The First 30 Days (PUBLISHED)

Twenty-Four - Day 11

     Fallon splashed in the water behind me. My shirt stuck to me, wet from the water still dripping off of my hair. I peeled the material away from my skin. I'd always hated that feeling. But I was willing to put up with it for now because there was no way I was standing on the side of this stream without my clothes.

More splashing came from nearby, Shawn taking advantage of the opportunity to try to get some of the dirt off, too. For the first time in several days, we had time for a luxury like a bath. Even if you could hardly call it a bath by my normal standards. The stream water that we had treated with bleach smelled like the chemical, but so far, hadn't made anyone sick. All three of us had downed bottle after bottle of the stuff yesterday, making up for days of dehydration.

A branch snapped nearby, making me come to attention. I was acting as the lookout while the other two got cleaned up. If a zombie was anywhere nearby, it was up to me to protect them.

Looking in the direction of the sound, I peered through the trees. After nearly a minute, with no more sounds and no signs of danger, I relaxed again. There were more random noises in the woods than I would have guessed, something that I still wasn't used to. Every time a branch creaked or a squirrel chattered, I found myself bracing for an attack.

I heard Shawn splash his way back to the bank, and a minute later he appeared at my side, using a small towel to rub the water from his hair. He smiled at me before taking up a spot just a few feet away, scanning our surroundings. We stood like that in an amicable silence while I listened to Fallon finishing her own bath up behind us.

We'd only known Fallon for less than a day. A bit reluctantly, Shawn had agreed to her request to let her take a turn on watch overnight. I knew he hadn't actually slept while she was on guard, though I didn't say anything. Truth be told, I had been reluctant to go to sleep without Shawn watching my back, too. But through the open door between the nurse's room and our office, I had seen how seriously she seemed to be taking the duty. She had remained alert, pacing between the door wedged closed by the chair and the high window, constantly checking for any sign of danger. After a couple of hours, I started to feel silly for doubting her.

It amazed me how quickly Shawn and I had become "us", everyone else falling into the "them" category. It hadn't escaped my notice that I was completely trusting someone who I had known for less than a week, while finding it difficult to extend the same trust to another newcomer. I had always felt that actions spoke louder than words, and while Shawn may have been a stranger just a week ago, in the short time we had known each other, he had proven himself over and over. I had no doubt that he would have my back in any situation we came across.

I didn't feel the same about Fallon, even though she had done nothing to warrant my mistrust. Maybe that would change with time, but for now, there was only one person I wanted watching my back.

Before long, the three of us were making our way back to the main camp building. Walking along, I kept having to pull my jeans up as they sagged. While we had been eating, it wasn't enough. I'd noticed that I wasn't the only one losing visible weight. Either we could eat well now, but run out of the food we had managed to gather sooner. Or we could ration ourselves, and have something to eat longer. There really wasn't much of a choice there. I had no idea what we would do for food once our supplies did run out. It's not like I'd ever grown a garden or killed an animal before. My lunch had come nicely prepackaged from the grocery store for all of my life.

After our run in with the three zombies in town the day before, none of us was in a hurry to go back. I tried not to think about the fact that we were going to have to go back eventually. If for no other reason, to search that tiny town for things like canned goods and the various supplies that would be necessary to stay alive in this new world. You never knew just how easy electricity and running water made life until it was taken away.

My attention was pulled to the girl walking just ahead of me. Wet hair wrapped up in a towel, Fallon walked through the brush with ease, as if this was not her first time doing such a thing. She dodged thorns and stepped over obstacles partially hidden under long dead leaves with the ease of practice. I couldn't help but compare her progress to my own, as I tripped over a buried rock and snagged my jeans on a thorn bush, again. Carefully pulling the wickedly jagged branch free from my leg, I hurried to catch up to the others. There was no way I wanted to find myself alone in the trees, even if we were only a short walk back to the camp office. The forest was still way too creepy.

We had only questioned Fallon a little about herself the day before. So I didn't know much about the girl, but it was easy to tell just by comparing her actions to my own, that she had a different skill set than I did. While I had cringed at the first bottle of creek water, my extreme thirst the only reason I finally gave in and drank it, she hadn't hesitated to tilt a bottle back and finish it in a few long pulls. Even now, up in the front, Shawn could occasionally be heard muttering under his breath about something that he had stepped on or gotten snagged in, and it was plainly obvious that I was no good in the woods. But Fallon moved through the trees and thorns like it was second nature. Plus, she had survived on her own for who knew how many days, something that I wasn't so sure I could have accomplished.

It all added up to make me more curious about our new companion's background.