Chapter 1: Even Warriors Need Showers

A warrior.

I'm a warrior.

Strong, fearless, daring.

Not scared. Not scared. I'm not scared.

When Cress woke up, she could still feel on her lips the mantra of reassurance that had put her to sleep. Sleep. If that restless one-hour nap could be called sleep. But she couldn't complain, any spare time during which she allowed herself to rest was valuable.

Spare time, of course, had not been hard to come by in recent weeks, mainly due to the fact that at least three-fourths of the world's population had been contaminated by the deadly Letumosis disease. But even with all this time on her hands, Cress was in the process of losing sleep rather rapidly. As she supposes one should when on the run from the undead. Ever since she found herself alone and on the run, she had been scared to shut her eyes holding onto the fear that they may never reopen again.

Yes, these were the happy thoughts that often filled Cress' mind now. Hence the reason why Cress had never been more excited than she had been this morning when she had found the shack.

Sure, the siding was rotting in some places and the roof was caving in; it's a miracle that the undead hadn't ripped it apart in one of their rampant destruction moods, but she couldn't deny herself a shelter. It's a place to hide out for only as long as she needed to gather her bearings and then she would be gone.

A small part of Cress' mind also whispered that she couldn't deny herself one of her biggest dreams either; a place to call her own.

And so far, this place didn't seem to be as terribly unpleasant as she might have first thought. Inside, she found rope, a knife, and a few cans of preserves. She only dared to open one because who knew the next time she would find food.

With not even a sign of an undead since she'd been here, it was almost as if Cress was the last human being in the entire world. The only one left to save the world. I am a superhero, I save people, and right now it's my duty to save the world. They need me. Cress shook her head. The last thing she needed was to fall into old habits. At least she had Little Cress.

She knew it sounded stupid, but the little bear in the tattered dress was her only company so naturally she had begun to talk to it. She doesn't remember how she started telling the bear all of her thoughts and feelings, but before Cress knew it that bear had become her most faithful friend she had ever had. Granted, that wasn't saying much since it was one of the only friends she had ever had, but the bear was a friend she wouldn't abandon, not like the others.

She couldn't. She had promised.

Cress kept those thoughts with her as she got up from the sunken couch and walked to the storage closet at the back of the shack. Suddenly stopping in the doorway, Cress forgot why she had walked into the closet. She had to stop thinking about the past because it certainly wouldn't be any help to her survival from now on.

Chiding herself, Cress wracked her brain to try and remember what she had come into the closet for. Towels, that's what she needed. Stay on track, Cress.

She peered into all of the shelves on the wall, pushing away cobwebs and empty food cans. Nothing. Not even on the highest shelf where Cress had needed to climb precariously onto the bottom shelf to even reach it.

Cress climbed down and headed to the small bathroom on the other side of the room. Closing the door behind her, she headed toward the small cabinet underneath the rusty sink, crouched down on her knees, opened it and was disappointed to find nothing there either except a couple of daddy-longlegs, and a few old orange prescription bottles. She bit her bottom lip and took a look around the small room again.

A towel would be oh so helpful to her right now, but she supposed she could live without one. She stood up and went to the back corner of the bathroom where a short showerhead hung on the wall above a few dirty white tiles. There wasn't even a screen to divide the shower from the rest of the room. Cress set down her little bar of soap and travel-size toothbrush on the counter, took a deep breath, and quickly shucked off her torn dress and leggings. She turned on the shower head, prepared for the freezing cold water, but still yelped and jumped back as the water spewed out, spraying her in the process.

Knowing that the water wasn't going to get any warmer the longer it was kept running, and not wanting to attract any unwanted visitors with the sound, Cress quickly finished undressing and hopped under the water. It was quite possibly the fastest shower Cress had ever taken in her entire life, and she delighted in the thought of being more or less clean for the first time since the start of the apocalypse.

After washing with soap, she grabbed her toothbrush and scrubbed some soap onto that too. It wasn't the most pleasant taste in her mouth, but she didn't really have any other options and she liked to at least keep the habit of brushing her teeth if only for the sake of normality. Plus, she never knew when Prince Charming was going to burst through the door and save her, the damsel in distress. Cress smiled to herself and turned off the water. She grabbed her pair of leggings and dried herself as best she could with them then pulled on her undergarments.

She walked over to the sink to look into the shattered mirror above it. Through the broken pieces of glass, she hardly recognized herself. Her hair had gotten even longer, if possible, and her face was now gaunt and pale without its usual natural blush. Cress pinched the sides of her stomach, and was saddened by the number of ribs she could clearly count. She went to look down and her breathing hitched.

She quickly backed away from the rusty sink. She grabbed her clothes from the floor and held them to her chest as she pressed herself against the wall opposite the mirror.

Because the rusty sink wasn't rusty at all; it was bloody. With fairly fresh blood.

Someone else was staying here too.

She wasn't alone.

AN: hola, I've always used AO3, but someone suggested i post on ffnet too, so here it is! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! please please please comment, i love to hear from readers and it allows me to become a much better (read as: enthusiastic and encouraged) writer! OH AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS, hope y'all like this gift :)))