Chapter 18: Survivors in the Forest (1)

Now that they were rested and talked about some matters they had to talk about, they were ready to leave. But first, they had to take care of Dean's ankle problem.

When they brought up this matter Dean tried to let it go by insisting that it was nothing important saying, 'It'll probably get better tomorrow.'

Thar who was trying to make Dean accept he was not okay, had enough of it and light hit his ankle off Dean. Dean groaned with the pain spreading from one of his ankles to his leg.

Dean stopped insisting at that moment and opened his ankle for Emily to look, the only member of their group who had a first-aid certificate.

Emily looked at the area of the wound. It was a colour mix of reddish and purplish and it was quite swollen. Emily had a few checks before putting an ointment from her bag.

"Is it bad?"

Kaan asked Emily as he looked at the wound on the leg.

"Well, it could be better I suppose. I don't think it's broken but I can't be fully sure. I applied some ointment and gave him a painkiller but he needs to not move his right foot too much."

Emily gave a last look at the Dean, who was getting up with Thar helping him even when he didn't want, with a troubled look as she spoke.

Kaan looked at the Dean and sighed. They need to find someone who can heal him.

"Let's go to the forest and spend the night. In the morning we can look for medicine and maybe we can find someone who can heal him if matters slow down."

Dean tried to object to Emily's decision that he was already good now after the check but Thar shut him up, so it was decided.

They left the building, and once again headed towards the forest.

The street was full of clawed, torn-apart bodies of zombies scattered all over.

"It looks like our wolf had gone into rampage before it came after us."

Thar said as they walked behind the corpses.

"Better than going on a rampage on us."

Emily said as she looked at the torn-apart corpses and destruction on the cars along the streets and once again remembered how close it was to fight with the werewolf.

They continued down the streets and finally got to the rural area, also the start of the forest. In the forest there were many pine trees, which were close to each other, it was hard to see what was laying in the forest. They continued walking without walking into the forest in the lead of Emily.

"It looks like in here, nothing has changed."

Thar commented as he looked at sideways the path they were taking. After they started walking on the path they rarely came into the zombies.

"You are right, it's the first time we are able to walk without fighting with zombies."

Dean said as he relaxed a little bit. This place felt normal and he kinda missed it already.

"Don't get used to it boys, we had to return there back and I don't think tomorrow won't be easy."

Emily said as she thought about tomorrow, it was the date when the main quest would end and she didn't feel that it would just bring rewards along with it.

After walking nearly walking on the track for a while they came into a little shanty made with black planks. In front of it, there were two benches and a little sign which was 'R&R' written on it.

"Why did we stop?"

Kaan asked as they stopped along with Emily who was looking at the shanty with warm eyes.

Emily took her bag to her front and after shuffling a little bit and then put out a key.

"Come on guys, let's go to our little shanty."

"Our little shanty?"

Kaan asked her as they followed her behind to the shanty.

"Yes, one of to perks of being in the jogging club. We would use this trail most of the time so we decided to build a shanty to rest and store a few things. It began as a little thing but then everyone really put their hearts into the project and we created a real good resting place."

She said joyfully remembering her memories of building this place with her friends.

'I wonder how are they doing right now?'

The thought came to her mind but she didn't want to think about it and just hoped they were able to survive.

Kaan looked at Emily who was smiling happily but as they got closer to the door of the shanty her smile slowly disappeared and her face have gotten darkened.

Seeing this Thar sighed and moved next to her and gave her shoulder a light squeeze as he moved in front of her and headed to the shanty.

Shanty's door was already open, more precisely it was broken.

"It looks like someone broke into our little shanty, Let's see the condition of the inside."

Thar said and held Emily's hand as they moved inside. Kaan and Dean followed them behind together.

Inside the shanty was also a mess. The only piece of furniture standing near the right wall was misplaced, The table in front of it was broken to pieces  Most of the things were already taken by the intruders.

"Let's look if there is anything useful left."

Emily said with subtle anger hiding in her voice and everyone started to look around the shanty's living room.

Thar gave glances to Emily as he looked around and even if she was able to hide his anger from the other she was not able to hide it from him and he could say she was getting angrier with seeing another broken item or looted thing around the shanty.

He remembered how she would always talk about this shanty she was building with her friends. In the beginning, she was not very happy because of this matter but when she was warmed up to this idea this project really became a part of her. He knew this place was also about her happy memories and hard work and seeing it like this must be not that nice.

When they finished looking around Emily got up and sighed. Everything was gone, everything they built and created was gone.

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'It's stupid to be angry, I would do the same.'

Seeing a shanty in the middle of the forest in a time like this, wouldn't she want to check if there was anything useful inside? Of course, she would; but seeing something she put her heart into and seeing it in this condition made her kind of sad. Everything was already ruined but she didn't expect to find this place also in ruins.

"We checked the kitchen and the restroom, there was nothing useful.

After a while, Kaan came out of the Kitchen and reported.

"But we found a beer."

Dean said coming after a while behind the Kaan.

"Yes, we found a beer."

Kaan said with his affectionless and indifferent tone and headed towards the exit of the shanty, giving glances around once again as he moved.

Thar moved next to Dean and grabbed the beer from his hand.

"It looks like we found what we're looking for right?"

He said with a sarcastic tone and smiled at the group as he looked at the bottle.

"I'm heading out."

Kaan said to the group when he reached the exit.

"I'm also coming, there's not much to see anymore."

Emily said and moved towards to exit. It would be a lie if she said she wasn't disappointed but there was nothing she could do.

Kaan nodded lightly and step outside leaving the lock-broken door open for them. Emily also got out and Thar and Dean followed them behind.

When they were outside they sat down on the cold benches. There was the cold but refreshing breeze of the autumn travelling in the forest.

The sound of the tree's leaves clattering as the wind moved through them was being a company to the breeze.

Kaan and Thar got up to collect a few brushwoods to make a campfire. They returned back in a few minutes and created a campfire in front of one of the benches.

"You know, I was not expecting to find the shanty..." she stopped and gave a look at the shanty.

"Like this."

She shared her thoughts and returned her look to the campfire which she was poking with a stick.

"It wouldn't change much if we found it in a better state. We already had enough goods and it's in a condition we can use as a shelter."

Kaan said to her. Initially, he was keen on the idea of sleeping on trees but after Dean got an injury to his knee and thought about the chance of falling, he felt good that they have this shanty.

"Yeah, don't let it bother you."

Emily looked at Thar and saw him looking at her. If she had described Kaan's eyes as two deep, piercing daggers that tries to delve into her mind with an all-knowing gaze she would describe Thar's eyes as a warm and delicate hug like he was understanding everything she felt and ready to help if she ever wanted.

'Yeah, no reason to be down right now.'

She put a smile on her face and looked at her group. She was happy that they have found each other even if they didn't know much about each other. She thought a hard future was waiting for them but she felt that they would be able to overcome everything together.

'And when everything is over, we can build a house together?'

She chuckled at her idea and returned her eyes to the slowly burning campfire.

It was a nice time, sitting around the campfire making small talk and laughing, It felt like they were here for camping rather than running away from the city because of zombies and that felt kinda nice.

The time pass like that and it was now eleven p.m. There was a light fog surrounding the forest now and the night was so silent without any animal sound. Kaan could see that everyone was getting sleepy.

"You go and sleep, I'll take the first watch."

Kaan said to the group, he felt like he was okay and not that much sleepy and everyone was okay with it.

"If something happens don't try to deal with it alone and wake up us first, okay?"

Thar said to him as he was passing next to Kaan. Rather than a piece of advice, he said it as if this was something he would do. Kaan just nodded to him.

As they were heading towards the shanty they suddenly heard a voice rough and threatening voice coming from the forest.

"Put your hands up!"

Everyone looked around to the source of the voice as they reached for their weapon.

In seconds from the right of the shanty, a man in military gear appeared holding a gun. The man had red hair and a chiselled face.

"Drop your weapons if you don't want holes in your heads."

The man once again warned them as he slightly raised his gun. There was nothing they could do so they let their weapon fall to the ground.

After they dropped their weapons another five people emerged from the fog surrounding them. One of them also had a gun with military gear and one of them was wearing a white apron with a military crest sewn on it.

'It seems no sleep for us.'

He thought anxiously as he watched the people coming closer and hoped the only thing they'll lose was their sleep.

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