"The window Sophie found works."

"Serafina, Where were you?"

"Looking for weapons and candles, Eli sent me out."

"I asked him and he said he didn't know where you were."

"Really? Maybe he just doesn't like you, or me, but probably just you."

"Yeah, I can see that. Did you find anything?"

She pulls out a white plastic bag.

"Yep, this cool wooden knife, some rope, a revolver, ammo for different types of guns, I wasn't paying attention to which ones I got, a flashlight, and two candles."

"You got that all in one run!?"

"Yeah, even I was surprised, it's easy to find stuff around here, looking around I kind of wished I grew up in a place as simple as this. You need a gun don't you?, take this, I'm pretty sure it's already loaded" -she bends down and grabs my hand holding her gun- "I'll take that." She says and switches out her gun with the one she found. Her smile is weird, not in a bad way or anything, I just find it interesting how such an aggressive and scary girl can have such an innocent smile, how does she smile so much, how am I supposed to know whether it's real or fake?

"Are you coming?" She asks, halfway around the side of the building.

I follow her to the window. She lifts it outwards and steps in, I do the same and accidentally get my ankle stuck on the window sill.

"Wow, you act like a baby." She laughs.

"I didn't mean to."

"Baby's don't mean to get hurt either."

"What room is this?" I ask.

"Ally told me it was the vice principal's office, this room leads to the main hallway, the main hallway has the special rooms, computer, art, science, gym, all the rooms that aren't classrooms are downstairs, I heard someone say they use the gym for almost everything, so they should be in there."

"The vice-principal was a hardcore Christian huh?" I say, looking at the shelf with crosses and pictures of Bible quotes.

"What do you think about religion?" Serafina asks, stepping out of the office.

"I don't care, whatever keeps people sane shouldn't be my issue."

"I thought because you grew up without access to lots of things, you didn't know much about stuff like religion. My mom was an Atheist, my dad was a Christian and he hated her for it, so she bought three bibles one day and never read them, so I did, I almost finished the whole thing."

"You read an entire Bible?"

"Almost, then I would recite verses whenever my dad picked fights with me and he would change up so fast and start praising me for how smart I was."

"I'm guessing you don't like Christians then?"

"No, no it's not that. I just don't understand it, I wish I had something to believe in like they do in this type of world, it's life or death and to them, death is a wonderful eternal bliss or terrible suffering depending on the choices they make, to me it's you die and rot on this earth until your body completely decomposes, I'm still confused about what happens to you after that."

"This is the gym." I say, pointing to a sign outside a door with a screen on it. We walk in and Ally walks up to us.

"Oh, you're finally here Serafina, what's that?"

"Weapons and lights."

"Wow, I didn't expect you to find stuff so easily your first time around here."

Underneath a basketball net, everyone is sitting in a circle with pillows and blankets, a single candle in the middle of the circle of kids is lighting up the room. Ally motions for us to sit down with them, Serafina and I walk over to them and sit down, we sit down in between Ally and Sophie.

"What took you so long?" Eli asks.

"I went into the woods because I was curious." I say.

"That's one way to get killed, going in the woods while it's dark out alone." Sophie murmurs.

"Yeah, but I saw people."

"Where, how many?" Ria asks.

"Three adults behind the gas station, they had a big, white, working truck, they were talking about a girl."

"What did they look like?, tell me everything they said!" Ria exclaims.

"Ria calm the fuck down." Zander retorts.

"Uh, there was a chubby, white man with what looked like blood on his shirt, he was drinking alcohol, and there was a lady with short hair who was yelling at him and a short skinny man with a baseball cap, he seemed weak."

"What girl were they talking about?"

"I'm sorry Ria, I don't know, the man with blood on his shirt said something about his dead dad… Oh! and the girl's name was Mia, the short guy's name was Mike."

"Mike, mike, mike, no, I don't think I know them, but even if we aren't who they're looking for, we should still be careful."

"I didn't see anyone back there earlier, no one comes by the gas station anymore." Logan says.

"Eli, what's that?" Zander asks, pointing at the shirt in his pocket.

"Julia's shirt. You want it?" Eli says with no hesitation.

How could you tell your friend a torn up shirt you found in the woods belonged to his ex so easily, is Eli emotionless or is Zander?

"Yeah, sure." Zander says.

Eli tosses the yellow shirt to Zander, he unravels it and looks at the tears.

"Weird right?" Says Eli.

"Yeah, she ripped it up on purpose for sure. I always knew that bitch was dangerous."

"You think she's still in the area?"

"Probably not."

"Hey!" I cut in. "What if Julia is the girl those scavengers were talking about?"

"You might be onto something Nitro, I hope that isn't the case though, if they know Julia, a 14-year-old compulsive liar then they know us, and hate us." Ria says.

"Julia wouldn't kill someone's father!" Ally exclaims.

"No one said she did." Ria mumbles.

"Yeah, I know! But, I just thought it would be implied because one of the guys said something about a dead father."

These kids seem so smart, everything they say sounds believable, it makes sense though, they've been living at a school for a year.

"Did Six get back with Alexa?" I ask.

"Mhm, they're upstairs eating, Alexa came back with an old newspaper, it might be useful." Logan replies.

"Speaking of usefulness, we could use a hideout, it's dark so it'd be the perfect time to go out and search for places. If I remember correctly, there's a cabin not too far away that belonged to a mechanic." Ria says.

"You think we should group up?" Zander asks.

Eli sighs, "Logan, Ally, come with me, Sophie go with the strays, Ria and Zander group up… simple?"

Everyone gets up and leaves the gym to the exit, once we get outside we go in separate directions.

"Sophie, how far is the cabin?" Serafina asks.

"A little less than 5 minutes away from the gas station going right, the others will get there at different times depending on the routes they take."

After walking in silence I decide to say something.

"All of your friends just dropped their family members so easily?"

"Sort of, Ally's grandmother probably died before the apocalypse even hit New England so Ally was prepared for her death before the apocalypse was even an issue and if her grandmother did survive she would've been a liability. Zander had a harder time, he has an older sister and younger brother, they're both alive, now and then he brings them food but never stays with them because he can't risk their lives by going there so often. Logan's dad was a hunter, his mom made most of the money, they almost got divorced so he could probably tell you thousands of interesting stories, he was sad but would rather have his friends. Ria had a harder time letting go, she never talks about her family at all though, I'm guessing they aren't that healthy or have disabilities because she'd always say that they didn't stand a chance and didn't want to watch them suffer. Eli's mom survived some lethal disease and became a painter after she weakened from the illness, his father was in the US-Airforce but got dropped his second year for having mental issues and trying to commit or something, Eli doesn't have any siblings, his parents both had mental illness, so he most likely has something as well, which would describe how he's so cold and desensitized. The day of the apocalypse his parents didn't bother picking him up and he didn't try getting home."

"So you guys all have some sort of family issues, is that the only thing you bond over?"

"Honestly, sometimes yea, from what I've picked up, you guys sound like you've had it pretty hard too… a bunch of kids with mommy and daddy issues living in the apocalypse together, hopefully none of us have children."

"If we even live that long." Serafina says.

"Who said we couldn't have kids now?"

"I hope none of you guys want kids, with your mental issues and shit."

"God no. Maybe I'd adopt a kid like Six, quiet and loyal, but birthing one?"

"Sex would be worse than actually giving birth."

"Are you insane?, isn't that shit supposed to feel like dying?, sex is the best part. "

I never thought about having kids, now that the girls brought it up, the thought never crossed my mind, probably because of how I saw my only parental figures. My mother was on the run, an alcoholic, whore, and didn't care about me, my dad is probably dead, my mom's boyfriend's all sucked. There was maybe one boyfriend I could stand, his name was Cain, he had long hair down to his waist and those gauge piercings, he was unhygienic and always smelled like gasoline but, was the nicest, I never understood why I had such a strong attachment to him, I followed him to the store, went with him on midnight drives and made him cards for holidays. Cain talked to me like a stepfather and bought me things, not out of pity but because he felt like it, he even defended me when my mom tried picking fights, but just like everyone else, she dumped him after she got what she wanted, money.

I also can't see myself having kids because of the sex part, even though I'm still young, kids only a few years older than me had sex daily, I just can't imagine a scenario where I'm having sex with someone. I've tried thinking about random girls like that, it just makes me feel stupid in the end. I'm not sure I get it because my concept of love is so fucked up because of my mother.

"Looks like we're the first ones here." Sophie says.

We're standing in front of a metal short, square, grey building with a square, blue, tin roof, there's a garage door and a small slate door.

"We should wait until the others get here, especially with the lack of light." I say.

"I brought a flashlight." Serafina says.

Sophie walks up to the garage door and squats down, she takes the handle at the bottom and manages to lift it up enough that she could probably fit her shin underneath.

"Are you guys going to help or not?"

Serafina runs over and helps Sophie lift, I do the same so they don't yell at me. We lift it up to our knees then something jumps out and tries to grab Sophie, she falls backwards and the zombie lunges at Serafina, "Hold this fucker's head back!"

I push the zombies head forward and Serafina takes her flashlight, she slides her upper-body out from under it and slams the flashlight into its skull, she then sits up and I let go of the zombies head, she bashes it into the ground and stomps on it.

"The door went back down when we let go." Sophie says.

"You could've handled that a lot faster." says a voice behind Sophie, that happens to be Logan, next to him stands Eli and Ally. They're all looking down at us on the ground next to the closed garage door, Ally helps up Sophie and Serafina and I get up on our own.

"You did check the door over here first right?" Eli asks walking over to the door on the far right. He reaches down to open it and surprisingly it's not locked, I would be embarrassed but it was Sophie’s idea to lift up the overhead, not mine. We all enter, it's dark and smells like human pee, there's a workbench and toolboxes on the left and a bathroom and mattress on the right, next to the mattress is a small refrigerator that only goes up to my knees. Small bedside tables fill every corner, one of which has a barely used candle, I walk over to it and check the drawers, as expected there's a box of matches, I light the candle then check the other tables while the others look around.

"Yeah, I don't think the mechanic was the last person to live here." Serafina says.

"Did you not figure that by the zombie that just attacked you?" Eli murmurs.

"I found something." Sophie says, she holds up a pair of house keys.

"Useless." Logan says.

I look through all the drawers and still can't find anything.

"Shouldn't Ria and Zander be here by now?" I ask.

"They'll get here soon enough, probably cut through the Kindergarten parking-lot, " Eli says.

“What happened to the kindergarteners?” Serafina asks.

“They got moved out back home on buses. They did all the preschools and kindergartens in the area first, most elementary kids are probably dead now and those kindergartners are seven or eight.” Logan replies.

Serafina enters the bathroom and not even a minute later comes running out. She closes the door and loads her gun then opens the door. I thought zombies would rush out due to her panic but she just stood there armed, staring into the bathroom, I walk up behind her. In the bathroom, a few zombies are tied to the stalls and sinks with dog leashes and rope, they can’t reach us, two of them in the back look like they don’t even know we’re here, they’re focused on something else. I step into the bathroom and peek my head around, behind the stall two zombies are hunched over eating what looks like the corpse of a child that has died recently, maybe only a month ago, it’s hair is still intact and doesn’t look that dirty, one of the zombies turns around and faces me, when it’s head moves I can see the cause of the child’s death, a metal rod is sticking through one ear to the other, looks really fucking brutal, who would do that to a kid and tie up zombies to keep as pets?

“Gross I know, right?” Serafina says. I can feel her eyes staring into mine, hoping for a response, but I can’t manage to say anything.

“Sera, there’s a dead child- the zombies are eating it, it looks like someone impaled the kid through the ears with an iron stick.” I say.

She looks at the outside wall of the bathroom and shakes her head slowly as she says, “Yeah, I don’t want to see that shit.” She closes the door and turns around.

“You said there were zombies in the bathroom eating a kid?” Eli says as he walks towards the bathroom door.

“You don’t wanna see it.” I say, but Eli ignores me, he opens the door, and unlike Serafina and I, his expression doesn’t change, not even when he notices the child.

“Wow, not what I expected, who would even come up with the idea of restraining zombies like that, the kid looks pretty fucked up too.” Eli says.

“Maybe you could ask this guy.” Sophie says, bent down next to the corpse of a man, under a pile of dirty green bed sheets on the mattress . An actual dead person, not just a zombie, I thought everyone turned into a zombie, unless he died a few minutes ago but, it doesn’t look like that’s the case. Seeing an actual dead body not some monster is a lot more unsettling, this place makes me feel weird, nothing seems right.

Eli bends down beside Sophie. "Why the fuck are there zombies tied up like dogs in the bathroom?" he sneers.

Sophie smiles at him then takes her index finger and thumb and pulls open the corpse's eyelids.

"Sophie… I don't think that's safe." Ally says.

"He's dead. Not zombie dead but real dead." -Sophie stops and reaches into the man's side pocket, she then pulls out a brown, leather journal- "Hey, look at this." She blurts.

Logan quickly crouches down and snatches the journal out of Sophie’s sweating hands, he quickly flips through it and begins, “We should check this out when we get back to the school, I don’t feel safe here.”

“Sophie can you check the rest of his body?” Eli asks.

Sophie leans over and keeps searching the dead man, meanwhile Eli walks over to the bathroom and aims his rifle, I follow behind him and stare as he shoots every zombie directly in the skull on the first try. He looks back at me and tilts his head with that cold look in his eyes, “Coming?” He walks into the bathroom and nonchalantly steps over the bodies, I stay behind him, silently watching. Eli bends down and examines the little kid. “He shaved her head and cut her eyelashes and fingernails…”

“Maybe he was experimenting with her body, and that's why he never turned.” I suggest.

“Could be, or he was close to this girl and someone else tortured them to the point where they didn’t show any signs of turning.” He adds.

“You always think of the worst scenario.” I breathe.

“There always has to be that one person that does, it’s good to look at the bright side of things but someone that thinks more logically and says what they think-”

“Who said I was looking at the bright side of things?” I interject.

“I wasn't talking about you, I was thinking of someone more like Ally, your ideas… don’t suck.” He says with a smirk.

I hate how confident this dickhead is.

The garage begins to shake from a loud banging on the door, then it stops as it flies open hitting the wall.

Eli and I rush over to the entrance. Zander and Ria are panting quickly, sitting on the floor against the wall keeping it shut.

“Are you guys okay, what happened?!” Ally asks with her eyes wide.

“JUST FUCKING HELP KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED!” Ria screams in a raspy, out of breath voice.”

Everyone goes to help barricade the door.

“We can’t just sit here all night, what happened Ria?” Logan asks.

“I can’t, just find out how to keep the door closed.” She says.

“Will this do?” Serafina asks, pointing at the mattress .

“Is that a dead body?” Ria shakingly asks.

“Zander can you help me lift this?” Logan questions, as he sits up.

“Please, don’t. He’s upset right now.” Ria utters.

Ria walks over to Logan and they move the mattress to the door together.

“Zander, you’re going to need to get up now.” Ria says.

Zander is laying down against the door with his back hunched towards his knees, tears are streaking down his face, it looks like he just ran a marathon. Ally leans over looking worried, she pushes him away from the door and holds the handle while Ria and Logan set the mattress in front of the door.

"What's going on?" Eli demands, staring at Ria the way a teacher would stare at a student who just cussed them out.

"We saw Zander's sister. Can we talk about this in private?"

Suddenly Eli's expression and tone of voice changes, he looks down at Zander then back and Ria, "Yeah, sure."

Everyone except Ally and Zander head over to the bathroom, Ria is so distressed she doesn't even notice the zombies.

"We were on our way here, and we saw Valerie, she came all the way from the direction of the school, she was holding her stomach and when she let go her guts started fucking falling out, it didn't even look real but she was still able to get out a few words, she said a man named Eric caught her, she was most likely on her way to trade or tell Zander something when they caught her, we don't know about his brother but, it was pretty brutal. Zander just passed out next to his dead sister, then zombies probably heard or smelled us, I had to carry him here until he woke up and by the time he did we were surrounded."

"Did you put her out of her misery?" Eli asks.

"Yes." Ria replies.

"Maybe they thought his sister was the girl that killed that guy's dad?" I say.

"Mia, Mike, Eric…" Ria whispers, she then speaks up "Well if Julia and his sister are our only suspects that makes Zander at high risk."

“Guys it’s quiet now, I think they’re gone.” Ally says from the other room.

We walk back to the main room quietly, Logan looks through the lock. “Yeah, let’s move out.”

Ally nudges Zander, he quickly gets up and opens the door. We all start to make our way back to the school, no one says anything and keeps their heads down. We reach a bloody puddle and Zander breathes in deeply then starts picking up his pace, Ria whispers, “Her body is gone, they took it.”