Sophie holds the yearbook close to her chest.

“It’s only a few miles away, just keep heading straight and you should see it… you guys have weapons though, right?”

I look down, my crowbar is on the floor next to Tyler’s loaded gun, Serafina is clutching her pistol.

“Yeah, do you?”

Sophie pulls out a kitchen knife. “This is it.”

I reach down, trying to keep my eyes on the road and pick up Tyler’s gun, “Here.”

Sophie’s hand hovers over it, “Wait, how do I shoot?”

“Just make sure the safety is off, aim with that little bump on the top and pull the trigger, don’t waste ammo though.”

“Got it.” Sophie turns on the safety and aims at trees through the windshield.

“Hey, you know my grandma lived with us…” Sophie says in a monotone voice.

Serafina’s grandma lived with her too, she died of cancer when Serafina was only 6 though, so she doesn’t talk about her.

“She died?” I probably shouldn’t have asked that.

“No."

“Hm?”

“She ran away with a younger man last year. I loved her… so much more than my own mom.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Serafina notices our awkwardness and changes the subject. “You have a lot of books, why?”

“Nothing to do, actually they’re mostly stolen. I used to steal books from my school library, it became a habit, now my stealthiness is probably my most important trait.”

“Did you bring some books with you.” I look towards the duffel bag with our supplies on Sophie’s lap.

“Yep, a dictionary, like two fantasy books and a few horror ones.”

“What was school like?”

“You didn’t go to school?”

“No, my mom had an undocumented birth in the UK, so I’ve never been.”

“It sucked. Everyone hated it, they hated studying and bullying and getting up early, I just wanted to see my friends though, I almost joined after school basketball just to be with them but Darcy wouldn’t let me.”

“What did you learn?”

“The states, how to spell and read, math, history, all kinda boring, I love reading and all my teachers always favorited me for being smart but I didn’t want to try or learn, eventually I gave up.”

“At learning?”

“Yeah, basically.”

Sophie looks tired, Serafina is squished against the window reading one of Sophie’s books… she rarely sleeps; says she’s looking out for raiders but I just think she can’t sleep like me but doesn’t want to admit it.

“We’re almost there, just turn left at the store and keep going straight.”

“Do you want to check the store?”

“It’s probably full of zombies.”

“Don’t your friends need supplies?”

“We don’t know that.”

Serafina slams the book closed and interrupts, “We don’t know anything about their situation Sophie, for all we know this could be a trap.”

“Can I stay in the truck?”

“No, you need to adjust to the real world… Nitro pull over!”

I stop the truck in the parking lot and grab my crowbar.

The three of us walk into the store, all the lights are off but it’s 3 am so the sun should come out soon. Toys and clothes are broken and torn: scattered everywhere. There’s dried blood on the floor and 3 zombies with their brains splattered all over. It looks safe but empty, we start towards the medical section. Almost everything is taken except for some expired pills and greasy Neosporin.

Sophie gets on her knees and bends her head down to look under the shelf.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Sophie doesn’t answer and reaches her hand under the shelf and pulls out a sticky bottle with cobwebs attached, she stands up proudly and holds the bottle way too close to my face… hydrogen peroxide. Then her expression changes and her eyes widen.

“FUCK NITRO!” Serafina pulls the zombie’s arm in her direction, I slam its head into the ground.

Sophie backs up and starts taking any supplies insight.

“Sophie?”

“That was just one, and we made noise, there’s probably more coming our way.”, she keeps shoving random supplies into her duffel bag, then runs outside. She’s scared like I was the first day I saw Serafina get attacked, I almost gave up right then and there and tried running away but, Serafina saved herself.

I look back down at Serafina’s dirty, worn, not so white any more shoes.

We both go to the clothing section, weapons in hand. Most of the taken shoes are adult and toddler-sized, the high heels and slippers look like they haven’t been touched in years. Luckily there are five pairs of shoes our size, Serafina grabs the cleanest ones and switches them out with her’s. My feet are bigger than Serafina’s but they don’t have my size so I just pick up some black sneakers a little bigger than what I normally wear… I’ll grow into them.

As we’re about to leave, Serafina locks her eyes on something, it’s makeup. She doesn’t face me and instantly takes a tube of eyeliner and some chapstick before sticking them in her pocket and rushing out. I know she likes makeup. I walk over to the makeup shelf and take a pallet of eyeshadow and a mascara stick then follow Serafina out.

We both get in the truck, Sophie is already sitting in her seat, digging through her supplies.

"Hurry the fuck up, I'm tired."

She's not tired… just scared.

I start the car and keep heading straight as Sophie said to, 'turn at the store', which direction was it though?

"Hey, Sophie, which way do I go again?"

"Left, then head straight, you'll see it, it's pretty huge for a middle school."

After a while, I start to see the roof of a wide building behind some trees ahead of us, that has to be the school.

"HEY!" Sophie exclaims as she jolts her head, outside Serafina's window a group of zombies are huddled together around a figure, it looks like an adult, I can't tell which gender, they have layers of clothes covering everything except their hair… blue hair.

"We have to help them." I didn't expect that sentence out of Sophie.

"We can't, I thought you wanted to see your friends, it wouldn't be good if we got bit, or that person killed us or them-"

Sophie interrupts Serafina, "They have a little kid!"

I stop the car and look closer, all that clothing isn't covering the adult alone, they're holding a small child wearing a pink beanie in one hand and shooting zombies with the other.

Usually, I side with Serafina but, Sophie has a point, whatever that point is, it would only be only right to help them.

I open the car door as quietly as I can.

"Come on, take your gun."

Serafina grips onto the door handle, "No, you fucking idiot, we need to leave, let them die, kids die every day, even kids younger than us… Nitro, I know you don't have a soft spot for others when it comes to these situations."

She's not wrong, I don't care about these people, they could be my long lost relatives for all I care, but I still feel guilt, that's my worst trait.

Gunshots from the person's gun ring in my ears.

I close my door and start driving, I can already feel the guilt, the fear that the child feels now will haunt me in the future, but the future isn't important now, I'll handle that later.

"NITRO ARE YOU KIDDING?!" Sophie barks.

"Sorry, but we can't just get out and help some random strangers while putting ourselves in danger, besides, we aren't far from the school."

Sophie stays silent for the rest of the ride as expected. Serafina tries to comfort her as much as she can.

"They probably fought them all off by now."

"You don't know that."

The very sentence shocks me to my core hearing it from anyone other than Serafina but, the fact it was being told to Serafina makes it so much worse.

Serafina stays silent in obvious shock.

"Even one small bite from a zombie who could've lived the most boring, unimportant life can end another."

"They're life could've been unimportant too."

"With a child, I doubt that."

Sooner than I predicted, we reached the school, it looks empty and untouched but rundown at the same time.

"Should we get out now?" The zombies we saw weren't too far back.

Without saying anything Sophie stuffs Tyler's old gun, which now belongs to her into her duffel bag. She pushes Serafina against the seat and gets out.

Once Sophie is further ahead I look at Serafina, hoping she'll say something.

"Nitro… I'm sorry you had to do that."

"It's fine if it weren't for Sophie I don't think I would've hesitated."

"Thanks for understanding, I just want us to look out for each other and only each other, like family, you're the only one I've ever been able to trust."

I don't know what to say… I want to trust other people as much as I do Serafina but, I'm not sure that I should, she can be irrational at times but I always listen and agree when it comes to her. That's probably dangerous.

She starts to open her door. Something rustles in my pocket, the makeup.

"Sera! Uh, I noticed you picked up some makeup back at the store so I grabbed more, in case you ran out or just, you know… wanted more."

I pull the makeup out of my pocket and present it to her, she smiles then slowly takes it out of my hand and stuffs it down her sleeve… usually she only sticks knives in there, Serafina's smart when it comes to not getting caught.

"Thanks, I know it's dumb that I'm interested in this shit, but I really appreciate how nice you are about it, I would've scolded myself for caring about such useless things, if I weren't me."

She fully opens the door, slams it behind her as her feet hit the ground, and turns the safety on her gun, which reminds me that I need a gun, a real weapon

not a dumb door opener. I jump out of the truck and follow after Serafina, it looks like Sophie already reached the entrance but can't get the door open. When we catch up, the two of us stand behind Sophie, she doesn't look back at us, she's still pissed over those strangers. Serafina stores her gun in her back pocket and tries pulling and pushing the door, no luck. I'm half paying attention to the girls but all my brain can focus on is the fact that I'm standing outside a real-life school, and it's huge, I could've gone here… Something interrupts my thoughts, I hear a crash not too far behind me. The three of us turn around in a panic.

"NITRO YOU DUMBASS, YOU GUYS COULD'VE AT LEAST BROUGHT THE TRUCK OVER HERE!" Sophie yelps.

Three zombies are ambushing Tyler's truck. They most likely came from the sound of us fighting and slamming the doors.

"Serafina, give me your gun there aren't that many."

"I can handle them." She declares.

A person… no the person runs up to the truck and starts shooting the zombies, the person that we left behind. It looks like they don't need much help, in less than a minute they shoot all the zombies down and run back to wherever they came from… and come back with the child, who is also alive.

They walk up to us and pull their hood down, it's a girl with blue hair down slightly passed her shoulders and matching blue-grey eyes.

"No...I can handle them."

Sophie looks relieved but at the same time like she's about to cry.

"My name is Alexa, this is Six, I take care of her."

"Six. That's a dumb name." I scoff.

"It's not her name, I refer to her by age because she doesn't know her name… or just refuses to tell me."

"Mkay."

Sophie keeps trying to open the door but Serafina's eyes stay locked on Alexa, it's like they're having a staring contest.

"Kids are so dumb now. Have you rascals tried knocking?"

"Why are you still here?" I ask.

"You assholes left me behind, you looked directly at me, stopped, and still drove away. You owe me something… and Six, she's tired and scared."

"Whatever, just don't be a burden." Serafina murmurs.

"Me, a burden? I'm a seventeen-year-old girl taking care of a six-year-old, with way more experience than you guys."

"The apocalypse started at the same time for everyone, we all have the same experience." Serafina retorts.

"Apocalypse…that's a dumb way of putting it."

"What do you call it then?"

"Life, honey." Alexa looks so proud like she's been waiting to say that.

Sophie's hands are cupped around her eyes against the glass.

"They couldn't have left… they wouldn't, they cared about me."Sophie whispers to herself.

"Maybe there's another entrance, there's a chance they could be asleep too, it's still early." I hope it doesn't sound obvious that I don't have much hope for Sophie or her friends, I just don't want her to pull something dumb if she finds out they left. Sophie immediately runs around the building looking for entrances, Serafina and I follow.

"Guys! There's a-" Sophie is on the other side of the school, she got cut off by something… or someone?

Serafina and I rush to Sophie, Alexa stays behind at the entrance. We stick to the wall and inch closer to Sophie, even though we can't be sure she's still there. Whatever caught Sophie knows we're here… that loud ass bitch. Serafina covers her mouth and tries to stay as still as possible; she's shaking but I can't tell if it's because she's cold or scared. I peek my head around the corner, a girl with long dark hair wearing a hot pink sweater is on her knees holding Sophie by her waist with one arm and clutching a basic kitchen knife to her throat with the other. I stay still, I can't risk anything, not even for Sophie, then again all this girl has is a dull knife.

I motion my hand at Serafina then down at her gun, she uncovers her mouth and slowly hands it to me. I turn off the safety and step forward while aiming directly between the girl's eyes. She tightens her grip on Sophie's waist causing her to gasp.

"Let her go, we'll leave."

She doesn't respond.

"I'll shoot."

The girl stays silent and looks over to the opposite side of the school. A boy with pale blonde hair and blue eyes in an oversized black trench coat holding a rifle pointed at me steps out.

"I'll shoot first." he says in a calm almost jokingly tone.

Serafina steps out of hiding and stands next to me.

"Who the fuck are you guys?" the blonde boy says.

"We came here looking for people, some old students, they said they would wait here three years for their friend." Serafina utters.

The boy lowers his rifle and looks towards the girl in pink.

"Their friend?" He asks.

"Sophie." Serafina replies.

The girl lets go of Sophie then stands up, she looks at Sophie's face as if she's confused but mad.

"Sophie?"

"Ria."

The blonde boy isn't as surprised as ‘Ria’, his eyes are fixated on me and Serafina.

"You two brought her here?"

"You don't seem too happy to see your old friend." I say.

"Who are you?" He asks again.

"Nitro."

"Nitro… you're dumb, should've at least checked the other side of the school before checking on Sophie."

"Well, I brought her here safe, didn't I?"

"Eli!, drop it. We should go inside." Ria exclaims.

"Are we bringing the strays?" Eli says as he starts walking around the building.

"Strays?" I ask.

"He's calling us stray dogs." Serafina states.

"What makes us stray dogs?" I ask; following Eli inside.

"You travel in packs, obviously don't have parents, scavenge and look for places to stay." He replies.

"Don't most people do that now?"

He walks inside and kneels down.

"Only idiots scavenge, if you're smart enough to take care of yourself on your own, opposed to stealing from others you'll have a much easier life."

"I thought you lived here with other people?"

"I do… we don't rely on each other though."

"Neither do I." I say.

"What about her." He asks as he stands up and faces Serafina.

I don't answer him and change the subject.

"Why do you live here, anyway?"

"It's big, I've known the place since I was eleven."

"That makes you what, fourteen?"

"You know, you should go bother someone else with your dumbass questions, the others are upstairs in Mrs. Bradwell's old classroom. I'll take care of those two" -he points at Alexa and six- "we can talk later."

I do as Eli says and go upstairs, Serafina walks beside me. I can hear Ria and Sophie talking behind us,

“I’m glad you’re back but, how’s your family? Do they know-” the conversation slowly fades as I walk further up the stairs.

“Nitro, can we trust these people?” Serafina asks quietly.

I stop and turn around, Eli set down his gun and is now talking to Alexa… she’s smiling and him, it looks like he’s being nice.

“Never trust anyone, you know that.” I reply.

“Right.”

We make our way up the stairs and look for the classroom.

“WEAPONS DOWN, HANDS UP!” a boy with shaved brown hair yells, he’s holding a crossbow, directly behind him stands a girl wearing a blue t-shirt with some logo on it, her blonde, almost brown hair is pulled up into a bun, she’s unarmed.

Serafina and I set down our weapons, then the boy lowers his.

“Who let you in?” the girl asks.

“Eli.” I mutter.

“Why would Eli bring strangers in?”

“We brought back Sophie.”

“Sophie’s back?” The girl smiles and quickly runs down the stairs.

“I’m Zander, that was Ally… she's fucking gullible.”

Zander walks to the corner of the hallway and places his crossbow on a rotten, wooden nightstand.

“So who are you?” he asks.

“I’m Nitro, this is Serafina.”

“Serafina… name sounds familiar, did you go here?”

“No, I went to a school in New York.”

“You guys moved up here from New York?”

“We didn’t know it would end up like this.” Serafina responds.

“Got it.”

Ria, Eli, Zander, and Ally… didn’t Sophie mention someone else?

“Hey, are these all your people?” I ask Zander.

“No, I’m guessing you met Ria, she does night to early morning watch, and you said Eli let you in. Logan should be the only one you haven’t met, he’s out hunting.”

Eli walks up the stairs towards us, shortly followed by Alexa holding Six's hand.

"Alexa and the kid are going to sleep in your room tonight, Zander."

"Eli come on, I can't just have them-"

"Zander!, you'll let them sleep in your room. End of discussion."

Eli pauses then looks down at Ria, Ally, and Sophie talking.

"When Logan gets back we'll talk about sleeping arrangements," Eli says, looking at Zander.

Eli then continues, "And you, come with me." He touches my shoulder lightly and walks down the hall, I do as he says… again, and follow him; maybe I am gullible.

"This is the bathroom, you look like shit, which tells me you haven't showered in a while. Go in there and wash yourself off with the bucket of water over the sink, there should be a towel on one of the stall doors."

"Yeah, okay."

I walk into the bathroom, it looks like a store bathroom, the only source of light is a small window up near the ceiling. I walk over to the sink with a red bucket sitting on the edge, there's a washcloth hanging on the faucet. The water's surprisingly warm, which makes me wonder where they got it and whether this is a trap or not.

***

After I finish washing myself off, I take the blue and white striped towel off the stall coat hanger and wrap it around my waist.

Someone knocks on the bathroom door.

"Hey, it sounds like you're done."

Has Eli been waiting out there the whole time? I open the door and Eli's standing back to the wall, he turns.

"Don't change yet."

"What?"

"That military coat won't keep you warm with this weather."

"How do you know that?"

"It's a summer uniform and made of waterproof fabric, that shit doesn't keep you warm, you should wear a cotton or wool, winter jacket."

"Summer?- I don't have a cotton jacket."

"There's some in one of the bedrooms."

"Bedrooms, huh?"

"Classrooms, storage closets, other random rooms, we call them bedrooms because we… well sleep in them."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

Eli walks into a room labeled 'Janitor's closet' and opens a wooden cabinet-looking thing, there are coats and shirts on metal hangers that vary in sizes and conditions.

"Here, this is Logan's old jacket, he's taller than you and was as boney as you the day we got trapped here so it'll probably fit." Eli holds a thick, grey, cotton jacket in front of me.

"Thanks" -I take the jacket out of his hand- "but, why are you being nice all of the sudden?"

"Nice?" He chuckles.

"You almost killed me and called me a stray earlier and now you're worried about me?"

"I'm not worried, but if you're going to stay, I might as well make sure you don't become a liability."

"What about Serafina?"

"She looks prepared, I don't need to pay attention to her… you know you should learn from her, I'm surprised you haven't, considering how close you two look."

"Fuck off."

I walk into the bathroom and change back into my old white t-shirt and black cargo pants, but instead of putting on the military coat, I toss on Logan's old jacket.

I then head downstairs to see everyone except Alexa is sitting next to each other on a rug on the floor, but someone new is here, that has to be Logan, his long dirty blonde hair is tied into a ponytail, he's wearing a blue hoodie, black sweatpants and holding a bloody axe, wrapped in tape.

"Ah, I see you found my jacket."

"Nah, I gave that to him, he came in in a military coat, I don't expect you to mind," Eli replies.

"I don't, I probably grew out of it a couple of months ago anyway."

"I'm tired." Serafina remarks.

Eli sighs then stands up, leaning against the wall, "Right, sleeping arrangements. Ria and Ally sleep in the same room, Zander sleeps alone, Logan and I sleep in the same room. I already told Alexa and her weird kid that they could sleep in Zander's room with him. No one else sleeps alone but, we could make groups. Logan, move into Ally and Ria's room, the strays can stay in mine. Sophie and Zander, sleep in the art room, there should be some blankets in there."

"Wait, Eli, do I really have to sleep in a room with Logan?" Ria asks.

"What's the difference between

Logan and Ally?" Eli responds.

"I don't mind him, but I don't wanna sleep in a room with a boy."

"Ria, we're friends, it's not like I'm gonna rape you, chill," Logan says.

"I know that, I just don't wanna change in front of you and shit."

***

Serafina's washing up in the bathroom while Eli and I sit in his room. It's surprisingly clean, there are two mattresses, one of which belongs to Logan, a stash of food and a few empty water bottles, and a folded pile of clothes in the corner.

"What happened to you?" Eli asks out of nowhere.

"What do you mean?"

"How did you guys find Sophie and where the fuck are your parents?"

"My dad died when I was a baby, I left my mother as soon as the apocalypse hit, she was living in a house illegally with shit that she stole, drinking constantly, I don't feel any sympathy for her, Serafina ran away from her family and went to a foster home, her mom committed suicide, she was always alone, and if I went through with it, Serafina wouldn't have anyone at all. We took a train here last year. A few days ago we met this college guy on the highway and he drove us until we reached Sophie's house, we saw Darcy with her hand cut off… she was bit. Sophie told us to take her here in the guy's truck and we did."

"Through with what… suicide?" Eli asks.

"Yeah, because of Serafina, not because I hate her but, because she would have a better chance without me, I want to protect her and I always will, not because I was actually suicidal, I just didn't care if I lived or died."

"Sounds pretty suicidal to me. You'd kill yourself for someone?"

"Only Serafina, she's like my little sister."

"Sister, really?"

"Yeah, did you think we were dating?"

"No. I can't see it. I can't see you as relatives either, not even friends to be honest."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, stray."

"Don't call me that, what are these people like? Your friends."

"I'm not sure they'd want me giving you all their information but, Ally was raised by her grandmother, she's the most innocent out of all of us if I wasn't her friend I'd probably leave her behind. Logan's not a dick all the time, if you ask him to do something in exchange for something else there's a ninety percent chance he'll do it. Ria is our most valuable friend, she's brave and athletic, she thinks before she acts in most cases though, that's why she didn't recognize Sophie and immediately tackled her, she would risk her life for others without any hesitation. Zander doesn't like fighting or confrontation but, he'll protect Ally in any situation."

"And you?" I ask.

"Value-wise. I'm the smartest one here, I'm pretty athletic but, I wouldn't risk my life for anyone or anything, even my friends, I don't strive to live but, I don't want to be killed by anyone, especially one of those dumbass zombies."

"Smartest one? You sound conceited."

He doesn't respond, just laughs.

We sit on our separate mattresses in silence for a few minutes, then Serafina walks in wearing a purple sweater and grey sweatpants with wet hair.

"Where'd you get that?" I ask.

"Sophie, it was in her duffel bag."

"She's not mad at you over Alexa?"

"No… she’s grateful actually, she told me she was happy to be back here. Alexa's alive too so she doesn't have to worry." She sits down next to me.

"Eli, Sophie told me she wanted to talk to you," Serafina says.

"Of course she does." He replies.

"Did something happen between you two?" Serafina asks.

"No, we just weren't ever good friends. I was friends with Ria and Logan, she was friends with Ally, Ally was friends with Zander, he was friends with Logan, we just all became friends naturally but, Sophie and I rarely talked."

I decide to change the subject, "I'm tired, I know it's kinda early, but I'm going to go to sleep now."

I lay down with my back facing Serafina and fall asleep faster than I expected.

***

I wake up to the sound of talking; I'm facing the wall, still out of it, I can barely tell what they're talking about or who's talking.

"Don't worry, he's- oh, Nitro, you're awake?" That was definitely Eli.

"No," I reply. Sure I was joking but, I want to sleep more, I haven't slept in what's felt like years, I can stay up so long and it just feels normal.

Serafina is sitting behind me, facing Eli who's sitting on the other mattress, she taps my shoulder and I try to stay as still as possible.

"Nitro, I know you're awake, can I see your watch?!" Serafina yells in my ear.

"Leave him alone, Logan's probably done with dinner already." Eli retorts.

Dinner? So I've been asleep for about 4 or 6 hours… that's a really fucking long time.

I can hear Eli and Serafina leave the room and walk down the hall, I should probably get up as well. I sit up and rub my eyes with the palms of my hands, causing them to blur. I then stand up and leave the classroom, it's dark, usually, I wake up in the morning. Everyone else is up, I can tell they are by the open doors and silence… but where?

"Kid, can you come here?" A voice says from a distance behind me.

I turn around to see Alexa outside the bathroom, so I walk up to her.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Six, she'll fucking scream at me unless I leave her alone, but I can't leave her alone, you should talk to her… I would've asked one of the girls, but they all went outside."

"This late?"

"Yeah, can you just help Six?"

I open the bathroom door, Six is propped up on the counter with her knees to her chin, she flinches as I enter. I walk up to her and she puts her legs down, dangling off the counter.

"Hey, Six, you need to go with Alexa, it's not safe to be alone," I say.

"For me... You can be alone."

"Because I'm trained, you aren't. Why won't you talk to Alexa?"

"She stole me."

"What?!"

"She said that she took me from my house, she's not my family."

"She told you that last night, huh? That doesn't change anything, you need to treat her as if she's family."

"What about my family?"

I have an urge to tell her straight up that her family is most likely dead but, refrain.

"They're probably okay, but for now you have to stay with us. Hey, how about Serafina teaches you how to defend yourself?"

"Like shooting zombies?" She holds up her hand in a gun shape.

"Kinda, you need to defend yourself against people too, and I'm not sure Alexa would trust you with a gun, maybe just a knife."

"Does Alexa love me?"

"Definitely, you're basically her child."

I pick her up off the counter and take her to Alexa, they go back to the classroom they were staying in, probably to change. I head outside and start searching for the others.

Six asked me if Alexa loved her, what does that mean? I don't get it, it's hard to understand all these phrases for feelings that seem the same… 'I love you.' Means I care about you deeply, like family or a couple. 'I like you.' Means I have a crush on you, I think. 'I care about you' nevermind… this shit is too hard.

I walk around the building, it’s dark, I mean, of course, it is, it’s nighttime, but why would they be out this late? especially with all those zombies around the area yesterday.

"You'd never survive without me, you know that?" says Ria, she's standing in the woods behind the school, holding a shiv, there's someone in front of her but, I can't tell who it is, because of the incident earlier, I think it would be best to not sneak up on her.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"You scared the fucking rabbits away!" Ria yells back at me, scaring away more rabbits.

The other person turns around, it's Ally, she's already changed into something new, an oversized, long-sleeved white t-shirt with a black sweater tied around her neck and dark grey, ripped jeans, she's holding what seems to be Zander's crossbow.

"You know, Eli and Logan went to the river, they wanted to find out where the zombies were coming from, Zander's scavenging, not sure where the blonde girl went," Ria says.

"Why do you do so much at night?" I ask.

"You really are an idiot, I usually don't stick with Eli when it comes to judging people but, you're fucking weird" -she laughs- "most people believe the day time is safer because it's easier to see, the weather is nicer, and there'll be fewer zombies, that's not true, I'd rather fight off zombies than I would people… all the people come out in the daytime."

I guess that makes more sense, she doesn't know where Serafina is, then Eli probably does, they left together when I woke up.

"Where's the river?"

"Opposite direction of where you came from this morning." Ally replies.

I turn around and walk back to the front of the building, as I'm about to go searching for the river I hear a noise behind me, a quiet bang, I don't even need to look behind me to know it's Alexa.

"Kid, do you know where the others went?" She asks, Six is standing behind her, half-asleep.

"Ally and Ria are hunting rabbits behind the school, Zander is scavenging, at one of the local gas stations or stores I assume, I'm heading to the river to ask Eli and Logan if they've seen Serafina."

"She's gone? Well, I gotta get something so someone has to watch Six."

Then I remembered earlier, I said I'd teach Six how to defend herself.

"Can I bring her with me?"

"Sure, just don't let her get hurt." She says, clearly in a rush.

Alexa walks over to me with Seven then turns and jogs away in the opposite direction.

"She always has to leave at night, to get something." Six says, facing the ground.

Alexa's a drug addict? No, probably not, though I could see it.

"Six hold my hand."

She grabs my hand with hers, it's small and cold, feels weird to have someone hold your hand, I never liked touching people, or any affection for that matter, whenever I was younger and Serafina tried hugging me or holding me I would feel weird and reject her by pushing her arm in the other direction.

I keep walking forwards with Seven, with every step I feel the need to look at her, watching her so much in these past minutes has actually made me realize that she has dried blood on her light pink beanie, her beanie matches her socks too, she's wearing a fluffy, brown jacket that looks like a sheep's wool along with denim pants with little butterflies knitted onto the knees and velcro, yellow sneakers.

"What's it like being old?" She asks.

"Old? I'm only fourteen."

"What's it like being fourteen?"

"I feel too young to have to defend myself like this but too old to be in all this, I wish it happened when I was your age, maybe if it did, I would've gotten used to it by now."

"The zombies?"

"Mhm."

By now, I can start to see a small body of water, but no sight of people. It didn't take that long to get here, so it's weird that I can't see them, I would call out but that's a bad idea.

We finally reach the river and no one's there.

"Nitro." Six says, she opens her hand to reveal a slightly rusty, red pocket knife.

"Where did you get that?"

"I stole it from John."

"Who's John?"

"Alexa's brother-in-law, he lives in a shed."

"You shouldn't steal from people."

"John doesn't like me, he tried to slap me one time, that's why Alexa doesn't talk to him a lot… Can you teach me how to use it?"

Abusive brother-in-law and sneaking out often? sounds sketchy.

"Sure," I reply.

I take the knife out of Seven's hand and position it in mine.

"Now pretend this…" -I walk over to one of the many trees and Seven follows- "tree is a person attacking me, this branch is their arm, this spot is their neck, if they're restraining me like this" -I turn around with my back to the tree- "I'll either try to choke them or if I can, grab a hold of their arm, twist them around and stab them wherever I can, but you don't want to just stab anyone wherever you can, it's not that hard to survive being stabbed by someone while they're panicking." I squat down to Six's level and close the pocket knife, I then take a hold of her arm, and her dark eyes widen.

"Stab them here." I gently push the closed knife into her shoulder, then move it to her lower abdomen.

"You can also kick out their knees to get them down, and if you need to you can push your fingers into their eyes."

"Alexa taught me the eye thing." She whispers.

"That's good… oh, I forgot to mention that when it comes to zombies, the only way you can kill them is by-"

"Damaging the brain." I hear a voice behind me interrupt, I turn around to see Logan, with Eli behind him holding a torn shirt, he looks sad but Logan's smirking… did they get into a fight or something?

"Did you find out where the zombies were coming from?" I ask.

"No, we found this though" -Logan points down at the shirt Eli is holding and Eli jerks it back behind him, still facing the ground, clearly out of it- "it's one of our old classmate's and it doesn't look too old, we think there's a possibility that they're still in the area."

"That's good isn't it?" I ask.

"No," Eli replies.

"Sophie only mentioned you guys, why didn't she talk about others?"

"She knew we would be the only ones still alive by the time got the chance to come here… there were other kids, who either chose to stay or had to because their parents wouldn't pick them up or couldn't… we kicked them out eventually, some were more dangerous than others, and with the possibility, some live in this area, we aren't that safe."

"Stop thinking we're all doomed, and throw that gross shirt away," Logan says.

"It was Julia's, it has her name on the tag."

"Who's Julia?" I ask.

"Zander's ex," Logan says as he starts walking back to the school.

Eli sits down and crumples the light yellow shirt into a ball, he takes a gun out of his pocket and turns on the safety then stands up and follows Logan.

"Wait!" I say.

Eli turns around and sighs looking annoyed, "Hm?"

"Do you know where Serafina is?"

"No clue." He replies and turns back around.

When he's too far to hear me I bend back down and give Seven her pocket knife back.

"Follow Eli back to the school and stick with him until Alexa gets back," I say.

Six takes off her beanie and takes the hair tie holding her dark red hair together out and puts it in her mouth then puts the beanie back on and slips the knife into her coat pocket then chases after Eli without saying a word. I stay behind and peek my head into the small opening between the trees that Logan and Eli came out of, it just looks like regular woods, it's dark which is dangerous but, I still enter the woods, I keep walking further while trying to listen for animals, a branch brushes against my back and I reach into my pocket for my knife but, instead feel Serafina's gun, didn't I give this back to her? I hold it and keep walking until I reach the end of the woods, it's very dark but, I can still manage to see a building in the distance, looks like a hospital or hotel, there's some faint light coming from what seems to be a gas station, Serafina and I usually avoided those because they didn't have much, I guess it would be a good hideout since most smart people wouldn't waste their time scavenging a gas station.

"I saw something ya know. I think it's her." I hear coming from the gas station.

They're talking pretty loud but I can barely make out what they're saying. I walk out to the parking lot and hide behind a big storage truck.

"Couldn't be, you really think the girl's still alive?"

"If she was she wouldn't even be in this area, too dumb to stay in the same spot after all these years." I hear a third voice say.

"Probably killed herself, I hope she did, weak ass bitch."

"Mkay, I'm done for the night, we should get to sleep."

"Mm- no, I haven't finished."

"An alcoholic just like your father?"

"You can't insult a dead man. Get in the fucking truck Mia or you're sleeping here with that psycho bitch."

"Haha, hurry up though or I'm driving away."

"Fine, take Mike with you though, I don't want to see his ugly face any longer."

A glass shatters.

"WHAT THE FUCK MIKE? THAT'S IT, YOU'RE SLEEPING HERE TONIGHT, I'M OUT!"

I start to hear loud footsteps coming in my direction and run into the woods, I stay behind two big conjoined trees and watch a man walk to the truck, he's wearing a bloody grey t-shirt and wide black pants looks like he's in his 20's but I can't tell from here, behind him a girl runs towards him, she has really short hair, I can't tell the color of, she's wearing a tight purple sweater and a black or blue skirt with long dirty socks underneath. The man gets into the truck and another man follows behind them, he's shorter and skinnier than both the man and woman, he's wearing a button-up and khakis, he has a dark baseball cap on and looks sort of out of it, that's probably Mike.

I turn around and run back to the school before they spot me, as I'm running I look down at my watch, it's one something in the morning already.

Once I get to the front doors of the school I'm already out of breath, I try opening the doors but they're locked and it's too dark to see inside, I knock on the door but no one answers.