Axel had already started up the car by the time I reached outside. I got in and saw Chic sleeping in the backside.

"Shotgun."Axel said, smiling at me.

I smiled back weakly. Even though I was incredibly stressed amd anxious, I could still feel the tell tale butterflies erupting in my stomach. Ugh . Screw him and his pretty face.

We had been driving around for sometime , when Axel broke the silence.

"What about ammunition? Those horrifying people are totally crazy."

"I left my bow at Cherry's house. "

He looked at me like I had said something stupid.

"I am talking about real ammunition- like guns. How are we supposed to protect ourselves from those, those..."

He trailed off probably searching for the right word.

"I am not shooting anybody." I yelled at him. " I am a peaceful, non violent person, who ..."

"Just bashed the brains out of some guy."interrupted Axel.

I knew I had killed the man last night and that thought alone made me wanna hurl. But even though he looked like a man, his eyes were lifeless and unnerving. He didn't look alive to me. More like a dead person walking, like all the life had seeped out from him. Like he was beyond saving. I found solace in that thought. Also his mottled skin had been decomposing- he would have died soon in enough. I just killed him in self defense.

"Nell."he looked at me. "Those guys -or zombies-whatever they are, attacked Cherry and look how that turned out. I don't know what is wrong with them, but clearly, they have lost their minds."

"Whatever." I said. "Where will you get the guns from? You can't just buy them."

Axel bit his lip.

"I will figure something out"he said.

I looked out of the window again, thinking about Tess. How was she? I tried calling my parents again but there was no answer.

Axel whistled. "Phew! Check this out!"

I raised my head from my phone and saw that we were near the city hospital. There was a huge crowd outside the hospital. There were patients being brought in, anxious family members hovering nearby and a crowd of news vans. It was a complete pandemonium.

Axel had stopped the car and was glancing back to see if Chic was awake. Miraculously, the kid was still sleeping despite the commotion outside.

We were just sitting in the car when I spotted a familiar mass of wavy red hair. I opened the car door and jumped out.

"Ana!" I yelled, not caring about anything else, pushing and shoving people aside to get to her."Ana!"

I engulfed her in an enormous bear hug.
She looked at me with her bog blue eyes and smiled.

"Hello to you too."