Hopeless wanderer {L,H}

nine

chapter 1

violet.

People kill to stay alive. They always have. It might not happen so often as it does now, but it definitely did. I never liked the idea of killing people I never really talked to. People should never get used to killing other people. Just the idea that I killed people who had a family back home that was waiting for them, made it hard for me to pull the trigger. Luckily, I never killed a human being even after the outbreak. Somehow, I always managed to get out of sticky situations alive and well. It still surprises me to be honest. At the beginning of the outbreak I was pretty foolish and selfless. I was a naïve little girl who had no idea what to do. How could I've been so dumb, so not knowing that the world had changed?

Luke fired a shot at a biter while we were jogging through the streets. It fell down with a loud thud while blood gushed out of its head like a river. The streets were much more quiet than I thought they would be, but that didn't stop the biters from coming right at us. Luke ran ahead while I jogged behind him. I stabbed every biter that came near me with a small knife that I'd tucked underneath my belt and behind my shirt. My hair stuck to my forehead, while the unbearable stench of sweat wafted around me.

"Luke! Get over here!" I yelled as I opened a backdoor to a freestanding house. His head snapped over to me and turned around, running straight at me. The biters that were behind him limped after him and got closer to Luke as he grew more tired. He got slower in his steps and his pants grew louder. They were catching up to him and there was nothing I could do. The adrenaline raced through my veins. In a nick, he ran into the house first with me immediately following. I slammed the door close and pushed all my body weight against it. I could feel the biters piling up at the other side of the door, making it hard for me to keep the door close. In the meanwhile, Luke was trying to knock down the library case that was right next to back door.

"Get out of the way!" he yelled, when I saw the rack falling down to the ground. I jumped back before it could hit me and fell right back on my bum. I let myself fall back to the ground, feeling the exhaustion kicking in like a brick. My pants were ragged and uneven and so were Luke's. "Damn, that was a close call." He panted, while he slowly slid down the wall. He rubbed his stubbled jaw and rubbed off some of the blood he had on his hands.

I gritted my teeth in anger. That guy almost got us killed out there in the streets. How could he not have known that guns atract biters faster than the smell of rotting blood. I turned my head to see that the boy was completely worn out. His eyes were closed, while his lips were partially parted. Sweat drops from his face fell down to his hands who were covered with dark blood. His black shirt was ripped and clung to his chest with sweat, making hard for me to tear my eyes away. I always had a problem with staring at people. Ever since I was a child I seemed to stare at strangers a lot. It freaked them out a lot.

"You know, staring is rude." He smirked, opening one eye. His eyes met mine, but I tried to ignore his cheeky smile. His sudden confidence certainly took me by surprise. I glared at him, pursing my lips. "I wasn't staring at you, you ásshole."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, blondie." He chuckled a hoarse laugh. I rolled my eyes, but couldn't stop myself from laughing on the inside. I got up from the ground and gave Luke a hand so I could lift him up. "let's look through the cupboards, maybe we can find some useful things." I mumbled.

The kitchen was directly next to the living room. This house seemed to be untouched for ages. The food in the cupboards still wasn't expired and best of all, they were full. Though the fact it was very dusty it should be harmless to eat. There were cans of canned peaches, cereal, cans of beans in tomato sauce, cans of different kinds of soup and best of all twelve ounces of chocolate pudding. "Jackpot." I murmured to myself, as I shoved all the cans in my backpack.

Luke didn't spoke to me at all. All we did was clear the house in complete silence and I must say, I really liked the silence part. It took us a while until we cleared the entire house completely, but I was glad we did. The house was pretty big and it had at least five bedrooms and two bathrooms. Meanwhile the sun was slowly setting. The sky filled itself with pinks, oranges, reds and the most amazing violet colors. The clouds moved ever so slowly along with the whispering wind. It would be only a matter of time until it would be night time and my body was aching for a good night's rest. Luke and I decided that it was best for us to call it a day. Fortunately, there was no need to keep watch because we barricaded all the doors and mostly all the windows on the first floor. There was no way anyone could come in, but eventually we did decide that it was best if we crashed on the couches downstairs in case anyone tried to break in. We found some blankets in a closet and each took a couch to sleep on. Once we were finally settled, the sun was fully gone. The sky was completely dark and the curtains we closed earlier on the night, made it even darker. The only light we had were some candles to light up the room without drawing any attention from outside.

I pulled a thin blanket over my fully clothed body. The cold was unbearable and it made shivers run down my spine.

"Are you cold?" Luke's voice broke the silence. I shifted around so I was faced towards the other couch Luke was lying on.

"Not really." I lied to him, pulling the blanket even more to my nose.

"You sure? You seem cold." he asked, pushing the subject. I could see him raising his eyebrow skeptically. He did shot me a genuine look which surprised me. It almost seemed as if he cared for a stranger.

"Yeah, it's just... I can't sleep anymore." I replied, clenching my eyes shut for a second. I was exhausted, but my brain was making overtimes. I shrugged my shoulders slightly and propped myself up on my elbows. I could see Luke doing the same and looked at me.

"Who can these days? I mean, I'm slowly getting used to sleeping with one eye open. It's strange that it's becoming a pretty common thing now. People shouldn't be scared to fall asleep. They shouldn't." Luke stated. I met his eyes and silently agreed with him by just simply nodding my head. I wasn't much of a talker and even if I talked, it was more of a mutter, grumble or mumble.

"I guess this is going to be a long night for the both of us." I mumbled, humorlessly.

"Better make the best of it." He chuckled lightly. I gave him a faint sign of a smile. I hadn't smiled for quite some time. Luke seemed to have noticed and smiled back at me. A short silence fell, but it was broken when my I spoke my thoughts out loud and had no idea I did.

"Why Lake Wood? Why in all the places you could go to, you went to Lake Wood?" I mumbled, catching his attention immediately. He scruffed his stubble and thought about it.

"I-I don't know. I guess the same reason you did. To survive. " He answered me after a long silence. He  avoided eye contact with me, even in the dark. As if he knew he made bad decisions and was clearly ashamed of them. We all made stupid decisions. Some people just think to much about them than to forget them.

"Didn't have much of a choise, did I? You people forced me to stay there. " I stated, with a snapping tone to my voice. I was shocked at my own words that escaped my mouth before I could even overthink it. Luke furrowed his eyebrows at me, as if he was surprised at my sudden outburst.

"We?" He suddenly raised his voice. He got up from the couch and pointed an accusing finger at me. " We didn't force you to stay at Lake Wood. We saved you when death was knocking at your damn doorstep! You made a choice remember? You decided to stay and you fúcked it all away. You threw away the life you could have had. You threw away the life I would've killed for. You should've left and searched for your family the second they gave you the chance to, but you didn't. You made a choice."

My eyes widened at his powerful statement. I was stunned to say the least. I was completely taken back and surprised by the fact that the boy had some moxi, but I was more offended than anything else.

"You have no damn idea what the world is out there Luke. I know. It's a filthy goddamn Horror show. You best start preparing your sorry self, because I'm not the only one who's going to die out there."

And with those words I turned around on my couch and ignored the boy with the wide blue eyes. I felt sorry for the boy, I honestly did. Now he was outside of the gates of Lake Wood, I knew the world was going to screw him over bigtime.

Because no one, no one will be spared.