The food court. A huge cafeteria filled with people eating, having normal conversions about their lives behind a huge fence, or talking about how glad they were that they'd survived.

It was what they call a break day for supply runs, a different scout took our place, that's what they told us.

I wasn't hungry, I had no appetite, though my stomach forced me to try the food, and my mouth watered with the smell of spices and chicken. I sat down at the table with Miranda and Hunter after grabbing the food they offered me. Jone sat down too, at the table with us. Miranda took a sip from the juice box she had grabbed.

"The lunch is horrible.." Miranda tells me, her nose crinkling from the smell of the food. The food was warm as if it had been waiting to be served.

There were some peas and bread and a clump of barbecued meat on the plate with onions hiding in the meat. I forced myself to try the bread and scarfed the dry bread down the best I could. I chewed, slow and hesitant until my jaw worked normally.

I stood, my arms crossed, I couldn't see enough so I stood on the bench not caring if the guards yelled at me.

Some people glared at me and whispered, mostly talking about the incident with Luis and Joe's dead brother. It made me feel guilty and want to cower in a corner.

I scanned the lunch room, it was gigantic, filled with all types of people, eating and talking casually about the day. I felt a slight tug and looked down. Jone tugged my sleeve forcing me to sit. "What do we do if they aren't here?" I ask him. Jone doesn't say anything for a long time, and I grow annoyed with his silence. I realize why he was being quiet when I notice the new people sitting with us. Luis and Joe.

They began eating, silently, and organized. Well, Luis was eating that way, Joe was wolfing his food down hungrily and he burped when he finished a cup of water and let out a what sounded like a growl and looked over at Jone's plate.

"You want that, man?"

Jone slid his plate across the table and looked away casually as Joe scarfed down his take of a second plate. Once he finished, he took one more glance at everyone's plate. But he didn't ask for anyone else's food.

Silence washes over our table as we watch Joe stare at us, making me question whether he was a zombie or not after watching him eat that food like he was one.

"Why-"

"We were told to stick with you," Joe says before I can question him. I don't say anything, But I notice how Luis elbows him for speaking. I just pretend to eat the scorched peas on my plate, and I stab the barbecued meat with my plastic fork.

"You're wasting the food," Hunter says across from me. I lift my eyes to him, he smiled.

I forced myself to smile back at him, my face burning. I felt my lips twitch from the lack of smiling lately. Everything thing is silent at the table again, and it seems like we were in a movie. I stare at Hunter and he simply stares at me, as if worried about me.

"We've decided to teach you guys how to shoot," Luis says, breaking the silence. We all look at him, waiting.

"You probably grabbed a random gun when the crap hit the fan and tried to shoot. You got the pattern and just randomly shot the walkers..anywhere." Luis says, eating the meat, he dabbed his mouth with a napkin. His eyes meet mine as if he were talking to me.

"Actually.. as long as the walkers were dead that we shot... we didn't focus on shooting or aim." Jone cuts in, cutting our small group some slack.

Luis ignores the comment and a smile tugs at my face for some odd reason.

"So.. starting tonight you will have gun-shooting practice," Luis says, his eyes scanning all three of us.

No comments.

We finished eating and left the table. Luis and Joe didn't follow, they just stayed at the table.

The camp was filled with people outside, tents scattered and people stayed in the tents, I sighed as I found myself wandering through the camp, with Hunter, Miranda, and Jone.

"I guess we didn't look good shooting to their group." Miranda says, her eyes brightening in the sunlight.

We look at Jone to hear his input. But he doesn't comment, as if he was pushing away the fact that he was our leader.

"We should find the others first," Jone instructs, his soft eyes scanning the camp filled with people doing different things.

We spent hours just wondering around and the scorching sun managed to beat us down. We all sat at an old picnic table that seemed to be far away from the camp, near the fence with walkers hungrily pounding at the fence.

I rested my head on the table, sighing. Was Ali okay? I got the habit of the remembering her by Ali instead of Sammy which made me fear that fact that I was slowly forgetting a "normal life." I remembered how she feared guns when dad was alive. Dad was a policeman when he was alive.

So he used to teach me how to defend myself when I was younger. Sammy would always cry when dad brought his gun in the house so he'd keep it outside hidden under the porch to make her feel better.

Then... the next day he never came home.. the next day we were at his funeral. He had gotten in a car crash that ended his life instantly. I stopped crying about it, years ago.

I stared at the wood blankly. The world has changed. I thought silently to myself. When I lifted my head, something caught my eye...

It was a long cart being pushed by a person wearing a white uniform.

It seemed far away, but I could feel that it was something I needed to see. I quickly stood and found myself running towards it, my legs threatened to weaken and my heart throbbed.

I stopped dead in my tracks, and Hunter who had been chasing me, crashes into me, grasping my shoulders and holding me back before the cart could run into me. Bodies being carted away, dead bodies.

Soon Miranda and Jone were chasing down behind me, struggling to run. I stopped, my eyes widening at the bodies. The hair on the back of my neck seemed to rise.

The more I tried to convince myself who it wasn't, the more I seemed to get convinced.

Bella was the first one I could tell from the unknown faces. Her hair was tangled, her lips were chapped and her eyes were closed. Her eyes seemed sunken in, and her skin was gray, and the sheets had stopped just below her small chin.

I covered my mouth in horror as the person was carting them away. "Hey!! Where are you taking them!!" I shout suddenly angered, tugging at the person wearing a suit, who was pulling the carts.

The girl turned around. I nearly screamed. The person was recognizable, just barely from the fatigue spread across their face.

Beverly was facing me, and then in a second, her arms were hugging me tightly and she was sobbing.

"Oh my God..." she whispered, hugging me harshly, she shook me. She let go of me and threw herself into Miranda and Jones arms and she hugged Hunter. She cried, her bottom lip quivering as she faced us.

"Where... where... where have you guys..." she stopped midway and tears threatened to leave her eyes.

"Been...?" She finished, her hands shaking.

"Looking for you and the others," Jone says since no one else could speak. "It's horrible.. not the camp.. but... they made me and Ali work in the corpse decomposing shift," Beverly says, her hands shaking as she raised them. She tugged the gloves off to reveal her red hands.

"We have to burn the bodies. I've been burned a couple of times while trying to hide bodies near the pit.. because I.. I don't want to burn them.. so I bury them.. myself." She whispers, her lip quivering as she spoke.

Beverly hugged herself nervously as she stared at us.

I hadn't said a word. My mouth had dried as if there another sun shining in my mouth.

"What.. what happened to Bella?" I finally ask. Beverly's eyes widen and she sobs again.

"Marvin and Bella." She broke into a loud sob and hugged Jone. Jone was surprised but he hid it under his causal poker face and silently hugged her back, trying to calm her down.

"Marvin and Bella got bit while we tried to escape... I almost died.. but they saved me.." she whispered into his shirt.

"And when they were pulled back into the camp it was too late.. so I had to.." her eyes seemed to be searching for any other word that would make it seem less legit.

Jone nods, trying to understand. "So they made me Ali and Kyle work in the corpse removing.." she whispered.

"And it's... terrifying... the bodies.." Her body weakens in Jone's arm and she's literally tugging him to the ground with her. She sat on the grass and Jone forced himself down, still stuck in her embrace.

She cried in his shirt and Jone silently patted her shoulder.

I felt tears reach my eyes as I thought of the two people. Marvin and Bella... Gone. I didn't know Marvin much. But It was horrible to see Beverly so terrified and tired from working with corpses.

Jone helped Beverly up and she wiped her eyes.

"How did you almost escape?" I ask. She looks at her fingers. "I took the key to the exit tunnel but it was crawling with walkers." She explains softly. A man was calling Beverly now, from a nearby brick building waving his arms. "If I'm late... they'll switch my shifts." Beverly whispers.

"Beverly," Jone says, his voice raspy. He tipped her chin so she could look at him.

"Y-yes?" She asks, looking up at him, her eyes teary but focusing on Jone's raspy voice.

He cups her cheeks. "Come back here tomorrow... and bring that key."