Jessamine Dixon lives in the apocalypse

New Friends

As I slid out of the driver seat I looked up at the house. I knew it so well, almost like the back of my hand. It confused me when I saw the front door open and all I could do was hope that nothing had happened. I walked towards the passenger seat, never taking my eyes off the house, using my right hand on the car to lead me. 

I grabbed my katana and one of the handguns. I didn't know what was going to happen and I didn't really want to figure it out the hard way. The handgun was in my left hand while I gripped the handle of my sword in my right.

"Are you sure you're old enough to be driving?" I heard a young, unfamiliar voice from behind me and immediately turned around. Gun up, sword ready and the boy was terrified. He couldn't be much older than Carl and I slowly lowered the weapons, although I was ready to use them if he turned out to be crazy.

"I'm Duane." He told me, expecting my name in return.

"Jessamine." I quickly responded. His face contorted as he tried to pick it apart. I've never heard somebody with the name either.

"You can call me Jess." I quickly added and he nodded his head with a smile, relaxing.

"Oh, good. Is this your house?" He asked me and pointed towards the Grime's house.

"You could say." I responded and shut the door to the truck. Using the key to lock it before sliding it into my pocket.

"What do you mean by that?" Duane asked.

"I was here a lot, friends of mine." I explained and he nodded his head in understanding.

"Cool. My dad and I found a house here and basically made it ours. We had to stop because my mom is sick." He explained his story to me. It was weird how much information he was willing to give but I nodded my head. 

I looked past Duane to see a man approaching us. He held what looked like a stick, which must have been his weapon of choice, no judgment here. If it works it works. Duane looked behind him and started motioning the man to hurry. He must know him. 

The man approached the two of us with a smile, it was a very sweet, kind smile.

"Hi, I'm Morgan, Duane's dad." The man spoke and held his hand out towards me. I set the sword on the ground, pinning the handle to the ground with my foot, and gripped the gun in case this was their technique. I reached my right hand out and shook his. 

"Nice to meet you. Jessamine." I quickly told him. 

"You alone? You can't be more than 14." Morgan analyzed like a typical dad.

"Technically."

"Why don't you come with us?" Morgan asked and I looked at him for a moment. He couldn't be this kind.

"I wouldn't want to impose on anything." I quickly explained. I didn't want to become these people's burden either. I could protect myself just fine. 

"Come on, you're a child...Besides it looks like you know what you're doing, so you could help us too. Numbers are important in this world." Morgan pushed. I wondered what he knew about this world because it felt like I knew nothing. Maybe this was just the blind leading the blind.

"You can drive?" Morgan asked suspiciously. He clearly wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Technically, yes. Legally, no. Depends on whose asking." 

"Here, bring the truck to our place." Morgan said, not pushing the fact. 

I brought the truck to their house after closing the door to the Grime's house. I'd seen this house before, it wasn't far from the Grime's. I'd probably met the family who once lived here. 

They made it sound like it was nice to have another person in the house.  They told me I was fun, not a lot of people tell me that. They made it sound like Duane's mother was fun. She was sick, I never met her before Morgan brought her out of the house. He didn't let Duane and I see it. He did let Duane say goodbye though. Morgan told me afterward it was good I was here for Duane. 

She still visits. Every night like clockwork she's on the block. And every night Morgan disappears. Duane thinks there's a gun, but I never hear any shots. And every night we see her again.

The three of us bonded very quickly. It was nice how quickly they just brought me in and I never felt like a burden to them. We had plenty of food, weapons, protection, everything we needed was here. I even had my own room and bathroom. I was close to where Rick would go if he woke up, that's what was important.