The silence was unnerving. 

No birds chirping, no people talking, no cars driving. 

There was nothing.

The only sound to be heard was the man's boots against the pavement as he walked, and his bags rattling together. 

He wore black cargo pants and a black hoodie. The hood pulled up over his head, which laid deep into the back of it, shrouding him in darkness. His face was hidden by a black cloth lower face mask that covered from halfway up his nose down. 

He wore a military style rucksack and carried a medium sized black duffel bag in his right hand. 

In his left, he held a black stained heavy duty wooden recurve bow. He had a twenty arrow quiver strapped to his back. The hilt of a sword could be seen, strapped between the quiver and his back. On his left hip a large bowie knife was visible, a smaller knife was on his right. 

He was used to the silence. That's all that was ever to be heard anymore. His nose had long since gone numb to the awful stench of rotten flesh that always filled the air wherever he went, it was inescapable.

Just like the silence.

He looked up at the sky, the Sun wasn't visible, nothing but clouds covered the sky as the seasons were changing once more. His breath came out in clouds, the cold was bone chilling, yet he kept walking.

As he continued down the street he came across a corpse. He could've guessed there was one of the reanimated undead feeding on it.

He heard it before he saw it, but he was used to this sight and paid it no mind as he continued along this once busy street of the town. As he got closer his footsteps reached the creature's ears. It stopped feeding on the body once the realization of a fresh meal registered in what was left of its low functioning brain. As fast as its rotting flesh would allow, the undead monstrosity stood up and began walking directly towards the man.

"Move" he said monatonely, yet there was a certain level of intensity in his order to the creature.

It just kept shambling towards him, unable to comprehend language since it had gotten infected by the virus. 

Or brought back from the dead.

The only purpose in its life now is to eat the living and to spread the disease, so it continued towards the man, groaning with what one could confuse with excitement, preparing for its feast.

The masked man let out a deep sigh and with that the undead's fate was sealed. 

No sooner than the last of the air was expelled from his lungs, his arm flung back to his quiver with blinding speed and before his duffel bag hit the ground, the thud of the heavy bowstring cut through the air and the creature fell dead on the ground as an arrow flew straight through its skull and skidded across the pavement down the road. 

The man continued down the street as if nothing had happened, picking up his arrow and placing it back in his quiver as he went.

Shortly after, as he passed by an old group of stores, he heard a loud commotion from the other side of the building. 

He paused dead in his tracks without making a single sound, just as he'd been trained to do.

The voices were muffled but he made out three distinct words; 

Food, Water, Medicine.

All three very valuable resources, starting to become fewer and farther between. He had to take a look.

Glancing quickly around at the buildings, he spotted a ladder leading up to one of the roofs. With catlike agility he made a break for it, moving quickly and quietly. He swung his bow around his neck by the string and scrambled up the ladder. 

The building itself was rather short in height, only around twenty feet tall, an easy climb up.

Once on the roof he removed the bow from around his neck, dropping his ruck after, and squat walked halfway across the roof, where he then began to crawl, stomach flat against the roof, propelling himself forward with his arms and knees. 

The voices were becoming louder the closer he got. Remaining unseen could be the difference between life and death, although in a world like this is there really even a difference?

"Why do I keep going?" 

"Just give up now. Rest and join them."

He pushed his thoughts aside and crawled to the edge of the building. Peering over the small wall that surrounded the roof of the building he took in what was happening.

Stolen novel; please report.

There were two men, standing roughly ten feet apart, a bag of supplies in between them, closer to the man on the left. 

"Give them to me!" The man on the right shouted, pointing a large knife at the other.

"No, I need them for my family!" Responded the other man.

"Something about him looks familiar." The masked man thought to himself as he watched the scene.

"But what is it?"

"Why do I care, nothing in this world matters."

"Then I'll just have to kill you and take them for myself!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." said the man on the left. 

Suddenly, the man on the right lunged towards the other man, thrusting his knife forward as he did.

Frantically, his target paced backwards and fell to the ground in fright. 

There was a brief screeching as metal clashed with metal before clanging onto the ground.

The assailant looked around in fright, before a burning sensation of flesh tearing ran across his arm and there was another clang on the ground. 

He screamed out in terror as he looked around for what harmed him. Then he saw it.

An arrow lying on the ground covered in blood. 

And another over there! Laying next to his knife.

But who could've done it? 

He looked in the direction opposite where the arrows lay rested. That's when he noticed it, a silhouetted figure on top of the building. He squinted to make out more and his heart sank, aimed directly at him was a bow with another arrow already nocked.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it. Don't kill me please!" he shouted before turning and running off.

The masked man released the tension on his bow and returned his arrow to his quiver.

"You should've killed him."

"The shot was easy."

“It would've been a mercy to end his suffering."

He shook his thoughts aside and grabbed his bag before descending down to the ground. 

"Thank you. Thank you so much for saving me."

"Why does he seem familiar?"

The masked man didn't respond. He walked over and retrieved the arrows he had fired.

"How can I ever thank you?" Asked the man.

Once again the masked man said nothing.

"My name's Silas." The man said, "You can have some water or food for saving me if you'd like, but I'm afraid I can't spare any of the medicine."

The masked man turned to him now at the offer of supplies. He walked over to the bag and bent down, transferring a couple bottles of water and cans of food to his duffel bag. He reached for a bottle of medication and to his surprise Silas slapped away his hand.

"I told you I'm afraid I can't offer you any medicine." Silas said once more.

He looked up at Silas.

"Strange" thought the masked man.

He saw a grim determination in Silas's eyes, but also a hint of fear. He looked down and realized that Silas was now holding the knife he'd shot out of the other man's hand.

"I'm sorry." He said softly, the knife shaking in his hand.

The masked man zipped up his bag and stood up, preparing to depart. Then he realized it, and cursed himself for being so unobservant. 

The commotion of the two men had attracted a large herd of the undead, and now they were completely surrounded.

"Oh God." Silas said with a shaky voice. "I-I'm done f-for."

The masked man examined the border deeply, looking for any weak point. 

He saw it, an area much thinner in the undead than the rest. Instinctively he strapped the duffle bag over his shoulder and began firing arrows with blinding speed and amazing accuracy into the border, dropping a new undead with every shot.

He took off towards the hole that was beginning to open up under the swarm of arrows, continuing to fire as he ran.

Silas, who had been overcome with shock at the sight of the amazing skill the stranger was displaying, took off after him in an attempt to survive this situation himself. The opening the stranger was creating would be his only bet to escape, and it wouldn't last long.

The masked man reached back to his quiver for another arrow only to find none, he had exhausted the twenty he kept in it. Luckily the hole he opened was big enough already so he just continued running. 

There was a blood chilling scream from behind him. He picked up an arrow from the ground and drew his bow back as he turned. One of the undead had managed to grab onto Silas and was about to bite him. 

With the snap of a bowstring, an arrow raced towards it, straight through its head and it fell dead on the ground.

Silas regathered himself and the two men continued running, Silas had now caught up to the masked man as he had slowed down his pace to preserve energy. The undead shambled along slowly, sprinting away from them served no purpose.

They were running along a narrow pathway that led through the woods, steep hills on both sides. The ground was muddy and slick from rain the day before, it was slowly building up in the tread of their boots making traction difficult. 

The masked man's eyes were constantly scanning in front of him, always alert to a potential threat.

"So what's your name?" Silas asked from behind him.

Yet again he didn't get an answer. 

They slowed their pace once more and continued on in silence for another few minutes.

A noise!

The masked man was sure he'd heard a noise, it was unnerving.

"A threat"

"Find the threat"

He stopped and began spinning around frantically, looking everywhere for the potential threat. 

His feet got tangled, he slipped and fell over, crashing hard onto the ground. The sudden shock caused the mud on the edge of the path to give way, sending the masked man tumbling down the hill.

His body smacked against the hillside sharply, he couldn't get any traction and he tumbled. He bounced off the surface over and over, crashing harder and harder into the Earth each time. He tried frantically to gain traction by twisting his body around and digging the heels of his boots into the ground. His foot caught a rock and he was sent tumbling once more, causing his head to smack violently against something hard. His body went numb as he continued to fall and everything went black.