Chapter 5

The main road fades into narrow country roads that are filled with potholes and the fields turn into dense forest.

”How much longer?” Jenna complains, stretching in her seat. 

“We’ll get there when we get there” Sybil replies as the car veers into another country road. 

“Let’s play I spy while we wait” Theo suggests and starts to stare intently out of the car window. 

“No” “Ok!”

”I spy with my little eye” I groan. Seriously why am I here again? “Something beginning wiiiith... t!”

”I don’t know” I say dryly “Trees?”

”How did you know? Ok, your turn!”

”Do I have to?”

”Yes”

”Fine. I spy with my little eye...”

It takes another hour and 10 more rounds of eye spy for the car to turn off the road and pull to a stop outside of a warehouse.

”Well, here we are” Sybil puts the car into park. 

We unbuckle our seatbelts and pile out of the car. The warehouse stands at the edge of a dense forest. There aren’t any other buildings nearby, just forest and fields that stretch for miles. 

“Come on, I have to introduce you to everybody!” Theo grabs mine and Jenna’s hands and pulls us across the grass towards the warehouse. 

The warehouse has been sectioned off into various rooms with bedsheets and table clothes. 

“So this is the hall” Theo said gesturing to the long empty strip down the centre of the warehouse. The hallway ended at a large floral tablecloth. 

I nod and stare vacantly at the bright green bedsheet that hung next to me until I noticeTheo staring at me expectantly.  “What? Oh- yeah the hall is lovely”

”It’s the best hall I’ve ever seen” Jenna agrees. 

“I know right? Originally they wanted to have all the rooms connected but I was like that’s ridiculous! We have to have a hall!”

”Right what were they thinking”

”No yeah you definitely made the right decision”

”Ok so anyways this is where the kitchen is” Theo pulls back the bright green bedsheet to reveal a middle aged man stirring a saucepan of rice over a portable electric stove. 

“Oh it’s lovely” Jenna says awkwardly.

“Yeah, um, it’s very, uh, cozy” I agree.

”This is Lewis!” Theo points to the man who nods at you in acknowledgment. “Lewis, this is Erin” Theo enthusiastically places his hands on my shoulders and pushes me forward a little bit. I lift my hand in an awkward wave. 

“And this is Jenna!” He moves on to Jenna.

”Hello” she does the awkward wave too. 

“Ok on with the tour” Theo steers us both out of the ‘kitchen’ and closes the bedsheet behind him. “That is the storage room” he gestures vaguely towards the yellow bedsheet opposite the ‘kitchen’ before moving onto the orange tablecloth next to the kitchen. 

“This is the boys bedroom” Theo says while dramatically pushing the tablecloth aside. There’s a row of sleeping bags and blankets laid out on the floor. Some of the makeshift beds have pillows, others have rolled up towels and clothes. 

A young man, around my age, is lying on one of the sleeping bags reading a book. “That’s Jacob” Taehyung introduces him “Jacob, this is Erin and Jenna”. Then he promptly closes the tablecloth and moves on with the tour. 

Across from the boys bedroom is the girls bedroom which is exactly the same as the boys one except it has a teenage girl called Zoe instead of a Jacob. 

From there you move onto the large dining room/ living area where you’re introduced to Elle, Olivia, Malcolm, Mathew and Julian who are playing cards. 

“And this is the garden!” Theo exclaims as we approach the back of the house “And that’s Colin and Nathan”

Colin and Nathan look up from where they’re gardening with Sybil and wave at us. 

“Hey, where are Hugo, Allie and Jesse?” Theo asks “I didn’t see them inside”

”They’re gone hunting” Colin or Nathan responds.

 Later that evening I find myself seated next to Allie.

”So...how did hunting go?”

She shoves another spoonful of rice into her mouth “Good. Got two rabbits and five undead”

I nod “That’s good”

”Yeah. How’re you settling in?”

”Good”

”That’s good”

”Yeah” I push the last few grains of rains around my chipped bowl “So what happens now? Are we just going to stay here forever and hope we don’t get infected by zombies?”

“No there’s a ship that leaves in a month, we’re going to go on it and go to the safe island”

“The safe island?” I frown

“It’s the only place in the world that hasn’t been infected”

“So what do we do until then?”

“We hunt zombies of course”

Our conversation is interrupted by Julian shouting across the table (which consists of a bunch of cardboard boxes pushed together) “Hey since Erin and Jenna are new here they can do the wash up!”

”That’s hardly fair, we’re so tired from our long day of being saved and being introduced to everyone” Jenna dramatically placed the back of her hand against her forehead. 

“New people have to wash the dishes” Colin shrugs. 

“You just made that up now!” I point at him accusingly. 

“Hey I don’t make the rules”

Jenna and I end up doing the dishes. 

That night I lie on the floor underneath a blanket. Beside me Jenna lies wrapped in a sleeping bag (she won the game of Rock Paper Scissors).

”I’m glad you convinced me to come with you today” She suddenly whispers. 

“I’m glad Theo and Sybil convinced me to go with them” I whisper back.

And I am. It feels nice to be part of a community again. Being surrounded by people again has made me realise how lonely I’ve been the last ten days. 

Chatting and laughing with everyone this evening almost made me forget that the world is infested with walking corpses that will jump at the chance to turn me into a corpse too. 

Yes, I think I’m going to like it here. 

A/N

I’m bad at filler chapters so forgive me for whatever this mess is 😂 see you next update!

**Amy x**

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