Hey guys. Sorry it's been so long since I updated, been enjoyin summer:) Well enjoy Chapter 14! Song for the dancing part (you'll see.) Is Telephone by Lady Gaga and later My Console by Eifel 65

Disclaimer: I dont own anything! except my characters and story thingy.

"Welcome to Useless." Miami sighed as she drove past a sign that read 'Eustis'. The small town was destroyed like all of the other cities around, with cars piled up, trash and glass everywhere, and the look of abandonment. A few bodies littered the ground, but nothing they haven't seen before. Miami pulled over on the side of the forgotten road.

"Hey Salem, there's a CVS down that street. Will you take Little Rock and go get her some cough drops?" Miami had heard Little Rock start coughing about halfway through the ride and she had a feeling it was starting to get painful. "I'll come back and show you the way to the house."

"Yeah sure. C'mon Little Rock." He said and got out with their guns. A few minutes later Columbus and Wichita got in and Miami continued driving. After driving through town for 5 minutes, they started seeing houses. They turned on a street called 'Lakeview' passing a few zombies who tried to chase them but were shot down by Miami, showing no emotion. They turned down another street and pulled up to a mocha colored house. The lawn was overgrown and the white screen door was torn off its hinges. A basketball hoop lay across the driveway. Everyone got out of the car and Miami headed to the back of the Caddy. She started rifling through her bag.

"Nice place." Tallahassee said. Miami ignored him and pulled out a key with a lightning design on it. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to face Columbus.

"We can check it out for you if you want, you know if…"

Miami knew he was just trying to be nice and didn't want to worry the already nervous boy. "No it's okay. I can handle this." She said forcing a small smile.

"Okay." He said. Miami walked around the car to the front of the house. She looked at it confused.

"What is it?" Wichita asked.

"I just don't remember boards on the windows." She said.

"Well maybe someone used it as shelter." Columbus said.

"Guess we'll find out." Miami said. She walked up to the door and put the key in, the others right behind her. She opened the door and was surprised to find most of it clean. She was expecting to find it wrecked, glass shattered, tables overthrown, plants dead, but instead it only had some trash on the ground and the floors were a little dirty.

"What the hell?" Miami said, touching a plant on the table next to her.

"When no one lives in houses they tend to stay clean." Tallahassee said.

"But the plants are alive." She said touching the dirt in the pot. " It's still wet."

"Well maybe they mutated, hell I don't know can we just check out the house?" Tallahassee said.

Miami ignored her suspicious thoughts and focused on her mission. "Okay, Tallahassee go through this room then the kitchen and the laundry room that way." She pointed in front of her to the right. "Wichita, Columbus, check the living room, the master bedroom, and the backyard." She pointed in front of her toward the large living room. "I'll get the hallway."

They split up. Miami checked Hunter's old room, still untouched. She checked the bathroom and walked into Hazel's room. Her collection of books lined one wall, all of adventure and fantasy. Her bed lay against the blue wall with multicolored dots of all sizes. Her dresser with a vanity mirror sat on the opposite wall, with a TV on it. She saw a picture of her and Hazel taped to it, one of the more recent ones than the one at the lake. Miami picked it up and smiled at it, feeling that at any moment Hazel would walk out, still smiling like in the picture.

Miami heard something behind her. She turned around aiming her gun and came face to face with her door. She braced herself and opened the familiar room and gasped.

"Oh my God."

"Miami?" Tallahassee said walking back through the kitchen. He walked toward the hallway. Seeing Miami staring opened mouthed into a room. He walked up and saw a picture next to her on the floor. He bent down and picked it up.

"Hey is this your sis-" He looked up and into the room, his eyebrows raised. A girl with shoulder length golden wavy hair, was dancing around the room with her eyes closed. She was listening to an Ipod wearing jean shorts and an olive green tank top. The room was clean with bookshelve walls filled to the brim with books.

"You know her?" Tallahassee asked still staring at the girl. Miami nodded eyes still wide. The girl was pretty, but even more so when she opened her light green eyes.

"Holy-!" She said before she tripped over a stack of books on the floor and fell backwards.

"Tal could I have sec?" Miami said still looking at the girl. Tallahassee nodded and walked down the hall to collect Wichita and Columbus.

The girl on the floor looked up at Miami confused.

"Alice?"

Miami nodded and smiled.

"How come every other day we find another survivor?" Tallahassee complained. "It's too many people and we are settin up for disaster."

"There aren't that many people left, we should stick with whoever we find." Wichita said.

"And notice how it's all because of Miami?" Tallahassee continued, ignoring Wichita. Wichita rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure he's ecstatic about it on the inside." Columbus said to Wichita smiling. Miami walked through the door smiling with the girl.

"Guys this is my friend Adelaide." She said motion to her. Adelaide waved shyly.

"Where the hell is Adelasomethin." Tallahassee asked.

"It's Add-a-laid and it's in Australia." Adelaide replied, clearly with a Australian accent.

"You gotta be shittin me, you're Australian?" Tallahassee asked sarcastically.

"Yeah." Adelaide said shyly.

"What the hell you doin here?"

"Will you stop interrogating her? !" Miami said defensively.

"I-I moved from there to the U.S when I was 15 and when I was 17 I moved down here to Florida." Adelaide shrugged. Something clicked in Miami's head.

"Hey we'll be right back I'm gonna go get the others." Miami said walking to the Cadillac and dragging Adelaide with her.

"It was nice meeting you all." Adelaide said quickly getting into the Cadillac. They drove off leaving Tallahassee, Wichita, and Columbus looking after them.

"What just happened?" Columbus asked confused.

"I have no idea." Wichita said.

Miami and Adelaide walked into the CVS, the automatic doors had already been pried open and upon walking in they found a few slain zombies.

"The place is cleared out but take this incase." Miami said handing a pistol to Adelaide. Adelaide looked at it eyes wide.

"Alice I-"

"Call me Miami okay and I'll call you Adelaide. It's just a thing we do."

"Okay um, Miami I-"

"Hang on come with me." Miami cut her off. They walked down the pharmacy isle. Little Rock was sitting on the counter.

"Hey Miami, whose that?" She asked.

"This is Adelaide. Where's Salem?"

"Isle 7. Why?" Little Rock said, giving a cough.

"Just need to check something." Miami dragged Adelaide toward the isle.

"Al- I mean Miami. What is it?"

Miami stopped and turned around to look at her.

"By chance did you come down here to scout for colleges and finish your senior year here because it felt a little like home here cause of the weather?" Miami asked quickly.

Adelaide blinked a few times in confusion. "Well partly but what do you mean colle-"

"Come on!" Miami smiled. They continued to walk toward isle 7 and stopped at the entrance.

"Salem!" Miami said. Salem jumped and dropped the glass figurine he was looking at, shattering it against the floor.

"What?" He asked seeing it was her. He looked at Adelaide briefly then looked back at Miami. Miami held a smile, looking between Salem and Adelaide. They looked at her confused. Salem held up his hands seeming to say 'What?' again. Miami's smile slowly faded.

"You- do you know her?" She asked pointing to Adelaide.

"Noooo…" Salem said slowly walking towards them. Miami thought furiously. The story had matched up, hadn't it?

"Why did you come to Florida?" Miami asked Adelaide.

"I wanted to join the circus and I ended up finishing school here too."

"Wait, the circus?" Miami asked even more confused.

"Yeah, I took classes." Adelaide said seriously.

"Class- okay so you came from Australia, to Massachusetts, then to Florida to finish up senior year…and join the circus?"

"Yeah but I never said anything about Massachusetts. I was in Rhode Island, Florida's sunny and it reminded me of Australia. Are you alright?" Adelaide said.

"But…your daughter…what happened to her?"

"She came down here to uh, visit relatives and I couldn't find her." Salem said a bit nervously. Miami looked at him.

"You said she came down here to look at colleges."

"Um, yes well that too."

Miami looked at him suspiciously. "You're not telling me something…"

"Hey can we leave before more zombies show up?" Little Rock said walking up. They all looked at her. She looked at the group confused. "What's going on?"

Miami looked at Salem. "Nothing. Let's go."

On the way out Adelaide walked next to Miami.

"What was that all about?" Adelaide asked quietly.

"Thought he was your dad, I'll explain later." She said in a monotone.

"Miami, my parents died when I was 10. Car accident, I was at their funeral."

"Would've been nice to know 5 minutes ago." Miami said sarcastically happy. They walked outside, Little Rock and Salem getting in the Audi, Adelaide and Miami heading for the Cadillac.

"Hey look!" Adelaide said pointing down the street. A figure stood at the end of it, just standing. It started walking, like a normal human being.

"Are you a survivor?" Adelaide called out walking toward it.

"Adelaide be careful." Miami said from the car door.

"Hey wave if you're human!" Adelaide called waving at the figure. It waved back. "Guys it's a survivor!" Adelaide said nearing the survivor. Miami looked at it suspiciously. She saw it limp once and returned to it's normal walk.

"Adelaide it's not a survivor run!" She called running toward them. Adelaide and the 'human' were yards away from each other. Adelaide turned around.

"What?" She said and the zombie sprinted for her.

"Adelaide shoot it!" Miami said almost there. Adelaide turned around and saw the zombie running. She screamed and ran.

"Shoot it!" Miami called, finding her own gun jammed. Adelaide turned around and fumbled with the gun, dropping it. She screamed again and put her hands up guarding her face as the zombie approached. Miami ran up and drop kicked the zombie a few feet from Adelaide. Her head hit the pavement and she felt a wave of nausea and dizziness, but got up quickly. She pulled out a knife from her shin sheath and shoved it through the zombie's eye. She took a breath and sat down. Adelaide looked at the zombie and ran to an alley. Miami heard her throwing up and sighed.

"Great. You're fucking squeamish." She said. Adelaide came back and swallowed dryly.

"That's not the whole reason." She said pointing at the corpse. Miami looked over at the red-headed zombie.

"Holy shit that's Sean isn't it?" She said raising her eyebrows. She shrugged. "Always thought he'd be alive, he's a fast runner."

"What the hell is the matter with you!" Adelaide said. Miami looked up at her tilting her head.

"What you mean?"

"I mean that you're treating this like some fucking videogame! He was your friend and you just stabbed him in the eye and killed him! Then immediately shrugged it off!" Adelaide said throwing her arms up. Miami gave a small laugh and dropped her head. Adelaide eyes widened even further. "Why are you laughing? !"

"Because, Mikaela , you think that I'm treating this like a game. What should I cry over every person I've killed? Every family member I've lost? All my friends?" Miami stood up. "Their bodies may still be walking around but that is not them." She said angrily pointing towards the rotting body of Sean. "That wasn't Sean, it was a monster in a shell. If I didn't kill it it would have killed you, without a second thought. You can't risk feeling compassion in this world, you can't risk feeling attached to anyone. You can't risk feeling anything!" Miami glared at her. "You think it's a game to me, maybe it is but only as a game of survival. Everyone here is playing, maybe you should too."

And Miami walked away leaving a shocked Adelaide behind her.

"C'mon so I don't end up saving your ass again!" Miami called. Adelaide ran after her.

They sat in silence on the ride back to the house. Finnaly Miami couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"So what were you doing at my house?" She asked. Adelaide looked at her, a bit surprised that she was even talking to her.

"Um, well I was living with Ryan since he was the one giving me the circus lessons, and well you were the only other person I really talked to. Plus I thought you seemed like the fighting type."

Miami smirked. "Is Ryan in my house too?"

"I-uh-had to push him out the window of his apartment…" She got silent. Miami felt the need for a change of subject.

"So um, you watered the plants?"

"What?" Adelaide looked at her confused.

"The plants, in the house."

"Oh. Yeah, I also kinda cleaned up your house. Um your stepmom-"

"Dead I know." Miami said. "What did you do with her?"

"I buried her…in the backyard by the fence…then put on new sheets…I had nothing to do so I cleaned."

"Where the hell did you get food for 3 months?" Miami asked.

"The neighbors. I've been eating oodles of noodles. A lot."

"And um- were there any zombies in the house when you got there?"

"No it was empty. And no zombies ever bothered me."

"So you just hid the entire time?"

"Well what else could I do? ! I had no one and I was alone! You don't know what it's like."

"Um yeah I do." Miami said angrily. The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

"Finally." Tallahassee mumbled as the Cadillac drove up. Miami got out and slammed the door. Tallahassee walked up from the front door.

"Easy princess." Tallahassee laughed.

"Tallahassee not now." Miami said holding her hand up to him and walking through the front door. Tallahassee looked at her confused. She would've hit him by now or something. Salem, Little Rock and Adelaide walked up.

"What's wrong with her?" Tallahassee asked jerking his thumb at the front door.

"Dunno." Adelaide said quietly.

They all walked into the living room. Miami sat down on the big sectional couch.

"Alright. Take your pick of rooms, there's one over there." Miami pointed to a door on the other side of the living room. "One by the door, one outside the hall, and two in the hall. Since Adelaide has my room I'll stay in there with her." She slumped down even further into the couch. "Make yourself at home." She sighed. Everyone went to go check out the rooms and Tallahassee sat down next to Miami.

"This is a really comfy couch." He said. Miami said nothing, a small look of sadness on her face. "If you're gonna look like that the whole time things are gonna get depressing." He said looking at her.

"Do you think I act as though everything's a game?" Miami asked. Tallahassee thought for a moment then shrugged.

"Makes it easier to deal with everything don't it?"

"That doesn't answer my question." Miami grumbled.

"Well if you treat it like a game then I must be too. Cause killin zombies sure is a hell of a lot of fun." He smiled. Miami was silent for a few moments.

"Does everyone here think I'm heartless?" Miami asked sadly. Tallahassee sighed and took off his hat, rubbing his head.

"Look, I may not know you really well, but I know damn sure well that you're not heartless." He pulled something out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Miami. She took it and felt a tear come to her eye as she looked at her and Hazel in the photo.

"I think she knows it too." He said looking at the picture with her. Before he knew it Miami had him in a hug around his neck. He widened his eyes in surprise and held his hands up. After a moment he lowered them and patted her back awkwardly.

Miami pulled herself away and sat back as though nothing had happened.

"If you tell anyone I'll kill you in your sleep." She said. Tallahassee raised his eyebrows.

"Wow go from soft and sad to violent in a matter of seconds."

Miami gave a small sarcastic laugh. "Yeah well that will be the only soft moment you will ever see from me."

"Hey Tallahassee you get the last room." Columbus said walking in and sitting down next to Miami.

"Which one spit-fuck?" Tallahassee asked. Columbus made a face at him that seemed to say 'Don't call me that', then turned to a mischievous smile.

"The one by the front door." He said.

Miami laughed loudly.

"What?" Tallahassee asked.

"That was the room you checked." She managed to choke out. Tallahassee widened his eyes in horror.

"The fluffy one? !"

Miami laughed harder.

"Damnit!"

Miami walked into her room. It was almost the same as she remembered it, but without all the books around now. She smiled as she looked at the familiar posters of Evanescence and Nightmare Before Christmas. She lightly ran her hand over them. Sweeney Todd, The Joker, Breaking Benjamin, all of them covered her walls. This was her sanctuary. Where she was always safe, where she was always happy. The green and purple walls made the dark characters around her seem even more real. Dragon figurines, countless movies, a library of music, all her savors in a time of need.

"I tried to keep everything how you left it." Adelaide said from the door. Miami turned and looked at her. She smiled.

"Everything's perfect." Miami said. Adelaide smiled, then looked down.

"Look I'm sorry that I yelled at you. It was just…a lot to take in for one day." Adelaide said stepping in the room.

"No, I'm sorry. I should've been easier on you. You've been all alone this whole time and I should have taken that into consideration."

Adelaide smiled. "Guess we both need to calm down."

Miami gave half a smile. "One question though." Miami said.

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you just shoot the zombie? I mean you had a gun…"

Adelaide looked around nervously. "Well, honestly I don't really know how to use a gun. I tried to tell you, but you cut me off."

"The world has been full of zombies for months, and you don't know how to defend yourself?"

"Well…" Adelaide sighed. "Yeah basically."

Miami let out a breath slowly. "Well that certainly complicates things."

"You guys could teach me." Adelaide offered. Miami sighed.

"Well we kinda have to. When you come with us you'll have to take care of yourself for the most-"

"I'm coming with you guys?" Adelaide asked.

"You wanna stay here?"

"No, I just... didn't know I could come with you guys."

Miami looked around again and her eyes landed on a black plastic box. She beamed at it.

"Oh hell yeah."

"Looky looky what I got."

Miami walked into the living room with her hands full of wires connected to the black box.

"You have an Xbox!" Little Rock said excitedly.

"Yep. Who wants to play? I got three other controllers."

Columbus, Little Rock, and Tallahassee raised their hands. She hooked up the Xbox and put in a game.

"How do you use this thing?" Tallahassee asked examining the controller.

"That's what she said." Columbus laughed. Tallahassee glared at him. Columbus looked at him and sighed.

"50?"

"55." Tallahassee said and punched him in the arm. Columbus winced in pain.

"Settle down children. Okay this is the trigger, this is to walk, this is to look around…" Miami gave Tallahassee instructions on the Xbox controller. He sat confused.

"What game are we playing?" Little Rock asked.

"Halo 3."

"You have anything else?" Columbus asked.

"It's that or Left 4 Dead."

"Alright aliens are better at this point." Columbus said nodding.

They all ran around shooting each other in the game, Tallahassee dying first. Now Columbus and Miami were neck and neck.

"Oh come on that's totally spamming!" Miami exclaimed as she was shot down.

"It's a legitimate strategy!"

"Oh bull! Hiding behind a rock and shooting me as I pass by is not a legitimate strategy!"

"Calm down nerds. It's a game. We can make it real life if you'd like." Tallahassee offered pulling out one of his pistols. Miami and Columbus still looked a bit steamed, but they calmed down.

"Best 2 out of 3?" Miami said.

"You're on." Columbus said. The others sighed as Columbus and Miami battled it out.

Salem was still on Miami's mind though. He changed his stories, looked nervous whenever anyone brought it up... Tallahassee was right.

He was hiding something.

Thanks for reading and once again sorry it took so long. The next chapter might take a while too so Ill apologize for that now. I would like to give credit where it is due and the above 'Legitimate strategy' thing, that was mainly based off of the Red vs. Blue series. And Adelaide is pronounced ADD- UH- LAID. so u guys know. and I have a poll up on my profile so check it out ;) sry for rambling and saying sry alot. REVIEW! PLEASE!JUST DO IT!