The Great Unknown

It was a bright sunny day and the first to wake up was a 16 year old girl. She had brown eyes and dark brown hair. The girl sits up and rubs her eyes.

Where am I? She thinks to herself. A few seconds later the boy wakes up.He had Caramel colored hair and two different colored eyes. One brown, the other blue. He shields his eyes from the sun with his right arm.

“Where are we?” he asks her.

“That’s what I’d like to know.” she replies, standing up. As she stands a note falls out of her pocket. The boy picks it up.

“Dear Noah and Charlotte, I know you’re probably wondering where you are right now but let me explain...we sent you two on a mission. A mission to survive in the wilderness. On the back of this note is a list of things you will have to do. Good luck.”

“Who is it from?” Charlotte asks, looking over at Noah, who is still sitting in the grass.

“It’s from...hmm it doesn’t say.” Charlotte takes the paper from him and looks it over.

“Hmm. I wonder who wrote this.” she says. “Maybe the person that wrote this is the same person who sent us here.”

“Probably.” says Noah, now standing next to Charlotte. Charlotte flips over the paper.

“Well, first thing on the list is ‘Build a shelter’ so I guess that means we gotta get some wood.”

“But to be able to chop down trees we need an axe.” Noah explains. “And maybe some other tools for other things.” Charlotte nods.

“How do we make an axe?” she asks. Noah facepalms.

“Woman have you forgotten that I’m pretty much a master builder. I can make an axe in less than 5 minutes, we just need some sticks, some stones and some vines.”

“Let’s get collecting then.” Charlotte says. She kisses Noah on the cheek and then walks off toward the woods. Noah smiles, walking close behind her.

“Ok, this should be enough materials.” Noah says as he puts everything into his backpack. He stands and looks over at Charlotte. She is leaning up against a tree, her leg propped up, and her arms were crossed across her chest. She was smirking.

“What?” he asks.

“Nothing.” she replies, walking over to him. “Let’s get back. The sun is starting to go down.” Noah nods.

“Yeah, we should get back and start building a shelter.” They walk back, holding hands, toward where they first woke up to the new world.

Later that morning, Charlotte was sitting in a chair that Noah had just made not even 5 minutes ago and now he was working on the walls of the house with the hammer he had made. He also made an axe, but that was in his backpack.

“When are you gonna be done?” she asks. Noah was standing on a ladder he made and doesn’t look away from the wall he was hammering. He looks to his right and sees a zombie in the distance then turns back to his work.

“This will probably take me a few hours, at most.” Charlotte sighs and gets up off the chair. She looks off into the distance and sees the same zombie Noah had seen only a moment before.

“Hopefully that zombie doesn’t come over here.” she says. Noah turns toward the zombie again.

“Yeah, hopefully.” They both look away from the zombie. A few minutes later, Noah looks back in the direction the zombie was. It was gone. Charlotte starts to scream and Noah turns toward her. The zombie was trying to get to her. Noah jumps off the ladder and runs at the zombie and hits it with his hammer then gets out his sword from the holster on his back. He stabs the zombie in the chest then swings and cuts its head off its body. It falls to the ground a few seconds later. As he wipes off the blood he looks over at Charlotte, who is huddled against the wall, shaking. He puts his sword back in the holster and sits down next to her.

“You ok?” he asks, wrapping his arm around her and holding her close. She looks up at him.

“I don’t know.” she says, tearing up. He takes her left arm and looks at it. There was a scratch on her right forearm. It wasn’t a very deep cut though so she was ok...he hoped.

“You’ll be fine.” he says. She starts to cry.

“It hurts.” she says. He rubs her shoulder with his right hand. He then takes his arm off her and takes off his backpack. Her arm starts bleeding. He takes out a med kit that must have been in there before they got here in this new world.

“Stay calm.” he says. “You’ll be ok.” Charlotte’s tears continue to fall.

“Thanks Noah.” she wipes away the tears off her face, still shaking. Noah takes out some paper towel and folds it into a small square and puts it on the wound.

“Hold this here.” he tells her. She does. He then takes out some gauze and unravels it. He starts to wrap it around her arm. “You can let go now.” he says when he wraps the gauze to the paper towel. When he finished he closes the med kit and puts it back into his backpack. “There. Now it won’t bleed everywhere.” Charlotte smiles and hugs him. He hugs her back. “I don’t need that much praise. All I did was wrap gauze around your arm.” he chuckles.

“You’ve done much more than that, Noah.” she says.

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?” he asks.

“You’ve been there for me, and not just when zombies come around.”

“I’ll always be there for you Charlotte. You are the most precious thing in my life and nothing will take you away from me.”

“That is the sweetest thing you ever said.” she says. They kiss.

“Well, it’s true.” he says. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” she says. Noah takes her arms and wraps them around his neck.

Even though they were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by zombies, they were happy.

“What happens now?” she asks. He stands. She looks up at him.

“Well,” he says, looking at the unfinished house. “I need to finish the walls and make a door for the house.” Noah looks down at her. “And YOU need to sit and chill after what had just happened.” Charlotte pouts.

“But why?” she whines. Noah picks her up, bridal style.

“Because I say.” he says. Charlotte’s eyes grow wide.

“Oh, boss now are we?” she says, raising an eyebrow. Noah laughs.

“Yeah.”

“Ok then.” she says, holding back laughter. Noah then carries her into the mostly built house.

Charlotte had been sitting in the chair Noah had built for her and she was bored. She decides to go out for some fresh air. She stands up and looks over at Noah through a hole in the wall, where a window will go at some point. She smiles, watching him for a few seconds before walking outside.

As she walks toward the woods, she starts having an argument with her conscience.

“Charlotte it’s probably a very bad idea to be out here by yourself.” says her conscience.

“Yeah but I just wanted to go for a walk and get some fresh air.” she argues.

“There could be monsters about.”

“I don’t care. I can take them on...I think.” she says as she starts to realize that maybe her conscience was right. “Yeah I can take them on.” her conscience says nothing. “What? Why are you all of a sudden too shy to talk?” she asks her conscience.

No reply.

Rustling sounds happen behind her. She stops and starts to panic so she runs and hides behind a tree, breathing fast. After a moment the rustling stops. She holds her breath.

“Charlotte!” she hears someone call. She sighs in relief. It was just Noah. She comes out from behind the tree.

“Noah, you scared the crap out of me.” she says. He walks up to her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” he says. “I was just worried cause you disappeared and I had no idea where you were.” Charlotte sighs and hugs him. He hugs her holding her close.

“It’s sweet that you worry about me, Noah, but I’m fine. No monsters have come for me.” she says.

“I know. But if something happened to you I-”

“You would probably go insane.” she says, laughing.

“Actually, I would.” he says, kissing her forehead. Charlotte rolls her eyes.

“Do you have no faith in me whatsoever?” she asks, looking up at him.

“I do, it’s just...I can’t handle you being so far away from me.” he pouts. She smiles and takes his face in her hands.

“I know.” she says, kissing him.

“I love you.” he says.

“I love you too.” All of a sudden there was a scream.

“Did you hear that?” she asks.

“Hear what?” he asks, confused.

“The scream.” she says. “You didn’t hear it?” Noah shakes his head.

“No.” The scream happens again, this time he hears it. “Oh, that scream.”

“It sounded like it came from that direction.” she points into the woods.

“Let’s go investigate.” he says, letting go of her and just holds her hand.

“Are you sure?” she asks. “It’s dark and we don’t have any light.”

“Come on Charlotte. Are you afraid of the dark?” he says. Her eyes grow wide.

“Wha- I uhh...yes.” she says, looking down in shame. Noah laughs. Charlotte looks up at him. “What’s so funny?” she asks.

“Because you’re awkwardness is adorable.” he replies. They hear the scream again. “Come on, we need to hurry. It could be another person.” Taking a deep breath Noah and Charlotte run in the direction of the screaming, quickly but cautious.

When they find where the screaming was coming from they see a witch. She was holding a basket full of potions.

“Come here my pretty.” she says in her evil witch voice. The person that was screaming was a girl with bright green eyes, very short light brown hair and glasses. She is wearing a white t-shirt with a jean jacket over it, blue jeans, gray sneakers, a green backpack and a book in her hand.

“Stay away from me.” she says. Noah and Charlotte are hiding behind a tree, watching the whole thing.

“I just wanted to turn you into my pet.” the old witch says, trying to grab the girls arm.

“Leave me alone.” she says, crying. The witch goes to grab her arm again and succeeds. The witch tries to force the girl to drink a potion. Noah takes out his sword and jumps out from behind the tree.

“GET AWAY FROM HER YOU DISGUSTING WITCH!” he yells. Charlotte was still behind the tree. The witch turns in his direction and grimaces.

“And why should I?” she asks, holding the girl’s arm. Noah tries to think of a sentence to say quickly.

“Because if you don’t I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” the witch continues to grimace at Noah.

“I’ll have to kill you.” he says. The witch cackles.

“Ha! I’d like to see you try, boy.” Noah gets a very angry look on his face. The witch cackles again.

“Boy, do you honestly think that look on your face is gonna scare me?” she says.

“FIGHT ME WITCH!” he yells. “LET HER GO!”

“Try.” she says, letting go of the girl. The girl runs and climbs a tree to hide. The witch takes a potion out of her basket and holds it. She gets ready to throw it. Noah takes a step forward. The witch doesn’t move.

“Come on boy. Do your worst.” the witch says. “I DARE you.” Noah lunges at the witch and swings his sword. He misses. The witch cackles.

“Ha! Nice try boy.” she says. Noah comes up and kicks her to the ground. The witch tries crawling toward the potion but Noah kicks it out of the way.

“Nice try witch.” the witch turns and sees he’s standing over her with the tip of his sword hovering over her throat. “How about you go and NEVER come back. Otherwise, I will be forced to go the hard way.” Noah could see that she was shaking. “What will it be?” She hesitates, then cackles.

“You think you scare me boy?” She kicks him and stands up quickly, runs over to her potion, and starts towards him. Noah stands there, in pain.

“She went with the hard way.” he mutters to himself.

Charlotte yelps as the witch swipes at Noah with a dagger. He doesn’t see it coming. He steps to the side just in time, but the blade clipped his shoulder. He grunts in more pain, blood starts to seep through his shirt, staining it. She laughs more, but Noah was not amused.

“Kill her Noah!” Charlotte exclaims. He looks at her for a brief moment, then turns his attention back to the witch. She hears Charlotte and starts to run toward her. Noah lets out a battle cry.

“DON’T TOUCH HER!” he yells at the witch.

Noah runs toward her. The witch turns just as he swings his sword and slices her neck before she got too close to Charlotte. The witch’s head falls to the ground.

Charlotte backs up, crying out in horror. Noah rushes towards her. “I’m SO sorry. Are you OK?”

She backs up, crying out in horror. Noah rushes towards her. “I’m SO sorry. Are you OK?”

“Are you? You’re wounded.” she says, he shrugs.

“I’ll survive. I’m more concerned about the girl that was screaming.”

“Yeah,” Charlotte replies.

“Is it safe to come down now?” someone says. The two look around, alert.

“Who is that?” Noah calls out. Charlotte looks up.

“Up there.” she says, pointing to a young girl in a tree.

“Sorry for being a wuss. I was just scared.” The girl says, climbing down. She lands on the ground, turning to the other two. She had bright green eyes, short light brown hair, freckles and glasses. She was wearing a white t-shirt with a jean jacket over it, blue jeans, gray sneakers, a green backpack and a book in her hand. “Thanks.” Noah nods.

“No problem.” He responds.

“How can I ever repay you?” she asks.

“Don’t worry about it.” he says. She smiles.

“Well, thank you. My name’s Sophie.”

“I’m Noah and this is Charlotte.” Charlotte waves.

“Hello.” she says.

“When did you guys get here?” Sophie asks.

“We woke up here earlier this morning.” Noah explains.

“Same. I had no idea where I was. It was a little scary, to be honest.” Sophie says, laughing a little in embarrassment.

“Well, you’re safe now.” Noah says. “Do you have any place to live?” Sophie shakes her head.

“No.” she says. Charlotte whispers in Noah’s ear.

“She could stay with us.” she says. Noah nods.

“Hey Sophie.” he says. “You could stay with us. We would protect you.”

“I don’t want to impose on anyone.” She replies.

“Oh no. It’s fine.” says Noah.

“Yeah. The more the merrier they say.” Charlotte says. Sophie smiles.

“That would be GREAT.” Noah claps his hands together.

“Alrighty then. Let’s go.”