and stood guard by the door.

"There must be an elevator. No way he could have climbed that tiny ladder." David tried to whisper to Sarah who only nudged him in the ribs back.

"Did you take note of these symbols?" Breanna asked. JC nodded and pulled out his note pad and passed it to her. She looked down at it and instantly her eyes widened. To avoid any further questions though she cleared her throat and retained her composure. "I don't know what these are...sorry."
JC gave her a look. "Okay...you made it seem like you knew what they were."
"No, but I do know someone who might but he won't speak with you unless you gather him a basket of blueberries."
"Excuse me?"
"Yes, he's a smart old man, but he's a kook. He only speaks with us if we bring him blueberries from the fields just beyond camp.
"Aren't there zombies out there?" Mel asked.
Breanna looked at the group. "You guys look fully equipped. But if you don't want to know more about these symbols..."
"How do you know he'll know what these are?" JC asked.
"Trust me, he knows everything." Breanna asked and gave a small yawn. "But if you're too scared to go out there, I'll send one of my men to help you. He'll meet you at the fields."

"I'll go." Sarah said standing up. "I need to get some exercise anyway. Listening to David complain all the time has stressed me out." David stuck his tongue out at her. She grabbed it and gave it a twist causing him to wince in pain.
"Be careful." Mel said.
"It's day time, I'll be fine." Sarah moved towards the door, patted Rufus on the arm who only looked down and snarled. Sarah snarled back. This made Rufus smile and oblige, moving out of her way.
"I'll be back later."

 She grabbed her gun and climbed down the ladder, Rufus looking down at her.
"Are you coming with me?" She asked the giant of a man. His arms were probably twice the size of Sarah's body. When he didn't make a sound Sarah shrugged and continued on her way.

The blueberry fields were just out of sight from the camp in a clearing by a trickling brook. The sun danced through the leaves and butterflies fluttered by the buttercup flowers and peonies. Sarah couldn't help but think that this place seemed too surreal. Out there is a world that is slowly coming to an end and here in the forest is a random haven. She smiled when she found the blueberry bushes growing along the brook. She began to pick them and tossed a few in her mouth. The sweet purple juice overflowed all over her tongue as she bit down on each tiny morsel. A small shiver crept up her spine at the euphoric feeling. It reminded her of childhood.

"Enjoying the berries I see." A male voice from behind said. Sarah looked behind her, her mouth full of the berries. The tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes smiled. She quickly swallowed the berries just to get a word out. "You must be the guy that Breanna sent to help me."

A small pause. "Yeah...yeah that's me. Why are we picking blueberries anyway?" The man asked.
"To get the old man to answer our questions about the symbols we found on someone."
The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh..."
"Do you know anything about this old man?" Sarah asked.
"He is crazy, that's for sure."
"I'm Sarah by the way." Sarah said offering her hand.
"Bradley, nice to meet you."

The two continued to speak and grew quickly accustomed to each other as they traded survival stories and enjoyed blueberries.

"No way! You got it right in the head?" Bradley asked with sheer amazement.
"Yeah, I mean it's nothing. It was only 100 yards away." Sarah said.
"No, that's amazing. I'm sincerely impressed."
Sarah hid her flushed cheeks with her hair.

"Okay I think this is enough." Sarah said and began walking back to camp.
"Wait, let me show you a short cut." Bradley said.
"Huh? The camp is only a little bit ways over there. How can there be much more of a shortcut?"
Bradley laughed. "Fine I was joking. But I want to show you something." He offered his hand to her this time. She hesitated. "I should be going back..."
"Come on, please?" He said trying to throw her off with some puppy dog eyes.
Sarah looked around for a minute. "Fine...but only for a second, okay?"
"I promise. Just follow that path that way." He said letting Sarah take the lead.

Bradley looked back and grinned. He's sure no one will find the body of the man he had just killed.

Episode 42: A New Mystery

"What was that!" Sarah jumped from her sleep, trying to find her gun in the dark. The other survivors also woke up to the sound of JC's shotgun fire. David stood up but ran into a tree from the confusion, scratching his face up as he fell backwards.

"Where are the zombies!" Mel asked JC brandishing a knife. Jiko stood next to her with his 10inch serrated hunting knife ready to attack. But there was only silence as they looked at JC's stunned face.

"I shot something." He said shaking slightly.
Mel ran over and noticed the body lying on the floor. "It's a zombie." She turned to everyone. "We need to get out of here now. The noise and light will attract more of them."

"Way to go." Jiko said as he passed JC. David, who was usually the one who messed up, just walked past JC without a word. The survivors began to clean up the camp but JC was standing over the dead body observing it.
"What are you doing?" Mel asked as she was quickly packing her things.
"There's something not right here..." JC said. She walked over to him.
"What do you mean? We need to get out of here." She said. JC reached his hand for the body. "Quit that! You don't want any blood on you."
"It's warm..." JC said.
"What?" Mel asked, her eyes focused to see better in the dark.
"The body, it's warm...zombies don't radiate heat. We've learned that from all the other ones we've killed. Why is this one warm?"
"How am I supposed to know but we don't have time to think about that. We need to go."
"There's something wrong here Mel!" JC pried the eyes of the dead being open and lit a flashlight into it. "Blue...his eyes are blue...there's still life in him. This man isn't a zombie..."
"What are you talking about? Of course it's zombie. It looks exactly like one!" Mel said getting frustrated.

"It doesn't smell like one." Jiko said suddenly appearing. Mel and JC looked up at him. "I know...I've been around them plenty to know they smell like rotting flesh. He looks like a zombie...but doesn't smell like one."

"Then what? He's a human that looks like a zombie? For what reason?" Mel asked.
"I'm not sure..." JC said scanning the body. He lit his flashlight over the body and noticed a small black mark on the body's arm. Curious he rolled up the sleeve and was taken aback by what he saw.
 "What the...?" Mel began. A series of about 15 symbols ran up and down his arm. It was nothing the group had ever seen. By this time Sarah and David had joined the rest of them.
"Maybe it's Swahili...you know maybe that one means you click your tongue." David said demonstrating his ignorance by clicking his tongue between each word. "It's...click like...click this."

"Why do we keep him around?" Jiko whispered to Sarah who just shrugged her shoulders.
"What do you make out of it?" Mel asked JC.
"I don't know but I'm going to copy the symbols down." He took a pad of paper and a pencil and began sketching the symbols. He took great care to copy each one correctly as a few of them were extremely intricate.
Jiko stood up and began sniffing the air. Instantly he knew what was happening. "Guys you might want to back up." Everyone looked up at him. "NOW."

The dead man's body reanimated and lunged up at JC who was closest but Jiko had run behind the zombie and stabbed it straight through the skull with his hunting knife. The zombie made a gurgling noise and fell to back to the ground.

"He was human??" Mel asked shocked.
"I don't think completely..." JC responded.
"We have to get out of here now! There's probably more of these...these...human zombie hybrids...whatever they are!" Mel said. The rest of the group agreed and they got out of there quickly, making sure they covered their tracks. They traveled through the woods, following the stars (Mel learned from books at American University) as they headed east in hopes to get out of the woods and to somewhere familiar.

Dawn was breaking and the group was still meandering through the dense forest.
"Can we...take a break?" David said huffing and puffing behind them and tossing his bag on the floor.
"I don't think it's safe yet." Sarah said looking behind her periodically. "Mel do we keep going?"
The stars were fading fast but the rising sun continued to offer the group their bearings.
"JC, what do you think?" Mel asked.
"I think we can finally rest a bit. I don't think anything has been following us this entire time."
"Seriously, I'm tired." David said falling to the ground.
"Get up!" Sarah demanded. "I hear trickling water over there. Go get some fresh water for the camp." She tossed the empty canister at him. He begrudgingly got up and sulked away from the group.

The leaves were crunching beneath the group as they all sat down. JC pulled out his pad and began studying the symbols. They looked alien, nothing he had ever seen. He knew that looking at them, no matter how long, wouldn't make them more understandable so he shook his head and put the pad away.


Jiko was busy putting away his tools when he looked up. He drew out his knife immediately and was prepared to attack.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A man said. David was on the verge of tears and Jiko knew there was a gun pointed straight into his back.
The rest of the group heard the man and looked up at the same time. Mel, in a flash, tossed a knife in the direction of the man, but a female right by him swiped it out with a sword causing the throwing knife to ricochet into a tree.
"Put the gun down." The female said speaking to both JC and Sarah who had their fingers half way down on their triggers. They didn't budge. The female chuckled. "I guess you're not that important to them are you?" She said to David. "They won't even let their weapons go...you must be, what....the fifth wheel?"

"Who are you and what do you want?" Mel asked the strangers.
"We should be asking you the same question." The female responded. "This is our territory. We own this land."
"What are you talking about?" said Mel.
"Are you an idiot? Do I have to repeat myself? This is OUR land. You're on OUR land. Now get out or we kill you."
"What's so special about this place?" JC asked. "It's in the middle of no where."
The female looked at her partner agitated. "I've had enough of this. Kill him."
David squealed and closed his eyes shut.
"WAIT!" JC screamed. "We'll leave! We didn't mean to trespass. We were running away from a zombie."
"A zombie?" The female asked.
"Yeah, you know...the walking dead..." JC said.
"I know what zombies are...but there hasn't been a zombie in this area for months."
"Well..." JC began "It wasn't really a zombie."
"What do you mean?" The female asked.
"It's hard to explain...it was as if he was part human still...and he had these strange symbols on his arm."

The two strangers looked at each in recognition of what JC was talking about. The male let go of David and pushed him towards the group. He fell to the floor and crawled frantically to Mel.
"Come with us." The female said. "You'll need to show us these symbols." The two strangers began to walk ahead. JC looked back at his group. They all nodded and begin to pick up their things. JC ran up to catch up to them.
"I'm JC, by the way." He said. The female remained silent. "Okay..."

They walked further until the female stopped.
"Breanna."
"Excuse me?" JC asked.
"That's my name." And for the rest of trek, the group walked in silence.

Episode 41: Somewhere in the near future...

I can still see the flash. I thought I was a goner but Owen had yelled from behind fast enough to realize what Caroline was doing. I jumped out of the way and heard Owen running towards her shooting his gun towards her. She was able to escape and that was the last time we'd seen her. She was gone.

It's been 5 months since that day and the group has gotten significantly smaller. We ended up at American University where we found it barricaded but eventually it was taken over. In our attempt to flee, our group had once again been separated. The group I'm with managed to escape into the woods of Maryland and are trying to make our way up to Boston. When we were on campus, someone had a crank radio. An SOS message was playing over and over again:

If there is anyone alive, there is safety in Boston. Please make it to Boston, we will protect you.

This message repeated constantly and all of us agreed that we would all make it up there no matter what happened.

So you're probably wondering who I'm with. We may have the same names but we're completely different people. The last 5 months have hardened us and I try to avoid reliving those last months although I'm sure it'll be inevitable sooner or later.

Let me first introduce myself, but you probably already know who I am. I'm JC. I'm a sophomore in college but came back to Bethesda to work for the summer and that's when it all started. I know I'll probably never go back to school but I'm kind of excited that we're all headed up to Boston. Over the last 5 months I've been the leader of our group, although several others have stepped up whenever we got separated. I met a man at American University who taught me to master the shotgun. Killing a zombie is now second nature.

Then there's Jiko. A long haired, mustached, Filipino marijuana aficionado, to put it lightly. Jiko has always been an integral part of the group. He's a sneaky little fucker and has always been able to pick locks, forage for food and help surveillance. His arsenal of knives, which he had way before the zombie outbreak, and his quick speed has made him a lethal weapon when it comes to melee weapons.

Sarah, a small Korean girl known for her high sense of fashion and cut throat attitude was the manager of our store before the zombie outbreak happened. After that, she revealed her amazing prowess with hand guns and assault rifles. She went to the range with her parents when she was younger and loved every minute. Sarah's quick wit and sharp tongue keeps the group grounded for sure.

Our oldest yet most centered and rational member of the group has always been Mel. Her ability with throwing knives and her speed has helped us out in many situations that looked impossible to escape. For example, last month we were running from a group of at least twenty of them and we dropped our ammo. Mel risked her life to retrieve the ammo while taking out at least half of the zombies by herself. But when we're not running away from those things, she's always the most diplomatic one especially when I'm arguing with our final group member.

He has always been quite irritating and he's not very good at any particular weapon. I swear if it wasn't for the rest of us, I'm sure he wouldn't have survived. Fine...maybe I'm being mean. Just a little. He's fine with melee weapons and does offer some good ideas but he's mostly irritating. David is the youngest in the group and his immaturity is evident.

You're probably wondering how he ended up with us aren't you? He wasn't with us months ago, where our story last left off but he did end up at American. Don't worry, there's plenty of time to explain that but when American University became zombie infested, he somehow managed to attach himself with us. I know Mel is very patient with him and trying to teach him knives while Sarah has him constantly on extra shifts of recon and guard duty. "I'm teaching him how to shoot." Would always be her excuse.

We're in the woods probably somewhere past Frederick, maybe even in Pennsylvania. I'm not sure any more but none of us have ever been that good at navigation. At this point we're just trying to go east by following the direction the sun rises.

"We hit New Jersey and we'll go up from there." Sarah said to Mel as they poured over a map. Jiko was busy sharpening his knives while I had David go get water for the camp. I was on guard duty but couldn't help wonder what may have happened to the rest of the group.

"We have to find them." I turned around and said. Sarah looked up at me with a blank stare.
"Seriously?" She said. "How do you propose we do that?"
"I don't know...but we've been together for so long, we can't just give up."
"All we know, everyone else is dead." She said.
"For all we know, they could be out there looking for us! And we're not doing anything about it." I said, growing irritated.
"Don't raise your voice at me." She got up.
"HEY! YOU TWO CALM DOWN." Mel said putting the map away and getting in between us. "There will be no fighting. We need to secure ourselves here tonight until the morning. We'll start moving again at first light."

"We don't even know where we are..." David said coming back with a pail of water, spilling a good amount on the way.
"Did you cover your tracks?" Mel asked him. His eyes grew wide as he cursed under his breath and ran back. She shook her head and came back to the group. "But for now, the sun is going down. We should get rest. JC, you got first watch. Jiko is next." Jiko looked up from checking the point of his knives. He just nodded to confirm and went back to sharpening his tools.

I couldn't help but think that we should be looking for our friends. I know it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
"I'm sure we'll run into them. They heard the same message too." Mel said. I guess she noticed my worry. "Don't think about it too much. Only three hours and you'll get some sleep too." She went to help Sarah extinguish the fire, lest not to attract any zombies.

Later that night, towards the end of my shift, I couldn't help but start feeling a bit weary. My eyelids grew heavy as I tried to stay awake by looking out at one spot in the distance. I began to think that the spot in the distance was moving. And moving closer...

Suddenly I jolted when I realized that something was in fact moving our direction. I pumped my shotgun once and tried to squint my eyes to focus harder on the moving object. Waking up my group was supposed to be my next step but I didn't want to overreact before I knew what the object was.

It drew closer. The sweat from my hands forming a dew on my gun. My heart was beating so loud at this point I could hear it in my ears. It continued to move toward me...moving faster.

Only a moment later, I realized what it was. I tried to feel for someone's leg to wake them up but couldn't find them in my fright. "Crap..." I muttered under my breath as I pulled on the trigger, illuminating the night.