I'm woken up this morning by a knock on the door. I stand up pulling my hair back again to make sure I don't look as awful as I'm feeling right now. I slide the door open and the girl with the short blond hair stands at my door.
"Good morning," she smiles at me brightly and I try to force a smile onto my lips.
"Hi," I think for a moment before I ask," It's not time yet is it?"
"No," she giggles." I was wondering if you would want to join me. I was going to go get cleaned up and all."
"You have running water?" I say surprised.
"Ya, we do, to be honest I don't know how eather. Eugene tried to explain it to me once but it's not in my comprehension. So you want to come?"
I look back at the window and see that the sun hasn't even touched the ground yet," Sure let's go."
We get there and wash off, she offers to wash my clothes as well and I thank her. I sit in front of the mirror and look at my face. It's amazing what a good night's sleep and a nice shower can do for you. I open the draws looking for a hair brush or something I could use to brush out the knots in my hair.
"Looking for something?" I look up to see Jane standing behind me in the mirror.
"I was looking for something to brush my hair."
"Oh, I have one," she opened one of the lockers and materializes a hair brush in her hand.
I thought she would hand it to me but instead she starts to brush my hair.
"So...., how did you end up in this little group?"
She meets my eyes in the mirror for a moment before going back to brushing my hair.
" I, you know about Jade now right, the one that went missing."
"Yes..."
"Well we were best friends, we went to the same school, and she was dating Neal then too. We were in her car on the way to school when he called her in a panic and told us to come to their school. She didn't question him and at that point was just there for the ride. We got here," she moshions around the room with her arm," there were give or take 30 people here before."
"Wow that many, what happened."
"Well," she says thinking," before there were more people and a lot of them were older than us, they did patrols and took care of us, but then food started to go missing. Everyone started forming clicks and blaming each other for it. Then one night one of the bigger groups left with a lot of the rations and supplies. If I remember correctly Catherine was in that group and they left her behind. The rest of the people either moved bases or they were in the accident that happened in the last lounge room." she shivers and I decide not to ask about it," and that's how we got our little group here, things have been pretty smooth since we elected Foland to be the boss man."
"That's awful that they did that."
"Ya it-"
She was interrupted by a knock on the door," sorry I forgot, well be done in a moment."
She grabs our clothes which were dry and we change before walking out. Leo leans against the wall in the hallway.
"Took you long enough."
"Sorry, I forgot that you all get here this early."
"It's fine," he sighs" were starting the meeting at 10 by the way."
I arrived in the lounge a little early, I sat on the couch thinking about what Jane told me.
"What are you thinking about so intensely?"
I snap out of my thoughts to see Bell smiling at me.
"It's nothing," I can feel someone's eyes on the back of my head.
I came to the room with Jane, then she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten something and left me here on my own with Foland, who was in the room. He didn't seem bothered by my presents because he continued to read in the corner as he waited for everyone else to show up.
Bell jumps into the couch next to me rubbing my shoulder," Don't worry they vote for the right thing."
Her smile is warm and certain. It makes me wonder about what is right. Right morally or right for the group. Soon everyone is here and Foland stops reading and stands up calling me and Leo to the front.
"Alright everyone close your eyes." Leo turns me around so I can't see them voting," Raise your hand when you agree. I think that Riviann shouldn't stay."
"Well that's settled, majority says she stays. Now let's talk about patrols today. Riviann since your new I'll let you pick this time, do you want to patrol with anyone? Jane, Eugene, Zane, and Leo are all going out today."
"I'll go with Leo and Zane."
"Alright that settles it everyone get out," Foland said waving us away.
Zane leads us up to a window overlooking the campus parking lot. He pulled out a key and I heard that alarm again. So they were the ones turning that on. Leo, Zane, and I all start looking for a building in the area that hasn't been raided yet. We came across an arcade. The power was still on so it was loud and the lights were flashing, but there was no one there, no infected no nothing. We spit up looking for food and I came across a back room. I pushed the door open and stumbled back, the room was stained with blood on the walls and the ceiling, the sight made my stomach churn. That's when I saw the infected standing in the back of the room, it spotted me and lunged out.
"AAAAAaaAaAaA!!!" I screamed and ran weaving through the machines.
It let out a gurgly screeched as it chased after me. I ran the infected on my heels when I heard a wet thud. I turn around to see Leo, bat raised high in the air ready for the killing blow. He swung down and the soft head of the Infected was smashed into the ground. Dark crimson blood sprayed the wall and puddles around Leo's feet. He lent his bat against one of the machines.
He walked over looking me in the eyes," Are you alright, you didn't get bit did you?"
I shake my head," Good, that's good,"he says the words muffled under his breath.
Zane pops out from around one of the bigger machines," Did you find anything?"
"No," Leo answers.
"Not really," I say," A couple bags of chips is all."
"Well," Zane says," It would be a waste to leave and not play anything."
"You really know how to play these old things? The junk's ancient." Leo asks.
"Of course I do," he says back.
Leo looks at him like he can't believe it.
"Oh come on let's go," Zane says, grabbing my hand and walking to the counter.
He leans over the counter, I'm not sure what he's doing. He then stands back up and drops a pouch in my hand. I look at him confused before opening the bag myself. It was full of yellow tokens melted with the brand logo. He smiles and walks off to find Leo. I wasn't really interested in playing since most of the games reily on skill or are rigged. I walk over to we're Leo is and he's playing the zombie hunting game, I smile because it's ironic really, I insert a token. I stand next to him, my plastic pistol ready. He puts in another coin and we get ready to shoot together. I was going to talk to him when we played, but it was too quick to allow you to get distracted by anything else. I was focused on the scene, both hands holding the gun. The game suddenly ended as quickly as it started. Our scores were shown on the screen, my score was exceptionally good, but then in flashing text under Leo's score said new high score. My mouth hangs open a little.
"I used to go hunting with my dad before this whole thing."
It seems that my petty knowledge didn't get me any advantage against him. My thoughts must have been written on my forehead because he then pats me on the back.
"You did really well too."
"Thanks," I say looking back over to him.
I leave him to his own, and look for something interesting. I set my eyes on a claw machine that's full of chocolate. My mouth waters at the sight, I hadn't had chocolate in so long, and as if I'm going to give up this opportunity. I put in a token and guided the claw to one of the boxes. I had it in the claw and it was so close when.
"Boo!"
I flinch so hard that it falls out from the claw. I turn and see Zane's face smiling.
"You made me drop it!" I say upset.
Zane snickers at me,"It's not funny!" I say," Do you know how lucky it is to actually get a hold of that stuff in there?"
"I'll win it back, I promise," he says, making puppy eyes at me.
I sigh and walk off to do something else, but I look out and see that it's starting to get a little late. I leave to find Leo, and see him near the back of the building.
" Hey Leo I think we should start heading out, it's getting a little late to be out."
"Is it really? I totally lost track of time. We should get back before anyone gets too worried."
Then Zane shows up," What are you all talking about?"
"We need to start heading back," Leo says, putting down the token bag and picking up his baseball bat, balancing it on his shoulder.
"Ok let's go."
While on our way home Zane taps me on the shoulder.
"I almost forgot, here," he hands me the box of chocolates that I had before.
I couldn't stop the smile creeping onto my face.