To Kill a Cactus - Heroes part 4

Heroes part 3 HERE

...

I tried to hear for any kind of noise coming from the stairway below me, but I couldn't hear a thing.
"Ash?" I whispered, I could hear it echo, but there was still no answer.
I wasn't sure, if he just had to go back and get something or if something had happened. After a few minutes I got a bit impatient and climbed down the stairs again, he wasn't anywhere to be seen. The door didn't have a handle, but it was slightly open, so I figured he had gone back in, I just didn't know, why he didn't say anything.
I stepped inside and instantly I felt like something was wrong, I saw a few drops of blood on my hand where I had touched the door and noticed that there was more of it on the edge of the door. I wanted to run away, but then I thought of little Nora, who might have been in danger, so as foolish as it seemed, I stepped inside.
The front room was empty, but I saw one of the weapons Ash carried with him laying on the ground, it was the spiky one, I took it, although I was afraid I'd hurt myself before I'd hurt anyone else with it.
The second room was empty as well, the half made doll was on the chair and I could hear a thump somewhere from a room further away, I walked onwards just in time to see Ash slice a small zombie cactus in half, another one was behind him, missing a limb. When I stepped in, Ash didn't notice me, but a small zomie cactus did and ran in my direction baring it's sharp teeth, I swung the spiky thing and missed, but while I was trying to swing it again, I accidentally hit it with one of the spikes and the thing screamed out, Ash noticed me and came to the rescue.
"That was the last one," he said and wiped his axe clean of te slimey blood that had becme to clump up on it.
"What happened?" I asked him.
"A group of rats that have been infected ran in, I had to take care of them. You did a great job with that little one though," he nodded at the tiny cactus thingy on the floor. 
I noticed that he had a long cut on his arm that was bleeding.
He also looked down on his arm and shurgged his shoulders.
"Didn't even notice that, I'll clean that up, he went to his bag and got out a foggy looking pale green liquid that he cleaned his wound with.
"Nora, mum and the others are in the safe room, I sent them there," he added after a little while.
"Does this happen often?" I asked looking around the room.
"Once or twice a month, recently more often, We have to secure the place better, I have to ask one of my brothers to do that," he went over to what I assumed to be the safe room, since it had double doors and bars infront of it.
He opened the door and Nora was the first to jump out. She seemed amazed and way too happy to see all of the dead bodies around her. 
"This is so cool," she said and collected them all into a large jar.
"Do you think you cold do some research on those guys?" Ash asked me and pointed towards the jar filled with rats turned to zombie-cacti.
"Maybe, I could test their blood to find any abnormalities, but I don't have any equipment," I answered.
I could feel it all getting more real, even if I found the equipment, would I actually be able to do what I wanted to do. I wanted to believe that I could do it, that I could do something, but at that moment in time, I felt so alone and insecure in my abilities. I could've given up, I was so close to just sneaking away, escaping again, but then I noticed little Nora looking at me, her eyes were full of hope. She believed in me, I wished that had been enough to make me feel more sure of myself, but instead I just felt like now I couldn't disappoint her, I guess that had to be enough.
Ash introduced me to all of his family members, he had 5 brothers and 3 sisters, it was pretty overwhelming, he gave them all orders and they were chatting and laughing as if they hadn't just been in a dangerous situation. How they did it is still beyond me.
I just sat in the corner, blending into the shadows, I felt like I was unneeded, I felt that way no matter where I went, like I was an observer of the world rather than being a part of it, as if l was a puzzle piece that wasn't supposed to be in the box, so it just ends up somewhere, forgotten.
The only ones that did give me their attention were the little children, Nora and her younger brother, who was only 2 years old at the time, he was so chatty, he sat next to me and told me a long story about his toy cow, I didn't understand half of it, but he was so cute.
However, our road had to go on, so we packed our stuff once again, to finally head towards our destination.
This time we had no trouble reaching the ground, but the sun was starting to set behind the horizon.
"I know a lake not too far away from here, it's one of the last ones still exsisting, it's quite a mystery. I know it might be crazy, but you know what my mother said earlier, that we might meet someone by a body of water, usually her predictions have something to them, we migt as well go and see," Ash said as we started walking through the forest.
"I guess we could give it a go then, we have to start somewhere," I answered.
"Exactly," he nodded.
He had very long legs which meant that he took very long steps, as I soon discovered. I nearly had to jog behind him to not lose him from my sight.
Luckily after about 20 minutes of jogging, which had been the most cardio I had done in years, we stopped on the edge of a small lake, the water was the brightest blue I had ever seen. The sun had set, but there was at least an hour until midnight, so we set up our camp.
Once we got ready for the night, we just sat on the blanket we had layed on the ground and looked towards the water.
I could feel myself get more and more tired, the time went on and nothing happened, we just waited and waited, the clock showed midnight and we just sat there.
"I guess it's just the two of us," he finally said after another hour had passed.
"Yeah, just us," I nodded and we went to our tent.

...

To Be Continued

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