The truck zoomed past the forest surrounded road with ease. All three of its patrons were sitting quietly as they just saw more road and forest come up from in front of them. Bonnie looked out the window, admiring the sky as it changes from gray to blue, clouds separating from each other. Jesse kept driving, eyes focused on only the road and nothing else. Jesse and Ryan had switched a while back, explaining her driving.
"Where are you guys planning on going again?" Matt spoke up, staring blankly at the front of the road.
"Atlanta, over to the CDC Headquarters. Hopefully they'd survived this mess and are working on some type of cure."
The former mechanic nodded in understanding. "I hear ya, I have nothing or nowhere or no one to go to. Beats wandering by myself huh?"
"The better we are united as people, the more hope that things could go back to the way it was!" Jesse added, with Ryan nodding in agreement.
"Let's just focus on getting to Atlanta first, then we could talk about the future." Bonnie stated, making the scene go quiet inside the car.
"What's up with you, ladies? How did you get stuck in this shithole in the first place?" Ryan asked, checking his knife in the process.
"Oh, I was visiting my roomie's family in Indianapolis. After the disease hit, I just kinda wandered the city for a bit until I found Bonnie!" Jesse politely replied. "I don't know her well either but I'm sure that she'll open up."
"I wouldn't count on it. I'm from California, that's all there's to know." Bonnie meekly answered, not taking her eyes off the side of the window. There was more silence in the car as they zoomed past the occasional walker and the decaying corpses on the floor as they kept driving.
"Hey look! There's a town up ahead!" Jesse announced, pointing to a sign that was coming up. "It's 5 miles, straight ahead!"
Bonnie looked at the sign before they drove past it. "The place is called 'New Hope', but I doubt that there's anyone left." Bonnie stated. Soon, small buildings began dotting the landscape that great as they got closer towards the town.
"Think We'd find something interesting there?" Ryan inquired.
Bonnie shrugged. "Doubt it."
They entered the trashed town with ease as the car drive over old trash and muddy plastic. The windows on the various shops and building were bloodied and smashed, shattered pieces everywhere. "Pull up to the statue over there, we'll check out the shops to see if there's any more supplies.
Jesse obliged and pulled over to the statue of some old looking man with a mustache and the three got out of the car. "We'll stick together, let's search that hardware store first for tools." Bonnie said pointing at the ruined shop. The three slowly huddled towards the store as they made careful movements to make sure they didn't run into those Walkers again.
Bonnie opened the door quietly as she slipped through first. Soon, Ryan and then finally Jesse followed after. "There's no lights, let's look for flashlights and stuff."
"Good thinking, let's get some batteries and whatever else is useful, spread out and if anything happens, just call out." Bonnie whispered. The other two nodded and searched the shop for things.
Jesse went silently to a more darker area of the shop, away from the others. We do need flashlights, she thought silently, the area getting darker and trashier. She looked around with the dim light of outside before she heard the floor get dragged upon. "Who's there?" She harshly whispered. There was no answer.
"Jesse?" She heard over the silence.
"Bonnie? Ryan? Are you here?" Jesse called out. No answer.
"Guys? Hello?!" Jesse voice cracked, fear sweeping over her in the dark corner of the room. The sweeping darkness wasn't helping the dragging noise either, as it got closer and closer. Jesse manage to bring out her bag and her bat. The dragging came too close and Jesse swung wildly across the air. She hit something hard and squishy that recoiled hard in her hands. The thing slumped over to the floor before Bonnie and Ryan shined their lights over at her and the thing she hit, a very decayed walker which had no throat, explaining its lack of noise.
"Shit Jesse, where were you?" Ryan asked.
"I-I was calling for help! It was dark and I couldn't see an exit! How didn't you hear me?!" Jesse said, breathing heavy from her dwindling fear.
Bonnie shined the light to the surrounding room, revealing a wall covered in multicolored strange, bent foam. "I think this is the problem," She said, walking up to the wall. "This is the foam they use in music rooms y'know? To mute the sound."
"That explains it." Jesse angrily said. She picked up her bat and put it back into her bag. Suddenly a small box on the corner began icing grabbing the attention of the three who looked in with caution. Bonnie moved slowly before the box rumbled more, bringing out a knife. Suddenly the box moaned and grunted as the flashlight was shone on it.
"Oh, you found me." A snarky, young voice said from the box. He took it off and revealed himself. He was a short, sickly thin boy standing no taller than 5'4 and having dark combed hair and eyes that contrasted his tanned skin. He wore what typical younger people would wear, a graphic tee with some humorous graphic that Bonnie couldn't understand, simple jeans and a black jacket. He looked angry and irritated that he was discovered and began talking again.
"Ugh who are you three? Robbers, muggers, murderers?" The boy asked in an annoyed tone, covering his eyes from the light before pulling into his jacket to bring our a pair of black frame glasses.
"No, we're survivors. Who are you?"
"Names Benjamin Reyes, but prefer Benji." Benji stated, cleaning himself of any dirt. "I wandered into this backwater town after my private jet crashed.
"Oh great, a yuppie." Ryan muttered under his breath.
"Not my fault I was born rich." Benji remarked. "I was hiding from those, those..."
"Walkers." Jesse finished.
"Yeah, whatever, I hid under that box, but then I heard you guys talk and thought it was time I was rescued, so where are we going?"
"We haven't decided if we should just leave you here, we can't have another mouth to feed." Bonnie replied.
"C'mon Bonnie, he's only a kid, we can't leave him here all by himself." Jesse defended, whispering to her comrade.
"Not a kid, lady. I'm 24." He stubbornly replied. "C'mon time is valuable. Make your decision!"
Bonnie let out a sigh and looked at Ryan and Jesse for confirmation. She turned back to look at Benji to announce her decision. "What talents do you have that could be useful to us?"
"Well, I can run real fast. Maybe I could check out or grab stuff."
"Can you fight?" Bonnie followed up.
"Ha! Fat chance dude, I'd rather run." Bonnie turned around and whispered amongst Ryan and Jesse. After a few moments, they turned again and announced their decision.
"We've decided you should come along with us to Atlanta." Jesse smiled.
"But if you do anything to hurt us we won't hesitate to shoot you in the head." Ryan intimidated. Benji was more or less taken back at the threat. Bonnie spoke up again to ask him some more questions.
"How long have you've been in this town kid?"
Benji crossed his arms. "Only for a day. The rain washed away the fore from the plane a few miles out and I stayed in a house until I saw a walker and started running. All the walkers are stuck inside their buildings so i wpuld be careful. I came here because of all the stuff. But then I saw another one of those things and hid."
"Got any idea if there's food left?"
"There's a supermarket that was pretty barricaded, maybe we could start there, its only a couple of blocks away." He added. Bonnie nodded and starte D to walk out of the room into front of the store.
"We got no time to lose, let's go to the store." She ordered, bringing everyone else out. Before Ryan and Benji did, Ryan grabbed a small hatchet from the trashed isles and gave it to Benji.
"For you kid, just in case." Benji reluctantly grabbed the tool and headed out, sun shining through the clouds into the town below.
A/N: if you're wondering why this took so long, I'll be frank. I was pretty lazy this week and didn't really feel like writing. But you know, this is temporary. Plus I'm helping my friend write a Hunger Games fic so there's that.
Anyways, just a small chapter, I promise I'll writing more often now that I'm starting Spark Of Fire. Oh, if you're interested, there's a poll on my profile on when the next Star Wars era the new SYOC is gonna take place in. I had an older poll for which fandom I should do and Star wars won so yeah, go vote. It only has two choices so I have a good idea, plot, and plan to start either one.
OC introduced was Benjamin Reyes by Catpocalypse. Since I have plenty of OCs to use I'll stop the app for now, so I'll let you guys know when it'll be opened again.
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