“Please don’t stay here! Think of Taylor!” Ryan begs Myriad.

“I am! We’ll make more noise and run out of food faster than two people. I’ll stay to buy time.” Myriad says.

I hug Myriad, “I love you, Momma,” I whisper.
She hugs back, “I love you too, Taylor,” Ryan kisses Myriad’s cheek. “ I love you too, Ryan.” She smiles.

They exchange goodbyes and another ‘I love you’ and Ryan and I leave. We ran quietly and caught up to the others. Which only took us a minute. I heard Myriad scream from behind us. Then it was quiet a few minutes later, except us running. We heard something in the trees some time later.

“They can’t climb trees… right?” Missy whispered nervously. There was low growling. I snarled quietly.

Suddenly, three zombies jump down in front of us from the trees. I recognized the one in the middle, it was Myriad! “Momma…” I whispered sadly. Then I saw two bites on her arm, those two zombies had infected her!

Next thing I knew, the left and right zombies were dead. Myriad came closer to me… I couldn't move. Then she went down, Ryan had shot Myriad. He looted ammo from Myriad's body, crying. I cried too and hugged Ryan.

“Anyone wanna say anything?” Ryan asks.

“I’ll miss you, momma. I love you,” I say sadly to my dead motherly figure.

“And I’ll miss you too, dear Myriad. I also love you,” Ryan says, wiping his tears away.

“I’ll miss you too, Myriad. You were like a sister to me,” Missy says. A few other people say goodbye and we continue on our journey.

When we got to the safehouse, no one said a word. We went in and went to our assigned rooms. I hide under the blankets and sob.

I hear the door creak open a while later. “Taylor?” I heard Missy say.

I peek out from under the blankets, “Yes?” I whisper.

“Dinner. Also, I’m sorry for almost shooting you,” Missy says softly.

“It’s okay,” I say. I noticed she wasn’t covered up in her guard outfit. I study her features.

She had brown eyes, light brown skin and curly black hair.

“Well? You gonna eat?” Missy asks.

“Oh! Yeah!” I say.

We go downstairs to eat.