Civilian

I called out for Kuo as I approached the cinderblock building, secluded in the woods of Southern Georgia, the old workshop house provided some safety and a chance to catch our breath.

My leather hunting back jangled against my side, heavy with the weight of three rabbits, a squirrel, two ravens and a collection of fresh greens I'd harvested at the stream. Kuo was lazy, or so we joked. She was actually great protection. She just didn't like getting her hands dirty with scavenging when she could be keeping watch.

"Kuo! I swear to God if you took in another guy..." I began, when the front door swung open and a shotgun barrel appeared, meeting me at eye level, stopping me in my tracks for a second.

"Stranger danger." Kuo muttered with a smirk, lowering the weapon and holding the front door open. "Find anything good?" She wondered hopefully as I made my way through the maze of empty, furniture-less rooms to the kitchen, which held little more than a few food wrappers, and a splintering dining table set, which had long since been left behind.

"If you count the loads of fresh game I got, then yes." I flashed her a grin as I set down the bag on the angled, dusty countertop. She made a face, "I swear to God, Helena, it's not that hard to scavenge a bag of Dortitos." I laughed, how could I not? Maybe I just had a different outlook on the end of the world. I found it quite amusing to joke about everyday items we'd never have the pleasure to use again, like sleeping in a real bed, eating real food, and checking your text messages. The age of technology had long since been swallowed up three months ago, when the cities began to blink out, one by one, until all communication failed.

I began to sort out everything I'd found. We'd be good for another few days, but we'd have to stuff ourselves. If we had luxuries such as a fridge, all this food could easily last us a week or more, but it was just the position we found ourselves in.

"When do you want dinner?" I asked without looking up. I set aside the rabbits, and grabbed the greens. Wild aspargus, Katniss tubers, dandilion heads, roots and leaves, and more.

"I'll start the fire now." Kuo pulled open the cellar doors and ducked down the steps. We'd been containing our fires in the basement, and had our supplies down there, too. The smoke didn't get out so thick, to give away our location. At night, we'd close the doors, pile useless shit on top of the doors to hide them, and squeeze into the cellar through the one window outside, behind a thick curtain of kudzu growing down the side of the building.

I decided on rabbit for tonight, and pulled out my buck knife, and began skinning them. We had a temporary luxury of food, we didn't have to share tonight.

I tossed the skins aside. We could cure them and make some winter clothes from them. Already, Kuo had crafted warm hats from two cyotes we'd gotten a few weeks back during our migration down from the north. We'd been hanging around the Georgia area for the past month and a half, on our way to Fort Bennet, to get our uncle Briggs, who was stationed there.

"Bout done, there?" Kuo called up from the cellar.

"Yeah!" I called back, grabbing the prepared food and took it downstairs to cook it.



"How much further do you think we have?" Kuo asked after dinner. The sky was darkening, so we'd already closed up the cellar. We sat on the concrete floor of the cellar, around the simmering coals, with a few small voltives lighting the room. I stared thoughtfully into the flickering ashes. "If we head out within the next few days, maybe a week on foot. Regrouping takes a while."

It did. We'd lost a lot of friends and family working our way down from Montana. Over twenty-seven, actually... Leaving us the badass, zombie killing twins.

"I can't wait to get there," She groaned dramatically, laughing, "People, civilization - yes!"

I chuckled and took another drink of beer. The case we found in the cellar a few days ago. When your days are numbered, why bother with being all 'proper'? And sober...

We'd been on the road for a good bit, mostly on foot. From car to car, base to base, holing up in crumbling apartments, keeping an eye out for each other. That's what sisters do, at least, close ones. No one would really guess that we were twins, unless they saw our eyes. We both had bright hazel eyes, with natural raccoon-style eyelashes. Kuo wore dark sunglasses most of the time, to hide our simularities. We were different heights, both had black hair, at least, but hers was long and naturally curly, mine was chopped off at shoulder length, straight as a strand of wheat. Our mother used to tell us we were identical when we were toddlers, we'd laugh and brush it off, but she had the pictures to prove it. We'd claim that they were photoshopped, but no hiding how much we looked like each other.

"It'd be nice to be around people," I mused in agreement, "But I'm really more of a 'traveler' kind of gal." I say with a shrug. I'd always felt this feeling of discontent being around people, all people, even family. I'd rather be in the woods, up in the trees, reading an old novel. So when shit hit the fan and things went south, I ran headfirst into the woods without a second thought. There were enough forgotten homesteads and farmhouses to be found out there, so we avoided most of the dangerous hunting groups on our way down. However, we couldn't evade all of them, and it costed our family's life.

She playfully punched my shoulder, "You were always the downer, never wanted to go out or do much."

I shrugged. That's just how I'd always been, it wasn't like I had a troubled childhood to run from, I just prefered the forest to home, and trees to people.

Just then, we heard a clatter above us. Our talking fell silent immediately.

"Did you hear that?" Kuo barely whispered, looking up at the floorboards.

I nodded slightly, and we listened. Thanks to the house being ancient and poorly constructed, we quickly realized that we weren't alone. With every silent step the being above took, a small bit of dust sifted from between the boards and fell towards the cellar floor.

"Think it's human?" Kuo whispered, reaching for her bow and knife. I held my breath and waited, a bit of banging went on, and then a creak of the kitchen cupboard, then everything fell into silence.

"Maybe... Unless the dead need to scavenge, too."

The very thought that we'd have an encounter with a human over a corpse-stumbler was more frightening. People were unpredictable, they could play your mind, and kill you in your sleep. At least the dead ones were easy to read, all they wanted was to eat your throat out, they didn't seek revenge or supplies.

"Should we go?..." Kuo wondered, and I wondered, too. There was nothing up there, anyways, so they might leave soon.

I slowly climbed to my feet and watched the cellar door. No one was moving anymore, and we'd know if they tried to open the doors.

"I'll go." I announced without discussion, "Otherwise we'll just have to deal with it in the morning."

I went to the window and grabbed my knife. I climbed up the pile of furniture and wiggled out of the cellar through the small window. Kuo watched me from below.

The sky was painted black with a million tiny stars above. They twinkled softly, a welcoming sight as long as you could forget where you were and the world's current status.

I gripped my knife as I headed for the first corner of the house. I scanned the surrounding woods theroughly for threats. I caught the smell before I heard the growl. The unmistakable stentch of a walking corpse. The growl rumbled, and I noticed it, it stood on the small concrete porch in front of the front door of the building, growling, and clawing aimlessly at the metal door.

I didn't see any others, so I signalled a whistle to catch it's attention. It turned, and fumbled across the dew slick grass, and grasped at air. When it got close enough, I darted towards it and dodged it's attack, and drove my knife into it's head.

Now I understood why someone might be inside. They were obviously unarmed or weak if they didn't just kill it instead of hiding out.

I crouch beneath the small, light-limiting windows towards the front door. I sat there for a moment to listen for more movement inside or around me. It was quiet.

I reached above my head and gripped the handle, carefully, almost painfully slowly, I pulled it down and the door clicked, creaking open, casting a ray of pale moonlight across the splintering wood floor in the front room. I pushed it open a little wider and scanned the room for any sign someone had been there. I glanced down, at the splotches, and puddles of water going into the kitchen. The crescent shape appeared to be small footprints.

I stepped in, already so familiar with every creaking board in the house. I tiptoed over them, knife raised, and eyes alert. I moved silently as a ghost towards the small kitchen.

I stood in the doorway and held my breath, searching the shadows. Then there was a soft thud, followed by a quiet cry. My eyes darted to the far end of the kitchen, where the broom closest and pantry was. Another cry, and sniffling. Whoever it was, they were weakened, they wouldn't fight back.

I moved towards the cabinet, advancing just out of the moonrays so my shadow wouldn't be cast across the gaps in the door, hinting my approach.

The boards squeaked quietly, and I stopped, mere feet from the door. I reached out, readjusting my grip on the knife handle, I concentrated on the task, and arranged my pose to attack. I held my breath and grabbed the door handle, I sighed quietly, and yanked it open, pulling up a mini flashlight that was attached to my belt loop, and shined it inside.

Cowering in the corner of the cabinet, beneath the shelves, in a mess of old wool blankets and dusty throw pillows, was a young girl. She shielded her frightened eyes, and curled up tighter into the corner, just trying to disappear, squirming in the light. What surprised me was, she looked no older than eleven or twelve, she didn't belong out here, not alone.

I dropped the knife onto the kitchen table and slowly crouched in front of her, lowering the flashlight to give her a moment to recover. I noticed her forest fatigue clothing, mud stained khaki shorts, dirty skin, and her face beared so much grime, it was hard to tell her skin tone. She peered back at me with terrified hazel, almost green eyes, much like mine and Kuo's.

Her hair was shoulder length, and a bronze shade. It was hard to tell in the dim darkness.

"Hey..." I whispered, trying not to come off as threatening. Trying to recall the tone I'd used when I used to babysit on weekends, the tone that made kids like you, and want to bake cookies with you, and hang out, not cry in a dusty cupboard. "Sweetie, what are you doing here?" I murmured, trying to guess how she'd ended up this far in the backwoods of Georgia.

She sniffled, and peeked at me with red rimmed, tear filled eyes. "I- I got lost." She croaked, her voice cracking.

"How long have you been out here?"

She shrugged slightly, and wiped at a tear on her cheek. "I, I think three days, maybe four?"

"Do you have others?"

"Yes." She nodded slightly, turning more to face me, "We broke down on a highway and had to find parts to fix the RV. While Dale was doing that, a bunch of walkers came through. Rick had us hide under the cars, I thought it was clear and climbed out, but a few of them saw me and chased me. I ran into the woods, and Rick came after me. He- He said he'd lure them away, he hid me by the creek and told me if he didn't come back, to go back the way we'd come, and keep the sun on my left shoulder... I did. I left the spot and tried to go back, but darkness fell, and I couldn't find the highway." She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Okay..." I paused, trying to think of what I wanted to do to help her, "Come on out, we're set up in the basement, we have food and water. Tell me, what's your name?"

I stepped back from the cupboard as she crawled out, and stood up straight, "Sophia." She replied, looking up at me.