A gentle nudging slowly brings you out of your slumber, and you need a moment to fully wake as your senses start coming back to you. You feel a comforting warmth on the left side of your face which causes your eyes to flutter open. You notice Ronnie's long legs stretched out on the floor; he's still sitting beside you, making you realise that the warmth on the side of your face is coming from him. You panic with embarrassment as you quickly remove your head from his shoulder.
"Gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." you say quickly, brushing stray strands of hair out of your face. Ronnie chuckles slightly before reassuring you.
"No, it's okay, I didn't want to wake you."
You smile at him briefly as thoughts of the dead creep into your mind, your smile vanishing. "Has anything happened?" you ask, a sense of worry overcoming you.
"Nothing," Ronnie responds, "We're safe." A sense of relief floods through you; you hope your watch will be just as uneventful
"Right, you'd better get some rest," you say with a closed lipped smile. Ronnie nods and hands you his torch, now resting his head back on the machinery to get some rest.
You rise to your feet, knowing that if you stay sitting beside Ronnie that you'd inevitably drift back to sleep. You shine the torch towards the others to check on them and they all appear to be sleeping. With the acknowledgement that the group is safe you start moving through the factory. You set out to find access to the building's roof so you can have a clear view of any potential attacks.
***********
Standing on the roof, you watch out into the distance as dawn breaks through the trees surrounding the building. Everything seems peaceful, you can't hear a sound, not even the birds' early morning chirping. You take it in with a deep exhalation, unsure if today would be your last. Your thoughts are interrupted as you hear the door to the roof open. Turning your head you see one of the girls you didn't catch the name of last night. She's tall with natural blonde hair and blue eyes, and she walks with a sense of confidence.
"Morning..." you say.
"...Lucy," the girl responds, finishing your sentence, offering out her hand. You mirror her and shake hands.
"Hi, I'm y/n, did you sleep well?" you ask, trying to make conversation.
"Yes, which is surprising considering the circumstances." You nod in agreement, not sure what else to say; small talk had never been your forte.
"Well, I guess we better wake the others and make a plan for today," you reply, gesturing for Lucy to lead the way.
As you reach the small area of the factory the group had claimed the night before, you notice most of the group are awake. Steve, Alice and Katie are sat huddled in a circle talking quietly amongst themselves. "I better go wake my sister up," Lucy says, leaving your side. You make your way towards the spot you had spent the night in, cringing momentarily remembering that you had fallen asleep on Ronnie. As you reach the spot you see Ronnie is still fast asleep. You watch him for a moment. If the world wasn't coming to an end, he'd be the type of guy you'd like. He was his own unique version of tall, dark and handsome and if his actions were anything to go on so far he seemed to be a gentleman too. Polite, considerate, calming, you couldn't fault him. Suddenly, as if he can read your mind, his eyes flicker open. You quickly look away from him, hoping he didn't catch you watching him sleep.
"Morning," a hoarse voice says. You turn to look back at him.
"Morning" you say with a smile. Ronnie lifts himself up to his feet. You had forgotten just how tall he is. The light of day now highlights the features you couldn't make out in the dark, like his piercing brown eyes. As he stands besides you, looking towards the rest of the group, you find yourself feeling nervous in his presence. Trying to distract yourself from the feeling you leave his side and start walking towards the rest of the group.
You notice Lucy and her sister and how similar they look. "Are you twins?" you ask.
"Yeah, identical," Lucy responds, "This is Sarah." Sarah offers up a small wave as Ronnie joins your side, butting into the conversation.
"Oh wow, do you guys have, like... superpowers?" Ronnie asks quickly, as if he's unable to contain himself. You look up at him with a puzzled expression.
"No..." Lucy replies, also looking at Ronnie puzzled.
"Oh, well not like superhero powers, but, um, telepathic abilities..?" Ronnie says, gesturing with his hands.
"No, Ronnie, why would you even think that?" Lucy says, still confused by his questions.
"Oh ... just, I see it a lot in movies and I wondered if it was an actual thing," he says, looking slightly disappointed. You chuckle slightly.
"Honestly Ronnie..." Your sentence is cut short when Steve and his family approach your group.
"So what's the plan? We need food, water, weapons, medicines," Steve says, ensuring to articulate his list by using his fingers to count the number of items.
"Yeah, you're right," Ronnie responds, "To get those things we need to go back to Centerville." A small squeak of worry comes from Katie, who is hovering nervously just behind Steve, chewing her thumbnail, clearly worried.
"I... I don't want to go back, it's not safe," she says, flustered with worry.
"It's okay, we don't all need to go, some of us need to stay here and protect this place," Ronnie says reassuringly.
"I'll go," you say, intrigued by what you'd see in the daylight. Ronnie nods at your offer.
"Yeah, and me," Steve says. The rest of the group remain quiet. "Okay, just us three? Let's get ready to go."
As Steve hangs back to say goodbye to his family, you and Ronnie head outside towards the cars. "Cop car?" you ask, looking at Ronnie. He nods, opening the trunk. You stand waiting for Steve to join you as Ronnie rummages through the trunk. He lifts his head.
"Here, take this," Ronnie says, handing you a pistol. You take it from him
"I... I've never fired a gun before," you say, looking at the pistol.
"Oh, well, just take this off," he says pointing to a catch on the side "And then pull the trigger. Hopefully you won't need to use it," he finishes, offering you half a smile.
Steve joins the two of you "Ready?" he asks.
"Yup," Ronnie replies, climbing into the driver's seat. You open the passenger door and Steve climbs into the back.
"The gate?" you question before climbing in. Ronnie hands you the key from his belt and you walk over to the gate, opening it and allowing Ronnie to drive through before locking it again. Climbing into the car you hand the key back to Ronnie.
***********
The car is silent as Ronnie drives along the deserted country roads. You keep your eyes peeled, looking for any movement. After twenty minutes, Ronnie pulls the car over, turning the engine off. "We should walk from here, the sound of the car could draw a horde," he says, "The same with guns, only shoot if absolutely necessary". You clutch at your baseball bat, feeling more nervous about what lays ahead. You sense Steve feeling the same apprehension as he sits quietly and nods in agreement with Ronnie's suggestions, surprisingly unargumentative today. Following Ronnie's lead you climb out of the car. The air is crisp, dry and cool, the start of autumn beginning to show as you witness the first fallen leaves laying on the ground beside the parked car.
Clustered together, Ronnie pulls out a map from his back pocket and places it on the hood of the car. You listen intently as he begins pointing at the map.
"Main objectives are food, water, weapons, medicine and transport. We head for the grocery store first, gather supplies, then find a car to transport the goods back to the factory. Head in quietly and get out quickly, make sense?" he asks, looking towards you and Steve. You both nod in unison. Ronnie folds up the map, placing it back in his pocket and gripping his machete as he starts heading towards Centerville.
As you begin approaching the main drag of Centerville, the once clean streets are littered with debris, shop windows are smashed, doors of buildings left open. Decapitated bodies lay in the street, the image of it all you can only describe as scenes from a horror movie. Your heightened senses are triggered each time the breeze causes the litter to move, causing you to jump and turn with your baseball bat held tightly in front of you; each time you are met with nothing. Despite all of the chaos before you, you haven't seen a single zombie, and this only makes you feel more nervous. As you turn the corner you notice Ronnie come to a slow halt, gesturing towards a building with a pointed finger. You look in the direction of his pointing and realise you've made it to the small grocery store.
You watch as Steve approaches a nearby pick up truck. Gently opening the driver's door he reaches inside before giving you and Ronnie a thumbs up. You assume this is a good sign that the truck has a set of keys. With your escape vehicle secured, you all head towards the grocery store. As you enter you notice the shelves are still mostly full, as if the entire town met its untimely demise only yesterday. Ronnie speaks quietly.
"Steve, you get the food, y/n, you get the medicine and I'll get the water. Take as much as you can carry and place it in the pick up. We'll do a few runs, seeing as it's quiet, and then we can get out of here,". You nod and head towards the medicine aisle. Picking up a basket you begin emptying the shelves of whatever is available, and once the basket is full you head towards the pick up. Steve is already outside dropping off his selection of food; you notice the pick up already has a good selection of food and water brought back by Steve and Ronnie before you. You begin to feel relief come over you as you realise that you've almost finished getting supplies and haven't encountered a single zombie.
Suddenly, you hear a panicked shout from Steve. You turn in his direction to see what's going on, when you see a wave of zombies approaching, there must be at least twenty, you think maybe more and you realise you'll be quickly outnumbered if you don't act fast. You prepare your baseball bat, gripping the handle tight, as adrenaline surges through your body, you feel your heart racing as you take down the few zombies that are at the front of the horde with a forceful blow to the head. Steve joins you, helping you take down the zombies closing in. Between the two of you you've taken down the first row, but there's still countless others behind them. You begin to panic.
"We need to get Ronnie!" you shout, looking at Steve.
"It's too late for him," Steve says, leaving your side and opening the pickup driver's side door, climbing in. "C'mon, let's go!" he shouts as he turns the engine on. You look around and see that the entrance to the grocery store is starting to become blocked, you know if you make a run for it now that maybe it's not too late, maybe he does still stand a chance, and maybe you could get to him in time. You don't know why you do it, but suddenly you find yourself running back towards the store, determined to get him out. As you run, you hear the pickup drive off at high speed, leaving you stranded. Why are you doing this you wonder? Is it because Ronnie's shown you kindness, something you're not used to, and you're not prepared to lose that just yet? Is it because of how safe you felt sleeping next to him? Or is it something else entirely ...
Whatever the reason, as you weave in and out of the zombies that have reached you. You feel your foot slip as you catch it on some debris in the street, causing you to fall. Your baseball bat falls from your hands and lands out of reach. Before you have a chance to retrieve it a zombie falls down onto you, causing you to panic. Struggling beneath its weight you try to hold its mouth as far from your body as physically possible, using one arm to stop it from sinking its teeth into your flesh, using your other arm you reach into your waistband to retrieve the pistol Ronnie had given you earlier.
Remembering how Ronnie told you to use it, you remove the safety and fire a shot but miss completely, causing you to panic further. Firing another shot only causes more zombies to head in your direction. As your panic increases your vision starts to blur, and the groaning of the zombies is drowned out by your heartbeat pounding in your ears. You can't breathe. Still struggling beneath the zombie, you're certain you're about to meet your end, but suddenly the head of the zombie above you comes flying off and its lifeless body collapses on top of you. Holding your breath, you look up to see Ronnie standing above you, your dilated pupils fixed on him, unsure if this is real. His face is in a state of urgency as he offers you his free hand, carrying his machete in the other. You grab it, pulling yourself up. You limp slightly as you put your weight on the foot you slipped on earlier, "Can you run?" Ronnie asks quickly. You nod, unable to form a sentence, still in shock from your near death experience, struggling to catch your breath. You start running as fast as you can with Ronnie by your side but you're unable to keep up with his wide strides and the pain in your injured foot causes you to slow down. The horde is on your tail as you struggle. Ronnie stops and without a word he picks you up, throwing you over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, running with you in tow.
Now gaining some distance from the horde, turning a corner, you spot a house and Ronnie begins heading towards it. He slams the door behind him quickly, places you on the floor and heads straight towards the window, keeping low down. Breathless and panting for air he watches out of the window. You sit in silence, watching him as your body quakes with fear. After what feels like an eternity, he stands up and approaches you.
"They're gone" he states, causing the strongest sense of relief to flood through you. Unable to control yourself, your eyes fill with tears as you let out an audible whimper, now sobbing. Ronnie kneels besides you, and you watch through teary eyes as he pauses briefly. Needing the comfort of something, anything, you pull him towards you, sinking your face into his chest as your arms wrap around him. His arms slowly match yours as he embraces you tightly, allowing you to collapse into him.