Annabelle had been running for a while now. About an hour. She was moving through the denser part of the forest now, skipping and skidding over protruding tree roots and broken twigs. She knew she was making a lot of noise but she couldn’t bear the forest. She had to escape before it trapped her. She could see the white clearing outside the forest. It was about 500 yards to her right. The bright evening sunlight shone a yellow orange light over the dirt road, once an asphalt road.

She’d never step onto that clearing. No matter how much she hated the forest. The first time she’d have to sneak around these familiar grounds like a thief was about half a year ago. And she’d made her biggest mistake then. She stepped out onto the clearing thinking it was safe.

She moved along parallel to the edge of the forest always keeping a watchful eye on the road for anything that might make her journey short. The wind didn’t rush past her ears and blow against her face as it used to before the world became empty. The tree leaves didn’t smell like rain and freshly cut grass like it used to either. It just didn’t smell. It didn’t have a feel. It was just there. Just another patch of decoration. ‘Did even the trees die?’ She wondered. ‘Is there no one left in this world?’

As though in response to her question she heard a loud bang, or maybe it was a scream. She wasn’t sure. It came from ahead of her, somehow on the road. She stopped running immediately and crouched down to the ground, hiding behind a tree. She peeked around the trunk and searched the road for something that responsible for that sound she just heard.

The first thing she saw was a bright flashing light. It took a while for her eyes to adjust but finally when it did, she realized it was a car. There wasn’t a flashing light. The light had reflected from the metal frame into her eyes. And what looked like an insane girl praying to the sky stood in front of it. Annabelle moved closer and squinted to try to make out the details. There had been people who’d gone insane from either being unable to accept the reality and cope with it or just from plain desire to display their traumatized mentality. She wasn’t sure to what degree this girl’s mind was gone and she wasn’t going to find out.

Staying close to the ground Annabelle moved around the trees keeping her eyes on the girl the whole time. The girl stood absolutely still. ‘Was she really praying to the sky?’ Annabelle wondered.

When she was close enough she realized the girl’s hands weren’t praying for salvation from the sky. It was pointing a blade towards something on the other side of the road.
It was a monster.

The same one that had trapped her here on the road the first time she’d made her mistake.

Annabelle quickly scanned the line of trees behind and around her. There among the trees along the edge two other monsters stumbled and shuffled toward the girl. She was focused toward the first monster. She might not have noticed the other two. The first one wouldn’t move. Actually, it just might not have been able to move for some reason. The ones to focus on were the other two.

“I don’t need to save her,” Annabelle reassured to herself as her heart began to pump harder and threatened to explode out of her. “She shouldn’t have got caught!” Tears blurred her vision and she couldn’t stop the image of her mom holding a gun to the head of a monster flashing in front of her eyes, just the way this girl was pointing a knife now. “Mom…” She cried silently before running toward the girl trying to reach her before the monsters did.

She pulled the axe out of her backpack and aimed to swing at the head of one of them. More would soon follow Annabelle was sure. Somehow they seemed to materialize out of nowhere at the most crucial time.