A cold gust of wind blows over the rooftop, and red strings of hair rise and fall until a black band comes uptop and over, pulling it into a tight bun. The world is in its natural state. There are no humans. But it does not rejoice. Trees stay still, birds do not tweet any tune to the wind, and there are no humans. No humans, just beings that plague the ground. Some ball themselves up, some wander the streets aimlessly in the dead night. They are seeking but not finding.The red-haired looks over her shoulder at the tiny bundle huddled in a corner whimpering small incoherent words. She shivers into the blanket, seeking warmth. 'We'll have to change our hair.'Zylith had not slept. Sleeping was a weakness. The sun was still rising from the horizon but mindless humans still loitered the streets. The world was not indeed in its natural state as guttural screams of pain and terror tore from the throats of the walkers down below the convenience store's roof. Zylith kept away from the edge of the building to avoid getting into their sight. Now was not the place to be pale white with stark red hair.This was Canada and the weather was not having it, the cold crept into her core and Zylith shivered as she rubbed her hands together, generating heat and then slapping her cheeks with enough force to wake her up."Hey," Zylith nudged Bliss. They had been friends for two years and Zylith had grown attached, not like she'd ever admit it. She looked at Bliss as if Bliss was the only reason she was *****; she worshipped the ground Bliss walked on."Hey, we gotta go while it's still dark" Zylith's voice rasped in the early morning a steam of white air coming out her mouth and her nose reddened."But those things...would see us" Bliss argued back as she wiggled into the blanket even more"Well they'll see us even better when the sun is high up, we have a chance now" Zylith explained and just then a painful scream that sounded a far way sounded, causing Zylith to turn her head to the exact point the scream was coming from."Come on, let's go NOW" Zylith's face sterned, and her voice said she didn't want any more discussions.Bliss lets out a grumble but complies and stands up to stretch."Pack up the bags and blankets" Zylith moves to the edge of the building with a scope in hand and places her eyes to look at the direction she had heard the very loud screech."Are we going to the radio tower? Do you even know where to go now?" Bliss rubs her eyes open. "Listen to me Zylith, can't we not just go-""No" Zylith deadpanned"You're crazy to want to go back down. I'm not as smart as you but I'm not dumb enough to go back down. A helicopter could pass by if we wait long enough. Shouldn't we just stay up...above ground""Look, Bliss-""No, Zeel, I'm done. My mom must have a National helicopter with well-trained military men on their way to find me and I won't go down there just to-"Zylith shakes her head and turns away as if trying to end the conversation."I'm not coming with" Bliss adamantly refuses. Zylith passes by her and straps a backpack out of the two on the smooth rooftop."I'm talking to you-" Bliss starts but is briskly pulled down by Zylith who places a finger on her lips telling her to keep quiet. Zylith doesn't talk and they stay there for a few seconds while Zylith tries to catch her breath. A scorching screech is heard in the distance but the power behind it is enough to be heard even from far. She reacts to the scream even before it reaches them."What's that ?" Bliss whispers with wide fearful eyes as she huddles beside Zylith. Her skin bursts with goosebumps around and she looks like a live chicken "When we go we run at full speed and we're going to keep quiet, understand?" Zylith not waiting for a reply crawls to where the almost packed bag is and brings out a coat and hands it to her friend."No""I promise we'll find communication, but we can't still stay here out in the open, we need food and shelter, we don't have that up here. I know a good place" Zylith pulls Bliss's face close to hers and peers into her eyes."Promise?""Promise" 'I won't let those things get a hold of you' Let's seeA small thud resounds in the sea of voices or what should be voices.The crunch of the gravel underneath their feet is the only thing that hints at people walking. As two silhouettes walk by shivering people with little hair on their heads left, the sun peeks over a blanket of clouds but the shivering people still lay on the sidewalks or in the middle of the road, crouched and defenceless.Pieces of what are people's body parts are scattered around and splashes of blood mixed red and black weaves its way into the dents on the road and tints grass a new colour."That's so preppy" Bliss tries to make light of the situation and what she's seeing making her big smile and looking at Zylith for reassurance. Zylith barely looks her way and this makes the colours drain from Bliss' face'Like a masterpiece' Zylith thinks as she lifts her weight when walking. Wandering around in the night back at her apartment that creaks at the smallest disturbance seems to be paying off now. But beside her Bliss walks with a dreaded look and looks around the expensive street. Every time she spots another silhouette she gasps and clutches Zylith closer to her.Now Zylith and her are joined at the hips but she doesn't seem to realize."This is so not preppy" Bliss states as she crunches on something beneath her feet. "Tell me it's not someone's finger" Bliss closes her eyes as they round an alley. Zylith looks back at the ground where Bliss's boot was."No, it's not a finger" Zylith scoffs at her and drags her to a ladder to climb. 'But it is a toe'The way to the alleyway is quiet. They two walk into an alleyway and they stop at a good window and a bad window. Zylith squats and pushes furniture away from the bad window. She gets on her fours and crawls into the small four-by-four square room. "This is where we will be staying," Zylith says as she enters the square room. "I found the place a while ago and I've been using it as a hiding spot. It's the best apartment you can find nowadays""...yeah" Bliss makes an unimpressed scoff as her eyes wander the dusty basement. It has two tiny windows, they had used the broken one to enter and she had just opened the second one to air out the room. The furniture looked old and there was a small burner and some cluster of closed metal pots by the side, some tiles were broken but the floor was broken and looked squeaky clean but it was in contrast to the spiderweb that tucked away at the corner of the room. Overall, the room wouldn't even be a quarter the price of their school uniforms."I found it in this state but I wasn't sure if the owners regularly checked on it, I cleaned it just a few days ago" Zylith pushes the broken down furniture to the broken window shielding them from the outside. "I know it doesn't look like much but get yourself comfortable, we'll be staying here for a while" Zylith grabs a blue plastic sheet and lays in on the four-person sitter couch while she gets down on the floor to look through the bag."Get comfortable?! Here, in this nasty piece of an apartment? This place is more disgusting than the three-star hotel I had to stay in back in Berlin! I can't" Bliss indignantly stomps her foot on the ground looking at Zylith with a frustrated frown."Would you rather stay out there in Canada's cold and on the roof, hoping you're not seen, or here in a cosy warm apartment with water and food?" Zylith says with a tilt in her head, already knowing what Bliss would pick."At least tell me there aren't those creepy little beings" Bliss shudders and a disgusted look comes over her face."Bugs? No, there aren't any, I cleaned up the place " As Zylith says this, she sees a cockroach zoom past behind Bliss and into a pile of planks."Anyway" Zylith brings out some clothes and other items. A flashlight, a box of matches, a physical map, and a pair of old headsets."How convenient" Bliss suspiciously narrows her eyes at Bliss."I know right?! My kind neighbours had this century-old headset in their house-" Zylith puts up the headset "I think it's vintage, it was made about 65 years ago in two thousand and-"Bliss rolls her eyes. "I don't wanna hear about Vintage headsets, we have ear covers now in this day and age, I don't give a shit about some 'vintage' headsets" Bliss scoffs and hugs her arms around her body. "Would they help me find my mom or dad? No! I don't want to be here in this disgusting room with bugs, I don't want to do summer camping in a basement when it's not even summer, I want my mother and go on a shopping spree with her in the best Dress mall there is" Bliss crumbles onto her knees and puts her face in her palms."Oh," Zylith looks at her best friend awkwardly. Emotional things and comfort weren't always her strong suit but she remembered how other people comforted others and re-enacted it as such. "I'm so sorry you're angry but this is all we have right now" Zylith approached Bliss "We can leave in a few days and find your parents, I promise" Zylith squats in front of Zylith but doesn't approach her further. 'I promise we can leave in a few days' A reflection of others' behaviour."If we get a radio or something we can get more information on this""Is there a shelter? I'm sure the government has some plan for this right? I had heard rumours of this in some places just a few hours before this went to hell but I didn't think- think it would happen" Bliss looked at Zylith like a child waiting for their mother's reassurance.Zylith was stuck on what to say everything Bliss had just said had fallen on deaf ears, she simply didn't have anything to say to that but she knew Bliss was looking for something. 'The government no matter what plans they had won't be able to t stop this one, it would take at least a few weeks to even arrange for a shelter. It isn't that simpleOptions.'It isn't that simple, we're stuck on our own''There's been a flare and it could be affecting bigger areas than our province, we won't be the government's top priority''Get over with it, your parents are dead- no no no, that'll kill her''We would be alone for a long while and would probably not meet any other saviours''No Zylith think more positively...what would she want to hear? Heck, I don't even know!'THIS ALL HAPPENED IN 0.01 seconds."Um...I'm sure your parents are fine, they'll be very worried we just need a way to broadcast our location and also stay safe for your parent to find us out, till then let's bear with our circumstances.""Really? Thanks for saying that, I guess I can endure this place if it means mom is looking for me" Bliss looked up from her sobs with teary eyes and a flushed face from her tears and the dust that floated around them'Phew, I don't even know what the heck I said meant but it seems to work. And the final ingredient' Zylith spread her arms for Bliss to come for a hug and Bliss immediately threw herself into her arms, snuggling her face into the warmth of the coat Zylith wore.'I'll need a new coat, right ME?' Zylith shivers as she feels a light breeze of morning air seep into her chest and Bliss is now sleeping in her arms."You're safe now" Zylith looks down at the little girl in her arms and lovingly strokes her silky wavy red-dyed hair. "Safe" Bliss repeats and snuggles deeper into her chest. Safe in the grasp of the wolf.INTERESTING..."Why did you used to come here again?" Bliss stretches over the armrest of the couch that isn't old and broken down. Her tummy bulges from the amount of food she had just eaten the last hours"That's not important, what's important is we need to find a sort of communication" Zylith dismisses, the corner of her eyes creases as she looks into the SKYER. A soft blue glows from the box. She holds the controllers in her hands on her lap and makes a soft humming sound as she surveys the area.Bliss props her weight on her elbow and glances at Zylith who is in a lotus position. "Whatchu doing?""I'm surveying. We're almost out of food" Zylith sighs and does a few hand movements of the controller then sets it away."We still have rice and a can of beans""What would we do when that finishes? " Zylith removes the remodeled set from her eyes. The SKYER was advanced technology but that meant someone with little computer and engineering knowledge couldn't re-model it.Bliss nods but then her face scrunches up "You mean, we need to go out there? Hell no, only a crazy person would want to""If we don't, we'll be stranded, hungry and desperate""Have you seen what those things do? I've seen some footage on your SKYER and it horrifies me, i don't wanna know what it's like up close?"Zylith caves her lips on themselves and presses them tight."The numbers are rising every day. We need to get out of here but first, we need food and clothing. We could also meet other survivors like us". Zylith baits. In fact, they were no longer surviours. "Oh, who said anything about staying here? Not me" Bliss waves off and moves to kneel beside Zylith eagerly. The fear of missing the chance to encounter other survivors is greater than the rationality of food finishing in a few days. "So what's the plan?" Bliss bites the bait"You go shopping every day right?" Zylith asks as her brain concocts something up. "Yeah? What's that got to do with the zombies""And you know what time malls are open and the average number of people that go to these malls and what store owners open up on Thanksgiving, right?" Zylith cocks an eyebrow into a perfect arc" Yeah?" Bliss's eyebrows shoot up "Out with it already you bloody smartass" Bliss mimics her British accent."You can tell me what stores have the least customers or that are closed on Thanksgiving. This way, we can avoid 'them' and not have to fight 'them' off although I never planned on us coming face to face so..." Zylith stops her rambling when Bliss lets out a light squeal."That's smart, ooh, I'm already thinking of 6 good stores. I guess those hours of shopping with pesty veronica is dealing"'We could raid a couple stores. Besides who's there to stop us? The police? I wonder where they're at' Zylith went back converting the electrical system of the SKYER to batteries."How do you know how to do that?" Bliss looked confusedly at the stack of batteries that Zylith was working on."I saw it in a textbook a few years back" Zylith shrugged nonchalantly at the fact she could vividly remember a few demonstrations in a textbook from years ago and be able to implement in in real life. In a world of no electricity, batteries were vital and would become very treasurable However, Zylith would love to argue knowledge is power.Knowing the activities around the basement area could help increase their chance of survival. Too bad, that's useless.