Reincarnation

Haley was shaking with fear and from the cold. The bright light shone on her face and blinded her eyes that were so used to the darkness. A young woman was the source of the light. Her tangled chocolate brown hair ran down to her slim shoulders and her expression was stone cold. The man that stood by her, the one that was yelling at Haley, was holding up a massive and intimidating gun that was pinpointed directly at her face.

"Why should we?" the man asked roughly.

"I-I," Haley stuttered; she was at a loss for words. After a moment of thinking, she said quietly, "I'm not one of them yet. I-I've still got a chance."

The woman's hard gaze softened and the muscles in her face relaxed. She looked up at the man and whispered something in his ear. He didn't say or do anything.

"So you really haven't been bit?" she asked after a moment of intense staring at one another.

Haley shook her head with a small whimper. The gun hadn't moved.

"How long have you been here?"

"Well, I...I'm still here since the invasion started in my town..." Haley then erupted into her story, desperate to let it all out to a living human.

"My parents were bitten and murdered before we could leave here so my brother and I were on our own for a while. Most of the citizens were gone by now, but the remainder of this town who weren't bitten or killed by chance, we dug this...sort of tunnel, and we had two exits both guarded with heavy metal doors. We were protected - or we thought we were. They came back, a whole bunch of them and they found us..." Haley paused. Her voice was scratchy and dry from the lack of any fluids. She gulped and continued on, tears filling her eyes quickly. "But I...I survived, and I'm not sure how, but I did. So...yeah."

The two were silent and Haley wrapped her arms around herself awkwardly. After a few more minutes the man raised his gun again and frowned.

"I still don't believe you," he said skeptically. "You don't look healthy."

"Rem, how could she? She's been living on nothing for days, it looks like. I trust her," the woman said softly and shot Haley a small smile. "Who are you?"

"Haley Burnette...I'm nineteen. But who are you?"

"I'm Elle Kramer, and this is Remy Jones. Come on, Haley, let's leave this place," Elle said, surveying the ghost town with narrowed eyes. "It doesn't feel safe."

"What?" Remy hissed sharply at Elle. "Take her? She could be contaminated or something, just look at the state of her! She's been living with dead bodies and her people have been attacked several times. Let's just kill her now, she's dangerous."

"No! She's just a teenager, look at her," Elle said and forced Remy to lay his eyes on the trembling, emaciated girl huddled in the dark corner. He sighed and shoved his gun back in its place.

"Come on, kid."

Haley stood up weakly; her legs hardly supported her. She walked over to the strangers and smiled feebly. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Now," Elle said, clicking the flashlight's switch, causing the darkness to embrace them once again, and putting it back into her torn backpack. "Let's get out of here."

Remy led the way out of the crumbling remains of the small building with Elle a step behind him and Haley staggering behind restlessly. The newly formed team made their way out of the town and once again out in the wilderness.