Outnumbered

[Allie's POV]

I looked over at Vic who was underneath our car. A mile long parade of zombies were trailing through the road, making way to wherever their noses were leading them to.

Vic kept his pointer finger to his lips, telling me to keep quiet.

I couldn't help but let out whimper. I covered my mouth so I couldn't be heard, but I felt the hot tears streaming down my cheeks.

I kept praying over and over that they wouldn't make their way to Hayden's side of the car.

They dragged their legs slowly, moans slipping out from their lips and for 5 minutes I laid on my stomach, holding my mouth shut, crying. This was so scary.

It was quiet for 2 minutes and I perked out from underneath the car. I looked up and down the street and saw a walker coming from the forest. His nose moved in their air like he could smell my flesh.

Vic motioned for me to get back under the car when then I saw his eyes trail to the walker's legs, standing right before him.

I peaked up as far as I could to see the walker moving his nose around the window on Hayden's side. The blankets in the car moved when I saw Hayden pop out from her blankets. She looked down at me, banging on the window.

I motioned for her to be quiet, tears forming in my eyes but she started to cry for me, banging her tiny hand on the window for me to come out.

The walker moaned, clawing at the window. Hayden screamed when she saw the bloody zombie, her hands pounding for me to unstrap her from her car seat.

I crawled my way from under the car and I ran to the walker, tackling it from the back, clawing at it down to keep it from hurting my daughter.

He got me pinned to the road and he looked at me. I knew I was the next meal.

I put my hands in front of my face when the walker flipped me onto my back, his rotting flesh falling on top of me. Guts and gore covering my white undershirt, and I began to scream for help. I kept pushing him off of me and kicking my way back, trying to get my balance to stand up.

I heard Vic crawl up from underneath the car and I covered my head as I heard a single shot crushing through the crawler's skull. The corpse collapsed on top of me and let my hands rest on the blacktop.

Vic pulled the walker off of me and I looked up at him, his hand falling to the side of my face and I sat up, pushing my face into his chest.

"You're okay...everyone's okay." He tried to say calmly. His breathing started to get heavy and when I looked up at him I went to the car door, opening it to get Hayden out.

She collapsed into my arms, her sobs getting louder.

"Mommy's here...Mommy's here. Everything's okay, sweetie." I bounced her on my hip, trying to calm her down.

Hayden's pouty eyes looked into mine, filling with tears. "I saw a scary monster, Mommy."

"I know baby, I know." I said, looking over at Vic. Do I tell her what was really going on in this world? I didn't know what else to say.

I heard footsteps behind me, rushing to my side to see Lights frantically crying. She took Hayden from my arms and then Vic wrapped an arm around me.

"You okay?" He asked me heavily.

I nodded my head. "Yeah...I will be."

"How about you and Lights go eat something in the truck?" Vic said to me.

He kissed my forehead and patted me along to the car. I opened the back seat and took out a box of crackers. My hand went into the box, shaking uncontrollably.

Hayden sat in Lights' lap while I tried to put a cracker or two in my mouth.

"It's a scary world out there." Lights said to me.

I popped a cracker in my mouth and nodded. "I just don't get it."

"Me neither...I wasn't scared until I lost my sister." She lowered her head and then looked out the window.

I perked up, my eyebrow raising. I wanted to hear more.

"What happened if you don't mind me asking..." I whispered.

Lights put a shaking hand to the side of her face. "Well, my sister Jess and I were rearranging the backroom back at the gas station. These guys with guns came in, took Jess by the neck and pointed the gun straight to her skull. They told us to give them blankets, food, just supplies, anything that would get them by and they wouldn't kill her. I started crying. I had nothing to offer them but the food that was left on the shelves. And then bam. Jess was shot. They also killed Levi's brother too. I feel like that's why he was so rough with you guys."

I looked at Lights as a tear rolled down her cheek. She smiled, sniffling gently and wiping it away.

"I'm so sorry to hear that..." I said, putting my hand on her shoulder to show her I cared. This wasn't an easy topic to talk about I could tell.

"Jess was an angel. She always knew what to do. She made the best out of the worst...hell...I wish I was more like her. Mom always liked her best, but I couldn't blame her." Lights smiled over at me, and she took a cracker from the box and nibbled on it.

"But aren't you happy that she's in a better place? It's a shit world out there." I covered my mouth as a cuss word slipped out and Lights giggled.

"Yeah. I'm not too thrilled that my sister was murdered, but at least she didn't turn."

"What do you mean?" I asked her, my eyebrow slightly rising.

"They turn...like...once you're bit you turn into one of them." She replied back to me. She looked confused since I had no idea about what she was talking about.

"Turn into what, Mommy?" Hayden asked me after taking a gulp down of her juice.

I looked down at Hayden, forcing a smile on my face. "Nothing dear, this is grown up talk."

"I wanna know." Hayden pouted.

I looked over at the open car door to see Vic with a screwdriver in his hand. He perked down to see Hayden.

"What do you wanna know, Hayden?" Vic asked her.

Hayden looked over at her dad. "Are there monsters out there, Daddy? Mommy won't tell me."

Vic looked over at me, frozen. He mouthed the words "what do I tell her" to me and I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know what to tell her either.

"You want the truth or do you want the truth?" Vic said, getting down on one knee.

Hayden bounced her head up and down. She was getting antsy.

Vic breathed in slowly. "You know what, I'll tell you when we get to the cabin, alright Princess? It'll be like a bed-time story."

"We never have bed-time stories though, Daddy." Hayden shot back.

I heard Lights let out a small giggle. Hayden was sassy for her age.

"That's besides the point. You'll have to wait," Vic said to Hayden, his eyes narrowing a little before they trailed into mine. "The car is going to be up and running in no time. Beau is finishing it up and in about 15 minutes we'll be able to finally get some sleep."

I smiled at Vic. He was such a good leader. I didn't know how he had it in him, but maybe he had to.

[Vic's POV]

I pulled into the driveway of the cabin. My cabin was pretty big since I spent majority of the summer down here writing things and having friends over. It was probably a mess since I was just here a week ago. The food shouldn't be bad either, which I was excited. I was starving.

I took out my pistol from my pocket and turned around to see Lights and Tony staring at me.

"I'm going to go check the whole place. Beau and Levi are going to come along with me. It'll take 10 minutes. Tony, you stay here. Stay on guard. We'll come out to get you when the coast is clear.

Tony nodded his head and I stepped out from the car. Beau and Levi joined me side by side. We walked up to the door of the cabin and I unlocked it. Luckily there was only one way in and one way out. I was pretty sure nothing would be in there if there was no property damage.

I opened the door and Beau walked in. "This place is fucking huge." He said, looking around.

I put my keys on the front table and nodded. "Yeah, sorry it's a mess. I had a party a week ago."

Levi laughed and then he drew his pistol out. "It's no problem man, what's the plan? Are we going to go through the house together or should we split up?"

I thought about it for a couple seconds. "Split up. Beau, take the basement. Levi, main floor. I'll take the upstairs. I'm pretty sure since the door was locked and no windows have been broken, but we need to make sure. I don't want the women being harmed."

Beau nodded in agreement. "Alright, should we meet right here after?"

I nodded my head yes. "Yep. Good luck to both of you."

We split our different ways and I walked to the center of the living room up the spiral staircase. It was dark. There was a kitchen up here and plus 3 bedrooms. There couldn't be anywhere to hide if you were.

I walked into the first bedroom, constantly checking my back. I listened carefully. I swear, everything in the dark was scarier than it really should be. You can't fight the dark.

The first bedroom was clear. I continued down the hallway to the second bedroom and everything was clear.

The third bedroom's door was closed and I jammed it open. I found nothing but some of my clothes I left from the last time I was here. I put my pistol down and ripped off my white Confide tank that was covered in blood and put on a shirt that was sitting on my bed.

I walked out of the bedroom to go down the stairs to see Levi standing against the wall, one foot propping him up and his arms crossed firmly against his chest.

"Bout time you finished up there." Levi said to me.

I smirked. "I found nothing. Have you seen Beau?"

Levi shook his head no. "He's kind of a ditz...he takes his time doing everything. You'd think a big dude like him would just take everything out in one blow, but it's like he's taking a walk in the park. I wanna smack the shit outta him some days."

I laughed and I looked in front of me to see Beau flashing his flashlight in our direction. "I can hear you, you know."

"Yeah yeah. What were you doing down there for so long?" Levi asked him.

Before Beau could reply I heard 3 gunshots. We looked at each other and raced for the door.

I saw Tony holding Allie by the waist, and Allie was screaming bloody murder. She was covering her mouth and I could see tears streaming down her face.

"Allie, you can't go out there, you need to wait for Vic." Tony said to her.

I saw Allie and her tearful eyes met with mine and she ran into my arms. I dropped my pistol and I grabbed the sides of her face. Allie was crying hard now and she was starting to breathe heavily.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"H-h-h-h-Hayden's gone. The heard of walkers came back. They tried taking her and she ran into the forest. I tried running after her but Tony wouldn't let me, YOU STUPID FUCK!" Allie screamed at Tony, dramatically turning her head over her shoulder to spit that out at him.

"Hey, I wasn't about to let you get hurt out there too, so don't even!" Tony shot back at her.

Allie tried nudging out of my arms and I wouldn't budge which was making her fuss even louder.

"That's my fucking daughter, you piece of shit. I'd die for her any day. I need to go out there." Allie shouted back.

"Allie STOP, listen to yourself. We're gonna go out there and look." I said looking at Beau.

Beau nodded his head in agreement. "I'll search all night if I have to."

Levi stepped over too. "I lost my wife out here and my brother, I'm not gonna lose another. Especially a child."

"Allie, go inside. Tony will keep you safe. Cook something to eat. We'll be back in a couple hours. Try to rest. I love you." I kissed her forehead and I felt Allie grip her fingers into my arm and she turned around to look at Tony.

"You better sleep with one eye open, you prick. I'm going to beat the living shit out of you." She snarled.

I let go of her, bending over and picking up my pistol off the ground.

"This is what I get for keeping YOU safe? We can't afford to lose you either, Allie." Tony said, his eyes lowering at her.

Allie turned around. "I don't GIVE A FUCK! That's my daughter! She's out there ALONE IN THE DARK IN THIS WORLD and you prevented me from doing what's right. So if she dies, this is all your fucking fault and I will give you a slow painful death, I swear t-"

I covered her mouth and Allie nudged her head from the side. "Allie, stop all of this. These monsters are gonna hear you and you'll get us all killed. Forgive Tony, he was trying to protect you. Hayden's out there now, we're going to track her and bring her home. Everything's going to be okay."

Allie nudged my hand off of her mouth and pushed me away. "Easy for you to say."

She went to her side of the car, grabbing as many bags from the backseat and marching her way into the cabin.

I can't handle losing my daughter and the love of my life in the same day.