Tommy's First Friend | Z Nation

Chapter 2: My First Friend

I woke up with a headache and groaned, looking around to find that I slept in the jeep, in the middle of nowhere. I looked at my companion.  The girl who saved me yesterday from those things that killed—I stopped that train of thought. It wasn't good to think about it, it's still too soon, so instead I opted to stare at her. I felt my face get warmer. She's pretty cute.

Long black hair, framing a small face with a cute button nose and a bow-shaped lip. Her eyes were different, slanted and from what I could remember, hazel in color. She didn't look like someone who lived around here and why was she all by herself?

I kept staring at her. Startled at the sudden banging sound. It was an undead trying to get inside. It's good that Lyn didn't wake up from the racket, but her eyebrows did furrow. Cute.

I looked around to make sure that there weren't any more of them and took the hunting machete from the backseat. I stepped out, went around the car and crept behind the undead. I made quick work in slicing through his head. He fell, with a portion of his head sliding off.

I went to the back of the truck and checked the supplies we had. Dad was a survivalist and I always did love that side of him. He preferred living away from big cities and it got lonely sometimes, especially when the only other companion you had were animals. Though, I'd sometimes run into rangers from the camp ten miles from where we last stayed, but the most that they'd do was give me a wave or ask for directions.

Canned food, water bottles, some butchering knives, a huge tent, two sleeping bags, two cooking pots, lighters, clothes, dad's rifle, a revolver, around 20 to 25 clips of ammo, fishing gear, ropes, planks of wood, nails, a hammer, a saw and 3 gas cans. Not bad, I think Lyn and I can camp here for two months before we'd need to go for a supply run. If I find a river or a lake, we could easily stay here for longer. I drank some of the water to stave off my headache and grabbed my dad's rifle, but before I could go and scout the area, I head the car door open.

"Ugh, of course, I had to step on brains first thing in the morning. Tommy, did you leave this here?" I went beside the truck and gave her a sheepish grin. Whoops, guess I should have warned her beforehand. She rolled her eyes at me and looked around.

"Hey—um I, I was looking at the boxes and I think we'll be fine if we stay here for a while. That is, if you want to stay here," I mumbled. Ugh, I am so lame. If I were her, I'd run for the hills. 

"I came to your camp because I wanted to go somewhere remote and away from those things," she mumbled, coming closer and giving me a pointed look. "I have nowhere else to go, no one's looking for me and I promised your pa that I'll look after you, so you're stuck with me."

Yes. She wants to stay with me, she wants to stay with me. Okay, chill Thomas just chill. No biggie, a pretty girl wants to stay with you. Yeah, no biggie. What the actual frack. I'm pretty sure my face was as red as a beetroot by now. I licked my lips and looked away. I didn't really know what to say or do at this point. Do I thank her? get down on my knee and propose to her? Wait, I don't even have a ring. 

She stood next to me and examined the contents that I took out of the boxes. While lifting a plank of wood, she turned, looking at me with a bright smile. "Hey, you ever built a treehouse before?"

*

We ate canned beans for breakfast and I scouted ahead to look for a river. I didn't want to leave her alone, but she insisted that someone had to make sure no one took our stuff, even though the only living thing we'd find here were animals and maybe the occasional zombie. The one from earlier looked like a ranger so we won't be finding one anytime soon. Rangers usually stayed in their camp.