Sorry it took so long to post a new chapter! Hope you enjoy and leave a review for any critique, suggestions, or anything!
Making friends is a bad idea for Jasper.
As soon as the brother and sister decided that the four figures that were slowly approaching them were not infected, Alex took off towards them.
"Wait, you idiot!" Jasper had called but let her voice slowly trail off as she watched Alex bound, more like a small child than his actual twenty-five year old self, up to what she now saw was three males and a shorter female, his charming white smile greeting them as his light brunette hair was ruffled by the breeze.
Curse his good looks.
With a sigh, she walked up the hill of the mall parking lot to the edge of the street but held the pocket knife tight enough in her hand to make her knuckles turn white. She looked up briefly to get a closer look at the group. Such an assortment of people to form a group.
The tallest, a bald muscular man that wore a yellow and purple polo shirt with a pair of beige slacks, stood at the front of the group. He presented an aura of authority over the group, it made sense as he also looked to be the oldest in his mid-forties, and an automatic shotgun looked menacing in his hands, or at least more menacing than her own shotgun that was rusted at the tip.
Right behind the assumed leader was another guy that looked only a few years older than herself and then a girl who looked to be about the same age as Jasper. The guy was wearing a yellow t-shirt with a blue and white baseball cap, both with logos on them but she was unfamiliar with the companies, and the goofy smile that was spread across his lips led her to believe that he didn't take the situation nearly as serious as the others in the group. The girl had her black hair tied into a bun wearing a pink t-shirt with a thin belt wrapped around it, blue jeans, and knee-high brown boots. She was carrying an assault rifle while the guy was carrying a hunting rifle.
The one out of the four that caught her interest the most was the man in the back, his expensive looking white suit and blue button-up shirt stood out from the rest, although it was caked with dirt and slight hint of zombie blood just like the others. He was staring at the ground and seemed to be ignoring Alex's introduction of himself, almost bitterly at that, by studying the submachine gun in his hands and looked to be the same age as the guy with the baseball cap.
"-my sister, Jasper, and I have been traveling around this city for about a month too," Alex was explaining to the unusual group as Jasper walked to stand beside him. Jasper looked over the group once more as she pushed the small strand of dark brunette curls from her face and realized then that they were waiting for her to say something.
"I'm the sister," Jasper said nonchalantly as she kept the pocket knife tight in her fist but slung her shotgun over her shoulder.
The man with the baseball cap laughed, breaking the awkward moment of silence that had followed her comment with Alex, the leader and the girl her age laughing some as well. It seemed that laughter during this apocalypse was the only thing people used to fill the normal silence of the abandoned city now.
The man in the suit looked up at her but remained a solemn, distrustful expression, which she wouldn't blame him for considering she didn't trust them very well either.
The man with the baseball cap held out his hand for Jasper to shake and she reluctantly gave the man a firm hand shake, "Well Jasper, or the sister, I'm Ellis. This here is Coach," he said motioning to the taller man of the group who Jasper had assumed to be the leader and her suspicions seemed to be confirmed as he shook her hand as well with a strong grip, "this is little Rochelle," he said motioning to Rochelle with the goofy grin that continued to make her believe that this Ellis guy didn't act like he was in the apocalypse, "and this is ole grouchy Nick," Ellis concluded in his quite obvious southern accent with a small laugh. Nick had frowned at Ellis but didn't jump in to defend himself either.
"Ellis, leave Nick alone, would you?" Rochelle said with a small groan, insinuating that this sort of rivalry occurred often between the two, although Rochelle had also slightly smiled which probably meant she had fun watching them fight too.
"Alright, alright," Ellis said with a small chuckle as he put his hands in the air to mock surrender. "So Coach, should we let these Survivors join our group?" Ellis asked the taller man with Alex slightly smiling but before Coach could reply, Jasper and Nick both looked shocked and said quickly,
"What?!"
Jasper was staring angrily up at Alex, her older brother being much taller than herself, but the fierceness in Jasper's gaze was more anger than Alex would possess in a single bone of his body. Nick was glaring at the other members in his group as well as he hissed, probably trying to keep Jasper and Alex from hearing but his anger made his voice much more audible, "Remember last time we let someone in? There's no damn way that I'm letting something like it happen again."
Jasper pointed her finger over to Nick as she continued to scowl at Alex and mouthed to him, What he said!
"Shoot, Nick, can't you learn to trust someone for once?" Ellis said with a chuckle as he shook his head and looked back at Coach, "C'mon, Coach, we can't just let two more survivors pass by us? We could take down so many more zombies, remember that place up the street we want to get in but there's too many zombies? More people, more killing zombies, more food, c'mon Coach! More food, think of the possibi-" Ellis had been rambling on, moving his hands as he talked, but Coach interrupted him with a sigh.
"Ellis, calm down boy, no need to get yourself worked up. Nick, Ellis is right about one thing, we can't pass up on more survivors and we want to get in that one building…" Coach said as his voice started to trail away from the thought of whatever building they were talking about.
Alex had ignored Jasper's continuous glares as he piped in with his smile, "Don't worry, we're immune, we got a few supplies, and we know how to handle a weapon or two," he said with a small laugh and the group looked content enough with the answers, except for Nick.
Jasper had stood motionless when her brother had said that they were immune, it was true that he was immune, but she on the other hand… her immunity was still up in the air to put it nicely.
"Ya hear that, Coach? We gotta take 'em in now!" Ellis exclaimed with an almost begging tone and Coach nodded his head with a smile.
"We need some more members," Coach agreed and Rochelle nodded her head as well while Nick just sighed and looked away, apparently not seeing his input as worthy now that it was three against one.
"Well we were headed inside the mall, figured a few stores' locks would have rusted by now that we could find some more supplies," Alex offered in his slight country accent, with a small shrug of his shoulders and Jasper lightly groaned as she stared down at the pavement. That was supposed to be a secret idea that no one else knew about but now they were going to have to share their supplies. Permanently it seemed.
"Sounds perfect!" Rochelle chirped with a smile as she motioned for them to follow as she headed down the hillside towards the faded light blue entrance of the mall. Ellis and Alex followed her easily, Alex already having put away his magnum and only carrying his axe in his hands now. Coach chuckled as he watched them go and headed behind them but called over his shoulder, "Let's go, Jasper and Nick!"
Nick scowled as he looked at Jasper and he muttered, barely audible for her to hear, "Yeah, let's go." He didn't wait for her response as he walked to catch up to the group that had already reached a great distance ahead of them.
Jasper watched them for a moment and as soon as Nick had turned around, she stuck out her tongue at him and then reluctantly started to walk down the hill, pushing her curls out of her face as the breeze blew in once more.
