It was rather dark out when Santana was shaking my shoulders to wake me from my sleep. Groggily, I meant to sit up and speak, but a hand clamped across my mouth as it opened, and I was being pushed back to the cold floor. As my eyes finally focused in the dark, I made out Santana's figure and managed to see her finger across her lips as if telling me to stay quiet. I shook her hand away and furrowed my brow before she looked past me. I followed her gaze to where a woman's figure stood in the dark not too far from where we'd been lying.
She swayed on her feet and a growling noise was coming from her direction. I don't think she'd noticed us yet. It was too dark to see if we'd recognize her- though I wasn't even sure which town we were in now. It felt as though we'd been walking forever, but I doubted we'd gotten very far from Lima with everything around us. I couldn't even make out her age, not to mention what she was doing standing there. Though, from the smell and constant incoherent grumbling, it was clear to say that she was past saving.
I looked back to Santana the same time she looked at me. I wondered if my eyes asked what we were supposed to do, but whatever hers said was a mystery to me. She shook her head a tiny bit and reached for the gun at her side slowly. I leaned towards her a bit, giving her a face that I knew she would understand. The noise of a gunshot would only bring more of them here. We couldn't risk it. The look she sent back my way seemed to ask for other option, but having none, I simply shook my head a little before I looked back over at the woman.
I felt Santana's hand pat the back of mine gently, as to reassure me, but I didn't look back at her then. I licked my lips and inhaled deeply, holding my breath there. I heard the quiet click as Santana cocked the gun carefully, something she'd learned after all of this had started, I think. Stealth was a main issue, though after this, I was sure we were going to have to make a run for it.
I closed my eyes tightly and covered my ears in anticipation, but the shot never came. In its place, I heard a girl scream.
Santana fell back silently and stayed rigid beside me as the woman she'd just been aiming at reeled towards the door. With a grunt, she began her limping back down the stairs to her right and out of the room. After a few beats to make sure she was really gone, I exhaled, my lungs beginning to ache from the captured breath. Santana laid a hand on me as if to say for me to stay there, but stubbornly, I sat up with her. She shot me a look, but got to her feet quietly. Crouching, I watched her figure move towards the only window of the room where the boards were beginning to fall apart at.
Hurriedly, she waved me over, and I was there a moment later looking out at what she'd seen. A girl about our age was running down the street away from the things that chased her. Unsure of why she'd screamed in the first place, I watched intently as she tried door after door of the nearby places, all locked. And it was as she fell that I knew we had to be the ones to do something, anything.
I stood quickly and grabbed at the gun that Santana had been holding previously when her hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed my wrist.
"We don't have the ammo to save her or ourselves if we go out there. Better her than all of us," she spoke quietly with no shown emotion. Shaking her head, she took the gun away from me.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing while a girl is killed," I hissed, standing and grabbing the knife at my hip instead. I was at the staircase when she spoke again.
"We aren't heroes, Brittany!"
It was a quiet, stern yell. And it stopped me short.
Another scream from outside and our eyes tore away from each other. Santana shook her head and moved away from the window. "She's gone," was all she whispered as she moved to gather what things we still had.
After a few moments, she realized I was still standing there, unmoving from the last time. "Come on. We need to move while they're still… feeding."
I swallowed hard and moved to her side to gather what little things we had. I didn't speak, and neither did she. We made our way out into the night and moved opposite of where we'd seen the girl and into the woods again, pretending everything would be okay again if we just kept moving.
"Look…" Santana didn't lookback at me as she finally spoke quietly a few hours later when she'd crouched down at a river to drink as I stood a few paces behind. "About back there…"
Before she could go any further, a hand was clamping onto my shoulder, and I was being spun around to meet two eyes- one a pale yellow-y, milk-y film; the other a dull, hollow hazel. My body stiffened, not the proper reaction to have when you could have been killed in a matter of seconds in this world, and I stood there trying to comprehend the situation when the eyes vanished and I was being hugged tightly, a head buried in my neck. "Rach..." A small voice managed to choke out. "You're alive."