All Is Lost

3.

Days passed and not once did she run into trouble until the fourth day passed.

Cries of fear rang out from a nearby Target. Roars of starving rabids could be heard from a few miles away at best.
She knew she should've left them behind - she was raised on not having attachments - but the human side of her brain told her to show compassion for those who couldn't fight for themselves.

Grumbling at herself, she shoved the back door open and raised the stolen katana to eye-level, baring a weapon that would scare off any sensible human being.

Her stomach growled as soon as the scent of human blood hit her. Thirst burned her throat and Hunger drove her to her knees, but she was determined to save those stupid enough to get caught in a building as large as this.

She lay her palm against the blade and sucked on the pitiful life force. It wouldn't fully satiate her Hunger, but she couldn't help the humans if she resembled a monster.

"Is anyone here?" She spun around a corner to find a dozen rabids banging and clawing a red 'employees only' door. "Hey!" She captured their attention, ripping open packages of rotten beef and pork while the dark red pooled around her. "Pick on someone your own size." She threw the foam packages twenty feet away, distracting them from the living, breathing mortals trapped inside the room.

She opened it up to find nothing but rotting corpses struck in the head with swords, and stairs that had been blocked off with pieces of the ceiling, including a breathing human being. Her leg was trapped under the rubble, but it didn't appear to be severed from the major ligaments and tendons.

"Who-who's there?" She mumbled, knowing soon it would be her time to cross over.

Vanessa noticed a couple deep cuts on her arms and saw a still-eye. The girl was half-blind and slowly bleeding out.

"I can hear you. Show yourself." The girl was defensive, but Vanessa found no sign of a weapon on her.

"I'm here to help. Don't worry, I'll get you out of here....alive." Vanessa's voice faltered at the unsightly stench of rotting bodies. "What are you doing here by yourself?" She lifted the rubble off the girl's leg and looked her over. "You shouldn't be alone in these times. Trust me."

"You're alone." She countered.

"Touché." Vanessa said. "But I can outsmart these creatures."

"My family and I came to shelter here for food. Soon they showed up and the store shook. The world had changed drastically and the cops chasing me, they'd been turned into something completely different." She coughed from the dust falling from the ceiling. "My father and brother sacrificed themselves, locking my mother and I in here for safety, but...she died soon after and I was forced to put her to sleep before I died. The next day, the ceiling caved in and I managed to get stuck."

"Do you have a name?" Vanessa asked.

"Jillian." She mumbled. "I'm seventeen."

"Well Jillian, you got yourself in some deep shit." Vanessa examines her cuts and looks away as the Hunger is drawn up from her gut. Her eyes fill with red and all she can smell is her life source. "Please...excuse me....one second."

Vanessa walker two steps away and attempted to rein in the thing she most-hated about herself. The Hunger resorted to a dull ache in the pit of her stomach once she gained control.

"Is everything okay?" Jillian's warm hand landed on her shoulder and Vanessa whirled around, red ebbing away from her vision. "You faint at the sight of blood, or something?"

"Yeah, that's it. Come on. Let's get you patched up."