The afternoon sun glared and magnified through the glass of the window, splaying the light on the kitchen tiles in various areas. You huddled up against the corner of two cupboards right under the window near the sink. Your backpack wrinkled from being squished in between you and the surface of wood behind you. Those monsters outside wouldn't be able to see you from the angle but you'd be able to see their shadows and hopefully get away in time. In your right hand you clutched a kitchen knife; in your left hand, you hugged yourself to ease the feelings of anxiety that crept up and strangled your sense of purpose.

However, in the backyard of the house, two men wandered almost aimlessly. One man covered in freckles and a shotgun strapped behind him tried looking into the house through the sliding glass door.

"Hey, Marco, that house looks like it's in pretty bad shape. It's not gonna have anything useful in it. We should skip," the other man standing next to 'Marco' whispered.

"Jean, we should check each house just to make sure we can get as many supplies as we possibly can. This one's garage looked pretty intact from the front so maybe they have some gasoline or something..." Marco turned to face the copper-haired boy behind him and pointed inside of the house to further his statement.

"Well what about water? We're running low on the bottles of it. I don't want to take any chances with pond water or some shit like that," Jean furrowed his eyebrows as he remembered something clearly not pleasant.

"Well I'm not sure if it has water but it won't hurt to look."

"Yeah and what if it has one of those things in their, huh? We don't need that."

"You've got a point but what's to say any other house we go to won't have one?"

"True..."

Marco nodded his triumph over Jean and walked over to the kitchen's window and peered in. His hands shielded both sides of his face to block out the glare of the sun.

"It looks pretty neat actually, they're might be something," Marco smiled when he realized it. Since they stopped in an urban neighborhood, they had felt like most of the houses would've been raided by now.

Jean's eyes widened minutely with interest as he walked closer to where Marco stood.

"How do we get in without making much sound?" Marco asked as he still peered into the kitchen. The last thing both wanted was to attract those things toward them.

From inside the house, you shrunk back against the cupboards, petrified. Two shadows stray across on the tiles of the beige floor, blocking the streams of light. You tightened yourself into a ball, hoping that the they wouldn't see you. In contrary to your prayers, the shadows stood in place and you feared that perhaps they had really seen you. One shadow had increased in its dark area which meant whatever the owner of it was, got closer.

'No, please, no, no, no, no...' you thought to yourself darkly. You could take the two out but surely if they saw you, they'd break the window and garner the attention of more of the monsters. You'd never be able to get rid of that many no matter how hard you tried. Leaning over to your left ever so slightly, you tried to glance outside the window. Tilting your chin up to get a better look, the afternoon's sun blazed your vision and you saw a massive shadow of a seemingly human thing on the other side (but they all were humans at some point so it wouldn't make much of a difference).

And that's when it happened.

It looked down and saw you.

Shivers racked up your spine; the thing moved so smoothly, even for such a small movement as looking down.

Oh glory be it have mercy on you because you scrambled away so quickly you were sure you had bounced right off the cupboards just to gain momentum. You were sure that they would break into your house now. No doubt the one closest to the window saw you. Making a break towards the pantry door, you swiftly opened the door and got inside, closing it until just a crack was left so you could peer out of it. You reconciled with yourself over the fact that if you died today, it'd be because your goddamn anxiety. So good.

Marco flinched back when he saw a pair of big [E/C] eyes staring at him from behind the counter of the kitchen sink. Adrenaline coursed through his body when he saw whoever or whatever it was bolt in the opposite direction of him.

Jean jumped at Marco's reaction, "Marco, what's wrong?"

"I... I think someone's in there..." Marco leaned back from the window yet still tried look through it out of pure endurance. Placing his hands on both edges of the window, Marco tried to shift it open or loosen it up.

"Don't you tell me you're trying to get in that hell hole now?!" Jean nudged Marco in the ribs in a feeble attempt to stop Marco, "What if that's not a person?"

"But what if it is a person? It moved too cleanly to be one of them. Besides, those things try to come near you, not run away from you."

Jean wasn't able to fight back, considering Marco was correct. Marco made a sound of approval as the window slightly nudged, "Look, it's loose."

Staring back at his friend, Jean scowled and scrunched his face up in clear disapproval. Gently sliding the window open, Marco pushed back the screen until it popped out. Hoisting himself up on the sill of the window, he somewhat struggled to get in due to his height but did so nonetheless.

"Man, if we die, I'm so going to kill you," Jean whispered harshly as he fit himself through the window after Marco.

"That's a little ironic, isn't it?" Marco smirked, not looking at Jean as he scowled even more.

Checking the cupboards as they searched for whoever or whatever Marco saw, Jean found a few bottles of water and that was it.

Inside of the pantry, you looked through the crack desperately as you saw the two figures. So they weren't those things. However, that did not reassure you one bit; it would be worse for you if they were raiders. If they found you, they'd kill you on the spot. When the shorter, lighter-haired of the two wandered closer to you, you subconsciously backed up and into a broom lying against the wall, where it fell to the ground with a loud thump. You took a sharp intake of breath and held it as you creeped to the opposite end from the handle of the door and held your knife in a way of defense.

"I heard something from behind that door, Marco!" You weren't quite sure who the voice belonged to and you weren't sure if you were eager to find out.

The door to the pantry abrubtly opened and before you got a good look at the perpetrator, you strode out and tackled the man out of instinct.

"Hey! It's a gi- rugh!" The man huffed out as you shoved him to the ground and scrambled away and bumped into another man, one with black hair and many freckles adorning his face.

"Woah! Easy there!" He held up his hands in a shielding way, his eyes wide from shock.

"What the actual hell?" The other man with dual-toned hair groaned as he got up; one hand on his knee as he supported his body weight and the other rubbing his rump.

The hand you held your knife in lowered in submission yet your eyes were still glued on the two men in suspicion.

"Take whatever you two need just let me be," you narrowed your eyes at the man with freckles.

"We're not here to steal or take anything, honest!" The freckled man's eyes were still wide, staring down at you.

"I mean, it'd be nice if we got some supplies though," The copper-haired man leaned most of his weight on his left foot, "Man, you got me pretty good back there. I can't believe it, Marco."

'Marco' nudged him the stomach with his elbow completely inconspicuously with a gentle smile on his face.

"We're not here to hurt you or anything, really. We thought the place was abandoned and all. I'm Marco and this guy's Jean. We're good guys, I promise," Marco motioned towards Jean with one hand.

"Says the man with a shotgun strapped to his back," you snarled right back and pointed with your chin at the large gun behind him. Despite your attitude, you were somewhat enthralled to see real, living people that were your age, give or take a few years.

"Now, you can't blame me for wanting to defend myself," Marco chuckled slightly yet he understood your anxieties.

"This man's Shotgun Jesus. The last person you'd have to worry about hurting you," Jean snickered to himself as he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Sorry about Jean back there, his face must have scared you, having popped up out of nowhere like that," Marco took an easy step forward and held out a hand for you to shake.

"Well when you put it like that, he does look like a horse," you snorted at Jean.

"When the hell did this turn into a conversation about my face?" Jean growled at you and Marco.

Ignoring Jean, Marco went on, "What's your name?"

"It's [Y/N]." You kept it short and simple. Didn't want to drag this on for longer than necessary.

"Well to the point, it's been a long, long time since we've both seen any survivors. The more the merrier I say, today you'd want to stick to a group at least, y'know?"

"And your point is...?" You were getting weary. You knew exactly what he was getting at and the innocent part of you wanted to say yes and join them but you weren't sure if you could trust them. Getting used, killed, or abused in the end wouldn't exactly do well in your favor.

"I know it seems like a really awkward thing to ask but would you want to join us?"

Even though you had prepared for it , you were still shocked and so was Jean. Staring at his friend, Jean started, "You didn't even go over this with me!"

"We shouldn't shun the idea of having more people join us, Jean! It's for the best if we have enough people to depend on."

"I... I get that but..." Jean took a glance at you and then looked back at Marco.

"What the hell is that look for?" You chastised Jean as you put your hands on your hips.

"I just don't know if you can protect yourself, okay?" Jean sighed outwardly and slumped his shoulders in defeat.

"I seemed to take you down just well enough earlier!"

"She has a point Jean... So how about it? Want to join us? Jean's got a truck and everything, we can get out of here and into the town over one," Marco smiled gently down at you. You heard of people who betrayed others during this time, it was what happened to your friend Sasha. However, despite any nagging fears you had, you stared at Jean's and Marco's eyes, scanning for a hint of any lies.

Marco's eyes were pure, you could tell he was a boy with a child-like sense of right and wrong and because of that, you could trust him enough. Jean's eyes were brash, very, very brash yet showed a hidden sense of justice in them but were still very brash. He just seemed like an overall brash person to you. Who was to say he wasn't?

"Sure, why not?" You shrugged lightly and crossed your shoulders, "I think I've got some diesel in the garage. I don't know, you can check in there. You said you wanted some stuff earlier, better stock up now if while you can."

You pointed at the garage door with your thumb. It seemed like Jean had gathered what minimal water you had already. Marco seemed ecstatic that you were willing to join them and Jean, less so but still secretly pleased that a girl was now traveling with them.

"Lookin' forward to traveling with Shotgun Jesus and Mr. Horse," you smiled genuinely up at Marco and Jean.