It had probably been only a few minutes and I was already sprinting down the street being chased by a horde of zombies. Since I was too busy drying my tears, I hadn't realized I ran into a bunch of them. Now, I was starting to get tired and slow down, which helped the horde catch up.
Just when I thought I was about to collapse from fatigue, I heard someone call out to me, "Hey! Over here!"
I skidded to a stop and made a hard right into an alley. At the very end, there was a young man wearing a mask waiting for me at a safe house. With my last bit of energy, I ran as fast as I could straight into the safe house. The guy followed in right behind me and closed the door.
I sat on the ground and was gasping for air. The man who just saved my life came over to me and handed me water, "Here."
I took the water and gulped it down within seconds, "Thanks," I said when I finished it.
He gave me a slight nod and patted my back. "How long were you running?" he asked.
I thought for minute and replied, "Probably for 2 miles at most," I concluded still panting.
He raised his eyebrows at me, "Dang you must be in pretty good shape huh?"
I shrugged, "What can I say? I'm gifted."
He sighed and looked out the window, "Well I guess it would make sense for the gifted in athletics and wits to last the longest nowadays."
He was most likely right. The athletic would have it easier when outrunning the zombies and the smart ones would have it easier when strategizing an escape plan.
"So I guess you’re pretty smart and fast too right?" I asked.
He shrugged and answered with a grin, "What can I say? I'm gifted."
I giggled a little at that. He did seem to have a sense of humor which helped me recover a little from my recent depression.
"So what's your name?" he asked.
"I'm Ruby, and you are?"
He took off his mask and pulled his hood down. "Leo."
He looked pretty attractive I had to admit. He had bright green eyes, platinum blonde hair, and a charming smile.
"Nice to meet you Leo," I said holding out my hand to shake his.
"Nice to meet you too." he replied shaking my hand.
We talked for a pretty long time about our lives before the infection. He was quite popular in school (especially with the girls), skilled in lacrosse, and also had a loving family. He was a lot like me surprisingly and I told him about my life too. We talked about all kinds of stuff like our friends, enemies, likes, dislikes and so on.
Eventually I let out a huge yawn and looked at my watch. "Holy crap! It's been 3 hours?!" I exclaimed.
"Really?" he asked surprised while looking down at my watch, "Wow, it really has been a long time," he said.
I couldn't help but worry about Hunter who was probably looking everywhere for me. Poor thing was probably hungry now too. Suddenly I had a dreadful thought, what if I had to kill Leo to feed Hunter? Not wanting to think about it, I merely pushed that thought to the back of my head.
Leo sighed, "Looks like we're sleeping here tonight."
That brought me to a new problem: I knew I would probably have to part ways with my new friend the next morning and head back to find Hunter. I pushed that thought to the back of my head too and went to one corner of the room while Leo went to another. He seemed to be fine since he was wearing a couple layers of clothes, but I was really cold and shivering. I had forgotten it was the middle of winter now and it gets pretty cold at night here in Las Vegas.
I curled up in my corner trying to get warm, but failed to do so. Leo had noticed and came over to me, "Here I'll sleep next to you so you don't catch a cold."
I looked at him shocked, "Nononono I'm fine!" I said.
No matter how cold I was, I was far too defensive of my "personal space".
He merely rolled his eyes in response. "Don't worry, I won't do anything to you," he said while sitting down next to me resting his arm over my shoulders.
Although I was against the idea, he made a pretty good heater so I instantly drifted off into a deep, undisturbed sleep.