The Outsiders

Erik looked the girl up and down, his gun still trained on the middle of her forehead (as was everybody else's). She was short, young, apparently starving - he could tell with the excessive amount of cookies in - but most importantly, she didn't have a weapon. With the way they had her surrounded, there's no way she would be able escape them or fight them off, unless it turned out she was a super assassin or something, and in Erik's experience so far, that had never happened. Yet.

"Hey guys, maybe we should take it easy," Erik whispered to the others, slowly lowering his gun. Rebecca, Winter, and Surya simultaneously turn to face him, reluctant looks on their faces. "Look, I know she broke into our Costco, stole a lot of our food, and could most likely be a bandit, and, um... wow, this really doesn't look good for you," he said, turning to the girl, which made her shoot a glare in his direction.

"But! Look at her, she's tired and hungry. She couldn't have known that we owned this place, plus she's all on her own. If I was in her situation, I would've done the same thing. I mean, I probably would've asked first to eat some of the food and I wouldn't have broken in-" The girl shot him another glare. "Buuut, like I said, I would've done the same thing. Wouldn't you have?" he asked, turning to face the others.

As expected, the others didn't seem to trust the girl at all. Rebecca didn't put down her gun, not even bothering to make contact with Erik, and it looked like Surya didn't trust her either. Erik shot Winter a pleading look, and although her gaze on the girl was wary, she kept her gun firmly clutched in her hands.

"Come on, we can't spend time fighting each other, especially not with all those bandits running around out there. What we need is more people to join us, so we'll have more people to fight back with," he added, but they still didn't look convinced. That seemed to happen a lot whenever Erik had ideas (Surya called them implausible, Erik called them creative). "Unless you're a bad person, which would be really rude, considering that I just defended you," Erik said to the girl. Again, she glared at him.

"Personally, I don't really like the idea of having to turn somebody away. But it's up to you guys," Erik said, turning to Rebecca, Surya, and Winter. "What do you think we should do?"

I am outside my dance studio, waiting for my dad to pick me up. I check the time, and he is an hour late. "Of course he's late", I say in frustration. I start walking, hoping to meet him along the road, when I see a walker coming towards me. I start running in the opposite direction. "Sh&t!", I look into my bag to see if i can use anything as a weapon, but all I find is a pen. I really do not feel like fighting off this walker after doing numerous flips, dance steps and stretching. My body is in agony!!!. But it looks like I've outrun the walker, "Thank God!". I look around, trying to see where I am, "great!, now I'm lost. Thanks dad!!", I scream in frustration. I guess I have to find my way home,"Which is impossible, because it takes like two hours to get home with driving". I start walking. I've been walking for what feels like two weeks but it's probably being a couple of days. I'm tired, dirty, and most of all starving. "I don't want to die' I cry. Then I spot this house, "Thank you Jesus!", I say in hope that I might find something to eat at least. The front door is unlocked, so I sneak in through the small dog space opening. There is no on one the house, which is expected. I look through the cupboards, hoping there's food somewhere; then I find cookies. It was like this shining light was on it and angels were singing in the background.

Looking around in the house, I start looking to see what was behind the closed doors. I enter a room, and find a letter in one of the drawers, and it was from ..."Cailean". As I read the letter, and eat my cookies savagely, not being aware of my surroundings, the door suddenly busts open, and two people a male, and a female pointing guns at me. "!" I say with my mouth full of cookies. I drop the letter and raise my hands up.

[post deleted by owner]

We all come back into the warehouse safe and sound. The place is distasteful as always. "Home sweet home." I hear someone, most likely Erik say. I am too far ahead to tell. Outside of the Costco is bandit-free, but I'm worried about the inside.
"We have to check if there are any bandits inside before anything. Let's split up into pairs. Surya go with E-" Surya gives me a pleading look. "Rebecca. Erik you're with me. You two take the right aisles and food areas. We'll check everything else. Keep your guards up-- report anything on the talkies." They all nod; proceeding to our designated areas.

The cafeteria, pharmacy, outdoor garden, washrooms and other aisles seem to be clear. We just need to confirm that there is no one in the staff rooms. Surya and Rebecca would report occasionally areas that are safe. Everything is going well, but I can't say for sure. My mind will be at ease if there are no bandits lurking around, especially in the staff lounge. That room is decent.

We enter the lounge cautiously, our guns raised up to shoot on sight. Since we're in an enclosed area, making noise would not be an issue. Good, this room is clear. Erik goes to inform the two of the bandit-free lounge, as they report their findings. It seems as though our food is missing. What the hell. Someone is here. I grab the talkie from Erik "Both of you meet at the lounge, now." I'm beginning to panic. The truth is I believed that the place was secure, I made sure no outsider could find a way in. I sealed off all exits. I thought I was ready for these kind of situations. If one of them die out there I'll never live it down. It will haunt me forever. I run outside frantic, ready to search for Surya and Rebecca. The sound of an object dropping catches my attention. "." I hear the intruder in the manger's room; Cailean's room. Erik catches up, he opens his mouth to speak, but I raise my hand to signal him to be silent. I tilt my head to room. I gesture hand signals to knock down the door on my command. He nods. 1..2..3... Now! We bust open the door with our guns pointing at the stranger. It was a teenager with a mouth full of cookies while reading Cailean's letter. She swears under her breath and raises up her hands.

Logically speaking, the best solution would be to kill all of the Walkers, Rebecca thought. Eventually they would had to die off, right? They couldn't reproduce and more and more people were learning how to kill Walkers with every passing day. And if humans would stop being idiots and fighting each other, then they'd probably be able to rebuild their society.
She didn't see the point in fighting real, human people. But as life progressed she figured out that people were a$$holes, and they would do just about anything to prove their dominance. Like raid your shelter. It wasn't her fault that they were able to overpower them, they should've fought harder to keep it.

It wasn't that Rebecca didn't like it or anything, but the Costco the group lived in now wasn't exactly in the best shape. Its structure was falling, and most of the food had already been taken by survivors long before she got there. And here the bandits were, acting like it was the next coming of Jesus. Rebecca gave it about two more months before it finally gave in and collapsed, and well, if the bandits wanted in back then, they could have it.

Rebecca heard Surya from the side of her, "I'm not running with period stains." She rolled her eyes but laughed anyway. At least his attempts at humour were funnier than Erik's. Those were just cringe-worthy.

She waited until those bandits were out of sight, then looked around, noticing that some had decided to stay behind. Well, that would be a problem. They were looking around, for something, or someone - they had probably heard the group running. There was only one bandit blocking the path back home, and Rebecca figured that she could take him.

She wasn't aiming to kill or anything, she only did that with zombies. Rebecca would never take another human's life, unless she was in a situation where she absolutely had to. She crept behind him slowly, making sure not to step on any leaves or twigs while she was at it. But then he turned around, and saw her. "Sh!t," she whispered.

The bandit pulled out his gun, and she knew that she had to act fast. So she undid her hair from the ponytail it was in, and walked over to the bandit with the utmost confidence. Rebecca had learned that the best way to escape an attacker was to trick them into building a personal relationship with you, and eventually, they'd slip up. Now she got to try it.

"Hi!" she exclaimed with a smile. "I am so, so, sorry. I didn't realize this was your territory! I've been wandering around for days, and I... I just don't know where to go any more. Maybe a strong man like you could help me out?" Ugh, that made her want to puke. But she could tell that he was eating up every word of it. "That would really, really, really help me out," she smiled, playing with her hair. Hopefully he wouldn't recognize her.

And he didn't. He asked her where she was coming from, if she remembered the directions back, and even gave her his jacket. Wow, she thought. That guy was whipped. They walked towards a small path - the one back to the Costco - and she stopped. "I think I know where to go now," she said. "Thank you so, so much!"

"Well, hey, don't I get something in return for helping you out?" he asked with a creepy smile. Rebecca looked up at him. "Of course," she said. She took out her gun, and then whacked him across the face with it. Honestly, she could've done that a lot earlier, but she didn't want his bandit friends to see or hear anything.

Rebecca tied her hair up into a ponytail again and gestured towards the group. "Come on, let's go before any of them come over here," she said. They still hadn't found Cailean, but at least they could get home now. It was hard to believe that he was still alive - but at the others' requests, she decided she would try to stay hopeful.

The search for Cailean went nowhere in my mind. We were constantly running in circles. When it seemed like we had a lead, it would eventually bring us to square one. Plus, the group is getting exhausted. Emotionally and physically. And Erik's lame jokes were starting to make me cringe. I did catch Winter smile at his current joke-- if you consider the side of twitching a smile. "Haha. Very enlightening, Erik," I sarcastically remark. Erik grins. I don't understand how he could always stay so cheerful. Zombie apocalypses is possibly the worst situation to be in.

We came to an agreement. When the sun sets, we stop the search. If the weather limits our walking distance, we stop the search. Also, if the bandits or zombies show up, we run the hell back to the hideout. So far, no bandits or zombies have bothered us. Thank Vishnu for that. The sun begins setting, so we decide to head back. Suddenly I find myself stumbling over something. "Oh sh*t!" I trip over a dead body and land on my rear. I land on something warm. Blood. I stand up quickly to see that my is all red. Just lovely. Someone asks me if I'm alright. I tell them I'm fine. We continue on when we hear footsteps.
"Where'd the old man gone!?" A (distant) voice asks. My eyes widen.

Rebecca motions to an abandoned restaurant. "We lost the f****** in the forest." The other responds. It must be the bandits. They have been after us ever since we took over their base. How a group of 5 took down a group of 10 is beyond me. But we do make a great team, oddly enough.
"Well keep searching then! He took the goods!"
"Fine, I'll search the Tim Hortons."
I look at our surroundings to see that we are inside Tim's. Well me. Winter informs us that we either fight or flee. We all look at each other in panic. I look up to see only two bandits walking. Two against four? No problem. We all look at each other while nodding. We are going to fight. The good thing we brought the guns this time.

We all get into our positions. We have been in this kind of predicament countless of times. So we all know what to do. As the bandits come inside, I get myself ready. My adrenaline is pumping. I grip my gun tighter-- my knuckles Turing white.
"Geez, Anette always has a stick up her ."
"Seriously. Like the guy took some medicine, so what? We have a pharmacy."
"Mhm. But it's finite. Let's check the back."
The bandit walks to the kitchen where the zombies and the other to the washrooms. Winter motions for us to proceed. We advance.
"Bruh- AHHHHHH!"
Out of nowhere, zombies come out of the kitchen. One of them bit the the bandit. Her buddy goes in to help. Now is our chance. The zombies are multiplying, even outside. "Let's get the hell out of here!" One of them yells. I'm concentrated on running too recognize the voice. "I'm not about running with period stains." I say. I'm pretty sure I heard Rebecca and Erik laugh. Maybe Winter too.

"Come on guys, happy thoughts, happy thoughts. We'll find him sooner or later," Erik said. This was their fifth time searching for Cailean just this week, and so far, things weren't looking good. They had searched in every area he could, but they couldn't find him anywhere. Rebecca said it was best to assume that he was dead or had gotten bitten, but Erik would rather not.

Erik stayed on the trail they had passed the previous day, kicking a rock along the path to stay entertained. This past week had been pretty dull and frantic, and Erik wished things would just go back to normal.

They had formed some sort of a group back at their safe house. They were a weird group of people, but they got along fairly well. There was Cailean, who was the leader of the group, Surya and his calculators, Winter, who he didn't know all too well, and Rebecca, but her negative vibes brought him down.

"Alright," Erik said, clapping his hands once. "How about a joke? Something to lighten the mood." Erik racked his brain, trying to think of an appropriate joke for the situation.

"Okay, here we go. What's a zombie's favourite type of bean?" He asked. Nobody answered, so he just continued. "A human bean," he finished with a giggle, looking around for the others' reactions. Hopefully it made somebody else laugh, or at least smile. They could all use that right now.