Eliza woke up, feeling the warmth of the tent seeing the lights playing on the top of the tent as it shone through the leaves of the trees overhead. It was a nice morning. The forest was quiet and she got up slowly, stretching as she did. It was a quit morning and Perry was gone, which wasn’t uncommon, especially since they’d found a string of abandoned country houses, most were farms, along the stretch of road they were on. They’d gone through a few homes over the week and while most were suitable to live in, they both knew that homes were to be avoided. Homes made people curious. Homes is what the raiders looked for, and they were just as big of a threat as the sick.

She stepped out and looked around, seeing B BK SOON scrawled into the dirt with a stick. It was enough to go on, so she sat on a log and took out a hunk of bread from the military rations they had found earlier. It wasn’t tasty, but it kept, and it filled the stomach, and that was all that mattered.

She heard rustling in the forest in directly in front of her and she moved her hand down to her knife and crouched until she saw it was Perry. She stood and smiled but then she realized something was wrong. He was running. She felt her stomach tighten and she moved to go out and see what was the matter. “Babe what-“

“No!” He yelled in a tone that cut through her, freezing her instantly. “Stay back. Look Leez, I’m sorry...I...” She could see tears on his face and she studied him as best she could with the onsets of panic rising in her. She couldn’t see anything wrong.

She took another step and he stepped back in turn. “Don’t! Leez, I... I was looking in one of the houses. And... I didn’t... I fell through the floor and... It was... I didn’t have my mask on...”

She immediately felt tears falling down her face and she them away. “No Perry, baby, it’s ok. Maybe you didn’t brea—“

He cut her off in a tone so violent it seemed like it was someone else entirely, someone she’d never met before. “NO! It’s too late. I can feel it. It’s itching. Hot... You need to run. Go. I’m not sure how long until...”

She moved towards him one more time and this time his tone was more measured, but she could see something in his face, something that was not him, not Perry. “I said go. Now!”

She reached and grabbed her pack and ran, tears streaming down her face as she did. She ran across a 2 lane road and through the forest and finally she was starting to tire. In fact she could tell she’d been tired, it was just that adrenaline and shock were starting to subside. But she ran on until making her was to a clearing with some buildings. She ran, seeing a car up ahead, old and beat up, and she decided she would stop there, crawl inside and rest for a bit and come up with a plan.

She was moving between the buildings, thinking back to Perry, seeing his face before all of this. She wasn’t sure if she could go on without him now. Everything was gone.

Everything.

Both of them had lost so much already, and now they lost each other. The tears began to flow again and she began sobbing.

Then with on warning and leaving her no time to react, an arm shot out and caught her in the neck in a clothesline. She was instantly disorientated and when she slammed down on her back, the wind was knocked from her. Her vision was obscured from the tears and swimming from the blow as she laid there, gasping. Then a face came into view above her, then another. Her hand reached for her knife, but a booted foot kicked it away and she felt the knife being pulled from its place at her side.

“Well look what we got here boys. I’ll be damned if I remember the last time I’ve seen something this pretty. Now don’t you worry you sweet thing, we’re really old fashioned here, we know just how to treat a lady.”

Moments later, she was bound and gagged, being dragged to a brick building.

No. NOW, everything was gone...