I'm with You

Jakob woke me up the next morning. He had warmed up soup for the both of us. After sitting up and stretching, he handed me my bowl. It was silent between us as we both ate. He finished eating first while I slowly ate. Once I finished, he took our bowls to the sink.

"We need to get some water today. Are you up for it?" Jake asked me quietly. I smiled and nodded my head yes causing him to smile.

Jake searched for a big enough container to carry the water in while I put my shoes on. He walked over to me to hand me a pitcher and our water bottles. He kissed my cheek before grabbing his gun and moving the chair out from in front of the door.

It was silent as we both strolled our way through the forest to the river. I was staying a few steps behind since Jake was the one who had the gun, plus he knew where he was going.

Once we reached the river, I realized that we were going to have a slight problem. To get to the river, you had to go down the steep, rocky hill. I was still not in great shape since my fall. Even if I somehow managed to get down the hill, getting up was really going to be a task.

"Uh, Jake?"

Jake didn't realize that I was still standing at the top of the hill. He stopped halfway down the hill to turn back and look at me. He was keeping his balance by placing his right hand on a nearby tree.

"I can't walk down this. I can barely walk as it is." I admitted.

Jake climbed his way back up. He lost his footing a few times, but never fell.

"Why didn't you say something before I began walking down?" Jake asked. I shrugged causing Jake to sigh. "You keep watch then. I will get the water by myself." Jake handed me the gun before taking the pitcher and water bottles from me.

I glanced around me to make sure nothing was nearby as he began his journey back down the steep hill. I turned my attention back to Jake, who was now walking on level ground next to the river. I heard a stick snap behind me, causing me to spin around quickly. I watched as squirrel darted along the ground before jumping onto a tree. I began to turn to face the river when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Frightened, I called out to Jake.

"What?" Jake yelled from somewhere behind me.

"Hurry up! We need to go now!" I yelled back.

The walkers were still far away, but they were getting closer. Our yelling just caused them to move a bit faster. I tried to count how many there were, but there seemed to be so many.

"Jake!" I cried out as I turned around to see where he was.

He was climbing his way back up the steep hill. He was trying his best to not fall and to not drop the water.

"Forget it Jake!" I exclaimed. "We need to go now! There are many of them."

Jake dropped the pitcher of water, but kept the two water bottles. He made his way up as quickly as he could. I grabbed his hand and pulled him up the rest of the way. He gave me the bottles before taking his gun. We began heading back to the cabin. Luckily that was in the opposite direction of all the walkers, but they were still coming our way.

We got to the cabin we were staying in. Jake ushered me inside before looking behind us. He came inside and closed the door.

"None are here yet, but they will keep coming this way. We need to leave now. If we keep running the opposite direction of them, we should end up on the farm again." Jake told me the plan.

"But won't we be leading them to the farm?" I asked Jake.

"No, either way they will walk that way. They don't change the direction they are going much unless there is a loud sound. I wish we could stay here, but that won't be safe. There were too many and we don't have enough ammo to take them all on." Jake explained before grabbing his bag.

I threw my bag over my shoulder before grabbing a few plastic bags of food. Jake insisted on trying to take the box. He gave me his gun, so he could take the box full of canned goods. My gun was in my bag anyway, so I took it.

After making sure we had everything, Jake went out the door first. We walked as quickly as we could. Jake seemed to have no problem with carrying the box and his bag. I, on the other hand, was struggling with carrying a few plastic bags with food, my bag, and a gun. Jake didn't seem to notice though and I didn't want to complain. I knew if I had to run, I would drop the bags with the cans.

It was late in the afternoon when we stopped to take a much needed rest. I had no idea how far we were from the farm. My body ached, especially my arms. A couple of hours ago, I gave Jake two bags that had canned goods. I only kept the bags with packaged foods since it was lighter. The walkers still haven't caught up to us, which was a good thing. We both knew that they weren't far behind.

Jake began walking again, so I followed. We walked for another hour until we came across a road. I looked at Jake and he seemed as confused as I was.

"I thought we would be at the farm?" I questioned.

"We must have went the wrong way...I could of swore we were walking towards the farm." Jake began looking down both directions of the road.

"Jake, we can't just stay out here. It will be dark soon. We don't even know where we are!" I frowned.

Jake put the box and plastic bags down on the side of the road before shaking his arms. I placed the plastic bags I had down next to them. I fixed my bag on my back before looking over at Jake. He was looking around him. I knew he was trying to figure out what we should do.

"You stay here. I want to follow this road for a few miles. Something just doesn't seem right." Jake scratched his head. "Somewhere we began walking in a different way. I know the farm has to be close by. Those walkers should be close by too, yet they haven't caught up to us. It doesn't make sense."

"What am I suppose to do if they come this way? What if they are right behind us still?" I began to panic.

"Just leave the food where it is. Go climb a tree and watch from up there. I remember that they have vehicles. If I find the farm, I can get someone to come pick you up. We will be alright, Liz." Jake kissed me. "I will be alright."

Jake fixed his bag on his shoulder before taking his gun from me. He began walking down the road without another word to me. I took off my bag to grab my gun from it. I then went and found a tree to climb.

I kept looking towards the way Jake went. The sun was setting, so it was getting harder to see down the road. So far there were no walkers coming this way. Hopefully they went another direction.