All Is Lost

4.

Vanessa slipped Jillian a couple pills to take away the pain and finished wrapping her arm in gauze. "This should keep you semi-painless for a few hours. But we'll need to check them once we get out of here."

"How...are we going to escape this place?" Jillian questioned, retying her blood-soaked shoes. "There are rabid animals literally right outside that door."

"I need you to face the door." Vanessa demanded, moving to take the next step. "And I'm sorry, but I have to do this." She tied a blindfold around her eyes and pressed a chloroform rag against her nose and mouth. She didn't want to kill her, only to knock her out. "This is the only safe way to get out." She picked her up and carried her bridal style to the second floor. The sun had just risen, so she knew the rabids weren't going to so much as venture outside. The jump would kill a normal human, but only cause very little joint pain to her. "We can't stay here, but I'll be right back." She promised the sleeping girl, leaving her just below the window in broad daylight. She opened the red door littered with claw marks and locked it behind her, securing the deadbolt.
The aisles were clear, but the growling rabids would've heard the door being locked. Surprisingly, none came and she listened out for them. Quickly, Vanessa snatched food and water items from the aisles clear of rabids and rushed back to the room. "Hey, I'm back. And we need to get out of here." She slung the backpack over her shoulder and carried the girl in her arms as she leapt to the ground, landing quietly on the asphalt outside the store. "Now, we find a soft landing and wake you up."

-W-

Vanessa walked under the bright sunlight for what seemed like hours. The weight of the human girl was almost becoming a little too much.

Jillian roused and wiggled on her back, so Vanessa set her down. Her eyes filled with sadness and regret. She shouldn't have lied to the person who saved her butt from the rabids.

"What did you do to me?" Jillian cried. "My head hurts."

"I couldn't get you out of there alive, otherwise we'd have more issues regarding you being a snack to them." Vanessa said, handing her two ibuprofen and a bottle of water.

"I don't get it." Jillian rubbed her eyes and swallowed the pills. "Why would I have been a distraction to them? Why not you as well?"

"I will show you when we find a safe place." Vanessa promised as she left a dejected Jillian a few feet behind. "Are you coming?"

Jillian grumbled before trailing after Vanessa as the day moved into the late afternoon times.

"Can we stop here for the night? I'm starving and my leg is killing me." Jillian whispered to Vanessa who gave the house a few disgusted looks.

Vanessa made a 'quiet' motion with her hand and revealed her ghastly katana before venturing up to the front door. "Coast's clear. Let's go in." Vanessa locked the front door behind Jillian and knocked on the walls to draw out any unwanted creatures, but none appeared, only a lone rabbit that she stabbed for a snack later. "All bedrooms look clear, but we're safer in numbers."

"So you're saying I have to sleep in the same bed as you?" Jillian pouted.

"Sorry, Jill. Either that, or you're food for the nightstalkers."

"This is gay." She grumbles. "I should've never gotten into this mess."

Vanessa set her bag down along her side of the bed. "You got into this mess because I couldn't leave you to die, especially by the hands of those rabids."

Jillian stared her in the eyes, her gaze tough as stone. "You're hiding something. And I plan on busting you."

"Jillian, you don't scare me. You can do whatever you want." Vanessa sighs, facing away from the other girl as she tucks herself under the covers, slipping her shirt off to get comfortable. "We leave tomorrow evening. I can move faster in the dark, but you'll have to keep up."

"What? You don't like sunlight?" Jillian teases.

"It just makes me drowsy and I get sunburnt easily." Vanessa lays down and shuts her eyes, listening to the gently snoring of her companion. "That was quick."