“She's a tough girl ain't she?” Durbin's scratchy voice broke me out of my dream of Selma. I had been in a deep sleep since Cody took shift watching. I cracked my eyes open and saw Cody's silhouette still sitting next to me with the shotgun in his hands. His body shifted as he turned to look at me and I quickly shut my eyes again, acting like I was still asleep.

“She is,” Cody said admiringly. I felt his hand stroke my face, brushing my hair away. It took everything inside of me to stay still as my nerves shivered from his touch. “I didn't know she had this much in her.”

“Did she not show it before?” Durbin asked curiously.

“Well,” Cody said dropping his hand back to the gun. “It was hard for her in the beginning, losing the people she cared about. But then something just clicked.” He chuckled. “It was like she had an epiphany or something.”

“Do you love her?” I could hear a smile spread through Durbin's voice.

“I mean, it hasn't been that long at all since all of this started,” Cody sighed next to me. “But so much has happened. I find myself wanting to protect her with everything I have in me. Every time there's trouble I worry about her, then I worry about myself. I've seen that she can take care of herself, but I can't help it. There's something inside me that has to see her live. She's an amazing and beautiful girl inside and out and I can't let the world exist without her in it.”

I felt a tear leak out of my closed lid and heard a tiny drip as it splattered onto the sleeping bag. Butterflies flew in my stomach and a stampede started in my heart.

“That's romantic and all but you didn't answer the question,” Durbin laughed. “Do you love her?”

I commanded myself to stay awake to hear the answer, but my body won the war and I fell back asleep.

“Desi!” Cody was shaking me awake. “They're coming! Get up!”

I jumped up off of my sleeping bag in a frenzy, reaching for my chair leg. I saw a group of infected running towards us through the trees. I glanced around for Rich, Aundrea, and Durbin and spotted them running the other way. I hauled my backpack over my shoulders, leaving the sleeping bag behind, and turned to run with Cody right beside me.

I could hear the snarls and the snapping jaws behind me. They weren't very coordinated because every now and then one of them would fall to the ground with a thud, but they wouldn't stop not matter how far we ran.

My legs started to weaken and burn the farther we ran, but my adrenaline kept me going. I could hear Cody next to me as he tried to take deep breaths through his nose to avoid cramping. I turned my head to look at him the same time he turned to look at me. We locked eyes and then pushed ourselves harder, wanting to be strong for one another.

We caught up with everyone else, but the infected were still running after us. Their snarls became deeper with anger and their jaws snapped more ferociously. It was like swinging a steak in front of a dog that can't reach it.

“Will they ever stop chasing us?” I managed to speak.

“I don't know,” Rich yelled back from in front of me. “But I ain't stoppin' to ask them!”

The forest floor started to go downhill and we had to slow our pace, so we didn't roll down. One infected tried to come at us full speed but tripped and fell down the hill, cracking his head on boulders and trees. When he got to the bottom we heard a splash.

“There's a river!” I yelled to everyone. “If they can't open doors, and they can't use judgment, surely they can't swim!” We reached the bottom of the hill and saw a slow moving river in front of us.

“Swim diagonally upstream so that we don't get carried down the river!” Rich said. He turned to Aundrea. “Honey since you're going to be on Durbin's back, I need you to hold this high above your head.” He handed the shotgun to her and she raised it high in the air without protest. It was almost horrifying seeing the gun in her hands, but that was Rich being practical.

We all started running into the tide. Aundrea had strapped herself onto Durbin's back with the gun in the air and I had tucked my chair leg into the back of my shorts uncomfortably. I heard splashes as the infected barreled into the water behind us. When it was deep enough to swim I dove onto my stomach and propelled my arms and legs, pushing against the current. I didn't stop to look around until I got to the other side.

I had beaten everyone else so I stood up and shook my hair out of my face. I looked across the river and saw that the infected were drowning. They were flailing their arms and screaming. For a second they almost seemed like normal people, until I heard snarls coming from the river bank.

Across the river stood an angry infected man. While everyone else was drowning in the river, he stood glaring in my direction, snarling. He let out a scream before turning around and running back into the woods. Why didn't he dive into the river? Are some infected able to think for themselves? I cocked my head in thought.

Everything turned quiet as Cody, Rich, Durbin, and Aundrea made it up to the river bank.

“So they can't swim?” Rich asked in disbelief. “Well I'll be damned.”

“There was one that ran off into the trees,” I said, still looking at the spot where the man had been standing “Why didn't he jump in the water with them?” My voice trailed off. Cody wrapped his arm around me, breaking me out of my trance.

“He knew he'd be no match for you,” Cody laughed. “You're a fast swimmer.” His chest heaved as he panted from the exhaustion of running and swimming. I watched almost too closely as he pulled his shirt off over his head. His tan skin glistened with water droplets, and I couldn't help but blush and look away.

Rich grabbed the gun from a half-drenched Aundrea who handed it over with no expression on her face. Durbin locked eyes with me and smiled, like he knew something I didn't. I gave him the middle finger, but he just laughed.

“Let's get going,” Rich said leading us into the trees again.

I wrung my shirt out as we walked, but my shorts clung to me as water dripped down my legs. Everyone's shoes squished as they stepped; squirting water out.

Rich spotted a road through the trees and we followed him to it. He looked around at the speed limit signs and a sign that had an ad for a restaurant ten miles away. “This is familiar,” Rich spoke looking back at us. “We're on Highway 74. If we can stay close to this road it will take us to Springfield.”

“Should we wind up the radio to see if we can get anything from the camp?” Cody asked. My eyes fell on him and trailed over his shirtless chest. My heart skipped a beat and I had to stop my hand from reaching out to touch him.

“Don't really wanna risk it,” Rich said walking forward. “The static might draw some unwanted attention.” We all fell into step behind him. Aundrea walked beside Durbin, holding his hand, and I walked beside Cody, our arms brushing against each other's with every step.

We walked until the sun started to set, and we found a spot in the trees to make camp. Durbin handed me his sleeping bag saying he probably wouldn't sleep anyways. I thanked him and laid on top of it that night instead of sleeping inside.

We walked the next two days with barely a sign of infected. A couple were seen here and there, but we crept around them silently and unseen. Rich still wouldn't use the radio, afraid that there might be an ambush of infected, and Aundrea still hadn't said a word. One night I held her in my arms as I slept and she clawed onto my arm tightly, scared that I might let go. This once fearless little girl had turned into a bundle of nerves since her mother died.

Durbin actually slept on the third night and woke up in the best mood he's been in since I met him. He picked Aundrea up off of her sleeping bag and twirled her around, hoping to make her laugh, but no smile brightened on her face.

It was the fourth day of walking and we knew we were getting close.

“Where do you think the camp would be?” I asked Rich as we passed a sign that said 'Welcome to Springfield'. Crows perched on the top of the sign; their heads turning to watch us as we walked by. Not very welcoming, I thought to myself.

“Well,” Rich said in front of me. “When we saw it on TV it had been in a big open area right outside the woods.” He turned his head over his shoulder. “I could see the trees in the background. Now I know there's no woods after Springfield so I'm guessing we are very close.”

“Do you think maybe the fairgrounds?” I asked hopefully. I remember going to their County Fair once when my mom had taken me shopping. We went by the fair as a treat for my birthday.

“Good thinking!” Rich said excitedly. He turned to walk down a gravel road. “Josie and I used to have a wind chime stand we ran during the fair. They flew out of there like there was no tomorrow. Josie loved her wind chimes.”

I glanced over at Durbin who had dropped his head in thought.

“How far down this road do you think it is?” I asked trying to take the subject off of Josie.

“Not too far at all.” I could hear that Rich was smiling in remembrance of his wife.

We continued to walk until the road took a dramatic drop.  Stopping in our tracks, our mouths popped open at the sight in front of us.

There stood the camp, as I remember seeing on the TV. A tall fence stood surrounding the camp with barbed wire coiled around the top. A mass of different colored tents lay spread out within the fence with normal people coming out of them. It seemed too good to be true, until we saw that blocking the front gate was a massive herd of infected.