Chapter One -- Never the Same
Everything was gone. I stared into the dying fire, reflecting upon the events of today. I had hoped naively that we had only freak outbreak in Yale...but the binoculars didn't lie when we spied Woodland from a clear cut. Buildings burning, cars parked in the middle of the streets and the infected...no longer the intelligent creatures they once were but shells, most of them badly injured, being driven on in the most instinctual of ways by the virus. Zombies. The stories of past never got them right. They weren't dead...they were dying, and the virus wouldn't let them fall...until it was just physically impossible for them to move. Most of the infected finally died of infection, dehydration and blood loss.
I glanced around the fire to my four companions, my brother, two cousins and one of the cousin's friend. Their eyes seemed to be focused on the dancing flames of the fire, but I knew that wasn't the case. The camp fire was a good place to rest weary eyes while their minds recapped on the day, just as mine had done. My brother, Keith, looked up at me. I knew what he was thinking as we always had a somewhat of a twin connection. His eyes were saying, "now what?" I frowned in response.
The sky was brilliant shades of oranges, pinks, purples and blues as the long day was coming to an end....which meant the black of night was coming soon. "Okay, so we need to set up watches. It's about 11 hours till morning, so each of us will need to watch for 2.5 hours each." The group lifted their heads and listened to me. "Who wants first watch?"
"I will", said my cousin Ben's friend, Mitch. I nodded at him. I didn't know him very well, but the fact that he was volunteering for first watch after such a long day helped ease my ever powerful distrust of all new people.
"I'll take second", Keith raised his hand without looking up. "I don't sleep much anyway."
I nodded at Keith. I had the same problem with sleep. "Good. Alright, Ben, you'll go after him, then me and then Claire..."
"I can't, Anna!" Claire said, cutting me off. "You know I don't know anything about guns."
I stared hard at her. I wasn't about to give her watch anyway. She had always been the baby of us four and always a source of frustration for me. "I know you don't, which is why I said 2.5 hours instead of 2...but tomorrow, you are learning how to use a gun." Irritation was rising in my voice. I couldn't help it. "The time of you acting like a baby is over, Claire. Tomorrow, you will grow up, you understand me?" As if being beautiful, blonde and the youngest was going to get her out of responsibilities. I wanted to say that, but I held myself back.
Claire nodded slowly, staring at her feet. I saw a lone tear slide from her eye to her cheek. Totally a Claire move.
I grabbed my pack and unfastened my sleeping bag. My eyes flicked over to Mitch, who was getting comfortable against a Douglas Fir, a sawed-off pump action was resting in his arms. I went over to him and knelt down. He looked up at me. Big green eyes. "If you start having problems holding your eyes open, come wake me", I said quietly.
He grinned. "Get some sleep, Anna", Mitch said, patting my booted foot. He had a strong face, with a goatee that was darker in color than his blond hair. Probably 20 or 21, like me. I wondered for a second how Ben and Mitch could be friends. He didn't seem as introverted as Ben.
"Good night then." I went back to my sleeping bag, took off my boots and climbed in. I tried to come up with a plan for the next day and fell asleep.
It was still black outside when Ben woke me at 4am. "Anything happen?"
Ben handed me the shotgun and a box of shells. "No, but the wolves were really carrying on." He crawled over to his sleeping bag, which was next to mine.
"Okay, get some sleep." I made my way over to the tree that Mitch had set up against and sat down. The wolves. Ordinarily, there weren't wolves in southwest Washington, but it was something that we were used to. As it turned out, an animal psychologist had moved to Yale and set up his place to study wolves when Keith was a sophomore and I was a senior in High School. The wolves were secured in a pen, but nothing could contain their longing howls.
I thought back to one day, while we were waiting for the school bus, Keith and I had walked up to the pens that the wolves were in. I loved wolves, thought they were so beautiful, but this was the closest I had ever been to them. Some wagged their tails, some just stared, and others backed away from us with their ears flattened. None of them growled or barred their teeth...they just watched us. I couldn't help to feel sorry for them. It was obvious that most of them were once wild. Surely they missed their homes, running free with their packs.
As I sat up against the tree, thinking of the wolves, I had an idea. It would be good to have a dog with us. Surely one of the domesticated, tail-waggers would follow us if freed, and their ears could catch more sound than ours. Perhaps we could even stay at the wolf compound for a few days. I knew that there was an orchard, a large garden, chickens and goats on the farm next door. As if on que, the wolves began their last chorus of the night.
A light mist began to fall through the dense forest as the night gave way to morning. I glanced at the feeble fire that had managed to keep going through the night and hoped that it would make it until I was done boiling a pot of water for our instant coffee.
I heard a footstep behind me and turned quickly. It was Mitch. "Good morning", he smiled at me as he knelt at the fire.
"Morning. Get any sleep?"
"A bit." He ran his fingers through his thick blond hair and scratched his disappearing goatee. The rest of his facial hair was catching up with it quickly. "Thought I heard wolves last night though".
I smiled at him to which he cocked his head and smiled back. "This is the first time I've seen you smile since it all broke loose."
Our eyes locked for a moment before I started explaining. "You did hear wolves. That's where we are going today."
