At Least We're Alive

"Uh.. ?"

"Ellie! Ellie Mitchell, she's my neighbor. She's a total nerd for all this horror movie type shit, maybe she could help?" To be honest, I considered Ellie a good friend of mine, she was like my little sister. If this really is the apocalypse, I wanted her to come along with us, just to know that she was okay.

He sighed, "Alright, grab your shit and we'll head over there I guess. I'll call Matt and tell him to go to the house next door."

I ran up the stairs and into my room, throwing on my already packed duffle bag. I grabbed my backpack and mindlessly tossed in different toiletries, my ipod and other little things I felt like I needed. I was about to leave and close the door when I realized that this was probably the last time I'll ever see my room, my house. It made me kinda sad, leaving behind all the memories that I'd made here. But I just had to get over it, I guess.

I hadn't even made it halfway down the stairs when I heard something crash, and something fall over. I quietly crept down the steps and carefully listened to the sounds of struggle, and what I heard next made my blood run cold.

"Jack! Help!"

Fuck.

I threw my bags off and went sprinting towards the back of the house, where I found Alex in the dining room with one of the undead fucks on top of him. He had his hands on the thing's shoulders, keeping it at bay as it bit and snapped at him.

There was a shovel on the ground I presume Alex got from the backyard, I gripped it tight in my hands and swung, hard, at the fucker's head and cringed at the loud crunch that came with it. For good measure, I gave it the good ol' double tap and crinkled my nose at the fact that some dude's brains were all over my kitchen floor, not to mention the insane stench it had goin' on.

"You alright, man?" I reached my hands out, waiting for him to get ahold of them so I could pull him back up onto his feet.

He brushed himself off, fixed his sleeves and grabbed the shovel, "Y-yeah. I'm good. Thanks." The corners of his lips turned up into a small smile and I gotta say, the kid's gorgeous. Y'know, despite the slight blood splatter on his cheek. And it kinda got me thinking, why I never thought of him in this light before. Maybe we could've had something more than a friendship.

Maybe.

"Right well, uh.. we should.. we should head over to Ellie's now." he stumbled over his words and awkwardly backed away into the living room.

I closed the door to my home behind me and signaled for Alex to follow me. Luckily, Ellie lived right next door so it only took a few seconds to get there. Alex kept an eye out while I tried to get Ellie to open the door, if she was even in there.

"Ellie? It's Jack." I called out as I knocked, quiet enough to not attract any unwanted attention but loud enough so that she'd hopefully hear me.

"Jack!" I heard her voice coming from.. the bottom of the door? I looked down and saw her pretty blue eyes looking up at Alex and myself through the mail slot. " …Have you been bitten? Scratched? Anything?" she questioned.

"N-No, I'm good." I said.

Her eyes flicked over to Alex, "…Has pretty boy over here been?" she whispered.

"No, Ellie, he's fine. Can we come in now, please?" I asked, my patience wearing thin.

Her eyes disappeared from the slot and I soon heard the sound of the door being unlocked. She let Alex and I inside and proceeded to re-lock the door. It was a little weird, seeing a bloody steel bat and a crowbar placed casually on someone's coffee table. Especially when that someone was a 19 year-old girl who didn't look like she could hurt a fly, let alone slaughter the undead.

Alex wandered around her living room, taking in the unfamiliar scenery. Of course I'd been here before for a few movie and video game nights, so I just flopped onto the couch where I usually sat.

With one last look around, Alex turned his attention towards Ellie, who was kind of.. eyeing him. Not in a "she was checking him out" way but in a more.. curious way. Like a curious puppy of some sorts.

"So, Ellie, it's nice to meet you. Sorry it had to be at, y'know, the end of the world." Alex said, stepping closer to her and holding out his hand.

She took his hand in hers and shook it up and down once or twice, "Likewise." she said, "It seems you've had a run in with one of the geeks, you alright?"

"As alright as I can be." he sighed.

I opened my mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of harsh knocking at the door.

"Alex! Jack! You guys in there?" I heard Rian's voice call out.

"They friends of yours?" Ellie asked, turning to Alex and myself. I nodded my head and she turned back towards the door, grabbing the bat off the coffee table.

"Good then." she said, swinging the bat over her shoulder and carefully unlocking the door. Rian and Zack came charging in, paying no attention to the girl that let them in.

"Guys, c'mon. We need to get out of Baltimore." Zack said, taking Alex by the arm and dragging him out to the tour bus outside. Before stepping outside, Alex looked back at me and flicked his head towards Ellie, who seemed slightly annoyed by the whole situation.

Rian grabbed my bags off the floor and began rushing me outside. "Wait!" I called, looking back at Ellie, who was casually wiping the thick and sticky blood off of the bat she was holding. "Come with us? Please?"

She looked at me, her faced stone cold before cracking into a bright smile, "Thank fuck, I thought you were just gonna leave me here." She ran over to the back of the couch and threw on a backpack and picked up a medium sized luggage case. She stuffed the crowbar into her backpack but kept the bat in hand. I guess that was her weapon of choice.

"Hey Jack?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks."

I smiled at her and threw my arm over her shoulder and lead her onto the bus, where all eyes where immediately on her.

I awkwardly coughed and stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jacket "Right, uh. Guys, this is Ellie. Ellie, guys." She was greeting by several "Yo"s and "Hey"s and a wolf whistle. From Vinny, of course.

Ellie, wasting no time, got straight down to business "So, you boys got a plan?" Everyone just kind of looked around at each other with furrowed eyebrows and silently agreed that no, we didn't actually have a plan. "Didn't think so. Welp, you at least got a map?"

Flyzik grabbed a map out of the glove box and handed it over to Ellie. She opened it up flattened it out over the table.

"Alright, boys. Where do you wanna go?"

-

After much deliberation, we decided on Los Angeles, California.

I know what you're thinking, cross country? Are you serious?

We thought about about heading over to the coast and finding a boat and sailing to England or something. That idea was quickly shot down for a number of reasons; we could run out of food in the middle of the ocean, we could get lost in the middle of the ocean, eaten by sharks, eaten by zombie sharks, etc. We figured maybe we could get there before the virus or whatever spreads that far.

California, here we come. I guess.