Better off Undead

Chapter 3: Survivors

She looked to be about his age, maybe slightly older, putting her somewhere in her early to mid-twenties. There didn't seem to be much to indicate her specific age, it was more just a feeling Eli had that she was somehow a few years older than him. Maybe it was the cold, hard look in her deep, brown eyes, a look that seemed to say those eyes had far more experience than someone his age should have.

Her hair was a dark blond, almost brown but not quite. Despite its deep color, it still maintained hints of glowing golden flashes flowing like the spray of a waterfall down to her round shoulders where some of it bundled up in small pools but most of it came to a dead stop. She wore black, ankle-high boots that led straight up into tight, dark grey jean pants that showed off her figure quite nicely. A dark blue top with a white undershirt poking through the angular v-neck completed the outfit. Her slender, well-tanned arms stretched forth from the short sleeves, angling out to form a sort of triangle before her body, out to where the hands met, wrapped around the handle of a small, black pistol.

The pistol was aimed straight at him.

Eli smiled sheepishly and raised his hands into the air in a mock surrender. "Don't shoot," he joked, but the straight, solemn expression on her face did not change in the slightest. The silence stretched on and he dropped his hands and the smile quickly faded away from his face. An uneasy feeling settled over him, and he became certain that she actually would shoot him.

"Were you bitten?" she demanded, her voice firm and steady. Her body barely moved as she spoke, her eyes and weapon remaining perfectly fixed on him.

"What?" He asked, blinking.

"Were... you... bitten," she repeated, slower, with great emphasis on each individual word. "It's not a difficult question."

"I- no." he stammered, standing up. "I wasn't bitten. One of them tried to chew through my shoe, but that's it."

"How did you get here?" she continued, her voice still icy and unwelcoming.

"Here?" he echoed, eyes furrowing in confusion. He motioned back toward the pool area. "Through there," he answered simply.

She suddenly lowered the gun, frustration growling in the back of her throat as she said, "No, I mean-"

"Amber!" a voice called out, cutting off her sentence.

A figure came running out from a nearby hallway, surprising them both as they turned in the direction of the call. It was another young woman, probably around the same age as the first, with dark, almost ebony skin. Her outfit was simple: slimming navy blue jeans and a slightly baggy white shirt with some weird, unspecific design flashing across it in black. Her hair was short, composed mostly of a series of dreadlocks held back from her face by a bright green headband. Eli noted with a faint curiosity that neither of them was wearing any jewelry beyond this newcomer with earrings and a septum piercing.

"We have to go!" the newcomer was saying, stopping just short of the first girl, whose name was apparently Amber. "They've forced the gate. The place is filling up with them."

"The who did what now?" Eli demanded, now thoroughly confused. This had started as a weird day, and it was just getting weirder seemingly by the second.

"Who the hell are you?" the new girl demanded, seeming to take note of him for the first time.

"I just found him, Tisha. He was being attacked by the one on the ground. He says he hasn't been bit." Amber explained dismissively.

"Fine, then he can come with us," the new girl responded, immediately turning back in the direction she had come.

"Wait, what?" Eli responded, somewhat taken aback by the speed everything was suddenly moving. "I don't want to go anywhere."