We slowly walk through the halls, remnants of the past occasionally showing up. A textbook long forgotten that I give to the teenager (it's a history book. The pages are faded, but she might learn something), some pencils and pens that I push to the side with my foot, and a school spirit poster showing a winking lion. I'm extremely on edge because of the entire situation. Classrooms can hide all sorts of dangers, but we can't check every one of them. So, we're forced to walk down the hallways with unchecked rooms behind us, in front of us, and at our sides. The light from our torches only reveals a few feet, so we're essentially walking in darkness. Every creak and groan of the building settling makes me jump, the teenager is all but glued to my side, and I'm terrified. I've done this before, but not like this. Not when it really matters. If I got caught before, then I would have been shot or eaten. One clean bullet to the head or bite to the neck. I wouldn't have felt a thing, and my body would have simply been burned or eaten. Now I have the teen to watch after. I can't die knowing that she's going to be hurt or captured. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by a shuffling up ahead. I crouch down and crawl forward, nearly falling into the cafeteria. The lunchroom of the school has sunken into the earth, creating a twenty foot drop to the floor.
That definitely wasn't there before. Then, I hear the shuffle of footsteps and see the flicker of flashlights. I hear the girl whisper, "Soldiers.". I shake my head and whisper, "Savages.". Soldiers wouldn't come inside a condemned building. They're survivors just like us, but there's a huge difference. They would try to kill us the second they saw us. They're filthy squatters who live in buildings like this (not too far away from the city), shoot anyone who doesn't live in their fucked up society, and resent anyone better off than them. In essence, they're like bandits, only worse. I can tell there's roughly three of them. Not a lot, but I still don't want to take the change of the teenager getting hurt. I tell the girl, "Stay here.". She nods and I slowly crawl down to the cafeteria (leaving my torch). When I'm on the ground I load my gun, and begin hunting the hunters. I manage to hide behind the tables and slowly make my way to them. It's extremely dark, but shattered windows in the roof allow moonlight to shine into the cafeteria. When I'm close to them I realize there are four of them, but I can still kill them. They're talking about hearing guns going off, but can't decide what to do. I smile, aim, and fire. One falls, her head blown off. I'm starting to realize what's so satisfying about seeing an enemy's head splatter across the floor. They all pull out their weapons and get ready to fight, but I shoot another one. My silencer muffles the sound, and the cafeteria causes an echo. So, they have no idea where I am.
The remaining two spread out, yelling to each other as they search. I keep moving, using anything I can as cover. Then, one walks right by me. I hold in my gasp as he yells, "Clear.". I smile, pull my dagger from my boot, and sneak up behind him. I leap onto him, stabbing his throat. He gargles as he dies, but the last savage can't hear it. The last one yells, "Clear.". After a few moments she begins to panic, the lack of response obviously not good. I keep sneaking around, scanning for the person. But she finds me before I find her. I feel her boot connect with the back of my skull, my nose breaking as it hits the ground. I flip around, fire, and curse when I realize I missed. My opponent kicks my gun out of my hand, jamming my thumb into its socket. I howl in pain, but the woman leaps on me. Her knees dig into my ribs as her fingers curl around my throat. I hiss, begin struggling, and try to reach for my gun. It's no use. I'm gasping and weakly kicking when I hear a shot go off. The woman rolls off of me, grasping her side. I take in as much air as I can, quickly standing up and looking around. The teenager is standing a few feet away, her shotgun shaking in her hands. She points it at the woman's head, but stops when the woman screams, "Please! Don't kill me! I don't want to die!". The teenager slightly lowers the gun, torn.
Then, the savage desperately attempts to stand up, cursing. My companion's gun is shaking, her eyes trained on the woman. The savage stands, blood gushing from her side. She's doomed to die. We both know that, but the teen is in the dark. She still lives in a world where the remains of our government like to assure her they can heal all wounds. The savage reaches for her gun, and the teen fires. The woman falls to the ground, her head nowhere to be found. In an instant the teenager drops her gun, her hands shaking. I quickly catch her as she slides to the floor, putting her head in her hands. I shush and rock her as she keeps shaking and gasping, ignoring my own injuries. I advise her, "Deep breathes. In and out.". She tries her best, but keeps panicking. I can understand why. She's killed zombies and bandits, but never someone who begged for their life. In the world we live in we're forced to do shitty things, but it's always hard to kill someone who so clearly doesn't want to die. It must be even harder for her because of her age. I try to calm her down by telling her, "She would have killed you if you didn't kill her. Everyone begs when they see death, but she wanted to cause yours.". It doesn't help at all. The only thing I can do is keep holding and rocking the teen as she freaks out, my younger obviously overcome by grief at taking the life of someone who begged her not to.
Eventually she calms down, but keeps sniffling into my shoulder. I pat her back and ask her, "Do you want to keep going?". She nods and slowly gets to her feet, her shotgun laying on the floor. I quickly pop my nose and thumb back into place, the girl slowly stumbling away. While the teen walks away I pick up her gun and strap it to my backpack. She'll want her gun back eventually, but not right now. I catch up to the teenager, I need to make sure she's safe. We reach the other side of the cafeteria and we're forced to climb. When that's done we walk down the halls, my torch lost. I'm not sure where the teenager put hers, but she has it out and it's still burning. It's the middle of the night, so that tiny flame is all the light we have (the windows in this area are covered in steel plates). We'll have to get out before the torch goes out. I ready my gun, look to make sure the teenager is okay, and tell her, "On the count of three we run. Just to the end of the hall. Ready? One. Two. THREE!". We both sprint the distance, our footsteps echoing across the entire school. If the zombies didn't know we were here, then now they do. We stop at the end of the hall, the exit only three more corridors away. I catch my breath and tell her, "Follow me.". I slowly turn the corner and walk down the corridor, but stop dead in my tracks. A single zombie stands in the middle of the hallway, twitching and groaning. He stumbles towards us, sniffing. The teen seems to realize she's disarmed and snatches her weapon from me. When she aims it I shake my head. Our guns are too loud. I pull my machete from my backpack, crouch down, and begin sneaking up on the zombie.
I swing in one swift motion, his rotten head falling to the side. I stand and motion for the teenager to resume following me. The next corridor is free of real zombies, but two psychos are eating something that disturbingly looks like a human corpse. It appears the idiotic zombies accept the fake ones without questions. I once again crouch down and whisper to the teen, "We're going to sneak past them.". As we sneak by them I notice the corpse is indeed a rotting human. When we're past them I slowly turn into the next corridor, always making sure the teenager is right behind me. When we reach the windows I whisper, "I'll lift it up, you go through.". She nods and I lift the steel plate away from the wall, silently cursing at the screeching sound it makes. I hear the chewing of human meat stop, the psychotic people must have heard the noise. When the teen is through I shimmy through the opening, the teen holding it open from the other side. When we're inside the city I clap her on the shoulder and tell her, "Good job. Now we only have to do that one more time.". She groans when she realizes we'll have to go through the school again to leave the city. I tell her, "We should probably get to the inhabited areas of the city. We're inside, but soldiers might question why two citizens are hanging around a condemned building.".
Before we leave we hide our weapons and survival gear, normal citizens wouldn't have that kind of stuff. When our supplies are hidden I walk towards the city, my younger happily following me. As we walk I tell her, "I know a nearly abandoned building in the city where we can stay while we get supplies. Do you have any money? I don't feel like stealing.". She digs around in her pocket and comes up with fifty bucks. I nod at the money and tell her, "Keep that close. It's not much, but it could be the difference between life and death.". She nods and shoves the money back in her pocket. I want to talk to her, but now we're in the city. It's past lights out, but there aren't any soldiers in the area. When we're in the building I tell her, "I'll lock the door, but don't feel too safe. Violence in this area of town is common.". She shrugs and tells me, "It can't be any worse than St. Louis.". I suppose not. The room I choose is small, but it has more furniture than most. One bed, one couch, two lamps (the electricity hardly even works though), and one sink. I lock the door, jump onto the couch, and tell my companion, "You can have the bed.". She quickly says, "Thank you.". Then, climbs into bed and pulls the covers over her. I close my eyes, but hear the teenager whisper, "Good night.". I hesitate, but in the end I whisper back, "Good night.".