The Closed Door

Keanu and I scattered away from the door, and Keanu was blocking me with his arm. River raised his empty gun and motioned for us to step way out of the way.

He raised his bandana so that no one could see his face, except for his eyes. He took a deep breath, then stepped into it. The door went flying in, leaving a gaping, broken hole where the handle used to be.

There were screams from inside. They sounded female, but I couldn't be sure.

"DON'T SHOOT!" River demanded. He sounded terrifying. He burst through the door, empty gun pointed inside.

"Mercy! Mercy, please!" Someone from inside screamed, pleading with River.

"Put your weapons on the floor!" River snarled. I heard the clatter of guns on the ground, and someone whimpered. River looked back at us and nodded his head.

Tentatively, Keanu stepped forward, holding my arm. He nudged me to raise my gun.

We walked into the apartment, the same as all the others, bare and no distinguishing marks. There were two girls standing there, holding each other. Their weapons were on the floor at their feet. One of them was in tears.

"Who are you, what are you doing in this apartment?" River barked.

"We were--we were hiding from the dead!" Cried the older of the two. "This door was open. We found it last night!"

"If this is your place, we'll leave," the younger whimpered.

"It's not our place, but we live here. How did you get in?"

"Through the front,"

"The front is overrun by the dead," Keanu jumped in, his eyebrow raising, "You mean to say two girls took out that mass of walkers in one run?"

"There's three of us," the older said shakily, "She's in the other room."

"Get her," River commanded, pointing at the younger one and motioning to the other room with his gun. "Now!"

She cast a scared look to the other girl before hurrying off and knocking on the bedroom door.

"What's your name?" River pressed on, not dropping his act or lowering his gun with no bullets.

"Gillian," the girl said immediately, looking around as if trying to find something to hold now that the other girl was gone.

"Who's the other girl?"

"Kim. We call her KK,"

"And you got here last night? How? Why here?"

"The building we were in got overrun. This group tried to take it over, and we got out before they could. We just stopped in the first building we saw, I swear...,"

River put down his gun and looked back to us. There was a moment of silence. Keanu nodded and stepped forward.

"We're just concerned is all. We have a safe place holed up here. No one knows about us. We didn't mean to scare you, we just--"

"Keanu?"

Keanu looked in the direction of the bedroom, where Kim had gotten the other survivor. There was a tall, thin, blonde girl wrapped in a towel.

Keanu laughed and looked relieved.

"Victoria!?"

Victoria ran at Keanu and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist.

"Victoria! I thought you were overrun by the walkers!"

"No, I got out! Kim and Gillian saved me, they took me here!"

Keanu spun her around, her legs wrapping tightly around his waist. She threaded her hands into his hair and met him in a kiss. It made me uncomfortable to watch.

I took a side step toward River while the two devoured each other.

River pulled his bandana down and shot me a look of disbelief and rolled his eyes. I returned it, wanting very much to gag. This PDA was almost more vomit-inducing than sewing Samantha's leg.

What is this? Jealousy? For shame, Charlie.

"Reeves, knock it off," I finally growled lowly.

Keanu put Victoria down and quickly linked their fingers together. They gazed at each other lovingly and it made me want to roll my eyes so hard to the ceiling.

I really should have been happy that two lovers found each other alive and well in the midst of an apocalypse, but perhaps it was the change in Keanu's demeanor that threw me off. He suddenly wasn't taking the strangers seriously anymore, and River didn't have bullets.

That left me to have to decide if these people were trustworthy.

"How many walkers have you killed?" I finally asked, hoping to focus everything again.

"I lost count," Gillian answered, "We killed at least thirty coming in here as is, so definitely more than seventy total."

"Yeah, I'd say maybe twenty for me," Kim answered.

I turned to Victoria and tried to interrupt her from talking Keanu's ear off.

"How many walkers have you killed?"

"--And then these men with guns came in, oh Keanu, I was so scared!"

"Oh, you must have been so brave. I'm sorry, honey--"

"How many effing walkers have you killed?!" I shouted, clicking my gun.

River grabbed my shoulder to steady me. Victoria gave me a fearful yet disgusted look.

"I don't know," she said coolly, "Why don't you put your gun down and ask again?"

"Why don't you pay attention the first time I asked, or I can send your sorry behind back on the street, huh?"

"Charlie," River whispered in my ear.

I don't know what came over me. I was just upset that Keanu found a person he loved in all this chaos, where I had a feeling deep in my gut that I would never see someone I loved again. Personally, I felt that I had a right to be both upset, and be taken seriously.

"How many people have you killed?" I pressed on, teeth set. I took a deep breath to focus.

"None," Kim said immediately.

"Two," Gillian answered, backing away from the gun.

"None. I could never, never kill a living person," Victoria answered.

I asked the final question, directing my focus on Gillian, who had actually taken a human life.

"Why?"

"Because one tried to kill me, and the other one asked me to," she answered honestly.

River nodded for us to discuss it in private. We stepped out in the hall.

"Should we let them?" He asked, his voice low and bandana hanging around his neck.

"Yes," Keanu said at the same time I said "no."

Keanu shot me a glare.

"What do you mean 'no?' I know Tori!"

"But do we know Gillian? Do we know Kim? Face it, Gillian killed someone who was trying to hurt her. We have limited supplies as is, plus a possibly dying girl to look after. No. We can't,"

"Are you mental?" Keanu snapped, "I'm not sending my girlfriend back out into that Hell Hole!"

"I'm just saying, think about it!"

"I did," he narrowed his eyes. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous."

"You wish, Reeves. You don't know a thing about me. You don't know a single thing."

"Maybe you're the one I shouldn't trust, then,"

He turned his back on me and walked into their apartment to tell them they could stay, leaving my jaw on the floor.

"Charlie--" River began, but I was already halfway down the stairs before he could register that I was gone.

Thanks to MysticalZombiePunk and xJizyJizx for the characters! Please note, the characters that are not included in this chapter are still going to show up, just in different ways and different times. This is the apocalypse after all 😉