Mariah's P.O.V.
Location; Helicoptor /unknown
We have been flying for a little over an hour now, I don't know where or when we stop, but I think it will be soon enough, Brandon can't fly this thing for much longer, and we're slowly running out of gas, it'll only be a little before we crash but I'm pretty sure he won't let that happen. Or else I'm going to haunt his ass for all of eternity. We probably should've let the soldiers fill this thing up just a little but hey! Who cares? We need to get down to the ground no matter what.
He doesn't seem to notice that we possibly could run out of gas, I am sure he didn't get anything to eat or drink, and to top it all off, he didn't get any sleep unlike the rest of us.
"Brandon, shouldn't we land soon?" I ask, but no response. Why is he so focused? From the corner of my eye, I notice Leo trying to catch my attention.
I look over to him and he move his finger in a 'come closer' gesture. I move my head closer, and he starts to whisper in my ear "somebody died while we were separated with you guys. A young girl got shot, and now he's guilt tripping himself". it makes sense now; I'm sure that he is thinking of Antlia.
I wait for little while to think about how I can get his attention in a good way, but Katie comes first. "The apocalypse is hard, you can't beat yourself up every time a person dies, now land this damn chopper I need to piss."
Brandon moves a little bit in his seat, and says "are ya'll done being moody now? Does It fucking look like I have space to land somewhere". Its only now that I notice that we are above a forest.
"chill mister" Katie snaps back.
"i think we all need to chill" Luna takes a pause "Brandon just lands as soon as you can, and Katie quit being disrespectful".
Oh, she did not, I expect a fight between Luna and Katie to break out, but nothing happens, Katie glares for a second and then stop. That's not how she usually reacts, to people talking down at her. Something is off, I know that Katie and I have only known each other since the apocalypse started, around 2,5 months ago, but still, we had a lot of nights to talk about our problems, but on the other side, I didn't talk about my life before the apocalypse either.
I hope we someday will have the opportunity to talk each other about all our problems, she really seems to be the sister I never had, and I really hope that she won't die ever. And Brandon, it seems like god send him to me, my dad was like shit, and now I have him and it hurts to see him guilt tripping himself like that.
I don't know if the same goes for Luna, I don't even know if I like her yet, she keeps looking at Katie in a weird way. And I really want to protect Katie, that's weird considering that she is older and more protective than I am.
Leo seems to have humor, and I hate to admit it, but we really need that, and, he is pretty good for the eyes, another thing that I hate to admit about him.
"thinking about me princess" Leo stares into my eyes, oh shoot, I was staring at him this whole time.
"ha, you wish" I deny looking away from him.
I notice that the Katie and Luna are fallen asleep. And so does Leo notice too, he looks at me. "you should sleep too, meanwhile I will talk to Brandon" he whispers. I just nod.
"good girl" he says teasingly, and I just glare at him.
I move my body a little more on the side, so I can sleep a little more comfortable, sitting for an hour on my already flat ass, hurts way too much...
I am in a tent, it's really dark in here with just one light bulb lit, beside me there's another person, I move the person, while believing that it's Katie, but I just stare at Leo in shock, he's shirtless revealing perfect sculptured abs. I swallow the drool that threatens to spill and look him in the eyes.
"hey princess" he greets and starts to lean in, I don't know why but I start to lean in too and as soon as we're only a breath away and then I feel his lips on mine and I feel his lips move along with mine in sync.
"Morning prince charming" I say in a somewhat sarcastic voice.
"I can show you how charming this prince really can be" He says and pulls my body closer to his. I can feel his touch all over me, and we end up kissing a lot more than just a second.
Shit, did I just have a wet dream about Leo, no way, Nu-uh, wasn't me. I look out of the window to distract myself, only to notice Luna and Katie still are asleep.
Leo has changed his seat, to sit in the passenger seat beside Brandon, they haven't noticed that I'm awake yet.
"we're above a city now, there's a platform on top of that roof" Leo says, I can feel the helicopter moving downward, great I can soon stretch my legs.
"Leo" I hear Brandon call to get his attention, a few seconds later he continues "if you just once hurt my girls, I'll kill you".
"yes sir, I won't" he answers.
Did Brandon just say "my girls" so I'm not the only one who thinks that we've become a family. I really hope we can stick together, at least till this shit of an apocalypse is over, I would rather kill myself than losing more people.
I can feel the helicopter land, Leo and Brandon thinks that I am asleep, so I pretend to be asleep, when they open the doors.
The helicopter landed on top of a building, I can see that there is a door connected to this roof, and I am pretty sure that the door is connected to the fire escape.
I walk over to the helicopter doors and jump down not even bothering to take Leo's help.
"be careful princess" he says smirking at me. I stare into his eyes, and I immediately remember the dream, I shake the thoughts away before flipping him my little birdie. I move over to Katie, to help her out, but she is still asleep. I try to get up but it's harder than I thought. What kind of tall ass person can get onto this thing?
"Leo, can you help me up, I want to wake Katie up" I say a little loud in defeat, but not too loud, in case the zombies would hear us. Jumping down from a helicopter is easier than getting up alright?
He comes over to me and helps me up, I can feel his hand on my hips, I feel my heartbeat fast.
"Hey careful where you place those hands!" He ignores me
"Whatever you say, princess" he answers and lifts me up in the end his hands land on my lower back a little too close to my rear.
"Didn't you hear me or do you want me to chop your hands off?" I threaten but he merely ignores me. I roll my eyes at him.
I reach up to Katie, I could either yell into her ear or to wake her up gently. I decide to do it gently, we all are a little stressed after all and I really don't feel like getting punched.
"Katie, wake up" she doesn't move, so I decide to push her lightly.
"Katie?" I pull my hand back, but it's feeling wet, only now do I notice that there is blood on my hand, I look down at her arm and see a blood patch on her lower part of the stomach. She must've gotten shot at the military camp and didn't tell any of us.
I can feel my eyes tear up.
She can't die, not now. I can't handle being left alone again; she's, my family.
"Brandon! Katie got shot" I yell louder than I thought I would. I run over to the edge with tearful eyes and Leo help me down, and crawls up to her, he's trying to feel her pulse, and then he is relaxed again, While Brandon is entering the Helicopter on the side I sat before.
"she still has a pulse but it's weak" Leo says to Brandon, "we need to get her to lay straight down" Brandon takes her in his arms.
Luna is looking at them anxiously, why the fuck is she afraid for Katie, she hasn't even known her for 3 days.
Brandon carries her down and into Leos arms, my sight starts to get blurry from the tears.
"Mariah, I know you're in shock, but you need to focus right now" Brandon tells me with both of his hands on each side of my shoulder comforting me a little.
I nod, take a deep breath to compose myself and run towards the door. "what kind of building is this" I ask. Leo comes closer, with Katie securely in his arms. "it should be a shopping center, maybe there is a small store where we can hide, without the possibility of zombies getting too close to us" Leo answers.
I try to open the door, but I fail, I don't have fucking time for this bullshit, I take my gun out, and shoot twice into the lock.
"well now, the possibility of running into zombies got higher" I hear Luna say in the background. Gosh, why does she have to be so fucking annoying right now? I can't take her bullshit right now, and I fight the urge to snap back at her. I need to hurry, for Katie or I might just kill Luna.
Brandon runs down the stairs going in front of us, I'm sure it's because he can kill something if we are in danger, I believe he's guilt tripping himself again, and that he wants to hit something really hard, but I can't blame him, I want to hit Luna for that stupid comment, screw that bash her head against the concrete.
We run down the stairs for at least 2 more floors. We all wait behind Brandon, while he silently looks out the door, to make sure that we don't run into fucking zombies.
I look at Katie, and then up to Leo, he must be strong, he's carried her for a little while now, and he doesn't seem to be out of breath nor sweaty. I felt out of breath just running down those dumb stairs. I look back over my shoulder just to see Luna, I can't find a trace of the anxious look she had, she seems to be perfectly calm now. I knew that she was just acting about caring for Katie.
"We can go out, there doesn't seem to be any z's around, there's a furniture store across from us" Brandon interrupts my thoughts. He doesn't wait a second, and just opens the door, and start running silently to the furniture store. It's a good place for Katie to rest, and for us others too and this is a mall we can probably find something to patch her up with.
We arrive at the furniture store, the doors and the front is made out of glass, fortunately for us it seems that the doors are open, but it's also bad, the z's might have had easy access to get into the store.
We go in the store, and Leo lays Katie down on the floor, "take care of her while Brandon and me check out if there are any zombies" he pauses "and also, don't use your gun inside here, or else the z's will hear it". He points at me.
"get that finger out of my face" I say threateningly and push it away from me.
"as you wish princess". Gosh I hate it when he calls me princess.
I kneel down to look at Katie, she is still alive, for now. My eyes tear up again just of the thought of her death.
I'm sitting in my room, listening to music trying to drown out the yelling of my parents, I always do that when they argue, it's so much easier than listening to them fight over everything and nothing. It's become a normal thing. It's either he yells It out or hits my mother or me.
My stomach starts to growl and take off my headphones before pulling my secret stash of chocolate, candy and whatever else snacks I have. I suddenly hear glass shattering from downstairs and shoot up from my bed. I quickly open my door and slowly walk down the stairs.
I'm at the end of the staircase when I hear my mother's crying and sobs. I peek around the corner and the sight makes me freeze. What I see is my dad with a gun to my mother's head, my mother's eyes find mine and her eyes go wide, and a silent pleading for me to look away but I can't move, I can't. I'm frozen in my spot.
"do as you please, you bitch" My dad says and before I knew it a loud sound resonates through our house, then I see her collapse, face first to the ground and blood seeps out. I can't stop the sob that escapes me and I fall to the ground. My father looks at me with wide eyes.
"Mariah-" I don't let him say anything I grab the vase my mother used to adore and throw it beside his head in anger, he looks away momentarily giving me a chance to get up and run. I run to our backdoor and hurry out. I hear his pounding footsteps behind me but I ignore him and run over to our white fence. The Irony.
"Mariah, get back here!" He yells after me but I jump over the fence and into my neighbors before going around their house and out to the main road where some of our neighbors already were. The gun shot must've been loud. My own shaky voice screams loudly;
"He killed her! He killed my mother"
A zombie's growl is snaps me back to reality, I notice Luna pulling out her gun as a reaction. I take my fingers and push her gun slightly down and hold my fingers to my lips, I unsheathe my tanto, and walk towards the Z to finish him off and get my anger out. I twirl my Tanto around my fingers before cutting the head of the zombie off and his body collapses. I take a deep breath before sitting back down beside Katie.
A little while later Brandon and Leo come back, "everything is free, let's get Katie in a bed" Leo says, I didn't know he would actually care so much, he's taking Katie into his arms again. He starts walking in front, of us and Luna and I are just following her.
We don't really know the direction, so I'm just staying behind.
"You and Luna should try to find food and medicine" Brandon looks at us.
"no way I am leaving Katie and going with her" I sneer at Luna; I spot her rolling her eyes. And I just want to punch her in the face. Maybe I should.
"Leo, will you go with Luna?" Brandon asks Leo, Brandon doesn't wanna leave Katie either, and I think Leo sees that in his face.
"sure, I will just carry her into a bed and then we leave" he answers.
It's just now that I notice that Katies blood is dripping on the floor, she could die of blood loss. We need a blood transfusion.
I'm sitting in front of a little fire that I made with Katie. "don't you think we should know each other's blood type?" Katie asks.
"ha you funny" I say chuckling lightly.
Katie just looks down to the fire again with an embarrassed look, I didn't mean to make fun of her, it is a good Idea in case of an emergency.
"B negative" I say. She looks up at me in shock and a small smile starts to form on her lips and speaks
"O positive" she answers. "well, you can't donate your blood to me"
"her blood type is O positive" I say a little too loudly,
"I have the same" Brandon says. Thank god. She will survive.
.........................................................
Writers; Kaynad M. & Maryam S.
Word count: 2804
Side note: This is a really long chapter, we tried to get a lot of Mariahs feelings and thoughts into this chapter, and that includes flashbacks:)