Bittersweet

Mariana

Mariana pushed the piece of hair that had fallen into her face back behind her ear. She had yet to braid it for the day and it was starting to annoy her. But this was what she did everyday. She got up, cleaned herself as much as she was able, looked at her To-Do list, ate breakfast and then braided her hair before she started with her day.

Today's list included an inventory check, Mariana's least favorite part. They never had enough of anything, and more often than not they ended up having to survive on eggs from their chickens and fish from the lake, not exactly the most filling foods. After scanning the To-Do list she headed downstairs to make breakfast.

"Sebastían! Breakfast!" She yelled up the stairs. After there was no response she left his food on the table and started going through their cupboards, counting everything and marking it down. Sebastían emerged from the hallway, rubbing his eyes.

"How many weeks of pills do you have left?" Mariana asked him.

"Two."

"Ok, I'm going to have to go on a run into town today to get you some more."

"I don't fucking care. Just don't die or I'll have to get them myself."

Mariana's eyes started tearing up, but she forced herself to suck them back in and continue with inventory. He glared at her as he ate his food. She tried not to look over, the look would make her cry, and she had too much stuff to get done today, no time to cry.

"You know I really figured you wouldn't get my pills for me. Get me killed just like Johanna." He said, his voice dripping with malice.

"It wasn't my...!" Mariana started to yell at him before turning back to her list. This was not the time to get into another argument over their sister. She was dead, there was nothing that could be done to change that. Mariana already hurt enough from what had happened, Sebastían's rub just made her hate herself more.

She finished the pantry and went into her bedroom to get her stuff for a run into town; her sword, a pistol in case of emergency, and a small backpack that had some emergency food, water, and first aid supplies in case she got stuck.

The apocalypse only started two months ago, and Mariana had already perfected her runs into town. She had already made five since the beginning of the whole thing. It usually wasn't that hard. Most of the town's population had turned, but the population was only around ten thousand to begin with, and most of them were somehow trapped in their houses. She usually only had to kill between ten and twenty, but she didn't want to press her luck.

She walked outside to her bike that was parked next to the barn and climbed on it. The drive into town was 15 minutes in a car, but their car had run out of gas awhile back and they couldn't carry the buckets of gas on their bikes, so bikes and horses were their main forms of transportation.

Their farm had been small, a family farm that dealt in crops and livestock. They had a herd of Angus' that they had built heavy protection around, they couldn't have the undead contaminating their food source. The trip into town would take almost an hour, so Mariana had to leave as soon as possible if she wanted to get back to her house before nightfall.