The Barn: A Narrative Analysis

I can tell it's about five o'clock in the morning when we reach enough distance between the barn so that we can't hear walkers screeching and moaning. “I think we are safe” Alex says, “for now” Desiree replies in a sarcastic manner. Jessica breaks it up and interrupts them and suggest we should set up camp and I agree with her. “Grab some firewood Jessica” I say. “Desiree you go hunting and get some food” Alex says. “The rest of us will set up some basic defenses around the small little area.” Everyone then gets to work and in about three hours we have a simple tent made with some sticks and a tarp we found in the barn. We even have a small campfire built with stone and the firewood that Jessica gathered. Soon Desiree showed up and we had

breakfast around eight-thirty in the morning. We take it easy until around nine o'clock at night, then Alex, me, and Jessica head into the tent while Mckenzi and Desiree takes their shift tonight.

In the morning while Desiree is out gathering food, the others and I are looking over the map and deciding which highway we should enter Chicago on. We all finally decide on a major highway that is suspended in the air by supports on the bottom of it holding it up, we chose this highway because since its lifted up there should be less walkers on the way inside. We don't have any means of transportation so there will be no driving, but we do have legs so we walk. Through the woods we continue, so we wouldn't be spotted in the open. I hear a whistling sound, like it's a song, but I can't make out just who is whistling so I just leave it. It's quite nice to tell you the truth, nice and calm. We are about 10 minutes away from the road when we hear gunshots. As if it's a reflex we all unholster our weapons and we are on the ground, each of us looking in a different

direction. “The sound came from eastern side of Chicago, I think.” Said Desiree. “What do you think it could be Desiree?” Asked Mckenzi.

“I have no idea, but it can't be good.” Desiree replies very sarcastically as if to mock a person with mental issues, I break it up before it gets out of hand and say; “it doesn't matter anymore, it was probably a person protecting himself from a walker.” Everyone seems to believe me and we continue our trek through the woods it ends up being noon when we reach sight of the highway through the big trees. We all decided through a group discussion to camp out on the bridge, probably put a tarp on top of two cars next to each other and lay in between. Desiree however stays in the woods to gather some more food, I think she'd rather be alone but I decide to ask her, “would you like someone to ge with you, just in case you are gone one day and none of us know how to hunt?” She is very reluctant but she takes Jessica out with her. While Alex, me, and Mckenzi all work on setting up a tent and some sound traps. A sound trap is a trap that walkers trigger when bumping into stuff most easily made by empty tin cans tied together by a string and hanging them on a tree low enough so that the walker walks into

it. Sooner or later everyone is at the camp sitting around the campfire and me trying to break the silence I say, “hey Alex I found some loose pants today; would you like them?” I always tease her with this because she wears a pair of skinny jeans that I can tell where black, but have faded into a dark brown do to long term use. She always uses the same excuse no matter what, “no thanks I'll pass, they're too loose, a walker could easily grab them.” We all laugh at this comment because we know she just doesn’t want to wear loose pants. All together it was a calm night as expected, “no real threats just a few walkers last night” Mckenzi and Jessica say. It’s about seven-fifteen when I decide to wake Desiree up again she isn't all that happy with me but she still comes too. We walked along the highway it seems like an eternity but it came to be only thirty minutes; there are a few cars on the the highway but all of them are rusted and unusable but we search them anyway to find supplies. Some have painkillers others a old soft drink, some even have a small pistol even though we only managed to find one it still helps.eventually it's been an hour then two then three now it's been four hours i'd have to say it's around eleven-forty when we see the big lake, it's quite cold around chicago around fifty-seven degrees fahrenheit. after the lake it's only an hour of walking till we are at the edge of the city, it's just a few houses but now with the temperature dropping it's getting cold.