Thomas looked out the window.
It had been two days since his sister went missing. She was his only family. Brianna had been searching for more supplies when she had disappeared.

The creaking of a door interrupted his thoughts.

"Hi," said a small voice from behind. It was Kelli, a fellow survivor. "How are you holding up?" Her eyes sparkled with sympathy.

He returned his gaze to the ruined city out the window.
"I've been better, why?" He said a little too sharply.
"Well, I think I have a right to worry, you have been a little secluded lately."

"I just need some time alone." He didn't mean it. He really wanted her company, he always felt calmer when she was around.

"Alright, just checking in on you." His eyes skirt hers. He never noticed how pretty she was. Maybe he never took the time to think about things like that. Thomas quickly grabs Kelli's wrist.

"Wait! Can you just stay a while, please?" He wanted her to just stay and support him.

"Of course, I'll stay." She slowly wiggles her wrist out of his grasp and carefully sits next to him, trying not to touch him.

"Thanks." For a while they just stared out the window in silence, unsure of what to say to one another, the tension slowly brewing between each other.

Suddenly, a piercing scream filled the entire building, which knocked both Kelli and Thomas out of their dazes.

They quickly dashed into the other room, toward the source of the scream. On the floor was a girl in the center of the room.

Curled in a ball, her eyes darting back and forth like someone was going to jump out and attack.

Had they found another survivor? Thomas knelt beside the girl who was now shaking. From fear, maybe?

"Hi, whats your name?" He said eventually. The stranger only let out a whimper and shifted away from him.

"Lemme try," suggested Kelli. As Kelli knelt beside the girl, the girl suddenly froze and stared back at Kelli. Thomas got an uneasy feeling, but he decided to let Kelli continue in her attempt to talk to the girl.

"My name is Kelli, what's yours?" The girl kept her eyes glued onto Kelli. She finally said: "M-my n-name is A-Ali."

"How did you get here?" she shot Thomas a worried glance. Ali slowly answered.

"Um, I was traveling around, looking for my brother, and I was ambushed by...well... I don't really know what they were...but they attacked me and they-" she points to three men in the crowd- "found me and brought me here." Ali looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

"No more questions!" boomed a voice from behind.
"Enough Jackson." Kelli answered quickly, "Yelling won't fix our problems. She's not bitten, so we treat her as an equal."
Jackson stared at Kelli for a moment.

"You trust that she isn't one of them in disguise? Or possibly she has been bitten but the symptoms haven't shown yet?" Jackson then turned and stormed out of the room.

Thomas turns to Kelli, awaiting orders.
"Resume to your daily activities, there was no need to make a fuss over the arrival of a new member of our team." Thomas could feel a grin spreading across his face. Kelli always knew how to take charge.

"Get her a fresh pair of clothes, Jeryn. See if we have another bed available." says Kelli as she stands up and heads towards Thomas.

"You got it. Make yourself comfortable, Ali. Cause we're stuck here till the infected leave our area." Jeryn says, helping Ali to her feet.
Kelli turned back to Thomas.

"She can't be more than ten. Do you think she was hallucinating or telling the truth?" Thomas pondered on this thought for a minute.

"I don't know." Thomas says truthfully. "Come on, I don't believe we finished our conversation." Says Kelli as she grabs Thomas's hand. Thomas silently follows Kelli back to the window.

"So, where were we?" She begins.
"Well," he starts, inching closer to her, ever so slightly, "I don't really remember." He says, a hint of amusement hidden in his voice.

"Neither do I. Let me start then: Thomas, are you okay? I know this isn't easy on you." Thomas's eyes lift to hers. They are a golden brown.

They fit her perfectly.

"Um, I'm fine...now that your here..." The sentence quickly snapped Thomas back into reality. "Um, I mean..." He stuttered.

"It's fine, don't sweat it." After that they just sit and stare at each other, for too long.

Thomas has never felt so comfortable around someone before. He hadn't noticed but at some point their hands had intertwined with one another.
"Should we get back to the others?" asked Kelli, breaking the silence.

"Yeah we better stay alert." answered Thomas as he stood up akwardly.

As they were walking, loud voices could be heard down the hall. They both stopped dead in their tracks.

From the sound of things, a struggle had broken out. A warning suddenly boomed out over the speakers saying:

"Backup needed in zone three.

Infection warning: zombies have breached the interior.

Gather what you can and evacuate."

Thomas and Kelli ran towards the struggle, as they did they stopped to see a blonde girl wandering around.

"Emma?" Kelli froze where she was, not daring to move. "Where are the others?" Kelli asked earnestly.
Thomas still couldn't identify the girl.

"They...um...I was the only one who made it back. Zombies attacked our camp. I was a part of the search party sent out to look for Brianna."

Thomas suddenly couldn't breathe, he leaned on the nearest wall for support. How is Emma the only survivor? There were at least a hundred people in that search party!

"Did you find my sister? Is she safe?" Those were the only words Thomas could find. "We located Brianna. She wouldn't come back with us. We tried. She refused. She was staying with a bunch of half-infected on the outskirts of the city."

Emma's light, ocean blue eyes glistened with sympathy.

"Oh." Thomas answered dryly. Kelli quickly stepped up, "I'm sorry, Thomas. We will get your sister back, but right now, we need to keep moving. Emma, just stick with us and you'll be fine. I may send you to get supplies, this building isn't safe anymore, come on, Thomas."

Thomas followed, still repeating the conversation in his mind. She was alive! Thats all that matters now.

They continued to go down the hallways only to find the place completely deserted.

"Okay, Emma go meet up with Jeryn and Jackson. They are probably leading a group out the side entrance as we speak. Thomas, we need to search this floor for supplies, and check for any stragglers." Emma quickly took off down a hallway, toward the exit.

"C'mon, there's bound to be something useful that we can take with us. We better hurry, though." Kelli was searching the remains of a door for anything useful during the evacuation.

"Let's go, there's nothing that I think would be useful. See anyone?" Thomas quickly scans the bunker they were in.

There were no survivors, or zombies...Good.

"No. Let's get out of here before the infected return." They trudge out of the side entrance and then made their way towards a small group of survivors.

"How many made it out?" Kelli asked, scanning the crowd.

"Only the ones who were strong enough to get the door open." answered Jackson.

"Did you find any supplies? You know, stuff that we need to survive?" Kelli snapped at him.

"We found a couple of boxes of food, some first-aid supplies and small survival kits." Jeryn replied.

"Everything else had been broken or taken by the infected." Thomas scanned over the crowd. "There has to be about-" He looked over the group once more. "Fifteen or twenty survivors."

"Yeah, some of them didn't hear the warning fast enough, or they ran around trying to get supplies or they got trampled by the crowd trying to get out." Jeryn says.

Emma walked up to them. "There has been a medical tent set up on the right. And small tents set up over to the left and small amounts of food is being distributed to everyone."

Kelli turned to look at the tents. "You find somewhere for Ali?"

Thomas looked at Jackson and Jeryn.

They were having some sort of mental conversation.

You tell her.

No, you.

It was your job.

It seemed that Jackson had won.

"Uh, well, as we were on our way out, we were pushed into a crowd and got separated. The last I saw of her was when she went under my line of vision." Jeryn said.

Kelli slowly turned around to face Jeryn. "So she is gone?"

"Yes." Jeryn answered slowly.
Jackson scoffed. "She must have been a spy...or something."

"We need a search party." Kelli said urgently.

"The last one didn't turn out so good. What if she refuses like Brianna?" Jackson scoffs, and that makes Thomas's heart hurt.

Why would Brianna want to leave him?

"Look." Kelli pointed a finger at Jackson. "Even if you don't want to, she is probably one of the youngest here. And I'm not leaving her behind " Kelli turned and looked at the doors.

In the door something was getting larger.

"All forces to frontline. Infected. Wait for my command." Kelli yelled.

But as the zombie got closer to the light Thomas saw it had tan skin and blonde hair. Thomas squinted to try to see what it was. He realized as Kelli started running towards it.

"Fall back!" Kelli shouted. She reached the thing and knelt down. Having a conversation, Kelli helped it towards camp.

"How?" Jackson gasped.

"How did Ali survive?"

"I don't know..."

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