On a cold morning deep in the city of New York, Jeffrey had gotten up like usual and had looked out the window to see if the massive horde of zombies had moved on. Unfortunately, while it wasn't much bigger than yesterday, it was still almost impossible to move through without a vehicle. He would try to find survivors nonetheless as he wouldn't be able to beat this apocalypse alone. Loading his sawed off shotgun, he stepped out into the alley to look for others who survived this mess.

(Sorry for taking so long. Made her opening longer then anticipated.)
Aaliyah mumbled comforting things to herself as she sat in the living room of someone's apartment. Well, not someone. They weren't a stranger after all. They were her friend... before all this happened. Her logic is that if you try to kill her, forcing her to kill you, than the least you could do is offer your home up to them in order to escape a zombie apocalypse.

It's only polite.

Aaliyah sighed in annoyance before rising to her feet. She grabbed her pistols from a nearby table, 2 of them, before holstering them on her hips. She slipped her trusty Swiss Army knife into her combat boot before grabbing her leather jacket and putting it on.

She then took a deep breath before exiting the small apartment through a window onto the fire escape that led to an alley. She was about to climb down when she noticed someone in the alley. According to the shotgun in his hand he was not a zombie. He was... a person like her.

She felt her excitement rise and cleared her throat before speaking just loud enough for him to hear.

"I'm guessing your not a terrible, bloodthirsty zombie?"

(It's fine, I was hoping you'd come back soon)

Jeffrey walked down the alley being careful to watch his surroundings. there were many places that someone could hide behind for an ambush. He kept his sawed off pointed forward and did a technique called slicing the pie around every corner.

He was about to walk toward the end of the alley as he was already in the middle and hadn't seen anything, before he heard a voice call out to him, or so he assumed. He had his weapon lowered until a split second later he had it raised pointed at the girl. He sighed in relief seeing as she was alone and lowered his weapon.

He nodded at her question still startled at her sudden appearance. Then he replied "I am not, I'm trying to survive too" he said catching his breath. "Good to know I'm not the only one miss?..." he asked waiting for her to give him her name.

She smirked when he spun around, pointing his gun at her. Someone's a bit high strung. She could understand it. She just wasn't that jittery anymore due to her being able to tell who's a zombie and who isn't. She walked over to the ladder and, instead of climbing down, she slid down. Her fingerless gloves protecting her palms.

When she landed on the ground she spun around to face him. She tossed some fiery red hair over her shoulder and walked over with a pale hand offered to him to shake. "My name's Aaliyah." She said, her light British tone more noticeable. Her eyes were a nice icy blue color.

He smiled and nodded and shook her hand. A slight sigh in relief as she wasn't a plunderer. Those kind of people weren't looking to survive but rather steal from people and she didn't appear to be one of those. He replied "I'm Jeffrey, good to meet you Aaliyah, do you live around here?" he asked curiously picking up her British tone.

"Pleasure to meet you Jeffrey!" She said brightly, just glad to meet a person, a proper person. "And no, I'm from London. I came here to visit a friend when.... you know, all this happened." She faltered when she mentioned her friend but, was quick to bounce back.

His guess was confirmed that she wasn't from here. He found it interesting though she was from London and found her accent adorable. He looked around to make sure there were no zombies sneaking up on them then turned back to her.

"Ah I see, are you with someone? Maybe we can survive together if you're not. Seeing as were both just trying to survive and all. I don't bite don't worry" he laughed a little

Aaliyah grinned as he basically asked her to travel along with him. To survive together. She laughed a bit before nodding quickly. "I'd love to travel with you. Being on your own sucks. Especially during this time." She said with a small grin on her face. She was no longer alone.

He smiled and nodded "good, now then, let's go back to my apartment where we'll get all my supplies. Then we can hit the road. I'm not sure where we'll go but nonetheless we'll find something. Come along now" he said hoping she wouldn't mind going with him. After all he was a stranger so it would be understandable if she didn't trust him yet but he would earn it, hopefully more...

He walked with her back to his building then upstairs to the third floor where he went inside and began packing his things "I've lived here for a while, such a shame to see it go. Anyway, help yourself to some food if you wish" he said still packing his supplies and ammo.

Aaliyah leaned against a wall and crossed her arms, looking around. "I'm fine, I've eaten earlier. Thank you for offerin' though." With a small smile. She then decided to watch him pack. Seeing that he had things to actually pack made her frown. She had nothing but her guns, leftover ammo in her pockets, a packet of mint gum and the clothes on her. She fingered the frayed material of her tank top.

It was cut off at her ribs leaving her midriff exposed. She'd ripped the bottom half of it off a while ago when her friend was first bitten. Tried to stop the bleeding, albeit in vain obviously.

She shook those thoughts away and focused back on her surroundings.

It didn't take him long to finish packing his things. He then went to do a last check of his place before picking up the duffel bag full of some weapons and ammo as well as supplies. Then he turned to Aaliyah noticing she had a kind of troubled look.

That was when he noticed how dirty she looked. Her clothes were torn and she didn't appear to have much with her . This made him feel a little bad as here he was sleeping in a nice comfy bed while she was out there surviving on her own. He walked over to her "you ok? Something on your mind? You know if you need anything from ammo to first aid, please don't hesitate to ask" he said feeling obligated to help her now. With that he put a hand on her shoulder as a sign of reassurance that they would be ok and had walked with her back downstairs.

Jeffrey had on some black sneakers with some casual shorts and a t shirt with his favorite band Napalm Death on it. Over that, a large trench coat to hold his shotgun in as well as some more ammo that he couldn't fit in his duffel bag that he was carrying.

Aaliyah looked up at him in surprise when he basically became the sweetest guy ever and reassured her that everything was going to be alright, offering her anything she needed. She blushed lightly when he placed a hand on her shoulder. She was a bit embarrassed considering she was a very independant person and the thought of relying on someone was weird. But... she thinks she can get used to it.

She gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you." She said. She then followed him downstairs, a small grin on her face.

He smiled a little feeling good. He was never this nice to people but he felt she was special in some way. He walked out with her cautiously in case there were any zombies. After the coast was clear he waved to her to follow him down the street before encountering the sound of groaning in the distance.

He had turned to Aaliyah "uhh oh, zombies, by the sound of it, at least 20 to 30" he said. "We should get out of here and head west, that way we can find a place to spend the night and settle down. Is that ok?" he asked her.

Aaliyah tensed when she heard the groans of zombies nearby. Her hand automatically went to the holster on her hip where her gun rested. She listened to his suggestion while her eyes glanced around quickly looking for any signs of the oncoming horde.

Her head snapped to face him when he asked her what she thought of the plan. She was touched that he would be willing to take her opinions considering they just met. She gave him a soft smile before speaking.

"Yeah, seems like a plan to me."

He looked around before taking her hand and running as soon as he saw another horde of zombies come out of an alley. He held onto her hand tightly not wanting to let her go and die like he watched his own friend weeks ago. He ran into a parking garage only to find only a few zombies. Raising his shotgun, he fired once killing one zombie while 3 others walked their way. He pointed and fired again killing one and injuring the other two. "Cover me while I find us a car" he said to her.

Looking around he saw a nice Ford mustang that seemed to be very cliche and Hollywood for the situation they were in. But nonetheless he decided he would take it. He broke the window by shooting it and shattering the glass before unlocking the door and getting in it. It took him a little while to hotwire it but he got it going. He then looked to Aaliyah "get in quick!" he yelled knowing the horde would be there soon.

Aaliyah didn't have too much of a problem handling a few zombies that came her way as they tried to eat her and Jeffrey. She just shot the last one with her gun when he called to her, saying to get in the car.

With one last shot she ran to the car, hopping into the passenger seat. "Go, go, go." She said franticlly in worry.

He drove off quickly, dodging a few abandoned cars before getting out of the parking garage. And just in time too, not far away was the horde of zombies that were coming for them earlier. He sighed in relief and just drove without a general direction.

After he had relaxed a little he turned to Aaliyah "are you alright?" he asked hoping she was. He then looked her over and smiled a little with a slight blush on his face after realizing that he found her a little attractive from her personality to her looks and accent. He wanted to know more about her but he was always bad at striking up conversations with people.

Aaliyah turned to face Jeffrey once the car had stopped. When he asked her if she was alright she'd turned to face him. "Yeah, I'm fine." She then furrowed her eyebrows in confusion when she noticed the blush in his face. What was wrong with him?

"Are you okay, mate?" She asked in slight worry. She tried not to use much British slang now that she was in a non-London place. Sometimes it slipped though. Usually she didn't bother to hide it.

He kept driving along trying to look for someplace that wasn't as infested with zombies. He tried not to show his affection as it probably would have seen silly. He chuckled a little "hehe yes yes I'm alright, I guess I'm just glad to have you with me Aaliyah, probably cause there aren't that many people left alive. And I suppose I would consider you a blessing to me" he smiled a little.

He saw a gas station and slowed down to stop for fuel and food and water. "Let's go get some more supplies, what we have at the moment will last us for a month so it's best to get some more" he said getting out of the car. He pulled out his shotgun in case there were any zombies around it and walked around with her. "So um... Aaliyah... Tell me about yourself? What part of the UK are you from?" he asked trying to make small talk.

Aaliyah felt her face lightly flush when he called her a blessing. How could she not? How would you react to that? After driving for a bit they arrived at the gas station to collect supplies. She followed after him into the station where he began asking her questions. Usually she wouldn't be so open but, she figured 'Why not?'

"Well, I'm not that interesting. But, I'm from England."