The Last Squad Standing

Zana

Four hours. That's how long it took us to realize Bilal, Safiya, and Jay had ditched us. To this day, I am still pissed off at them. ALL of them. Anyways, let's get down to business.

Andrew and I argued about a lot. To be honest, we rarely argue usually. But The End got us both in a new mood. We were both more irritable, more jumpy, and much more unbearable than usual. And, as luck would have it, we were paired.

The first sign we were alone was the lack of sarcastic commentary. Andrew looked around after I made a particularly bad point, expecting Jay or Bilal to laugh at me. But when he noticed we were absent, he got worried. And so did I, of course

The first thing we did was argue.

Andrew thought it would be better to stay and wait for them to come back, while I wanted to take action and look for them. I didn't know how long they'd been gone. Maybe if I'd listened to Andrew we could have saved the world... He was always right. I can't believe I was so stubborn.

By some miracle, we compromised. We took Andrew's soccer hoodie (who needs it anyways?) and ripped it up. Then, we decided on where to look first.

"How about the playground? It'll be easy to look out for both zombies and survivors there!" Andrew suggested.

I felt like he was wrong, but decided to can it, if only for my friends.

We placed the strips starting in our previous campsite and made a trail leading to a clearing we found. There, we started writing our message. Eventually we ran out of Andrew's hoodie, so we had to use mine. And then we had to use Andrew's shirt. Finally, though, in the shortest way possible we had written where we were going.

"This is PERFECT!" I said, staring down at the giant arrow pointing towards the equestrian stables.

If you remember from Jay's retelling, that was NOT what they found. We never spelled out park. We never even went to the park. And we still don't know who changed it! It was probably those damn zombies, though...

We made our way towards the equestrian center, a giant, hollowed out stadium without walls, yet with a roof. It was supported by five large poles, and the ground was freshly laid dirt. The smell of manure was adrift and only got stronger as we neared the building.

We searched in the area around, in about a half mile radius. We found nothing and no one. Night fell, and Andrew was shivering. His toned, muscular arms were crossed over his buff chest, and his teeth clattered as repeated gusts of wind fell upon us.

"Come on, Andrew. Let's go back to the equestrian center. We can sleep there tonight." I said kindly, and Andrew only clattered in response.

Though I thought it was nothing at the time, I heard a noise in the forest a few steps away and ignored it. We huddled together in the equestrian center against a wall. And did I mention, it was almost a football field long, and lights were absent while sheltered underneath it. Which is probably why we didn't see her coming at first.

"Don't worry, Andrew. We can follow your plan, and go back to our original campsite in the morning." I whispered softly, unsure if he had heard me. I hate to admit it, but I was starting to feel bad for all the times I had argued with him up until then.

"Th- Th- Thanks, Zana," He stuttered out, equally as appalled to our newfound closeness, "We can g- go back now if y- y- you want."

"Why go back when you can stay here with me?" Floated out a voice from the dark.

Andrew's eyes instantly left me and his head snapped to face the sweet, sugary voice coming from the unknown.

"Stay back! I'll fight you if I have to!" I said, expecting a zombie or something. But no. It was worse. Much worse.