I noticed the truck behind us pull over next to a red sports car and halted before switching the gear to park. I made sure to have my bow loaded before I got out of the car, stomping toward them. Two men stumbled out of the pickup as my brother hastily got out of the car too, scrambling towards me. He held my elbow, trying to stop me from unleashing all of hell's rage on them.

"Lynnie…" he hissed.

"Stay back," I snapped as I held up my bow, my wrist screaming in protest, and pulled the arrow back, aiming at this random cowboy who probably thought showing up out of nowhere was "darn tootin'".

The guy next to him backed away a bit, hands up in the air with his eyes wide in surprise. The sheriff also put his hands up in the air, but in a more calm kind of manner, almost like he was about to negotiate with me.

"Look, we mean absolutely no harm, alright?" the sheriff protested, approaching me by one step, only to halt abruptly as my bow twanged and the arrow buried itself into the ground, missing his foot by a millimeter. The guy behind him made a slight squeak while my brother sharply inhaled before clinging to me again in protest. The sheriff glanced from me to my brother, staring at him with a wistful and far-off look until I shuffled in front of Rennie. He looked back up at me, some kind of understanding in his eyes as he looked.

"Ma'am, we don't have time for this," the guy behind the sheriff finally spoke, fidgeting almost like he wanted to walk over in front of me. "The geeks are going to come back and they're going to kill our friends if we don't hurry."

"Why the hell should I care about your friends?" I snarled back, with a new arrow lodged in the bowstring.

"Because… they're also humans?" the guy with the baseball cap looked confused a bit.

I scoffed. "Humans… you say that as if that makes them good. There is a whole lotta, of not-good humans out there. How do I know you're not one of them?"

The sheriff moved again as if to inch forward, making me aim for his heart again, the warning and threat clear. He halted immediately but lowered his hands. "You're hurt. You have a kid with you, and he's all you have left. Of course, you want to protect him, I understand."

"Nice," I responded drily, rolling my eyes.

"I have a son his age," the sheriff tried again. "I'm trying to survive in this world to find him and hug him again. Let us pass, please. Better yet, come with us. We can give you shelter and food and a new group, a new family. Our friends back there, have families. Sisters, wives, children, friends, brothers, lovers. If you kill us, you kill them. Not just the friends back there, but the families too."

Rennie tugged the back of my shirt again, hissing my name. I glanced at him, tired of his small protests. His brown eyes looked back at me pleadingly as he shook his head a bit, trying to dissuade me from holding up the bow and arrow. I looked at him and then back down at his scraped knee from when he fell. It hurt me to see him hurt but especially knowing that we don't have any medical supplies at all to help him made me feel worse. I sighed, lowering my bow before nodding at the two men.

"You have medical supplies?" I asked, glancing between the two suspiciously.

The cop looked back at the baseball hat, who looked back at me, nodding. Just then, a familiar groan echoed, a zomb reaching for the guy with the baseball hat. He raised his crowbar just as my arrow whistled through the air, a streak of silver flashing by before embedding itself in the center of the zomb's forehead. We watched the zomb fall back, me from pride and approval for my quick reflexes and dead aim while the others simply gaped.

"Still not used to that," Rennie mumbled beside me.

"How did you…" the cop just frowned, glancing at the dead zomb before shaking his head and turning to the red sportscar, smashing the window and hot-wiring it. Meanwhile, I finally gave in to the protesting wrist, folding my bow up again before hooking it up to my backpack. I took out my machete instead after retrieving the arrows, holding it up while keeping an eye on the irritable boy who was learning to hotwire the car from the cop. Rick soon succeeded, turning to me and my brother right away.

"The truck seats two people unless one of you wanna ride in the back," he shouted through the passenger's window.

"He's the distraction, right?" I asked, pointing to the guy admiring the inside of the car.

The cop nodded and it was all I needed. I bit down on my machete, opened the passenger door, and used a burst of adrenaline to lift my younger brother onto the seat. I buckled him up before he could protest further.

"What are you- no!" Rennie tried to stop me, but I locked him in. His flailings were no good, the car door not budging at all. I handed him a dagger that I cherished, a beautiful black spiral blade with a silver handle, and a small engraving on it. He took it with both hands, eyes widening as he stared at me. I gave him a good grin before looking at the man sternly. The sheriff nodded solemnly, getting my message. I looked back at my brother, patting him on the head.

"Listen to John McClane, hear me? I'll be back soon."

"After slaughtering them?" Rennie asked timidly, reminding me that he was still a little kid.

"Mhm."

"Cho style?"

"Cho style. I'll be back soon, scout," I patted his round cheeks once more before turning back to the baseball cap and getting in the car next to him.

The guy drove the 2009 Dodge Challenger, looking like a boy on Christmas what with the excitement in his eyes at the steering wheel and the interior. He shifted the gear to D, driving towards a store that I assumed was the rest of the group.

"Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street… Meet us there and be ready," the guy shouted before pulling up to the store and drawing most of the zombs away. He muttered something under his breath, but I honestly couldn't care less. My body was finally sending me signals that I needed to take a break, now. A shrill ringing was already echoing in my ears and the car wasn't helping the situation at all.

"What's your name?" baseball asked while blasting music from the radio. He wanted to make this seem like a normal conversation in a party atmosphere, almost like the stereotypical 'guy picks up a girl in the sleek car' except I was pretty sure I had blood on my face, and he smelled like crap with his clothes bloody.

"Arlynn," I responded before the guy decides to stare at me weirdly. "Yours?"

"Glenn," baseball- no, Glenn- grinned at me before stepping on the accelerator down the highway Ben, Rennie, and I had trekked up. He whooped like a maniac, grinning so much that I couldn't help but also laugh and shout through the window as we zoomed down the road, forgetting all about the world that had turned into hell, simply enjoying the wind ripping through my hair and the music blaring.

In the deepest, furthest portion of my mind, I thought: 'He's such a ray of fucking sunshine.