How I Survived (Zombie Story)

Chapter Thirty Three

The food court. A huge cafeteria filled with people eating, having normal conversions about their lives behind a huge fence, or talking about how glad they were that they'd survived.

It was what they call a break day for supply runs, a different scout took our place, that's what they told us.

I wasn't hungry, I had no appetite, though my stomach forced me to try the food, and my mouth watered with the smell of spices and chicken. I sat down at the table with Miranda and Hunter after grabbing the food they offered me. Jone sat down too, at the table with us. Miranda took a sip from the juice box she had grabbed. 

 "The lunch is horrible.." Miranda tells me, her nose crinkling from the smell of the food. The food was warm as if it had been waiting to be served.

There were some peas and bread and a clump of barbecued meat on the plate with onions hiding in the meat. I forced myself to try the bread and scarfed the dry bread down the best I could. I chewed, slow and hesitant until my jaw worked normally.

I stood, my arms crossed, I couldn't see enough so I stood on the bench not caring if the guards yelled at me.

Some people glared at me and whispered, mostly talking about the incident with Luis and Joe's dead brother. It made me feel guilty and want to cower in a corner.

I scanned the lunch room, it was gigantic, filled with all types of people, eating and talking casually about the day. I felt a slight tug and looked down. Jone tugged my sleeve forcing me to sit. "What do we do if they aren't here?" I ask him. Jone doesn't say anything for a long time, and I grow annoyed with his silence. I realize why he was being quiet when I notice the new people sitting with us. Luis and Joe.

They began eating, silently, and organized. Well, Luis was eating that way, Joe was wolfing his food down hungrily and he burped when he finished a cup of water and let out a what sounded like a growl and looked over at Jone's plate.

"You want that, man?"

Jone slid his plate across the table and looked away casually as Joe scarfed down his take of a second plate. Once he finished, he took one more glance at everyone's plate. But he didn't ask for anyone else's food.

Silence washes over our table as we watch Joe stare at us, making me question whether he was a zombie or not after watching him eat that food like he was one.

"Why-"

"We were told to stick with you," Joe says before I can question him. I don't say anything, But I notice how Luis elbows him for speaking. I just pretend to eat the scorched peas on my plate, and I stab the barbecued meat with my plastic fork.

"You're wasting the food," Hunter says across from me. I lift my eyes to him, he smiled.

I forced myself to smile back at him, my face burning. I felt my lips twitch from the lack of smiling lately. Everything thing is silent at the table again, and it seems like we were in a movie. I stare at Hunter and he simply stares at me, as if worried about me.

"We've decided to teach you guys how to shoot," Luis says, breaking the silence. We all look at him, waiting.

"You probably grabbed a random gun when the crap hit the fan and tried to shoot. You got the pattern and just randomly shot the walkers..anywhere." Luis says, eating the meat, he dabbed his mouth with a napkin. His eyes meet mine as if he were talking to me.

"Actually.. as long as the walkers were dead that we shot... we didn't focus on shooting or aim." Jone cuts in, cutting our small group some slack.

Luis ignores the comment and a smile tugs at my face for some odd reason.

"So.. starting tonight you will have gun-shooting practice," Luis says, his eyes scanning all three of us.