The Colony

Mia is Found

Mia deBont was in the fetal position. Arms clutched to her chest, she knew it would end here. The zombie uprising started about a year ago. The zombie virus had begun to spread, and now, humans were hard to come by. Mia's parents died about a week ago, and since then, she has had a hard time surviving. Now she was surrounded by blood-thirsty zombies and she knew there was no escape. Her fingers clasped tight around her locket, and closed her eyes as she waited for the inevitable bite. Suddenly, she heard a yell, and the bite didn't come. Instead, a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her up. Mia forced herself to open her eyes. In front of her stood a boy, about sixteen, carrying a machete. Beneath him, were the undead corpses he just slayed. He held his hand out and said, "The names Charlestine. Chris Charlestine. I am here to save you."
Chris had a look that could only be described as rugged. Mia finally brought herself to speak.

"I'm Mia deBont. I'm fifteen, I think. I don't know if I had my birthday yet. I lost track of time." Chris nodded as though he fully understood.

"Nice to meet you, Mia. And don't worry, in the colony they keep track of time. We can figure out when your birthday is." Mia instantly trusted Chris. He saved her life, and she wanted to repay him. But how?

The two began to walk. Chris gave Mia a small hunting knife and said, "Just in case." Giving her a smug wink. She gladly accepted the knife. Before then, she had been surviving with a pistol with only two shots left. The knife was a huge upgrade. After maybe an hour, the two strolled up to a fence with barbed wire and electricity warnings. Mia assumed that they had arrived at the colony.

Chris went up to a small booth and whispered a word to the short man inside. A gate opened up, and Chris smiled.

"Welcome to your new home, Mia. Welcome." Chris then proceeded to give Mia a tour, and showed her all around. Her first stop was the bathhouse. She was filthy. When she got to her new room, she noticed there were four bunk beds. On Mia's mattress was a gray uniform, one like what Chris and all the other citizens were wearing.

She put it on, looked into the cracked mirror and gawked. Mia hadn't looked into a mirror for quite some time, and she needed a makeover. Her roommates came into the room when she was putting her hair up. They took turns introducing themselves.

The blondes were named Ellaina, Crystal, and Ava. The brunette was Tristen, and the last one had bright pink hair. Her name was Ronnie. Mia instantly connected with Ronnie and Tristen, but Ellaina was a bit mean. Ronnie finished up the tour of the colony. It was pretty nice for a rundown old military base.

"Hey, I'm going to the garden later today to pick up food for our bunk. Wanna come with?" Ronnie asked. Mia nodded and took a deep breath.

"Of course. I'd love to. My mom and I used to have a garden back home." Mia could feel the tears stinging at her eyes. Her mother! Oh how she missed her. If only her mother survived for another week, she would be here with Mia right now. Ronnie reached over, wrapping her arm around her and patted her head.

"Cry it out, sweetie, cry it out."

Later that night at the garden, Mia picked up some potatoes and cabbage. She remembered the stew recipe her dad tought her when she was a little girl, and that made her ask, "Ronnie, what about the meat? In the colony, I mean. Not a lot of people can survive on fruits and veggies alone."

Ronnie said in reply, "Mia, people go hunting for deer, we have a small livestock section, but we can't eat meat from there until they increase the populations of those farm animals. Plus we have raiding parties." Mia had heard of raiding parties. Most colonies did them. When they got back to their bunk, Mia cooked up the stew and everyone loved it. Mia was growing in popularity and realized that for the first time I over a year, she was safe.