Nature had long since started taking back her planet. Weeds grew through the asphalt and sidewalks, trees where sprouting in buildings. The streets were littered with trash and abandoned vehicles. 

The cold wind was bitter against the back of my neck and on my hands. Snow would be falling sometime within the next few weeks. It's already hard enough to survive day by day. When you throw in little food and extreme weather, the chances of survival drop drastically. It was up to us to bring back food for this camp and I'll be damned if we don't bring something back. 

"I always hate it out here," complains Terry, looking over his shoulders. "I constantly feel like someone or something is watching me." 

None of us say anything but we all feel the same way. It's good to travel in groups, but the only real person you can trust to have your back is yourself. Humans are a very selfish species and just as Sav told me the other day, there aren't many people who would throw their life down for someone in need. 

We had been walking for about three hours when we seen signs that someone had passed through recently. Fresh blood and bullet casings splayed all over the road were tale tell signs of some kind of struggle that recently occurred. These things happen often, people kill for anything whether it be food, weapons, ammo or even out of spite. It's the age old saying, 'survival of the fittest.' 

Normally we never run into any of these struggles between two people but today was different. As we were walking along the road we heard a scream that was so bone chilling. It was definitely from a human, and it sounded like a girl. I took off sprinting. 

"Donavan, wait!" I heard someone scream from behind me, I wasn't sure who it was to be honest. It was like someone took control of body. I had to help this girl, there was no telling who or what was attacking her, but I had to save her. I ran through the trees, stray branches and twigs cutting my face and arms, but the adrenaline flowing through me was enough to kill a fully grown bull. 

I stopped dead in my tracks because I had lost the sound of the scream. I slowed my breathing and closed my eyes, listening so hard that it hurt. Please give me a sign, just one more. Please. 

It was like the girl could hear my thoughts because I heard her muffled cries for help a second later and I was off. Leaping over fallen trees and rocks. I break through a tree line into a clearing and then I see her as well as three men with hoods over their heads. Red wings were patched into the backs of their hoodies. 

Two of the men are holding the girl down while the other stands over them unbuckling his belt. Anger rises in me as I throw the rifle to the ground. Even though it was going to be three against one I couldn't waste our few bullets on these guys. I unsheathed my knife and full on sprinted to the three men and the girl.

It wasn't even half way to them when one of the men seen me. He reached down to his waist and pulled a .357 from his holster. He smiles as he points the gun at me. Time slammed to a halt. My mind was working at a million miles a minute and I had to act fast. 

I pumped my legs faster and faster. It didn't matter if I took a bullet, I had to save her. She looked at me with tears in her pleading eyes. I must have looked like a shining light of hope in her dark world. I couldn't give up now.

The crack of gunfire brings me back and I throw my body into a roll. The training that Jackson and Blake gave us was starting to pay off. I came up to my feet and fell back into a full sprint. The man sneered and pulled the hammer back on his gun. It was too late now. 

I fell into a baseball slide while the other two men were fumbling to pull their weapons out. I held the knife out and drew it across the standing mans ACl. He cried out in pain and fell to his knees. His left leg rendered useless from the knee down. I stood and kicked the .357 out of the guys hand and threw my knife into the chest of the third. His eyes went wide as he realized what had just happened. A line of blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth as he fell backwards like a stiff board. The screams of the man with the cut ACL drowned out the wind that was cutting through the trees. The other guy fell back onto his ass as he scrambled for his gun. 

I stepped on the barrel and kicked him hard in the jaw. I felt it dislocate. He looked at me in terror as I reached down for the gun and put the barrel to his head. There wasn't any thought in my head besides to kill. My vision was red with the lust for blood. I wasn't in control anymore.

"Donavan!" A force slammed into me from the left and I was thrown back into reality. Eric threw the gun out of my hand, "Look, they are done. There's no need to be merciless." He looked me in my eyes and I nodded. 

As the adrenaline left my body, I started to feel the cuts and how bad the salt from my sweat burned in them. I fell to my knees as the realization of me taking someone's life began to creep in. I looked over and seen his lifeless eyes and his right hand still clutched onto the blade of the knife that stuck almost all the way through him. 

It became hard to breathe. It felt like the world was closing in on me. However a pair of arms wrapped around the back of my neck and I felt tears dropping on my shoulder. 

"Thank you so much." She repeated over and over through the bouts of tears that racked her body. All I could do was sit and look at the sky as I cursed whoever was up there for making life down here a living hell.