Another Day

Sally sank the knife as far as it would go into the skull of the corpse. Instantly, it stopped it its approach. The horrific noises it had been emitting halted as the brain was destroyed. Slowly, the twice-dead thing slumped to the ground, tugging the knife out of Sally's hand in the process. She took a step back, shivering in disgust. It was impossible to get over the feeling, in her opinion. It was just way too gross. Once you got over the initial shock of killing a corpse, it was left to the stench and the disgust.

With a displeased frown on her face, Sally leaned down and yanked at the handle of the knife. It didn't budge. A wave of fear swept through her for a moment as she scanned the ground for another suitable weapon. She sighed in resolution and wrapped her fingers around the knife again and tugged, in a last-ditch effort to get it back. The Walkers that were inevitably on their way would be on her in seconds of she wasn't careful. With a quick glance over her shoulder, Sally pulled at it a few more times before giving up. She stood up straight again, wiping her hands on her battered jeans. They were ripped in numerous places, but overall they stayed together.

Pretty much like her current group. Just a rag-tag group who were barely aquaintances. One or two were friends, but mostly they just stuck together to survive. They had a little camp in an abandoned theatre with a pretty good setup. Decent security, a good supply of food, a small stock of weapons. Most of the people who survive there were pleasant, with the odd irritating member.

"Yo, Sal!" A voice whispered urgently from behind Sally. "C'mon, Kay's gonna freak if we're not back soon. You remember what happened to Jim."

Sally groaned inwardly. Yes, of course she remembered Jim. He had been the world's most annoying guy and had gone out on a run. Kay, the group's self-appointed leader, had told him to be back in two hours. He was still gone after three, so Kay sent out a search party.

Turns out Jim had been collecting money and looting pointless things. The search party found him, but one of the party members was bitten in a tussle with a dozen or so Walkers. Jim was devastated and had drunk himself into a stupor, endangering himself and others. He'd ended up with a nasty new scar and some bad memories.

Of course, he was Kay's go-to example against being late. It really didn't help that Kay was overprotective of the group's youth. Everyone younger than her was considered a priority, and should only be allowed on runs when they have guards.

Henry was Sally's guard for the day. He was a battered-looking guy in his mid-thirties who looked constantly surprised. His eyes were almost always wide open and his eyebrows were usually buried somewhere under his mousey-brown hair. The glasses he wore were smudged and uninteresting, at least to Sally's eye. She herself had a pair of rectangular glasses with black frames. They were in decent condition, all things considered. Besides, it was normally impossible for Sally to see anything with her hair B.A., or Before Apocalypse. It had been impossibly long and usually ended up being tied back. A.W., or After Walkers, she had cut it all off to be a messy little scrap of what it used to be. It was much more practical short, and honestly she found herself admiring its easy upkeep.

Henry poked his head into the building, taking a second to survey the scene before finding Sally standing over a corpse. He glanced at her disgusted expression with his usual wide-eyed stare.

"Don't just stand there! We need to go... like, now-ish!" His voice was barely over a whisper but it conveyed his growing worry. Sally took one last glance at her lost knife and nodded, following the older man out at a brisk trot.

~

The entrance to the theatre was rather complicated. First, you had to get in through the back entrance of a short block of flats beside the main building. Then, you had to get to the second floor and use the poorly-constructed walkway between the apartment's fire-escape and the theatre's fire-escape. From there, you had to either use the quick way down via rope-ladder, or the slightly slower but much safer way through the back of the theatre, down the stairs. For emergencies, they had an exit blocked off backstage. That was only for use in dire situations, however.

Sally and Henry took the stairs when they got back. Carrying their haul down the rope-ladder didn't sound too appealing, so they had agreed to take the stairs.

They were greeted on their way down to the main area by a few aquaintances. A few people Sally actually knew B.A. had made it in, but she hadn't spoken to them yet. They merely nodded at each other and moved on. Sally was glad. She didn't really want to remember Before. Before was the home of friends and family. Of happy memories and schoolyard hijinks. Of homework and exams and college applications. Before was where hope lived.

Hope still resided After, but it was not the same hope. It was the hope that no one she knew would die today. It was the hope that they'd have enough food and water to last another day. Another week. Sally hadn't been keeping track of the days. It was somewhere near her birthday, that was all she knew. That was all she needed to know.