Just the sake of survival.

Would you kill to survive..waste away everything you've worked for, just to save someone you barely knew? Would you make the decision of death for another human being?

I walked through the ruins of the empty ruined bar, I was slow, quiet, I couldn't risk making a single noise, behind me was my companion, this girl I met a few months ago, a young girl with an awesome shot. She can kill any threat in our way, she doesn't hesitate. I honestly don't know much about her, but she saved my ass more times than I can count by this point..I found her in a wrecked sewage system, her entire crew left her for dead..she just can't tell me why.

We walk through the ruined bar, broken glass, broken cue sticks with blood splattered on them like they were used to kill the infected… we live in a world with the undead, a decade ago some scientists out in Oregon created theses disgusting mutated “humans” they called it the “Natbakka disease” they created this sick disease by taking a bunch of rabies filled bats, and filling them with some “homemade” virus and set them free. They bite people, the person gets rabies with the disgusting foam filled mouth and passes out..a few hours later they wake up a new creature, they have a drive to infect others..but not fully to kill..they're quiet and stealthy.

We walked with our backs passed against the wall with our guns out. It feels so odd seeing a little girl, probably around 13 holding a gun, but in this world I guess it's ideal.. We kept walking, and suddenly I stepped on a piece of glass… snap out of nowhere en infected lunged over the counter and landed on me, I pushed it back with my shot pretty quick, but then the kid thankfully pushed it down and shot it in the face a few times, I swiftly flew up, but before we could even think another Natbakka came out and attacked the girl “get off me, you big fucker!” she growled, I shot the infected in the face quickly

“Kid are you alright?” I said as I pushed the Natbakka off her, I looked around to make sure nothing else would come at us.. It's clear.

“yeah I'm alright..you ok.?” she asked back her voice is cold, unaffected by what just happened.

“I'm good but let's get the hell out of here”

We walked by the bodies and made it out safely to the street. The daylight is nice and a huge improvement from bar, wet mildewy scent of the bar. We made it out a few miles east.

“Let's go check out the house, the area seems pretty safe so far, and we can hopefully find some supplies.” the kid said while pointing at a ruined house, covered in vines.

“Sounds good..” I grunted.. “kid I've been meaning to ask, what's your name.. I never got to know you”

“My name's birdie” She said whilst clinging to her backpack straps.

“And is that what you call yourself or is that what your folks choose?”

“My parents choose that”

“they must've really liked birds”

“I guess so”

We got to the abandoned house, there is no door to open, it's completely missing. Whatever.. Birdie walked confidently inside without fear of anything..

“Careful kid..I prefer you don't turn into one of those rabid beasts”

“Oh please. I'm the last person to turn, have you seen my awesome shooting skills”

“Yeah I have, thanks for saving my ass”

“No problem, I mean you saved my shit before the rats could've eaten me raw in that sewer” she said while looking around at the first floor of the house.

The house was pretty nice for being a decade into an apocalypse, some leftover dishes in the sink and a coffee table that has claw marks all over it.. I started rummaging through the cabinets in search of some supplies… I turn around, and the kid is missing, suddenly a gasp from upstairs… I ran upstairs without hesitation with my gun drawn out. Another disgusting beast is there eating the insides of another one. It's hunched over the corpse ripping out its insides, its bloody and disgusting… I grabbed birdies arm

“C'mon kid we're leaving now” I whispered as I pulled her away from the door frame.. We made it downstairs away from that mess and we got outside.

“That was fucking disgusting! I've never seen anything like that, I mean! Oh my god! That was kinda cool” the kid exclaimed when we got outside

“cool? god, you are a weird kid.." I shivered as we walked further into the town.. It was a small town without much infected in sight..

“It's starting to get dark out. I say we find a place to spend the night” I said while I looked around at the buildings surrounding us. I see a perfect one in the distance a music shop

“C'mon kid we can go sweep that music shop… It looks pretty secure from the outside.”

“Alright yeah, let's go”

We both got our guns out and made it to the building, it took some strength, but we made it inside, the first room is this beautiful room with records and CDs everywhere all over the room. Paintings of bands and a counter that has old candies on it.

“let's go check out the backroom, from the looks of it that's the other room in here..”

I nodded in agreement, and we made it to the back room, it was a huge room, pretty empty with a concrete floor and a bit of stereos for testing.

“What's that?” the girl pointed at the stereos

“It can play CDs and stuff.” I walked up to it and checked the buttons. “Oh shit, look at that kid it turned on”

Suddenly the girl shot up from the chair she was sitting on “I'm going to get a CD” she exclaimed and ran to the front part of the room, it was dark in the shop. I looked around and found a generator that I managed to power on.light. Thank god. I walked over to the other side of the room and pulled my map from my backpack. I wasn't sure where we were going. I just knew we needed to head somewhere secluded, I flattened the map and found a burner in an old box under the desk. I grabbed the canned food from my bag and set 2 canned

beans down and plugged in the burner to heat it up for the food. The girl came back with a CD, she didn't say anything and got it playing.

“The cranberries, good choice. Y'know they were my favourite growing up” I mumbled as I looked over at the map

“Hey look, they've got a song called zombies”

“yeah but it's not really about zombies” I mumbled as I circled a spot on the map

“What's it about then?” the girl asked as she brought her chair closer to the stereo and sat down

“it's a song protesting the bombing in Warrington, England.”

“Huh…” she said while idly fidgeting with her fingers." You've ever been to England?"

“No I was never too interested in going there” I said as I opened the cans with my knife and put them on the burner

“But, if you really were interested, would you go?”

“I mean, maybe when I was younger, before this world turned to shit.

“Me too.” She agreed

“How old are ya kid?”

“I'm 14, I turn 15 in 3 months, so in October.” she said while looking at the other music machines in the room

I stirred the can of beans on the burner, 14 years old in an apocalypse, must really suck.

“I'm sorry kid.”

“Nah don't be, it's not like it's your fault.”

I hummed in agreement then grabbed a cloth from my bag and wrapped it around the hot can and handed it to her

“Careful kid, it will burn you”, I got back a quick thanks, I stirred mine and took it off the stove doing the same thing. “Kid, I've gotta ask, I know it's been a few months but what happened to you in that sewer?” I hesitated a bit

“My crew left me for dead” she said between bites "I mean, I guess I was too much to carry, y’know, a burden”

“You've been doing pretty ok for me so far” I just said that because what she was saying sounded too vague, too inhumane for someone to do in the current state of the world, she was a little girl.

“Thanks” she said back, but her voice was different from England, more cold. Hesitant

For the rest of the night we ate in silence and I kept checking the map. I decided our best bet was to head up to North Dakota, sure it would be colder but more secluded, less infected, which meant less chance of getting infected. It would be a long way there considering we're all the way in Colorado, but we'll make it there, I'm sure of it. I looked over, and the kid already set up her sleeping bag. I closed the map and put it back in my bag and pulled out my sleeping bag and set it up. I got up and turned off the light.

“Night kid.”

“Night” she murmured back, eventually I closed my eyes and I tried to get some sleep, for the past decade I haven't been sleeping well. I imagined what it would be like when we made it to North Dakota, how difficult it would be to create a sheltered area, well all this thinking I fell asleep.

I shot up from my sleep. It was finally morning, I got up and decided to let the kid sleep. I started packing up our stuff and whatever I could find around. I found a portable DVD player and decided to take it just for fun. As I was kneeled down on the ground gathering all my supplies the kid awoke. “Morning kid, last night I decided we're gonna head up to North Dakota, it's pretty secluded up there so I figured it would be safer.” I grunted as I got up

“Sounds good” The girl said while packing up her things quickly. I grabbed my compass from my bag, we're going to need to be heading north, up 3 states, it's going to be pretty difficult.

We started to head out of the music shop, the street was quiet except for the sound of birds chirping all around. I checked my compass then pointed north “were headed this way.” I said as we started walking

“Sounds good to me,” the girl agreed. We kept walking in silence for a bit until we got to a huge church

“We’ll pass through here alright? Keep quiet just in case.” I said as I drew out my gun and opened the window, I hopped in, and the girl followed behind me. We ducked down behind one the pews, there was an infected up ahead, I signaled to keep going forward while I stealth killed this one. I ran up behind the beast and choked it out, I hit it a few times on the head with my gun. I set it down quietly on the ground so as to not make any noise then I caught up with the girl. We entered the back of the church and got to a room with a few infected. I grabbed my gun and signaled that we were gonna kill those beasts with bullets. The girl nodded in agreement on my command. We quickly got up and shot them in the heads, the sounds of the bodies hitting the floor made a thudding sound. They were out. We quickly made our ways to the next room and shot the three more infected in the next area.

We turned around and suddenly a huge swarm of infected appeared behind us “were leaving now” I grabbed her arm as we made our way down the hall. We got cornered. we were screwed. this was the end…i still had hope. I pulled on the girl's arm in search of an exit but she didn't budge, “kid we have to go!” I said firmly and yanked on her arm. Her eyes started to well up with tears, the hoard was approaching and quick and i didnt even know what happened to this damn kid.

“I can't go, you have to go now” she said, her voice quivering

“I'm not playing around!” I said louder and more stern.

Then the girl lifted her sleeve, her arm was all purple and blue and disgusting looking, puss all over. Her arm was all swollen and kinda bloody around the puss. “It goes all the way up,” she said quietly. I was so shocked I couldn't move.

“What is that?" I said with a stern voice.

“My crew, they injected me with some chemicals and left me. I, I don't know how long I have left to live” her voice was panicked and crying, then before either of us could even think the hoard caught up. I looked over and saw a window. I didn't think twice and pushed her toward the window. I wasn't gonna let her die due to this. I probably should have, but I couldn't think right now. “Run! Get out of here” My voice shot up, and I let out a growl of pain… I was getting bit. All over… I couldn't move as I watched the girl run out the window…what's next for this infected kid…would she survive… Die to the chemical… I didn't know all I knew was that I was starting to see red and foam at the mouth…