#leark

She felt guilty about it, she really did, but truth be told, the end of the world was the best thing to ever happen to Elyza Lex.

Life in the Old World, as people had taken to calling it, hadn’t been that great. Parents dead at thirteen (car crash), jumping from foster home to foster home until she finally found a permanent bed at juvie at three years later (how was she supposed to know the property damage would be that high?), life had been a crap shoot for Elyza. No family, no friends, and just a new trial to officially charge her as an adult when she turned eighteen to look forward towards, Elyza had spent her days in a blur of working out, skipping classes, and making out with her inmates (dating wasn’t allowed at the facility, but when you were a lesbian and could fuck your bunk mate, dating wasn’t all that hard). 

It had been a semi-pleasant blur that had been interrupted when the last adult, an older guy who had worked in the cafeteria and always given her a little extra food for free, opened their cells and told them to run.

Most hadn’t listened to him. They had all heard the news, all knew that the world was tumbling down around them, that whatever disease was spreading was turning everyone outside the walls of their prison into monsters. They thought, if they stayed inside, they would be safe. The biters/walkers/risen/whatever name people had chosen for the creatures wouldn’t be able to get inside, wouldn’t be able to hurt them, and they’d be ok. All they had to do was wait until the military cleaned everything up, a cure was found, and then it’d be over. They had enough food, they had reasoned, for six months, and by then it would all be over.

Elyza had followed the cafeteria man, stopping by the kitchen to grab the largest knives she could find and the abandoned guard post to grab a night stick before walking out through the front doors with him and a few others into chaos.  

She was glad she did, because when her path took her back by the prison just a few weeks later, it was overrun. The faces of the infected- some she had known, others she had never seen before- had pressed themselves against the chain link fence, their hands grasping for her, teeth clicking as they made it clear they wanted her flesh. No one who had stayed had survived within the walls, that much was clear.

She found her old bunk mate, slide her knife through her eye, and then left.

The first few weeks had been the most interesting, to say the least. Cain, the old man who had freed them, had tried to keep them together, keep them in a group. Safety in numbers and all that jazz. People who could watch your back, who could carry more food and water, who could keep a look out for the infected while you slept- it all sounded good in theory and on paper. But Elyza knew why a good number of those kids had been in juvie, and there was no way she was closing her eyes or turning her back with them there.

So she left. She took her things, scavenged through some houses nearby for some extra clothes, water containers, anything else should find to make her trip easier, and set off on her own.  

Her initial plan had been to head out of the city, to find a secluded little spot to wait out what was going on, and then return when it seemed like civilization was starting up again. Maybe with a new name, maybe not- people would think her dead with the rest of the delinquents that had been left in the prison, and the chance at a fresh start had been tempting. But getting out of the city had been harder than she expected- military everywhere, shooting anything that moved, infected or not. Infected where there wasn’t military, slow but in thick bunches that made trying to get past them too dangerous. Plus food and clear water were already scarce in the city- how much worse would it be outside of it?

No. The quickest way, Elyza realized, to get things back to some semblance of normal before got the hell out of dodge was to stay, to fight, and prepare herself for the what waited.

So she learned. She watched from afar through stolen binoculars as the military rolled through major streets, shooting their guns wildly into the crowds of infected to clear them out. Most got back up again, she noticed, but some stayed down. She later tested her theory for herself- most blows only knocked them down, but kill the brain and you killed the infection.

She learned not to get bitten or hurt. Obvious knowledge, but still useful. She watched as a crowd descended upon an old man- there were too many for her to kill, especially with just her knives and stick, and she wanted to help him but couldn’t. So she watched- watched as one caught up, watched as one sank its teeth into his arm. Watched as the old man pushed it off, got free, fled from the scene, only to sink to his knees a few streets later, convulsing wildly before succumbing to his wound, only to rise again a few minutes later as one of them. So no bites, no wounds of any kind if she could help it.

She learned how to scavenge, how to find those secret little spots people always over looked for some extra supplies. Bandages, neosporin, extra food and water and everything else she would need. She even found weapons, guns that she quickly loaded and kept loaded, giant walking sticks that she took with her to club the infected with until the sticks broke and she needed a new one. More knives to add to her quickly growing collection that was quickly getting out of hand, not that she minded.

She learned how to survive in those first few weeks, and she used that knowledge to keep herself alive. Even when the nights she went to bed starving outweighed the nights she went to bed with her belly full, even when she longed for a bath because she reeked of death and rot, even when she wasn’t quite sure what she sounded like anymore, Elyza kept herself alive.

She kept herself alive, and planned on doing so until everything was sorted out and she could finally just live.

And then this girl had to go and throw a wrench into her plans.  

For the last half hour Elyza had watched her run through the streets, yelling out for someone named “Nick,” fighting when she had to and ignoring the infected when the path was clear, completely unaware of the pack she was pulling towards her with every noise she made. From her perch on one of the higher houses, Elyza could see everything clearly.

Part of her wanted to just turn away- she had watched enough people die in the last few weeks, and if she had tried to save all of them, she would have quickly died with them. But this girl… she could save her. It was so clear. All she had to do was get to one of the side streets before the girl passed by, grab her, drag her onto a roof, and get away from the slowly growing mob following after her. It would be simple, easy, something she could easily do.

Cursing herself under her breath, Elyza slid down from her post, drew out one of her larger knives, and set off running. Even if it hadn’t been so easy, she would have gone after the girl- something inside her demanded it, and damn it, she wanted someone to talk to again.

Everything went according to plan. The girl was fast, yes, but she was faster, and she knew the terrain better as well. Within just a bit, she was positioned at the corner, watching as the girl ran towards her still yelling for whoever this ‘Nick’ guy was, completely unaware of the danger following behind. When she just came into reach, Elyza reached out, grabbed her by her plaid shirt, and pulled her in, pressing the knife to her throat as she whispered soothing sounds into her ear.

“Don’t say a word,” Elyza whispered, her voice hoarse after so long of not using it. “Don’t say a word, just do what I tell you, and the infected won’t find us.”

The girl was smart, Elyza would give her that at least, for all she did after a moment was nod and force herself to relax, allowing Elyza to remove the knife from her throat and jerk her head down towards the back of the alley.

“This way,” Elyza whispered, motioning for the girl to follow after, a small sigh of relief escaping her when the girl did without arguing. For a few minutes they walked in silence, reaching the stacking of crates and boxes Elyza had used to get to the ground in the first place. Motioning for the girl to go first, Elyza quickly followed up after her, the two of them clambering onto the safety of the roof top.

“Who the fuck are you, and why did you just kidnap me?”

Elyza laughed. She honestly couldn’t help it- all of the people she had met during the last few weeks had been scared, quiet, barely seeming to even be human anymore, but this one? This one was still alive, vibrant, an exciting twist Elyza hadn’t been expecting.

Perhaps saving this girl was a better choice than she had thought.

“Look over there,” Elyza said, tugging the binoculars out of her jacket pocket and handing them to the girl, motioning over towards where they had just been, “and see for yourself.”

Even without the binoculars, the hoard was easy to see. Twenty, maybe thirty infected were slowly rambling along, filling up the street the two of them had just been walking down. None of them turned towards the alley, none of them seemed to realize there were there, but even so the girl next to her went pale, her breath catching in her throat for a moment before she lowered the binoculars and looked over. Offering a small smile, Elyza held out her hand for the tool, her smile widening as the girl smiled back.

“Looks like I owe you, don’t I,” the girl said, though her question was more of a statement. One Elyza shrugged off, reaching over to pat the girl’s shoulder instead.

She found it interestingly hard to remove her hand, though she did after a moment. Dehydration, she decided, shaking her head a moment later, letting her hand fall into her lap. That was all.

“Not really,” Elyza said with a shrug, both to her comment and the weird feeling earlier. “It wasn’t hard to save you, so no big deal. We’ll wait here for an hour or so, and then you can go on your way, trying to find…” She trailed off, letting the girl next to her fill in the blank.

“My brother, Nick,” she replied, shaking her head to get some hair of her face- a beautiful face, Elyza quickly decided. “He’s a stupid son of a bitch, but I have to find him. Either way.”

“If he’s anything like you but quieter,” Elyza joked, he’ll be fine. Holding out her hand, she smiled at the girl, waiting for her to take it. “Elyza Lex, by the way.”

“Alicia Clark,” Alicia responded a moment later, taking her hand and shaking it.

It was a long moment before either let go, and when they did, it was almost reluctant.

“Sorry,” Alicia said, an almost blush appearing on her cheeks. “I must really be tired.”

“Like I said,” Elyza replied, “we have an hour before we can get down. Take a nap?”

“I think I will,” Alicia said thankfully, removing her shirt, bunching it up under her head as a pillow. “Wake me when it’s clear, ok?”

“Ok.”

It was two hours before the coast was clear, two hours of Elyza playing with her knife, double checking that both guns were fully loaded (though facing away from the girl. The moment she had pulled out her gun, an alarm had gone off in her head, a terrible fear had struck her, almost causing her to throw her weapon away. What a weird reaction to having a gun near someone who couldn’t use it, though she had quickly shrugged it off), and, honestly, watching the girl, Alicia, sleep.

Two hours of thinking, and when she finally woke her up, Elyza had decided upon what was quite possibly the stupidest decision of her life (even including the one that had ended with her in juvie).

“I’m going to help you find your brother,” she said the moment Alicia was fully awake, “and if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to stick around for a while. It’d be a shame if a pretty face like yours got hurt.”

The half smile, half glare, and full blush that covered Alicia’s cheeks was enough of an answer for her.