The pretty girl we saved

All was quiet in the next two days. Jolie and her grandmother were always together. Whenever I felt like having some company, I would join them.

Eventually, I told Tom everything about the zombie chips. I was afraid that the company might be able to track them somehow. If they did, I wanted him to know what might happen. After I told him everything, Tom didn’t become as frightened as I was. He told me everything would be okay.

It was at that point that I began to appreciate having a strong man around. If I had given this information to Jolie, I was pretty sure she would have hyperventilated and said things that would scare me even more.

Tom made me feel somehow safe, as safe as one could feel in the apocalypse. Sleeping was slightly hard because I kept wondering if life would be easier without the chips. Maybe I could take them back of keep all of them out of the home.

The people who made those chips could make better technology that could destroy my home. Just thinking about the survivors that might know about the existence of those chips made me scared.

One morning, I was feeling pretty low. Tom suggested we go scavenge some supplies. According to him, moving around could help me. Besides we needed more batteries.

We had used more than I expected on flashlights, cameras, and some of the equipment around the house. Fuel was another problem. I had managed to stockpile some and Tom brought more, but with the city becoming increasingly dangerous, I didn’t want to wait until we were almost empty before looking for more.

“We need batteries,” I said, placing a small list of necessities on the table. “And fuel.”

Tom looked at it while eating breakfast. “There’s a mall about twenty minutes from here.”

“How do you know?”

“I used to go there.”

“Shopping?”

“Yes, Mia. Is there anything wrong with that?”

“You’re rich. I thought you had people do everything for you.”

“Was.”

“What?”

“I’m poor now. All the money I had the bank is useless. You’re actually richer than me now”

I smiled, thinking of all the supplies I had stockpiled. “That’s true.”

“There’s a service station behind the mall,” he continued after a while. “We can get fuel from there.”

The city was so quiet. I drove carefully, avoiding the larger groups of zombies wandering through the streets. When we reached the mall, I parked behind a delivery truck. However, the main entrance was blocked by abandoned cars, making things difficult.

“We’ll enter through the parking garage,” I said as my eyes scanned the area. Tom nodded.

The parking garage was dark. Using my flashlight, I flashed the abandoned vehicles. There were bodies in some and they had broken glass and bloodstains. Tom suddenly stopped walking.

“What?”

He lifted a hand. “Listen.”

I stopped walking.

“Help!” The woman’s voice came from somewhere ahead. “Please! Somebody!”

I immediately raised my gun. Tom frowned at me. “Could be a trap.”

“Right.”

We moved carefully toward the sound.

“Please! I’m trapped!” The person said again.

When we passed by a concrete pillar, I saw a damaged SUV lying against another vehicle. The driver’s side was crushed leaving a young woman trapped inside.

She looked to be around my age. She was very beautiful with long blonde hair. A streak of blood was running down one side of her forehead. When she saw us, relief filled her eyes. “Please,” she begged.

Tom was about to hurry to the car when I grabbed his arm. “Wait. We don’t know if she’s infected.”

“I’m not infected!” The young woman cried out.

“How long have you been trapped?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Have you been bitten?”

“No.”

“Show me.”

She carefully pulled up her sleeve. No bite. Then she lifted one leg as much as she could. There was a deep cut across her thigh, but no bite.

Tom crouched beside the vehicle. “She’s bleeding badly.”

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Claire.”

“How did you end up here?”

“I was with a group,” she said. “There were eight of us. The infected came from nowhere. We were trying to get out through the parking garage and someone crashed into us.”

Tears filled her eyes. “People started running but I got trapped.”

“What happened to the others?”

“I don’t know,” she said, closing her eyes. “I think some were killed and others ran. The zo- infected went after them.”

I studied her. She seemed to be telling the truth.

“System,” I whispered, so low that no one else heard.

A scan appeared.

[Potential Survivor Detected.]

[Loyalty Potential: HIGH.]

[Survival Usefulness: HIGH.]

I raised an eyebrow. What could she do? I trusted the system so I decided to believe it’s evaluation. Claire didn’t look dangerous.

Tom immediately began examining the wreckage while Claire watched him. For some reason, I felt slightly uncomfortable with the way she was watching him.

She was staring at him as if he was a delicious snack. I mean, he was but she didn’t have to make it so obvious that she found him attractive.

Tom worked carefully to free her. When he finally managed to pull her out, Claire cried out in pain. She tried to walk but almost fell. Tom caught her.

“Easy. You can barely stand.”

“Let me try,” she said with a soft smile.

“You don’t have to prove anything,” Tom said, lifting her. Claire wrapped her arms around his neck.

I felt something in my throat and looked away. I didn’t know why I was suddenly feeling so irritated.

She was injured and I was helping her, as a good doctor should. I looked around our surroundings while Tom carried Claire to a corner. He opened his backpack that had an emergency first aid kit.

“This is going to hurt.”

Claire nodded. “I can handle it.”

As Tom cleaned the wound, she winced but didn’t complain.

“You’re tougher than you look,” he said afterward.

She smiled. “Thanks.”

“How bad is it?” I asked Tom.

“Deep cut but nothing life-threatening.”

“Alright.”

Claire looked up at me. She had very beautiful baby blue eyes. “Thank you.”

I nodded. “You would have done the same.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I would.”

“Why?”

“Honestly, I would have kept walking.”

“Why?”

She glanced at the dead bodies scattered across the garage. “It’s the apocalypse. everyone is trying to survive. You have to learn to put yourself first.”

Those words should have been a warning to me but I didn’t think much of it.

“Can you stand?” Tom asked after wrapping her wound. Claire tried but almost fell. Tom caught her again.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.”

She chuckled. “I don’t want to be a burden.”

“You aren’t.”

I rolled my eyes. This was ridiculous. There were zombies outside and they were busy acting lovey-dovey.

“We can take her with us.” I said. She probably had nowhere to go

Claire’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Temporarily. You recover at my base. Then we’ll decide what happens later.”

Claire nodded quickly and tried to come to me but failed. “Thank you so much.”

I turned to Tom. “We still need what we came for.”

“Right.”

As we searched around, Claire stayed close to Tom, leaning on him whenever her injured leg hurt. I tried to ignore it but it was hard

Eventually, we found a service entrance leading into the mall. The place had already been looted, but we found a box of batteries in a locked maintenance room. I quickly loaded them into our bags and we went down to the service station.

Around 8 zombies came out from between the parked cars. I pulled out my gun. Meanwhile, Claire took a step back and Tom moved in front of her. I fired at the zombies coming towards us while Tom used his sword to take down some zombies.

Claire picked up a metal rod and smashed it into the head of another zombie. I stared at her in shock. Clearly, she wasn’t as helpless as I initially thought.

[Combat activity detected.]

[Survival activity recorded.]

We found some fuel containers at the station but not as many as if hoped. But it was something.

As we returned to the vehicle, Claire walked beside Tom, telling him about her life before the apocalypse. He listened patiently. They even started cracking jokes and laughing together. For some reason, her laughter annoyed me.

“How long have you known Tom?” Claire suddenly asked when we were in the car. For some reason, Tom had also chosen to sit in the backseat with her. It was like the beginning of a love story.

“Not long.”

Claire smiled. “I figured”

“Why?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

“You don’t act like people who’ve known each other for long.”

I didn’t say anything. Tom chuckled.

As I drove back toward the base, I glanced at Claire through the rearview mirror. She was sitting very close to Tom and was watching him like he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. There was no way Tom hadn’t noticed that, and yet he was just there basking in the admiration.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and suddenly increased the speed as I went up a speed bump, making them jerk forward.

When Claire gasped, I bit my lip to hide the grin threatening to spread out.