I own nothing

"Hello, can anyone hear me? This is Beca Mitchell. If anyone can hear me please respond." She sat down on her bike listening to the static come through the radio. She was just outside of New York City, getting as close as she dared to what was almost certainly a death trap. Last she heard New York City had a population of around eight million people and despite how much of a bad ass she thinks she is there is no way she would survive a trip into the city. On the other hand there was a possibility that someone was still alive in there, someone who might be able to help her.

"I repeat this is Beca Mitchell. Is there anyone listening?" nothing, just the incessant static. She sighed as she placed the receiver back in its spot next to the radio. When setting out from her mom's house she had been torn between taking her mom's old station wagon and the police bike. The station wagon had more room but it was rather old. The bike however was in perfect working condition, had a CB radio, was faster and more maneuverable than the car. And given the state of the roads she wasn't sure if she would have been able to make it out of Maine with the station wagon. Not to mention the bike got better gas mileage.

"Well so much for that idea." she muttered to herself. She had been holding out hope that someone was still alive inside the city that might be able to help her. Perhaps someone with a faster way back to Georgia that didn't consist of massive roaming hordes of undead. But it looked like The Big Apple had fallen. She wasn't too surprised, the larger cities had collapsed about a week after the outbreak. Too many people in too small a space.

She hopped back on her bike and put the city behind her. She needed to make a supply run soon, she was running low on food and dangerously low on water. Normally she would stop at a river or something to fill up her water bottles but when a corpse had floated by her one day she decided she'd stick with sealed bottles.

She drove the rest of the day finally stopping when she found a bed and breakfast that she could hole up in for the night. After a quick search of the house she pulled her bike inside, no sense in leaving it out for someone to steal it. She checked the sink and was shocked when clean water started coming from the tap.

"It must be connected to a well or something." she mumbled. Just to be safe she turned on the gas stove she had discovered and set the water in a pot to boil. "Now if only I had some tea or better yet some coffee." she mused to herself. As she waited for the water to boil she took better stock of the house she found herself in. The shelves and cupboards were bare, meaning someone had already raided the place. A quick check of the pantry showed the same results. Normally this would be bad since she was running low on food but this gave her an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. If she managed to find some sort of convenience store she could get food and some new clothes. The skinny jeans she had been wearing might have been nice before the apocalypse but now they were really more of a hindrance, especially in the cold. She smiled at the thought of Chloe and Stacie finding out she was willingly going shopping, or looting as the case may be. Over the years the two girls had desperately tried to convince Beca to go shopping with them but she usually managed to weasel out of the trips somehow.

She was startled out of her musings when she heard a loud thump from upstairs. She immediately dropped into a crouch and drew her mother's nine millimeter that was strapped to her thigh. She quietly opened the pantry door and made her way over to the stairs. She hadn't heard anything else which was strange. She had searched the place thoroughly, the gas station incident made sure of that, so she knew there was nothing living or dead in the house besides her. But just as she had had the thought there was another loud thump that came from the room at the top of the stairs. Moving quickly she hopped up the stairs and slowly opened the door to the room where the noise was coming from.

"What the hell?! Why on Earth is there a monkey in a bed and breakfast in New York?" the monkey gave no response, obviously, other than staring at her with strangely intelligent eyes. "Dude what are you even doing here?" again no response from the monkey. She was about to take a step forward when she heard a hissing noise coming from downstairs and remembered the water she had set to boil. Rushing downstairs she turned the stove off, luckily she hadn't burned down the first comfortable place to sleep she had found in days. When she turned around she nearly jumped out of shoes when she saw that the monkey had followed her downstairs.

"Dude what do you want?" the monkey just stared at her. "Are you hungry or what?" She figured that was probably a safe bet since the primate was clearly supposed to be someone's pet. "Look man, I don't have a whole lot...but here." She walked over to her bike's saddle bag and pulled out a slim jim. She didn't really like them anyways and it would do little for her in the long run. The monkey quickly grabbed the slim jim and managed to open the wrapping by itself. "Huh, I don't know if I should be impressed or scared that you managed to open that faster than I could." because seriously those things were impossible to open. "So what's your name, little guy?" She sat down and looked at the monkey before she realized she was wrong, it wasn't a little guy but rather a little girl. She thought to herself what she should call her new friend. She thought about calling it Sheila but quickly dismissed that idea. She may not have the best relationship with the step-monster but she felt that was just cruel...to the monkey. The next name that came to mind was Amy, she figured that the Aussie would get a kick out of having a monkey named after her but decided against it.

She sat quietly for a moment thinking when she heard a quiet humming noise coming from the small ball of fur. "I know, I'll call you Bella, how does that sound to you?" Bella had finished the slim jim and had climbed up Beca's arm and was now poking around in her hair looking for bugs. "I don't think you'll find anything in there…wait what the hell?!" Bella had managed to find several ticks in Beca's hair and was busy chowing down. "Seriously, I have ticks? Well I guess I have been sleeping in trees for the past couple of weeks." Bella gave no response, she just continued to comb through Beca's hair looking for more grubs. "You know you might actually be useful if you keep me from catching lyme disease or something, what do you say you want to go to Georgia with me?" Bella let out a small chattering noise which caused Beca to laugh. "Well I guess I'll take that as a yes." and just like that Beca had a traveling companion.

Beca sat and studied Bella for a moment. She didn't know what type of monkey Bella was but she had mostly black fur with a white face and shoulders. As Beca reached to pluck Bella from her head she noticed Bella's tail wrap around her arm. "So you're one of those monkeys that can pick things up with their tail, that's cool I wish I could do that." It sure would make things easier if she had an extra appendage to grab things with.

Beca moved to the stove with a can of beans, she really had to find something else to eat, and waited for the can to heat up. Bella had unceremoniously leapt onto Beca's shoulder and continued to play with her hair. Normally Beca would have objected to this but it reminded her of how Chloe would play with her hair during Bella bonding nights.

"Chloe is going to flip her shit when she sees you." Beca told the monkey on her shoulder. "I think you'll like her, she's the sweetest person on the planet. She has beautiful red hair and the most stunning eyes you'll ever see. Unfortunately I was too much of a dumb ass to tell her that, I was stupid and thought I would have plenty of time. That's why I have to make it back, I have to make sure she's safe. I only hope she's still alive by the time I make it back to Barden." she looked over to her shoulder and realized that Bella had fallen asleep with her tail wrapped around Beca's neck and clinging to Beca's shirt. "Thanks dude you're a really good listener." she laughed to herself, glad to see some of her old sarcasm making a comeback.

After eating her supper she got up and went to the room where she found Bella. She closed the door and moved a dresser in front of it, you never could be too careful. She gave the room a more thorough once over to see if there was anything else she missed. Stopping at the desk she noticed a picture that had Bella with whom Beca assumed was the monkey's owner. He was an older man wearing a fedora and holding a saxophone. It was safe to assume that the guy was a street performer trying to make it in New York and Bella helped him with his act.

Putting the picture back down on the desk, she climbed into bed and placed Bella on her stomach. For the first time in weeks Beca managed to fall asleep with little to no difficulty, it probably helped that she was in a bed and not in a tree. As she drifted off to sleep all Beca dreamed about was red hair and bright blue eyes.

So Bella is to Beca as Wilson is to Tom Hanks. I wanted to give her someone to talk to that way she doesn't go insane and thought that having a monkey sidekick would be fun.