Apocalyptic Culture (Camren/Norminah)

XI

Listen while you read:
Tycho - A Walk

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After an 11 hour drive, they were finally in Arkansas. The only reason they stopped was because they were nearly out of gas and in need to locate a gas station. They stopped in the barren city of West Memphis. Each building looked to be either burned down or coated in dirt. After driving for a few minutes they found a gas station. Outside, there was a woman, that looked to be eating something from the ground.

Allyson was the first one out the car and called out to the person, "Excuse me." She said loudly. "A-are you okay?"

The woman slowly turned around with blood dripping from her mouth revealing a small animal in her hands. Her brown hair was a mess of tangles. Her clothes ripped and filthy in dirt and dried blood. But what made the girls eyes open in fear was the deep bite mark in the woman's forearm.

"She's bit." Dinah said in above a whisper. The woman slowly stood up and eyed each girl. She twitched in her spot and took small steps forward. Before they knew it, she began running towards them.

Ally lifted her machete above her head and began running at the infected woman. As they got closer and closer to each other, Ally could see the woman's bloodshot red eyes. Before the short blonde could strike, the infected woman's head was pushed back and she fell to the ground. Ally was breathing heavily and looked down to see a Gerber hinder folding knife in the woman's head. Allyson furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and turned around to see Lauren in a throwing stance as she was heaving as well. The silent woman smirked and walked over to the dead woman as Allyson stared at her angrily.

"What the hell? I had her." Ally said annoyed as Lauren pulled her knife out of the infected woman's head. The green eyed woman simply eyed Ally up and down before walking towards the gas station.

Normani and Dinah both caught up to Ally who stood, still annoyed with what had occurred.

"Don't be so mad, Ally. She's just not use to having someone else be as good at killing creos than her." Dinah said looking at the short woman.

"She doesn't have to be such an ass about it." The short woman said looking down.

"You're still pretty bad ass, Ally. You survived months in those woods on your own." Normani smiled. Lauren then exited the gas station and walked over to their car where she began to fill it. "Poor girl. She was recently infected." Normani said crouching down to the corpse.

"How can you tell?"

"Well for starters when she seen you she didn't immediately charge. She hesitated because there is still a bit of her humanity in there. Also her gums aren't fully black, just the veins. Another give away was her bloodshot eyes. Red eyes mean her body was trying to fight the infection." Normani answered the short woman. Ally simply nodded understandably and stood up.

The other three girls roamed around looking for anything useful. Ally walked into the gas station and looked at the items they had in stock. It wasn't much, but what was there were a few t-shirts and hats. She smiled and picked out a camouflage hat. After putting it on she decided to keep it and roam around a little more. Outside, Normani and Dinah were checking the other cars to see if they carried anything useful.

"What if we don't find this place?" Normani asked as they searched a car.

Dinah struggled to pull out something from under the seat, "Then we keep looking." She grunted finally pulling out the old shoe.

Meanwhile, Lauren was sitting on the trunk of their car silently watching them all as the car was filling up. The only noise she heard was the sound of the soft breeze pushing stray leaves along the asphalt. The birds chirping as they flew by.