Will POV

We were walking down a long and hot highway. I kept my coat on - it made me feel safe: hidden. The heat radiated off the tar of the massive road. Despite its width, we had to squeeze through cars every know and then - I was vigilant for hidden Cannibals.

To my surprise, so was Logan.

It was a creepy and stressful feeling - seeing a massive highway full of abandoned cars. It felt as though a threat could come from any side. A large threat - as in, where were all the owners of the hundreds of cars?

The cars were powdered by dust and shards of glass from shattered windows and, or, windshields. I was overly tense, expecting a massive horde of Cannibals rushing toward us.

Logan has a demanding aura if he wants something. He doesn't say anything, doesn't act any different. But you still pick up that he wants to say something.

"What?", I hissed at him when I caught him eyeballing me for the seventh time. He didn't recoil or flinch as I expected him to.

"Aren't you getting hot", he indicated at my coat. I was getting hot - I was boiling inside the black coat. But I won't take it off. The coat hid me. It hid what I looked like. It hid who I am. I wanted it that way.

"No", I said simply.

We continued on in silence, passing a car with a decomposed driver still strapped in. He reeked of rotting flesh - and was missing half his skull. I slyly covered my nose as we passed it - Logan also seemed repulsed by how he squinted. Other than that he seemed unfazed.

"How old are you?" Logan asked out of random. I found myself wondering why it mattered but distracting myself from my ever present paranoia would be beneficial.

"Twenty three."

"You look younger than that", he had a mocking tone to his voice but my blank face cleared that right up, "I'm twenty four. Got a football scholarship and I'm studying... I was studying actuarial science. I was in my last year..."

What does he want me to say? Does he even want me to speak?

I nodded my head as a reply. He looked at me expectedly while trudging alongside me - in reality I was the only one trudging. He slowed down to keep up with me.

"What about you", he asked nudging me gently with his arm. The nudge felt strange. Maybe because I hadn't had human contact in a long time. It felt foreign.

"I was a psychiatrist."

"A psychiatrist at twenty three?"

I nodded again. He hid his surprise by looking forward. We passed an overturned bus held up by a car wedged under it. Some windows had blood splattered on them from inside the bus. Like an abstract painting. An expression of desperation and fear.

Accurate.

"My brother and I got seperated three weeks ago. I kept looking for him though. I didn't - and won't - give up hope. It's stupid, I know. But I can't even imagine him being dead", his strong voice wavered ever so slightly at the end. No one else would've picked it up, and I saw that he thought that. But I picked it up. I heard the crack in his resolution. I heard the doubt. A commodity in this time.

He recovered quickly, "I was looking for food when I got surrounded on that roof. If you hadn't been there - I would've been torn apart... Why are you alone? Did you...", he hesitated and I dreaded the coming question but welcomed it at the same time, "...lose someone?"

I kept my gaze leveled ahead of me. My frozen cavern in my chest seemed to grin but I wouldn't allow it to cause me any pain. I was tired of the pain - bored of it.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. Shit, I'm sorry, I shouldn't ha-"

"I did. I lost everything. I lost my best friend. She was killed by them. I lost my... other friend too. He's gone too."

Logan ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair and sighed, "Sorry, they obviously meant a lot to you..."

I was focussing squeezing between two cars with Logan behind me when I absentmindedly said, "He did mean a lot to me. I loved him. He was my chance at a future after Mellissa passed." Once the words left my mouth I knew I couldn't grab them and shove them back down my throat. A slip of the tongue. I swallowed down the bile that rose steadily up my oesophagus.

Quickly - very quickly - I regained my composure and continued my trudge down the highway. Suddenly the idea of talking to Logan as a distraction seemed like a dangerous thing. It was on the same level as a gun pointed to one's head. Hoping with all my might that he'd drop the subject, he hurried and strolled next to me.

"So...he was your boyfriend?"

I clenched my jaw and released. "In a way I guess he was. But that's over now - it's all gone. All of it."

"I'm not gay", Logan blurted out randomly. I raised my eyebrows - the most expressive face I've made in weeks.

"Okay?", I said in confusion. He cleared his throat and we continued in silence as we came out into a part of the highway where there was more space between the cars. They were about five metres apart.

I heard the harsh, fast footsteps before I saw the source. Racing toward us were thirteen Cannibals. I drew out my bat and glanced back at Logan - he gripped his bat ferociously.

Here we go.

The Cannibals weaved inbetween the cars so five were coming straight at me. I drew the one knife out from its strap on my left arm and flung it - puncturing the Cannibal's head. One down. One Cannibal stumbled over its former companion and landed on the tar - bashing its head harshly. Three rapidly approached me, I drew a knife out of its strap by my thigh and flung it at another - shattering the kneecap. It fell on one knee. The other two were by me know.

I sidestepped them - narrowly avoiding their grasp - while slamming my bat into one's face. A crinkling sort of crunch confirmed its death as it fell backwards and landed on its back. I used the momentum from the previous swing and twirled - slamming the bat into the back of the second one's head. It toppled over - landing face first onto the tar. I dropped my bat as I saw two were coming from either side. I drew two blades and flung one to the right - puncturing the Cannibal's eye - and one to the left. Both fell down dead.

Seven down. I looked over to Logan who had killed four - which impressed me. That makes...twelve.

Where's the last one? As if hearing my thought, I was slammed into a car on my left. My left arm throbbed from the impact - my elbow stung. I violently tried to keep the Cannibal at bay but it's persistent jerking made it difficult. It's bloodied teeth were inches from my face - snapping it's jaw like a rat trap. I didn't have a free hand to draw out another knife and my arms were shaking from the weight. It got closer and closer.

I'm going to die.

There was a crunch and the weight was gone. I opened my eyes and saw the Cannibal dead on the floor. Next to it was a wooden baseball bat. I looked over to Logan jogging up to me, "Football", he grinned and shrugged.

And for the first time in six weeks... I smiled. It felt so unusual. Were cheeks supposed to feel like that when you smile? I clutched my left arm, "Thanks", I said with a grateful smile.

Despite his tan skin, I saw a light shade of pink dust his cheeks, "Don't mention it", he said as he scratched the back of his head. He awkwardly looked away from my eyes and then he frowned, "Is your arm okay."

I looked down and clenched a fist. It hurt my shoulder - probably bruised. "Yeah, the shoulder's just bruised." He nodded and picked up his bat and handed me mine. He walked over to the kneeling Cannibal - still snapping it's jaw and slammed his bat down on its head.

I walked Cannibal to Cannibal, retrieving my knives and wincing occasionally from my bruised arm. Once I had my knives strapped and my bat back in my backpack, I took out two bottles of water and tossed one at Logan.

We continued down the quiet highway until - two hours later - we found a dirt road that sprung off the highway. I looked closely at the dirt, "There are footprints - lots of them. The camp is up this way."

Logan wiped sweat from his forehead, his bicep bulging slightly from the motion, "Let's get going then."

We followed the dirt road until it forked. One lead North and the other lead West. I checked the dirt again and found the fresh sets lead North.

"This way", I said as I walked on. The setting sun made a beautiful pink in the sky as the stars started to blink awake and the heat dissipated. We trudged along the dirt road before seeing a massive wall in the distance. I narrowed my eyes at the two outposts above the wooden wall. They sat next to a slab of zink plates welded onto a massive iron slab. Logan smiled and ran to the gate while I walked calmly behind him.

"Hey! We're survivors! Don't shoot, we're looking for shelter!" Logan shouted up to the outposts.

I got closer to Logan - not yet standing next to him.

"How did you know about this location?", one guard shouted down at Logan - keeping his aim on him.
I stepped forward and lowered my hood, "Valerie told me to come here."

The guard on the right tower fumbled around and spoke softly - presumably on a hand radio. The guard on the left tower remained in the shadows - probably keeping aim on us.

The gate started slowly ascending, groaning from its weight. Valerie stepped out, keeping her eyes trained on me. "Well done for figuring out the location", she said stoically. Her gaze fluttered to Logan, keeping her usual bored expression.

"He can't enter", she said simply.
"Yes he can", I replied.

Her gaze met mine, ice to ice. The tension was suffocating but neither of us relented. Finally she said, "He can enter - if you pass the test. I was planning on making it a little easier for you but if you can take it upon yourself to recruit you should be perfectly capable of backing it up."

"I did pass your test", I said blankly, "I found the camp."

She turned around, the breeze blowing her long blonde hair to the side.

"That was not your test, enter and face your test. If you pass, you may both stay here. If you fail... don't fail."