The New World

Chapter 2 : Safe Haven

The girl replied softly "Jaylyn... Jaylyn's my name..." "That's a cool name." I replied. She smiled, the first time I'd seen her smile since we found her. She seemed more comfortable around me than Bird and Butch, I was just happy to see that there were other people out there. I asked "so what's your story? How'd you get here?" She replied "well, when all the stuff happened with the virus and stuff, me and my friends left the city.. But we were staying in the supermarket and we all went to sleep, those things... The infected, they snuck up on us... They killed both of my friends.. Ever since then I put myself in the closet and stayed there..." I looked at her, feeling almost the same as she did "I'm so sorry... I lost people too.." She looked up at me curiously, "who?" "My parents" I replied. She didn't say anything for a while, she looked like she didn't know what to say. Then she hugged me and said very softly, "I'm sorry" I didn't say anything after that. We sat in the room we slept in the past night, "I'm glad we found these guns, they'll really come in handy." I said, I honestly was very scared to fight humans, I could kill Biters with ease, but humans? I just didn't think I could do it, the thought of stripping an actual human being from their life. Butch looked towards me and asked, "Are we gonna make this place a home?" I looked over at him and then to Bird, "I don't really know, what do you guys think?" I said, "Well, it's easily defended, we have good escape routes, and we have great places to scavenge, so at least until we've scavenged the area." He said, I nodded, "sounds like a plan." I looked over and Jaylyn looked scared. "What's wrong?" I asked, "I'm not a good fighter..." She said softly. "Don't worry." I said reassuring her, "We'll protect you, I promise." I realized I was more worried about the people around me than I was for me. People always said I was like that, but I never saw it. It was night time, Jaylyn was still a bit weak, so I told her she could sleep on the bed. Problem was we only had three places to sleep and four people, so I figured we'd just let Butch and Jaylyn sleep in the same bed. But when he got in the bed she sat up, and said "I'm not very comfortable with this..." Butch replied "Well you're gonna have to deal with it." He was a bit ill from not getting enough sleep. "Lay off Butch, she's just uncomfortable with it." I said "Well what am I supposed to do about it?" He replied, I could tell he was a bit angry. "Calm down man, just sleep on the sleeping bag tonight, alright?" I said he let out a long frustrated sigh, "Alright man." Since Butch took my sleeping bag and Bird was in the other I looked at Jaylyn laying on the queen sized bed, "Are you comfortable with me sleeping in the same bed?" I asked, "Yes.." She said softly. I crawled into the bed and pulled the cover up to my chest. I was pretty tired, so I went to sleep pretty soon. I woke up after Bird and Butch, but Jaylyn was still asleep. She must've been a really rough sleeper, because she was all the way across me. I looked around moving very slowly trying to find a way to get up without waking her. Butch saw me during my struggle and couldn't control his laughter. "Shut up man." I said giggling for a second. It seemed there was no way for me to move her without waking her up, so I just laid there. I whispered to Bird, "Can you bring me some food?" Still trying not to wake Jaylyn. He grabbed a sack of hamburger buns out of his pack and brought them over to me. I ate them quickly, but bread by itself is horrible, but I was just glad to be eating. I laid in the same position for about 30 minutes, when finally Jaylyn woke up. She looked around and then looked at me, "How'd I get into this position?" She asked, I laughed, "I don't know. I guess you're a really rough sleeper." I said. Butch laughed again, "He laid there for like 30 minutes." He laughed again as he shoved a hamburger bun into his mouth. Jaylyn was still laying across me, "Can I get up now?" I said "oh yeah." She replied then laughed, I let out a big yawn. "Tired?" Bird asked, "Yeah man, tired of being tired." I said, wishing I could go back to sleep. I got up and started getting my stuff ready, I got my pack on and adjusted my holster to the right position. Then put my AR strap across my shoulder and then grabbed my hunting rifle. I looked at Bird and asked, "you guys ready?" He replied, "Not yet, will be soon." I watched him as he was getting ready but zoned out, I noticed the birds were chirping. It was the first time I had heard them since it seemed like everyone was dead. I started thinking about old times, I started thinking about my parents, then Bird called my name "Hey man, you ready to go?" He said, "Yeah, let's go." I replied. We moved the bed away from the door and were about to open when I said, "Wait. What do we do about Jaylyn?" Bird replied, "Well maybe she could come. She could use the experience." I turned to her and asked, "Do you want to come?" She looked a bit frightened and didn't answer. "Look, I promise. We won't let any harm come your way." I said. She smiled, "Okay" she said cheerfully. We walked outside and headed towards the supermarket. We went inside the supermarket and grabbed a bunch of food and supplies we couldn't carry last time. We walked down the street, looking for a good place to scavenge. We passed the gun store, we went behind a building and climbed up onto the roof to get a better vantage point. We were all looking in different directing in search of anything useful. I noticed the sky was looking a little gray. "Probably gonna start storming sometime soon." I said. Suddenly, Jaylyn called out, "Hey guys?" "Yes?" I replied. "Do you think that's something worth checking out?" She pointed towards a store I couldn't quite see. I pulled up my rifle looking down the scope. I saw a sign above the store that read, "Army Surplus Store" and a sign below that, that said, "Sale 25% off!" I pulled my rifle down, "Yeah, we should check it out." I said, Bird walked to me, "What is it?" He asked. "An Army Surplus Store." I replied. We headed down the ladder and down the road to the store. When we got inside the store I got the door a few times to attract and Biters inside, one came and I kicked it in the stomach and it fell to the ground, I got on top of it and stabbed it in the head. I whistled to attract any more, none came. We looked around to try and find anything useful. We only saw things like antique helmets and uniforms from older wars, such as World War 2 and the Vietnam War. I went behind the counter and into a back room, there was a locked safe. I looked around to find a key. I saw a few pictures of soldiers with their buddies, standing in uniform. It reminded me of how I wanted to join the military once I got older. I checked inside I desk and found some keys, I used them on the safe and they worked, "Hell yeah." I whispered to myself. I opened the safe and found a 45. With a pink pistol grip. I picked it up and stuck it in my pack. I walked back into the main room, "Anyone found anything?" I asked loudly. "Nope!" I heard come from Butch on the other side of the room. Also a "Nah man" Come from Bird and I bread Jaylyn from not to far to my left say, "I haven't found anything." "Alright guys, let's get outta here." We walked outside and as I was walking out I noticed something over in the parking lot. A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. A nice sports car. I always wanted one, I just had to check it out. I went over and looked in the window, the keys were in the drivers seat. I turned to the group, "guys the keys are in there." Before I could say anything else Butch had his gun back and hit the butt of his gun again the window and it shattered, the car alarm went off. And it was loud, we covered our ears and backed away. We noticed a lot of Biters were coming out of the stores and coming our way. There were so many, they began to gather up in large clusters there were so many. We started running the way we came, but a bunch of Biters were grouped up in the alley we can through. They noticed us and started coming towards us, we turned back but there were too many Biters. We frantically looked around trying to find a way out. When suddenly, an armored RV plowed through a bunch of Biters, passing us and plowing through more Biters, we tried to make it out of the opening the RV made, hoping we could make I and that the people in the RV weren't hostile, but the gap closed before we could escape. The RV came back, the door flung open. A woman leaned out with a revolver in her hand and yelled "Come on get in!" As a Biter came up to the RV and she shot it. We began running to the RV and Bird and Butch got in first and I was walking in and turned around to see if Jaylyn was with us and she wasn't, I turned back to see she had fallen and broken her ankle. I started running towards her, a Biter was getting close, so I pulled out my sidearm and put a round in its head. I picked Jaylyn up, carrying her back to the RV. The woman leaned out of the RV and fired a shot into a Biter getting to close to me and Jaylyn and yelled, "Hurry up we gotta go!" I got Jaylyn to the RV and dropped her onto an open seat. The woman shut the door and the man driving floored it, pushing many Biters out of the way. They got back onto the main highway and I spoke up, "Thank you so much, we owe you our lives." Looking at the woman who was sitting in the passengers seat, she turned around to me and said, "No need to thank me, What would this world be if us living didn't look out for each other?" She replied, "Damn right." I answered. We sat in the RV for a while longer and I asked "Where are we going?" The woman said, without turning to look at me, "It's a surprise, trust me, you'll like it." I looked over and Butch was asleep, Bird had a hard grip on his gun, I could tell he was nervous. "Hey man, it's okay. No need to worry." He loosened his grip and looked a little more relaxed. I looked and Jaylyn was sitting down, she noticed I was looking at her. She looked over at me, "Thanks for coming back for me... Not many people would do that." She said softly then smiled. I smiled back, "No problem." I looked over at the woman, "So what's your name?" She looked back at me, "Well, I'm Breanna." Then she looked at the man driving, "And this is Randall." She said. I responded, "Well it's nice to meet you, Breanna and Randall." I stood up and shook Breanna's hand. I sat back down and laid against back of the couch, looking up at the roof of the RV. Jaylyn must've been really tired, she fell asleep on my shoulder. Before I knew it I was asleep too. I woke up when the RV stopped. I looked up and saw Randall leaning out of the window, then he yelled, "Open the gate!" I looked out of the front of the RV and saw a gate open, and the RV advanced forward into a large gated community. I woke Butch and helped Jaylyn up. As I stepped out I saw 20 foot high walls. Guard towers, crops that were being grown. I saw some cows and pigs. I wasn't paying attention to what was in front of me and a man wearing a suit said, "Hello, and welcome to Utopia."