Immunity

6

The kid with the gun slides it into a holster on his belt and looks over at me. "You been bit?"

I swallow, my throat is so dry. I struggle, trying to find words in my mind and string them together into a sentence. Eventually, I force myself to say "Do I look like a walking corpse to you?". I even manage a little giggle on the end. Yeah, I even surprise myself sometimes.

The dude doesnt crack a smile at, he just looks up at the severed rope above my head and frowns, "I think we need some more rope,"

"There's some in the storage room," The bag girl says. Without another word, she turns and walks out another door, the door shutting softley behind her.

I immediatley knew that the Bag girl didnt really like me. Maybe it was a matter of trust.

Something brushes my hair. The dog has actually left its owners side, and is inspecting me with its nose. First around my head. Then he begins to move down to my shoulders and down my arms. He sniffs where I knew one of the bites were. Suddenly, the dog pulls back and lowers his head. His hackles raise and he begins to growl.

I scramble away, and am about to curl myself into a ball, but a voice booms over the room. "Ace, leave her alone!"

With that, the dog quietens, but still glares at me and stalks back to its owner. It knows. How am I meant to hide it? I cant with the dog around. They'll catch on eventually, wonder why the mutt acts so funny around me.

It was strange. Everyone stopped keeping animal about three years ago. Once the human populations dropped so low, the infected looked for other sources of food: Animals. And in the more urban places where there were less animals, pets were immediatley top of the list. I mean, infected cant catch pigeons.So people would wake up in the mornig to see a zombie in their back yard, along with bits and pieces of Fluffy the cat everywhere. On the bright side, it was lucky animals couldnt become infected.

Bag girl comes back through the door, carrying some rope and a rolled up yoga mat type thing.

She throws the yoga mat at my chest, "Here,"

She then hands the rope to Gun guy, who is pulling the old rope from the pully. "Who wants to thread the new rope through?"

The two little kids, squel and grin and wave their hands as if their lives depended on it. Gun guy holds out a hand to the little girl, who grins. The guy crouches down, and the girl climbs up onto his shoulders like a little monkey, grabbing tuffs of his hair to stay on. The guy straightens, wincing as the little girl pulls at his hair. With the rope in her hand, the girl reaches up and threads the rope through the metal. "Done!"

The gun guy shortens himself again and the little girl slides off his back onto the floor.

"Thats not fair!" The little boy stamps his foot. "I had my hand up first!"

The gun boy tilts his head slightley and smiles, "But, Leo, you did it last time." Last time?

The little boy goes quiet, and shuffles his feet.

The gun boy smiles again and goes and sits down one of the beds.

I stay still, the yoga mat in my lap.

I catch the kid staring at me. "What?"

"Well, arent you going to set up your bed?"

"Oh,"

I unclip the velcro straps of the mat, which is surprisingly thick and roll it out.  My eyes flicker to my sleeping bag, that managed to roll its way to the corner when I was tipped upside down.

The bag girl is onto me, and practically pounces on the bag. She unrolls it, and pulls out her knife, cutting it in half along the seams. She tosses one half to me,(like it pained her to do so,) and gave the other to the twins. Two for the price of one.

"What do you guys want for dinner?" Bag girl asks.

"Spahgetti!" the twins scream,

The mysterious kid smiles as his dog barks. "That'll be Spam for both of us, doesnt matter what type it is."

The quiet girl in the corner looks up, "Chicken noodles..." She mumbles.

Gun guy grins, "Tuna,"

Bag girl doesnt turn to me to find out what I wanted, so I assumed I was going hungry. But what did I expect? It wasnt like I was with their group anyway. I might stay one night, but after that I'll be alone again.

Gun guy shuffles around ontop of his blankets, pulling one out from underneath him and laying it over his legs. He then leans back on his elbows, and sighs.

"My name is Hugo," He says with a tight lipped smile, his eyes shift to the quiet girl in the corner, "That's Aggie, the ginger kids are Leo and Izzy," He points at mysterious dog boy " And thats Jax, and his brother, Ace."

Thats where my brain stumbles in processing the names."..Brother?"

Gun guy, or should I say, Hugo, nodds, "Thats right."

I cant help but look over. Jax sits with his back to me, running his fingers through the dogs thick coat. the dog, Ace licks his cheek back kindly in reply.

I turn my head slowly back to Hugo, and force out a smile, "Oh," I say simply.

He gives me a look that says, 'Say anything about it, and I'll hurt you.'

"And the girl that went out the back is Ria."

I smile.The death starer is called Ria.

"Well, my name is Wr-,"

"NO! NO! No!." He shouts, shaking his head and waving a finger at me. "We dont want to know your name. The less we know about you, the less it matters when you get killed,"

I freeze, and my jaw drops. So this is how its going to be.

He looks at me one last time, before pushing himself up from the bed and storming out, through the door Ria went through.

I grab a strand of my hair and begin to twirl it around my fingers tightley. This was how it was going to be. I knew there wasnt much chance of changing that.

I guess the only thing to do now was try to gain their trust.

Because something at the back of my mind told me that I wasnt going to die anytime soon.