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Chapter 1

Survivor trudged through the woods, her 13 year old body crying out for rest but she told it to shut up and continued to battle her way through the thicket. It was fall and reds and oranges mixed with light greens and yellows to create a portrait of scenery that would have any tourist stopping and staring. She couldn't afford to do that now. She had to keep moving.

With a practiced, almost lazy swing she swiped her ax at the opposing greenery, the sharpened blade cutting through vines and foliage with surprising ease as she forged her way through what was once Yellowstone National Park. Her orange backpack sat on her back with deflating lightness that constantly reminded her she was low on just about everything from provisions to weapons to medicine but she ignored that as well as she continued her uphill journey towards her destination which was....

Survivor shook her head. She didn't need a destination. She needed to move and keep moving as far as she could before night fell and temperatures plunged. That would be all too soon and she checked over her shoulder to take a peek at the position of the sun over the horizon, 2 inches in her eye, which translated to maybe another half hour of walking before she would have to set up camp for the night.

A twig snapped somewhere in the distance and Survivor froze, her hold immediately shifting on the handle of the ax to change it from handy tool to deadly weapon in a mere second. Silence greeted her, and that's what had fear sharpening Survivor's senses as all movement in the forest ceased, as if nature itself was waiting for something. A bush rustled behind her, and Survivor had only an instant to whirl around before it exploded in a flurry of wild eyes, scratching fingernails, and kicking feet as another one came lurching out towards her.

Twisting around to avoid it's initial attack Survivor used the flat of the ax to propel it into a nearby tree where it collided head first into the age-old oak. A sickening crack resounded throughout the forest as its neck broke against the wood and it slumped down in a paralyzed mass of skin bone and muscle. Its lungs couldn't get a signal from the brain to breathe, and it spent it's last breath uttering incoherent grunts and groans as Survivor walked up to it, ax in hand.

She raised it over her head and brought it down in a mechanical movement, one she had repeated many times before and the deadly blade cut through it's neck like a hot knife through butter. Blood emptied from the corpse while the decapitated head rolled away from it's owner a few inches to the right. The body of the former attacker lay still with death, ironically a stillness that had been the forest's own a few seconds ago but now only belonged to it.

A bird chirped in the distance and Survivor nodded, this one had been traveling alone, and set to work searching the body for supplies.

A granola bar and a bag of half-melted chocolate chips was all her reward for her efforts but she tucked the meager earnings into her backpack and checked over her shoulder one more time before moving on.

A little less than 2 inches, she had to get going now.

Wiping the blade on the grass to clean off the blood, she set out back on her original path with a quickened pace and kept the gate for as long as she could. Sunset came too soon though, and Survivor inwardly groaned as the orange-gold rays that streaked the sky marked the end of her travel and beginning of camp-setting.

Something stirred deep down in her conscious, offering up statements and images of things she didn't recognize, sounds she had never heard, tastes she had never had on her tongue. You were never good at camping, a small part of her whispered, that's why you always preferred the R.V instead.

Survivor shook her head to silence the pesky voice that had been bothering her for a while now and knelt down where she stood, shrugging off the backpack onto the chilly ground where she would be sleeping tonight. Turning around and unzipping a pocket she withdrew a spool of well-used string and set to work tying it around the trees that surrounded her in a shaky circle.

She closed the circle, her improvised alarm system, and laid her hand gingerly upon the frayed string to make sure it was taut. The tension would ensure that anybody who walked by would either trip or stumble and that would wake her with enough time to get to her feet and fight. Very low-tech, but that's what she had.

A growl uttered from somewhere and Survivor's hand flew to her ax that she had set down a few inches to her right, knuckles white on the handle. Practiced eyes scanned the bushes and trees for movement, but everything went on as normal in the forest. The sound came again, and this time accompanied by a fluttering sensation in her stomach.

Oh...she was hungry.

Survivor was not a stranger to this sensation, she had felt it many times before which was probably why it had taken her so long to recognize it. It had been especially persistent lately as her food and water stores depleted and she had been forced to forgo yesterday's meals along with today's in an effort to maintain the supplies. Her body revolted at the thought of skipping another meal and a shaking in her hands told her it would be wise to provide nutrients in the way of food.

Mentally Survivor ticked off her rations: a small Ziploc bag of blueberries she had found growing wild, the bag of chocolate chips, the granola bar, and 2 bottles of water. By her calculations maybe 5 days at most until she ran out. She needed to get back to the city, she was not good at camping.

Wincing at the similarity to the voice's statement, then again at the foreboding thought before it, Survivor decided to consume the perishables first. Taking out the half full bag of berries she sat Indian style with the ax across her lap accompanied by the bag and folded her hands in prayer.

Whether there was a God or not Survivor wasn't sure, and frankly she didn't care. She had stopped caring and speculating a while ago. All that she was asking for now was that should there be one that he/she/it let her live one more day, help her survive. Please God, she prayed silently, don't let me come home just yet.

Finishing her prayer she unfolded her hands, ripped open the bag, and started to eat.

Every move she made was silent and calculated; slowly placing a single berry in her mouth, chewing, swallowing, then repeating. She made the meal last as much as it could, hoping somehow to trick her stomach into thinking it was fuller than it really was by dragging it out.

It was over too soon though, and her belly still cried out for more even though her brain told her it would be unwise to answer it's pleading calls. Survivor hoped fervently to find another source of food soon before she ran out and was forced to go hunting for animal meat.

She shuddered, she hated killing even if it came so easily to her, and she preferred to think that those of them she always had to kill whenever she came across one of them were already dead. In her heart she knew they weren't though, in her heart she knew they weren't undead, she knew they were actually alive and conscious of what they were doing. She knew they really did want to kill her.

Survivor sighed as memories pricked at her brain, tempting her control but she locked them away and decided to settle down for the night. She re-zipped the backpack and laid down on the cold earth and curled up to the handle of her ax for warmth. She couldn't make a fire, that would have alerted them to her presence and she really didn't feel like wasting any more calories or energy tonight.

Hunger clawed at her belly but she ignored it and tried to catch some rest, luckily most of them weren't nocturnal so she could count on the night to bring a blessed interlude to their relentless tracking and attacks. 5 days, she thought dryly, ironically the same number I came across today.

She dropped off nearly instantly, it was a skill she had picked up a while ago and it served her well on nights like these. Also better to lose consciousness before the cold really set in with the fall night.

Stars began to twinkle in the velvet night sky, but their beauty was lost on her dim emerald eyes as she faded off to sleep.

At the same time, under the same moon, a muscular form cloaked in darkness also laid down for the night. The stars twinkled their beauty just as radiantly, but he had stopped seeing them a long time ago. The stars were against him, each individual one was a lie, but Kevin Levin had been sticking it to them for a straight year now.

Starlight glowed off of pale skin, revealing a smirk as he raised his middle finger to the sky. You just couldn't kill Kevin 11.