Remember Me

The world is getting to be such a dangerous place. One is Lucky to get out of it alive. ~W.C. Fields

~6 years earlier. Los Angeles, California 9:27 p.m.~

"Come on, Tori, just a little further."

Have you ever felt like you weren't inside your body? Like you're floating off ground, in another dimension, out of touch everything? Like the scene in front of you is nothing but a clip from a movie? It's like I'm watching some person trudge through a forest. I'm watching what resembles myself walk on wet grass. It's dark outside. I can see the fear on my face. But I can feel it too. Like I have some supernatural connection with this mirror clone of myself. I can see my sister too. She's in front of me, looking just as afraid. Her hair is wet and clinging to her face, her entire body covered in in mud and shivers from the cold.

I don't like this clip. I don't like this movie. But I can't change the channel. I can't turn it off. And every second that goes by it feels like I'm slipping more and more into the scene while something inside of me falls back in the opposite direction. Then, just like that, I'm in that body, playing in this movie against my will.

"Hurry, up."

I look up to the sound of her voice, but my vision is blurred by large droplets of rain. I can't see her. The rain is too heavy. I can just make out her framework and brown hair clinging to her face. The foliage around us is becoming reedier, and the weather seems to be taking notice and makes its move.

"I think I see a place," my sister says, grabbing my wrist and towing me onward. I must be walking too slowly. I make out a yowl close by. It's not an animal… But it's not human either.

My sister speeds up, dragging my thin, exhausted body close behind. "They're coming closer. We need to hurry."

I don't know how long we've been running. It's felt like days, but it's been more like hours. My body is growing weary, and I can only just keep my eyes open. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I wouldn't be surprised if I had been. Fleeing out of the city had been almost near impossible. The chaos of people running through streets, Swat teams firing bullets recklessly in the air, bombs setting off, vehicles veering across motorways and into buildings, people bleeding out on the ground… And those monsters.

Trina halts. I see the gray outline of something like a shed. Trina tries the handle, it's unlocked.

Wow, we're lucky.

There's another moan like howl, really close. She pushes me inside and follows, slamming the door behind her. We wait in the dark, and we hear shuffling, and moaning. It seems to be coming closer.

Bang! Bang!

Whatever it was, it started to thrust up against the door. Trina forced herself alongside the door, trying to keep it out. I froze. I didn't know what to do. Should I help? But I felt to weak.

Should I run?

But there is nowhere to go.

Should I hide?

But I can't see anything beyond arm's length.

So I stay put in my embargo, water dripping down my face. Fear encases me, like some large shadow forcing me into a hug.

Abruptly, gunshots rang out. Lots of them. Whatever it was groaned, and retreated from the other side of the door.

We pause a few moments. Trina exhales. "I think we're safe."

I realize I hadn't been breathing, and take a sharp inhale of breath. "I hope so." I don't recognize my voice.

"Wait here," she says, moving out of my sight and descends into the darkness.

I do the only thing I seem to be good at. I wait. I listen to her shuffling around in the small shack. The darkness is beginning to get to me. I'm feeling light-headed. I need air.

There's a flash of light and I step back. I see Trina has found a flashlight, and she shines it from corner to corner of the shack. It's small, desolate. Dust is casing a small worktable in the corner with various abandoned tools. There's a small fireplace, but it lacks kindling. I notice a window that sits high up on the hindmost wall caked in grime. Other than that, the residence was bare.

"Let's rest here," she tells me, sliding down the wall and plopping onto the floor. I stride over to her and do the same. I'm shivering, my body soaked down to the bone.

"What were those things?" I ask her.

"I don't know," she states. "They looked like people, but…"

"They couldn't be people!" I retorted. "They were all bloody and their eyes were red! And… And they were attacking people, Trina! Beating them to death! Some were even… eating them! Why? How come…?"

"I don't know!" She shouts. "I don't know…" She shifts away from me, and I know she's about to cry.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. I'm scared, I'm cold, I'm confused, and I don't know what to do. I want my parents, but they're gone; I want to go home, but I'm afraid there isn't one to go back to anymore. I want things to just be normal again, but it seems like that's impossible. And fighting with my sister wasn't aiding us at all.

"It's okay." She wraps her arm around me and tugs me closer. "We'll talk more in the morning.

I close my eyes. I hear the hissing and grunting start again. It terrifies me. I don't like the sound that they make. It keeps me wide-awake for the longest time.

I'd never get used to that noise.

~Present Yuba City, California. 7:09 p.m.~

I feel something graze my shoulder. I look up, prepared to attack, but instead of a Biter or an Enforcer, I see my sister, hair tied up, bangs half covering her tanned expression of annoyance.

"Are you daydreaming or what?" She asked.

I glimpse frontward over the roof's sill and catch the sun drifting slowly beneath the horizon. We'd come here earlier to break, but I hadn't realized it was almost nighttime.

"Sorry," I say, standing, my thin, lanky body needing to stretch itself. "I was just thinking."

She saunters up to my side. "Well it must've been quite intense, Tori, because I swear you were so still I didn't even see you breathing at some point."

That's Trina. If there's one feature I'd never trade for anything, it was her eyesight. There was factually nothing in her line of sight that she would let slip.

She props herself on the concrete ledge, and points a bit farther in into the city. "I see houses there, and they look reasonably clear. Why don't we travel there and break for the night."

I inspect the area where she is pointing, and I'm feeling hesitant. It looks empty, but that means nothing. Even if the swarms stayed to one side of the city, activity from the Industrialists might be a problem. And hunters could be anywhere. "Are you sure? Don't you think it's a little distant for us to get there before we lose light?"

She rolls her eyes at me. "Well I wasn't the one daydreaming," she admonished. "What were you thinking about anyhow?"

I shrug. "You know, nothing really. I kind of just started thinking back to how all of this started," I tell her. "Do you ever reflect on it?"

Her thin shoulders bounce underneath her orange sweater as she scoffs. "Really, Tori? If I spent as much time woolgathering as you do, we would never make it anywhere." She shakes her head. "And besides, everything is such a tedious routine now I can barely recall anything that happened yesterday. Especially events that occurred, what…? Five… six years ago? There's no point. "

She sounded defiant, almost bitter, and she stares at the sunset. I know she remembers. She has to, but I can understand why she denies it. The day this all started, it was something we could never forget, no matter how much we sought to. I can't tell you how many days I go to sleep and hope that I'd wake up to this world chock-full of Biters, and I knew of nothing else. But my memories will always be with me. They're like a curse, one that just couldn't be lifted.

The obscenities of our past were something neither of us wanted to bring up. I don't know why I did.

"You're right." I adjust my backpack on my shoulders. "It's stupid. I was only thirteen, and you were fourteen. We we're lucky to get away alive."

She nodded, her gaze never leaving the setting orb in the sky. "Okay, so are you ready to leave?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," I mutter.

The method by which we came up was obstructed by Biters, so we exploited the fire escape around the side of the building. Once we were in the alleyway on the ground, Trina takes the lead. She claims to have seen a promising shortcut for us, and at this point we needed it. Even though Instructuralist's military occupied cities like these where they build safe camps and shelters, they didn't come outside their secure fortifications at night. Night seemed like the best time for the Biters to go pursuing for victims.

The Instructuralist Community didn't seem so threatening when they first came along. Hell, they were the most inviting thing when the outbreak had occurred. Years before any of this had happened, the government had set up their own trust and a group of highly qualified military and navy veterans along with some IOS's from the FBI to begin working on an emergency plan in case of some type of pandemic just like this one. At first, when the outbreak had started, it was kept contained to certain cities under the Elicit Protocol 28. The Elicit 28 were special military personnel that were trained specifically in neurosciences, combat duty, special ops and widespread diseases. As the containment was being held, unaware citizens went on with their lives and research for a cure began. The initial sicknesses from the first who were infected were never released, and the first symptoms and signs no one knows about. But I do remember seeing people start to go bonkers. Either people became really lethargic and sick, passing out on streets or walking around zombie-like, or, like the majority, became violent. Their skin turned a sickish pink, and their eyes became bloodshot. They'd start breaking into houses, attacking people in stores and on the streets. Their homicidal tendencies were toward anyone and everyone around them.

My father, who was a policeman, along with every other policeman in the country, thought some new, altered drugs were going around. But people who seemed unlikely to be doing drugs were showing this behavior. People like children, housewives, politicians, the elderly. The cases were increasing, and my dad was out day and night on call for these things. The policeman and citizens were starting to panic, and government officials were shutting themselves behind their doors ignoring the pleas of the people.

Rumor had it that something horrific had happened during a scientific experiment at the main quarantine area in Denver Colorado. The entirety of the Elicit Protocol 28 staff and been killed and/or infected with the virus along with anything that had to do with their work on a cure. Whoever was left didn't have the time or the means to get into what was left of the lab area.

It was about seven months after the rise of infected that a man named Jonathan Haggle surfaced on the border of Nevada and California. People had spoken of him like a fucking god. He, apparently, was the last surviving scientist of the Elite Protocol 28. He, was hope. The State Treasurer, Alex Hymes, who was now acting president as the superiors above him were missing, was transported from what was left of the military in DC to Nevada to meet up with Haggle. Small communities protecting themselves had been formed at the time. My sister and I lived on the outside of the cities, wary of everyone who could possibly harm us. The second we gave ourselves to be controlled, the second we lost any chance of keeping ourselves alive.

It wasn't easy living by ourselves. Plenty of times we almost died of starvation or an attack from a Biter. The nights were worse. That's when the Hunters came out. The were some kind of mutation of the disease. Faster, uglier, balding. Some even looked like body builders. In only a few months you could see these things had created some kind of food chain. The bigger, faster, mutated infected would a lot of times resort to killing and eating the lesser, weaker ones. They were all dangerous, but no longer equally as bad. Now that I look back, it was a miracle me and my sister were still alive after six months.

We had heard from someone in a camp in La Pino about Haggle new town for survivors. They had food and military. It was a step toward growing America back to what it used to be.

We were both tempted, but decided to keep low. Who woulda' guessed that three weeks later we'd be store hopping at night when we ran into a hunter. This was a time we were too cocky for our own good. We thought we knew how to survive, but we were dumb, we were too loud, and we were stupid and didn't cover our tracks. He attacked Trina on the roof of a two story Stop n' Shop. He had his bare body forcing her down against the edge of the roof, spraying bloody spit all over her face as he went for the jugular. I had a crowbar and swung it against his bare skull. His grip loosened but didn't release as he fell over the edge, Trina falling down with him. Panicked, I slid down a pipe on the side of the building and ran to their location as fast as I called. The hunter was lying face down, a giant split down his head and in a pool of blood. Trina got lucky. She hand landed on her left leg, and gotten a compound fracture. Her tibia broken in three places, slicing threw her skin, all going in three different direction.

She, was howling like crazy, cursing and screaming as she to move. I can never reiterate how difficult it was to get out of there. We were lucky that infected wasn't hunting with a pack. I had to half drag her to La Pino, or what was left of it. Most of the people at that camp had left to Haggle's new town. A lady named Eva had taken us in her vehicle with her son a few miles past Mono Lake. At this point, I didn't care we were being led into a military camp.

Trina said in the makeshift clinic for two weeks. All the while, I stayed with Eva in the housing we had been given. Makeshift one room houses had been built across a ten acre landscape around a busted up side of a little town. I never actually met Jonathan Haggle, but whenever a town meeting was called he would stand up on some half-assed stage with at least twenty military members behind him as he spoke of progress. I had to admit, at the time, he sounded convincing. His plans to slowly gather citizens and teach them to fight and start farms and stores, and have running water and electricity sounded all too good.

Of course Trina bitched about her leg the whole time. Every day I would go to the clinic, light a candle, and to tell her of Haggle's progress like an excited little kid talking about candy and Christmas presents. She never seemed excited. Just pissed about her leg and otherwise quiet. The shortage on medicine meant that she only got painkillers the first couple of days. The rest was hell for her.

I had no idea why she never said anything to me about what she thought about the plans Jonathon Haggle had. She would just shrug and moan about her leg. She would also eye the military personnel that walked around the clinic with guns. I knew she had a lot of trust issues. With everyone. I, on the other hand, didn't. In our old world, it was bad to have trust issues. People wanted to be trusted, and to be liked. Normally, you're supposed to reciprocate those feelings. It pissed me off Trina couldn't act normal. But I forgot I'm not in that world anymore, and I let my guard down.

One day, one of Jonathan Haggle's number one supporters, a politician from Arizona, Brighton Coon, was greeting people in the clinic, handing out little packets of toothpaste and crackers. A 'gift to Haggle supporters' they called it. Boy, did politicians know how to make you feel special for their own benefit. He walked in with the head of the military, Chief Nix, who was known as a hard ass with the face of the devil. It was cut up, and a permanent frown with frown lines around his mouth. He wore an eye patch that made him look like a bad guy in a kid's movie. I really scary kids movie.

And for a second, that memory, unrealistically vivid, plays before my eyes…

~5.5 years early. Camp Mono 3:47 p.m.~

When Brighton Coon saw me, he smiled. "Tori, my dear! Good to run into you today!" He looked at Trina with a smile. She narrowed her eyes at him. "And you must be her sister she talks so much about. How are you dear?"

Trina just narrowed her eyes. I cleared my throat loudly when it was obvious she wasn't going to speak to back.

"It's a… not a good day for her, Mr. Coon," I say quickly. I actually liked him at the time. He was always doing things for me and Eva and everyone else in the camp. "Her leg really hurts."

Coon gave a sad face. "Oh, my apologies. I understand your pain must be immense. I remember breaking my leg when I was younger." He turned back to Nix, who handed Coon a small baggie.

Coon walked closer to us. I could feel Trina tense from my position on the bed. This wasn't going to be good.

"This is a little gift from our leader Haggle himself," he says, handing the baggie toward Trina. "If you ask me, it's quite generous of him to do-"

"No," Trina said quickly. "I don't want it. You can leave now."

Coon looked like he'd been smacked in the face. I wanted to smack Trina right that second.

"Excuse me?"

I huffed. "Trina, be nice."

She glared at me. "I don't need your input!" Then she looked back at Coon. "I said no thanks. Now leave."

Nix stepped forward, looking like an angry dog. "Don't speak to our leaders like that! You will have respect!"

Trina rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she was good at was having respect for no one at all, ever. Guess that's what made her so good at leaving others behind. Herself was the priority, always had been before the epidemic, and I would be an idiot if I had thought for one second she still wouldn't be a priority to herself after the pandemic.

Coon look to some extent perturbed, but stoically took his gift back. "All right. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Let's go, Nix."

Nix looked surprised, and a little bothered he didn't get to carry on to reprimand my oh so foolhardy sister. But he nodded and walked out the room. Mr. Coon nodded a goodbye to me and left.

When the door closed behind them, I turned back to Trina. "What the heck is wrong with you?"

She huffed. "We don't need to be taking their handouts, Tori," she tells me. "It'll make them think we're actually going to stay here."

"Well why can't we?"

I can see the disbelief on her face in the dim candlelight as clear as day. I don't know why that pisses me off.

"Tori," she says slowly, as if I'm some stupid, little child. I was at the time, but I felt so grown up. I felt like I could make my own decisions. "Are you seriously wanting to stay under their control?"

"We won't be under their control!" I retort. "We'll be safe, fed, protected. They are going to make the world like it used to be! Isn't that better than running around like we know what we're doing? There's hope here!"

Trina looks like she's about to say something. But she doesn't. I thought this meant I won. That she agreed with me but didn't want to admit it. I didn't find out until it was too late what she really had to say.

"We aren't staying here." Her arms are crossed and her eyes are defiant. "That's final."

I'm so livid I want to scream. If she hadn't already broken her leg I'd probably hit her in the face. But instead, I turn on my heels and storm out.

I'm so angry I almost didn't notice Mr. Coon talking with some military guys and this one tall, white man in a navy blue suit. Something about his face looked… evil. I can't ever describe it, but his stance was of authority and power, the lines of his face told of an age I was far from ever experiencing. His eyes were narrowed, and his slanted forehead casted a dark, ominous shadow over his face. I slow down my strides a few feet away from the clinic. Mr. Coon nods at them with a smile. One I don't like. The men all follow the creepy guy in the suit and the last one to enter locks the door behind him.

I didn't see my sister for the rest of that week.

~Present Near Yuba City, California 7:10 p.m.~

We have one of those uncanny, unspoken rules between us. We had most likely a billion of them, but this one was the utmost important: Kill the infected, and leave the un-infected on their own. We keep it to just us. Always has been, and always will be. We guard each other's backs, and everyone else can rise to the top or fall to the Infected for all we care. In good conscience, I was satisfactory with that. It worked out perfectly, the pieces all fit when it was just us. I liked it this way, why risk it?

I'm on my sister's heels as she hurdles over the iron fence and rounds the bend in the direction of the streets. The Biter's are shambling across the roads, bumping broken down vehicles as they search for food. I notice one that's particularly close to us with half its face attached and he is wearing a faded Denny's uniform.

"I used to love that place," I whisper to Trina as we watch the jawless Biter limp onto the sidewalk. "They had the greatest fries."

"Chat with me about food after we get some," she murmured. "If my stomach grumbles and we get spotted, it'll be your fault."

I want to retort, but then she jumps up and sprints down the sidewalk. I hastily strain to follow, dropping my head low. She journeys over the hood of a black Sudan coated in dust with its hood entirely absent and I follow, landing on fragmented pavement.

Trina points forward. "See that shoe store down the street?" I squint to see an enormous dilapidated shoe on top of what was left of a medium-sized a brick building and figure that's what she was talking about.

"Okay, so around that junction there's a really tall fence. No sentries or anything, so I'm guessing that it was constructed as a first generation refuge that ended up abandoned. There's probably a smaller one inside, but we won't worry about that. Let's just get over that fence and through the park."

Trina pulls out her handgun and I survey the area around us. The quantity of Biters was steadily intensifying, and we were almost out of sunlight. Soon, the hunters would be about, doing what they did the best. I didn't want to stick around and be apart of it.

"Are you sure we'll make it? I mean, what if the path is blocked?"

She took a cautious step forward. "By more Biters? Then we just got to leg it."

I shook my head. "Not just Biters! What if-"

I didn't get to finish before Trina took off, abandoning me in mid-conversation again. I take a deep breath, pull out my iron pipe and begin running. No doubt, we've been spotted. Their casual groaning becomes a series of venomous and angry his and inhuman screeches as they begin to shadow behind. Trina begins shelling the ones directly in our path. As we meet with the end of the street one reaches out for me with pale, filthy arms, his teeth are broken into sharp little shard that remind me of a shark's mouth. I thrust the pipe straight into his face. He drops to the pavement, but the pipe is jutting out of its eye, and I can't pull it out.

"Tori!" I glance back and see Trina standing next to the fence. "Hurry up!"

Biters are closing in. I give it one more jerk, but it wedged securely in the Biter's brain. I decide begrudgingly to abandon it and race to the fence.

"Geez, you're just taking your time today, huh?" She comments before scaling up the fence. I wait for her to reach the top before following. Halfway up I feel one of the bastards grab my foot. I yank it hard, and make my way over the fence. The Biters are violently pushing up against the fence, practically shoving each other around trying to get at the two of us.

"Come on, Tori," Trina says. "The park is this way."

I follow right on her heels across the street, and Biter's are stirring from the bushes. By the time we make it to the park, we have a bigger crowd racing after us us than before.

I didn't expect to see the grounds in this type of disrepair. Vehicles have crashed into the grass, benches and food stands are dejectedly abandoned all over the park, the stone paths had cracks that had grass growing freely through it, and the vegetation and shrubbery has grown due to the lack of upkeep of the grass and it grasps our knees, slowing us down. Luckily, the Biters are being slowed down too.

Trina leads us to a small wooden bridge that leads into a forest. The woodland isn't very compact, and I can make out houses in the fading sunbeams behind the trees.

"Told you I found a shortcut," she said in her know-it-all-voice.

I survey the bridge's handiwork. "Do you think it's safe?"

The hissing and grunting behind us is louder and I realize that we're close to surrounded on our only other exit route.

"Guess we'll have to find out." Trina takes the first steps over the bridge. I wait, realizing it wouldn't hold the both of us. There's a loud groan as she makes it to the end and hops onto solid ground.

She points out which boards are weak to me from across the bridge. "And hurry up," she finishes.

I glance back one more time to see they were only a few feet away from me, tumbling out of the bushes clumsily trying to race over each other in their hunger and aggression. Days when we got lucky, they'd start beating the shit out of each other.

I take a deep breath and start to cross the bridge, takings steady, but cautious steps across the rotting wood. I see I'm close to the edge and my nerves are steeling.

Just a little bit more…

Crack!

I hear the splintering of wood and I freeze out of fear. Then there's a loud whoosh! And then I'm falling.

"Tori!"

My sister's voice is not anything but an aloof echo as I wrap my arms around my head to protect my skull from the fall. I land hard into a shallow river. It takes me a few seconds to catch my breath and I attempt to roll over so I don't swallow any of the water. My body feels like I've been thrown straight through a concrete wall and I'm stunned to the point where my movements are unsteady and decelerated.

"Tori!" I hear Trina scream from somewhere above me. "Tori! Get up! They're coming!"

It's a struggle but I manage to move my arm. I see Biters are falling down into the ravine where I've landed.

"Fuck, Tori, get up!" My sister continues to scream and pulls out her gun, aiming it at the domes of the approaching Biters. "Get up, now!"

Still dazed from my plummet, I rolled onto my knees and forced myself to stand up on my feet. I shook my head and maneuvered my way through scraps of splintered wood that were once a bridge to the side of the gorge where my sister stood sentry waiting. She began shelling bullets at the Biters close at my heels and I dropped low to the rock wall.

"Trina! Help me up!" She extends her hand for me as for as she can, and I jump. I reach out to grasp her hand, but I slip. My heels scrape the rocks on the wall before I land on my butt.

"Tori!"

Something seizes me from behind, jerking me backward. My eyes meet with pure red and yellow yokes and a loud snarl. It snaps at me with its damaged teeth, blood saturated around its mouth. In its other hand it had part of a tire iron. Biters with weapons were the worst. They were the ones still conscious and aware of the environment around them. It was a fifty-fifty shot of which ones you ran into. Sometimes you got lucky. Today, I wasn't.

My hands shoot out involuntarily and snatch its shoulders to push it away. Slightly unbalanced, I was able to kick the tire iron out of its hand. The Biter seizes my hair, and starts dragging me into the shallow canal, training itself on my neck. I take a deep breath, and lurch the boney monster over my left shoulder. Another one comes up behind it, and I duck and roll to avoid its swiping at my face with its black nails.

I gaze up to search for Trina, but she's no longer standing at the edge. Where the fuck was she?

I push myself up, deciding that I needed to stay on both my feet while I still have them. They are fighting now, but their target was still clearly me. I search the ground, and find a piece of stray wood floating near my heels. I grab it just as one Biter with stringy red hair and scratches down her chest lunges for me. She grabs my arms, and I hold the wood against her fungus covered neck to keep her at bay.

"Get… off!" I push, hard. She goes flying backwards. Two more come at me, and I swing, hitting one with a fierce blow to the head, and the other took me two blows to finish off.

"Tori!"

I gaze to the rock wall and see Trina dangle a dense branch over the edge. "Jump!" She called down.

A mass of Infected fell into the gorge, skidding and stumbling over each other in their haste to reach me. I abandon the melee weapon and run to the branch, leaping up and taking a well-founded grip on the branches. Trina started to pull and I clambered up the side as fast as possible.

When I made it over the edge I collapsed onto my knees, struggling to catch my breath. But Trina didn't let me. She grabbed my muddy wrist and yanked me across the clearing and into the woods.

Guess I did still have a little luck on my side.

For now.

~Present Near Yuba City, California 8:23 p.m.~

We made it to our destination a few moments after nightfall. Biters were wandering into the streets in dozens, now that they weren't under the intense glare of the sun and at this time had the concealment of night.

Trina led us into the first backyard we were able to find unlocked. The iron bars had rusted to the point where the lock was completely useless. I followed her inside and she chained the bars as quietly as possible.

The moaning was loud, and I could hear the dragging from over the brick wall. "I think we're good," I whisper.

She just nods and we cautiously check out the backyard. Nothing but a broken down fountain and a shed greeted us.

"You want to head into the house?" I ask her.

"Nah, I'm too tired to risk it," she says. "Let's just use the shed."

The double doors to the shed are unlocked. I pull out my flashlight to guide my way. It was small, and held some tools. Nothing else.

Why did this feel like déjà vu?

"Place seems safe enough," Trina states, dropping her backpack onto the floor.

I shrug, setting my stuff down and plopping onto the floor. I was starving, but looting for food today had gone completely futile. No weapons either.

"You think we gunna camp out here?" I ask Trina as she sits down next to me.

She shakes her head. "Nah, I think this place has been stripped bare already. I say we break into one of the Industrialist's supply centers, take as much as we can and head on east. They have a big camp not even two miles from here."

"No," I say. "Bad Idea. Last time-"

She cut me off. "Last time we got two weeks' worth of food and ammo."

"And you ended up getting shot!"

"Pfft! I got grazed in the arm, Tori," she scoffs. "No big deal."

I roll my eyes. "It is a big deal!" Trina was trying to down play it, but I'd been really apprehensive about the whole situation. I hadn't wanted to break into the encampment in Cali, only because there had been way too many guards patrolling the perimeter. But Trina is as stubborn as a mule. She'd get what she want, even if the odds were against us.

"We are not going." I punctuate each word, letting her know I was not going to risk either of our lives again.

She shrugs her shoulders and lays her head back on the wall. "Whatever."

I know this fight isn't over. She is going to contest me later on about this. But it was late, and I just wanted to get to sleep. My eyelids felt heavy, and my limbs felt numb from the running. I was glad she didn't feel up to arguing now. Maybe it'd be this easy in the morning.

Doubt it.

The grunting and hissing outside has grown loud and consistent. I can hear the clattering of trashcans and scraping of asphalt outside. It's strangely calming as I drift into my unconscious. It's like a mother's voice telling her child everything is okay and singing the infant to sleep. It says everything is fine. It's the way it's been for six, and probably how it's going to be for another six or dozen or who the fuck knows? Sometimes I wonder how I get to this… unsettling peaceful place within myself even being fully aware of how messed up everything was.

I could just be going insane. Maybe all this has made me distant and resistant from the horror. There was no time to cry or complain. The only little time you have between enduring a hoard of walkers and being forced into some primal domestication of some over-zealous administration was survival.

Survival. That's all that was truly left anymore. It's all I believe in. To some, that might sound sad. But it was comforting, because it was something. Something I could have on my mind at all hours of the day whenever I needed it. And it was hear during nights like these, when I needed a lullaby to help me sleep.

And just like that, I'm at ease, and I drift off to sleep.

Hey Guys! I know... Don't hate me. I decided My other story is on hiatus until I completely finish it. This one, well, I wrote it a while ago. I have four chapter done and I thought 'Do I really want to finish this?' I wanted to make it into a book like series. Maybe IDK. But that's why I'm posting it. If enough people say they want more I will finish it! If not well, I hope you don't feel like you wasted your time.

So yeah, if its a yes, i will officially start this story next week Monday. (I'd say Saturday but I got graduation). So tell me how much you liked it, or loved it, or hated it so much you want it to burn in a fire somewhere. Some of you probably noticed this isn't a traditionally, ZOMBIES HAVE TAKEN OVER THE Planet, since the 'infected' are more resemblance to aggressive people. I want that. I hate traditional. It boring ZZzzzz...

Also, this is going to be a challenging story, so I might need a beta or two. Drop a review or pm if your interested. I'm not good at writing stories but the hobby alone makes me feel good.

So yea, thanks with all my heart for reading. A review on just the quality of my writing would help. I can always strive to be better, but I'll never be perfect. I hope you all are enjoying your days and weekends and the beginning of the summer. Maybe we can spend our summer together, reading about the Vega's plight through the world of the infected. Who knows all the adventures we could go on together?

Anyway, Better Days, Friends. Hope To see you soon!

~FruityFerret