Not wanting to wake Jeb, I stumbled away from the dwindling fire. My body was dripping with sweat and my lungs were struggling to breathe as I fought off the nightmare I'd just woken from. Images of my mother screaming my name as she was fed to a horde of angry zombies were freshly engraved on the backs of my eyelids.
The cool night air offered only mild relief as I made it to the tree line that separated the riverbank from the surrounding woods. I flung myself onto my knees in the brush and gagged. My stomach churned and heaved until nothing was left in it except yellow bile. My throat burned from the retching. Hot tears were streaming down my cheeks as I continued to gag long after I'd finished throwing up.
The wind was blowing harder now that it had been earlier. I could hear branches popping and cracking all around me as I laid down in the dirt and wondered why I’d ever thought joining the Scavengers would be an improvement over working in the hospital ward.
