â€‹It had been five years now since the outbreak, Day Zero as people called it, when the dead started making meals of the living. Five years and things still hadn't gotten better. No one knew how it started. Some said it was a government experiment gone wrong or a mutated strain of rabies. Others claim it was God's wrath punishing us for all of our wrong doings. As for me, I never really cared how it all started, all I cared about was staying alive.

    I slowly peered out from my hiding spot behind the counter of the rundown gas station I was in. I had come in here with the hope of finding a bit of food or medicine but the place had already been picked clean. I was giving the place a final look in case I had missed anything when something had knocked over an old display stand at the front of the building. I had quickly ducked behind the counter as soon as I heard it, not wasting time to see what had caused the sound.

    Three figures slowly shuffled about the empty shelves, kicking the garbage that was strewn on the floor. At a quick glance they appeared to be human, but I knew better. They walked without a clear destination, occasionally bumping into a shelf or a wall. Their gaits were slow and blundering, like a toddler just learning how to walk. No, they weren't human, they were zombies.

    The closest one was about four meters away, standing next to the fallen display stand. He was grotesque, with discolored skin that was rotting off in several places. He was missing the bottom of his jaw. It looked like someone had shot it off. What remained of the jaw was nothing but a few strings of rotten muscle and bone. Chunks of his hair and scalp were missing showing the skull underneath. He wore a bloodstained plaid shirt and tan pants that were tattered to ribbons.

    The next zombie looked more human than the one with the plaid shirt. It wasn't as rotten as the other zombie. It was, or had been, a girl and there was a bite mark clearly visible, on her left arm, right below the elbow. She had short, scraggly, brown hair and she wore a black tank-top and jeans that were covered in dirt and blood. Her eyes were cloudy white and they stared straight ahead, not focusing on any specific thing. She couldn't have been a zombie more than a week or so. Her skin was just beginning to discolor. Soon she would be just as rotted as the other zombie. It was always sad to see recently turned zombies this long after Day zero. The human population, once totaling over three billion, had little over 3 million left world-wide, and that number was dropping everyday. I couldn't imagine what this girl had to go through, struggling to survive for five years only to have her life ripped away with a single bite, a single mistake.

    'No don't think like that.' I thought to myself. These things weren't people anymore. Whatever used to make them human was long gone, leaving nothing but masses of decaying flesh that had no other thought than to devour everything in sight. Hundreds of people had died because they allowed themselves to believe otherwise. It's hard enough accepting the death of a loved one, it's even harder to believe they're truly gone if they stand up and walk around after they die. I had seen so many people torn to pieces by a zombie that used to be someone they loved.

    I forced myself to look away from the girl and focus my attention to the last zombie, a massive brute of pure decomposition and muscle. He wore a tattered military uniform. Bullet holes were scattered across his chest.

    "Great, just great." I whispered to myself. "How am I going to handle you?" If it had only been the the two zombies I could have gotten out without much trouble, but bigger zombie complicated things. Somehow only strength seemed to pass through the process of becoming a zombie. The bigger and stronger a person was in life, the bigger and stronger a person would be in death.

    I pulled myself back behind the counter. In my backpack was a pistol that I always kept on me. I weighed the idea of using it, but common sense won out. I might have be able to take out all three without any problems, but a loud gunshot would attract every single zombie nearby.

    That left only one option, I needed to take them out one by one without making too much noise. I took a deep, shaky breath and slowly reached a hand up behind me and drew my katana out of its sheath nestled between my shoulder blades. I moved slowly and carefully, making sure that the metal of the blade didn't clang against anything. I needed the element of surprise to pull this off. Any noise from myself might alert the zombies. When I had fully drawn my blade I stood up very slowly and turned to face the zombies.

    All three of them had their backs to me. I smiled. Slowly, very slowly I crept out from behind the counter. I placed each foot carefully, avoiding the piles of trash on the floor. I slowly crept up to the closest zombie, the stench coming from it was horrible and I had to fight back a gag. When I was close enough, I lifted my katana up so that the tip of the blade was positioned at a spot on his neck right the base of his skull.

    I paused. When I severed the connection to the brain the zombie would be dead forever. I never knew if the people the zombies had once been were still in there, trapped inside of a body they could no longer control. There was a time when I avoided killing zombies, tried to avoid rather than fight them. But those days were long gone. Everything I had seen and experienced told me that a zombie is a zombie, nothing more, nothing less. It's either kill or be killed out here, it didn't matter whether it was a zombie or a human being.

    I took a deep breath and forced my mind to go blank, emotions are nothing but weaknesses, that I learned a long time ago. I sharply thrust my katana into the base of the zombie's skull. It's body stiffened for just a moment before going limp and falling to the ground with a soft thump.

    I pulled my katana out of it's neck and wiped the brownish goo that covered the tip on the fabric of the dead zombie's shirt.

    A soft, raspy growl broke the silence that filled the gas station. I stiffened. "Shit." I thought.

    I must have misjudged how much noise the first zombie had made when it fell to the floor. I turned around and, sure enough, the other two zombies were coming directly at me.

    "Son of a bitch." I said. I backed up a few steps to put some distance between myself and the zombies and held my katana up sideways in front of me in a defensive position. I instantly regretted not having my gun. With the element of surprise gone my katana wouldn't be very effective. I didn't have time to think of a better strategy. The girl got to me first and reaching out a gray, decomposing, arm to grab me. I slashed at her arms. My sword cut cleanly through the rotting tissue and bone and her arm fell to the ground with the signature slap of flesh smacking onto linoleum.

    The stump that remained of her arm didn't bleed and the zombie didn't even seem to notice that she had just lost an arm. She kept stumbling forward. This wasn't going to work. I could hack pieces off of her all day and it wouldn't make a difference. I switched tactics, dropping into a crouch and swinging my leg around to knock out her knees. Her legs buckled, and she fell to the ground. I sprung to my feet, swung my katana up, and brought it down hard on her head.

    â€‹I  whirled around, ready to face the third zombie. My heart was pounding in my chest. I couldn't see him. A bad feeling settled in my gut. A zombie you can't see can be the most dangerous zombie there is. Before I could do anything, cold, dead, hands grabbed me from behind. I twisted sharply to the side breaking free of the grip. As I turned I could hear the clack of teeth as the zombie bit down on empty air where my shoulder had been just a second before.

    I ran forward a few steps before twirling around to face the monster. He stood there for a few moments, staring at me and swaying from side to side with a strange twitching motion. Then, he let out a screeching moan that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and starting sprinting towards me with inhuman speed.

    "Not a Runner!" I groaned. For the longest time zombies were all the same, lumbering around slowly and mindlessly. Then, about a year ago, new ones started popping up. Able to run faster than most humans, they wiped out hundreds of survivors, reducing the already small number of humans left on earth by almost half. Those who remained called them Runners. They were rare, but deadly.

    I acted instinctively, diving to the side into a roll. I felt a brief stab of pain in my left shoulder as I rolled but it quickly faded. I sprung to my feet I took up my defensive position again. The zombie, crashed into one of the shelves. Without missing a beat it turned and started running at me again.

    A loud growling ripping from his throat. I took a step back at his approach my confidence faltering slightly at the speed with which he ran. I had never really faced a runner indoors before. There wasn't enough space to fight. As I watched the zombie barrel toward me it occurred to me that I might die here.

    "Stop it." I scolded myself. "Cut the tendons in his legs then take him out." I adjusted my grip so that I could slice at his legs when he neared me. I would have to act fast, If I was even a second too slow it would all be over.

    My muscles tightened in anticipation of his attack. He was only a second away from colliding with me, reaching out a hand and opening his mouth wide in a snarl.

    Just before he reached me a deafening boom rang out through the air and the zombie's head exploded in a shower of rotten flesh and goo. It kept moving forward for half a step before falling forward.

    I stood frozen, staring down at the dead zombie, unable to comprehend what had just happened. My brain was going in circles, trying to process everything.

    I heard the soft rustle of fabric on fabric and I snapped my head up to the source. Standing in the doorway to the gas station was a brown-haired boy. He held a sawed off shotgun that was still aimed at where the zombie had been a moment earlier. He lowered it with a small smile.

    "You're welcome." He said.

    I started for the closest house. I moved fast and kept low. I didn't check to make sure Andy was keeping up. If he really wanted to team up with me he would keep up on his own. The house was a white, two story building with boarded up windows. The grass in the front lawn was wildly overgrown, and came up to my knees.

    I walked up the narrow stone path to the front door and paused.

    Andy came up beside me and reached for the doorknob. I grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

    "Are you trying to get us both killed?" I whispered fiercely.

    "No?" He said.

    "We have no idea what's in there and you think it's a good idea to just go waltzing in?" I threw his wrist away from the door. I didn't care that I was being harsh.

    "Sorry," he muttered stepping back.

    I rolled my eyes. "How the hell did I end up with the stupidest person left alive?"

    I turned my attention back to the house. All of the windows were almost completely boarded up, save a single missing board on the bottom of the right-most window.

    I walked over to it. Hidden amongst the weeds was a board and a pile of rusted nails. Around the nails was the disintegrated remains of a cardboard box. Who ever had boarded the windows must have been interrupted right before they had been able to finish. I crouched down to peer inside. Behind the wood and glass was the interior of a living room. A set of brown leather recliners sat on either side of a table with a lamp, the leather of the chairs was starting to dry out and crack.

    Pictures both hung on the wall and sat on the mantle above a wide fireplace, each one portraying the smiling faces of people probably long since dead. Everything was coated in dust.

    It didn't look like it had been looted. Aside from being extremely dusty, it still looked like a room someone might come back home to, tidy up, and go on living in. A looted room would be practically destroyed. People aren't usually concerned about neatness when they're starving and desperate to find supplies.

    I tried to see into more of the house but a sliding door blocked my view of anything outside of the living room. From what I could see, the house seemed relatively safe. Of course I couldn't speak for anything that might have been outside of the living room. After a while I stood up and walked back over to the front door. Andy had sat down with his back against the door.

    "Alright, let's head in. I didn't see anything dangerous from the window but that doesn't say anything about what's really inside. We need to make sure every room is clear before we can start searching for supplies. Understand?"

    He rolled his eyes. "I'm not a child you know. I know how to loot a house."

    "And yet you tried to walk inside without checking if it was safe first." I countered.

    He dropped his eyes and didn't say anything.

    "Exactly" I said. I turned back to face the door of the house.

    I felt a mixture of excitement and fear as I stood in front of the plain, white door. I had no idea what might be inside the house and I loved the uncertainty of what I might find. Looting houses was one of my favorite things to do. Someone had once lived in each one, someone with a life and a story to tell. To me, exploring each one was like reading a book, each room had something new to say. But as much as I loved to do it, I would never loot a house if I didn't need anything from it. It had always felt almost disrespectful to search someone's house for no other reason than to find out what was inside.

    I placed my hand on the cool doorknob hopping silently hoping that it wouldn't be locked.

    "Ready?" I asked glancing back at Andy.

    He nodded.

    I twisted the doorknob and it miraculously opened, the door swinging inwards. I quickly reached back, pulled my katana from its sheath before stepping inside. Despite my curiosity and excitement I never forgot the danger and unfamiliar house might contain.

    Once I was inside, it took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dim lighting inside the house.

    The front door opened into, hallway-like space. The end of the hall ended with a stairwell that led up to the second floor. The floor was carpeted and covered in almost an inch of dust that swirled up into the air, performing a hypnotic dance in the ray of light let in from the open doorway. Three doorways with doors shut tight broke the smooth expanse of wall on either side, two on the left and one on the right.

    I cautiously smelled the air. I was searching for any traces of the sickly sweet smell of rotten flesh that always came from the living dead but the air only smelled musty and stale.

    "You take the room on the right I'll take the room on the left. Yell clear once you're sure that the room's safe." I told Andy over my shoulder.

    "Got it," he said. He headed for the first door on the left. As he walked, he slung his shotgun over his shoulder and casually started humming a tune.

    "Cocky son of a bitch," I muttered just loud enough that he would be able to hear me. He didn't turn around but he did give me a brief thumbs up before he disappeared into the room.

    I paused, looking back at the open door. I considered leaving, walking out of the house and never looking back. Andy didn't exactly seem like the sort of person who would be difficult to lose, but something held me back. It might have been that, deep down, I was tired of being alone. It's true that it was safer and easier to stay alive if you're alone but spending every night alone with nothing but your own thoughts can drive anyone to insanity.

    I sighed and slowly shut the front door. There was no going back now. I crossed over to the left-hand room. The room itself was a small study of sorts. Bookshelves filled with books covered every wall from floor to ceiling, a large desk with a chair sat in the middle. Before all of this, I might have taken the time to walk over and browse the literature for a few hours. Now though, I didn't even give them a second glance. Books weren't food, weren't supplies. They couldn't keep you alive and spending several hours reading wastes time that could be spent finding supplies.

    I left the room I could have searched the drawers of the desk but I didn't think I would have found anything useful in them. Outside of the room, I sheathed my katana and leaned up against the wall.

    Andy stepped out of his room a few heartbeats later. "That room is clear" he said.

    Like myself, Andy had also put his weapon away. He had fastened some sort of strap to the side of his pack that held the gun in place.

    "Wasn't that the room you looked into from outside" He asked "I could see the missing board on the window."

    "Yep, it was." I replied.

    "But if you you knew that there wasn't anything in it, then why did I have to check it?"

    I shrugged. "I never forced you to." I replied. In truth, I had asked him to check the room to see if he was smart enough to figure out, on his own, that I had already looked into it.

    He opened his mouth as if to say something, then thought better of it.

    "Smart kid." I thought.

    I pushed off from the wall, headed for the other room beside the stairs. Unlike the other two rooms which had had doorknobs, this door was bare, with a long, thin sheet of metal where the knob would have been. Inside was a white and tidy linoleum kitchen. The kitchen was the one room that I wanted to check the most. It was where most people kept their food. The fact that it wasn't completely trashed made me hopeful that I might actually find something in it.

    I gave the kitchen one last glance around. As much as I wanted to, I wouldn't be searching the kitchen right away. There was still an upstairs to check through.

    I turned around to leave the kitchen and ran straight into Andy who must have been looking into the room over my shoulder.

    I roughly pushed him aside. "Watch it asshole!" I yelled at him.

    He backed up a step, confusion clear on his face.

    I glared at him, "Stay out of my fucking way! It's bad enough I let you convince me to letting you tag along. Don't make me change my mind."

    "But all I did was stan-" he started to say but after a fierce glare from myself, he closed his mouth.

    I turned away and stormed up the stairs. With each step my anger faded away into confusion. I didn't honestly know why I had yelled at him. He hadn't done anything wrong, and I had let my temper get the best of me. I instantly felt bad about it. I wasn't a mean person, I never had been. Before the outbreak anyone who knew me would say that I didn't have a mean bone in my body, but I guess that might have partially been because I didn't often associate with people.

    I sighed and turned around. Andy was standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me.

    "Look... I'm sorry I yelled."

    He paused a second before answering. "It's fine."

    "No, it's not. I was a dick and I'm sorry."

    Andy nodded. "I accept your apology."

    "Alright then." I said. I turned around and walked up the rest of the stairs. The hallway at the top of the stairs looked a lot like the one on the first floor only this hallway ended with a doorway and only a single door that on sat each wall. Andy came up after me.

    "You take the right I take the left?" I said.

    "Are you sure you didn't already check that room too?" He joked.

    I turned back to glare at him. "Don't push it." I said.

    He held up his hands. "Alright, alright."

    I walked over to the left side room. It was a bathroom, small and simple it contained only a toilet, a shower and a simple ceramic sink with a mirrored cabinet above it. The white curtain of the shower was closed so I walked over and quickly ripped it open.

    Nothing. There was a small bottle travel-sized shampoo sitting on the edge of the tub, which I grabbed. You never know when you might need something like that.

    Next, I checked the mirrored cabinet above the sink. There wasn't much in it. A can of shaving cream, q-tips, a bottle of antidepressants, and a tube of toothpaste. Nothing I particularly needed. I closed the cabinet and started to turn away but the reflection in the mirror caught my attention. I starred at the girl I saw reflected back at me. Her eyes were a light hazel and her eyes looked wild and dangerous. Her black straight hair was roughly, and unevenly cut and barely reached past her small ears. I scowled at her and she scowled back. I suddenly felt extremely angry. Like the girl who I saw in the mirror couldn't possibly be me. I grabbed my knife from my belt and stabbed her right between the eyes. The mirror shattered and she was gone.

    With a huff I exited the room. As I was returning my knife to my belt Andy ran out of the room he had been checking.

    "What happened?" he asked.

    "Nothing," I snapped. "Did you find anything?"

    He shook his head. "No, it's just a bedroom. Nothing special either, besides a lot of dust."

    I sighed. "Let's just finish checking this last room, I'm hungry and I want to see if there's any food in the kitchen."

    "Alright." Andy replied.

    The door to the last room was locked. "That's strange," I thought. "Everything else had been unlocked, so why wasn't this door?"

    For the second time that day, I let my curiosity get the best of me. I knew it was stupid to try to force a locked room open. I had no idea what might be behind the door. Someone might have locked themselves in after being bitten. I seen it happen before. Unable to kill themselves, some people choose to lock themselves away, where they wouldn't be able to hurt anyone.

    Even though I knew it might be dangerous, I really wanted to know what was in the locked room. I didn't have a key and I didn't particularly want to search the house. So, I decided that the only way I was going to get into the room was by busting through the door. I backed up a step and kicked the door, hard. There was a loud crack of splintering wood but the door didn't move. I kicked the door again and it flew inwards.

    "Holy shit," Andy whispered.

    I boldly sauntered into the room but what I saw inside made me stop in my tracks and made my heart clench.

    "Andy wait outside," I called out to him.

    He ignored me came in anyway.

    "Why? What is- oh," he said falling silent as he took in what was in the room.

    In the middle of the room was a large, king sized bed. On the bed were two skeletons, still clothed, with their hair wreathed around their skulls. It was obvious, from the clothing and hair of each of the skeletons, that the one on the right belonged to a woman and on the left, a man. Their skulls lay close together and the man still had a gun clutched in his skeletal hand. Long-dried blood covered the pillow where the skeletons laid. I'm sure if I had inspected them closer I would have found a bullet hole through both their skulls.

    It probably didn't happen too long after Day Zero. As sad as it was it wasn't uncommon. People saw the world falling apart around them and felt that death was the only real way to escape.

    The couple of bones on the bed had probably seen death as a way to escape and never be apart.

    "Let's go." I said pushing Andy out of the room and shutting the door. I started walking without looking back. I didn't want to think about what I had seen. In my opinion, it's cowardly to kill yourself just to escape the world. So many people had died when they wanted to live. To just throw your life away is one of the most horrible and selfish thing you can do out here.

    I walked back down the stairs building up yet another emotional wall with each step, blocking out the sadness, the fear, the pain, and just focusing on staying alive. My life is filled with these walls. Whenever I was scared, or lonely, or sad I would push all of those emotions deep within my mind and build a wall to keep them in. It's how I learned to cope and it's one of the only reasons I was able to survive these past five years.

    I didn't stop to see if Andy was following me or not. At that time, I could care less about what he did. I pushed open the door to the kitchen and pushed the memory of what I had seen in that bedroom out of my mind.

    I didn't bother with the fridge, past experiences taught me that. Checking the fridge was an option during the first month or two. After that, almost everything that could be found in the fridge was spoiled. And when the power started to go out everywhere, the fridge became meaningless.

    I headed straight for the cupboards. Cupboards were where people kept the food that lasts. Canned things, bottled liquids, even simple seasonings could be useful if you knew how to use them. I went straight for the first cupboard I saw and pulled it open. Inside was a mix of dishes, bowls, and cups... nothing useful. I moved on to the next cupboard which turned out to be empty. The next two cupboards were similarly bare. I started to get frustrated. I was sure that this house hadn't been looted before, so where was all the food. Had the couple upstairs used it all before killing themselves?

    By the time I got to the last cupboard, I was starting to loose hope. But when I pulled it open, I almost smiled. It was packed full with cans of food. There was enough canned food to last two people a good week if it was rationed well.

    I turned around, expecting to see Andy but he wasn't there.

    "Andy?" I called out. No answer.

    "Did he run off?" I wondered. I doubted it, not after all the trouble he had gone through to follow me and get me to team up with him. So if he hadn't left, where was he?

    I pushed open the door of the kitchen and looked out into the hallway but he was nowhere to be seen.

    "Andy?" I called again. The front door was open so I went towards it. When I stepped outside, I finally spotted him.

    He was standing a few yards away with his bow drawn back. As I watched, he released the arrow. It flew straight and landed dead center into a clump of already fired arrows in the trunk of a tree on the other side of the yard.

    Because we were outside, I didn't want to risk attracting any zombies by yelling to him so instead, I walked over to him. "Andy?" I said.

    He jumped at the sound.

    "What?" he asked his voice strained.

    I was rather shocked at his change in personality. Earlier he had been lively and positive to the point of annoyance. Now he seemed defeated and drained.

    "I found some food in the house," I said watching him carefully. "It's getting late and the sun will be setting soon. We should get inside. If you still plan on sticking around, that is."

    He just nodded, slung his bow back over his shoulder, and went to retrieve his arrows.

    I watched him for a few moments before turning away. "Why did I have to get involved in this mess?" I muttered before walking back into the house.

    I was back in the kitchen trying to pry open a can of baked beans with my knife when Andy walked in. He, shrugged his pack off his shoulders and tossed it into corner where I had tossed my own pack. My katana, still in its sheath, sat next to me on the counter.

    I reached behind me to where I had moved all of the food from the cupboard, grabbed a random can and tossed it to him.

    "Thanks," he said, catching it out of the air.

    I didn't answer him, I had already turned my attention back to opening my own can. It's harder than it looks to open a can of food with nothing but a knife. With a final twist of the blade, the top of the can popped off.

    After I had moved all of the food from the cupboard to the counter, I had dug through the the drawers until I found the silverware. All of it was packed neatly in a their own parts of a sectioned drawer. Both the spoons and the forks were stacked up neatly one on top of the other. The utensils on the top of the stack were rather dusty but the ones underneath were clean enough to use. I had grabbed a spoon that I now used to scoop the beans out of the can. The burst of sweetness that filled my mouth from the sugary sauce was heavenly.

    I hadn't realized how hungry I was. Fighting the zombies in the gas station and trying to run from Andy had taken more energy than I had thought. I started to attack my beans shoveling it down. I noticed that Andy hadn't made an effort to open his can. He just stood staring at it like he expected it to do something.

    I swallowed the food I had in my mouth. "What is it?" I asked.

    He looked up, "Nothing, I'm just... not that big of a fan of spinach."

    What was with this guy? He was like no other survivor I had ever met and not necessarily in a good way.

    "Again, it baffles me as to how the hell you're still alive."

    I reached back and grabbed another can. "Here," I said, tossing it to him after checking the label to make sure it wasn't another can of spinach. "How does creamed corn sound?"

    He caught it and tossed the can of spinach back.

    "Better," he said. Then, after a short pause, "thanks."

    I caught it easily with my free hand then placed the can back on the counter. I resumed the attack on my beans. Andy pulled out a pocket knife and flipped it open to the can opener attachment.

    I'll admit, I was jealous. I had been searching for a pocket knife for the longest time and I never seemed to be able to find one. I thought about taking it from him but I knew that my conscience would never let me live it down. I don't like stealing from people, in the same way that I don't like people stealing from me. The simple act of stealing even a seemingly unnecessary thing could lead to someone's death.

    I didn't mind stealing from Raiders though, in fact I had made it a goal of mine to steal from them whenever I got the chance. In my mind, Raiders didn't deserve the title of human. So far I had never been caught stealing from them, but I knew that if I continued, I was bound to be caught sooner or later.

    I finished off my beans and wiped my finger around the inside of the can, trying to get every last bit out of it that I could. When it was completely empty, I tossed the can and the spoon into the sink. I was far from full but I didn't want to eat another can. I wanted to make all of it last as long as possible. I leaned back against the counter looked at Andy. He was tipping back the can of creamed corn so that it would pour into his mouth.

    He certainly was strange. I had no idea what his past could have been, how much he had to go through, what he's seen. Instead of just wondering about it, I decided to go right out and ask him.

    "So then," I said. "What's your story?"

    He choked on his corn and started coughing. "Excuse me?" he said between coughs.

    I waited until he had stopped coughing. "I said, what's your story?"

    "Um, I don't have one?" He looked very uncomfortable, looking at the ground as he spoke instead of talking to my face.

    I rolled my eyes, "Bullshit, everyone's got a story. So what's yours? How did you manage to survive through five years of hell?"

    I hopped up on the counter and pulled one of my knees up to my chest letting the other dangle off the side. I waited for him to say something.

    "Um, I don't know. I guess I'm just lucky?"

    "That's your answer? No one makes it this far by being 'just lucky'. Luck can get you a week, a month, maybe a year, but not five years. Now tell me, what's your story?"

    "Why do you want to know?"

    "Look if you really want to stay with me, you're going to have to tell me everything. And don't lie, I'll know if you do."

    "I don't know what you want me to say."

    I shrugged, "I don't know, start from the beginning. What happened on Day Zero?"

    He took a deep, shaky breath and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, uh... Day Zero... well, I assume you know the general details of what happened that day. No one really knew where the outbreak started but once it did I spread like crazy. The people that were bitten turned within 48 hours-"

    "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone knows that part. Cut to the chase." I interrupted him.

    He cleared this throat before beginning. "I was uh... I was home with my family that night. It was just me, my mom and dad, and my little sister. We were watching TV when the emergency broadcasts started airing. I remember my dad turning off the TV and telling us to go to our rooms and pack a bag nothing but essentials. He looked worried. That was one of the things I remembered the most, was the look of worry on his face. My dad had retired from the military several years before and he never looked worried about anything. Except for that night."

    "We tried leaving the city but all the major roads were packed with the cars of people trying to flee. Thankfully, we managed to take one of country roads out. The first time we came across a zombie was three nights later. We had been living in the car the whole time and had stopped for gas when one of them came out from around the corner of the building. No one noticed it until it was too late."

    "My dad was the only one outside of the car at the time. He was filling the car up with gas when it snuck up from behind. He managed to fight it off and get back in the car but somehow during the process he was bitten. At the time we had no idea that was how the disease spread so we didn't think much of it. It wasn't long before he started to get sick. He started to hallucinate and he had an extremely high fever that just wouldn't break.

    "I wasn't physically there when he turned. My sister and I were outside playing in a field somewhere. At the time, my dad had taken a turn for the worst so we had pulled over and my mom has shooed us     away. I don't know if she knew what was happening or not. I remember hearing her scream. After I heard it, I grabbed my sister and ran. I don't know why I didn't go to my mom, I just... I was so scared. I knew something horrible had happened and I knew that I needed to protect my sister."

    "We ran and ran until we came across a small town. We stayed there for almost four years, living on the outskirts, avoiding zombies and Raiders. One day, though, my sister just vanished. I searched every inch of that damn town and never found a trace of her. After that I left. I never stopped moving. Then I saw you in that gas station with those zombies and well, here I am now. There's not a day that goes by that I don't miss every single one of them." He fell silent.

    I didn't quite know what to say. I knew everyone out here carried their own demons, their own evils and experiences that they had been forced to go through, but I hadn't expected anything close to what he had told me. I was impressed that he hadn't snapped a long time ago. Maybe he was stronger than I had initially thought.

    "I'm sorry," I said.

    "What are you sorry about?" He asked, rubbing his face with his hands.

    "Everything you had to go through."

    I hopped down and grabbed my katana from the counter. "Well I don't much fancy sleeping on the floor when I have a better option available. You okay taking first watch?" I asked him.

    "Yeah, sure." he said.

    I turned to go. "Alright I'm going to go crash on one of the chairs in the living room. Wake me up in a couple of hours."

    I started to leave.

    "Wait, aren't you going to tell me what happened to you?" Andy asked.

    I stopped walking and turned around. "Not today, and maybe not ever. There are some things I don't share with anyone."

    When he didn't say anything, I turned to leave again.

    "Hey Lauren?"

    I stopped but didn't turn around. "What?"

    "Thanks," Andy said.

    "For what?"

    "For not saying it was my fault. With my sister, you know."

    I turned around then. Andy was sitting on the ground staring at his hands that sat in his lap. "Things happen that you can't blame yourself for."

    "Yeah, well goodnight."

    "Goodnight Andy." I said and I left the kitchen.

    I walked down the hallway and into the living room. I leaned my katana against one of the chairs and curled up on it. As tired as I was I couldn't seem to fall asleep. My mind was racing with everything that had happened. For five years I had lived my life pretty much the same. Alone. Then, in just one day, I wasn't alone anymore.

    The sun slowly set until the room was pitch black. At some point in the night, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

    I woke up the next morning to the light shining in through the cracks on the boarded up windows.

    "What the? Why didn't Andy wake me up for my turn on watch?" I thought to myself. I looked around the room, nothing had changed from the night before. When I sat up, a blanket fell from my shoulders. "What the hell?"

    I got angry then. I slid off the chair, grabbed my katana and the blanket, and stormed out of the room. Andy was sitting on the stairs carving patterns into the wood of the bottom step with his pocket knife. I threw the blanket at him.

    "What the hell is this?" I demanded.

    He casually pushed the blanket aside and closed his pocket knife.

    "Good morning to you too," he said.

    "Don't you dare get cocky with me." I snapped at him.

    He shrugged. "You looked cold last night so I covered you up with a blanket."

    I couldn't control my temper any more. In a flash I dropped my katana and pulled my knife from my belt. I crossed the short distance between us and pushed him back against the stairs so that I held my knife at his throat.

    "Let's get one thing clear here." I spat in his face. "I don't need anything from you. I let you join me and I could just as well leave right now and not give a flying fuck about what happens to you. Do you understand me?"

    The next thing I knew, Andy had knocked me to the ground and sat on top of me. He held down each of my arms. I tried to break free but I couldn't. Andy was stronger than he looked.

    "You know, I think it might be a little extreme to threaten someone with a knife just for trying to do something nice." He said calmly.

    "Get the hell off me!" I snarled.

    He only smiled slightly "Look, I promise not to do anything nice like that again as long as you promise to stop pressing blades against my throat. Deal?"

    "You absolute dumb ass!" I said. Then I kneed him in the balls.

    That got him off of me. He fell to the side, his hands clutching his crotch.

    As soon as I was free I sprung to my feet.

    "That's for pinning me down asshole."

    "I don't quite think I deserved that." Andy groaned into the floor.

    "If you ever do that again, I'll put a blade through your throat."

    "Right, got it." Andy said.

    I snatched my katana from the ground and stormed into the kitchen. I couldn't believe that guy.

    "Well you did threaten him with a knife." a part of me said. "He didn't really do anything to deserve that."

    I groaned and ran a hand over my face as my conscience caught up to me. I shouldn't have lashed out at him for something he did just to try to help. I shook my head and grabbed a can of food at random.

    Andy peeked his head into the kitchen a few minutes after I had finished eating.

    "If I come in are you going to murder me?" He asked.

    I sighed. "No, I'm not going to murder you."    

    He slowly walked into the kitchen. An awkward silence stretched out between us.

    "I'm sorry." he finally said.

    "No, you're not the one who needs to apologize. You weren't the one who did something wrong." I said. "I just... Haven't been around people in a long time and it's hard for me to control my temper."

    Andy nodded. "That's understandable." he said.

    I shook my head. "No it's not. I'll tell you right now that I'm not a good person, Andy. I've done some things in the past that I regret. I'm not a Raider, but I don't consider myself much better than one. If you were smart, you'd turn around and leave right now."

    Andy started laughing. This threw me off completely. Of all the possible responses I thought he might have had, laughter wasn't on the list.

    "What the hell are you laughing at?"

    "Absolutely nothing." He said.

    I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Forget I said anything."

    I walked over to where my pack sat and brought it over to the food on the counter. Off all the items I had, my pack was probably one of the most important things that I had. It was simple and solid black, but it was durable and held everything I had acquired over the years to survive. The pack itself had only three main pockets. A small one in the front with a straight zipper going from left to right, a slightly larger pocket behind it that made a pouch off from the main body of the pack, and the largest pouch. I kept it well organized so that if I ever needed something in a moment's notice, I would would know exactly where it was and would be able to get to it quickly.

    The smallest pouch contained the Ruger P95 that I carried along with a small amount of extra ammo. The next pouch held both medical supplies and other miscellaneous items; a flashlight, batteries, a small bit of rope, a few fish hooks, a screw driver, and a flint and steel. The largest and final pouch contained canned food and a metal water bottle. I also kept a towel, folded up against the back wall of the pack so that whatever I had in my back, wouldn't dig painfully into my back.

    I began stuffing as many cans into my pack as I could.

    "What are you doing?" Andy asked.

    "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm packing up."

    "Why?"

    "You know," I said, turning around to face Andy. "Sometimes I forget how stupid you really are."

    "Just tell me." He said.

    I rolled my eyes and resumed packing up the food. "We can't stay here, it's not safe."

    "It seems pretty safe to me." Andy said.

    I slammed the can I had in my hand down onto the counter and whirled around. "Then by all means Andy, stay here. I'm going to keep moving because I don't like being tethered to a single place!"

    Andy held up his hands. "Okay, okay. I get it. I'm sorry I asked."

    My clenched my hands into fists at my sides. It took all of my willpower not to punch him in the face. I remembered why I hadn't liked people, even before Day Zero.

    I gritted my teeth and forced myself to turn away. This guy was really getting on my nerves. I didn't know why I didn't just leave. I had food, I had supplies, there was nothing physically keeping me here but for some strange reason, I didn't want to leave.

    By the time I had had filled my pack with as much food as it could hold, there was less than half of the total number of cans left on the counter. I zipped up my pack and slung it onto my shoulders.

    Now that it was full, it weighed a good twenty or so pounds. Five years ago, before Day Zero, I would never have been able carry a pack that weighed this much for more than an hour. Now though, after years of building muscles, my back and shoulders were strong enough to carry as much as thirty pounds on my back for an entire day.

    I turned to Andy. He was leaning against the wall next to the fridge with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

    I walked to the door of the kitchen but stopped before walking out. "I'm leaving in ten minutes." I spoke to the door, not bothering to turn around. I knew he would be listening to me. "If you're coming with me, pack up the rest of the food and be out before then." And with that, I walked out of the kitchen. As I walked out of the house, I felt nothing. No lingering attachment to the place. I'd never stayed anywhere for longer than a few days. I always stayed on the move, not because I had any destination in mind, but because it never felt right staying anywhere for longer than that. I felt like if I allowed myself to settle down in a single place, everything I had to sacrifice would have been for nothing.

    Outside, the sun was bright and birds chirped in the trees. If it weren't for the zombies sprinkled throughout the cars, it would have seemed like a beautiful summer day. Judging by the position of the sun, it was around ten in the morning. I hadn't slept this late in a very long time. Part of me blamed Andy. I had slept soundly that night because I had believed that Andy would have woken me up some time late in the night. I didn't have to wait more than two minutes before Andy joined me on the front steps.

    "Did you decide then?" I asked him.

    He nodded. "Yeah. I packed the rest of the food that was on the counter. I've still got plenty of room in my pack if you want to put some of yours into mine."

    "Why? Worried I might run off and leave you with less?"

    "No, I just thought you might like to share some of the weight between us."

    "If you're trying to imply that I can't hold my own because I'm a girl you are seriously mistaken. I suggest you change your frame of mind before I cut your balls off." I snapped at him.

    He sighed. "That's not what I meant. I just thought we might share some of the weight so neither of us kill ourselves trying to carry more than we can."

    I shook my head and turned away. Now that Andy was with me, everything had changed. The rules of survival I had to follow when I was alone were different now that I had someone else around and I didn't know what they were yet.

    Sensing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, Andy changed the subject. "So what are we doing now?"

    "We're going, take the main road out of the city and try to get as far as we can before dark." I replied.

    "Lead the way then." Andy said gesturing out with his arm.

    Again, his cockiness almost sent me over the edge but I checked myself. It just wasn't worth the energy to argue with him any more. So I just started walking, choosing to ignore him.

    As we walked, Andy tried several times to start up a conversation, but after about the fourth attempt, he gave up altogether. We walked in complete silence for quite a while after that. A few times we would have to veer of the road to avoid a lone zombie but for the most part, the town seemed vacant.

    It was about two hours after we had left the house that I suddenly heard a noise that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was faint, drifting in on the wind, but it was quickly getting louder. I stopped dead in my tracks. Andy, who had been looking at a sun bleached poster on a storefront, ran into me.

    "What the hell?" he complained loudly.

    "Shut up," I snapped. I was trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. I tilted my head in different directions, trying to pinpoint it. The entire time the sound kept getting louder and louder until it was clear where it was coming from. It was a sound I knew only too well. The sound of feet pattering on pavement mixed with the sound of moans and snarls.

    The source was what I called a herd. It wasn't common, but every once and a while, groups of zombies would clump together to form a masses that would travel together, never stopping. I'd seen herds of zombies wipe out entire groups of people in only a few minutes.

    "What is it?" Andy asked.

    Panic flared inside of me. "We need to get off the road." I said.

    "What?"

    "We need to get out of here!" But it was too late. From around the corner of a building about 50 meters in front of us, came the herd.

    The zombies at the front of the group spotted us first and started up a collective snarl. It was a smaller herd, only about five zombies. But as soon as the group saw us, four of the five broke into a sprint straight for us.

    "Dammit." I said. I didn't have time to get out my gun, so I reached up and drew my katana. I quickly took up my defensive stance with my katana out in front of me.

    "At least we aren't indoors." I thought.

    The zombie at the front of the pack never had a chance to reach me. It went down only seconds before, an arrow sticking out of the front of its forehead. I glanced over to see Andy drawing back another arrow.

    At that moment I was glad to have him there. I turned back around just as one of the zombies reached me. I twirled to the side and swung my katana in a tight arch. When the Runner flashed past me, it fell forward without a head.

    Andy's next arrow missed the brain of the Runners and lodged itself in it's cheek. That was all I managed to see before I had to face the next Runner that charged at me.

    I quickly swung my sword low, and it toppled to the ground, missing a leg, skidding a few feet on the pavement. It instantly tried to get back up, but I never gave it the chance. I sprinted over and quickly brought my sword down on its neck, killing it for good.

    Andy finally managed to hit the other zombie's brain with an arrow. When it was down he lowered his bow and looked over at me. But he had forgotten that there had been a fifth and final zombie in the group. It came up from behind. At the short distance I knew Andy wouldn't have time to draw his bow.

    "Andy, behind you!" I yelled. He turned, but not soon enough to act as the zombie grabbed him by the shoulders. He tried to push it away but it had him in an iron grip. It was all he could do to keep it from biting him. I quickly grabbed my knife and threw it at the zombie. It spun through the air and lodged itself in the zombie's skull. The zombie fell to the ground in a heap.

    I ran over to Andy who had bent over with his hands on this knees.

    "Did it bite you?" I asked sharply.

    He shook his head.

    I let out a sigh of relief. "Good." I sheathed my katana and went to the zombie with my knife in its head.

    The blade had struck right in the middle of the zombie's forehead, right between the eyes. It was embedded up to the handle of the knife. A thick, dark brown fluid slowly seeped out of the wound. I grabbed the handle and tried to pull the knife out but it was stuck. I shifted my body so that I was holding the knife with two hands and had a foot planted on it's face. With a strong tug I managed to pull the out. The blade was covered in the brownish goo and the smell was absolutely horrible. I wiped it off on the dead zombie's shirt and returned it to my belt.

    I quickly glanced around the area. It didn't seem like our fight had attracted any unwanted attention but I didn't want to stick around for another herd.

    I cleared my throat. "Let's go. Before any more of them show up."

    Andy didn't respond. He stayed hunched over his face pale, staring blankly at a spot on the ground.

    "Hey, you ok?" I asked.

    "I just... It never gets any easier." he croaked out.

    I took a step towards him. "Look, I don't know what your life was like before, but you better get your head straight, or this," I gestured to his hunched form, "is going to get you killed. Everything out here wants to kill you. Forget that, and you might as well just throw yourself into a pack of hungry zombies. Now I'm going on ahead. I suggest you think long and hard before doing anything because once you make a choice, there's no going back. Just remember that I'm not here to protect you. If you screw up it won't be anyone else's fault but your own."

    Andy straightened and looked at me, sadness filling his eyes. "Alright." He said softly.

    I gave him a sharp, curt nod and started walking again, stepping over one of the dead zombies in my path. Andy trailed behind keeping a bit of distance between myself and him.

    We walked for another two hours, neither of us speaking. We finally stopped to set up camp in an old church. There was still a few hours of daylight left but Andy had started to fall behind and I wasn't opposed to calling it a day.

    Being inside of the church made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I had never really been religious and, before Day Zero, I could count the number of times I had been inside a church with one hand. I pushed down my discomfort. The church was safe, the doors were solid and the windows were intact. As long as Andy and I kept quiet, we should remain fairly safe. After we each ate a can of food, we settled down for the night.

    "I'll take first watch. Get some sleep. I'll wake you up in a few hours." I told Andy.

    Andy nodded gratefully. He had been struggling to keep his eyes open for the past hour. He laid down on the floor and after a few minutes, his breathing slowed and evened as he fell asleep.    

    The next few hours were peaceful and uneventful. I passed the exploring my own thought, letting my mind wander from thought to thought, not letting my mind stay on any one thing for longer than a minute or two. At about one in the morning I stood up and walked over to Andy's sleeping form.

    I shook his shoulder until he woke up.

    "Wazzat?" he said groggily.

    "Your turn for watch."

    He yawned and nodded, sitting up. I walked back over to where I had sat for the beginning of the night and laid down. "You better not fall asleep." I grumbled.    

    He gave a half-hearted "mm-hmm."

    I sat quietly in the darkness for a while, listening to make sure Andy didn't fall back asleep. To his credit, he didn't. He kept softly humming the same tune to himself over and over. Eventually I drifted off to sleep.

    I was standing on a tightrope stretched between two buildings. The ground was hundreds of feet below me. Andy was standing on the roof of the building in front of me. I risked a glance behind me and had to pinwheel my arms to keep from falling off the rope but I was able to see that the roof of the other building was filled with hundreds of zombies, more grotesque and monstrous in appearance than I had ever seen. Their eyes glowed red and their bodies were misshapen.

    A strong gust of wind blew. I didn't have time to prepare and I was knocked off. I reached out blindly and managed to grab the rope with one hand.

    Andy hadn't moved at all. He stood watching me, face blank. "Help me!" I yelled.

    He shook his head and knelt down at the edge of the roof, where the rope was attached to the building. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocket knife before looking back up at me and giving me a small smile. Then he began sawing away at the rope.

    "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" I screamed.

    He didn't answer or even look up at me and the next thing I knew, I was falling.

    I jolted awake. My skin was covered with sweat and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. "It's okay." I told myself, trying to calm my racing heart. "It was just a dream."

    My dreams were often plagued with nightmares, ever since Day Zero, if I dreamed at all. I couldn't even remember the last time I had anything resembling a good dream. Some nights my nightmares would be so bad, I couldn't even sleep at all.

    I sighed and rubbed at my eyes. The sun had just started to rise and the room was still mostly dark. Suddenly, a loud blast broke the silent calm of the morning. I was instantly on high alert. Reflexively, I jumped up and grabbed my katana. Someone had just fired a gun, someone very close by.

    Andy was standing next to the broken stain glass window at the front of the building with his back pressed against the wall. He glanced over at me and did a double take when he saw me standing. He quickly pressed his finger to his lips, before slowly leaning forward so that he could look out the window. He looked around a and leaned forward a bit more before stiffening and pulling back from the window. He crept over towards me, moving slowly and silently.

    "What is it?" I asked him in a low whisper when he was close enough.

    "Three people." He said. "Probably Raiders."

    I clenched my jaw. Damn. Day Zero brought out the best in a lot of people and the worst in a lot of others. Raiders are the latter of the two. They're people who you absolutely don't want to come across. People who don't care about anyone but themselves and who will do anything to get what they want.

    Another gunshot rang out. This time from somewhere farther away.

    I flinched at the sound "There's more of them somewhere," I said. "We need to get out of here."

    "You think?" Andy said.

    "Okay, um... Is there a back exit in this place?"

    Andy shook his head. "No."

    "Just great. Alright, we'll have to sneak out the front then." I said. I sheathed my katana and swung my pack onto my shoulders.

    "Where were the three that you saw?" I asked Andy.

    "About three yards away, right in the middle of the street." He said. "But they were walking so they're probably farther away by now."

    "That makes it a bit easier." I said. If they were moving then it would be easier to sneak past them or avoid them altogether.

    I took a deep breath. "Alright. We're going to have to move fast. Stay close to me. If you fall behind I'm leaving you behind, got it?"

    He nodded.

    I made my way over to the shattered window and crouched low so that I was hidden behind the small space of wall below the window.

    I lifted myself up just enough to see outside and look around. The street looked empty. There was no sign of the three people that Andy had seen. In the middle of the road, about three yards away, was the fallen corpse of a freshly killed zombie with a hole right in the middle of it's forehead.

    It was risky to leave but it was even more risky to stay. If the people Andy had seen were indeed Raiders, then the town would be crawling with them. Raiders never worked in small groups, they would clear out entire towns of zombies before going back through and looting every building. Sometimes, if a town proved fruitful, they would decide to stay, forming a base of sorts until they used up all of the supplies. Then they would move onto the next town. If they found a survivor they would usually give them a choice, either join their group or die, that is if the survivor they found was, in their opinion, "fit" enough. In the Raider world it's survival of the fittest. Depending on the group, those that were unable to pull their own weight, were either kicked out or killed.

    I placed my hands on the sill of the window and hoisted my body up and over. Andy follow right behind me.

    "Which way did they go?" I asked him in a silent whisper.

    He pointed in the direction we had come from yesterday. "They were heading that way but," he paused looking around. "I don't see them now."

    Suddenly a loud crash came from one of the buildings across from us. The interior was dark but I saw a brief flash of light from inside. I could hear the faint sound of voices from inside.    

    "Found them," I muttered to myself.

    Andy was watching the building with wide eyes. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

    "Andy." I said. He jumped and turned to me.

    "Stay focused." I said.

    "Yeah. Right, sorry."

    "Come on." I said and I started heading in the opposite direction. I moved fast, keeping low for a few yards, then straightening and breaking out in a sprint. I never checked to see if Andy was keeping up. I hadn't lied when I told him I would leave him behind. I had no obligation or responsibility to his safety, and to be honest I didn't care. My only concern was getting myself out alive. If things went bad, I wouldn't hesitate to run without looking back.

    I hadn't made it very far before I heard voices. They came from in front of us, somewhere on the road. I couldn't see who the voices came from, there was a car blocking my view. But if I couldn't see them, it was unlikely that they could see me. Either way, Andy and I were sitting ducks out in the open. I looked around for any form of cover, something to hide behind, and spotted an overturned FedEx truck on the sidewalk in front of us.

    I quickly dove behind it. I didn't check to see if Andy followed, if he was smart he'd figure it out on his own, and sure enough, he was hot on my heels, ducking behind the truck right behind me.

    A gunshot rang out, deafeningly loud.

    "How the hell did you miss that one?" An unfamiliar male voice said.

    By the sound of it, the owner of the voice was just on the other side of the FedEx truck. If we tried to move, we ran the risk of being seen. We were completely and utterly trapped.

    "I don't know, my arm twitched at the last second." A second male voice said.

    "Bullshit, you just can't aim."

    There was a pause, and then the first guy spoke again. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what makes you think you get another shot at it? You had your chance and missed so now it's my turn."

    I took a deep breath, then I slowly inched forward until I could see around the side of the truck. I knew it was a risky move, but if we were going to get out of here alive, I had to know where the people were. 

    Standing in the middle of the street were two young men. They stood about 20, yards away from a zombie . From the looks of it, she had been a young girl before she died. She looked like a walking skeleton. She was nothing but rotting skin stretched tight over her bones. It was a heart breaking sight. This girl probably came close to starving to death before she was bitten.

    The younger -looking of the two men held a shotgun in his hands. The other guy held wicked-looking machete that was covered in a dark brown goo.

    As I watched, the machete guy casually walked up to the zombie. She made a grab at him with her muscle-bare arms. He easily sidestepped the reaching hands and swung his machete at the zombie's legs. He managed to cut through both of her legs with one swing and the zombie fell to the ground.

    Machete guy walked back to the guy with the shotgun, a smug look on his face. "Ha! Two legs in one swing! Beat that!" He said.

    Shotgun guy looked unimpressed. He shifted his weight to one hip and swung his gun to his shoulder.

    "Betcha I can shoot out its teeth without finishing it off."

    Machete guy smiled revealing a mouthful of crooked and discolored teeth. "You're on!"

    Shotgun guy walked over to the zombie, who had been attempting to drag itself over to them by its arms, and placed a booted foot on the side of its face. Its teeth worked and gnashed, biting at the air, while its bony hands scratched feebly at the guy's leg. He raised his shotgun, took aim, and fired. The resounding boom was deafening. True to his word, he managed to blast the zombie's teeth out and shatter a majority of its jaw, but he didn't kill it. It continued to claw at his leg, though it didn't have a jaw to bite with anymore.

    I couldn't watch anymore. I pulled myself back behind the truck. There was no doubt in my mind that those two men were raiders. It's one thing to kill zombies out of necessity, it's a whole other thing to turn killing them into a game. Every single zombie had once been a living person, with dreams and feeling and personalities. What those two were doing out there was equivalent to digging up a grave and taking a shit on the corpse.

    I had seen Raider's do horrible things before but this was crossing the line. I clenched my fists. If Andy hadn't been with me, I would have killed those two right then and there.

    "What's going on out there?" Andy whispered.

    I shook my head, if I had to explain it out loud, I knew knew I would end up yelling. So instead, I just said, "We have to get out of here."

    "How? They'll see us the moment we move." He whispered back.

    "It's still slightly dark and they're rather focused on something else." As if to prove my point, another loud gunshot rang out followed by a cackle of laughter. "If we move fast and keep low we should be able to sneak right past them."

    He glanced nervously in the direction of the voices. "Are you sure it'll work?"

    "It's the only choice we have, unless you want to stay here until they find us."

    He paused. "Alright."

    "Let's go," I said.

    I carefully peered around the truck again. The two still had their complete attention on the zombie. She was now missing an entire arm, the stump that remained was a splintered mass of shattered bone. I took a deep breath, and broke from our cover, moving as fast as I could while keeping low to the ground. At first, I listened carefully for any sign that the two raiders had seen me, but I didn't hear anything. After a while, I straightened up and started running. I glanced back once to make sure Andy was following. He was right behind me, keeping up step-for-step.

    We were almost at an intersection of two major roads when another Raider came out from around the corner of the building in front of us. How he missed seeing us, I have no idea. I skidded to a stop and crouched low.

    There was no way we'd be able to sneak round this guy. I'd have to take him out.

    I turned toward Andy and pointed at the Raider, made a slicing motion at my throat, then pointed trying to explain without words what I was planning to do. He nodded and started to reach back for his bow. I shook my head and he stopped. I pointed to him and then at the ground, telling him to stay put. He nodded again and slowly dropped his hand.

    Satisfied that Andy wasn't going to get in my way, I turned around and slowly started to creep towards the Raider. He had stopped walking at the side of the road.

    I crept up until I was close enough to touch him, moving soundlessly across the pavement. Then, I sprang up quickly, wrapping my arms tightly around his throat. He struggled against me kicking and scratching, but I held on. After a while his struggling slowed and finally stopped. I laid his limp body on the ground and waved Andy over. Then, we both took off running, leaving the town and the Raiders behind.

    We ran on and on, following the main road out of town until we were well outside of the city limits. When we finally did stop I collapsed to the ground, rolling on my back and gasping for air like a fish out of water. My legs felt like they were made of rubber. I hadn't run that fast and that far in a very long time.

    "That. Was a. Close one." Andy gasped out between heaving breaths. He stood next to me, hunched over with his hands on his knees.

    I laughed and put my hand over my eyes to block out the sunlight. "Yeah, let's try to avoid that next time."

    I sat still for a while, lying on my back. Masses of pebbles on the asphalt dug painfully into my back but I didn't feel like moving. It felt good to lie down.

    "What now?" Andy asked.    

    I uncovered my eyes and looked up. Andy was standing over me. He held a hand down to me.

    I ignored it and pushed myself to my feet. I wasn't blatantly trying to be mean, I just didn't like taking help from people when I didn't need it.

    When I was standing again I looked around. The highway was lined by a thick forest on either side.

    I sighed. "We keep moving. The greater distance between us and the Raiders back there the better."

    "After you."

    I glared at him. I wanted to say something but I just didn't have the energy to be angry. So instead, I just started walking again without saying a word.

    We walked for several hours in complete silence. I glanced over at Andy walking beside me. He looked as tired as I felt and, with the sun close to setting, I was glad we would be stopping soon.

    As I looked at him I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time. Trust. He pissed me off a lot, and he was cocky as hell, but he hadn't done anything that would make me distrust him.

    So, against my better judgment, I decided to tell him what I had never told anyone before.    

    I told him my side of the story from Day Zero.

    "Boston," I said.

    "Huh?" He said, looking over at me in surprise.

    "Boston, that's where I'm from." I kicked a rusted out can that lay on the road. The hollow metallic clunking sound it made as it skittered away from me was rather pleasant.

    "O-kay? Why are you telling me this?"

    "That's where I was the day the outbreak started," I continued. I risked a glance at him and saw his eyes were wide in surprise.

    "At the time it was just me and my grandparents living in a small house in the city. I never knew my parents. My grandparents never talked about them and I never really asked. I really wasn't in town on the actual Day Zero, I was out on a camping trip by myself."

    "When I came back I immediately knew something was wrong because there wasn't anyone around. Usually the city is full of people, Boston was a fairly popular tourist spot, but that day, I didn't see a soul."

    "I remember pulling into my driveway and seeing the door to my house swung wide open. My grandparents never left their door open. I almost didn't go in, I almost turned around and left but I had to know if my grandparents were alright."

    "When I walked inside the house the first thing I saw was the blood. It was everywhere, splattered on the walls, and the ceiling, and there was a smear of it leading into the living room. It looked like something had been dragged across the floor. I should have left right then, I should have turned around and walked out but I had to know what happened to my grandparents. I guess some part of me was hoping that they that they would be alright. That I would walk into the living room and my grandparents would be in there laughing at the prank they managed to pull on me, but it wasn't a prank. When I walked into the living room, beside the couch, I saw...I saw..." I couldn't seem to make myself say the next words. Images and scenes from that night flashed vividly in my mind I felt like I was there: back in that horrible nightmare of a day. It hurt to remember it, it hurt to remember what I had lost.

    "You saw what?" Andy asked in a soft voice.

    I shook my head and felt my eyes starting to burn with tears.

    "It always helps to talk about it," he said.

    I didn't say anything for a while. I was trying to build back up my inner wall that always helped me cope, that helped me block out my emotions. Without that inner wall I was sure I would have broken down by now, maybe even killed myself like that skeleton couple had. That wall had helped me survive.

    When I finally spoke again my throat was tight and it felt like I had to force out each word. "Behind the couch I saw my grandmother. She was bent over my grandfather on the floor just tearing his insides out and chewing on them like some kind of deranged animal. When I saw it I thought I heard someone start screaming, until I realized I realized it had been me. The next thing I knew my grandmother was coming towards me, her mouth and shirt were covered in my grandfather's blood. I ran from her, into the kitchen and... and I grabbed a knife. I don't know why. I guess, deep down, I had known that she wasn't my grandmother anymore and I was terrified. She followed me into the kitchen. I warned her to stay back, pleaded with her, but she just. wouldn't. listen."

    "I had no choice. She was going to kill me. I drove that stupid fucking knife into her skull again and again and again until she stopped moving. After that I ran. Before I left town I stopped at the pawn shop in town that I knew sold weapons. All of the guns had already been taken but there was still this." I motioned to my katana, "So I grabbed it, left the town, and never looked back."

    When I stopped talking I realized that the tears I had been trying so hard to keep back, had managed to escape. I wiped the tears angrily from my face.

    Andy was silent for a few moments before he spoke, "Lauren, I had no idea. I'm-"

    "No. Don't you dare say you're sorry for me. I don't need anyone's pity." I snapped.

    He didn't say anything after that.

    The sun was just starting to set "it's getting late," I said. "We should stop for the night."

    We found a place off to the side of the road among the trees. Andy gathered dry wood while I got a fire going using the flint and steel I had. I considered it one of the most precious items I had gained over the years.

    It took several tries to get the tinder going. Once one of the sparks caught, I gently blew on on the ember until the tinder was fully ablaze.    

    Neither of us spoke the rest of the night. After a canned food dinner, I laid down next to the fire while Andy took up first watch. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in minutes.

    It must have been around one in the morning when Andy shook me awake. It took me a few moments to remember where I was, and why I was here. It was a common event, where I would wake up with the blind hope that I would find myself in my bed again, with everything back to the way it had been. Sometimes I felt like the whole world was a dream, some horrible nightmare that I could never seem to wake up from.

    When I saw the fire and the dark forest I remembered everything all over again and the world came crashing down around me. I sat up slowly as I felt the weight settled back down onto my shoulders and with it came the tense muscles that ached constantly. As I rubbed my eyes, Andy walked over to the other side of the fire and laid down. In less than ten minuets his breathing slowed and he was asleep.

    I leaned back against a large maple tree that was nearby. The night was quiet, with nothing but the chirping of crickets and the crackling of the fire to break the deadly silence.

    For a while I just watched the fire, watching as the flames flickered and twisted in a sort of hypnotic dance. The small amount of light that the flames gave off, cast eerie shadows onto the trees around me that flickered and moved in time with the flames. I let my mind wander, thinking over the past few days. Things had been easier with Andy around so far. I didn't have to watch my back so much anymore and I was actually getting sleep not the fitful, half awake sort of limbo that I used to fall into every night so that I could be fully awake and ready to fight on a moment's notice.

    Despite how things were going, I didn't regret all the years I spent alone. I had seen so many people torn apart, so many lives lost because people put too much trust into someone else. A mistake on the part of one person in a group, can lead the the death of everyone. I'd lost count of how many people I had seen who died because of someone else they trusted . So no, I didn't regret being alone for almost five years because it was probably the only reason why I was still alive.

    Suddenly, a twig snapped somewhere to my right. I immediately turned towards where the sound had come from, reaching out to grab my katana from the ground beside me. I scanned the trees but it was too dark to see anything beyond where the fire-light reached. The leaves on a large bush rustled softly and I tensed getting ready to spring up and fight at the first sign of rotten flesh. For a few moments, nothing happened. I kept my eyes trained on the bush, not even daring to blink. Then, I saw a flash of a red, bushy, white-tipped tail and I let out a sigh of relief. It was just a fox.

    There was another soft rustle of leaves and then a small head slowly appeared from the darkness. The fox wasn't very large, it's face not much bigger than a cat's. It's fur was a light red-orange with a white patch on the bottom of it's jaw leading down it's chest. It's large, bushy ears swiveled slightly from side to side, listening. It's black nose twitched constantly and it's large, round, amber-colored eyes were filled with curiosity as it eyed our makeshift camp. A log shifted on the fire, sending up a shower of sparks into the air and the fox vanished back into the darkness, without a sound.

    I smiled after the fox had disappeared. Her presence here meant that there weren't any zombies nearby. Animals tend to give the undead a rather wide berth. Zombies would go after anything that moves, though animals didn't really seem to have too much trouble avoiding them.

    To be completely honest, I envied her. The fox, and all animals for that matter, didn't have to worry about becoming infected. True, they did have to watch out for a zombie's gnashing teeth as much as humans did, but a single bite would be nothing more than an injury to an animal. The virus only seemed to affect humans, at least as far as I knew.

    I sighed and leaned my head back against the rough bark of the tree, staring up at the star-filled sky. A light breeze rustled the leaves of the trees and the stars seemed to flash on and off as the leaves covered and uncovered them as they moved.

    It was peaceful and quiet for the rest of the night. Occasionally Andy would roll over in his sleep, making more noise than I would like as he rolled over dead leaves and occasionally snapped a stick or two, but other than that, nothing else happened until morning.

    When the sky began to turn pink, and the first, early-rising birds started chirping, I stood up. My body was stiff from having sat in the same position for so long. I walked over to where Andy lay. He was sprawled out on his back one arm flung out to the side and the other laying over his chest. Crushed leaves covered his green shirt and a thin line of drool trailed out from the corner of his mouth.

    For a moment I just watched him, the rise and fall of his chest. I briefly wondered what he might be dreaming about. Did he have nightmares, like me or were his dreams peaceful and nice?

    After a few more seconds, I kicked him in the leg. "Oi, wake up." I said loudly.

    His eyes flew open and he bolted upright, looking around wildly. When he saw me, he relaxed and rubbed a hand over his face. "What time is it?" he asked in a tired voice.

    "Time to get moving," I said in response.

    Andy groaned and leaned back until he was laying down on his back again, both arms stretched out. "Can't we just take a day off?" He said to the sky.

    I rolled my eyes. "Sure Andy, feel free to take the day off. In fact, I'll let everything that's out to kill you know that you're off duty today so that they'll leave you alone." I put as much sarcasm into the words as I possibly could.

    Andy pushed himself up again so that he was leaning on his elbows. "Jeez, it was just a joke." He said.

    I bit back another sharp reply, it just wasn't worth it. Instead, I spun on my heal and started disassembling the camp. I kicked dirt over the glowing embers that remained of our fire, making sure that it was completely extinguished. Then, I started to gather up any trash that we had made and tossed it into the bushes.

    When the camp was cleared I slung my katana and pack over my shoulders and turned back to Andy. He was still sitting on the ground watching me. His pack was on his shoulders along with his bow and shotgun.

    "I would have helped," he said. "But you didn't seem like you needed any." He stood up and brushed himself off.

    "Whatever, let's just get going," I said, too tired to argue. "The more distance we put between ourselves and the Raiders, the better."

    Andy gave a brief nod and we set off, weaving our way through the trees until we reached the highway again. I stopped briefly, looking back in the direction of the town we had come from the day before. There wasn't anything to see except trees and an empty stretch of road.

    "What is it?" Andy asked.

    I shook my head. "Nothing." I said.

    I turned around and started down the highway, Andy walking beside me. The morning was still dim and every once and a while Andy would trip over something letting out a silent curse. We walked in silence for a long time. I didn't mind it though, I was used to silence. To having nothing but my own thoughts to listen too.

    The road we walked was empty. Here and there large weeds sprung up from cracks in the asphalt. At on point we passed by a car that had veered off the road and smashed into a tree. The the front of the car was completely destroyed, wrapping around the tree. The front and back windshields were completely smashed and tall weeds grew out of the inside. I wondered what had happened to the driver off the car and what had made the car crash. If I looked inside, would I find the withered husk of a body or had the driver somehow escaped from the wreckage. The thoughts only briefly occupied my mind and as we passed by the wreck and when it was out of sight, all thoughts off it left my mind.

    An hour passed, then two. I looked at Andy walking beside me. He looked straight ahead as he walked, his eyes glassy. I knew there were things that he hadn't told me about his past, horrible things that he would never tell anyone. Everyone out here has them, things that they have seen or done that keep them up at night, keep them questioning why they deserve to live when everyone else had died. I know I did.

    I decided to pull Andy into a conversation to bring him out of whatever horrible nightmares he was revisiting in his memories.

    "So Andy," I said. "Where'd you learn to shoot a bow and arrow?"

    Andy's eyes cleared and he looked over at me. "What?"

    "Where'd you learn to shoot a bow and arrow," I repeated gesturing slightly at the bow slung across his shoulders.

    He looked down at the string of the bow that crossed over his chest as if he had forgotten it was there. "Oh, uh.... my dad used to take me out hunting all the time before, well, you know." He shrugged. "We, my dad and I, used to be really close."

    "Ah," I said. It wasn't the answer I had expected. Most people out here learned how to use a weapon after Day Zero, purely out of necessity. People that knew how to hunt before had an advantage, it might explain how Andy had made it this far. "I never got to know my dad... or my mom for that matter. My grandparents raised me."

    "What happened to them?" Andy asked.

    I shrugged. "I don't really know. My grandmother used to tell me that they died in a car accident or something, but I knew she was lying."

    "How'd you know?"

    "Because my grandfather told me the truth. He said that both my mother and father were druggies. When my mom found out she was pregnant she came back home long enough to have me and then she disappeared again, left me with her parents so she could get high whenever she wanted without having to worry about taking care of a kid."

    I kicked a stone that was in my path and watched it clatter away. "To be honest, I hope they're both dead. I hope they were torn apart by zombies."

    An awkward silence fell between us then. I didn't want to say anymore and Andy didn't say anything else, and I was grateful for that. I don't know what I would have said after dropping a bomb like that.

    Over the next hour as we walked, houses started popping up along the road that we walked on until we stopped at the edge of a new town.

    It was small not much bigger than the one we had just escaped from. By then, the houses had made way for small shops, and businesses that lined the street. But they weren't the reason why we stopped. Right in the middle of the street, stretching from building to building, was an over turned semi truck. It must have crashed years ago, the top of the truck was facing us. The cab of the truck had smashed into a building, bringing it down on top of it. It blocked the road entirely and I couldn't see any easy way around it.

    "What do we do about that?" Andy asked.

    "We climb over it," I said. I walked over to the truck and looked at it closely.

    The bed of the truck was a plain white with a silvery metal along the edges. Silver rivets lined the edges of each sheet of metal. It was about eight feet high. I put a hand on the surface. The metal was cold and hard.

    "Make yourself useful and help me up." I said, turning back to Andy. "Once I'm on top I'll pull you up."

    "Sure, works for me," Andy said. He walked over to the truck and adjusted the string of his bow across his chest before interlacing his fingers together and bending over slightly.

    I back up a few steps as he got into position. When he was ready he gave me a slight nod. I sprinted forward a few steps before reaching him. I made sure my right foot landed in his hands and I felt him push me upwards. I grabbed onto the top edge and easily climbed up.

    Once I was on the top of the truck I stood up and looked out. The town was even smaller than it had seemed from the other side. The street was packed with cars . Directly below me, a pile of cars sat right up against the truck and a handful of zombies shuffled through the maze.

    Instinctively, I began making mental notes about the area. Noticing where the zombies were the thickest, noting shops that might prove fruitful to loot. I was so lost in thought I had completely forgotten about Andy until he loudly cleared his throat.

    "Are you going to help me up or are you just going to stand there sight-seeing all day?" He called up.

        I shook my head, chasing away any last wandering thoughts. "Right, sorry." I knelt down at the edge of the truck and held a hand down to him.

    He reached up with his left and grabbed my arm. As I started pulling him up, the sleeve on his left arm dropped down and revealed something just below his wrist.

    When I saw it the world seemed to fall away. My body seemed to move on it's own as I released my hold on Andy's arm and drew my katana.

    He fell back to the ground landing on his ass and letting out a loud, "Oof."

    "What the hell?" Andy said but when he looked up at me, sword in hand, he froze. "Lauren?"

    "You told me that zombie didn't bite you!" I yelled at him.

    Confusion filled his eyes. "What are you talking abou-" He started to say but his eyes widened and darted down to where the bite mark was still visible on his arm. He quickly pulled his sleeve down, covering it back up.

    "Lauren, wait, it's not what you think."

    I couldn't control my anger. He had used me. I had let down my guard and he had taken full advantage of it. I knew I should have killed him the moment I saw him. "Then what is it Andy, huh? Are you going to tell me that isn't a bite? I'm not fucking stupid!" I gripped the hilt of my katana so hard my knuckles turned white.

    He bowed his head. "No, you're right, it is a bite." He said in a low voice. "But it's old."

    "Old? What do you mean, old?" I snapped.

    "I mean," he said looking back up at me. "that this bite is from two weeks ago."

    I furrowed my brow in confusion, my anger faltering slightly. "What?"

    Andy sighed. "I said I was bitten two weeks ago."

    I didn't understand what he was saying. It wasn't possible. Everyone who was bitten by a zombie turned within 48 hours. Was he lying? Was it another trick?

    The tip of my katana fell until it was resting on the top of the truck. "But... how is that possible?" My mind was running in circles. 

    Andy sighed, "I don't know. But if you let me, I'll tell you everything I do."

    I didn't say anything, I couldn't seem to get my mouth to work right. In a daze, I nodded and sheathed my katana and knelt down one more, reaching out a hand. Andy stood up slowly and grabbed on and I helped him all of the way onto the truck. Once he was standing in front of me, I broke out of my daze. 

    "Show it to me." I demanded. I had to see the bite for myself, up close.

    Andy held up his arm to me, palm up. I stepped forward and grabbed his arm, pulling back the sleeve quickly and there it was. It was undoubtedly a human bite. Two crescent moon shapes marked the skin on his forearm, parallel with his arm. But they weren't fresh wounds. The marks were scabbed over and both had already begun to heal and scar around the edges. The undamaged skin between the two marks was a faint yellow color of a bruise that was almost healed. Unable to stop myself, I ran a finger lightly over the wound, the skin was smooth except for the scabbed part. "Are you sure it was a zombie that bit you, not some human?"

    "Yes, I'm sure."

    I looked over the bite one last time before dropping his arm and stepping back. I crossed my arms over my chest.

    "Alright, start talking."

    Andy dropped his arm and pulled his sleeve back down. "There's really not much to say. I got careless and I got bitten but I never turned. I don't know why, I just didn't," he said.

    "Why didn't you tell me?" I said.

    He shrugged. "To be honest I had actually kind of forgotten about it."

    I raised my eyebrows. "You forgot? You've got to be kidding me." I uncrossed my arms and put them at my sides, my hands balled into fists.

    "I had other things on my mind," he said. "I was in that town I found you in because I heard that there were clues about New Eden there."

    "New Eden? What the hell is New Eden?" I interrupted.

    He started at me in surprise. "What, you don't know?"

    I glared at him and he held up his hands. "Sorry, I just thought it was common knowledge. It's supposed to be the last safe zone left."

    Safe zone? That was a word I hadn't heard in a while. Safe zones were areas set up by the military shortly after Day Zero. They were communities set up for survivors. Each one was heavily guarded, any zombie that came close was shot down. They worked well for a while, there was even a time when I considered joining one, but by the time I had made up my mind to do so, almost all of them had fallen apart, overrun and abandoned.

    "But, I thought they were all destroyed." I said.

    Andy shrugged again. "Not all of them."

    I was silent for a long time. If what Andy was saying was true, if there really was another safe zone out there, then it changed everything. All I've ever wanted was to feel safe again, to not have to struggle, both physically and mentally, every single day just to keep going, to keep on living.

    "Are you sure that it's real?" I asked quietly.

    "As sure as I can be," he said in reply.

    I hesitated again. Andy had lied to me, deceived me, but if there really was another safe zone, he was the best shot I had at finding it.

    It pained me to say the next sentence. "Alright, fine. I will go with you to find New, whatever it was."

    "Eden." Andy supplied.

    "New Eden, whatever. But I'm warning you , If you ever lie to me again, I will not hesitate to kill you on the spot. Is that clear?"

    Andy looked relieved. "Yes."

    "Good," I said. I turned on my heel and hopped down off of the roof of the truck and started walking away.

    "Hey wait! Where are you going?" Andy said.

    â€‹"Away from you." I paused and looked back at Andy who was still standing on the truck. "Don't follow me." I said and I turned around again and kept walking.

    I had to be alone. I had to clear my head. Everything was backwards and I didn't know what to believe any more. I ran down the first alley I saw and pressed my back against the wall. My mind was a swirling hurricane of emotions. Anger, confusion, grief. It was overwhelming. I had spent so many days alone, I had forgotten how it felt to feel. I felt tears stinging in my eyes and furiously blinked them away.

    I pushed off from the wall and looked around me in the alley. There was an old, rusted dumpster against the wall across from me. I ran over to it and climbed on top. From there, I dug my fingers into the small cracks and ledges that adorned the side of the building and started to climb. It was slow work, trying to find large enough hand and foot holds to support my weight. At one point, my hand slipped and the rough stone of the wall scraped the skin from my palm. I barely noticed the pain and kept climbing, leaving bloody marks on the wall each time I placed down my hand.

    I reached the top and stood up, closing my eyes and feeling the wind on my face. I felt like screaming, but I kept quiet. I kept my emotions inside me.

    I knew why Andy had chosen not to tell me about the bite, but it didn't make it any easier to know that he had lied to me. It wasn't that I felt betrayed, it was the fact that I had finally let myself trust anyone besides myself only to have it come around and bite me in the end that made it so difficult.

    My fist thought was to run. Run from all of the emotions, run from everything, and run I did.

    I started sprinting the length of the rooftop, the wind whipping at my face. When I reached the edge, I planted one foot firmly, and jumped. My body soared over the gap between one building and the next.

    I landed on the other roof and softened my impact by tucking my body into a roll. Without giving myself anytime to think, I straightened back up and began running again, gravel crunching under my feet.

    I jumped between two more rooftops before coming to a halt at the edge of the final building. The next roof was a good fifteen feet away, separated by a road. There was no way I would be able to jump a length like that so I backed up from the edge.

    My heart was pounding in my chest and and I was slightly out of breath, but I was still feeling. I reached back and slowly pulled out my katana, bringing it in front of me and examining it closely.

    The blade itself was about three and a half feet long and ever so slightly curved upwards. The hilt of the sword was wrapped in black leather and the blade was as sharp as a razor without a single nick on the edge of the metal.

    I lifted it and slashed it down and to the left. The blade was met with little to no resistance as it cut through the air with a soft whoosh. Then, I brought it up so that it was just above my eyes and parallel to the ground. I widened my stance, placing my feet farther apart. In one quick motion, I twisted the blade so that hilt and the tip switched sides, and slashed from side to side. For the next few hours, I practiced with my katana, performing move after move, each one slightly more complex than the one before.

    I only stopped when the sun began to set. My shirt was soaked in sweat but I didn't care. As I had practiced I was able to sort through my emotions, pushing them into some deep recess of my mind and shutting them inside. I was in control of myself once again. I reached back, re-sheathed my katana and took a deep breath. I was ready to go back and confront Andy. I needed answers and I was going to get them one way or another.

    I walked over to the side of the building away from the street and looked down. built into the wall was a very rusty ladder, that lead down into the alley floor, three stories below me. It didn't look very stable but it was the easiest and fastest way down from where I was.

    I knelt down and grabbed the top wrung, slowly and carefully placing my full weight onto the ladder. The metal groaned in complaint and I froze in place, waiting to see if the ladder would give out. When nothing happened, I slowly began descending down the ladder.

    I didn't get very far before a loud, grating screech tore through the air. I didn't have any time to react and the next thing I knew, I was falling the last sixteen feet or so, to the ground.

    I landed hard on my back, my head cracking painfully on the floor. All the air was knocked out of my lungs. The towel I had folded up against the back wall of my pack, saved me from any further injury when I landed on it.

    I tried to suck in a breath but my lungs didn't seem to want to cooperate. Above me, the rusted ladder had torn away from the brick wall and had bent almost at a ninety degree angle.

    I stayed on my back, unable to move. Back spots danced in my vision as I desperately tried to get air back into my lungs. Just as I had finally managed to suck in a small breath of air, a soft moan sounded through the air. Pure panic flared up inside of me as I tried to see where it had come from. Through blurry eyes, I saw that two zombies stood at the entrance of the alley.

    Without thinking, I clumsily scrambled to my feet and pulled out my katana. As I brought the blade in front of me, a terrible pain ripped through my side and I almost dropped it.

    I couldn't focus my eyes, the world was spinning around me. I could barely make out the first zombie as it came charging at me. I swung my katana blindly at where I thought it's neck was.

    Out of sheer dumb luck I managed to hit my mark and the zombie went down but the mix of pain and dizziness was almost too much and I fell to one knee. As I fought to remain conscience, the second zombie ran into me and we both fell backwards. My katana fell from my hand and clattered across the stone pavement. A rush of adrenaline broke through my foggy mind and I rolled to the side, kicking out blindly. My foot made contact and pushed the zombie away, buying me a few seconds. Without taking my eyes off the the zombie, I slid my hand slid over the pavement around me, looking for something to use as a weapon. My fingers brushed over a loose brick and I snatched it up, lunging forward just as the zombie had started getting back to its feet.

    I smashed the brick into its face and it fell sideways, landing on its back. I smashed the brick into the zombie's head again and again and again. I didn't stop until its head was nothing but a pulverized pile of rotten goo.

    I stepped away from the zombie, breathing hard, my heart pounding in my ears. I looked back down at the zombie in horror, the brick rolling from my fingers. I had gone too far. I had kept going even after I knew it had been dead. What I just done was something a Raider would do.

    The dizziness came back worse than before and I stumbled on my feet. I turned away, bile rising up in my throat. My foot hit something and I tripped, falling onto my hands and knees. My stomach lurched and I wretched, throwing up everything that was in my stomach onto the floor of the alleyway. My arms collapsed under me and I fell to the side, my head pounding. I tried to get up, I knew I had to get up, it was too dangerous to stay out in the open, but my body felt like it was made of lead. Black spots swam in my vision, getting larger and larger.

    "This is it," I thought. "This is where I'm going to die." For some reason, though, I wasn't scared of the thought. The urge to fight the darkness seemed more and more pointless until I finally just gave up and allowed myself to embrace the darkness.

 

**********

    The sound of chirping birds woke me up. I opened my eyes slowly and stared up at a smooth white ceiling. I smiled at the sight, it was familiar, comforting. I slowly gained consciousness of the rest of my body bit by bit. I was laying on something soft. When I looked down, I saw a familiar brown comforter draped over-top of me.

    I smiled and closed my eyes again, snuggling up against my pillow, I was in my room again, everything was all right. Then, with a jolt, everything came flooding back. The outbreak, five years of pain and suffering, everything.

    My eyes flew open and I bolted upright. I was still in my room, everything was clean and, normal. It all looked exactly like I remembered it to be. The white walls and brown accented furniture, my closet full of clothes, even the bookshelf that was literally overflowing with books.

    I jumped out of the bed and ran to the mirror that hung on my door. I hardly recognized the girl I saw reflected back at me. It was me, but it was a me I had almost forgotten about. A girl with long black hair, and bright, eyes, free from the hollowed look of misery, wearing the oversized t-shirt that I used to always wear to bed. Frantically, I inspected my arms and legs. The skin was smooth and unblemished, completely free of the lattice work of scars that I had gained over the years.

    I backed away from the mirror, almost tripping as the back of my knees hit the foot of my bed. I sat down hard my hands shaking. "It has to be a dream," I thought. "This isn't real. It can't be real."

    I scanned my room, looking for something sharp. There was a small, silver pair of scissors on my dresser. I jumped up from the bed and snatched them up in one hand.

    I vaguely remembered someone telling me once that you couldn't feel pain in dreams. "I have to be sure," I thought. I put my left hand palm down on the dresser top and lifted the scissors up in my right. "I have to be sure."

    Just as I was about to plunge the scissors into my hand, a familiar voice called out. "Lauren, breakfast is ready!"    

    My breath caught in my throat and the scissors clattered to the floor. I ran to the door and flung it open, I didn't even notice anything else around me as I ran down through the house I had grown up in until I reached the kitchen. I skidded to a halt in the doorway.

    There she was, standing in front of the stainless steel stove, flipping a pancake. She looked exactly as I remembered, curly white hair cut short and styled up, light red lipstick on her thin lips, and wearing a simple blue shirt and tan capris and fluffy pink slippers. She even had on the apron I had given her one year for her birthday that said, 'loves to cook' in loopy letters.

    She flipped the pancake she was cooking onto a stack of already made pancakes and looked up as she noticed me in the doorway. Her blue eyes caught mine and she smiled. "There you are," she said in her beautifully familiar voice. "I was starting to think you had decided to skip breakfast."

    Memories flashed in my mind. Of her, crouched in the dark living room like a wild animal, smeared across her face and spattered all over her clothes and in her hair. My vision went slightly blurry as tears filled them.

    I ran forwards and hugged her tightly. She seemed surprised hesitating only a moment before hugging me back. "Lauren what is it? What's wrong?"

    I just shook my head and hugged her tighter. "Nothing, I... I just missed you so much."

    She laughed and pulled back, holding me at arms length with a hand on each of my shoulders. "It's only been a few hours."

    I laughed slightly too and wiped the tears from my eyes. "I know... I just, I love you."

    She smiled. "I love you too sweetie."

    Suddenly, her grip on my shoulders tightened and she began to shake me, still keeping the the sweet smile on her face.

    "What are you doing?" I asked. I tried to break away but her grip was too strong.

    She began to say my name over and over shaking me the whole while. "I'm right here grandma, please stop!" I said but she just kept smiling sweetly. Then she reached up a hand slapped me across the face.

    My eyes flew open. Someone leaned over me, hands grasping my shoulders, but it wasn't my grandmother. Panic flared inside of me and my hand flashed down to the knife at my belt. I seized it and slashed out wildly. The person drew back with a cry of pain and I scrambled backward until my back hit a wall. I held my knife up defensively in a shaky hand. Night had fallen, bathing everything in darkness but the full moon provided just enough light to see. I realized, suddenly, that I knew the person in front of me.

    "Andy?" I said, lowering my knife. " What are you doing here?"

    "I could ask you the same thing." He said. He had a cut on his cheek that trailed fresh blood but he ignored it. "When you didn't show up I went looking for you. What the hell happened here?"

    For a second I couldn't remember where I was or why I was there. Then, I saw the zombie on the ground behind Andy, its head looked like it had gone through a blender. Memories began seeping back into my mind, one by one. 

    I groaned and rubbed my temples where a sharp, throbbing pain had just started to form. My chest hurt with each breath I took.

    "Nothing happened," I told him. "I was attacked by a couple of zombies. I took care of it."

    Andy sat back on his heels. "You took care of it, huh? Then why did I find you passed out next to a couple of dead zombies?" His eyes widened suddenly. "You weren't bitten were you?"

    I stopped rubbing my temples and shot Andy a nasty glare. "I wasn't bitten."

    "Then what happened? Why were you unconscious?"

    I opened my mouth to answer him, to explain but I quickly closed it again. Why did I have to tell him anything? What had happened to me was my problem.

    So, instead of answering his question I stood up. As soon as I was standing I was hit with a wave of dizziness and my head felt like it was splitting open. I stumbled and almost fell back down, a fuzzy haze clouding my vision. I leaned heavily against the wall just to stay upright.

    "Not good." I thought. "Really not good." My vision began to clear the dark haze receiving from my field of view. The world still spun around me and my head still pulsed with an intense pain.

    For the past 5 years I had read every medical book I had found as I was looting. When you're surviving alone, you can't exactly afford to be injured without knowing exactly what to do. I frantically searched my memory, sifting through my memories until I finally found what I was looking for.

    "Concussion." The word forced it's way into my thoughts. "I have a concussion." And suddenly I remembered my head slamming into the floor of the alley when I had fallen from the ladder.

    I slowly lifted my hand to feel the back of my head. My fingers brushed over a large knot on the back of my head and I winced at the sharp stab of pain that raced through my head when I touched it.

    When I brought I brought my hand back in front of me, my fingers were covered in blood.

    "Shit." I said out loud. At that moment, the dizziness became too much and I slid back down to the ground.

    "Lauren?" Andy said. He sprang forward and reached out to touch my shoulder.

    I shoved him away roughly. "Don't fucking touch me" I shouted at him. The act of it caused my throb painfully again and I shut my eyes tightly trying to subdue the pain, even a little.

    I couldn't see what Andy did after that but he didn't try to touch me again. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke up again in a soft voice.

    "Look, I know you're probably still really pissed at me." He began. "But look at yourself, Lauren. You can't even stand up on your own. Could you please tell me what happened to you so I can help?"

    "I don't need your help." I said, not opening my eyes. It seemed to help with the pain a bit.

    I knew it was a lie. I knew that, if my suspicions were correct and I did have a concussion, the fact that I had actually passed out meant that this was serious. Even though I knew all of this, I refused to accept the fact that I needed help from anyone, especially from Andy.

    Andy sighed heavily. "That's bullshit and you know it." he said.

    I gritted my teeth. I wanted to punch him, I wanted to prove just how much I hated him, but I knew I couldn't, not in the state I was in.

    The next thing I knew I was being lifted from the ground. My eyes flew open. Andy had picked me up. I struggled against him, my head feeling like some one was stabbing it repeatedly with an ice pick. But I didn't have my full strength and no matter how much I struggled I couldn't break free. Black spots once again began to crowd my vision again. With the last bit I strength had, curled my hand into a fist and punched blindly out at him. I felt my hand connect with something hard but by that time, the darkness had taken over my vision so much that I couldn't see where I had hit.

    The last thing I remembered was Andy letting out a loud curse before I drifted away into blackness once more.