Subject 48

Protect

Me? A monster? No, that's not right. The monsters that wander the streets don't even hesitate before attacking. I can't even imagine myself doing half the things they do. Besides, this is no time to have an existential crisis.

I walk over to the door leading into the kitchen. I open it. I'm honestly getting a bit tired. After all that has happened this morning I'm just tired. It's hot outside so I recovered some of my energy but not all of it. I don't eat so I get energy by absorbing small amounts of heat at a time. It's not as effective as eating but it works. Less food wasted on me means more for the survivors in my group. Anyways, this building is slighty colder than the outdoors.

Brett is the first to realize I'm leaning on the door frame. "Terra, you're back," he says to me. He sees my saddened expression and seems worried. "Are you okay?"

Unsure if I really am okay, I take out my pen and notepad.

I almost hit a baby.

I pass him the note. He reads it and goes from worried to genuinely concerned.

I notice his reaction and quickly add onto the note.

A baby zombie.

He let out a sigh of relief and said, "As long as you're not hurt. We have been able to find anything yet, but we're still looking around. You can head to the car if you want. We'll be out soon." I nod and make my way to the exit.

---([])---

I struggle with the car door for a little bit. I do get it open, though. I always have been a fast learner. Bernie sits upright in his seat. Then he realizes it's me and eases up again. I toss is all the things I had brought with me and climb in. Of course I was careful with my weapon.

I open my backpack and try my best to shove the lantern inside. Bernie is looking over my shoulder as I do so.

Oh, I never brought up his age. I assume that'd be helpful. He's a teenager, sixteen at most. His dark brown hair has a slight curl to it but is short enough that the curl is not easy to point out right away.

"How much stuff do you have in there?" he asks me. He's a really curious kind of person. That kind of person isn't very helpful in the apocalypse, but I can't blame him because I'm the same way. Everything I've seen outside the lab so far has been odd and confusing. It makes me wonder what the world normally looked like.

Anyway, I do nothing to keep him from looking in my bag. The gun--the one he has now--was the only thing I needed to keep secret. The rest of it are the essentials. Well, I am missing food.

He shakes his head and sits upright in his seat. He looks a little flustered as he says, "What am I doing? I should know better than to look in a woman's bag like that! Sorry." I'm a bit confused for a second and then realize what he's talking about and can't help but chuckle. "I was just wondering what supplies you had," he continues. "Food, water, the stuff we need to survive. Any of that?"

I take my stationary from my pocket and write out a list.

Water, Bandages, Lantern, Blanket

He reads, it looks impressed for a second, and then becomes confused. He asks me, "You don't have any food?" I shake my head. This makes him even more confused. "Let me get this straight, you have a blanket but nothing edible?!"

I tear the page out of my notepad and write on the back of it to save paper.

Not unless you think cloth is edible.

He laughs. "I don't!" He slouches in his chair and continues laughing

Boredom takes over me and I look out the window. That's when I see them. A group of men come out of a car. There looks to be four of them. I squint as I try to look closer and make sure they aren't more monsters, which they aren't. These men are survivors like us.

They look around for a bit. Then, I see one of them look in our direction. He then turns to the rest of his group and points as he says something to them.

As they start walking our way, I get an even better look at the men. Two of them have guns. They all have muscular builds and mean faces. Their intentions don't seem to be good.

I have a bad feeling about this. I motion for Bernie to get down. He looks at me a bit confused as to what I'm trying to say. Maybe he'll understand better if he sees what is going on. I point out the window. He looks out his window. "They don't look nice," he says. I nod and motion for him to get down again. He's still confused so I grab my notepad and scribble on a single word.

Hide

"They don't look that bad," he says in response. "We're survivors, too. Would they really mean us any harm?" I glare at him. These are precautions. They could be bad people, they could be good people, we don't know. I just wanna make sure that Bernie stays safe. Woah, I'm turning into Axel.

"Fine," he says as he slips from the seat and onto the floor. He did his best to fit behind my chair but in the end was just able to fit his legs. The rest of him was sitting in the aisle, the chair still between him and the door.

I look out my window. Now the group of men must be close enough to see me through the tinted window. I can tell because the one in front reaches out his arm and stops the others in their tracks. Taking this as my cue, I open the car door and step out. I grab my bat, just in case things get too bad, and close the door halfway.

The armed men point their guns at me. The man in front, who seems to be the leader, asks me, "Is it just you out here?" I nod. It's best if they don't know there is a teenager hiding in the car. It's even better if they don't know there are four people inside the building behind me. That way we have the element of surprise.

A malicious grin spreads across his face. "This should be easy," he says. "as long as you don't put up a fight."

I grip my bat in both hands. One of the men, the unarmed one, turns to the leader and asks, "Is she really worth our time? By the looks of it, she doesn't have a gun or anything or of use."

"Nonsense," the leader responds, not letting himself look away from me. "Do you not see that backpack?" He points to my bag inside the car. The door is still open halfway, so they can see my bag but not Bernie. "It could have some good stuff inside. Plus, she could have some useful supplies in the trunk."

Are they seriously discussing how good my supplies might be? Are they planning on stealing it? Probably. Also, what's a trunk?