Zombies on the run

Running

She ran. All she could do was run. Run from the zombies, hide, fall asleep in a relatively safe place, find food, but overall, run. All she knew. All she'd ever done.

This time, however, not the zombies were following her, but something more dangerous.

In an apocalypse, she had always thought that she would fight and run until she found a group of survivors who could protect her. She had thought that someone would magically pop up and help her. That she would be accepted. That she would make friends and they would survive together, somehow helping each other along the way.

She never imagined that all her friends would die and she would take a random car and run away. She never imagined that she would run out of gas in the middle of a strange city.

Most importantly, she never imagined that she would run away from her fellow humans, who would want to rape her.

She tried to lose them, but it was hard. She had an advantage, true, in the fact that most girls were slower and less agile than she was, but there were 5 of them and she was one. Hungry, thirsty, tired one. It was only a matter of time.

They caught her in an open field. As she was forced down, she briefly thought that they would be able to run in case zombies appeared.

Two of them held her arms and forced her to turn around and stand up. She whimpered in pain from how rough they were handling her. No mercy. No thoughtfulness. They said that they would accept death after they were done with her. She felt tears gather in her eyes.

"No worries, sweetheart, we'll kill you so you won't have to struggle anymore." one of them muttered, grabbing her chin.

She felt disgusted, dirty for something that was incredibly close to happening.

She was only wearing a knee-length dress, so it was easy for them to strip her of her lower clothes. That was when she screamed, loud and painful, briefly startling them until one tried to cover her mouth. She managed to evade his hand at first. "Help!" she managed to get out before the man covered her mouth for good. It was a desperate move. She had not spoken in years, not since her mother had died. But her lack of voice had been a choice, which she had given up on in the fight for survival. She was calling out mostly to zombies, choosing to be devoured rather than raped, choosing anything else instead of what was happening to her.

"You bitch!"

She welcomed the slap, thinking of it as a delay to whatever they were going to do to her. All her fight was in vain. She would have rather died than let them touch her, but apparently she had no choice.

She was expecting pain where no man had touched her. She was expecting anger, no mercy, pain and maybe cruelty, but none of it came.

Instead, she heard a gunshot and panicked gasps from her captors as the man who had almost touched her fell, dead.

"Let'er go." another voice said calmly. Another man.

"Y-you... You son of a...!" The stranger easily shot the second man, then clicked his tongue against his teeth. He had a lazy grin and his free hand was resting on a nearby wall. He wasn't willing to play. He was starting to feel a little dizzy and it wasn't a nice feeling.

"See this? It's a six gun. Five for you guys. Two gone. Four bullets left. I only need 3. The last is in case I miss once. So, wanna play?" he drawled.

The remaining men slowly let go of the girl. She quickly spun around and ran to her saviour's side. Once she was next to him, she noticed the state he was in. "We need to get out of here." he muttered, grabbing her hand to pull her along. She complied, ignoring the remaining three who had fled.

He took her to a car and gave her the keys. "Drive." She complied again. He got her out of the city, then had her stop at a relatively safe distance. They both got out. To him, it was a bad idea. His legs gave in and he collapsed, hitting his head against the car's door. She was by his side in an instant, silent but expressive. His smile was sad. "I was bitten." he clarified. She nodded, bitting her bottom lip in thought. "Can I have your name?" She gave him a questioning look. "Your name..." Her lips moved, but he couldn't make out the words. "Nevermind. I'm Andy." She looked sad. "Look, follow this road to the next city. It's a fortress. I lived there. At the entrance, they'll check whether you've been bitten, then ask what you can do, but they'll let you stay anyway." She nodded sadly, a look of thoughtfulness then taking over her features as she looked into his eyes. Finally, she appeared to have made up her mind, because, next thing he knew, her hands were feeling his pockets. "What are you doing?"

"Knife." she said.

He sighed and gave it to her. To his surprise, she made a deep cut on her wrist, then pulled his arm and made a matching one there. He tried to stop her, but she pressed their wounds together.

"Shit, you'll get infected this way!" She just shook her head and evaded any attempt he made at disconnecting their joined arms (he was too weakened to put up a good fight), until he caved and simply asked her an obvious question: why?

She just shook her head and wrapped her free arm around him, forcing him to rest his head on her shoulder. She felt cold to him, but slowly warming up. Or was his fever receeding?

"My name's Maya." she whispered. "And I'm immune. I was told my blood is the antidote to a bite."

He sighed, relaxing. His eyelids were growing heavy, but he was starting to feel better in other ways. His body no longer felt as if he was on fire. He didn't need to throw up anymore.

"Maya... Thank you..."

His friends wouldn't even believe it.

A/N: I hope you enjoy the first chapter. Comments are very appreciated :)