CHAPTER 4.

With a welcomed amber glow, the sun starts to set in, with fresh colours of orange, gold, and pink brushed against the sky like an artist's canvas. Myles took that moment to pretend as if the world was still as beautiful as the sky. A silhouette dusted itself towards the parked vehicle. 

Myles stepped out of the car, shading his eyes from the light.

His eyes gazed upon Echo, she carried a jerrycan along with a couple of other possessions. Echo jogged over to Myles with quick intentions. The muscles in her legs burned, the trip was long and far. And she made it back alive.

Echo didn't want to risk returning to the darkness.

Myles reached over to the jerrycan, Echo stopped him.

Echo un-hooked the Machete sheath from her belt and handed it to Myles.
"Hold on, I got you something." Echo whispered, with a generous smile.

She passed him the blade. Immediately a small smile formed from the corner of his lip.

"I saw the way you fidgeted with my blade earlier. You were afraid of the distance between you and the threat, now that problem is solved." Echo passed by her brother, who was completely in awe. 

She forgot to tell Myles that she manages to scavenge engine oil, but it was getting too dark. Darkness started to creep in from afar, making it difficult to see. With more than half of a tank of gas, Myles, Hannah, and Echo switched seats.

Hannah sat in the back with her daughter, Myles in the front, and Echo as the driver. Myles continued to take deep drags of his cigarette. Echo kept the car at a decent pace, in case if anything came out and surprised them.

Echo uncapped the water with one hand and drank back a few sips.

"How much further to finding this inner sanctum you told us about?" Myles questioned with impatience crawling through his sentence.

"Not much further." Echo replied. Then she saw flames of bright orange off within the distance. The road was blocked by a collision between a couple of cars and a semi-truck. Up ahead was the Military base, why was there always a barrier between her and her goal? Echo stepped out of the car, turning on the flashlight she kept in her front pocket.

Myles followed her quietly, not allowing his movements nor the door to wake up Hannah or Breanne. Echo climbed the latter on the back of a semi-truck. First, the scene hit her like an oncoming car. Her heart stopped for a second, her palms started to sweat. Gunfire echoed through the country, and the stench carried on like a thick poison.

Echo covered her mouth. This was the biggest group of the dead she's ever seen. Sparks came from the guard tower as the tower collapsed from the weight of the dead. Echo's hands started to shake when screams were heard. Frustration crawled up her gut.

"Holy shit," Myles murmured under his breath.

"Shouldn't we help them?" Myles questioned Echo.

"The numbers are too big, Myles. The Military base has already been overrun. Even with the amount of firepower we have, more will draw in from the city. We'll never see the end of it." Echo sharply inhaled, making her decision clear.

It was either risk everything by driving through the Havoc, or go back and find a different road out.

A sharp pain surged through her chest when she continued to listen to the screams. The base was once her home, where she learned how to fight, where she made allies, and where she shared laughs. The Haven sculpted Echo into who she was today.

All gone...

It broke Echo's heart to witness her home slowly disappearing in front of her eyes. But Echo pushed those feelings deep down and remembered that nothing lasts forever. Wherever she laid her head was home, just as long her family was safe.

Myles wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"We're done here. We'll have to find another way around." Echo masked her frustration and turned away from the pulverized base. Without reason, that feeling stayed with her. Myles was silent the entire way back to the vehicle.

If only she got there a bit quicker, they would still be alive... Echo took that as a sign that nowhere was safe anymore. And the beginning of adjusting to always being on the run was really starting to get under her skin.

It wasn't new to her, but this wasn't a mission. Her palms gripped the steering wheel, her jaw locked, her eyes cold. She put the vehicle into reverse, then halted when she heard something tap the trunk. Echo exchanged a look with Myles before putting the vehicle into park.

A sudden snarl caught her attention. She unbuckled her seatbelt and exited the car before Myles could object.

A small breeze passed by her and the dead one. The dead twisted around, slowly, noticing her scent. She didn't draw her weapon when it held out its arms, snapping its bloody jaw at her. Echo started to shove it around in aggression. The walker reached for her again, refusing to give up. She sucker shot it on the side of the temple, the dead one collapsed onto the pavement. Echo bit her lip and started to stomp on the corpse until it didn't move...

Until it didn't claw, twitch, growl, and bite.

She slowly started to feel her anger disappear, Myles furrowed his brows in concern. He wasn't sure whether she was okay or not. He could tell that just discovering that the Military base was destroyed hurt her more.

Myles treated the situation as a way for her to get her anger out. Myles turned his head over his shoulder and checked on Breanne and Hannah. With relief, they were asleep or pretending, but it was oddly convincing. Myles watched Echo climb into the vehicle and turn around.

The last, tiniest spark of hope she held onto, was slowly starting to become evanescent and would soon disappear. She couldn't do this on her own, and Myles took note of it. 
Echo didn't have a backup plan at this point. She started to think of where would be the next safest place, where they can lay low for a while and see if the outbreak starts to slow down.

A couple of hours passed and unfamiliar scenery passed by, her eyes scattered the road for a second road. Her eyes dragged passed a secondary road that she passed. Echo slowed down and took that road, hoping she wouldn't run into a group of the dead, the size of a small army.

Echo swallowed thickly, she felt extremely stupid for not looking at the map earlier. Instead, she continued down the road, hoping to find something. They were running low on food, water, and supplies. Echo tried not to think of how fast the dead took over America. She wondered if other places were suffering through the same thing. 

Echo felt her stomach growl, lightly. She sighed, she had to save what was left in order to stay alive for a couple of weeks. Where ever they could settle down, her plan was to first secure the place, then go back to an old hobby that she missed, hunting.

Echo hated driving in the dark, anything could jump out and send the vehicle into the ditch.
With the dead creeping in, Hannah would be pissed if her windshield smashed in front of her.

Wide-open fields passed by. From the corner of her eye, a small, ember, glow, that came from an old white farmhouse caught her attention. Even though the abyss embraced the sky with a cloak of shadows, she was somehow able to see it. She didn't anticipate this would be the night. She expected to be turned down by survivors who didn't trust them or worse robbed.

But that's what the guns were for...

But Echo knew she had to be respectful, she was going to ask the owners of the property if they could allow them to stay, or give them directions. In this case, trespassing wasn't an option. If the owners were gone, then her family and she are taking it.

The closer she drove up to the house, she saw the same ember glow from one of the rooms on the second floor, went out...

"What the hell?" Myles mumbled, identically seeing what Echo saw.

"They're probably just scared..." Echo suggested. 

Echo quietly parked the vehicle next to the gate. The small, wooden gate, was the only thing between her and reaching the house. Myles and Echo exited the vehicle. Myles knew the vehicle provided Breanne and Hannah with enough protection until they got back. 

"You sure you want to follow?" Echo questioned, taking out her pistol and her flashlight.

It was quiet that moment, crickets creaked, and the cold wind brushed itself across Echo's bare arms. Goosebumps scattered across her arms. Gravel crushed under her boots with every step. This place was a moment lost in time. A forest shaded itself behind the home whispering nocturnal noises from within the woods. This place convincingly seemed like a deserted home to Echo and Myles, if it wasn't for the candle going out in front of their eyes. 

The steady glow from the moon dimly lit the outside of the home. Myles stepped in front of Echo and onto the porch. 

He gave a couple of hard knocks and called out, "Anyone here?!"

Only silence crept itself through the home, not a single answer came from the home.

"Listen, we know you're here. We saw the candle go out. We're not here to hurt you, we just need somewhere to stay." Echo called out, hearing a constant shuffling within the home.

They both took a step back as the noise continued to get louder. Echo's heart started to quicken, she pointed the gun at the door. Preparing for the unexpected was a part of her training.

"Echo-"

"Go with the flow." Echo whispered. Myles sometimes feared her ego, but he knew this was only her anticipation. For a moment there she happen to notice that the door was cracked open. A soft breeze brushed itself back and forth.

"This shit is getting creepy." Myles cringed. Instant chills crawled up his spine, while the hairs at the back of his neck stood up. Echo wiped the sweat from her forehead, oddly it was pouring down her neck. 

"We're coming in," Myles called out believing there was someone in the home. Echo's eyes widened, he wasn't going to trespass, was he? All Echo could see through the screen door was a set of stairs that led to the second level, a decently clean living room in the front, and a hallway that led to the kitchen in the back.

"Wait, Myles-" 

Suddenly someone made a run for it towards the kitchen. Echo chased after the women.

"Wait! We're not here to hurt you!" Echo yelled.

Echo made a right into the kitchen. The women bolted out the back door and into the forest. Myles grabbed Echo by the shoulders. She easily spun around and sucker-punched him, accidentally. Myles stumbled back, "Echo it's me!" he implied, making it clear who he was. Echo's jaw dropped and she felt herself freeze.

"Sorry..." Echo whispered with guilt.

"Who were you chasing after?"

Echo stopped for a moment gathering her thoughts after she punched her brother on accident.
She never purposely meant to hurt Myles, she thought he was one of the dead. At that moment Myles was glad she was off guard that moment when he stopped her, otherwise, he'd be dead.

"It was a woman. Didn't you see her?" she questioned him, with disbelief. Myles was trying to piece together if there was a woman who ran through the hallway or if Echo was hallucinating due to the lack of sleep.

"All I saw was you running after...something. I wasn't paying attention at the time." Myles implied truthfully, treating Echo like she wasn't crazy.

Echo looked back at the woods and then back at her brother.

"Maybe it was all in my head, Let's check around the place and make sure there isn't anything else creeping around. We'll both check the second level out and see if it's secure." Echo suggested to Myles. Myles gave her a nod. The top floor was empty, bedrooms were untouched. Maybe there was someone who once lived here.

Echo felt paranoid, that person who ran could come back and kill them all in their sleep. It was that easy. Echo chose to stay one step ahead. 

Someone had to keep watch for the night, for all of their sake. 
"The place looks safe for tonight. I'll go get Breanne and Hannah and tell them the news. I want you to lock the place up, back and front, until you see me drive up." Myles instructed her. Echo strolled down the hallway and locked the back door. For a moment she continued to stare at the forest as if someone was watching her.

A small honk came from the front, reeling her away from her train of thoughts. The sound wasn't enough to draw the dead to the vehicle, thankfully. Echo acknowledged that Myles was mindful of that. For that, there was still a lot of work to do around the place, if they wanted to call it home.

Echo and her family unpacked their things into the home and piled them all in the living room. Myles worked to start a small fire in the wood fireplace. Echo sat a fair distance away from her family, keeping watch towards the hallway.

Whatever she saw that night she was motivated to find out if it was real or not, threat or not. 

Hannah sat next to Breanne on the sofa, while she read the same comic book in the car.

"What do you think?" Echo questioned Breanne, whether she liked the home or not.

Small embers sparked from the wood as the fire crackled. Breanne watched the embers spark into the air and fade. She watched the flames, creating tiny pictures in her mind of the fire.

Breanne didn't say anything, she just shrugged. Echo's guess was that Breanne was trying to get used to a home that she isn't used to. Echo awkwardly smiled, her lips formed into a line. She jumped up onto her feet.

"I guess I'll take first watch..." Echo suggested. 

Myles noticed her intentions to leave the room, it was awkward and silent. Myles knew something was going on within Hannah and Breanne's minds. But he was too lazy to figure it out, so he left it to morning time.

"Echo..." He stopped her in her tracks.

She turned her attention to Myles and then back to her rifle. She licked the tips of her fingers and spun on a silencer.

"You've done a lot for us, take a break." Myles encouraged her to stay with the family, instead of isolating herself away from them. 

"I can't, what happens if a group of the dead surround the place and we're all asleep?" Echo mumbled under her breath, enough for Myles to hear.

"It's unlikely for that to happen in one night. You can keep watch, just it has to be here. You belong with your family, Echo." Myles added. Echo sighed, she leaned her gun up against the wall and sat next to Myles. 

"Come on, sweetie. Time for bed." Hannah whispered to Breanne. Breanne was never a rebellious child, even at the age of eleven. She was more of an extrovert. The three knew this was going to be difficult to adjust to, even for Breanne.

Echo leaned her back up against the wall and watched shadows dance on the wall. She silently listened to the soft snores of her family, even Myles passed out within an hour. Her eyes felt heavy, her body became relaxed, and she slowly allowed thick, velvety, darkness to embrace her.