Savior.

Meeting.

Mia slowly opened the door of a house that, surprisingly, was in pretty good shape. She glanced behind her before she quickly entered and shut the door as she saw one of those, things, run towards her. The house was quiet and decorated nicely, clearly lived in recently. Maybe she could stay here for a bit?

She pulled her knife from her backpack and glanced around the entrance, slowly walking into the hallway leading to the rest of the home. There wasn't any sounds of living dead or people raiding the house, but you can never trust your hearing. Fuckers can be as quiet as a mouse.

The sound of a gun cocking ringed through the silence the house had fallen into. Footsteps approached from behind and Mia held her breath. The barrel of a pistol pressed against her back, aligned with her spine. She slowly raised her arms. The surprisingly high-pitched voice of a man spoke.

"Knife. Drop it." He commanded. Mia nodded and dropped the makeshift knife she had held tight in her hand. The gun pressed lighter against her spine and the boy cleared his throat. "What- what uh, what are you doing in my house?"

He sounded afraid, and young. Really young. Mia felt kinda bad for him, in all honesty.

"Same as you, probably." She said with a hint of humor. The boy laughed dryly and grabbed Mia's shoulder, suddenly spinning her.

Mia was genuinely shocked by what she saw. A boy, maybe 15, with burns across his face and neck. He was tall and lanky, and extremely weak by the looks of it. He held his pistol with shaking hands and a God awful grasp. Now she understood why he seemed so afraid, poor kid probably never had to threaten anyone.

"Name." He mumbled after a moment, still pointing his gun at Mia, though with less of an aim and more of an attempt to scare her.

"Mia. Look, I'm just trying to get out of the open for the night. I'll be out by-"

He held his gun tighter and aimed it for where he thought her heart was and shook his head. "Just- just the name. I don't care why you're here. You don't seem dangerous."

Mia scoffed and shook her head. " Shit like that will get you killed eventually."

The boy nodded and lowered his gun, gesturing towards her discarded knife. Mia slowly lowered her arms and grabbed her knife before shoving it into the water bottle holder on her bag. He stepped back and put his gun into his pocket before checking that the front door was closed and locked.

"You can stay here, ma'am. I- I'm Bennet." He mumbled. Bennet fidgeted with the hem of the shirt and awaited a response from Mia, who was just as awkward was the younger was.

"Why are you alone? Shouldn't you be at some camp or with someone?" She asked suddenly, stepping closer to Bennet. He shrugged and looked down at the floor.

"My mom said she'd be back. Dunno where she went. She left her gun." Bennet softly replied, worry lacing his words. Mia nodded and looked around before hurrying away to explore the house more. Surely he wouldn't notice a few things gone?

She entered the living room and glanced around, noticing a small picture frame on the fireplace mantle. She approached the fireplace and picked up the photo. A pang of sadness filtered through her and she stared at it.

Bennet, sitting with who Mia though was his mother and father. He was younger, maybe 10? She flipped the picture frame and noticed that the date was written on the frame, rather the the photo.

2002, 10/1

Oh. Maybe he wasn't as old as she thought. Poor kid.

She set it back and went to turn back around, but jumped when she saw Bennet quietly watching her from the doorway. Bennet approached her and looked at the photo.

"Oh, that's me, my mom, and my dad!" He said happily. He met Mia's gaze and smiled. "I think you'd get along with my mom, you should stay until she comes back."

Mia smiled softly before her face fell. "Bennet, how long has your mom been out?"

"I don't know, I never kept track. She left maybe, a little more than 2 weeks ago?" He said it like a question and didn't even notice how grim it sounded.

"And she left her gun?"

"Yeah, why?"

Mia slowly nodded before walking away. "Don't worry about it."

She entered the kitchen and dug through the cabinets searching for anything. Alcohol, actual food, hell even cutlery. She kneeled down and opened one of the more out-of-sight cabinets. She smiled wide when she saw a bottle of wine, though it looked shitty. She quickly shoved it in her bag and stood. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. But as she turned, Bennet wasn't anywhere near her.

She went into the hallway again and Bennet was sat at the bottom of the stairs, mindlessly fidgeting with what looked to be a rosary. He glanced in Mia's direction and his face lit up. He stood abruptly and motioned for Mia to follow him, to which she did.

The upstairs seemed to only be 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, though there was an extra room that Bennet said was private. "Mom only," he explained.

Bennet lead her to a spare bedroom decorated in pink and purple with a girly toys sprawled across the floor. Mia stepped in and set her bag down before looking to Bennet with confusion.

"This was my old room. My mom thought she was gonna have a daughter before corpses started walking so she kept it." He explained quietly, a blush spreading across his cheeks. Mia chuckled a little but didn't bother to pester him more.

Just as Bennet went to leave Mia decided to ask one more question.

"Those burns, they look severe. Are they recent?" She asked with concern. Bennet froze and went pale. He attempted to form a sentence but it just came out as incomprehensible stutters. He took and deep breath and glared at the floor.

"Mom said I shouldn't tell strangers those things." He replied plainly. Mia frowned but didn't push it. If he wanted to follow his mom's words, who was she to judge?

"Goodnight, ma'am." Bennet called out before shutting the door and turning out the bedroom light. Mia laughed softly at the fact he called her "ma'am", before collapsing onto the child-sized bed.

She had to curl into a ball to comfortably sleep without her legs or arms dangling off the sides of the bed. She wondered if Bennet was actually going to sleep or not, he looked pretty bad. Maybe he'd stay awake in case his mom came back. God, she felt bad for him.

Sleep didn't come easy, since the sounds of a clock ticking filled the air. She was surprised the thing was still on! Should've run out of battery by now. But even so, she eventually got some rest.