I won't be doing the Disclaimer here, it's in the chapter before this. Also, those with weak stomachs might not want to be here...
"Get up, child!" Angry words growled followed by a rough nudge to her side was how the curly haired girl woke up that morning. There was shuffling then another voice huffed "Don't be so rude."
Blinking open her eyes, she squinted up at a figure standing above her.
"I said GET UP!" Ruby snarled, bending down so she could glare directly into her eyes. Marissa yelped, leaping up onto her feet in surprise by the women's sudden movement. Dizziness swept her as soon as she stood up on her feet, wobbling from side to side before balancing herself.
"Good, you're up. Lets go." The older lady said, turning away from them and striding over to the shed's door.
"What about breakfast?" She asked, rubbing the "sand" from her eyes. Zeke was over by the side of the shed, rearranging stuff she couldn't really see from the angle he was standing, but she didn't mistake the machete that gleamed from the little light that made its way into the shelter's window. He turned to her, and she could see that he had in his glasses again, then gave her a gentle smile before following after the brown haired women.
"Hey! Wait up! What about breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day." Marissa complained, rushing after them. She didn't close the door all the way as she left out the shed, but thought nothing of it since there was absolutely nothing around here that could break in.
"You'll get your breakfast at the store, when we get there." Ruby said, moving rather quickly through the dirty streets, as if afraid that something would jump out and attack her while they were walking. The brown eyed girl was finding it difficult keeping up with them, but after a while Zeke simply grabbed onto her hand and dragged her along.
When they had gotten to the store, which turned out to be a mini version of Walmart, the three had entered through large hole in the building's side. As soon as they stepped in, Marissa immediately wanted to just throw up. The smell of decay hung in the air, which blocked out the usual joy that she felt whenever she went to the store. Dead bodies had been scattered along the smooth floors. Blood was smeared all over the shiny surface. Some bodies had simple wounds, like gashes in the neck, lungs, heart. There were some that looked sickening with knifes lodged in there head, or some bodies had been cut open. Rare dead bodies had eyes missing.
"Can I go wait outside?" Marissa asked weakly, looking up at their "leader" who strutted forward as if the bodies were nothing but small flies. Ruby glanced back at her, not saying anything. Zeke rolled his eyes, placing a hand softly on the 16 year old teen.
"You may go back, but you'll have to see all those bodies again." Zeke said, raising an eyebrow at her. Marissa shuddered and shook her furiously in response. "I rather just continue walked then."
"Wise choice." Zeke chuckled. Without warning Ruby halted and looked back and forth. Then she dashed off down one of the aisles.
"Shouldn't we follow?" Marissa asked the chestnut haired boy when he didn't move. He glanced down at her and snorted with amusement "You want us to follow after her!? I thought you didn't like her."
"I never said that!" She argued.
"Well do you like her?" He asked
"Of course not! She kicked me this morning." Marissa grunted, giving him a 'duh' look which he laughed at. The two continued on, ignoring the stench of decay that hung over them like a storm cloud. They were making their way over to the cereal aisle so they could go eat some dry breakfast and maybe they would head over to the snack aisle afterwards.
When they got to the cereal aisle, they had to push dead bodies out their way to avoid from stepping on their heads. Disgusting as it may sound, Zeke almost slipped on the guts and blood of a dead human. He almost threw up afterwards.
"So, do you remember much of what happened before all of this?" Marissa asked when they had made their way from the cluster of dead bodies and over to the aisle where the frebreze and air fresheners were located so they could eat without smelling rotting flesh.
"Not much." Zeke answered, stuffing a hand full of fruity pebbles into his mouth. "I know I had hidden in the storm cellar that we had, but that's all."
Marissa snorted, scooping up a hand full of honey bunches of oats into her mouth. It was awkwardly quiet, except the sound of flies buzzing and munching. Zeke finally turned to her and asked "Why are we here anyway?"
"Looking for supplies, survivors, trying to eat breakfast." Marissa said, her gaze resting on a body that was a few yards away from them. Suddenly she turned to him with a wide smile on her face. "Oh! I wonder if they have any apple pie here!"
Before he could stop the girl, she had jumped onto her feet with a wide smile on her face and began walking out the aisle. Zeke leaped onto his feet too, trying to keep up with her as she walked away in a fast pace. The two walked for a while, looking through aisle after aisle for sweets or food like frozen pizza or egg rolls.
They had stopped by the juice area to find some apple juice, but Zeke ended up downing a whole jug of Orange juice. After a while of browsing, eating and collecting, they had ended up with arms full of yogurt, juice, cookies, frozen foods and other snacks.
"Hey! There you guys are!" Someone shouted from behind them and they turned to see Ruby running up to them. She had a cart in her hands, which was full with small things. Nuts, trail mix, pistachios, grapes, Lunch meat. The two teenagers dumped their stuff into the cart before they continue on with their browsing.
Ruby followed after them, the wheels of the cart was the only sound in the store in the moment beside footsteps. Then, out of nowhere there was the sound of a gun cocking and the three froze in fear.
"Don't move!" Someone yelled at them.
Ruby decided not to listen, turning to look at the person who dared to raise their gun at them. The person had turned out to be a man, who looked about 3 or 4 years younger than Ruby herself. He had dark brown hair, hazel eyes and freckles were littered across his face. He was around the height of 5'11 and was holding a shot gun in his hands.
To tell the truth, he looked like a male version of Ruby despite that she had green eyes.
"Didn't you hear me, I said don't move!" He shouted, walking towards them slowly with his gun lowered. As he began walking towards them, the lights above Themis heads began to flicker violently. He stopped as they began doing that, then he raised his gun towards them. His finger made its way over to the trigger as the teenagers began scrambling for cover.
The sound of a gunshot sounded loudly through the air, and the man lowered his gun to see if he had hit his target. Ruby was still standing on her feet, and the two teens were still cowering behind the cart of food, Zeke's arm around Marissa. It appeared that he had missed his target.
"You guys should consider yourself lucky that I came along." The man chuckled, pointing a finger at something behind them. The three turned around to see a kid now laying on his face in a puddle of blood. The kid looked no younger than 11 years of age, and had on a black hat with black pants to match it. The kid wasn't really wearing a shirt.
Marissa gasped in shock while Zeke turned to the man and yelled "Why did you do that!? You just shot an innocent child, you bastard!"
The man gave the boy a gentle gaze, his eyes holding confusion. Then he began walking pass them. Even though the gun was down Zeke instinctively backed away from him with Marissa's arm in his grasp.
The brown haired man kicked the kid onto his back to reveal that the kid's eyes were missing and there was as symbol carved onto its chest. The same symbol that had been drawn on the shed. A knife was held in the kid's loose grasp.
"Thanks." Ruby suddenly said, walking over to the cart and placing a hand on it.
"You're quite welcome." He replied, a large smile flashing across his face. Ruby rolled her eyes and was about to walk away when the sound of running footsteps came to her ear. She turned her head in the direction of the sound to see two figures. As they got closer it was easier to pick out details about their appearance.
The taller one was a male who looked around Marissa's age. He had black hair and green eyes. He was wearing a gray shirt with a thin black vest over it and a pair of denim jeans with black shoes.
The other figure was a younger girl, who looked to be about 14 years old. She looked a bit on the skinny side with short messy bush on her head for hair, a couple of red streakes were imprinted in her hair. Her eyes were a dull green color and pale skin. There was a splash of pink on her cheeks. She was wearing a pretty aggressive outfit, combat boots, black skinny jeans, black tank top and a jean jacket.
"Vincent! Are you alright? Where's Riley?!" The younger girl shouted as they came closer to them. The older boy was looking over at Marissa and Zeke with a calm gaze. The younger girl, even though concern dripped from her voice, had absolutely no emotion in her eyes.
Vincent turned to them and shrugged "I'm not quite sure, but I'm sure she's all right, Andra."
Andra gave a short nod in respond before she noticed the three newcomers standing off to the side with a cart of food. She scowled at them, slowly making her way over their cart of food. Reaching inside the cart, she pulled out a banana from the top of the cart. Ruby just stared at her with a puzzled look as the girl peeled the fruit and started eating it right in front of them.
The black headed male rolled his eyes playfully and turned towards Vincent "You found another one of 'em proxy things?" He asked. Vincent gave him a small nod, chuckling "This one wasn't quite as ugly as the last one."
Vincent nodded in agreement, turning to Andra and waving her over to them. Vincent finally turned to the other group of three and held a hand to them "My name, is Vincent. The two over here is Andra and Tristan."
Ruby accepted the hand shake as Tristan gave a small wave to them while Andra stuck out her tounge, which made Zeke scoff.
"Are they your children?" Marissa asked. Andra huffed irritably when she said that, growling "Do we look related to him?"
Tristan looked down at Andra, scolding her for not holding her tounge before looking up at Marissa and shaking his head gently.
"Oh, um, my name is Zeke by the way." Zeke introduced himself.
"No one asked." Andra grunted. Tristan scolded the girl again, but she only snapped at him and crossed her arms angrily over her chest, turning away from the newcomers.
"Sorry for her attitude." The black haired male apologized for the young adolescents' rude behavior. Zeke chuckled softly "It's no problem, I can kinda see why she would act like that."
Andra's eyes widened in slight surprise that he said that before she turned to Zeke and shouted "And why do you think I would act like this!?"
"Well, I guess you would be moody since you are a young teenager and there are probably about more than a million horomo-" he didn't finished because the enraged 14 year old had kicked him(You guys can guess where he was kicked :}). The glasses wearing male crumpled over and fell onto the ground while the girl snorted. Ruby gazed at the teenager laying on the ground with disinterest while Marissa checked to see if he was okay.
Tristan sighed, picking the girl up by the waist and leading her away from the group.
"Anyway, I'm Ruby. The dumb teenager crumpled on the ground is Zeke and the curly haired girl is Marissa. It's been a pleasure to meet you, but we must be leaving before anymore of those...things decide to reveal themselves."
Ruby grabbed onto the cart, and started to roll it away before she felt Vincent clasp a hand onto her shoulder.
"You know, if we travel together there's a better chance we may survive this mess." He said. Ruby shrugged his hand off and glanced back at him "You may come if you like, but our shelter isn't that big."
"Thank-"
"Don't thank me just yet, I'm not fond of strangers so don't think I won't be keeping a close eye on you and your little team you have there." Ruby grunted, keeping her back towards him. Vincent looked at her with a confused look as she walked away, the cart rolling in front of her.
Zeke had picked himself up by now and was walking after the women, wincing at each step he took. Marissa gestured for the man to follow before running to catch up with Zeke, being careful not to slip on any blood on the way out.
Outside, the three sat around for a while to see if the other team would come to their senses and join them. After a while of waiting, Ruby had began getting antsy and left with the cart. Zeke and Marissa chose to stick around to see if they would still appear.
"Let's face it, Marissa, they aren't coming. Did you see how Ruby acted to Vincent? And how Andra-" he winced a little "-kicked me."
She couldn't help, but laugh at him which made him glare at her and snort "It wasn't funny, how would you like it if that happened to you?"
"Well it didn't happen to me and even if it did, I don't have what you have." She said proudly, snickering. Zeke rolled his eyes and leaned onto the building, his head looking down at the ground. Marissa gazed at the surroundings to pass the time: Trees, gas station across the street, parking lot, sidewalk, more trees, broken houses, yellow hooded figure, more trees- wait.
She looked back at the hooded figure, glaring at it. It stared back with blank red eyes, she almost shouted to it, but suddenly a hand came down on her shoulder and she jumped in fright.
"Hey, look." Zeke said, pointing to somebody that was walking towards them. The person appeared to be a teenager, who looked a bit older than Zeke. She had beautiful flowing brown hair, and these soft looking blue-green eyes. She was also wearing a blue dress, which was torn at the bottom, leggings and what looked like ballerina slippers.
"Get behind me." Zeke said, pushing the younger girl behind himself. The stranger stopped a few yards from them, then looked up at them. Nothing out of the ordinary so far.
"Can you two help me?" She asked softly. Her voice was more like a squeak, but nonetheless they still heard what she had said.
"What's wrong?" Marissa asked.
"I can't find my friends." She relied "There's three, a dark brown-headed man, A calm looking black haired teen and a young girl-"
"-With a horrible temper?" Zeke finished.
"Yes!" The girl squeaked cheerfully.
"You must be Riley then, I think they're somewhere inside the building." Zeke said, motioning to the entrance of the mini Walmart. Riley glanced towards the entrance and gasped in surprise at something have saw.
"Riley!" Vincent shouted, appearing out of nowhere, running forward and pulling the girl into embrace. "I thought we lost you!"
Tristan was standing beside Vincent as he hugged the girl, sending a smile towards her. Andra snorted at them, then noticed Zeke and Marissa. "You two! Why are you guys still here? You want some more of my foot!?" She shouted. Zeke flinched backwards and Marissa snickered.
"Oh! you guys are still here?" Vincent said, unwrapping his arms from the shy looking teenager and turning to the chestnut haired male and curly haired female.
Marissa frowned at him while Zeke ignored the comment "Yeah, Ruby left but we stayed to see if you guys had made up your minds about our offer."
Vincent glanced at Tristan, who only raised an eyebrow back to the older male. "We thought you guys had left us 'cause Ruby didn't seem like she wanted us to stick around."
"Oh, she's always like that. She was like that when I met her." Zeke chuckled lightly, which made a smirk flutter across Vincent's face. Tristan spoke up "So, we going with them or what?"
"Depends on what you guys think."
"Well I say, No!" Andra scoffed, crossing her arms stubbornly.
Tristan rolled his eyes "Her vote doesn't count. I say, Yes."
"I guess. They look alright." Riley said hesitantly.
Vincent smiled in agreement while Andra huffed angrily. "I guess it's settled then, we're coming with you two."
After leaving Walmart, the five of them, with Zeke and Marissa in the lead, walked towards the shed. Andra trailed behind Tristan, arms crossed angrily in rage. Riley was walking behind Andra, well actually she was kinda speed walking with a frightened look splayed across her face. Vincent was taking up the rear, shot gun held firmly in his grasp. They went through the broken gate, Vincent getting stuck on the wires like Marissa did. As the neared the shed, Zeke noticed that the door of the shed was shoved open which meant Ruby was there already.
"Ruby!?" Zeke said hesitantly as he gazed in, Marissa by his side while the other three stood behind to wait.
"Ohmygosh!" The curly teenager female gasped, holding her hand up to her mouth in shock. Zeke's eyes widened then they narrowed and his hands balled into fists.
The shed was a mess, TV busted, covers thrown everywhere, dust settled in other places, machete thrown across the shelter, window cracked, some of the wood broken, and to top off the destruction, that symbol was drawn multiple times in black and red everywhere.
And Ruby nowhere to be found.
don't worry, Ruby is alright.
And I'm surprised that I enjoy writing this more than the main stories I write.
Always misunderstood~Hazel