Desolate

Jordan woke up to the setting sun dimly shining in her eyes. She rubbed her eyes and for a brief moment thought this was all a dream. But when she looked over to see Alex driving steadily along the road, she realized it wasn’t.

She turned her body to Charlie, Dylan, and Bianca, who were beginning to wake up. Charlie stretched and yawned as she began standing up.

“Are we close to the boys yet?” she asked as she went in between Jordan and Alex.

“Pretty close. About, five or ten minutes away,” Alex yawned.

“Here, I’ll drive, you sleep,” she said, patting Alex’s shoulder. Alex unfastened her seatbelt and switched spots with Charlie. They drove for a few minutes in awkward silence before Jordan spoke.

“So where are we going exactly?” she asked.

“The boys found a place that has some good supplies, food, weapons, extra clothes…we kind of need it,” Charlie mumbled, gesturing to Dylan and Bianca.

“So it’s just a plain shopping center?” she said.

Charlie nodded, “Basically.”

“How did the guys find that place in the mountains?” she questioned.

“Darren’s family lives up in the mountains, he saw that house every day,” Charlie explained. Jordan nodded as Charlie made a sharp left turn, which made everyone in the back of the van bounce around.

“Nice driving Charlie,” Alex grumbled as she slowly stumbled onto her feet.

“I swear, she does that on purpose,” Bianca snarled as she picked up one of her press on nails that had fallen off when Charlie made the turn. Charlie smirked as she got out of her seat. Jordan followed everyone out of the van, with the gun that Dylan had given her aimed and ready. Charlie led everyone towards the large building that said MINI MALL, except the I and A had fallen off. Charlie tugged on the front door and banged on the glass and was fully ready to shoot at it.

Jordan saw two guys running up to the door and they were both looking at Charlie like she was insane. One of the guys pulled a key out of his back pocket and unlocked the doors. Charlie and the others rushed in and he locked the door behind them.

“You’re late,” the guy with the key said. Jordan looked at both of the guys up and down. The one with the key had dark brown hair that she could tell used to be dyed black, but was fading back to his natural dark brown color. When he moved his hair out of the way, she saw lime green eyes that were absolutely to die for. The other one had equally dark hair but his was longer and his eyes were brown instead of green.

“We would’ve been earlier but we found her,” Charlie said, pointing to Jordan.

“Well I’m sorry if I picked the wrong time to almost be eaten,” Jordan shot back, rolling her eyes.

“It’s amazing…wherever Charlie goes, she finds someone to fight with,” Alex sighed, folding her arms across her chest and shaking her head.

“Anyways…!” Bianca said in a loud high pitched voice, trying to get everyone’s attention. She put her hand on the green eyed guy’s shoulder and smiled at Jordan.

“This is Zakk. And that’s Oliver,” she said, going from Zakk to the other guy.

“And you are?” Oliver said, raising an eyebrow at Jordan.

“I’m Jordan,” she said. Zakk chuckled softly and shook his head, “It seems that Bianca is the only girl left with a girl’s name,”

“So did you find any of those freaks?” Charlie asked.

“We were looking when you guys showed up,” Oliver replied. Two other guys came around the corner, waving.

“Oh, the blonde one is Jason!” Bianca sighed, admiring him as he walked over. Dylan rolled her eyes at Bianca and pointed to the other guy, who Jordan already figured out, was Darren.

“The pretty boy walking with blondie is Darren,” Dylan said, scoffing at Darren. Darren looked at Jordan and smirked, “Who’s the newbie?”

“She’s Jordan,” Alex answered.

“Did you finish the search?” Oliver asked.

“We came over here when we heard you guys,” Jason replied. Oliver gave an exasperated sigh and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Whatever, nevermind, let’s just go,” he grumbled as he led the rest of them through the mini mall.

“So far, we haven’t found anything, so we’re probably safe,” Oliver mumbled softly.

“Why don’t we split into groups? We could finish the whole search a hell of a lot faster,” Jordan said.

“She makes a good point,” Oliver responded, “Charlie, you’re with me. Zakk, you’re with Jordan. Darren, you’re with Alex and Bianca. And Jason, you’re with Dylan.”

Bianca folded her arms across her chest and scowled at Dylan. Oliver rolled his eyes at Dylan and walked off with Charlie. Zakk beckoned Jordan to go with him as he began walking.

“So are you good with that gun?” Zakk asked when Jordan caught up to him. Jordan looked at the gun in her hand, and then back at Zakk.

“I don’t know. I got one in the head with my first shot,” she said softly, shrugging a shoulder.

“I can’t help but be impressed when a girl can use a gun,” Zakk laughed. Jordan chuckled with him and nervously played with her now wavy hair.

“Then I guess you must be all over Charlie,” she mumbled. Zakk put his hand on his stomach and laughed even louder.

“Charlie?! Never!” he said loudly, wiping the tears that had gather in his eyes from all the laughter, “she’s so cold and hidden from everyone.”

Jordan chuckled softly and turned her body to look back at Charlie and Oliver, who were on the other side of the mini mall. Zakk grabbed Jordan’s shoulders and whipped her body around to listen to the sound of faint growling and gurgling. It came out of one of the stores and walked casually, like a regular human would. His arm was completely gone and loose flesh swung wildly as he walked. His speed went from slow to unbelievably fast once he set eyes on Jordan and Zakk. Without hesitation, Jordan held up the gun and pulled the trigger. She stumbled backwards, almost falling down.

“Is he dead?” she asked.

“He should be. You got him right in between the eyes,” Zakk chuckled. They cautiously walked towards the dead zombie on the floor. Blood trickled out of the bullet wound in his head. Jordan giggled softly; suddenly amused although she had no idea why she enjoyed killing the zombie. She lifted her foot and pressed it down on the zombie’s chest. She pulled the trigger again and tried not to fall back.

“I got one!” she called as she stumbled backward, despite her efforts. Charlie scoffed and threw her arms in the air.

“The newbie gets one and I don’t?!” she snapped.

“What is your obsession with killing zombies?” Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Charlie continued looking around, ignoring his question. She couldn’t really answer that question. She didn’t know what her obsession was. But just the thought of blowing up a zombie’s head with one blow made her giggle like a little kid. She always had the pleasure of knowing she was the best at it. But the newbie walks in and is able to do exactly what she does within the first hour of Dylan giving her the gun.

“Well, here’s your moment of glory Charlie,” Oliver said, pointing to the zombie that was flailing his arms around, hissing and growling and Charlie. She smirked and raised her gun, laughing as she did. She pulled the trigger and could almost hear the bullet cutting the air, hitting the zombie as if it was all in slow motion. Blood squirted from the zombie’s forehead where he’d been hit and he fell onto his back. Charlie looked at Oliver and without any words; Oliver raised his own gun and shot the zombie. He lowered it and snickered at Charlie.

“You’re a crazy lady,” he said softly as he turned and walked away from Charlie, still snickering.

They all met up again a few minutes later and sat down on the benches that sat in the middle of the mall.

“Ok, so we’ve checked everywhere?” Oliver said. Everyone nodded, except Jordan and Charlie, who just had satisfied grins on their faces. Oliver paused for a second, giving them weird looks before continuing, “Ok then, let’s get the supplies we need and get the hell out of here.”

Everyone scattered and got supplies like food, extra clothes, and everything else they would need.

“It’ll be good to be clean,” Jordan said softly as she grabbed a hair dryer and a flat iron, stuffing it in a backpack she’d taken a few aisles over.

“You haven’t even been away from home for a day,” Charlie scoffed as she walked past Jordan. Jordan whipped her body around and shoved Charlie, causing her to fall forward.

“What’s your problem?!” she demanded. Charlie got back onto her feet and got closer until she was inches away from Jordan.

“I saved your life, newbie. I suggest you show me some respect,” she snarled.

“You want me to respect you when you’re holding that over my head?” Jordan shot back, narrowing her eyes. They stood in silence, glaring at each other, on the edge of a fist fight. But before they could, Bianca and Dylan popped up out of nowhere and pushed them apart.

“We can’t be fighting like this! We have bigger problems!” Dylan barked.

“Yeah! Can you guys just get along?!” Bianca added. Jordan and Charlie folded their arms and looked away from each other.

“We’re not asking you guys to like each other. When this whole ordeal is over and done with, you can kill each other for all I care, but right now you need to GET ALONG,” Dylan said firmly. Jordan and Charlie sighed and nodded.

“Fine,” Jordan said blankly.

“Whatever,” Charlie added.

“Good, now let’s get going,” Dylan said.

The walk from the mini mall to the van was a silent, awkward one. The only noises were from groaning zombies, the sound of guns, and the splattering of blood against the concrete.

Jordan opened the door of the driver’s seat just as Charlie was and they narrowed their eyes at each other and were ready to verbally abuse each other when Alex and Dylan grabbed Charlie and dragged her to the back of the van.

“Ok, so where we going?” Jordan asked as she strapped herself in and started the van.

“Just follow them,” Bianca said as closed the door on the passenger side and strapped herself in. She pointed to the blue van in front of them.

“Are we heading to the mountains yet?” she asked.

“No. We’re pretty low on ammo…and just weapons in general,” Bianca said, biting her bottom lip.

“They have gun shops?” Jordan said as she steered, not taking her eyes off of the boys’ van.

“No. But apparently there is yet another mini mall that has one,” Jordan heard Dylan grumble from the back of the van.

Jordan looked out at the sky to see clouds beginning to form again.

“Another storm is coming,” she mumbled softly.

“Great observation, Captain Obvious,” Charlie snapped. Jordan squeezed the steering wheel, turning her knuckles white.

“Can I kill her now?”