Survivors

The Stranger

After that little argument we took what was useful and headed north. It Took us about two months to get to Alabama and things weren't any better. We walked all the way to the city of Mobile, and to be honest, it was a ghost town. Not even the abominations roamed. Grocery stores were empty, houses burned down, and there was even a helicopter wreckage blocking one of the main avenues. In the passenger side, there was a straggler who was missing half his body.
"Poor bastard" I said."Must have run out of fuel trying to escape." I reached for my knife on my holster and pushed it in his brains. "You know, maybe we should setup camp here for the night" Michael, my youngest brother, said. "Yeah I'm beat and I'm pretty sure it doesn't get much safer than this" JT said. "Alright. I'll go scout the area. You guys stay put. Call me if u need anything"I said. I didn't really agree with them but I didn't want to argue. Plus, this meant I could get a little alone time. These days, that's asking for too much.
I decided to walk a couple blocks down from where we were setup. The place we chose was enclosed by a couple cars, making it difficult for anything to get to us but I wanted to make sure there was no hazard just in case we needed to leave in a hurry. I spotted a store which had some clothes I thought we could use. I went in and saw aisles and aisles of clothes to choose from. From the looks of it, nobody had thought of ransacking this place. I found it strange but i guess i must have been tired because I decided to start searching before securing. I began to make my way through the aisles, looking for anything my size. As I was rummaging through some jeans I heard a click behind me. I froze. "Hands up" this soft, female voice with a southern accent said. I found it appealing. "Got any weapons, pretty boy?" She asked. "No" I lied. She began to pat me down and disarm me of any weapons I had. "On your knees, now" she said. "What do you want?" I asked. "Quiet. I ask the questions here" she replied." Well, seeing as you have me disarmed and on my knees I think I deserve as much. So what do u want?" I repeated. "You are a stranger. I've been here long enough to know strangers aren't friendly. To be honest with you,I've been watching you ever since you and your pals showed up a couple miles back. You don't look like goons but looks can be deceiving. Im being careful. You make one wrong move and that'll be the end of you. What's your name?"
"Max. You mind if I stand up now?" I asked. "Go on but slowly" I stood up slowly but I could still feel the gun on my back." Still don't trust me? Well I'm gonna turn around now. If you shoot, you'll attract any straggler left in this area and then I won't be your only problem." I turned and faced her. I've never seen a girl quite like her. She looked battle tested, like some sort of Xena warrior only smaller and much skinnier. She had long blonde hair and brown eyes. Her skin was tan, like shes been out in the open for awhile, and she was small about five feet tall. To cap it off, she had this enormous scar across her left cheek. Usually, scars can make a person look unappealing but she was rocking it. I guess I must have been staring because she said: "something wrong?" "Nope everything is good. Can i go now? I'll make sure we don't cross you again. We're just staying for the night and then we're on our way." I started walking slowly towards the exit."Wait" she said. I turned around and looked at her. "If you don't mind me asking, can I come over to your camp?"
I'm kind of alone and I don't want to spend the night by myself again. Been like that for a week now. Haven't seen a normal person and those things aren't really friendly" she said." Well, first off, you're a stranger. I don't know if you're alone or not and I don't want to risk having the rest of my family killed because of some stupid good Samaritan act. Where are you from?" I asked. "Memphis. Came down here on vacation with my parents but....". I could see her expression change." I'm sorry. I know how that must feel. I lost my parents at the start of this shit. Kind of my fault I think. I tried to help them and ended up doing the exact opposite. Kind of redefines the saying 'you learn from your mistakes' huh"she stared at me, surprised. "Why are you telling me this?" I'm trying to tell you that what happened to you has happened to everybody. It took me awhile for me to come to terms with myself but I learned to embrace it and live for those who couldn't. You should do the same"
She looked at me with a confounded expression as if she understood but didn't at the same time." What's your name?"I pressed."Alexia but my friends used to call me Lexi." Well I'm Max not that you didn't know that already". We walked in silence for a couple seconds. At last i decided to ask the question that was lingering over my head."How'd u get that scar?" She looked at me with a surprised expression like I had just slapped her across the face with that question. "Oh, well, it was at the beginning. I was in a supermarket and it was total chaos. I was in an aisle looking for some food and I guess someone else had the same idea. It was the last of it so this man decides to try and snatch it from my hand. I was stronger than him though. He had a cane to support his weight when he walked. But this wasn't any regular old cane though. It was made of bamboo. He told me to give it to him and I refused. After that, he made this quick swooping motion and hit me across the face with it, knocking me out. When I woke up, my face was in a puddle of blood. The bamboo had cut me deep enough to leave a scar. The supermarket was deserted. For some reason, I think someone must have locked the doors or something because I'm still here".
"Holy shit" I muttered. In front of us, there were about 100 stragglers walking towards us. "Get down!"I whispered. We hid behind the closest car and waited. "What are we gonna do?" Lexi whispered "This is a herd." "A herd?" She muttered. "Yes a herd. A bunch of them walking together like cattle. I've seen bigger ones. All we can do is wait it out. Any sudden noise might bring a whole bunch of them down on us". "Oh my god" I said, in horror. My heart dropped and this lump formed in my throat. "What's wrong?" Lexi asked. "Th-- those things are headed towards my brothers" I sputtered.