Mutated Madness

When Penny, Pippin, and Mama Williams slowed to a walk they ended up in another city. Mama looked around for a sign to figure out where they were but all the signs had been ripped off for supplies or taken down by heavy winds, or completely collapsed. They all remained quiet for now, not knowing if there was any danger around them. All three of them were breathing heavily and Mama Williams slowly lowered herself to the ground and sat on the curb. ”Im getting too old for this… ” she mumbled and Pippin handed her a canteen half full of water. ”Thank you hun.. ” she smiled and drank some of it and tried her best to regain her breath. Penny collapsed to the ground and laid on her back, struggling to catch her breath. Pippin was the only one who managed to get her breathing pattern back to normal fairly quickly. ”Want me to go scope around for a place to stay the night mama? ” She quietly asked and Mama Williams slowly nodded. Pippin then wandered off and left Mama and Penny alone.

”So…you made that huh… ” Mama coughed a little and sipped some more water. ”Not…intentionally.. ” Penny sighed and hung her head. ”I just wanted to help people…I didn mean for it to get worse.. ” Penny felt tears in her eyes and kept her head down so Mama Williams couldn see. ”Just wanted for this hell to end already…its been 24 years of this, its exhausting. ” She sighed and Mama quietly listen. ”We have a few bases in a couple other states like Kentucky, Oregon, Utah, Texas, and I think Idaho but we lost contact with them awhile ago. ” She explained. ”So we built up teams, found scientists who studied genetics and stuff like that and we started working on a cure. We wanted to keep it from everybody so we wouldn raise false hope ” Penny admitted and Mama nodded slowly. It was still a bit to take in for her but she was trying her best to understand it. She remained quiet, not sure what she should say but Penny silently prayed for her to say something. Anything. She didn care if she was angry, upset, it just had to be something to fill the silence. Instead Mama just sat there quietly.

Pippin eventually came back and told them she had found an empty building that they could board up before nightfall. It looked to be an old office building and they used some of the desks to block the windows and doors on the first floor. It was only a three stories so they didn have to worry about the top two. To there knowledge zombies couldn climb still so they just had to board up the first floor. Mama got a fire started with some old papers and throughout the night each of them took turns keeping watch to make sure nothing attacked them. Once or twice Pippin could have sworn she saw some sort of large figure with big antlers in the distance. She couldn tell what it was or if she was just imagining it cause she was so exhausted so she just left it be.

Shiny and X had wound up in some city that neither of them had recognized. They did manage to find a sign that said where they were. ”Holy shit we ran all the way to Nashville ” Shiny nudged X who was still trying to catch his breath. Shiny was also breathing heavily but he knew how to control his breathing a bit better then his buddy did. ”We should probably find a spot to camp out for the night…we don have the tents so either we
e sleeping under the stars or in the abandoned buildings… ” X suggested and Shiny nodded. ”Come in big guy lets go ” Shiny grabbed his arm and they started walking. They walked to an old apartment and they both went through the building to make sure it was safe. All they found was a ton of roaches and other bugs but that was it. ”Ew- get the ** off me- ” Shiny grumbled and stumbled away from a roach that tried to climb on his foot. ”What? Scared of a little bug ” X teased and Shiny punched his arm. ”Oh shut up, their huge- ” he frowned and X just rolled his eyes and chuckled.

They stayed the night in one of the rooms on the 10th floor, trying their best to sweep out the majority of the roaches. Well X did his best to sweep out the roaches with a broom that he found in the supply closet. Shiny just stood on an old kitchen table to avoid them touching him. ”Pussy ” X mumbled and Shiny threw an old, empty can at him. ”Shut up- they
e so gross- ” Shiny argued and X finally got the majority of the roaches out. ”Thanks for the help you sissy ” X remarked and Shiny climbed off the table. ”Why must you be so mean ” Shiny playfully frowned and got in his face. X just pushed his head away from him and had to catch Shiny before he fell. ”Stay out of my face, you got first watch ” X told him and Shiny chuckled. ”Oh alright, lets get a fire going alright? ” Shiny started gathering flammable things to start a fire so they can eat. The roaches kept coming back from under the door so X stuffed some old blankets he found in a closet under the door so they would stop coming through.

Lasso had been able to start a small fire and Charlie managed to catch a few rabbits. Bones had accidentally dropped his tent when he fell and Lasso ditched his so he could carry Charlie. ”At least its not cold ” Charlie tried to make things sound better and Lasso nodded. ”You kids get some sleep, Ill keep watch for the night ” he told them while they were cooking the rabbits. After they ate Bones and Charlie snuggled up against each other and Lasso sat a few feet away and looked around. He was exhausted but didn want to risk the chance of anything sneaking up on them so he stayed up. Lasso kept hearing the rustle of leaves in bushes but each time he checked there was nothing there. There was no breeze and he could have sworn that he saw the tree branches move a little even though there were no birds to be heard or seen. ”This is going to drive me crazy… ” he mumbled at one point and started trying to occupy himself by thinking of how theyll find the others.

He dozed off here and there but only about ten minutes at a time. The only sounds that night were crickets and the occasional rustle of leaves. Charlie and Bones did not stir at all during the night but Lasso had felt like that first night had dragged on forever. It felt like there was something watching him but each time he scoped around there was nothing. The only thing there was, was ants. The crickets at one point fell silent which put him more on edge but nothing had happened that night.