FOUND
1
"You're the One"
Alicia was paralyzed. She tried to open her mouth. She tried to scream. But the sound caught in her throat like smoke, thick and acrid, choking her. Her cheeks burned under the heat of her own tears and her own blood, and the monster's breath.
Alicia wriggled desperately under the weight of the monster, both palms shoved upward against his chin, struggling to keep his snapping jaws at bay. But the monster was relentless in his hunger. Alicia felt her clawing fingernails break through the tender skin where chin meets neck, felt her fingers delve into flesh and sinew. And still, the monster kept coming. He wanted her. And she knew he would have her. She was pinned. She was trapped. Death had finally caught her.
Alicia stared into the monster's lifeless eyes. No, she thought. Not lifeless. They were not dull or dead. They were bright and alive with hunger. Not lifeless... Soulless. They bored into her and she stared back into their abyss. She supposed she should be terrified. And she was afraid. But mostly she was sad. Because this was not how she had pictured her death. She had hoped that when Death came for her, he would come dressed as green leaves fluttering against white clouds floating in a blue sky. She had hoped he would come gently like the perfume of blossoms on a summer breeze. That he would wrap his arms around her tenderly like a lover and steal her away swift and soft as a stolen kiss.
But Death, it seemed, was no more kind than Life. And as he bore down on her, Alicia could do nothing but shut her eyes and wait for his teeth to sink into her, to tear into her cheek and rip her lips from her, to rip her life from her.
But the monster's teeth did not meet her flesh. Instead, she felt the gentle pressure of lips, soft and warm, against her lips lingered for a moment that seemed both eternal and utterly too brief. Alicia opened her eyes in mixed surprise and disappointment as they pulled away. She barely had the time to register a beautiful face... eyes the color of the ocean on a cloudless day, wild hair the color that sand ought to be when the sun bounces off of it and burns your pupils and leaves you momentarily blinded by its brilliance.
Then the pain hit her like a knife to the gut. Her belly was on fire. No, her belly wasn't on fire. Her belly was the fire. The fire was within her and was consuming her from the inside out. Instinctively, Alicia's hands groped for the source of the pain, only to find two hands, wet and trembling, already pressed against her stomach. Alicia pulled her own hands back and her breath caught in her chest. Her fingers were covered in blood, blood that was ink-black, dark as the city on those rare nights when the power would go out and she could catch a glimpse of the stars shining in the blackness.
Alicia stared in confusion at the darkness, so lost in wonder that she almost forgot her pain, even as it wracked over her convulsing body. A moment passed before she realized the beautiful face floating above her was speaking to her. She blinked, trying to focus on the girl's face, trying to make sense of her words. But her voice was like a whisper lost in the raging wind. Alicia watched as a fat tear broke free of the girl's lashes. She felt it plop warm and wet on her own cheek, where it mingled with her own tears. Alicia had never known pain like the fire in her belly, yet somehow it hurt her far more to see this girl cry. Her tears made Alicia ache somewhere deep inside, somewhere deeper than her skin or organs or bones. And that ache was more than she could bear. Alicia could feel the girl's hands pressing against the fire in her belly. She knew the girl was trying to hold her together. But Alicia was already breaking apart.
...
Alicia opened her eyes to light all around. Her heart was racing, her breathing fast, heavy, and uneven. Her cheeks were wet with moisture. She reached for her belly, expecting hot blood and a fleshy hole, only to find it smooth and the fire in her belly was subsiding into the dull ache of hunger. Relief washed over her as her breathing and heart rate slowed. And as always, shame followed close behind.
Another nightmare. She told herself, half scolding, half reassuring herself. Just another damn nightmare. Ever since she was little she had been plagued by them. But some things intensified them. She still remembered how after watching Chainsaw Massacre at her first scary movie sleep-over, she hadn't been able to sleep for a year. It was pathetic... 11 years old, and she woke up most nights screaming and in tears as her mother, puffy-eyed and groggy, gently shook her awake. Alicia could hear the echo of her mother's voice now, "Hey... hey... it's OK. You're OK."
But her mother wasn't with her now. No one was. And so, ashamed of her own childishness, Alicia whispered the words to herself. "It's OK. You're OK." The words chased the details of the nightmare from Alicia's mind, obscuring them until she could remember nothing of the monster's soulless eyes, or the girl's tears spilling down her face, or her own blood, black as night spilling from her stomach. She remembered not the feeling of terror or of pain. All that lingered now was the ache that the worst nightmares sometimes left her with, that piercing ache in her chest that made it hard to breathe. No, not in her chest. Somewhere deeper still. It was the place that throbbed when she thought of her father's laughter crinkling his kind eyes. The place that had throbbed while she carved the spiraling heart into her arm, wishing the needle's point was the gentle stroke of Matt's sharpie. It was a place of missing. It was a place of longing. It was a place of pain both terrible and sweet.
Alicia closed her eyes against the pain, waiting for it to fade, whispering to herself again and again, "It's OK. You're OK." And she tried to believe her words, even as she could taste the lie like bile on her tongue. She had awoken from one nightmare, only to find herself right back in the nightmare she had left behind. Nothing was OK. She was not OK. Her life was a nightmare. She could find no solace in sleep. And she found even less solace in waking.
"So..." An unfamiliar voice from behind her sent Alicia's pounding heart into her throat. She was not alone after all. Terrified, she startled into a sitting position, struggling against the jumbled pile of child-sized blankets entangling her, and turned to find the source of the voice.
A young woman sat not five feet from her, casually leaning against a desk on which the nameplate "Ms. Keller" still stood beside a pile of papers neatly stacked beneath a glass paperweight in the shape of an apple. The girl was dressed all in shades of black, from the skull-patterned bandanna struggling to control her wild blond hair, to the leather jacket, down to the thick combat boots crossed casually in front of her. She looked so out of place in this classroom that Alicia's initial fear and surprise almost immediately gave way to an insane desire to laugh. But the girl, who Alicia now realized had been watching her sleep, did not seem amused. Alicia could see the double barrels of a shotgun peeking out from behind the girl's back.
"You're the one..." the girl spoke in an angry foreign drawl Alicia didn't recognize, "Who ate three of my moon pies."
Moon pies? Alicia thought to herself, once again fighting the absurd desire to laugh. The entire world had gone to shit. The living were dying. The dead were living. And in the middle of it all, this girl was upset about the fate of a few moon pies? The laughter was building inside her. She could feel the corners of her mouth tugging upwards. But as her eyes fell upon the girl's hands, she wiped away any inkling of a smile from her face.
The girl was wearing black motorcycle gloves, the leather ripped at the knuckles to expose her fingertips. And in her gloved hands she held a long, sharp blade, the kind of blade Alicia imagined Bear Grilles might carry around. The kind that was perfect for gutting a deer or stabbing through an infected's skull or slitting a stranger's throat. The girl played with the blade casually, turning it in her hands, fingering its point with her dirty fingertips, all the while eyeing Alicia with a look of distrust. Her eyes, surrounded by a thick outline of black liner, were narrowed in accusation as they studied Alicia's face and then dropped, fixing on Alicia's chest.
Confused, Alicia followed the girl's gaze. There, stuck to her blood-stained and dirt-streaked flannel shirt like a scarlet letter, was a moon pie wrapper in all of its shiny cellophane glory. Alicia felt her cheeks grow hot as she quickly brushed the wrapper from her shirt, leaving a messy streak of melted chocolate against the dirty blue flannel. The wrapper came to rest on the floor beside her, where it became exhibit one of the evidence against her.
Alicia knew she was guilty. She remembered finding the stash of junk food piled neatly beside the makeshift bed of foam mats and kid-sized blankets she supposed were once used for kindergarten nap-time. She remembered hesitating at the sight, giving out a small "hello?" that echoed through the empty classroom, her soft voice ricocheting off the rows of miniature desks and tiny chairs. She remembered sitting on the big, ugly rug in the corner, she supposed had probably been used for story time, but had now become someone's sanctuary. She remembered eyeing the pile and thinking she should leave. And she remembered the way the first moon pie's wrapper had glinted in the light as she reached out and plucked it from the pile. She remembered thinking she would only eat one... only one, then she would go. She remembered all of it... Except for the falling asleep part. That hadn't been part of the plan.
Now she found herself still on that ugly maroon rug, surrounded not only by three moon pie wrappers, but also the crinkled shiny remnants of two bags of Ranch Doritos, a king-sized Kit Kat bar, two empty Slim Jim sleeves, and a whole rainbow of scattered Starburst wrappers. Oh... Not to mention two empty bottles of purple Gatorade, Frost Riptide Rush. Alicia was guilty, there was no denying it. She had been caught red-handed and the evidence was all around her.
She swallowed hard under the girl's gaze. She knew she should apologize. Open your mouth and apologize, she told herself. But Alicia was never good at apologizing. She wasn't good with words in general. And, smart as she was, her mouth was always smarter. So, before she could think better of it, the words were already escaping her lips.
"You're the one..." She replied in a voice she already knew was far too sassy, "who left them out where anyone could find them."
At her words, the young woman sat up, stopped stroking her knife's edge, and leaned in closer to Alicia, driving the blade's tip right through the first moon pie's wrapper and into the ugly rug beneath them. She pulled the blade from the rug and raised it between her and Alicia so that the moon pie's skewered wrapper dangled from its tip. She cocked her head slightly, her eyes narrowing even further, her gaze falling on Alicia's face, hot as the L.A. sun in the peak of summer.
Alicia swallowed hard again, holding the stranger's gaze, trying her best to not let this girl see how intimidated she was.Open your mouth and apologize, she thought again.
"I leave for three hours... Three goddamn hours..." The girl snarled. "And what do I find? A bloody scabber curled up in my cache like a little raccoon in its nest. Only this isn't your nest, is it, girl? I've got you stonkered like a shag on a rock. Do you have an explanation for me, you thieving, little raccoon?"
Alicia bit her lip nervously. She didn't understand half of what this strange girl was saying. But her tone was dangerous. Open your mouth and apologize. She commanded herself. Damn it Alicia, open your mouth and apologize.
"I was hungry." Alicia answered, with a casual shrug of the shoulders, her voice defensive and still far too sassy. What the hell is wrong with you? She asked herself. Do you want this crazy, moon-pie obsessed, goth girl to stab you in the throat? Alicia watched as the girl's grip on the knife handle tightened. Her intensely blue eyes bored into Alicia's. Shit, Alicia... Apologize, Alicia pleaded with herself. Apologize now! Do it!
"I.." Alicia stammered softly, her voice barely more than a whisper. "I'm sorry."
At her words, the girl's expression softened slightly. She leaned back and cocked her head to the other side, the hint of a smile or a smirk playing at the corner of her mouth.
"You were hungry..." She echoed Alicia's words, her own voice now tinged with sass. She pulled the skewered wrapper from the tip of her knife and eyed it for a moment before flicking it towards Alicia. "Clearly. That much is obvious as dogs' balls, Coon girl, judging by the fact that you helped yourself to nearly half of my stash. Hungry..." she repeated, her foreign drawl dragging the word out into three long syllables. "Of course you were hungry. You are alive. And the living... the living are always hungry." She paused thoughtfully, eyeing her blade as she began fiddling with it again. "But then again, nowadays the dead are hungry too."
She looked up from her blade to eye Alicia again. But the hot fury that had burned in her eyes seconds ago had now been replaced by a mixture of cool indifference, mild anger, and perhaps, a hint of curiosity. "I'm not one to give away free meals." She spoke. "Not to the dead. Not to the living."
The girl set her blade in her lap and pulled off her right glove to expose a layer of dirty gauze wrapped around her palm, the white stained here and there by red blood and black grime. "That shit house vending machine put up a fight. Cut my fuckin' hand open getting those bloody moon pies. Seems to me, you owe me, Little Raccoon."
"I said I was sorry." Alicia argued. "I was starving and I stumbled upon a pile of junk food. What would you have had me do? I only did what anyone would've done. Its probably what you would have done."
"I don't steal." The girl countered.
"But you did." Argued Alicia. "You stole this food from a vending machine before I stole it from you."
"I don't steal from people." The girl corrected. "Especially people who are stronger than I am. Look at you... You are tiny... Unarmed... I make you look weak."
Alicia bristled at the insult. She was lean, sure, but she was 5 foot 7... hardly tiny. And she wasn't unarmed. Well, OK, technically she was unarmed at the moment, as her baseball bat was still where she had stupidly left it propped up against the other side of Ms. Keller's desk. But normally she was armed. And she certainly wasn't weak. If she was weak she never would have made it this far. She wasn't weak, she was a survivor. And who was this girl to tell her any differently?
Alicia stood, the blankets and candy wrappers cascading from her lap onto the floor around her. The girl rose to meet her, holding her gaze, her left hand still gripping the knife. Alicia took a step towards her.
"I'm not weak." She spat, her voice cracking embarrassingly in her anger. She could feel her cheeks blushing, but she forged on anyway. "I'm a survivor. I do what I must to survive. That is who I am. So... If you are going to kill me, get on with it. Otherwise, go eff yourself. Because I am leaving."
The girl took a step closer to Alicia, and in a flash of her arm, raised her blade to Alicia's throat. Alicia froze, but did not back up. She forced herself to hold the girl's gaze. Her blue eyes burned into Alicia's, but Alicia refused to look away, refused to even blink.
Then suddenly, the girl let out a bark of laughter and a giant smirk crossed her face, wrinkling the corners of her eyes. She lowered the blade and sheathed it at her hip, laughing at the confusion on Alicia's face.
"I'm not gonna kill you over a bloody moon pie, Little Raccoon." She laughed. Then, stepping aside to clear the path to the classroom door, she added, "You're free to go. Go home to your mum, Little Raccoon."
Alicia hesitated, still confused by the girl's sudden laughter. Then, with a pout and what she hoped was a dignified huff, she pushed past the girl and snagged her baseball bat, crossing the classroom and heading for the door without a word.
"Of course..." The girl spoke as Alicia reached for the handle, "you do know that it will be dark soon, right? Night is coming. And the dead don't rest."
Alicia hesitated again, staring at her fingers wrapped around the door handle. "You could head out into the night," continued the girl's drawling voice, "alone... with your... er... baseball bat and your I'm a survivor mentality." Alicia could hear the stifled laughter in the girl's voice. She could feel herself bristling again as her grip tightened on the doorknob.
"Or... I have a better idea..." The girl continued, her voice growing surprisingly soft, almost kind. "You could wait out the darkness here."
Slowly, reluctantly, Alicia turned to face the girl. She was leaning against Ms. Keller's desk, looking relaxed, even comfortable. "There are more mats and blankets in there." She said, waving her bandaged hand lazily in the direction of a large supply closet. "You could make yourself your own little nest, Little Raccoon." She teased, pushing off the desk and stepping towards Alicia. "And I suppose," she added, pausing at a child's desk halfway across the room and reaching for a large black sack Alicia hadn't noticed propped in the chair behind the desk. She opened the sack and upturned it, allowing its contents to spew onto the desk in a rush of metal clangs and thuds. "Since you are living, and you are hungry..."
Alicia watched as a can of tuna spiraled off the desk, clunked off the edge of the chair, and slowly rolled its way towards her, finally coming to rest with a soft thud against her sneaker. She bit her lip and wriggled her jaw, thinking. The decision was obvious. She knew what the smart thing to do was. She knew what she should do to survive. But she hesitated a moment longer, not wanting this girl to see her relief. Not wanting this girl to see her eagerness. Not wanting this girl to see her gratitude. Not wanting this girl to see her weakness.
Finally, she let out an exaggerated sigh, released her hold on the doorknob, and bent over to retrieve the can of tuna.
"I suppose," She said begrudgingly, "I could stay... just until morning, anyway. Seeing as it is safer in numbers and all. I mean... its safer for the both of us if I stay."
"Right," the girl replied with a laugh, "for the both of us. I mean... I've got a double-barreled shotgun, a 9mm glock, an eight-inch serrated hunting knife, a small, but trusty pocket knife, steel-toed boots, pepper spray, and a particularly sharp pair of tweezers... but somehow I didn't think to bring a baseball bat. Stupid me. Good onya for having that covered." She was laughing again, but it was relaxed, easy, not mean-spirited. And to her surprise, Alicia found herself smiling, genuinely smiling, for the first time in a long time.
"Pepper spray?" She asked with a raised brow.
"For the living." The girl answered with a shrug, her grin faltering. "There are worse monsters walking around out there than the dead." She paused, dropping her gaze to stare at her hands, absentmindedly fiddling her bandage as if lost in thought or in a memory. Alicia shivered involuntarily, the hairs on her forearms raising with goosebumps as the girl continued in a quiet, hollow voice. "The dead dead are gone. The living dead are hungry. But the living living... they are hungrier still."
An awkward moment of chilly silence engulfed the space between them. Alicia couldn't help but wonder what awful memories were passing through this girl's mind. Who had she already lost? Or perhaps, who had she already killed? But an instant later, the girl's demeanor had changed right back into the mysterious combination of sassy confidence and light-hearted indifference.
"But the only hunger I care about right now is my own." She said, reaching into another pocket of her sack and pulling out a small can-opener. "I'm so deadset hungry I could eat a goddamn human carcass right now, living or dead!" She let out another bark of laughter at the disgusted look Alicia fixed her with. "What? Just a little infected humor for you, lighten up Lil' Coon."
Not quite knowing what to do, Alicia watched in awkward silence as the girl tucked the can-opener into her leather belt, gathered as many cans into her arms as possible, and unceremoniously dumped them on the mats beside the remainder of her raided junk food pile. Then she walked over to the supply closet and opened it. Its shelves were loaded with stacks of children's books, boxes of crayons, tubes of glue, and piles of multicolored construction paper all neatly organized and labeled. The girl roughly pulled a rucksack from its hiding place between a stack of foam mats and blankets, knocking over a jar of colored pencils as she hefted it out of the closet. The pencils scattered across the shelf, some falling onto the floor and rolling across the linoleum. The girl paid them no mind, dumping her sack on the rug and proceeding to rummage through it.
Alicia watched as a brick-red pencil came to rest against a chair leg, and she had the strange, irresistible urge to pick it up. She knew it was ridiculous, but she had to do it. She retrieved the red pencil first, then gathered each of the others and put them all neatly back in their jar, their rightful, designated place in this closet. Alicia knew the whole world was a mess. Outside of this classroom, the world was a genuine, certified, shit-show. Alicia didn't have a rightful, designated place in this world anymore. She probably never would again. But these colored pencils still did. It seemed the apocalypse had not yet hit this supply closet and its order, as meaningless as it may be, gave her a small sense of peace.
She straightened the jar and gently closed the closet, turning to find the girl staring at her again, eyebrows raised. She was wearing a judgmental look of puzzled amusement. But Alicia was starting to wonder how much of this girl's face was a mask, because in the soft sadness in her eyes Alicia would have sworn she could detect understanding. Alicia wasn't sure what made her more uncomfortable, the idea that this girl was judging her, or the idea that she somehow understood what Alicia was feeling without a single word spoken.
"I'm sure Ms. Keller would be happy to know her colored pencils are all safe and accounted for." The girl laughed, her words dripping with sarcasm. "That is, if Ms. Keller hasn't already been eaten alive. Speaking of eating... Are you gonna join me or what?" She asked, plopping down on the pile of mats beside her haul of food. "Plonk down, Little Coon."
"I still can't believe you fuckin' ate all my moon pies." She muttered as she pulled a stubby candle from her rucksack and placed it on the ugly rug beside her. "And all my fuckin' Starbursts too!" She added, pulling another candle out and placing it beside the first. Thinking it best to bite her sassy tongue, Alicia sat down silently on the other side of the food pile opposite the strange young woman, not wanting to be too close to her. "You're just lucky you chose the Doritos and the Kit-Kat bar." The girl added, pulling a third and fourth candle from her sack. "If you had flogged my Sun Chips... Or my last Mars Bar... Well, I would have had to slit your throat for that. Out of honor and the principle of the matter, if nothing else."
"What about your Milky Way?" Alicia asked with a teasing laugh, as the girl reached into the pocket of her leather jacket and pulled out a silver lighter with a faded skull emblazoned on it.
"Milky Way?" The girl asked, looking up in confusion in the middle of lighting the first candle. "I thought I ate my last Milky Way bar days ago. Did you fossick up a Milky Way?"
Alicia couldn't help but laugh at the girl's wide, hopeful eyes."No. It was just a joke."
The look of excitement on the girl's face vanished, replaced by blank confusion.
"You just seem to have a thing for space." Alicia explained, suddenly wishing she had just kept her mouth shut. "Moon pies, Sun chips, Starbursts, and Mars bars..."
The girl continued staring blankly. Alicia felt her cheeks growing warm. "It's... well... They're all space related... So, I thought... Milky way... You know what? Never mind. It was a bad joke." She stammered, feeling like a complete idiot. Why the hell was she so flustered, anyway? She wondered. The girl was still staring at her, her brilliant blue eyes making Alicia's face burn. She had to turn away from the glare. She looked to the pile of cans and quickly selected the nearest one.
"Mind if I eat these... uhhh..." She glanced at the label. Peas... Fantastic... Just effing Fantastic. "Peas?" she finished, lamely.
The girl just glared at her. "Are they space peas?" She asked with a sarcastic smirk. She pulled her can-opener from her belt and tossed it at Alicia. "Bog in. Just don't touch my Sun Chips or my damn Mars Bar, alright? Otherwise help yourself."
Alicia began prying open the can as the girl reached into her sack and pulled out yet another candle, tilting its wick over the first candle until it caught flame. Alicia caught the faint scent of peaches in the air.
"So, did you raid a Bed, Bath, and Beyond or what?" Alicia asked with a laugh. "That's a lot of candles, isn't it?"
"I don't like the dark." The girl answered simply, cocking her head and eyeing Alicia as if daring her to laugh. Alicia didn't laugh. She didn't like the dark either. Secretly, she was glad for the excessive amount of candles this girl carried around with her. After a moment, the girl dropped her gaze and went back to her task of lighting the candles. "Just eat your peas and be quiet Lil' Coon."
"My name's not Lil' Coon, you know." Alicia said, prying the lid off the can and taking a swig. The peas were as cold, salty, and mushy as she had feared. Still, she choked them down, grateful to have anything to fill the gnawing pit inside her.
"I figured as much." The girl answered, putting away her lighter and reaching for a can of Stagg's Chili.
Damn it, why didn't I grab that can? Alicia thought as she chewed another round of mushy peas. Alicia waited for the question, but it never came. She gave the answer anyway. "My name's Alicia."
There was a long awkward pause as the girl pried open her can of chili. Finally she spoke. "Elyza... Elyza Lexa."
Lexa? Alicia nearly choked on her peas. Lexa? Ever since she was a child, she had loved the name Lexa. She didn't know why. She didn't know of anyone named Lexa. As far as she knew, she had made the name up. But, for whatever reason, it was her favorite name. She had named her first teddy Lexa. Then her first cat. Her first bike. She supposed she should be more creative in her name picking. She tried other names, but somehow she always ended up settling on Lexa. Someday she was going to drive a Lexus named Lexa. Someday she was going to have a daughter named Lexa. Well, at least that had been the plan. Back when there was a plan. Back when she dreamed of college, of becoming something, becoming someone. Back when she dreamed.
"Lexa?" She asked, sputtering and sending a pea flying across the carpet. "Your last name is Lexa?"
"No." The girl answered. "Not Lexaahh, just Lexa."
Alicia looked at the girl, her brows furrowed in confusion. "Yeah... Lexa." She repeated. "That's what I said."
"No." The girl answered again. "You got a couple of 'roos loose in the paddock? Not Lexaahh. Lexa... L. E. X."
"Lex?" Asked Alicia, still confused.
"Yeah..." Answered the girl, obviously growing irritated with Alicia's stupidity. "Lexa. That's what I said."
Alicia laughed. "Sorry... Its just, with your accent, it sounds like Lexa to me."
"It's my bloody name." The girl answered. "I think I know how to pronounce it. L. E. X... Lexa."
Alicia held back the laughter, but couldn't quite wipe away her smile. She had always loved the name. She had spoken it aloud a thousand times. But... maybe it was because of her accent... but somehow... hearing it from this girl's mouth... Well, it was exactly how Alicia had always imagined it should be spoken. It was beautiful. It was right.
"Look..." The girl added. "Just call me Elyza alright, Lil' Coon?"
"I told you," Answered Alicia, the irritation in her voice now. "My name's not Lil' Coon. It's Alicia... Alicia Clark."
"Clark?" The girl asked, seemingly just as surprised as Alicia had been only moments ago. "Did you say, Clark?"
"Yeah... Clark... C. L. A. R. K." Answered Alicia, imitating Elyza with a smirk.
Elyza returned the smirk with a look of disdain. "You know... My old man always said, 'Mockery is not the product of a strong mind,' Alicia C. L. A. R. K."
Alicia just laughed and reached for another can from the pile of food. She had had enough of the peas. She glanced down at the label. Split pea soup... Figures. She cast that one aside and went instead for the dented can of tuna that had bumped her shoe earlier.
"Clark." Elyza repeated softly, staring thoughtfully into the dancing flame of one of the candles and shaking her head slightly. "Clark."
"Yeah, Clark." Said Alicia, sinking her teeth into a big chunk of Chicken of the Sea. "Why do you care? Nothing special about it. Its not like its some crazy name like Geraveropoulis or something." She sat back, savoring the feeling of food in her tummy, more comfortable and relaxed than she could remember being since before everything had happened, maybe even since before then. She couldn't explain why, but she felt calm around this strange girl. Calm, and... Safe.
"Its just... I had a dog named Clarke when I was little." Elyza explained. "Clarke with an 'e.' My sister said I couldn't name her that 'cause Clarke was a 'boy's' name. But she wanted to name her 'Fish,' so what did she know, right? A husky named Fish..." she said, shaking her head with a small nostalgic laugh. "I just..." She paused, as if considering whether or not to say more. "I don't know... I've always liked the name Clarke."
"Weird..." Alicia didn't know whether to laugh or not. "I named my cat Lexa. I've always liked the name Lexa." She admitted.
"What?" Elyza replied. "You're shitting me, right?"
"Nope... Honest to God." Alicia answered. Then, blushing, added, "Might have named my stuffed bear Lexa too. And maybe my bicycle too."
Elyza let out a laugh. "No fuckin' way. I might have named my first skateboard Clarke. And maybe my guitar. And maybe my motorcycle. And maybe this here, double-barreled beaut." She added, giving a tug on the strap of her shotgun.
"Weird." Alicia said again, taking another bite of tuna and staring into the flickering candle flame.
"Yeah, weird." Elyza echoed her. "Weird."
They sat for a moment in silence, munching on their respective meals of cold, canned slop. The light streaming in from the windows was already beginning to dim and Alicia watched the dancing lights of the candle flames slowly growing brighter.
"So..." Elyza broke the quiet, lazily tossing her empty can aside and reaching for a can of sliced peaches. "What's a pretty little spunk like you doing wandering around 50 k's south of Woop Woop all by herself with nothing, and I mean nothing... no food, no extra clothes or supplies, no respectable weapons... In the middle of the bloody end of this god-forsaken world? No offense... But how the hell did you make it this far on your own?"
"I'm not on my own." Alicia answered. "Well, I mean... I wasn't on my own. I got separated."