Nova Vida

Chapter Three

            “But Imogene, you still have me. I’m still alive. You’re still alive. And Aster,” Eli lowers his head once he says Aster’s name, but then continues talking, “Aster is in a better place now. You just have to believe it.”

            This time I can’t stop the sob that comes from my throat. I break into tears. Eli hugs me to his chest as I mourn over the death of my friend. But as soon as I start crying I stop. Even though the thought of Aster will be trapped in my mind forever. The last image I have of her is a gruesome image. I try to replace it with one of her looking happy, but come to the realization that there is no image of her being happy in the past few days.

            As I struggle to contain myself, I finally take in the appearance of the strange man standing above me. He has dark hair the reaches just below his ears. The man has bright blue eyes that give him a mysterious look. He looks to be just over six feet tall, and probably twenty years old.

            I catch him staring at the bite on my arm. The wound that should’ve killed me. Does this mean I have H-H blood? It’s the only logical reason why I’m not dead. Quickly I pull down the sleeve of my leather jacket to hide the gash. He tears his gaze away from my arm.

            “Who are you?” I ask the man, my voice still shaking. “I’ve never seen you around town before, and everybody pretty much knows everyone here.”

            A look of doubt crosses his face, but it is soon covered up with confidence. “It makes sense that you haven’t seen me before, I’m not from here. You see, I saw the walls to your town, and I had to check it out. I found an opening in the wall and was able to make it here. I guess I didn’t have the best timing though.” the man starts chuckling at himself.

            “What’s your name? Where are you from?” I ask astonished that there is actually life outside the walls of Salvatore.

            “For your first question, my name is Xavier, and as for your last question I’m going to keep that a secret,” he smirks slightly, but I just glare at him.

            “Keeping secrets? I guess that gives me no reason to trust you,” I mutter quietly, so he won’t hear me. I decide to let the discussion drop, even though I’m itching to ask millions of questions. Eli takes my hand and pulls me to my feet.

            “Are you hungry?” Eli asks, squeezing my hand.

            “Very,” I answer.

            “Good, because we are in the right place,” he says gesturing towards the battered down grocery store.

            “You did check this place for zombies, right?” I ask Xavier. Eli quickly gets a look of horror over his face.

            “Of course I did,” Xavier says.

            “Good,” I sigh out of relief, so does Eli. “How about that food now?” I walk over to a shelf that has all types of crackers on it, and I pick up a Ritz crackers box. I guess that it’s okay that I dropped the bag with the food in it, considering we now have a room full of food.

            “Aren’t you guys going to have any food?” I ask Xavier, while I stuff three crackers in my mouth.

            “I’m not hungry.”

            I shrug. Then I go and sit down beside Eli.

“Do you still have your backpack? I’d kill to be in fresh clothes.”