{I recieved a comment on the previous chapter and in response I was not planning on having them remember their previous lives, so far its strictly an Elyza and Alicia story with no flashbacks to Clarke and Lexa, thanks for reading :)}

'Elyza?'

'What?'

'Could you please slow down?'

My hand gripped the door handle for dear life as the landscape flew by in a blur. This was the third time I had asked, Elyza insisting each time that her driving was perfectly safe and that I was worrying about nothing. We had pulled away from the smaller residential roads and were on the highway in a matter of minutes after leaving the house, giving her greater freedom to increase our speed even with the collection of abandoned cars that stretched on for miles. I had only just about managed to get the seat belt over my sling and each time the car hit a bump in the road we were both jolted from the impact.

'I wasn't even going that fast,' she grumbled quietly, thankfully easing off the accelerator and we slowed to a more acceptable speed. How the old car survived this brutal treatment I would never know.

'I thought you were desperate to get back to your family?' she commented, as if that was her reasoning behind the insane speed we had just been going at.

'It's rather pointless if I die in a car crash before even getting back in the same state as them,' I pointed out, already having had a minor attack of nerves when a walker staggered into the road and the only thing that prevented a collision was a sharp tug on the steering wheel that I could've sworn almost had us up on two wheels to narrowly avoid the mess on the windscreen.

'You need to work on something called positivity,' Elyza said dryly, keeping her eyes on the road ahead as I ignored her and lent forwards to delve through the glove box.

Under a pile of carrier bags and old manuals I pulled free a map, coughing slightly at the cloud of dust that came along with it. I unfolded the paper and wasn't surprised to find that it was now illegible, the marks having faded so badly that you could hardly recognise the location.

I shoved it back into the glove box and sat back in my seat with a sigh, realising that this was going to be a long journey and this time I wasn't unconscious for it.

'Seriously, you should at least try a smile. Free ride, great company, what's not to love?' Eliza spoke up, not that her advice was at all wanted. I remained silent and stared out of the window, after being out at sea for so long it was easy to forget how devastated the land was and that it wasn't getting any better.

The landscape around us was dry and arid, nothing even remotely interesting to look at other than the occasional walker that could be seen ambling amongst the sparse covering of green plants. The boat had been an escape from the terrible reality but it couldn't be avoided forever, it was something I would have to start getting used to.

I glanced back over at my companion, still finding it strange to think that I had only known her for a few days and not under the best circumstances.

'I can be fun you know,' I said abruptly, not sure why I felt it necessary to make such a statement.

'I'm sure you can, it's not like it's the end of the world or anything,' she said lightly, smiling to herself as I shook my head at her rather unique sense of humour.

'You said the other day that you were on your way to Santa Fe before you came across me, why there?' I inquired, hoping that some conversation would help to pass the time.

I almost regretted asking the question when the smile fell from her face in an instant, silence falling for a few long moments until I gave up expecting a reply.

'I didn't always survive alone, there were a few others that I had contact with but we had to go our separate ways,' she finally explained, her expression unreadable underneath the sunglasses. 'Sante Fe was our rendezvous point, I was going to see if anyone had made it.'

I hadn't been expecting such a personal story, surprised that Elyza had opened up to me without any sarcastic remarks or clever comments. It seemed that she did not wish to dwell on the matter and I did not push my luck with further questions.

'How about you? What's your story mysterious girl?' she asked with a grin, deflecting the attention back to me and I felt that she deserved an honest response after her contribution.

'We met a man named Strand and my family and some friends are traveling with him out at sea,' I explained, going on to tell her about how we had stopped off to make a supply run when Nick and I had been attacked.

'You miss him, your brother,' Elyza noted when my story was over, she knew the rest of it from there.

'I miss all of them.'

Even Travis who I had never had the closest of bonds with but mostly my family, and I was looking forward to finally seeing them once again. A smile spread across my face at the thought and I caught Elyza watching me from the corner of my eye.

'So you do know how to smile,' she said, turning her own grin back to the road as she pulled the car away from the main road and down some smaller streets, passing some diners that were almost unrecognisable in their current condition. I frowned in confusion at the sudden change in direction, even more so when we pulled into a small parking area.

'What are we doing here?' I asked, glancing around at our surroundings but seeing no reason why we had stopped. We had only been on the road for less than an hour so we still had a fair distance to go.

'I thought now would be the perfect time to get you some new clothes,' Elyza replied, pulling the keys from the ignition as she turned to face me. I glanced down at my dishevelled shirt and realised that she had a point. As much as I wanted to drive straight back to my family I knew that this was a necessary stop.

'Besides,' she continued as she twisted towards me, taking the sunglasses from her face to reveal the glimmer of excitement in her eyes. 'Who doesn't enjoy a post-apocalyptic shopping trip?'

I found myself returning her contagious smile before she flung the driver's door open and wasted no time in heading straight for the closest store.

I jumped up out of the car in pursuit, jogging at first to catch up with her long strides before settling into a fast walk. It appeared to be a multipurpose store inside but I could already make out the large selection of clothing that they had on display around the back half of the building.

I was about to point it out to Elyza when she slammed her knuckles down onto the door frame at her side a few times, hard enough for the sound to echo out through the store.

'What the hell are you doing?' I hissed, glancing around nervously as if a sudden tide of the undead were about to emerge from the aisles.

'Better they come to us now then we stumble across them later,' she reasoned, both of us waiting in a tense silence for a few moments without hearing a single groan.

'Looks like we're all clear,' Elyza said, making her way through the ransacked aisles to where the clothes section was located. A lot of it had already been taken and most of the material was unusable though there were still some items left intact. I went for the more casual clothing and wasn't surprised to see Elyza make her way over to the leather jackets.

It didn't take me long to pick out a similar shirt to the one I was wearing, no patterns on this one as I found a similar jacket to go over it. My jeans weren't looking too bad but after some searching I managed to find a spare pair that I could keep for later, even if they did have the ripped, distressed look that I wouldn't normally go for.

Footsteps at my back alerted me to Elyza's approach and I turned to see her with a new jacket on her shoulders, a spare pair of aviators hanging in her grip as she gave me a slow spin.

'Not too bad huh?' she said almost to herself, and I found myself continuing to stare even as she glanced back up at me for a response.

'Uh, yeah, you look good,' I said weakly, wondering if there would ever be anyone else in existence who could pull off such a striking outfit so well.

'I see your taste in fashion has little variation,' she noted, looking down at the plain shirt and jeans that I held. 'Sure I can't tempt you with something more...bold?'

I shook my head at the suggestion, imagining how ridiculous I would look even attempting such an outfit. New clothes in hand, I glanced around the store looking for the changing rooms and finally located them on the opposite wall.

'You don't have to be so modest Alicia,' the blonde said when she saw what I was intending to do. 'You might need some help into that shirt anyway.'

I didn't detect any underlying meaning to her words as she gestured to the sling and although she had a point, I was more comfortable changing somewhere other than in this wide, open space. I shook my head, sidestepping around her without bothering to attempt a reply.

'Just shout if you need any help,' she called after me as I carried the clothes past the overturned trolley to where the changing rooms were located. At the end of a short corridor I came to the door which which would take me inside, a fallen shelf blocking my path as it rested against the frame.

Without too much difficulty I managed to heave the structure out of the way by pressing my entire weight against it, careful not to put any pressure on my sprained arm in the process.

I pulled the door open and slipped into the first changing room on my right, pulling the thick curtain across the entrance. It wasn't like there was anyone else around but it was familiar, an action that seemed odd now in such different circumstances.

Gently laying the sling down onto the small bench behind me, I went about struggling out of the ripped shirt which was surprisingly difficult to achieve without causing further pain to my arm.

Pulling the material over my head, I dropped it carelessly on the floor, not having any future need of it. The cold breeze in the store hit my body and with a shiver I set about my next task of changing into the new shirt.

I was soon beginning to regret turning down Elyza's offer of help and was considering calling for her when I finally got the damn thing over my head and slipped my arms in with only the slightest twinge of pain.

'You okay in there?' I heard Elyza call from out in the main shopping area, realising that I had probably taken quite a bit of time just to change a top.

'Yeah, all good,' I shouted back, lowering myself down onto the bench as I tried not to look in the direction of the dark stain that stood out on the white painted wall to my left. There were many different things that it could have been but I couldn't quite convince myself that it wasn't blood.

After shrugging back into my jacket my senses picked up a faint shuffling sound as I froze in place, holding my breath as I listened intently to the sound. Surely it was just the material curtains brushing against the wall but when a small moan sounded it became apparent that there had been a large shelf blocking the entrance to these changing rooms for a reason.

Bolting to my feet I grabbed the spare jeans and slowly slipped out from behind the curtain, not seeing any signs of the undead until one of the curtains shifted aside and a walker stumbled out of the cubicle, it's head swinging from side to side before it's hungry gaze fell on me.

The small moan quickly grew into a harsher groan as it began to drag itself towards me, a rather distorted right leg hindering its movement. I was in the process of turning back to the exit when a chorus of moans filled the air, clearly not just the one walker in here as I had assumed.

Glancing back over my shoulder I saw another three of the creatures emerge from behind the curtains, not moving anywhere near as slow as the first. The stores general employee uniform could be seen on each one, name tags still attached to the ripped, blood spattered material and I didn't hang around to let them get any closer.

Retracing my steps back out into the small corridor I went flying when I tripped over the corner of the shelf, my right foot catching on the metal surface as I ran by. Twisting to avoid falling on my injured arm I managed to push myself upright a moment later and heard the shuffling steps at my back as I emerged into the larger space of the main store.

Fear began to creep in when Elyza was nowhere to be seen, not picking through the leather clothes or leaning casually against the wall. Now I had group of walkers at my back and no weapons to fight them with. Glancing around desperately, I knelt to pull free a pole that had once been used to hang the unwanted clothes, brandishing it in my grip as I spun back to the walkers.

Every sense was screaming at me to run but I wasn't going to get far without Elyza, she had the keys after all and no way was I going to leave this place without her.

'Come on then,' I whispered, tightening my grip on the pole as the walker reached out its mangled hands towards me, mouth wide as it emitted a never ending slur of sounds. It was close enough that I was able to read the name tag and I almost wished that I hadn't. My resolve faltered when I saw that the letters spelt Angela, she had been a person once.

Not any more, I reminded myself, and as the blood stained figure got within a few meters of my reach I swung the pole with all my might, sending it crashing into the side of her head with a chilling crack. Even with only one hand on the pole it served well enough and Angela toppled to the side, far from being finished off as she tried to regain her balance.

It soon became apparent that my pole was in no way suited to taking down these walkers and it was most likely only good for prolonging my survival until they managed to overcome me with their numbers. I backed up against the far wall, my arm beginning to shake as I contemplated my options, my thoughts instantly turning to the blonde who I couldn't bring myself to abandon.

I was saved having to make a hard decision when a gunshot sounded and the slowest walker collapsed with a bullet hole between the eyes. Relief coursed through me when the second one fell with a similar injury, snapped from my stupor when Angela lurched forwards without warning and I had to lift my pole in a hurry to ward her off.

The metal pressing against her collar bone was the only thing keeping her snapping jaws from latching around my throat and even after just a few seconds I could feel my grip weaken as she threw her weight towards me. The struggle was over rather abruptly when a blade was thrust into the back of her head, the tip visibly protruding through her eye socket until it was pulled free and I used the pole to push it back, the corpse's entire body weight sending it toppling backwards, down to the floor.

I heaved in a deep breath now that the walkers were taken care of, raising my gaze to meet the glimmering annoyance that shone in Elyza's eyes as she wiped the blade clean and strapped the sword back over her shoulders with a scowl.

'What is actually wrong with you?' she muttered, taking a few long strides to stand directly opposite me, barely aware of her close invasion of my personal space.

'What?' I breathed in response, not understanding what had made her so upset.

'If you see the undead lumbering towards you then you run idiot! Especially when you don't have a hope in hell of defending yourself,' she growled, gesturing to the rather pathetic pole that was still gripped in my hand.

I let it fall to the floor and glared back up at the disapproving blonde, not caring that she was most likely right.

'I stayed for you, I wasn't just going to run off and leave you here,' I told her, wanting to defend my decision to stand my least she could do was keep her temper in check.

'In case you hadn't noticed by now, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself,' she retorted confidently, referring to the mass of weapons that she kept herself defended with. 'You had an injured arm, a pole and no fighting skills. I know whose survival I would bet on.'

Her words angered me, knowing full well that she was right but hating how useless she made me sound. My mother thought that I was incapable of handling dangerous situations and here this girl was virtually repeating her words.

We remained in a tense silence for a moment longer, exchanging heated glares and it was some time before I realized how badly I was shaking, my good hand clenched into a fist in an attempt to hide the movement. Of course no details slipped past Elyza who sighed and took a step back, softening her gaze as she reigned in her anger.

'I'm not trying to be cruel Alicia but you shouldn't have put yourself in danger like that, especially not for me,' she said in a calmer voice, glancing around at the bodies that littered the floor. Her face screwed up in disgust when she caught sight of the stains now covering her shoes.

'All over my new damn boots as well,' she complained, lifting one foot to glance closer at the blood spatters that decorated the dark material. I released my own anger and decided to put the whole event behind me, choosing to just be thankful that Elyza had turned up when she had.

I bent to pick up the jeans and jacket that I had dropped to the ground during my hasty flight from the walkers, both of us then making our way back to where the car was parked outside the store. I climbed into the passenger side and was about to pull the door shut when Elyza placed her hand on the door frame to prevent it from closing.

'You might want to clean your face up a bit before we get back on the road,' Elyza suggested, and glancing in the side mirror I saw the spatters of blood over my cheek and forehead that must have occurred when the blade pierced the walkers skull at such close contact. Grimacing at the sight, Elyza motioned for me to remain still whilst she searched around in the rucksack for a bottle of water, grabbing an old shirt from the bag before drenching it with the liquid.

I shifted in the seat so that I was facing out into the parking lot, Elyza bending slightly in front of me to gently wipe the stains from my face. I remained perfectly still as she did, my eyes trained on her focused expression whilst the cloth cleared the worst of the blood from my skin.

She didn't move once finished, discarding the cloth onto the ground without taking a step back. I was surprised when she reached down and took my free hand in hers, easing the slight tremor that had persisted since the encounter with the walkers in the store.

'It's okay to be frightened you know,' she told me, not looking up as she spoke.

'You're not,' I commented, not seeing even a hint of fear when she had to face danger. I doubted there was anything that truly scared her and it certainly wasn't walkers.

'I've had far more experience with them,' she said with a small smile, lifting her eyes to mine. 'If you ever want to talk, I know how hard it can be to deal with at times.'

I was taken aback by her offer and merely nodded, not knowing that she had such a gentle side but it seemed there was a lot more to her lying under the layers of sarcasm and humor. Elyza flashed me a broad smile before releasing my hand and moving around to her own side of the car, seemingly back to her usual outgoing self.

'Let's get back on the road, I think that's enough excitement for one day,' she said once we were back in the car, raising her hips slightly to dig the keys out of her back pocket. 'And you owe me a new pair of boots.'

I grinned at the comment, settling into my seat as she twisted the keys in the ignition, the car sputtering into life and we set off once more, leaving the gruesome events of the store behind us.

Thank you for reading, leave a comment and tell me what you thought! :)