A Candle in the Dark

The fiery haired girl named Astrid was sitting in the backseat with her fingers running through her dog’s fur — the dog’s name Ezra had learned in the last two minutes was Monroe. It was not, once Maddie asked the inevitable question, after Marilyn, but Astrid’s mother’s maiden name.

It was difficult for him to keep his gaze on the road and not the mirror, where her face reflected in the corner of his eye. But every time he felt the urge, Ezra also felt the sore spot on his arm where Maddie had punched him and told him that he was an idiot and that they were in the fucking apocalypse and she didn’t have time for his shit. He’d wanted to tell her that there was nothing wrong with thinking Astrid was attractive, but then he realized that then he’d be admitting that he did, in fact, find her attractive and that was the last thing he wanted.

Unfortunately, they’d gotten to know each other well enough over a few weeks that Maddie could read him like a book. It probably didn’t help that whenever Astrid was around, he couldn’t stop looking at her.

Ezra pushed all thoughts of this to the back of his mind, because they were approaching the gas station. They had emptied out the closer stores and needed to venture further out from the camp, which raised the need for extra gasoline. Ezra hopped out of the Jeep and circled the vehicle to where the pump stood, picking up a Jerry can from the trunk as he did so. It was a languorous process, retrieving the gasoline, and this station was almost out. They would have to resort to taking it from other cars soon.

With a relatively full tank and an extra can in the back, Ezra climbed back into the driver’s seat. Maddie was polishing her Python with her shirt, staring out the window. When he started to drive again, she tucked it back into it’s holster.

“You said it was a ten minute drive, right?”

“Maybe fifteen, who knows.”

“And it’s what, another convenience store?”

“Supermarket, actually.”

“Like rotten vegetables are going to do much good.”

“It’s bound to have a bigger canned goods section,” he argued. “But it’s in a populated area, so there’s gonna be Walkers.”

“Fantastic,” Maddie muttered.

“You brought extra rounds, didn’t you?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Of course I did.”

In the backseat, Astrid hadn’t spoken a word since the beginning of the drive. Ezra wanted to ask her what her experience had been, where she came from, anything. It was obvious she could take care of herself, anybody who survived for so long alone had to be smart and capable.

They drove past two Walkers wandering in the grass. Astrid watched the creatures, wide eyed. “You aren’t going to stop?” she asked.

Ezra caught her gaze briefly in the mirror. “They aren’t doing any harm, and we’re in a car. It’s a waste of energy and gas.”

She nodded, pursing her lips together. He understood that she wasn’t accustomed to leaving the Walkers be, because she’d always had to kill them. That was what life was like for Solitaries, kill or die, because they didn’t have cars or back up.

The grocery store Ezra marked on the map had two smashed in windows, and looked like it had definitely been pilfered through. He let out a sigh as he got out of the Jeep, hoping that there would be something edible left. Across the street, four Walkers were wandering vaguely in their direction, having been alerted by the rumble of the Jeep’s engine. Astrid went to work on them immediately, and for a moment Ezra forgot everything.

She lifted her crossbow like it was an extension of her arm and fired, already loading another arrow while the first had lodged itself in the eye of one of the Walkers. The second arrow caught a Walker in it’s open mouth, and it collapsed. Ezra stared at Astrid’s focused face, wispy strands of red hair falling over her eyes and the muscles in her jaw working as one of the arrows took a second longer to load. A Walkers had gotten close while she was aiming for another, and Ezra broke of his daze.

In a few seconds he ran over to her, just as she was spinning around to face the Walker. Astrid had pulled a knife from her belt but Ezra was faster. In a swift motion he lifted his machete and brought it down on the creature’s head. He sliced halfway into it and yanked his weapon out, grimacing when the Walker moaned on it’s way to the pavement.

“That was unnecessary,” she told him, tucking her blade into her belt.

“I couldn’t let you do all the work,” he replied with a grin.

Astrid ducked her head and went to the store into which Maddie had already disappeared. In a beat Ezra followed, once he had wiped the blood and brains off of his machete and onto the dead grass.

He found Maddie at the back of the store, her arms filled with an assortment of cans. It appeared that whoever had stocked up from this store before them didn’t think of checking the storage. Ezra breathed a sigh of relief when he entered the small room and saw it adequately stocked. He grabbed what he could and went out to the Jeep, dropping the cans into the trunk.

They weren’t as lucky with the medical supplies. Maddie found a bottle of Advil and some boxes of bandages, and she handed them to Ezra. “I think there might be some gauze too; I’ll have another look.”

“What about rubbing alcohol?” Astrid asked, appearing behind him with a bag of dog food in her arms. He wondered where she’d found it, having not seen a pet food section.

“Yeah, they’ve got that. But only one small bottle.” Maddie said, moving along the aisle. “Oh, awesome, matches!”

“Take them all,” Ezra told her.