Hanna

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

“Start shooting!” Carly yelled as she shot three down. I followed her instructions and began firing. My first shot hit a Zed clumsily, and blew me backwards. I altered my position, bending my knees slightly so as to grasp the ground better. I also adjusted my hands so that I had better hold of the gun. At first, my aim was poor and I only shot one Zed for every four Carly was taking down. I would definately need more practice with this.

As we shot, Carly and I began backing through the door. Soon, we were closing the hatch and retreating back to the chrome room. Once there, I allowed myself a breath.

“Okay, so no more going through that door. Got it.” Carly said, panting.

“Yeah. Let’s go back to my room. I want to make sure everything’s okay in there.”

“Okay. C’mon.” With that, we began walking back to the spiral staircase leading to my closet.

At first, things were silent, only the sound of our footsteps echoing through the empty tunnel could be heard. But as we neared the staircase, we began to talk.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked.

“For now, stay in your room and the tunnels. We need to observe the Zeds from afar. We don’t know what they are, or what they’re capable of. Once we know that, then we can fight. It isn’t wise to go into a battle without knowing anything of your opponent.”

I just nodded my head and continued walking. Once at the staircase, I disengaged the safety on my gun and walked up to my closet. Silently, I opened the door and stepped out. The room seemed just as we left it, so I motioned Carly in. She slid the door closed and sat down on the bed.

“What time is it? I’m getting tired.”

I checked the clock. “8pm. We should eat. If you're tired, get some sleep.” I walked over to the storage of cans and picked up one filled with a bean and rice meal. I opened it, and we ate. Afterwards, I agreed to take the first watch as Carly slept. During this hour, I thought of what had happened today. I could have died in that initial attack and Carly saved me. I could have died when we went up to the shed, but again, Carly saved me. Right then and there I realized that I was helpless without her. If I was going to survive, I would need to learn more skills. I couldn’t always rely on Carly to catch me when I fell. I decided that tomorrow I would ask her to train me. We might as well do something with that chrome room.

Then my mind drifted to Tom. I knew he was strong, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was alright. He’d been my friend since the beginning, and I couldn’t bear to think of the awful things potentially happening to him. My face felt hot and I could feel the tears welling up. I tried to stop myself from crying, but as soon as that first salty tear ran down the side of my cheek and into the corner of my mouth, I knew this would be a battle lost for me. I cried for the remainder of the hour. Not just because of Tom, but because of everything that I had gone through. I woke up a daughter and a sister, and would be going to sleep an orphan. Everything I loved had been ripped from my grasp in the span of less than 24 hours. But rather than feeling sorry for myself, I needed to stay strong. For everyone lost to this horrid epidemic; for everyone who died trying to save someone else; for those still out there, going on. I do not regret crying, for it helps the soul calm down, to gather the pieces and continue on. I don’t even regret feeling sorry for myself, because it meant I had some humanity left in me. I regret nothing from that day. It made me the girl I am. It made me Hanna Priest.