Finding Hope

Halloween Special #4 (Part 3)

Trunks' pov

I had no clue if we should trust the person standing a few feet away from, Mai and I. Yori was terrified and wouldn't look at the young woman standing there, there was something about her that made think she wasn't a possible threat to any of us but you never should judge a book by its cover as Mom used to say. "Mai, step behind me." I whispered slowly, Mai nodded and moved slowly behind me. "Look, I'm not a threat. I promise. I'm not going to hurt you, I just wanna survive." She said softly, her blue eyes were wide and full of fear. If Tsubaki was here she wouldn't trust her, scared people will go to extremes to survive and that's only if they can get others to feel sorry for them. "Trunks," I took my eyes off of the young girl and turned my attention to Mai, "I don't think we have anything worry about. She doesn't seem like the kind of person to lie," She said, I looked back at the young girl still holding a tight grip to the weapon I had in my hand. "You trust me, right?" Mai asked, "Yes, I do." I nodded, "Then give her a chance. That's all I'm asking for. Just a chance and if she tries anything, then we will deal with her accordingly." Mai pleaded, I thought about it some more and decided to give the girl a chance. I slowly lowered my weapon, keeping my guard up as I looked back at the young girl. "Alright, my friend here convinced me to give you a chance to help you. So I'll give you that chance." The young girl started to smile, "But to be clear, the moment you try anything. And I mean anything to harm my friend or the child, I won't hesitate to do what I have to do in order to protect them. You understand?" I threatened, my tone suggesting that I was not playing around.

"I understand. You have my word that I won't try anything." She said.

"Good," I nodded, putting the weapon down.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves? That would make things less tense." Mai stepped from behind me, "My name is Mai. And this little man is Yori, he was separated from his family so we're protecting him until we can find them." Mai introduced herself with a warm smile, the young girl seemed to become a lot less guarded and on edge. "And this is my really good friend, Trunks. We both were separated from our own group and are trying to get back to them." Mai explained, "My name is Elizabeth. I.. I lost my family.. And now, I'm on my own." Her voice strained and she became emotional, my heart felt for her. I don't know what I do if Tsubaki was dead or had been turned into one of those things. I could only hope that her and Asher were okay.

"You're not on your own anymore, cause now you have us." Mai spoke up, bringing my attention back to the current situation.

"Thank you," Elizabeth smiled gratefully. "I'm sorry to ask this so out of the blue, but do you guys have any food? I haven't eaten since three days ago." She asked, I looked at Mai who only smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we do."

The four of us sat down, hidden towards the back of the store in an office. If things got hairy, we could always escape out the window in the far left corner of the room. We thought it was best you stay here for the night since there was so much activity with the horde of zombies around the area, Mai and Yori covered the window to make sure nobody could see into the office. Elizabeth found a lantern to use for light and placed it in the middle of the floor, we got lucky as I had found camping gear such as sleeping bags and a tent. So here the three of us were, eating the food that Mai and I had stocked up on which were rice balls and some other small non perishables. Yori had eaten a little earlier than we did, we had to make sure there was enough for him and the three of us. At the moment, Yori was curled up in a sleeping bag fast asleep behind Mai and I, closer to the wall and my bag. I felt good that we have been able to keep Yori alive, especially in a setting such as an apocalypse.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Trunks?" Elizabeth asked out of the blue, I choked on my rice ball and started coughing. Mai patted my back and gave me a water bottle, I took several sips until I could no longer feel that I was choking. "Yes, he does." Mai smiled, "Are you his girlfriend?" Mai immediately became flustered at that, "No! No! No! I'm not his girlfriend!" She denied, "My girlfriend's name is Tsubaki. We got separated from her and our other friend, Asher." I explained, "Oh," Elizabeth seemed disappointed for some reason, it was like she had been hoping I was single. Mai and I sent each other a look, before looking back at Elizabeth.

"If you don't mind me asking, Elizabeth.. How did you lose your family?" Mai asked.

"... When the outbreak first started, we were fine. My parents decided to keep the shop open and when things got really bad and we were forced to evacuate, we ended up in the middle of a huge riot..." She paused, shifting her weight and I could see she was trying not to get emotional. "It's okay. You don't have to finish explaining." I said, "No, I'm okay. I haven't had anyone to talk to for a week. I.. I have to talk about it." She declared, she wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. "Things got bad really fast. I nearly got separated from my older brother during that riot, we were lucky to get out of there unharmed. My dad decided that we were going to go out North, we had family out there that could take us in and they were safe... So we got out onto the highway and was stopped in traffic.. That's where it all went to shit. The infected people came out of nowhere causing panic, people were screaming and running. Some were trying to drive over the median and ended up causing accidents.." She stopped for a minute and Mai handed her a tissue as tears rolled down Elizabeth's cheeks.

"We were in an accident trying to flee.. And when I came too, both of my parents had been trying to get my siblings out of the car. I could hear the sounds of the people screaming, people being attacked.."

"Elizabeth, it's okay. You can stop now. Don't push yourself to talk about it if you can't right now." I insisted, Elizabeth nodded and wiped her tears with another tissue. "We should get some sleep, I'll take first watch." I said, "Are you sure? I can-" I shook my head at Mai's offer and she nodded, I lowered the light while Mai and Elizabeth went to sleep. I leaned against the wall in between Mai and Yori, both who were sound asleep. "Tsu.. Please.. Please be alive." My thoughts were solely focused on staying alive and finding Tsubaki and Asher. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong.