Dead But Not Gone

Gunther

6 months later...

When you're alone, scavenging whatever you can find for a certain amount of time, you tend to think more about being dead rather than staying alive. After Luis died, I went rogue. I kept to myself and tried to not make friends.

One day, on my daily supply run, this girl named Star confronted me.

"What're you doing here?" She questioned with a gun pointed to my head.

"I'm trying to survive obviously." I sarcastically replied.

She nudged me in the temple with the barrel of her gun. "I don't like sarcasm buddy. What're you doing here?"

"I just needed some food, found this place and took some stuff."

"You got a group? Where are they?"

I chuckled a little bit, then said "Group? Star, sweetie, I've been alone for months. It's easier this way."

"You really are messed up in the head aren't you? C'mon. I'm gonna show you my community. We normally don't accept random people due to uh....certain events. But you're an exception."

She helped me up to my feet and then I asked, "What's this place called?"

"Gunther"

She brought me to this area with a huge ass wall blocking the view from the outside world. It seemed cozy, but I retracted my statement when Star asked a girl to open the gates and she didn't wanna let me inside.

'"Why'd you bring this guy here? It might be a trap!" The girl shouted from behind the walls.

"Alessandra, he was alone for fucking 6 months. He doesn't know anybody. Besides, he seems trust worthy." Star stood up for me.

"Remember the last time we thought someone was trust worthy? Oh yeah, he took most of our shit." Alessandra mentioned.

"But this isn't last time. We can-"

"What's the matter here?" A more deep masculine voice echoed from behind the walls.

"Xander, I wanna bring this new guy in. He's been surviving on his own for months now. He's pretty fucked in the head."

I just kinda stood there, hearing these weird ass names but being grateful they haven't blown my brains out yet.

"Star, are you positive he can be trusted?" Xander asked with sincerity.

"Well you never know. All people can't be that bad, right?" Star answered.

"Xander, listen-"

"Enough! Let him in. We won't immediately trust him. We'll see what happens in a week." Xander cut Alessandra off.

The doors to Gunther opened, and a new life awaited me. A burly man with thick black hair welcomed me in.

"Welcome to Gunther. You've heard Aless, but you haven't seen her. Here she is." He pointed to a short girl with long black curly hair. She rolled her eyes and angrily walked away, arms crossed.

"What the fuck's her problem?" I asked Xander.

"As you already heard, we were betrayed not long ago. Since then, trust has been extremely scarce with newcomers. However, you seem to give off a different vibe."

"Yeah and if we do find out you're lying about being alone, we're killing you on the spot." Star added with a smile.

Wow, what a way to go.

Xander brought me to the medical center where I met a doctor named Alex Valentine. She was never really good at following rules and apparently have gotten into multiple altercations with staff mates trying to tell her what to do.

He then introduced me to Hazel, a girl who was in college preparing to be a fashion designer before everything went to pure shit. Apparently she's a very shy person and won't open up to you unless she's known you for a while. But when she does open up, she's loyal to her friends. However, she has some depressed moments every now and then. "Once she almost killed herself but Alex talked her out of it, believe it or not." Xander told me.

I met Alessandra already, but she has more of a back story. She has trust issues and can only really trust you once she's known you for a long time. She's had fake friends and tends to push people away. "She's not bad once you get to know her," Hazel explained, "She just needs time. You seem pretty cool though."

After the basic tour, I asked Xander if he was the leader of Gunther.

"I mean, kind of, but I just help with decision making. Aless is my right hand man. But other than that, we just make rational decisions. If I weren't here, Aless would've blew your brains out."

"Well fuck. Wait, what did Star used to do? Ya know, before all this." I really wanted to know Star's back story.

"Oh Star? She was a pop star. Nothing big." Xander laughed and I laughed along.

"My friend Peter used to be in a band once. Until he got kicked out." I mentioned.

"Kicked out? Why?"

"Eh, they thought he didn't care much about the band."

"And were they right?"

"Um....yeah"

I found it easy to talk to Xander. I didn't want to get close to him though. I didn't want to get close to anybody for that matter. But Gunther seemed like a good place. And I've been yearning for a place to stay.

Who knows? Maybe this can be a good thing?

Until then, I made my way to my temporary holding place, and prepared for my supply run in the morning.