Vampires.

Marzia.

I lay on my back, staring up at the cloudy gray sky.
"You okay Lyn-z?" Kalel asks, snapping me back into reality

I sit up and prop my elbows up. "Yeah, just daydreaming." I say.
"Well, stop daydreaming and help Marzia cook food." Kalel says, while propping up a tent.

I walk over to Marzia and kneel next to her. She was currently making a salad....I think.
It was small ripped pieces of kale, some broccoli, peas, smashed raspberry, and four cut up strawberries. This is the best you can get nowadays.

"Wow. You over did yourself, Marzia. What do you need help with?" I ask. She points to the pea pods.

"I need you to get all the peas out of the pods." She speaks with her very thick Italian accent.

"Will do." I say, picking up a pod and taking the peas out.

I look at Marzia I remember when she first joined the group.

It was about a month after the day of the attack..

*flashback*

"Do you have any water?" Kalel croaks. I open the bottle and put it upside down. Nothing.
"All out." I say hopelessly.

Kalel and I were currently walking through nowhere and it was one thousand degrees outside. We already ran out water and all of our food went bad and stale.

"We are going to die. I can't believe it, we are going to die from heat stroke or dehydration. One of the stupidest ways to go in an apocalypse. At least I would have liked to die by saving someone from a vampire like...Die a hero or something. But nooooooo, we have to die like thiiiiiissssss." Kalel babbles on.

I roll my eyes at her, that's when I spot a small diner in the corner of my eye. "KALEL LOOK!" I yell, pointing at the diner.

Kalel stopped her babbling and looked at the diner.
"Oh great, now we're hallucinating things. We're delirious now." Kalel continues to babble.

"Oh my god, Kalel, shut up! There is a real fucking diner over there and we're going over there, okay?" I hiss.

Kalel nods and we walk to the diner.

Once we reach the door, I knock first. "Hello?" I call. No answer.

I push the grime covered door open and see tables with food, water, weaponry, ammo, clothes. You name it. Kalel and I stared in disbelief.

"Let's steal all of it and go." Kalel says. "No that's bad. This belongs to a group, maybe we could join them." I suggest.

That's when four big men, three women, and two children walk through the door. "Hey! Thieves!" One of the men -who was bald- shouts.

"No, we're not thieves! We want to maybe join your group." I try to negotiate.

The bald man rubs his chin in thought. One of the other men who had brown balding hair and glasses whispers something I wish I didn't hear, "New toys to play with." The bald man chuckles deeply.

"Haha. Okay you can join our group little missies." The bald man says in his southern accent. One of the girls who look around our age walks up to us and sits down in a booth, gesturing us to sit with her.

She had long pretty light brown hair and dark brown eyes. She cleared her throat before she spoke. I expected her to have a southern accent like the others but no, it was most defiantly Italian. "Hello. my name is Marzia. What is yours?" She introduces.

"I'm Lyn-z spelled like L-y-n-z." I reply. "And I'm Kalel." Kalel also replies.
Marzia bows her head to us.
Her voice then goes into a hushed whisper, "If I were you guys, I would leave this place immediately. The men her are no saints and this group fights all the time. I'm surprised they haven't killed each other already."

"We weren't going to stay. We just need to restock up on supplies." Kalel explains.

"Wait. are you guys going to steal supplies and run off?" Marzia questions. We both slowly nod. A grin gets plastered on Marzia's face. "Then count me in." She says.

Later that night all three if us got up and quietly stocked up on supplies, filling up three backpacks and a duffle bag with some tents. We all snuck out the door and ran off into the night, hearing shot gun noises in the distance. I don't know why, but doing that made me feel alive.

Doing something rebellious and then running away from the consequences without a care in the world. It's what Tré and I would always do since we were 8. It was always so much fun. I haven't done that in a long time.

After awhile we all stop and catch our breath.

"Where's our next destination?" I ask Kalel. Kalel pulls out a map. She scans over it and then she places her finger on the map. "Washington state." Kalel says.

"Washington state, here we come."

*end of flash back*

"Umm Lyn-z? You okay? You've been working on that last pea pod for like 7 minutes."

"Huh? Oh uh yeah. Sorry, I'm just daydreaming again." I say.
"You've been daydreaming a lot. Is something on your mind?" Marzia asks, acting like a mother as usual.

"No,I'm fine." I say. She narrows her eyes at me but she lets it go.