Thread: Between Life & Death [Midnight x Fruit]

Leah Evans F November 6th, 2014. Lakewood, USA. She found herself facing an old, rotten tree with moss grown around it like sea around an island. It's dark and silent shade engulfed her in a world of solace nothing to see nor hear. When she moved her hand over the bark, she could feel its warmth beneath her touch. It pulses , she thought in confusion. She rubbed it fondly, and the warmth grew stronger. Leah.. the tree whispered through its leaves, and Leah's heart leaped to her throat. Mom , her legs quivered when she recognized the voice, and before she could say a thing, the leaves started raining down on her. The world quickly became colder, light shone from every angle, and soon she found herself facing a leafless tree in a bright day. The winds hit her from every side, Mom! she pounded on the cold wood, MOM! she yelled as tears fell down her cheeks. Please answer me!, now she realized she had been naked the entire time. The last time she smacked the tree, a splinter gave her a cut on the palm of her hand, and she woke up. When her eyes fluttered open, she saw Todd patting her cheeks and rocking her. Thank fuck you're alive, Leah. The sun was setting down. It had stopped raining but the mist lingered in the air. They were sitting on a riverbank, and their car was turned upside down and stuck in-between two enormous rocks in the middle of the river. Babe, we have to move. The sun is coming down and we're trapped in the middle of the forest. He was right, but it was obvious he didn't know where to go. She had blood moving down the side of her head, and when Todd stood up and started limping, she noticed his jeans were soaked with blood near his right knee. Do we have any of the tools? Food? she barely managed to mutter, and only managed a sigh when Todd explained to her what he managed to retrieve from the car. A knife and flashlight. That's it. his words echoed in her brain for a while as she started looking around. Well, we were on course when we drove into the river. We should just continue our way.. she explained. Her boyfriend chimed in with more good news, We don't know if we hit this side of the river or the opposite side. I tried looking around for any skid marks to know where we crashed but I couldn't find anything. Leah exhaled loudly, Well, lets go this way. We're either back on course or we're returning to the farm. They traversed the foggy forest. The rain turned the soil into mud covered by leaves and branches. That made the only sounds in the vicinity foots stepping on mud and breaking branches. There wasn't a bird's tweet nor a squirrel's chirp to be heard, only their footsteps and breaths lingering in the air. Todd was limping and biting on his lips, while Leah was shivering and frantically snapping to her right and left whenever she thought she heard something. Do you think we'll run into any of them? Leah asked, and her boyfriend shook his head and rejected her speculation. They can smell blood, you know. Why am I saying this? How is this helping us? That was true enough, some zombies can sniff out blood within half a mile radius, or so her father had told her. They don't smell good enough when its raining. The water throws them off. Lets just hope we get there as soon as possible. He didn't specify where there was. Even Leah didn't expect him to. They were taking a shot in the dark by walking there to only God knows where. And she had only herself to blame for that. It was her own addiction that got her in this mess, and she even dragged out Todd to die with her in this damned forest. She shuddered in disgust at her own weakness. I'm nothing but a slave to a red pill . A red pill was somehow worth dying for. The more that thought churned in her brain, the more she found herself thinking of Rave. She bit her lips as she imagined taking a pill, losing herself in a blissful heaven, but the thought only made her crave the drug even more. What was that?! Todd's voice cut her trail of thoughts making her snap back to reality. She flicked on her flashlight to where he was pointing, and a pair of red eyes stared back at her. The monster was around her height, black as burned wood, with two massive hands like boat rowers. It has no mouth. It wasn't difficult for Leah to know that this thing had been a person before. It walked like a person. Stared at them like a person. But it also stared at them as if they were his to devour. RUUN!! Somehow, Todd found it in his heart to run like a deer being chased by a tiger. They ran and ran and ran. Her face must have hit twenty branches along the way, leaving a brand of blood on every tree they passed. The zombie was chasing them relentlessly but it wasn't nearly fast enough to catch them. It was like a man trying to catch a car, but the more they ran, the more red eyes emerged from the shadows and gave chase. At one point, Leah saw four monsters on their trail. How can they eat us if they don't have mouths? . She wasn't keen to find out. After running for what seemed like fifteen minutes, they were finally far from the zombies. I think.. humph.. humph.. we lost them. The couple were panting frantically. Leah could feel her legs growing stiff and her sweat mixing with her blood and making her scars burn with pain. Todd's leg went numb as it started gushing out blood. I thought your legs hurt!, she whispered to him between her pants, Leg.. just one leg. They hugged and caught their breath, then Leah noticed the lights in the horizon.