BECA POV

10 months and 6 days since it all started

I woke up abruptly. The dream I was having almost made me jump on my feet. Yeah my dreams; I'd rather say my nightmares; they were always about the same things, every night, and because of them I couldn't sleep for more than 4 hours a night.
I couldn't remember when I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep but I noticed that all the others were still in the embrace of Morpheus so I had to have been unconscious just for a few hours. I looked around me. The place was full of clothes and stuff, things we were looking for when we came in Atlanta.
"Hey girl, did ya sleep fine?" Fat Amy asked me from beside me.
"Sorry Amy, I didn't want to let you be on guard all alone" I said, trying to stand up but in vain.
"Now now girl, take it easy. You were very tired and it's not like you usually sleep more than 4 hours every night so yeah count it as my future birthday present" but as she said that she paralyzed.
Birthday. 2 days ago was the 19th of April and it was Chloe's birthday. I thought that we would have found her before that day but I evaluated wrong the situation. Chloe was nowhere to be found and maybe we would never be able to find her. Maybe, for Christ's sake, it's too late.
"Yeah sorry anyway. Ehm I think I'll go wake up the others so that we can finally leave this place" I said without making eye contact with the Australian.
When everyone was up we all gathered around the pile made with backpacks.
"Have we taken everything we need?" Bumper asked looking around.
"We have everything we can take with us without slowing us down" Unicycle answered.
We were taking the backpacks, one for each person when we heard some gunshots and then an out-of-breath Lily came down the stairs:
"Guys we have a problem! A big problem! There's someone out there. He is in a panzer now but he is surrounded!"
"Lets just leave him there then. He will be a dead man anyway. Who is so stupid to go inside a panzer nowadays?" Bumper exclaimed aiming to the door.
"We can't just leave him there. We have to do something. Moreover, he just shot like 6 or 7 bullets with his gun. The doors are off-limits." Lily explained to us obtaining drop jaws.
"He just rang the dinner bell" I cursed in a low voice but trying to regain my cold mind I ordered to Lily: "Take me to the roof. Lets see if we can get us and him out of this mess. Then, if we'll be able to do that, I'm going to kick his ass so hard that he will hope he died out there". However before that we came up with half of a plan in which we needed someone who would had to make his life at risk. It was Jasper who volunteered. I believed that he wanted to prove to the group that he deserved to be part of it: he was the only one who wasn't there with us from the beginning; we all knew each other before but him, we saved him 2 months earlier. Most probably he thought that it was his turn to help us. I didn't oppose, there was no time: the dead people were at the doors and they were trying to break them to come in.

I followed Lily up the stairs, Jasper chased us.
"Lily can you make a contact with the panzer?" I asked the Asian girl.
"I already did, I was waiting for your instructions"
"Good. Give me the radio" as Lily handed it to me I spoke into the microphone.
"Ehi are you alive in there?" I asked, maybe he was already dead. After a few seconds the answer came:
"Who's there?"
The voice was distorted but it was not a male voice. It was a girl.
"Lily, it's a girl" I looked at her.
"I-I-I thought it was a boy. She was wearing a helmet. She was on a horse. From up here I can't see clearly"
"Who is it?" the girl asked again.
"Ehi you!"
"Where are you? Can you see me right now?"
"Yeah I can see you. You're surrounded by biters, that's the bad news."
"There's good news?" she asked me raising her voice a little, maybe in hope.
"No"
"Look I don't know who you are but I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here"
"Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out"
"Got any advice for me?"
"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it." I hesitated a little thinking about the plan we made up just a few minutes earlier.
"That's it? That's all you have to say?" she asked me.
"Hey it's not as dumb as it sounds. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down." But the girl didn't say anything.
"With me so far?" I asked her.
"So far" she answered straight.
"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?"
"I had a duffel bag with some weapons but it's out there"
"Yeah, forget about it. It's not an option. What do you have on you?"
"Hang on"
After half a minute there it was the girl again:
"I've got a Beretta with one clip, 15 rounds"
Thank God, she has something with her.
"Make 'em count." I spoke in the radio, then I looked at Jasper: "Are you sure of this?"
"Yeah I can do this!" he answered straight to me but I saw fear in his eyes.
"Jas, I know you can help her! You're one of the fastest in the group and you're smart" Or at least I hope so. I told him putting a hand on his shoulders.
"Thanks" he said with a little smile.
I gave my attention back to the radio:
"Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Someone will be there"
"Hey, what's your name?" She asked me
"Have you been listening? You're running out of time"
"Right" and said so she stopped the communication.
At the same time I saw Jasper going to the little bridge which hooked up the building in which we were and another one . When I could not see him anymore I went downstairs where the others were arguing about the situation.
"Get ready. We have to think about our escape from this hell and we can't leave the bags behind us or these days we spent in Atlanta will be useless" and I couldn't let it happen. I couldn't have found Chloe but at least I would give some other comfort days to the group.
People were chatting together, trying to make a plan when we started hearing footsteps on the floor upon us.
"We're coming. I have her." Jasper said on the walkie-talkie. I sighed.
"Wait, he's a she?" Jesse asked.
I had no time for answering him. We saw Jasper rushing down the stairs followed by a girl who wore a helmet, a yellow and pale blue scarf which covered all her face except for her eyes and she was wearing a grey tank top, blue skinny jeans and combat boots.
We had no time to look at her face because Bumper took her and pushed her against the wall, drawing his gun on her:
"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you!" he shouted at her.
Shit. Bumper could be able to kill her right there. It was true that I myself said that I would have killed her when I had her within arm's reach but we had no time, we still had to find a way to escape and we couldn't kill her just like that.
"Just chill out man. Back off" I said approaching him.
"Come on, ease up" Unicycle said from behind me but Bumper kept pushing her against the wall.
I looked at Jesse to find support but his face clearly showed shock.
Why? What'd you see? You can't be scared of Bumper! You punched him so many times while we were out there with walkers all around us just because he wouldn't listen to the orders. So...why you keep staring at the girl like that?
I eventually realized that Jesse wouldn't have been of any help so I stepped forward and yelled at him: "Bumper! I said back the hell off!" and I yanked him from her looking at the girl to see if she was ok.
She was watching away from him and at another direction from where our group was but when she heard the name I called she turned her face towards me. That was when I saw her eyes.
Blue. Light blue eyes looking into mine. It can't be. Or it can. Those beautiful eyes belong only to one person.
Just a word escaped my lips:
"Chloe..?"