Previous Chapter: "I don't sing it that much! Do I?!" Ariel asked, looking at the rest of the group.

They all nodded in unison.

"Then what should we sing!?" Ariel asked once again.

Lau slowly began to sing one of her lullabies as a child, ending with the group eating a hearty dinner and falling asleep in their tents with content. The apocalypse is over, but now it's time to survive the aftermath.

Outside Augusta

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Night - Apocalypse Month 4

The skies had been clear for the last couple of days and nights, and the snow was even gone leaving behind only brown, wilted grass and dead leaves in sporadic parts of the ground. The moon lit across the sky, waning its way to a new cycle. The campfire was burning against the night as the group slept in content. The bushes rustled with no wind, and the horses neighed with anxiety.

"Now," the man grunted and whispered harshly. Out of the bushes came several men and women, "Get her!"

One of the men grabbed a little girl, and she instantly started screaming.

"Shut up!" the man growled, picking her up and retreating into the forest. As he retreated, he heard screaming of pure terror. Looking back, he saw his friends were being stabbed and pierced by an arrow. "Shit!"

The girl continued screaming and sobbing, "Put me down! Let me go!"

He didn’t let her go at all, knowing that she was his next meal. Looking back to his allies, he saw that there was no help saving them, "Fuck it, I'm just going to leave 'em. More for me!"

After an hour of trekking through the thick forest did they reach the encampment. The man put the little girl inside of the cage and locked it, only for the little girl to push the cage around in anger and fear.

What is this? No... I know what these are... They're cannibals, Lau thought, where am I...

As she looked around, she saw fires with men and women surrounding the campfire, cages filled with defeated people with no hope of escape. She watched as one of the savage-looking men grabbed a prisoner and dragged them through the dirt towards the camp.

"No... no! Let me go!" The man screamed relentlessly, kicking and screaming. The savage-looking man grunted as he felt resistance, only to throw him directly into the fire. After seconds of torment, which felt like eons to Lau, did the screeching finally stop and settle down. Only for the savages to pull the man apart in different directions, piece by piece, and eat the now cooked corpse. It was a horrible sight to see, and Lau could not comprehend what was happening in front of her. 

Cannibals... Lau thought and shivered. She began to sob in the cage, ‘I don't want to go out like this. Oh please no.’

"Hey kid," A woman said, trying to get Lau's attention, "How did you get here?"

Lau stared at her as she wiped her tears from her now dirty sleeves. Her brown hair was only reaching to her shoulders. She looked like she used to be a businesswoman in the old world, but now she was tattered and dirty with mud. Her dead eyes aging faster than she was from seeing unimaginable horrors. Lau responded, "We-we were sleeping, and... they came out of nowhere. They attacked me and my- my family. How did you get here?"

"Well, I've been here for a while now... They grabbed me from a gas station when I was looking for food. They came out of nowhere. When I first got here, it was horrendous," The woman said, "I didn't think I would ever see this in my lifetime but look at me now. A captive of man-eaters."

 Lau looked around, looking for Ariel, Lincoln, Carlos, and Mikael. No sign.

"Did they get kidnapped? your family I mean?" She asked, looking around for anyone that looked remotely close to Lau's facial features.

"N-No... Well, I don't think so. I heard screams, and everything was blurry. I couldn't even think. I did hear a bowstring snap and some screaming so... they could've gotten away," Lau rationalized.

"bowstring? Your family knows how to use a bow and arrow?" The woman asked, amazed.

Lau nodded, "They've learned since the beginning of this thing. They're insanely good at it."

"Shit-" The woman cursed, "Sorry, I didn't mean to curse in front of you."

"It's fine. It's not like it matters anyway."

"We'll be fine; we have to be. You're small and not beefy at all. You'd be last if that makes you feel any better."

"N-Not really," Lau said, confused.

One of the cannibals walked up to both of the captives and sneered in a harsh tone, "Shut your fucking mouth or your next!"

The lady pulled back,” You’re savages."

"We're survivors! We had nothing else to eat. It’s kill or get killed!" The man hissed.

"But do you have to eat other humans!? You're all animals, and like she said savages!" Lau asked hysterically, sitting on the ground.

The man came closer to Lau's cage and pushed on it, putting his head against it. His face became more visible and what she saw was something from nightmares that her parents told when she was younger. The pus from the plague had boiled upon his face, the blood leaking from his mouth and on his clothes. He was dying slowly, but that didn't stop him from biting at her.

"Little girl, you have no idea. You don't know what we went through to survive but today, oh today, today you will learn!" He said, pushing back off her cage and opening it, telling the other cannibals to grab her and make her watch, then going next to the woman's and unlocking it, pulling her outside of the cage.

"No... no, no, no, no!" The lady screamed. The other cannibals were disturbed by this noise and started gathering around her. They all looked the same as the man like they were on death’s doorsteps. The man dragged her out, and the woman fought to survive. She thrashed and kicked and screamed.

"This is what the world is like now, girl! Get used to it!"  The man stabbed her in the chest and threw her into the fire, right for Lau to see. The woman tried to scream, but blood clogged her throat. Lau closed her eyes and shrunk into herself. 

This can't be real... this can't be real... this can't be real, Lau thought.

Wooooshskkttt.

...

Dead men and women lay on the ground next to them. The pus bubbles from their skin seeping out and onto the road, the blood running out of them along with it. Mikael stood there covered in blood, some of it his, but most of it was theirs. Lincoln and Carlos were both unscathed but huffed as they assisted Ariel to the carriage and laid her down. He began inspecting Ariel's wound at her side, a giant gash giving from a crude ax. Ariel laid there stifling her scream.

"Are you gonna stand there or are you going to help us?" Lincoln scoffed.

Coming out of his shock-like state, he rushed to the aid of Ariel. Kneeling next to her, his hand reaching for hers, "Are you okay? What do you need?"

Ariel gasped, "Just... give me some clean water and a rag. Lincoln, put pressure on my wound!"

Mikael rushed for the water bottle he had in his bag and then gave it to her. Ariel then washed the wound with the clean water, tore off a piece of cloth on her shirt, and tied it tight on her torso.

"I didn't think they'd get close to you like that," Lincoln admitted, "I'm sorry, Ariel."

"I'm fine, don't worry. We’re gonna need to get this wound disinfected at a nearby town," Ariel stated, then it hit her like a rock, "...Where is she? Where is Lau!? Lau!! Lau!!" Ariel continued to scream her name searching for her with anxiousness.

"Calm down... you’re not okay right now and your body needs to recover," Lincoln commanded.

"How am I supposed to be calm when Lau was taken! She could be so scared right now! Who knows what those people wanted!" Ariel cried, trying to get back up only to feel a hot flash of pain in her waist and collapsed back down.

"Like that. Lincoln and I got this, Ariel. We'll go search for her and get her back. You just sit here and heal. Carlos here will protect you," Mikael pleaded. Carlos smiled sheepishly.

Ariel huffed, "Please get her back to me. She's like family and... I can't lose her."

"Look at me," Mikael commanded, his bright blue eyes stared into Ariel's soul, "We will get her back, I promise you. You have to trust me."

Ariel nodded silently.

"Good, let's go. We have no time to waste," Lincoln said as he picked up his bow and threw Mikael his sharpened wooden spear. Mikael nodded, jumping off of the cart and walking into the unknown with Lincoln.

...

They had spent hours walking through the naked forest filled with a thicket of leaves, trying to find any signs of resistance and human tracks.

"We've been searching for hours... where could she possibly be?!" Mikael grunted frustratingly, trudging through the thicket of leaves on the ground.

"Quit your cryin'," Lincoln groaned loudly, "The little girl knows how to handle her own. You don't need to worry about anything."

"Listen here, you sorry excuse for a person, if Lau is hurt it will be on me! Ariel loves that child, and I have to help protect her! Anything could've happened to her! Those savages that attacked us had the plague! She could be in unimaginable danger."

"And you panicking about it is going to do what?" Lincoln asked, walking through the forest. Mikael grunted in response.

"Exactly, now calm the fuck down so we can find Lau."

After the words were formed from Lincoln's mouth, a terrifying, shrilling screech was heard far away. The two men looked at each other and understood what was happening as if they read each other's minds and started to sprint towards the noise in the hope of saving Lau. Minutes later, they found the camp that Lau could be in. The sound of shrieking died out, and as they had gone closer, they found out why because it was Cannibals.

"Shit, where's Lau?" Mikael looked closer and around until he found the dark red and white outfit contrasting her blonde hair, "There she is." 

They both spotted her sobbing in her cage, scared to death like there was no one to save her.

"Look," Lincoln warned, "They have the symptoms of the plague. We have to be careful with them."

Mikael nodded, and for a few minutes, they devised a plan of rescue. Soon after, Lincoln stood up and stretched back his bow, aiming directly for his first target. Inhale, exhale. Wooooshskkttt. One fell, lifeless. The eaters looked around, confused as to where it was coming from. Another arrow hit. Another dead body. They began to panic looking, looking around confused and dazed. Then came a guttural yell from Mikael as he rushed into the camp with nothing but his wooden spear, "Come get some fuckers!"

The eaters did as told and ran towards him. There were about seven of them in front of him: crumph, crumph. Two bodies hit the ground in front of them. An arrow struck the third one to the knee.

Mikael chuckled a little on the inside and then plunged his spear into the man's chest, right where the lung was. The man looked at Mikael with wide eyes and coughed up blood from his mouth, and began to suffocate on it. His body went limp. Mikael retracted the spear from the man's torso and went back into a defensive stance. ‘Four more,’ Mikael thought. Three of them had begun to run in the other direction. ‘Never mind, one more,’ Mikael thought again. Mikael ran forward to cross paths with the last man, swiping the spear just above the ground to trip the man, and then stood over him, pushing the spear under the man's jaw and over his jugular.

"Wait... man, please! Don't kill me! I can't die! I don't want to-," The cannibal was cut off. Mikael had pushed the spear into his jugular, and he began to gargle blood and breathed in and out sporadically. 

"You're done hurting people," Mikael spat as he pulled out the spear and flicked it.

"Mikael," Lau said, walking towards him. Streaks of dried tears where it used to fall, but her face was calm. Right behind her was Lincoln.

"Lau," Mikael smiled, kneeling down on one knee and embracing her tightly, "Everything's going to be okay, I promise. Everything will be alright."

"I-I... just want Ariel... please," Lau begged, holding on to Mikael tightly.