“Goodbye dear.” Silas said to Rebecca as they embraced, “We’ll be back soon.”

Silas moved over and hugged Ayssa now. Sebestian took the chance to say goodbye to his mom, whom his dad had been hogging for the last couple minutes.

Eli stood off a ways away down the driveway alone.

Wearing his mask once more and carrying all the gear he’d grown so accustomed to.

“Hurry up.” He thought.

After dinner yesterday he’d managed to make a couple more arrows using some long straights sticks he fire hardened and using feathers from the chickens as fletching, he melted some paracord over a flame and used it as a makeshift adhesive. Unfortunately, he had to resort to using rocks he sharpened as arrowheads.

“I’ll need to find actual heads soon” He’d thought as he vigorously grinded the stones against larger rocks to create the fine point razor sharp edge he’d need.

After what felt like eternity to Eli, Silas and Sebastian finally began making their way over to him.

“Are you sure we can trust him?” Sebastians asked his father one last time.

“We have no choice.” He responded.

Unbeknownst to them, Eli had heard the two men. They hadn’t been as quiet as they thought, or maybe it was due to the fact Eli’s ears had become sensitive to even the most subtle sounds while out there.

“Trust nobody.”

“Trust leads to death”

His thoughts were interrupted by Alyssa shouting, “Make sure you keep those two out of trouble Eli.”

The two men glanced back.

“Hmph, like we’d get into trouble.” Silas laughed.

“Can we get going now.” Eli said, rather than asked.

“I think it’s time we did.” Silas responded.

The journey to town was a rather simple one. The family’s “driveway” went on for about half of a mile where it then intersected with a larger dirt road that they had to follow for around two miles until they turned left onto a paved road that led into town.

“Don’t walk on the road.” Eli told them, “Stay about fifty yards back in the treeline so you won’t be seen by anyone, or anything.”

Town itself was roughly ten miles from the dirt road that led to the family’s driveway.

“How far did he have to carry me?” Eli asked himself

The three men didn’t encounter anything until they were a couple miles away from town.

Eli froze in his tracks and held up his arm in an “L” shape for the others to do the same.

They kept moving until they were even with him, obviously unaware what the signal meant.

“What is it?” Silas whispered.

Eli held his finger up to his mouth in a signal for them both to be quiet.

He pointed at his eyes and then over slightly to the left in front of them.

As he did so a group of undead came shambling into view right where he pointed. There were five of them, one missing half of the flesh on their face and another without an arm.

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They traveled along, parallel to the men, passing directly in front of them and moving to their right.

Once they were out of sight Sebastian took a step forward. Eli put his arm out in front of him so he knew not to keep moving. Once he stopped Eli lowered his arm and began counting silently in his head.

“One… Two… Three… Four…” and so on until he reached ninety.

Satisfied there was nothing else to worry about he stood up and placed the arrow he had nocked back in his quiver.

“When did you-” Silas began to ask out of surprise because he didn’t ever see Eli draw an arrow.

Eli cut off his question by gesturing to Silas to be quiet.

He began walking once more, quietly.

The two men followed suit.

After another half an hour or so of travel, Eli figured they must be getting close to town and broke the silence, “Let’s rest here for a bit. We don’t know what we’ll encounter in town so we should save our strength.”

He looked around and noticed a big fallen tree, “We’ll use that for cover. Keep the talking to a minimum”

The three of them climbed over the tree and leaned up against it so that their backs were towards the road, hidden from view.

“How’d you know those things were there?” Sebastian said, almost in awe.

“The smell.”

Over his time at the house his nose had adjusted to the nice smelling clearing in which the house was located. The putrid smell of a group of rotting corpses had immediately set off trigger warnings in his head.

“I might need to find some kind of nose plugs to use for when we get into town. I’m already starting to smell it.” He thought.

“We’ll rest here for thirty minutes and then start moving again.”

The men drank from their canteens and ate a small amount of the meager food they were able to bring.

Once he was finished with that, Eli pulled his head farther into his hood and leaned deeply back against the tree until he was almost laying down.

“How can he be so relaxed? Silas thought.

In truth, Eli was anything but relaxed. His eyes were constantly scanning the area in front of them, ears and nose both alert for anything out of the ordinary.

When it was almost time for them to go, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Without making a sound he carefully moved into a squatting position and placed an arrow on his bow string. Moving to a lunge position, resting one knee on the ground, he carefully drew back his bow. Being as quiet as possible.

Satisfied his shot will hit its mark, he fired.

There was silence.

Unsure if they should say anything, Silas and Sebastian stayed quiet.

Eli set his bow down and walked over to his target.

He bent down and picked it up from the bushes it was hidden in and walked back over to the tree.

“Nice rabbit.” Silas said.

Pulling out one of his knives, Eli skinned and cleaned the rabbit, then wrapped it in fern leaves and placed it in his duffel bag.

“Let’s go.” He said.

They encountered two more groups of undead on their way. The smell growing more and more putrid with every step towards the town.

“So much for using smell to alert me’”

Buildings were becoming more frequent. From his position at the top of a hill, Eli looked down the road ahead of them and saw a group of stoplights.

They had reached their destination.

The street with which they entered the town was once one of the busiest it had to offer, now it was stagnant. Lined along its sides with nothing but abandoned cars and bodies. The three of them continued traveling off the road, outside the wall of cars.

Now familiar with his surroundings, Eli was able to traverse their path much more confidently. The road they were following quickly began to get lined with houses on either side, which meant the possibility for ambush was an ever present concern.

“By now I’ve personally gone through almost every house in the city but that doesn’t mean we’re safe from a possible ambush or from struggling survivors with nothing to lose. Stay alert at all times. If anything feels off you let me know.” Eli had told them earlier on the way.

The smell was horrific.

The mask Eli wore offered no solitude from it, Silas and Sebastian had placed wads of torn up cloth in their nostrils to act as nose plugs.

Bodies were scattered all across the street. By now most had rotted away, or were well on their way, and turned into a mushy puddle or stain on the asphalt. Eaten by crows, the undead, or washed away with the rain, left as a streak on the ground. The bones of the corpses however remained, forever marinated with the stench of decomposing flesh, serving as a reminder of what they had once been until they too rot into nothing. The remains of those fortunate enough to survive up until recent, or unfortunate enough having to survive in this hell infused world, were infested with maggots and other parasites or insects. Being used as a feast until there’s nothing left, a hose would be able to rip the remaining flesh from its bones.

The three men continued, Silas and Sebastian trying to hide their distress when walking over, or through, the remains of a once human being.

They turned and went down smaller roads and through neighborhoods and culldasacks, occasionally searching a house for any usable supplies, continuing towards the section of town where the smaller business resided.

“Eli, to the left!” Sebastian said.

Eli looked in the direction Sebastian had indicated and saw an undead within the fenced yard of one of the houses, a little farther down the road he noticed another one crawling along the asphalt, missing its body from halfway up its ribs and down.

“Don’t worry about them, just keep moving.