The group of teenagers looked around the circle, all complete strangers to one another. They had all gotten here in different ways, from different backgrounds. But they were all united under one common goal: to survive. As far as they knew, everyone over the age of 20 was gone. The adults were mindless zombies now, their only purpose to kill the people who they once cared about. All that was left in this area was a small group of twelve teenagers, gathered together by a 24 year old named Ash. Ash was 5'11", with long white hair and blue eyes. The fact that she was over 20 had gained her instant respect, seeing as she wasn't infected. None of the teenagers really knew much about her, except for the fact that she had some sort of military background. At least, that's what they assumed. She had both fighting and first aid experience, and seemed to wear a lot of combat clothing. But Ash's life story wasn't the point of their meeting. Ash was finally introducing them to each other, before they began working on the base. They were currently stationed at an office building, which was surrounded by a chain link fence. It would do, for now. So they sat, silent, around a conference table. Clearing her throat, Ash stood up from her seat.
"As you all know, my name is Ash. It appears that we are the last survivors of the zombie outbreak. Now, if we're going to work together as a team, we need to know each other. Just say a few words about yourself. We'll go counterclockwise". She glanced to her right, motioning to the 18 year old girl to stand up. "Why don't you start, uh . . .".
"Marley," the brunette replied, standing up. She was wiry, standing only at 5'4". However, her hazel eyes glinted with intelligence, and she seemed to know how to use the baseball bat in her hand. "My name is Marley. It's short for Marlene, but I will hit you if you call me that. I'm a survivalist. Basically, I've been preparing for this for awhile. Next". She sat back down, not saying another word. The next girl stood up, waving shyly.
"Hi, I'm Lilly, and I'm 17. I do karate and I like tinkering with things," the short teen replied, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. Her green eyes flitted around the group, full of nervousness. After standing there for a few seconds, she sat back down. And so it continued, with the other ten teenagers all standing up to speak. There was Jon, a tall 16 year old with brown hair and grey eyes. His family had owned a farm, before the apocalypse happened. Serena was a tall, 16 year old girl with blond hair. She had come from a Pagan village, and carried two swords that she had been trained to fight with. Jaden, a small, 11 year old boy, came from that same village. However, he had worked in the crop fields, and brought his own hoe from home. Hudson, a large African-American teen, was 17. His parents were doctors and he loved woodshop and welding. There was also Ujani, a short 19 year old girl with auburn hair. She said that she had gotten a full ride scholarship to wrestle at a private college. Luciel, an 18 year old albino boy, had been planning to become a doctor. One of his hobbies was MMA fighting, although he said that he wasn't too good. Delilah, a 17 year old girl with brown hair and green eyes, said she didn't really have any hobbies. She had a garden in her backyard, and had previously worked at a junkyard. Mariel was a 15 year old girl with bright ginger hair. Her dad was a mechanic and her mom took care of the community vegetable garden. There was another Jaden as well, except this one was an 18 year old girl. She had long brown hair and bright blue eyes. She had said that she was a volunteer at the local hospital, and that she did kickboxing to stay fit. Finally, there was Storm, an extremely tall, mixed race girl. She was 17, and had a job at a strawberry farm. Ash looked around, feeling pleased. This was the group. Now, it was time to get to work.
"Okay, now, we need to get building. Who here knows anything about construction?" she asked, looking around. Slowly, Hudson raised his hand, looking around awkwardly. Ash smiled, nodding. "Good. Okay, Hudson, can you lead everyone in strengthening the fence? The zombies can climb over pretty easily right now". Marley raised her hand, tapping on her leg with the other.
"Excuse me, but we need material for that. Where are we going to get the wood?" she asked. Mariel and Delilah nodded, murmuring their agreement.
"We need to send out patrols, too," Serena added, gripping her swords tightly, "that's what we did at my village. It helps keep threats away".
"It's true," Jaden agreed, looking up at Ash, "it worked pretty well. We should do that". Ujani, who was leaning back in her chair, stood up.
"We need weapons, to defend ourselves," she said, motioning to Serena, Marley, and Ash. "Serena has her swords, Marley has her bat, and Ash has her axe. But what about the rest of the people who need to patrol?".
"We could make some weapons," Lilly suggested, fiddling with something on the table, "you know, like bats and stuff. Right?". Mariel shook her head, pointing at Hudson.
"I don't know about you, but I need supplies to build things," she said, motioning around the room. "Does anyone see any supplies?".
"None at all," Delilah replied, running a hand through her hair, "so what are we going to do?".
"You're forgetting about the most important thing," Jon argued, standing up, "food. We need to be able to farm food. I have some seeds, and we could use the dirt parking lot as a field. It'd take work, though, and supplies".
"Maybe we should just risk it, and go outside with barely any weapons. We need supplies for everything. Farming tools, barriers, weapons," Jaden suggested, frustrated. "I know kickboxing, I'm sure some people in here can fight as well". A few other kids nodded, agreeing with her.
"No! Are you guys crazy?! You'll get yourselves killed!" Luciel shouted, red eyes blazing. He glanced around, before motioning outside of the conference room. "If you go through with this, I'll have to convert the entire building into an infirmary".
"But you'd need supplies for that," Storm argued. Luciel glared at her, causing her to raise her hands in surrender. "Just saying".
"Maybe we should all calm down . . ." Hudson began, before being cut off by loud arguing. Marley stood up, slamming her bat down on the table.
"HEY! Everyone, just shut the hell up!" she shouted, before starting to walk away. "Now, follow me. I have a solution". Warily, the kids followed her, glancing nervously at each other. The group headed out the door, following Marley to a rusty truck. Jumping in the bed, she turned around to face them. "I'm a survivalist, remember? I planned for this. This is my car". They watched silently, as Marley started pulling things out. "Three spears, a hoe, and another baseball bat". Thinking a bit, she reached into her waistband and pulled out a pistol. "Oh yeah, I have this too". Jaden let out a small shriek, before ducking behind Serena.
"Dude, it's just a gun. Chill out," Ujani scoffed, crossing her arms. "Seriously, get used to it. This is survival". She walked up to the truck, preparing to grab one of the weapons. Some of the other teenagers followed her, murmuring quietly.
"Hey, no. Everyone back up," Marley ordered, blocking the pile of weapons. "We have some business to establish first".
"What?" Jaden asked, looking up expectantly, "I thought we covered everything". The others nodded, wanting to get out of the cold.
"Look, we have so many different things to get done, that we can't all work on the same thing," Marley began, still holding the pistol, "I think we should all split up into different jobs".
"She makes a good point," Jon agreed, looking around at the different kids. "I, for one, would be useless at fighting anything. Farming, though, I would be perfect for". He looked over to Marley, nodding with respect. "I'd like to be a permanent farmer, if everyone is okay with that. We could use two more, but that's it". Serena nudged Jaden, pushing him towards the front of the crowd.
"Me too," the young boy mumbled quietly, gripping his hoe tightly. Ash nodded, looking over at Storm.
"I think we're all fine with that. What about you, Storm? Didn't you work on a farm?" she asked. "Do you want to be the third farmer?".
"Sure, whatever," Storm replied, shrugging nonchalantly, "I don't care". Ash sighed with disapproval, before looking up at Marley. The survivalist was grinning, obviously amused by Storm's attitude. 'Of course. The person with the most leadership qualities appreciates rebellious streaks,' Ash thought tiredly. Running a hand through her hair, she looked back at the group of teenagers.
"Okay, so we have our farmers. Maybe some fighters too, since patrolling is one of our priorities?" she suggested, trying to offer helpful ideas. Thankfully, a few of them also caught on.
"Yes. We should have some builders also," Mariel said, voice monotone. She rarely showed any emotion, Ash noticed. It wasn't really a problem, but it made it hard to know what the ginger was thinking.
"We need healers, since the lot of you are going to go get yourselves killed," Luciel huffed. He crossed his arms with annoyance, mouth tightened in disapproval. Ash rolled her eyes, fighting back a smile. She would never say it out loud, but his sassy anger was only amusing to her. He wasn't the most threatening, especially when Hudson was towering over him.
"Scavengers. We need people to go out and actually get supplies. With all of these projects, we need a lot of material," Delilah added. Everyone nodded, voicing their agreement. They barely had anything to work with, so they really needed supplies.
"Alright, I think that's everything," Marley said, slinging her bag of weapons over her shoulder. She jumped out of the truck, then motioned to the office building. "Let's get to work".