Chapter 5
BPOV
I have been at this house for about 5 days now and the days were starting to blend together. It seemed like the same thing every day with nothing remotely interesting happening to tell one day from the next. I had only seen one zombie while out foraging for something fresh to eat; putting it down was the highlight of my day. It made this place seem a little more normal. I had taken to listening to my iPod just to have some noise; a luxury I didn't allow myself often so I could be fully alert but the silence was driving me mad. I've had to use the solar charger twice now to charge it since I used it so much. Getting my bag together I set out to go find some meat I could eat with the potatoes I had found growing in what was left of the garden. I was hoping for a rabbit but I will take whatever I can get. Keeping in mind what Alice had told me, I had been on the lookout for Sofia. I had no idea what to really look for; well besides someone that was actually alive. I hadn't had any luck hunting and decided to head west toward the creek that I'd visited a couple of days ago to refill my water containers before dark. I had just filled my second one when I heard someone crying. I moved through the woods to get a closer look while trying to stay hidden. There was the little girl I had seen at the quarry stumbling around with tears running down her face. A few of the dead had followed her but she was still a good distance ahead of them. Poor kid didn't know what to do and was terrified out of her mind; this must be Sofia.
I stepped out and made myself know to her; at first she stiffened, but then one of the dead groaned and she came running up behind me. I nocked an arrow and took out the furthest of the three then traded the bow in favor of my knife. The first one that reached me was an easy knife through the eye and it went down. The second was like the fucking jolly green giant; my head might have come to his shoulder… I know I'm short as fuck but damn this guy was tall. I needed to improvise and decided to kick the shit out of his knee cap. He fell sideways and I put my knife through the side of his skull. I turned back to Sofia and thought of what to say… "Hi, I'm Bella" ended up being the brilliant winner. There, nice and simple, no need to freak her out with you must be Sofia, I've been waiting for you or some shit. The kid was already shaking like a leaf and appeared to be soaking wet; she must've fallen in the creek at some point. She still hadn't said anything yet, so the conversation fell back on me… great. "Are you ok?" I asked her. She finally nodded her head at me and I took it as a good sign and decided to ask another question "Are you alone out here?". She looked at me with her tear stained face and said "I got lost in the woods while we were hiding from the walkers. I got turned around and couldn't follow Mr. Rick's directions! I don't know how to get back to my mom" and promptly broke down in tears. "The walkers, as in the dead ones?" I asked her, just to be sure. She nodded her head, "There was a whole lot of them that came through and we had to hide, Mr. Rick said he would come back for me but I got scared when a walker got to close and ran… I just want my mom" she blurted out in a rush while wiping my tears. "Well, I tell you what … um what's your name?" I asked, still not wanting to freak her out and set off her Stranger Danger alarm by knowing her name. "Sofia" she finally told me in a small voice. "Well, I tell you what Sofia, It's starting to get dark and if there is a herd of them nearby then we need to get someplace safer for now rather than the open woods. What do you say to getting some dry clothes and having a hot meal, then in the morning we can work on finding your people? It's just me by myself, so it would be just us girls. What do you say?" I asked. She still seemed pretty scared of me so I tried to ease her fear again, "I promise Sofia, I'll help you find your mom and Mr. Rick. We'll find them and you'll stay safe until we do, I promise". She finally nodded her head and started to follow me back through the woods.
"You don't have a knife or anything to defend yourself from the uh.. what was it you called them.. walkers?" I asked. "No, the grownups always get rid of them" she answered. "Well, I should have an extra knife that would work for you if you want me to teach you anything, I think it's a good idea in this world to never be defenseless no matter how old you are". She seemed a little surprised by my offer. I'm guessing no one has tried to show her anything at all about survival. So I decided to change that immediately, stopping at a plant on the ground I pointed and told her "You see this flat green plant here? This is called a Broadleaf plantain. You can just pull the whole thing up like this and eat it like a salad. It also works as an antiseptic too, you just need to chew it up in your mouth then put it on any cuts you might have. Just leave it on for a while, and if it's a big cut, go ahead and wrap it in a bandage. Go ahead" I nodded to a few cuts on her arms from running through the brush. She did as I told her and started to cover her wounds while I put the rest of the plant in my pack along with a few others. I continued on like the plant encyclopedia I am "You can also brew a tea with it to help with a cough and stuffy nose, or mash it up in water to put on a burn or stings. It's also rich in vitamin c and can be found into early winter usually dying off after the first big frost". She seemed pretty interested, which was a first; I mean most people could care less about plant facts. From then on, I decided if she was willing to learn it, I would teach it. Alice even said I would need to teach her; it was information that could save her life.
Right as we were about to break out of the woods to the yard of the house; movement caught my eye. I nocked a clean arrow and shot our supper. We would be eating a hearty rabbit stew with a side of salad. For the apocalypse that was a 5 star gourmet meal! I showed Sofia how to skin and gut the rabbit and bury the entrails and skin far from the house. When we got inside, I took the large pot and scooped some of the water out of the bathtub that I'd left running pretty much nonstop since I arrived at this place. I put it on the camp stove to warm so we could clean up a little while our supper cooked. Chopping the potatoes and rabbit up into small pieces in a smaller pot I had found, I added some water and let it cook into a nice stew. We washed up the best we could with rags and I let her borrow one of my longer shirts to change into while her clothes dried. She bundled up in a big blanket and we slowly ate our plantain leaves. I had been putting my pictures back into my bag when she stopped me by asking "Who are they?" Happy to take her mind off being away from her group, I gladly told her about my friends and family "Well this is my father, Charlie, and I, when I moved in with him a couple of years ago. He was chief of police". "Mr. Rick and Mr. Shane are policemen too" she told me. Aww, so that's where Mr. Jackass got his training from. "And that one is my mother and her husband Phil. Phil was a minor league baseball player, and my mom liked to travel around with him. And this one" I said pointing to another picture, "is my friend Alice with her husband Jasper; and that one is the rest of their family the Cullen's. And this one is of a group of my friends from the Indian reservation close to where I used to live. We used to have lots of fun doing things like cliff diving. See this scar on my head? That's from my friend Jake" pointing him out in the picture "trying to teach me to ride a motorbike. It didn't go well if you can't tell; I had to get 6 stiches after crashing into a rock. Plus, I had a small concussion that made me have motion sickness anytime I moved to fast for like 2 weeks. My dad ended up driving me to school and dropping me off in in front of everyone in the police cruiser for those two weeks. He thought embarrassing me for those two weeks was punishment enough, as long as I didn't ride the bike anymore. They were still stashed in Jake's shed last I saw them. I couldn't get rid of it, we had rebuilt them from pretty much scratch; well he rebuilt them while I handed him tools and watched" I said smiling fondly on the memory. Sofia seemed in pretty good spirits after telling her about the pictures, whether she was just happy to hear something nice or relived my father was a policeman, I wasn't sure which one. The stew had a little longer to cook, so I asked Sofia if she would like to listen to some music with me. Her eyes lit up like the fourth of July and nodded her head eagerly. I gave her an earbud and took one for myself and pressed play. We got lost in the music for a while, well she did, I kept focused on any noise from outside. I still feared that a herd would come from the same way Sofia did, but maybe only a few caught her trail and followed her. It was wishful thinking but I hadn't heard anything out of the norm yet. We ate half the stew saving the rest for morning. Before we went to sleep I needed to make sure she knew "Please don't open the door, no matter what you hear. If someone is out there and I don't wake up then come get me. Do you understand?" "Yes ma'am" she said. "Oh no uh, please call me Bella not ma'am, you just made me feel like I am a 100 or something. I think I'd rather be called by my full first name instead of ma'am. So Bella or Isabella, either one is better than ma'am, but I prefer Bella… god I'm rambling… uh where did you want to sleep? There is another bedroom down the hall…" I stopped after her eyes got wide and she started shaking her head no, "or not, or you can sleep in that room with me. The bed is big enough for both of us." "In there with you please" she answered quickly. I checked the perimeter one last time before locking up and taking my stuff back to the bedroom. When we laid down, she instantly latched onto me and cuddled into my side. I almost cringed at the contact of someone else after so long without but I could give her this comfort if she felt safer this way. It was weird to provide for someone else; especially when all they wanted was some human contact to feel safe. I will let her hug me and even hold my hand if it will make her feel better. I really want to make sure this little girl survives and is happy. O God… look at me…I care…. Dammit Alice.
Aww Bella cares about Sofia. By the way, the Bella in this story isn't Kristen Stewart… I just can't picture her as my Bella… Think more like pale Megan Fox's look in the First Ninja Turtles movie, not like Transformers, with kind of Kat Denning's sarcastic attitude. I'm not sure if I should do the next chapter in a different point of view or not. Dialog is a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. Somethings I feel need more detail but then it feels like it's dragging the story on and on; bear with me as I probably have 2 versions of some chapters, trying to choose the one that isn't boring and also moves the story along. Opinions are welcome!