~ Luke ~

We decided to ditch all the backpacks. We figured waltzing into town looking like we just escaped a warzone in the Rocky Mountains wasn't the best first impression.

When we got in the city, everything was lively, active, normal.

"I can't believe it. I thought the whole world would be a wreck." Lucy awed.

Nobody had to say anything because we were all thinking the same.

"Okay, so. The plan still stands. We get gas and take it to the vans," Annie pulled out a wad of cash from her pocket and began splitting it up between us, "take this and pay for it. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"It's kind of hot to see her take charge... NOT THE TIME!!"

"This is all your money?" Chip said as he stuffed the bills into his back pocket.

"More or less." Annie said, clearly not wanting to talk about it.

"Good enough for me!" I said to end the conversation. Annie noticed and shot me a smile.

"What do we do if we are stopped by the cops?" Lucy asked as a police car drove on by. "It's weird to see a group of people buying gas then walking off with it, out of town not to mention."

"Hmm. You have a point. Well, let's say our van ran out of gas out of town and we are here getting the gas." Annie followed up.

"Smart and pretty.... Again, not the time!"

"I like that plan. That excuse sounds valid too." I chipped in.

"I'm such a kiss-ass... As long as it gets us points, it's worth it... Is it? Is it really?"

We all nodded our agreement.

"I think we should split up. I know splitting up never works out, but I think it'd be safer that way. Four people at one gas station leaving town with eight gas cans of gas for one van? I'm taking part in it and it sounds fishy." I said, breaking the silence that hung over us, "Annie and Chip take one gas station, Lucy and I will find another." Again everyone nodded.

Lucy and I had to stop and ask a few people where a gas station was, but finally found one. It was weird. We were paying for the gas, but we were using it for survival. We knew what was happening, these people didn't.

"Now's not the time to be feeling guilty. If you start wailing about zombies, people will laugh at you and they'll think you're on drugs.... Good point, but it still feels rotten..."

After we got our gas, we walked back. At the meeting, we never made a place to meet up so the first place we went was the outskirts of town where the plan was made. Luckily, Annie and Chip had the same idea in mind.

We made that trip a few times, alternating stations and then eventually finding new ones. We pretty much had a good mental map of the city, well part of it. Lucy was getting tired and Chip wasn't as young as he use to be, so Annie and I sent them to the van with the last two gas cans. Annie and I wanted to make one more run with what little money she had left. When we got to the gas station, the only sound was of the gas filling the cans, it bothered me.

"So, you gonna tell me where all the money came from?" I was curious about it for awhile and finally I got her alone to ask.

She sighed. "When we scavenged other towns, I sometimes got into registers and got the biggest bills. It made me feel, rich? I don't know. I also felt that maybe they could be useful one day, so I got them." She was really defending herself here. I wasn't about to criticize her, it was a smart plan in my book.

"Hey," I threw my hands up a bit, "no judgement here. It's that kind of thinking that saved us today. With the gas I mean." I was trying too hard to be a cool guy.

She covered her mouth with the back of her hand as she laughed. "Here I was thinking you'd call me a thief."

"Well I mean, I like Annie better, but if you wanna change your name to Thief, that's kinda cool I guess." I teased. She punched my arm and gave a genuine laugh. You know, the kind where her face lights up and her smile is so big that it showed dimples I didn't even know were there.

"She's definitely the most gorgeous girl in the whole world."

I wasn't paying attention to the city for awhile and when I finally looked around, I wished I had been. There were still people around, but not as much. It felt dead for a lively city. Don't mind the pun.

I noticed a lot of cars though, packed full it seemed. I nudged Annie. "Annie, I think we should go."

"Why?" She said drifting her eyes up to the streets, "Oh."

Nothing would've seemed out of place if you were living here without a care in the world, but if you knew what was out there, you began to get a sixth sense about this type of thing. We paid for the gas and left the station. We headed to our normal meeting spot we've been using all day. After every corner we turned, more and more people gathered. On foot, in cars, on bikes. Different methods of transportation, one same quality. They were packed, and ready to leave.

Annie and I looked at each other. "Think the Z's caught up?" I asked.

She just shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Now that everyone wanted out of town, two people carrying bright red gas cans didn't look that out of place. The sun began to go down and the streetlights began to buzz on, illuminating the streets with their orangish, yellowish glow. As we came up to a corner, I paused and Annie did too.

There was someone talking on a loud speaker, above the low moan of a crowd of people. There was a flow of bright, white light that covered the street ahead of us. We turned the corner and were blinded by the spotlights. The road we met on was blocked off by a blockade of cop cars and guys with guns, big guns. The crowd was agitated, they wanted out.

"Go back to your homes. This is your final warning. If you don't, we have been ordered to shoot." I heard the male voice scream over the loudspeaker.

"What do we do?!" I heard Annie ask, she sounded scared. I was too, I won't lie.

"We just leave from a different way is all, okay?" I tried to reassure her as much as I tried to reassure myself.

We went against the flow of people and headed to another section of town. We came across the same thing. The road out of town was blocked off.

"You can't keep us in here! We aren't animals. Let us leave!" An angry pedestrian yelled.

I ran up to someone trying to leave and tapped their shoulder. "What's going on?"

"Didn't you see the emergency broadcast?" She asked, a bit angry.

"No, sorry. We were getting gas. Our car ran out of it outside of town."

The lady laughed. "Well get comfortable. No one's going anywhere. The city is on lockdown. A virus or something is going around and they are quarantining us. No one is allowed in or out of the city." She turned back to join in on the chant "Let us out!"

I gulped hard and held Annie's gaze for a long time. "Okay, there's no need to panic. We'll just find a way and-"

I was cut off from a thunderous crack, then another and another, from the front of the crowd that gathered at this blockade.

Gunshots.

The shots were then followed by low, rumbles that sounded like thunder. Except it wasn't thunder. It was a crowd of hundreds of people screaming and running our way.

I stared at the rush of people coming at us with widened eyes, like a deer in headlights. I turned to Annie and dropped the gas can I was holding. "Run! Now!" She dropped hers and we both sprinted down the street as hard as we could.

The sounds of screams and things breaking filled the air. The crowds of people began to form back in the heart of the city, running, screaming, falling, throwing things. The city was in chaos.

As we ran, rocks and other objects began falling from the sky, people were rioting and looting everywhere. We dodged what we could see. Most of it either missed us or we endured the sting of a rock hitting our backs.

A guy was running beside us, constantly looking over his shoulder. I kept looking over at him and he at me. Both of us were terrified, but we kept running. An object caught my eye, a flaming rag. It arced over the crowd ahead of us and crashed against the ground in front of the guy who was running beside us, but now lagged behind a tad bit. I was hit with a burst of intense heat and fell to the ground as the object exploded and sent liquid fire and glass shards everywhere.

A Molotov cocktail.

When I looked back, the guy was screaming and flailing around as flames engulfed his whole body. He fell to the ground and went quiet. An arm hooked around mine and pulled me to my feet, it was Annie.

"We need to get some place safe!" She shouted, to make sure I could hear. I didn't say anything, I just nodded and let her pull me for a bit.

"If I had been two feet over and about five feet back, that would've been me laying there as a human barbeque..."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

~ Annie ~

I pulled Luke along by the arm. The molotov had clearly affected him more than it did me. I don't blame him, it was a sad and terrifying thing to see, but we had to keep going. Otherwise, we'd be trampled by the flood of people behind us. The smell of burning flesh assaulted my nostrils as the wind drifted it our way, damn our strong noses.

As we ran with the crowd, people covered their faces with masks and began throwing bricks through store windows. Soon after, people would run out with armfuls of stuff. We dodged and weaved around the best we could, but bumping into people was inevitable.

The smell of smoke filled the air and fire was the new light. Cars, stores, trash bins, hell even the sidewalk was on fire. A clearing in the stampeding crowd opened up to people chanting and dancing around a car that was a ball of flames, sending pitch black smoke into the sky.

"Everyone's gone in-fricking-sane!"

I tried to remember the mental map I made earlier today, but the panic and all the commotion disoriented me. It's safe to say I had no clue where we were.

Luke got his bearings and started tugging me along now. He turned back as we ran, "This way, I know a place." He seemed to remember where here was.

He pulled me through the crowd and we turned. Everyone else was going straight, except a few stragglers like us. This road was less chaotic. Not as many fires and crazed lunatics, but still hectic. A tall building loomed in the distance all lit up like a glow stick.

"Please don't let that be the place..."

"There," Luke pointed to the giant glow stick, "it's a hotel. I saw it looking for gas!" He shouted as we ran.

My legs burned. We had been running back and forth all day carrying heavy cans of gas, now we were running for our lives. We came up to the hotel, and surprisingly it was fairly untouched. We made our way in and a few people rushed by us, going outside carrying their stuff.

"Okay, now what? How do we get in one of the rooms?" I said, trying to regain my breath.

A cleaning lady was stashing some stuff into a duffle bag and Luke trotted up to her.

"Maybe she'll help." He said looking over his shoulder at me.

"She's not going to just hand over a key." I replied.

"Let me try some of my charm."

I rolled my eyes and smiled to myself.

"He's such a dork... A cute dork..."

"Hey. Can we have your room key? You know, the one that gets into any room?" Luke flat out asked.

The lady eyed us suspiciously, not sure if she should.

"See?"

"Please. Can you just, help us out? We just want a safe place to rest tonight." Luke begged. He was really trying.

She sighed and unclipped a card from her belt and handed it to him. "May God watch over you two." She said with a slight accent and she was out the door.

"Well damn."

Luke looked at me and shot me a smile, "Piece of cake."

"Don't get cocky, now." I laughed and followed him to a split in a hallway. There were signs above us.

<- Stairs
Elevator ->

Luke stared up at the signs then over to me. I gave him that glare, that only someone in our shoes would understand. He laughed out loud and we ran to the right. Like hell we'd take the stairs.

We headed to the top floor. The ride up let us rest our legs a bit.

He pointed to a red plaque and read what it said aloud. "In case of a fire, do not use."

"The fire is outside. No way am I taking a gazillion stairs." I rested on the floor, pulling my knees to my chest.

He shrugged. "If we get stuck in here, I'm blaming you." He was teasing me.

"He's teasing me.... But I kind of like it... Oh gosh, stop! Not now!"

I shook the lustful thoughts clear and decided to do a bit of teasing myself, "Would that be such a bad thing? To be stuck in here with me?" I arched an eyebrow.

He started to speak but stopped and closed his mouth.

"Ah-ha! Gotcha."

"No. It wouldn't." He mumbled.

My cheeks went hot and my heart raced. I rested my head on my knees to hide my face.

"And then he got me... He's good."

There was an awkward silence for a few floors, then he coughed and spoke, "so you want the biggest suite or the next biggest?"

I looked at him. "I don't know. Which one do you want?"

"Whichever one you don't pick I guess."

"He's just trying to be a gentleman. Which is cute, but I want him to make the choices... It's kind of a turn on.... Oh well, I'll decide this time."

I watched his eyes travel the elevator's interior before they locked onto mine. He stayed silent. He seemed like he was thinking about something, but he was content with "the way of the gentleman."

"Cutie... Just say it! ... Fine, fine."

"You're staying in the room I'm staying in. We shouldn't be alone. Safety comes first." I demanded.