”C’mon, Maeve, come back to bed, you can finish your paper in the morning,” Ed said in a groggy, sleepy tone. He was almost half-hanging off the bed, barely supporting himself with one elbow. He blinked the tiredness out of his eyes as he watched his girlfriend throw a look over her shoulder at him.

“Well here’s the problem, genius, that’s when the paper’s due,” she said, though she was already shutting down her computer before gladly joining Ed in bed. A pleased smile appeared on Ed’s face as he wrapped his arms around Maeve who curled into his side.

“College sucks,” Maeve muttered as she started to feel the bliss of sleep creep over her senses. Ed muttered something about how life in general sucked, but Maeve was already drifting off. She felt warm and safe, protected in the arms of the man she loved and -

Something tore her out of her dream. Maeve groaned as her eyes fluttered open, knowing she now had to face the harsh realities around her. She was always cold, always hungry and always alone. Nothing like an apocalypse to really make you see how alone you can be. Sure, in the past, she was by herself, but she was always in a room with someone or had her phone. Since cell phone towers have been destroyed or decayed from lack of maintenance, she was cut off from the world.

She stretched her arms above her head and let out a little groan as she felt her muscles stretch. She rubbed an eye as she sat up, gazing out the window into the sorry city below her. She was currently camped out in an old office building on the fifth floor, which gave her a decent view of the streets and buildings around her. She preferred buildings like this because it was easy to block the stairs and isolate certain wings. She and a group tried to live in an apartment building but it was too much of a hassle to clear each room and make sure no creepy crawlers were hiding out.

“Wonder what today has in store,” she muttered to herself as she rolled up her cot and blanket before stuffing them in the bottom of the large, though pretty lightweight, bag she toted around. Maeve was planning on changing locations today, just to spice things up, since she was getting rather bored. There was nothing to do and, sure, surviving was nice and all but sometimes Maeve became bored or antsy and felt the need to take risks. Two years ago, when the zombies really started to take over, she would run around by herself on the streets, scream at the top of her lungs. She had a death wish but it made her feel more alive. Now she just wandered around in hope of finding another survivor.

She picked up a water bottle and a protein bar and went to the large window. Looking at the mess below, she took everything in for the last time before she would set out. On the roads, there were about a dozen abandoned cars. Most were rusty, most torn apart for parts. One was even smoldering down the block, and it made her laugh a bit. Stores and apartments at street level had broken windows and were ransacked for goods. Higher up, windows were boarded up.

Maeve threw her wrapper and empty plastic water bottle to the side, since recycling clearly wasn’t a concern anymore, and removed her hair from the messy ponytail to redo it. As she pulled her dirty - both in color and grossness - blond hair into the ponytail, she saw it.

A flare.

Maybe a dozen blocks away, barely making it past the roof of a seven story building, a flare flew up into the sky. It burned red and slowly fell towards the ground. Maeve wracked her mind as to what could be there and she remembered that there was a dog park there.

But that didn’t matter; what mattered was that there was a person! A survivor! Someone to be with! Maeve forgot about her hair and let it fall around her shoulders as she quickly packed up her things. Dirty shirts, a jacket, some boxes of bullets and the one book she had were all quickly shoved into the bag. Her heart began to race at the thought of who could be at the flare sight. She knew it couldn’t be a zombie, since they weren’t that smart (yet). Was it a lone person, a group? Were they wounded or just looking for other survivors?

Before she was ready to leave, Maeve obviously had to arm herself. She was thankful that her dad had been a hunter and taught her how to use a gun as a teenager, otherwise surviving would have been much harder. Around her right thigh she had strapped on a .22 handgun, on each bicep was a knife and in her hands she liked to carry a pump-action rifle. Sure it wasn’t the fastest gun, but she was deadly accurate and quick at loading it. She made sure her weapons were loaded before putting on her bag and letting out a slow breath. Even though she was excited, she still had to keep a clear mind. There was no use in trying to go to the survivor if she was going to die.

Slowly, Maeve made her way down the one staircase she left open. At the bottom she wiggled her way out of a small hole in the wall, careful to always be aware of her surroundings. Once free she gathered herself together before beginning the long, slow walk to the flare sight. She walked in the middle of the street, never getting more than ten feet to a window, doorway or alleyway. Every few minutes she looked over her shoulder.

The sun peeked through cracked and broken blinds, rays landing on the face of a young brunette woman who lay splayed out on a mattress. Her nose wrinkled as she scrunched her face up and groaned, arms stretching out above her head (one hand held a blade that she kept a firm grasp on even in her sleep).

Alright, Natalie. Time to rise and shine.

Finally, she willed herself to open her eyes and sit up. She found herself sitting on the same mattress, in the same motel room that smelled of mildew and dust as she had every morning for the past three months. It wasn't the coziest of places for her to shack up, there were far nicer pads in the city that she could've taken refuge in. But those fancy security systems and electric fences that the wealthy employed didn't do much good in a city without a grid.

Instead, she chose this roach motel in what was once known as a sketchy part of town. Metal bars across the windows and double locks on the doors from the long gone days of gang activity mean that Natalie has to do less work to make sure she doesn't get mauled to death every night by the likes of the new thugs that roam the streets.

Natalie rose off of the stale mattress and walked over to the broken sink in the small bathroom of the motel room. A mirror that was cracked with a million splintering spiderwebs completed the dilapidated look of the place, sending a plethora of Natalies looking back at her, as if she were being judged by a panel of selves from another dimension inside the looking glass.

A sigh escaped her, and she unscrewed the water bottle that sat on the unbroken edge of the sink. Using the last of the bottle, she brushed her teeth with Spongebob toothpaste and threw the rest on her face. Luxuries like running water and whitening toothpaste weren't things to be afforded these days. Take what you can find.

Speaking of find, it was about time Natalie went out and scrounged up some more supplies for her little motel haven. Problem with being here for the past few months is that now, Natalie has to venture further away to find anything due to depleting the closer resource caches. It was a bit of a chore, but she didn't mind the fresh air and getting to knock off a couple walkers. If she was really lucky, she got to deal with a Shocker or Screamer. It keeps her in shape.

Natalie pulled her brown hair back into a baseball cap and began preparing her bag for a day out on the town. Before all of this, she didn't have much experience with the 9mm pistol she now placed in a holster on her side, or for the K-BAR knife she held as tightly in her sleep as she did in her waking hours, and the AR-15 that she strapped to her back was once something she had only used for sport, not survival.

Natalie was never too cautious when heading out on a scavenge, always packing all of her important items. It had been a long time since Natalie had crossed paths with another human survivor, but she didn't risk leaving her ammo and supplies lying in wait for someone to raid while she was out.

Taking a peek through the peep hole of the door, she stepped out into the daylight. As she closed the door behind her and took her first step into the parking lot, a strange noise caught her attention. Something between a fizzle and a hiss, almost like a firework. Natalie knotted her brow together in confusion, turning and hoping the noise wasn't some strange new breed of zombie getting the jump on her. What she discovered, instead, made her heart drop to her stomach.

The bright red light flickered high in the sky, teasing her at its peak before plummeting towards the ground as it faded away. It couldn't be more than half a dozen blocks west. A million questions ran through Natalie's mind, all at the same time and at rapid speed. What was it? Who was it? Why? How many? Trap? Rescue? Life? Death?

The questions all could have very different answers, but one things was for sure: she had to find the source of the call and see for herself what it was about, even if from a distance. So, she carefully began making her way towards the source of the flare.

Ten minutes later, Natalie's train of thought was cut off when she heard the shuffling of feet several yards behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that the same noise of the flare that caught her attention has gathered the attention of the locals. A lone walker began making its way towards her, so to keep from attracting any others, she takes her K-BAR and approaches carefully. Dodging a lunge by the zombie, Natalie countered with a stout jab to the neck, twisting the knife and ending the zombie's second life.

Only this was no regular walker. As she twists the knife, it lets out an ear-piercing scream, sending Natalie to her knees for a moment before the zombie falls lifeless to the concrete. A busted ear drum didn't keep her from hearing the moans of those around her that had now been alerted of her position. She swooped down to grab her knife and left in a sprint down the alleyway towards the nearest road.

Behind her, a small group of zombies was gathering hot on her trail. They stumbled over their fallen comrade, but a pair of them leapt ahead of the pack with the speed of a star running back.

Runners and screamers?!

Natalie panted as she ran full speed ahead, her eyes focused on making it to the road for an open area to fight, or even better, a building to try and lose them in. Her hands found the pistol at her hip and she fired off shots over her shoulder, not risking slowing down to line up a decent shot as she charged forward in the direction of the road and the flare, now hoping there really were more survivors there to get her out of this mess she found herself in.

So far, everything seemed to be going well. Of course she never said that out loud since she didn’t want to jinx herself. She had creeped through about five blocks of deserted city and only encountered three walkers. One, by itself, was a Smoker. Maeve could tell because as soon as it saw her it opened it’s mouth and black smoke just began to come out, but the blond quickly threw a knife into its mouth. It stumbled backwards and fell against a wall, where Maeve took her other knife and severed its head from its spine. She made a slight face when she noticed the gore on her beloved pair of knives, so she wiped them off on a newspaper that was lying on the ground.

The other two that she encountered were Scabs, which made her whine a bit because they were just general pains in the ass. Did (villain) really have to turn into a zombie? She could tell the two were Scabs because they just seemed too cocky. Was that a thing? Cocky, arrogant zombies? Well, they seemed that way and Maeve had to set down her shotgun in order to make the perfect throw through the zombies’s eyes. Sure she could blast open their eye sockets, but Maeve really didn’t want to attract any more attention. One throw and one zombie was down; the next was a bit harder because it started to weave back and forth - although quite slowly - and after a few seconds of aligning Maeve managed to pierce the second eye. She quickly ran over and, with the butt of her gun, jammed the knives further into their skulls. With a little twist added for good measure, she pulled out the knives and wiped them on the back of her pants and continued on her merry little way.

The three kills heightened her senses and made her a bit jumpy. A zombie could appear around any corner at any moment, which fucking sucked. She was never good at dealing with suspense. She hated horror or suspense films because she became too jumpy and either yelled at the actors or googled the end of the movie. However, these past two years of struggling to survive has made her deadly calm when needed. Like now.

About three blocks away, she heard it. The sound that filled nightmares. The scream that horror movie directors would die to get on camera. It was a Screamer and they only shrieked when it was going after a human.

It was like a switch turned on in Maeve’s mind. She quickly looked around before running to and climbing up the rusty fire escape ladder of a one story 24-hour medical center (which she should probably check out later) and discarded her bag next to her to prop up her gun. About three seconds after she readied herself, she saw a girl around her age run around the corner of a building. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that not only did the poor girl bother a Screamer, but she also got the attention of some Runners - two, to be exact.

Maeve only had a short time frame to kill both of them, so she had to act fast. When the first Runner appeared around the corner she let out a shot, swearing under her breath when she felt like the shot was off. A relieved breath left her mouth, however, when she realized the shot severed the head from the neck. That was one for the books. She couldn’t revel long in the kill, though, since there was another Runner that didn’t slow down because of the loss of its companion.

Just one left and Maeve had to shoot now otherwise she would be out of range. She moved down to the edge of the roof and saw that the girl might get hit if she took the shot at this angle. “Well, suck it up, buttercup,” she muttered since getting a little bullet wound would be much less painful than getting ripped to shreds by a zombies. Maeve took the shot but swore when she hit the damn thing in its back. The Runner stumbled, losing pace, and Maeve quickly reloaded and shot at him again. Again, it was in the neck, and caused the Runner to fall. Jumping down from the roof, and swearing a bit at herself since she realized she could’ve broken an ankle or something, she approached the fallen Runner and shot it once more, right in the head. She was luckily far enough away to avoid spatter, which would’ve been super gross, and she quickly whirled around to make sure that no other zombies were attracted by the sounds.

The funny thing about the whole "end-of-the-world-zombie-apocalypse" happening was that it tended to keep those who were fortunate enough to survive in pretty good shape. Wow, Chris, you've never looked so good! Must be all that running for your life you do! Unfortunately, all of this fitness was worn down with malnutrition, mental instability, and frequent dehydration. Add on thirty pounds of equipment and weapons, and one soon finds out that no amount of cardio could make you invincible.

Natalie now found herself in an unfortunate situation. Bogged down by the backpack on her shoulders and the heavy assault rifle strapped across her back, she was quickly growing tired. Her breaths came in rapid, ragged gasps as her muscles screamed for oxygen to power them forward. Ignoring the pain and the exhaustion that was quickly setting in, she continued with one foot pounding down in front of the other, hearing the footsteps of the two Runners behind her drawing nearer. She neared the end of the alleyway and took a sharp turn onto the road, nearly falling to the asphalt when she heard a shot ring out shortly after she and her two trailers entered the street.

'What the HELL was that?!'

A glance over her shoulder soon revealed that one of the Runners had been disposed of. By whom? She did not know, nor did she have time to think about it as the other zombie pressed forward still, gaining on Natalie's heels as she attempted to weave between the rubble of abandoned cars and trash that littered the street.

KAPLOW

Mere moments later, a second crack of a gunshot was heard. The sound of the bullet tearing through the zombie's back never crossed Natalie's mind, because a white hot pain became apparent very quickly in her left leg. The third round of gunfire made Natalie question whether this mystery sniper was targeting the zombies or her, as she soon had to slow her run to a hobble.

Natalie reaffirmed her grip on the pistol in her hand as she turned around, ready to face whatever may be coming at her head on now that she finally came to a stop. The scene she was met with was a surprising one, and it made her take a step backwards. Both of the Runners that were after her lie dead on the road, and a girl not much older than herself approached, putting one last bullet into the head of the most recently downed zombie.

As the girl spun around, in what appeared to be an attempt to check and make sure the rest of the horde wasn't hot on the trail of their two faster cousins, Natalie took a look down at her leg. Blood dripped out of a gash that was torn in her pants, about three inches along her calve. It appeared as though the bullet only grazed her as she was running. Lucky her. Still hurt like a bitch though, and without proper dressing it would be susceptible to infection.

Natalie turned her attention back to the girl just a few yards away from her. This wasn't really the place for introductions or pleasantries, especially with all the ruckus Natalie had just caused, the streets were probably now teeming with dead freaks. Still, the girl had for some reason saved Natalie from the Runners. But trust wasn't easily earned around here.

"Nice shooting," Natalie called out to the girl. "Could use a wee bit of adjustment though," she said, letting a little sarcasm come through after seeing the coast was clear for the moment. It had been months since she had even talked to anyone but herself. "I suppose I should thank you for saving my ass just now," Her eyes caught the sign for the old medical center just up the road, "but I have this bullet wound, you see, and I think I could better thank you after we get out of the street and I get this patched up." She didn't know if the girl trusted her, or if she should trust the girl. But right now, she was a sitting duck in the middle of the road.

"Name's Natalie, by the way."

Maeve waited a few seconds before turning back to the other girl, wanting to make sure that nothing would appear, that they had time to find a temporary shelter. When she turned back she let her arm holding her gun fall to the side, immediately looking at the girl’s wound. Seeing that it wasn’t too bad, her gaze moved up.

“I figured a small wound like that would be much better than being torn apart by Runners,” she said. At the readjustment comment, she let out a short laugh before saying, “Well you try using one of these from a rooftop across the street.” There wasn’t any malice in her voice; she knew what kind of weapon she was using and knew the downsides of using a gun that didn’t shoot very far very well. She wasn’t sure whether to approach the girl and help her with her things, since she didn’t want the girl to think she had injured her just to steal from her.

“Maeve,” she said with a nod of her head, now becoming a little antsy just sitting there and chatting. Sure she liked to risk her life every now and then, but now she had another person - a wounded one at that - and now had to be on top of her game.

“Lucky for you that I was above the medical center. There might be some stuff left in it,” she turned towards the building, though didn’t walk too far away or too fast. She made sure to keep the girl, Natalie, in her sights and held her gun in the ready position. Once the two made it to the front of the building, Maeve took a peek inside. It was dark and the majority of the rooms stretched down a long hallway. She bit her lip, wondering if she should sent Natalie inside while she retrieved her bag from the roof.

Deciding against it, she advised that it’d probably be best for Natalie to wait for a minute while she got her bag from the roof. As quick as she could, Maeve climbed the fire escape once more, jogged across the worn pebbles and grabbed her bag. Unlike before, she made sure to actually use the ladder on the way down so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Fixing a gash was one thing, but trying to set a broken or twisted ankle was a whole other issue.

Back on the ground, Maeve looked inside the building once more. It was silent and she was sure that any type of zombie that was inside would have come out with all of the commotion that had happened. She stepped through the broken glass window and peered around. The front reception area was trashed and had nothing of use. All of the gauze, pills and medical kits would be in examination rooms. The close quarters and multiple rooms made Maeve tense and she really didn’t say anything as she began to poke around the rooms. The front few were just like the lobby, trashed and of no use. However, in one of the back rooms, jammed behind an examination table, was an old medical kit. Triumphantly, she walked out with the kit in her hand.

“It’d probably be best to sit in one of those chairs,” she suggested, nodding to some of the slightly weather damaged and ripped lobby chairs. Maeve set her bag and rifle on the ground, though she was still armed with her .22 and knives in case a surprise attack happened. Opening the kit, she was happy to find a roll of gauze, some expired aspirin, an alcohol swab and regular bandaids.

“The aspirin might not work as well as it used to but it probably wouldn’t hurt to take a few,” she pointed out with a slight shrug, setting the some bottle and gauze on the table. She wasn’t sure how friendly Natalie was with people, so she asked her, “Are you good bandaging up or do you need some help?”

Natalie was glad to see her sarcasm was not lost on the other girl, who she now knew as Maeve. Thankful that she wasn't held at gunpoint and looted or left to fend for herself in the middle of the street, she followed behind the girl towards the old medical center. Keeping the pistol in her hand, she kept a watch out behind them as they made their way over towards the building. She wasn't completely helpless, just pretty uncomfortable at the moment.

Natalie nodded to the girl when she went to climb back onto the roof, waiting patiently outside the building. All the while her eyes scanned the area for any signs of an ambush or unwelcome visit from another bunch of hungry undead. Natalie's eyes traveled down the street in the direction that she first saw the flare go off not long before the little incident. Had the other girl saw the flare too? Was she headed in the same direction? Or was she the one who set it off?

Natalie's thoughts were cut off when Maeve returned from the roof with a bag, and the pair headed inside the long abandoned building. The other girl seemed a little nervous in the tight quarters of the dead end hallway, so Natalie kept to herself while quietly shuffling through old debris and ravaged rooms. To her relief, the girl soon emerged with a medical kit. Probably the last thing in this place that hadn't been looted, she was lucky.

Natalie took Maeve's advice and took a seat in one of the dilapidated chairs, setting her bag down beside the chair. The aspirin had taken on an almost sepia tone, worn from sitting idle for so long. It certainly looked less than appealing, but drugs weren't exactly commonplace anymore. Shaking a few into her palm, she tossed them into her mouth and grimaced as she swallowed the stale pills.

"I think I can handle it, thanks though." Natalie said as she began to clean up the gash a little. Bigger than a scratch, smaller than an actual bullet wound. It hurt, but she'd had worse injuries. The main thing she was worried about was infection, so getting it wrapped up with the gauze was important.

As Natalie finished patching up her leg, she looked at Maeve. "Thanks for all the help, by the way. Hard to come by these days." She gave a small smile and motioned towards the street. "I saw a flare go off this morning, few more blocks down from here. Don't suppose that was you? I think its worth checking out, I was headed there when... well, you saw." Natalie let a small laugh out.

"Anyway, if someone sent off a flare then there has to be something important that would make them attract all that attention."

Natalie wasn't sure if she was coming off as friendly as she was hoping, or if the girl was going to bite at the mention of the flare. Months without conversation left more to be desired from an awkward encounter, but at the very least she could get some information or maybe even gain a sharpshooting travel companion. Something that might not be so bad if the source of that flare turns out to be less than friendly.

Maeve nodded when Natalie said she could handle bandaging herself. She hopped up on the old receptionist counter, letting her legs dangle over the edge. She lightly swung them back and forth, needing something to do. Plus, it felt nice getting off of her feet. She glanced at the window with a casual glance, almost like she wasn’t in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

She let her mind wander a little bit in the momentary silence. She thought about how she stole everything she needed. She understand why criminals stole; when she first started doing it, she felt a slight rush. No money, no rules. Just stealing. She could have whatever she wanted when she wanted. But of course everyone became more cutthroat as supplies slowly dwindled and more and more supplies became less usable. She would dedicate whole days to just scouring buildings and finding nothing but rotten food and moldy clothes.

The blond looked up when Natalie spoke, and she gave a small smile when she was thanked. “No problem. It’s nice to be able to actually interact with someone after what seems like forever,” she admitted, sliding off of the counter and leaning against it. It was almost weird hearing someone else's voice. She would sometime speak out loud to herself just so that her ears could pick up something.

She nodded a bit when the flare was brought up. “Nah, it wasn’t me that sent the flare off but I was heading in that direction too. I hope whatever is there is worth the attention,” she said, really hoping there wasn’t a hoard of zombies eating a poor group of survivors.

“It’ll still be worth checking out,” she agreed, pushing off the counter and slinging her bag over her shoulders. She made sure it was comfortable before picking up her gun and settling it in her hands.
“If you’re ready, we can probably make it to where the flare was before sunset,” Maeve said, knowing that they weren’t too far. Of course their pace would be slowed due to an injury and the need to always be on the lookout for zombies.

Natalie nodded, a little relieved to be traveling in a pair now instead of on her own. She had survived this long by her own devices, but two pairs of eyes and ears were always better than one.

Grabbing her pack from its place beside her, she stood from the dusty old chair and grabbed her gun. She put weight down on her leg, finding it didn't hurt too much to put pressure on it. However, she ventured to guess that that would change once the muscle started flexing as she walked. Nevertheless, the aspirin she took should kick in soon (if it did at all), and hopefully bring some relief.

"I'm ready. I suppose we should get moving then."

Natalie moved back towards the same window they had entered from, peering cautiously out at the street before deciding it was safe enough to leave. She carefully maneuvered her way out of the window and back onto the sidewalk outside. She waited for Maeve to join her before setting her gaze down the street, back in the direction the flare had come from.

It wouldn't be too far now, just a few more blocks. There was no telling what kind of activity the flare or the gunshots fired at the Runners not too long ago had stirred up though. The pistol in her hand was held firmly, fingers secure around the handle and ready to act on the trigger at any moment. In her other hand, she brought back the knife that had started this whole mess to her rest in her palm.

With all the commotion and pain from her leg, she hadn't noticed until now that she had a headache. The dull throbbing on the left side of her head accompanied with hearing that sounded like she was listening from underwater told her that the Screamer must've busted her ear drum with its death cry. Great, now she really was a cripple.

Luckily, she had an extra set of ears to look out for her. Natalie looked at Maeve and gave a half smile paired with a shrug before motioning forward and taking the first steps towards what she hoped would be something that could save them, or at the very least, make it worth the trip.