Chapter Five: First Kill

As Elyza exited the complex, she passed by several military grade trucks parked outside of houses. A couple of officers made half-hearted attempts to wave her down, but she pretended not to see them.

She reached a highway not long later. It took a lot of her focus to stay on the American side of the road. The road was packed, at a complete stand still. Nobody honked, they just sat there. Elyza wasn't even sure there were people in the vehicles until someone rolled one down and lit a cigarette.

Thank God I have a motorcycle, she thought gratefully as she began to weave between cars, most likely angering the drivers she passed. Finally, she made it to the emergency lane and it was easy cruising from there. She had caught a glimpse of the map Bellamy had provided for her and knew she needed to stay on Lincoln Blvd. for a pretty long time.

It was less than ten minutes later when Elyza heard a loud dinging and a light brighten up the dashboard. When she discovered that the light meant she was running out of gas, she slightly freaked out. She hadn't really thought about how she was going to get fuel after leaving the Blakes.

The roadsides were void of any gas stations and she definitely didn't want a repeat performance from the day before. Unsure of when she would officially run out of gas, she kept driving. She hoped there was one further up the road.

Elyza discovered a Shell gas station about three miles up the street and pulled into the parking lot, flicking the kickstand down. She slid herself off of the seat and groaned quietly as her hips readjusted to being back in their original position.

There weren't any cars parked in the lot, the road was less crowded as she had driven further out of the city. She didn't know what to expect when she entered the store but getting a nose-full of rotten-smelling something.

Stepping back, she let the door close, coughing uncomfortably. Her stomach rolled and she felt like she was going to throw up. Her heart pounded painfully against her ribs as she tried to recover herself. Something is definitely dead in that place, she thought, knowing she needed to find out.

Remembering the infected cashier from the day before, she walked back over to the motorcycle and opened the storage unit with her backpack in it, pulling out the handgun and stuffing it into the waistband of her jeans. She covered it with her shirt and jacket, then turned back to the store.

The second time Elyza opened the door, she was more prepared for the scent that assaulted her senses. "Hello?" she tried to hold her breath, but it was hard when she was required to breathe. There were no voices that responded, just the rustle of something further back in the store, like a wild animal.

Elyza made her way through the aisles, if she was going to get gas, she might as well get more food. The utter silence was eerie, Elyza had never been in a place that didn't produce at least the smallest sound. But with the power out, there were no machine noises or lights buzzing overhead.

Another noise echoed through the building, setting Elyza's nerves on edge. She withdrew Bellamy's handgun from her waistband and flicked off the safety. Slowly, she moved her way towards the line of darkened refrigerators. There were several empty racks all around the store, clearly someone had already taken supplies from the store.

Suddenly, a large man stood up midway down the seventh aisle. He was bald and the rack behind him barely reached his shoulders. Elyza's heart attempted to jump through her chest when she noticed the size of him. He had to have been over six feet tall with a large, broad shoulders and arms that might have been larger than Elyza's head.

"Hello? Sir?" she called out, surprised at how confident and strong she sounded. Her finger rested along the barrel of the gun, prepared to shoot at any second.

The man turned around, stirred by her voice. The area around his mouth was covered in glistening, deep red blood and his eyes sent a shiver down Elyza's back as soon as they found hers. Her body went cold and she frozen, just like when she was in the store with Finn and Bellamy. But now she didn't have them to save her ass.

Blinking hard, she managed to tear her gaze away from the man's. His eyes were oddly blue and hazy, almost as if he wasn't actually seeing anything. He moved slowly and jerkily, as if having to force himself to move at all. His body didn't seem to want to respond to his commands.

A low, animalistic growl emitted from his throat and Elyza raised her gun, aiming it at his head. He slowly made his way towards her, but she continued to hesitate with her pointer finger on the trigger.

The man was making his way slowly but surely closer to her and every time she tried to deter him, he only continued towards her. Pull, don't squeeze, she thought as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Elyza hoped to build up her confidence, how had Bellamy done this so easily?

"Stop, please. I don't want to shoot you." Elyza muttered desperately. The man looked larger as he turned, his shirt catching on the rack and pulling it down behind him. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked back, stopping for a second mere feet away from Elyza. As he looked down, obviously confused by the noise Elyza breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he was just sick.

But then he turned again and rushed at her more eagerly, nearly knocking her off her feet as he barreled into her. She tried to push against his chest, her hand coming away red with blood. There was a gunshot wound to his chest, right near his heart. He shouldn't be alive, she thought desperately and she stumbled backwards, her spine slamming into the handle of one of the refrigerators.

She raised her gun as the man continued towards her and didn't hesitate this time. Two shots echoed through the room but the man didn't stop. Two more holes appeared around his heart. He should be dead, she nearly screamed in frustration as she spun away. The man slammed into the glass in his frenzy to get to her.

Elyza stumbled further away, trying to make space between the two of them. She managed to gain a couple of feet on him before his hand caught on her jacket and she twisted, losing her footing and falling on the ground. Her hip slammed hard against the tile and she grunted in pain, quickly trying to find footing to push herself further away.

Heart pounding and palms sweaty, she realized she'd never experienced fear like this before. This guy—thing—was trying to kill her and she'd never experienced fighting for her life before. It was nerve-wrecking and Elyza scrambled away as fast as possible, squeezing the gun tightly in her hand.

She scrambled around and settled herself against the wall, watching the man feverishly stumble towards her. Kill or be killed, she thought and aimed her gun between the man's hazy eyes. Her finger shook over the trigger before she pulled it, her arms shocked from her wrists to her shoulders as the built exited the chamber and flew through the gun.

Elyza knew she'd met her mark when the man fell, dark blood spraying the glass and dripping down his forehead. Breathing heavily, Elyza tried to recover, turning herself away from her view of the man she'd just killed.

Her stomach twisted into a tight knot as she took deep breaths. She dropped the gun next to her with a loud clatter, her hands shaking as she curled in on herself. Her hands got lost in her hair, calm down, calm down. You had to do it. He was going to kill you. She repeated this over and over in her head, trying to justify herself.

The gas station was completely silent as Elyza attempted to control her breathing and calm her rushing heart rate. These are crazy times, people have to do crazy things. Bellamy almost died because of one of them. I had to kill him—no, it—because it wasn't human anymore.

When she finally lifted her head from between her knees, there was a new resolve burning in the pit of her stomach. She would do what she had to do to survive, to get home to her mom and find the Jahas. Shakily making her way to her feet, Elyza grabbed the pistol and shoved it back into her waistband before scanning the room for any more threats.

There was nothing. So she avoided looking at the man she'd killed and gathered up whatever food items she could salvage. It took her nearly twenty minutes to get everything into the storage trunks on the motorcycle, but once she'd finished she went back into the gas station.

Elyza still needed to get gas, so she hoped over the register and looked around for what she had to press to activate the pumps outside. Once she managed to locate the proper buttons she inserted half of the money she had on her into the register and asked for thirty dollars' worth of gas.

After doing that she moved away from the register where something caught her eye. Hanging on a display rack, not far from the second register down were an assortment of pocket knives—at least, what was left of them.

There were two left, a gnarly looking serrated edged four inch blade with a heavy-duty black metal. Then a much smaller two and a half inch blade with rainbow colors that rippled in the lighting. It was cute to say the least and Elyza grabbed both of them before jumping over the desk again.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of a blue box peeking out from behind one of the aisles and she grew curious. Quickly, she rushed over and found a twelve pack of beer. Oh sweet Jesus, she thought happily, quickly scooping it up into her arms. She was totally getting wasted tonight. She needed to after the day she'd had.

With a skip in her step, she carried her loot back to the motorcycle and twisted the knob off of the gas tank. She went through the motions of getting gas, getting lost in thought. How was she managing to do such a mundane thing as pump gas after doing what she just did?

She shuddered in the warm, California air. The hairs on the back of her neck and on her forearms were raised as the shiver ran down her spine. The world had a different feeling, it felt like it was revolting. Revolting against humans and trying to revert back to before humans began destroying the earth.

Things were changing and Elyza knew she would have to change with it, or she would die. She couldn't let that happen.

A/N:

Let me know what you think! I've gotten a lot more reads than originally anticipated so I'd really like to know what those said readers think! I don't bite, promise. I appreciate constructive criticism and I'm willing to listen to any ideas you guys have on where this fic should go. I would really, really like it actually.

~Nina