I, once again, walked away from my comfy hole. This time, I was headed to a small town nestled in a valley. This town was evacuated before the infected got to them and was mostly clear of their presence. It was also out of the way that no one had went back and looted it before I found it a year ago. It had since been supplying me with tea bags and other canned food. This time, I was going to grab some more canned fruits, my store was running a bit low.
I crossed the ridge shielding the town and entered the valley proper. Something immediately caught my eyes. A jeep that looked like it belonged in a rust yard and two pickup trucks painted the most horrid shade of bright blue I had ever seen. I swear, that thing could be seen in orbit. The vehicles al have solar panels on the roof, and the jeep was attached to a trailer packed with more solar panels. There were about five people mulling around, bring out boxes of goods to load onto the trucks and the backseat of the jeep. Alright, I'm going to perch up here and wait for them to leave.
Their vehicles were almost full, and I saw one of them closing the shop they were raiding while another, a brown-haired woman, took the last box and was heading to the truck. She jumped up onto the bed, wedged the box into position and secured the goods via a net. After that was done, she looked up at the skies, lazily sweeping over the ridge and passing over me. She suddenly tensed, and seemingly called her companions before pointing in my direction. This is not good; how could she had seen me? If not, why would she suddenly stopped glancing around and stared right at me? She must have somehow spotted me, despite me being quite the distance away and blending in with the foliage. Anyhow, I think I would stick around to see what they would do; I was craving for human interaction anyways.
So, I stayed in place, watching and waiting. I was curious what they would do next. After much deliberation, I saw two of them, a male and a female, walked towards the edge of the town, heading my direction. They decided to come to me, after all.
'Hello there!' The guy yelled at me. 'What brings you to this lovely neighbourhood on this fine day?'
'Oh, I don't know, I may or may not had ran out of canned fruits and wanted more.'
'Oh, do you really?' The girl quirked an eyebrow. 'If then, come on, we have plenty to share.'
'Alright.' I jumped down from my perch. The lady was dressed in black jeans and light blue shirt, topped with a golden-brown leather jacket, with a flaming head of hair pulled in a braid; The guy was in a similar attire, but instead of jeans, he was in a pair of dark blue cargo pants, black shirt and grey jacket. He had a hair dark as midnight, and blue eyes as clear as a sunny day.
I followed them back down to the town, where I met the others. This is when I did a double take and looked at the eyes of everyone present. The eye of the lady who spotted me and the eyes of the guy who came up to coax me out of hiding has the exact same shade as mine, amber ring and all.
'I can see you have figured that out.' The lady who spotted me first commented, 'Yep. Dan and I am infected.' She was wearing a tank top and cargo pants. That's one of those tiny things the infection brought to the body – coldness is no longer that big of an issue. I could wear a light autumn jacket in all of winter but the coldest hours. I assume it's also the case for these infected. 'That's Olyvia,' She pointed to the redhead who was besides Dan; 'Brandon,' a tall and lanky guy in leather jacket, with a mop of ginger and a pair of perfectly normal brown eyes; 'and William,' a slim and rather short man with brown hair swept into a ponytail, a few strands escaping its bonds, faming his gentle looking green eyes; 'and I'm Ellie.' On a closer look, she has a long, straight scar on her right cheek, from her cheekbones right to her neck, topped with a nasty looking burn scar on her left arm. That got to hurt when she received them...
'Sadie, your humble local infected, at your service.' I gave a small bow. 'How often does this happen?' I asked, pointing at my eyes.
'No idea, but we're not alone on the infected spectrum. There are ten more back home, and I bet there are much more out there.' Brandon replied.
'If you don't mind, would you consider going back to our base with us?' Olyvia asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, 'We could use an extra hand.'
'Perhaps. I need some time to think over this and pack my things.' I narrowed my eyes, 'If I decides to join, I'll be here in a week.' I'm not going to let them know my home's location. I don't trust them that much yet.
They obviously understood my intentions and decided to abide by my wish. 'Alright, we'll be back in a week.' They mounted their vehicles and left.
I turned to the store. Looks like I won't take as much as I expected, instead I would be taking boxes back. Without a further word, I strode towards the door. The store area was clear, but there were sounds of an infected moaning in the storeroom. Seeing that there were still more than enough canned fruits n the shell, I didn't bother with the infected in the back. On the way out, I also grabbed some cardboard boxes from the office of a moving company. With cans in my backpack, cardboard boxes wedged under my arm, I headed back home.
Back home, I laid wide eyed on my bed, contemplating my choices. Despite them having the same condition as me, they were, at their heart, humans. Of course, they could be offering me a place because they wanted another pair of working hands, but at the same time, it could be for some more... nefarious preposes. That wasn't likely, from how they didn't seem hostile in their posture and in their voices. From how they said it, they were more likely to be thinking that they wanted more people with our conditions on hand to deal with the wilds. I guess I could join them, considering I didn't tell them the location of my home, if anything threatening me arises from that group, I could simply bolt and went back to my hidey hole. Yes, ignoring them would be the safer choice, but over these years without human contact, I was feeling lonely. Do I really want to be safe and lonely? Or do I wanted to take a leap of faith and potentially find an accepting human settlement? I think I would take I leap of faith. I just have to plan for an escape route, no biggie.
With my mind made up, I rolled over, burying my head in the pillow, and get some shut eye.
When I awoke, dawn had just appearing, fresh and rosy fingered, ascending to her golden throne. I stood up and stretched, about to go about my day. This would be a busy day. I plan to pack everything today for transportation with the boxes I brought in yesterday, keeping the lid open for access to my stuff. I really didn't have a need to pack everything today, but I was bored. Packing seemed like a good way to spend my time.
With that thought, I went out and started my morning run in a wide circle around my cave.
I was packing the last remnants of my stuff onto a trolly. I really didn't have much personal artifice except for my books. I had been taking every book I see with me back to the cave, just for the sake of preserving them for whoever else. Those books were already sitting in a house in the town, locked in a cupboard. I was packing the books that I would read, the books that was interesting to me, and whatever else I own, excluding the furniture. I also packed several of the hides I had as carpets, including the hide of that doe I last hunted. Those went in a box; my clothing went into another box; my books filling the rest...
Pulling the trolly out of the door, I stopped just outside and started barricading it. I don't particularly want to come back sometime in the future and discovered some random bear had made my cave its dan. So, I'm barring them easy entry. I really didn't expect I'll be away for long enough to justify the effort put into installing a proper lock, resulting to me only installing a bolt lock on the inside. As a result, the door can be easily opened when I wasn't home, and that just wasn't acceptable when I'll be gone for a long time. Hence my efforts at barricading the door.
Heaving the last piece of wood into place, I pronounced to no one that I was finished, and went on my merry way. It didn't take long, even when burdened with the trolly, to reach the town. Pulling the trolly behind me, I walked up to the house containing my other, collected-just-to-preserve-the-what-we-once-was books, unlocked the door via a key I found under the welcome mat (seriously people, under the welcome mat?) and went inside. After moving the trolly next to the cupboard, I went out and started breaking into other houses to pass the time. After all, it's not like any of the owners would care. The scheduled rendezvous was tomorrow, and it was only midday, I had plenty of time to spare.
Come next day, long after Dawn had taken her throne, I heard motor sounds coming from afar. It seems like a page of my life was over, a new was turned.
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Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
(well, not me. I am currently trying to convince myself that I'm happy staying single)
As we enjoy (or not) this fine day, let's hear the tale of the most functional relationship in the Greek Pantheon -
Enjoy!