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Aleesa Nikolai sits in the garage of her safe house, working on her car, pausing every few minutes to listen. Outside the safe house was a wall of hot wired semis crashed together, the only entrance/exit a three doored trailer, otherwise having to crawl underneath. Aleesa jumps at a small noise, her hand going to the M1911 pistol her dad not-so-willingly gave her, but shrugged as a rat scurried by, continuing with the modificatons to her old corvette.

As Nick continued down the tracks he began to feel a slight pain in his leg. He knew he had worn himself down too much by walking with too much weight for so long. He sat down and snacked on his last granola bar that he had been saving since the last building he looted through. "I guess now is as good as ever." He said as he took off his pack and leaned up against a tree and put his rifle in his lap. Things were calm out in the woods. Not much life to be found or undead. "If I can find a way to settle down around here I would be happy." He realized at that moment that he may not find another person to talk to and may be alone with his thoughts. He took in the beauty of the world around him amidst the chaos he had already experienced, finished his snack and began walked along the tracks some more. As he began to tire once more he noticed a large wall of trucks formed very well around some sort of building. "There must be people inside!" He increased his pace and made it to the trucks and began to call out. "Is there anyone here!?" He exclaimed.

After the shot landed next to Nick's foot he immediately took cover behind a close by tree. He then heard her call out that he drop his weapon. "I'll do what you say if I have your word that you won't shoot me as I come out again. I am not looking for a fight, just a place to stay and people to stay with." Nick said as he revealed one hand up out from the tree he was behind but held close to his rifle until her response.

"She didn't quite give me her word that she won't shoot me but she seems like she's letting me through" Nick thought to himself. He walked over to the truck and waited for her to open the doors. Both hands up in the air and his rifle grasped firmly in his right. He looked around the compound trying to see if there was other people inside as well. There were no signs of others from what he could tell. He waited a little longer and began to get nervous and checked his surroundings. Coming out of the woods was three infected making their way over to him at a fast pace. He banged on the doors and they instantly flew open as the girl stood there waiting for him to hand over his rifle. "You better not be robbing me or some s**t. We have company." He said as he tossed her his rifle and pointed at the infected. He climbed into the car and jumped down on the inside getting a view of the compound. It seemed very fortified minutes the gaps underneath the trucks. He figured if she let him stay that could be easily barricaded. His hands still in the air he watched to see what the girl would do next, hoping it wasn't his last moment.

Nick ran over and searched for the Molotov. He found the brown bottle full of liquid with a rag sticking out of it next to other bottles he assumed she had been working on before he had gotten there. There was a lighter on the bench as well so he grabbed it and ran back to the wall of trucks. Nick climbed to the top and held the flame under the rag ready to light it when he noticed the girl had already ran over to the two remaining infected swinging her bat, she had already killed one with her pistol. "s**t, why tell me to get this when you're gonna pull something like that?" He sort of laughed at it even though it was a serious situation. He dropped his pack down ontop of the truck and pulled his hunting knife from his belt. He lowered himself down off the truck slowly in order to not hurt his legs as he fell and let go. As he hit the ground he charged at the infected that she was already fighting and stabbed one through the eye. It's body fell to the ground and he yanked it out. "You got that one?" He asked.

Cheering Sara on, Aleesa ushers Nick behind the barricade, locking the doors as they go through. "Hmph, What are you? Ex-military? Never seen an ordinary guy just charge at the undead with a simple knife..."" She gives a thumbs up to Sara, who was watching in the window, to say everything was alright. They had already decided if one of them was to get bit, the other would blow their brains out. Kind of a bad deal either way, lose a friend or die, that simple, but they'd agreed to it. Looking back at Nick, "Hope you're hungry, we found some unperishables a few days back..it's not much but I think it's a good thanks for helping with the zombies...so do y'want ramen or Sara's stew? Both have too much salt but fill you up just fine..." Laughing, Aleesa made her way to the house.

Aleesa laughed, "Of course, she's the best marksman in California! If I can't prove it, the trophy upstairs can!" She took a long breath, "The name's Aleesa, but you can call me A....Sara goes under the alias, Shadow, or quick shot but that's cause she's held the county record in Lazer tag, paint ball, and actually marksmanship until...well this happened...turns out I accidently made her house my base and she was trapped in a gun store about ten minutes from here, when she arrived it was a big standoff, since I'm from farther south. I recognized her from that picture on the mantle." Aleesa pointed to the mantelpiece, "She nabbed a military grade Ballista on the way here, so she keeps watch in the mornings while I get chores done...the corvette in the garage is mine, she ain't much but she's got fuel, just needs a new spark plug and we can finally drive on outta here to look for new survivors...thinking about going east, heard Vegas had a safe camp...you wanna come along?" Aleesa said this very quickly, hoping she'd have new company since all Sara did was shoot zombies, even when they were making the wall, Sara only sniped the zombies they passed claiming she was ending the apocalypse on bullet at a time...though she was a pretty good cook. She could hear Sara walking down the stairs and went to tell her to make the soup...leaving Nick with an unfinished conversation in the living room.

Johnathan Nikolai, age 20, surveys the street from the far end. It was next to a freeway, easily accessible to off roading vehicles, if there was anyone left to drive them. Johnathan had a younger sister that was attending the college in this town when the infection hit, Johnathan, on the other hand, was a special ops Navy Seal, tasked with protecting the west coast...when things went south, he decided to make his way from L.A. to Merced, he knew his parents were dead, he'd had to shoot them himself, but his sister was a fighter, she smuggled their dad's two M1911s into college with her, smart, and he'd tracked her to this street. Looking around he saw a building barricaded by semis and two corpses, clearly zombies, on the ground. Curious, he walked up to the barricade, deciding the only way in was to crawl under. So that's exactly what he did, the house seemed quiet but it was clear that someone lived here...he raised his gun and advanced slowly, if he died, he was gonna die fighting...and he knew all to well that Raider camps were common around here so he planned to fire at the fire sign of movement inside.