The three people are zombies. The woman zombie makes a break for the stairwell. I'm out of bullets. I need to get her away from the kids. I run across the hall.

I grab the zombie by the hair and pull her back. I stab her in the neck. Karla and Sarah are fighting the other two. Once the zombie is dead, I take her gun. I check the clip.

The gun only has three bullets. I check her pockets and find two more bullets. I get behind the wall again. I see one of the zombies on top of Karla. I shoot it in the head. Sarah kills the last one with a crowbar. I open the door to the stairwell.

"It's safe," I say.

Karla leads us to her apartment. She sits on the couch. I walk into the kitchen. I open one of the cabinets. It's full. When Karla isn't looking, I take a few cans of food. It's not like I'm stealing all of it.

"Did Karla say you could take that?" Jake asks.

"Don't let her hear you! No, she didn't, but she promised us food. She's not even going to notice," I whisper.

"You could've just asked, you know?" Karla says.

"Thanks a lot, Jake," I say.

Karla takes a bunch of stuff out of the cabinets.

"You can have everything that is on the counters, everything else is mine," she says.

A large pile of cans, boxes, and water bottles are on the counter. It'll last us maybe three weeks. I start putting the supplies in my bag. Sarah is outside on the balcony with Clarissa. In a few minutes we'll all leave.

I get all the supplies packed and ready to go. Sarah and Karla are talking on the balcony. I open the sliding glass door.

"What's going on out here?" I ask. Karla points to a building in the distance.

"That's where the group has your people," Karla says.

"Could we rescue them ourselves?" I ask.

"No way. That place has several people on watch at all times," Karla says.

"Have you checked the other floors of this building for weapons, ammo, or anything like that?" I ask.

"Every floor except the one below this one," she says.

"Then let's go check it. It might not be totally empty," I say turning back towards the sliding door.

Karla grabs my arm to stop me.

"Wait, there is a reason I haven't gotten around to checking it...it's infested with the dead," she says.

"Which means that maybe it isn't as picked clean as every other place in this city. How long has it been infested?"

"Since the start of the apocalypse," Karla replies.

"I'll help you, Jade," Sarah says.

Karla takes us to the floor. I put on a bulletproof vest that I found a couple hours ago. It might not withstand zombie teeth, but it will stop a bullet if one of the zombies has a gun.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Karla asks.

Not really, but I need to do this. I nod.
She opens the door. Sarah and I step in. The walls are covered in blood. It smells like rotting flesh. The zombies look awful. Their bones are sticking out. Some are sitting against the wall and can barely reach their arms towards us.

I have my machete. I drive the tip of the blade through the skull of one that's lying on the floor. These zombies must have not have eaten at all.
I open the door to one of the rooms. A female zombie is tied to the radiator. She growls at me.

I'm surprised none of the zombies have tried to act like normal people. I stab the female zombie through the chest. Her eyes close.

I go into the kitchen. I check the cabinets. I come up empty. I check the bathroom. The closet has a few towels. I take them. If someone is bleeding these will help to stop it. I check the medicine cabinet. I find gauze and antibiotics. I go back into the hall.

Sarah screams. I run into the room she is in. Zombies follow me slowly. Sarah is on the floor with a zombie on top of her. Three more are moving towards her.

I stab the zombie, on Sarah, through the head. I stab the other three. I turn back towards the door. Five zombies are almost in the doorway. I slam the door shut. I notice the door handle is gone. Who would remove that?

The zombies push on the door. It doesn't take much force to hold it closed. I scan the room for either a way out or something to hold the door.

"Sarah, find something to block the door!" I say to her.

She goes into the kitchen and comes back with a small lightweight shelf.

"Do you have anything heavier?" I ask.

"No," she says.

I slide the coffee table in front of the door. It's a bit heavier than the shelf.

"Get ready," I say.

"For what?" She asks.

"I'm going to let them in. They are slow, we can kill them," I say.

I jump over the coffee table. The door opens. Zombies stumble inside. One trips over the coffee table like I intended. I stab the one on the floor. Sarah kills two. Soon all of them are dead. We search the rest of the floor. Karla opens the door to her apartment for us.

"You made it," she says.

"The zombies down there are starving," I say.

"So? You want me to throw a rabbit down there for them?" She says sarcastically.

"They are slow and weak when they aren't fed. We can use this to our advantage," I say.

"Did you find anything good?" She asks.

"A few guns, ammo, and some food," I say.

I take off the vest. The others are talking on the balcony.

"Jade! You need to see this!" Jake yells.

I run to the balcony. I look down. Four cars all with skulls painted on the hoods are driving towards the building. I've seen these cars before. When Sam and I were headed up to Derek's group, we saw a few trucks with skulls on them.

Karla rushes inside. She grabs a duffel bag. She stuffs all of the supplies that are in the kitchen in the bag.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"We need to go now! Those people are the ones who took your friends. They are coming to get the rest of you," Karla says. "Don't just stand there, help me,"

I grab a bag and start loading supplies into it. Karla opens the front door. She turns to the right and walks down the hall. Sarah follows after her. I am still in the room.

I'm not going to blindly follow this stranger. She could very well still be working with this group.

"What are we doing here, Jade?" Alex asks.

"We are going our own way," I say.

I turn to the left. I walk towards the fire escape. I open the window. We climb out. All of us sprint down the fire escape. We reach the ground. Karla and Sarah run past us. One of the cars is driving towards us.

We have no choice but to follow Karla. As I'm running I take a look behind us. Those people aren't following us anymore. Karla opens the door to a gift shop. The windows are boarded up.

"In here," she says. "We need to find a place that we can stay in for the rest of the day," I say.

I pull out a map.

"There is a grocery store not too far from here. It would be a good place to stay for a few days," I say.

"Sounds like a plan," Karla says.

I step outside then look around. No one in sight.
We move at a steady pace. I have my gun in my hand just in case we run into someone. I can see the store in the distance. I see something run across the roof. Whether it's a zombie or not, I can't tell.

After a few minutes of walking, we reach the front door. I look up at the roof. I don't see anything now. I open the door. We step inside. Karla blocks the door with a shelf. I can't see anything. I turn on my flashlight. A pack of zombies stare at us. They growl, ready to attack.