Apocalypse

8

Kate

It's been a couple days since we'd holed up in the hotel room. Five, to be exact. I'd been counting how many days that Liz had been here with me. 

In that time, I spend my days out in the streets scavenging for food and supplies. I didn't need to be as careful as everyone else because I was immune. I could afford to get bitten. That didn't necessarily mean I didn't mind it, because it hurt like hell. I could also still have my throat torn out. So I still had to be careful.  

Truthfully, even though Liz could walk now, I still preferred that she stayed in the hotel room where I didn't have to worry. Liz wasn't immune. If she got bit, it was over. The idea bothered me more than I really wanted to admit. I told myself I just didn't want my invested time to be for nothing.  

I would come back just before the sun would set. I often had things like flashlights (Liz called them torches, it was weird,) first aid items, clothing for Liz because mine was just a little too big for her, or food. It was getting progressively harder to get things that would actually be useful. The city had already been mostly looted of everything. 

I wanted to leave the city, there were too many infected and not enough supplies. Just walking out the door in the morning was dangerous, there was often a hundred or so wandering and fighting in the streets just outside. I'd sneak out, fight off a couple if I needed, and I'd go around the city blocks stuffing things into my bag. I just didn't want to be spending all day trapped in a room. And... I didn't want to spend all that time with her. At the same time I did. So I'd just go.  

The evenings were pleasant though. Well... It could be worse. She'd greet me when I walked in, and I found her reading more often than not. Because of that, I'd picked her up a book today that I had found in a book store.  

The first day or so had been awkward, because we had no idea what to say to each other. I was fine with silence, but Liz clearly had questions. So after watching her sit sullenly by the window, I'd done my best at starting conversation.  

I've never felt so awkward in my life. 

With a little practice though, I managed to figure out how to keep her talking even if I rarely said anything more than a prompt or ask a question. I'd learned that she came from England. That explained the accent. She loved to read, she had told me about how she used to stay up all hours of the night just reading. She didn't have any friends either. She wouldn't tell me why not. She'd explained how she'd had a boyfriend once, but it hadn't worked out. I'd asked her about what it was like before all of this, and she'd looked confused. I'd realized then that this meant I hadn't been out here before. So I'd said never mind, and ended the conversation.  

Today I came inside and sighed tiredly. I hadn't slept last night. Nightmares kept me up.They'd steadily been getting worse since I got out of the facility. It wasn't any different than normal at first, really. But the longer I was out, the more I liked it. The more I feared having to go back. So my nightmares got worse, and worse. Slowly, but they were definitely getting worse. I yawned as I set down my bag. It wasn't a loud yawn, but she heard it anyways. 

Liz looked up from her book, which she'd clearly restarted again. She smiled faintly as I walked in, and set the book down. I walked over to pick up the book she'd been reading. Almost a week together, and countless attempts at conversations later, and I still didn't know what she was reading. I frowned as I flipped through the pages. It was about some fantastic tale about a boy and his blue dragon. I smiled faintly and shook my head as I handed it back. 

"Seems interesting." I commented awkwardly, and earned a wide smile from her. Which kind of made up for the awkward. 

"It is. It's one of my favorites." She explains, and then nods towards my bag. "What did you pick up today?"