apocalypse

Exploration

To my surprise, everyone moved my bed and stuff into the extra living space. "Safety purposes" Ethan calls it. Either way, it's a lot less cramped than my old room. I get a good night's sleep with the promise of the outside world tomorrow. BOOM. I bolt up, saying "What the-!" Wesley walks into the doorway, holding a large box.

"Sorry, we're moving some stuff. Morning?" he says, cringing.

I slump back down with a groan. "Next time, I'd prefer an alarm clock."

"Well, either way, you have to be up in 10 minutes. Jimmy says we're going on an expedition."

"What time is it?"

"8:10"

"Gimme five minutes."

"Fair enough." Wesley grins and shuts the door.

I lay in bed for perhaps longer than necessary, before dragging myself out. The main room is littered with boxes. "What's all this?" I say to Jimmy. Ethan is sitting on the floor, surrounded by electronic equipment, and Wesley is attempting to get stuff out of a particularly tall box in a hilarious fashion. "We're trying to find some stuff in these boxes. Ammunition, medical stuff, food. We have to conserve what we can." Just then, Wesley emerges from his box. "Aha! Cheerios!" he yells, holding the box up triumphantly. You can almost feel the eye rolls from everyone else. "What can I do to help?"

"Well, you can unpack the medical supplies since Kazuki's training."

He points to a rather large mound of boxes and I get to work.

"Gauze, syringe, Tylenol..." 10 minutes later, we're sorting the fruits of our labor. "Ooh, mosquito spray!"

"I found some old blueprints!" Ethan says enthusiastically.

"What of?"

"Vent system."

"Does it have a crawl space?"

"Sadly, no." Ethan gives me a smile.

"When are we gonna be done with this?" I say, looking at Jimmy.

He understands what I mean. When will I get outside. Kazuki walks in, giving me a death stare and walking away. "Aren't you gonna help us move this?.'" Wesley says with cheerios in his mouth.

"Yeah, Kazuki." I join in. "Training. Bet you just don't want to help out."

"Wesley, don't eat the cheerios!" Jimmy says. Kazuki predictably ignored us and walked out.

"I'll go talk to him.." Jimmy says. By this point, I had had enough.

"Wait." Jimmy stops walking and turns to look at me. "Who cares if we spend all day unpacking boxes? Just tell them the plan."

"Give me 5 seconds to get Kazuki in the room"

I nod, and soon, everyone is inside the..

"Training dojo?" I ask."

Jimmy shrugs. "It's the only way Kazuki would come."

The training dojo is a large room with Japanese decor. Several sets of swords hang on the wall as Kazuki practices. "Water breathing." I say, looking at a tapestry in the walkway. "It's an ancient sword style passed down through generations of my family tree." Kazuki says, still swinging his sword. "CONSTANT FLUX!" he yells suddenly. He swings his sword in a formation so smooth that a water dragon suddenly appears behind him. He stops inches from my face. I stumble backward. "Let's get this over with." he says, lowering his sword and sheathing it. I go ahead and let Jimmy do the explaining "We want to do some exploring, and I happen to know a place to go. I was recently informed that there are others." He grins suspiciously. "The resistance is growing."

"When will we be there?" Ethan says.

"Yeah, we've been walking for hours." Wesley groans.

"Well, the truck only seats four." Jimmy replies.

"We could have stuffed Violet in the trunk," Kazuki mutters.

"Hey!" I yell.

"It's just 5 more minutes." Jimmy says.

"Fine, then five minutes of running isn't that bad for me," Kazuki says while putting on a grin.

Kazuki runs as fast as he can, leaving dust in our eyes.

"Hey, wait up!" Wesley yells.

Soon we are all on the ground in a clearing, gasping for air. Except for Kazuki, of course.

"This.. is it... This is.. The place.." Jimmy wheezes. He steps towards a small shed-like building near him. It is made entirely out of metal with a heavy-duty hatch. "Resistance A-1 requesting entrance." He calls while knocking on the hatch. A small plate slides open, and a pair of brilliant green eyes are staring back at us.

"State your name and purpose."

"Jimmy, leader of resistance group A-1, here to get the rest of my group acquainted with you. Oh, and don't mind Violet. I'll explain." The hatch opens to a girl standing on a stairway.

"Come inside. Oh, and be careful of the last step, It's wobbly."

We enter single-file, but predictably, she is mistrustful of me. Kazuki runs in front of everybody into the dark bunker.

"Wait up!" Wesley says. "How about no!" Kazuki calls back. Such a rivalry has never existed before.

"You did not say anything about traveling with a zombie!" she says, backing away.

"You're half right." I say, walking inside.

The bunker is surprisingly nice, with lamps and plants and candles. The girl gestures for us to sit down.

"The name's Sage. You had better start explaining."

"Well the brief version is that it's complicated, but I guess that you could say that I'm half zombie? I'm... Mostly harmless." "Mostly!?! What's that supposed to mean!?!" "I'll explain later." "So you got any snacks?" Wesley asks. "Yeah, not for you!" Sage exclaims, rolling her eyes.

"Well, either way, we'd like to stay the night." Jimmy cuts in.

"Fine." She leads us to our rooms, which are remarkably similar to our own, albeit a little cleaner. After a few hours, I fell asleep.