The Outbreak

Chapter 2: Only Captive

Leslie wakes up in the woods, now with short hair and only a little bit of her dyed tips left, after having a nightmare about the night her family died. It’s been about 4 months since that night  and Leslie finds herself alone and hungry. Her next objective is to find a group, or just one person that she can survive with so she doesn't have to be alone anymore. Leslie starts collecting water in her hands from a stream, and she starts drinking it. She has a small camp by the water, near a quiet brook. She packs whatever supplies that are scattered around her camp, into her bag before moving on. Leslie has been surviving on her own. She seems to have changed clothes within the past 4 months. She is now wearing a dirty gray tank top with an olive green coat to cover it, along with a burgundy red scarf, with dark jeans that seemed to be ripped from being worn, which are covering the dark brown boots she's wearing underneath. Being in the apocalypse for so long, Leslie got smart. Instead of having to kill the wanderers, she's learned to distract them, using a rock or anything she can find,  as she throws it before slipping away quietly, almost as if she was never there. Leslie packs up all her supplies before walking away from the camp, and traveling through the woods until she finds a road. She stumbles out of the woods and onto the road. She looks both ways before saying, "Shit. Where to now?" Leslie starts walking down a long road, after taking a left, coming from the woods. As she's walking, she hears a car approaching behind her, so she dives into the ditch alongside the road, just on the edge of the tree line. She sits, and waits nervously. She listens for the sound of the car to pass by, but she doesn't hear it. In fact, she doesn't hear the car at all, or anything for that matter. Confused, she starts to panic, thinking maybe it's an ambush or something. She hears a sound behind her and turns around quickly, just to be hit in the face by the end of a rifle.
 
 
(Flashback) Leslie is still sitting outside of the back door of her house, on the ground, the morning after the tragic death of her family. She's awoken by screaming in the distance as she jolts awake, remembering what had happened last night. She stands up and turns to the door of her house. She takes a deep breath before reaching for the handle. She slowly and quietly opens the door to see her family just walking around mindlessly. She suddenly realizes that the people she knew aren't there anymore. Before any of them notice her, she takes the gun and holds it up, leveling it with her sister's head. "I love you...You know that...right?" She says trying not to cry. "But now...I have to do this...to protect myself.........from you" She pulls the trigger as she barely finishes her sentence. She shoots three times, killing them all.  Leslie then takes a few steps inside her house. She starts searching through her home, looking for food and she changes her clothes as well as putting her hair in a high ponytail. She is now wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with navy blue jeans and black boots which she tucked her jeans into, as well as putting on her father's fingerless gloves to make sure her hands are protected. She takes a small bag with her full of food and water, as she makes her way to her dad's car. But she stops before going into the garage, to say one last goodbye to her family. She kneels down next to her sister and takes her necklace, then she puts it on. She also takes the wedding ring from her father, which he had gotten when he got married to Leslie's mother before she had died. She then heads into the garage, gets into her dad's car, and starts to drive as she notices people walking in the road. She stops the car and gets out thinking they can help her. As soon as she gets out of the car, she realizes that those people have gone crazy too. Just like her family. "Oh, shit", she says, quickly getting back into the car, trying to start it, but the engine won't cooperate. The dead start banging on the side of the car and before she knows it, Leslie is surrounded. 
 
 
 (Present time)After being knocked out, Leslie wakes up to find herself at a small camp with a girl and a guy. "What is this? Let me go!" The girl puts her hand over Leslie's mouth. "Shhhshhhh, it's okay. Just calm down". Leslie stops struggling as she tries to think of what to do. The girl takes her hand off of Leslie's mouth and looks over at the guy, but right as she does so, Leslie quickly grabs the knife from beside her, and attacks the girl, but she thinks fast and puts her arm up, as the knife slits her wrist, causing her to fall to the ground. As Leslie jumps onto the girl with her knife, she notices the other guy is approaching her from her left. She pulls out her gun, pointing it at him, as she yells, "stay back", still pointing her knife at the girl, and putting it closer to her throat. " If you come any closer, she dies." She looks at the girl. "And if you try anything, you both die." The guy looks at his friend on the ground in shock. "Now, here's what I need from you", Leslie says facing the girl, but slowly shifting her eyes to look up at the guy. After a short time skip of just minutes, Leslie holds a bag while still pointing her gun at the two people as she gets in their car and drives away. While driving away, Leslie takes a look inside the bag she was given by those people. In it, there are several cans of food, and some water. She smiles. Later down the road, Leslie gets bored, so she decides to search the glove box, and sure enough, she finds a ton of ammunition, and a cd. She takes the cd out of the glove box and puts it in the cd player. The song reminds her of her family. It's a song they all used to listen to in the car every Sunday when they went shopping together. She turns the volume up and starts to sing along, no longer paying attention to the road. She passes by a road on the driver’s side of the car, and another car from that road smashes into the side of hers. She passes out once again.