The house was cold after the Scavenge/guard took in Anna as its sixth member. Not only metaphorically cold in the sense that Callie and Christa kept to themselves mostly but also literally cold. The seasons were changing and winter was upon us. Back to Callie and Christa, they refused to eat with us for a whole week after the backyard event. It took me three says to get Callie to even talk to me and everyone else on the scavenge/guard save for Anna and Patrick which, we compromised that she could give them the cold shoulder all she wanted as long as she wasn't starting arguments. That was good because we had a scavenge coming up and all of us needed to be in our best minds. It was to be Anna's first scavenge with us which, she was super excited for.
We trained hard between those days. We made sure we all knew what we were going in for: water, canned foods, medicine, weapons and ammunition, etc. We made sure Anna knew every little detail in how we executed a scavenge. She seemed really confident and for the most part, I had faith in her which was also good, she was to be paired with me.
The air was cold as we all filed silently out of the Titan and into the lawn of the targeted home. The ride over all had been silent except for the random comments between Josh and Jordan in unsuccessful attempt to break the ice.
I could see my breath as I exhaled into the morning sky. "What month is it?" I asked nonchalantly as I cocked my handgun.
"November" Callie replied stiffly.
"Hey, almost Thanksgiving!" Anna replied with a smile and received nothing more from Callie than some rolled eyes.
"Yeah, I know Dani will be excited, she loves Thanksgiving." Josh said in a bored monotone as he waited for the rest of us.
When we were all ready we got into our usual formation expect this time, Anna stood next to me near the street and kept watch from there for any wondering infected.
Then the count and, Patrick broke the door, this time, instead of the more average empty home, we were greeted with two screaming and gurgling little girl zombies. Although it wasn't very common near the house to find this we did notice that the further away we got from home the more often we spotted and had to put down child zombies. Yes, it was always heartbreaking.
I lifted my rifle as the first child came shambling towards me, it was a little girl with filthy matted hair that may or may not have been blond at one point. Her body was half naked from the waist up and the lower half was a crusted and torn mess of a princess dress. I could see her ribs through her sagging grey skin. Her mouth was covered in dirt, dried blood and other undecipherable grossness.
I took in all the details within just a second as I lifted and called, "my shot!" then took it. Within those few seconds that felt like eternities, I lifted, called and shot the girl through the face, silencing her forever. I set my gun down into its resting position and sighed. The child who was also a little girl in a princess dress, was silenced by Callie.
I would like to just take this time to explain the "my shot" thing. I've never really liked it. We only started using shortly after finding Anna because the further from home we traveled the more undead we were running into. The shot calling became necessary to preserve ammo and keep us from accidentally shooting each other in panic.
"Okay, keep your eyes open for mom and dad." Josh warned as he and Jordan flanked into the house followed by Callie and Patrick and last, Anna and I.
The first rooms Jordan and Josh went to were clear. Anna and I passed them and went into the kitchen and were immediately greeted by the mother who had been chowing down on a dog. I quickly shot her in the head. "Got the mom, check for open back door." I called between the rest of the group's clears.
Another shot from one of the bedrooms followed by Patrick's voice, "Got the Dad!"
"Secured the back door." I heard Jordan call as Anna and I cleared the kitchen and moved into the laundry room. It was also clear and Anna called it.
"Good job." I encouraged her as we turned a corner and passed the living room. I opened a closet, clear. I opened a small bathroom, also clear. Within a few minutes the house was cleared and we were packing up the needed supplies. I also grabbed a few new looking toys from the girl's bedroom for Aubrey and Jaxon.
When everything was packed into the truck, Callie caught me before the rest made it from the home. "So, working with Anna…" She started, obviously curious as to how it went.
I raised an eyebrow. "It was fine, Anna's pretty good. She was alert and had my back. You should consider going easy on her." I said, crossing my arms over my rifle.
Callie rolled her eyes. "Look, I know I'm one of the few people who don't trust her. You shouldn't either, Haley. Trust me, I know what I saw and McKenzie wouldn't have been in trouble if-"
My temper flared. "Anna saved McKenzie! She'd be dead if it wasn't for her, Callie! Stop acting like a kid." I hissed, irritated at the whole ordeal.
Callie looked hurt as if I'd stabbed her with my machete I kept in the back of the truck for emergencies. I avoided her eyes and climbed into the backseat as the rest of the group emerged.
"Haley said I did well! What do you think, Jordan?" Anna squealed happily as she trailed behind him and Josh with Patrick following her wearing a look of being left out.
Jordan gave a nervous laugh as he reached the truck and climbed in next to me. "Well, if Haley says you're good then you must be." He gave a little smile as his eyes met mine. Anna climbed into the front seat after watching Callie tell Patrick she was riding in the back and to hurry up and get into the backseat. Patrick, confusingly climbed in but quickly perked up when Anna turned around and started chatting him up about all kinds of stuff I didn't care enough about to listen to.
"What's up with Callie?" Jordan asked and placed his hand on mine and entwined our fingers.
Anna stopped talking for a moment and paused and I caught her eyes as she rested then on our hands for a moment before quickly smiling and talking to Patrick again.
I sighed and looked at Jordan. "I snapped at her about…" I nodded towards Anna. Jordan nodded back, "ah." He replied and rubbed his thumb gently against mine. "She'll be okay, she just needs more time, I suppose." Jordan said with a warm smile before he reached up with his free hand and booped my nose.
"YAE!" Dani yelled as we pulled up to the backyard's gate and started unloading all the supplies. One of the first things off the truck was two 24 packs of bottled water. Dani stopped and hugged them before she snatched them from Patrick's hands and ran inside the house.
"Yeah, we kind of hit the jackpot with this house." I said as I lifted another case of water and set it in the pile that was to go in one of our emergency getaway vehicles we kept in the front yard.
Anna hurriedly pushed past me as I attempted to pull a rather heavy duffle bag from the back of the truck. "I got it!" She exclaimed cheerfully as she ran back into the house quickly with it.
I shrugged and instead grabbed the tub of medicines and the toys we grabbed and walked inside with them and handed it off to Miss Marla. She opened it to find barbies and stuffed animals inside too.
"I thought Aubrey would like them. I used to love barbies." I said with a wide smile as Aubrey ran into the kitchen. She took one look at the tub of toys that was now on the floor and gasped.
"Oh Moe Gosh!" She cried as she started to try and drag the tub into her room. "I'm gonna show Jaxon!" She squealed as if the almost two month old would understand what she was showing him.
"Aw, thank you." Marla grinned and hugged me before turning to follow her daughter into the bedroom.
I walked back out into the backyard and found Callie yelling at Anna.
"What was in the bag, Anna? You didn't take it to inventory like where everything else goes!" Callie was interrogating her hard, she had Anna's back against the brick wall beside the door.
"I-I did. I took the things that went to inventory out and placed them in the other boxes! All that was left was a few books!" Anna stammered, obviously nervous that she'd be hit again.
"Leave her the fuck alone, shit Callie!" Patrick yelled, stepping protectively in front of Anna.
"No that's bullshit, she's hoarding shit!" Callie yelled.
"Callie, if this accusing Anna shit doesn't stop." Jordan stepped in after a nod with Josh. "If we have to endure another freak out from you about Anna, then you'll be out of the Scavenge/guard." Jordan's voice was stern. He like the rest of us, had enough.
Callie instantly became quiet. "Why is everyone so against me?" She looked desperately between Jordan, Josh and me but, only received cold stares back.
"I'm sorry but this has to end." Dani spoke from the doorway, next to McKenzie who was in front of Christa. She gave us the same look her sister did.
With that, Callie grabbed the last box from the truck and stormed into the house. She slammed the box onto the floor by the garage and went upstairs, followed by Christa.
Everyone else's stares followed the Tucker sisters into the house but, I looked over to Anna to see if she was okay and saw a sour, angry look across her face. When her eyes caught mine, her's widened for a moment before she suddenly burst into tears. Patrick immediately wrapped her in his arms to comfort her.
"Dammit, she better get over it by next week, we have another scavenge." Josh shook his head and walked into the house with Dani.
"What if I was partnered with her on the next one? I could prove to her that I can be trusted!" She cried after Josh.
"I don't know…" I started, furrowing my eyebrows as I thought of the look she was giving before the tears.
"That may be the only way to get Callie past all this BS." Patrick took Anna's side.
"Yeah…maybe." Jordan thought aloud.
Anna looked to Josh, hopeful before looking over her shoulder to Jordan with a new little light in her eyes.
Josh stopped walking and turned back towards Anna. "Okay, I'll consider it. Maybe it's a good idea; maybe it's the worst ever. I'll see how Callie acts the rest of the week and then I'll decide."
Anna smiled and clapped. "Thank you!" She exhaled happily and ran past Patrick after throwing him a smile, and up to Jordan. "Thank you for helping me! I know for sure that's how she'll come around to trust me!" She squealed and went in for a hug but only received an awkward side-hug from Jordan. She didn't seem to notice his discomfort though, and with another happy giggle she ran into the house with a downcast looking Patrick following her.
"Ight." I said with a humored smile as I strolled over to Jordan.
Jordan, who was still red in the face from the encounter, rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "See what I mean, she's a little odd." He gave me a silly look.
"Looks like a crush." I said and reached up to poke him in the cheek.
Jordan rolled his eyes. "Oh God, I thought she liked Patrick back, I mean, they're always around each other." He sighed and pulled me closer to him.
"I'm sure in time she'll drop the crush and go for Patrick." I shrugged and happily received a kiss from my boyfriend.