Apocalypse Of The Damned (BMC fanfic)

2

"Why did we take everything with us?" Cameron asked, trying her hardest to keep the large backpack on her shoulders.
"Raiders. We wouldn't want our things stolen."
"Oh."

Michael kept his eyes up, surveying the mall and making sure there were no zombies. He kept his rifle up as he grabbed Cameron's hand and dragged her into the first shop he saw. It was a clothing store, surprisingly full of both kids clothes and teen clothes.
Cameron smiled as Michael told her to have at it. She ran in, looking around in the girl's section. All the clothes her size were bright colored and had things like unicorns and bright pink cellphones on the front. Cameron scrunched up her nose in disgust and moved on to the boy's section. She found out that the sizes were different than girl's.

"Uh... Micha?"
"Yeah?" He called from across the store.
"Um.... I need help..."

Michael looked up, dropping the sweater in his hands to walk over to her. She seems nervous, like she was breaking a rule of some kind. Michael saw that she was looking at boy clothes and smiled.
"Need help with the sizes?" She nodded and he crouched to check the sizes on her clothes, then stood and handed her a camo T-shirt she was looking at in her size. Cameron smiled, holding the shirt to her chest as he picked out a pair of jeans.
"How do you know how to do this?" She asked, taking the jeans carefully.
He paused, thinking for a moment. "Do you know what transgender is?"
She nodded. "When you're not happy with your biological gender, so you change it to meet your needs."
Michael smiled down at her, moving to help her get more clothes. "You're right. My friend Rich is transgender. He had me and Jeremy help him but clothes."
"The one who wrote on your backpacks is transgender?"
"Yup. Anything else?"
"Huh? Oh, no."

They moved away from the store, walking around to look for more supplies. The mall wasn't empty, but they had to search for food and ammo. Michael told her to wait in the food court while he went to get something. She saw him walk off to a store called Claire's, but didn't think anything of it.
As she looked around, she noticed a machine with tanks colored bright red and blue. She was suddenly hooked, and she walked over to it, looking for a way to turn it on. There was a switch on the side of the counter, and though she didn't know what it'd do, she flipped it. The machine came on, the cup on top of it spinning with the tanks under it. The tanks weren't colored, she found, just filled with bright red and blue liquid. The lightened word across the top spelled SLUSHEES with a smiling penguin next to it.

"Cammy? Where you at?" She heard Michael call. She looked back and smiled, running out from the counter. Michael smiled at her.
"Hey, there you are."
"Michael, come look!"
He raised an eyebrow, following her as she took his arm and dragged him towards the machine.
"I got the slushee machine to work!"
Michael looked up, his eyes brightening at the machine. "Aw, hell yeah!"

He rushed forwards and grabbed a cup, not caring if it was melted as he poured himself a cup of cherry slushee stuck a lid and straw on, then took a sip. It seemed like heaven to him, and Cameron was suddenly intrigued.
"Can I have one too?" She asked excitedly, taking a step.
Michael smiled. "Yeah!" He grabbed her a cup and filled it with blue raspberry slushee. She took it once he put a lid and straw on, and took a sip like he had. It made her head hurt, but it was good. She hummed in delight, smiling first at the cup, then up at Michael. He smiled back at her, then seemed to realize something.
"Oh, I got you something."
"What?"

He led her back into the food court's maze of tables, grabbing a purple backpack much like his red one and his friend's blue one. She smiled wider, taking the bag into her hands.

Michael decided that they'd had enough supplies, and they left. The ride was silent again as Michael kept his eyes on the road and Cameron looked through the red bag. She let it slide to the floor board, her focus on a piece of paper in her hand. Michael glanced at her briefly.
"What's that?" He asked, keeping his eyes in front of him and swerving slightly to avoid another one of them. Cameron didn't answer. She didn't seem to hear him, her mind set on studying the paper in her hand.
Michael laughed. "Cammy."
"Huh?" She responded, her head moving slightly towards him to show she was listening.
"Whatcha got?"
"Oh... This picture I found in your bag... Is that your friend?"
Michael looked at her again, then held his hand out for the picture. She placed it in his hand. He glanced at it for a split second, looked back up to make sure nothing was in their way, then looked back at the picture.

It was the picture he'd taken from his home, the one of him and Jeremy.
Last year after the SQUIP incident, the whole group went out to a nearby amusement park. Michael brought his Polaroid camera, and while everyone was ahead of him and Jeremy, he snapped a picture of them.
Michael's arm was slung around Jeremy's shoulders, a bright grin on his tanned face. Jer had his eyes shut as he scrunched up his nose and stuck his tongue out at the camera.

Michael smiled at the picture. Cameron cried out, causing his head to snap up and his hands to jerk the steering wheel to the side to avoid a zombie in the road. He sighed. "Sorry... But, yeah. That's him..."

She took the picture back, staring at it again. "Are you sure you're not dating?"
Michael's face flushed. He laughed nervously. "Yeah, I-I'm pretty sure. He was dating our friend Christine then."
"But they broke up?"
"Yep."
A beat, then, "So he likes girls?"
Michael's attention flickered back to her, momentarily. She sounded almost... disappointed.
"Um... yeah. But he likes guys too."
"Oh... so, Bisexual?"
"Yep. You're a smart kid, you know that?"
"I know." She giggled.

He chuckled, staring ahead with a small smile on his face.