"Come on! Where the fuck are you guys at?" a black-haired boy yelled. He looked around, shooting at the rottens that were in his way. The teenager tried to find his friends but they were nowhere to be found. The zombies had parted his group when they were trying to get supplies. He didn't fear anything happening, his team knew how to defend themselves perfectly fine. They had been together since the start and nothing couldn't be fixed with some bullets and ducktape.

"Vic! Josh! Mads! Come on, motherfuckers." the boy, Duncan, shot two rottens as he shouted; smirking at their bodies dropping. He ran around, killing every zombie that was in his vision range. The rottens were slow, hence why it was easy to kill them with a single bullet. Duncan kept finding the rest of his group as his top priority. It should be easy to find a really tall and built man and a blonde nice dressed woman with another red-haired girl among the mess of rottens. But it seemed to not be the case.  

At the possibility of running out of bullets, he pulled out his knife. Every rotten that tried to have a bite, got stabbed in the head quickly.  From the wounds, flooded that dark almost black blood, tinting with disgusting patches. But no matter how many he killed, there were way more zombies as time passed. 

Duncan spotted a store that seemed to have its door opened. He cleared his path forcefully, finally opening the door made of glass and closing it behind him. The boy looked out one of the windows, hoping to see his friends out there. He spotted blonde hair between the greasy dead heads of the zombies. Duncan squinted to see the person better. His hopes were up, thinking it would be his team leader; but looking better, it was a boy. He didn't have any gun or knives or anything to protect himself, he was trying to run from the three rottens that followed him closely. Duncan sighed and opened the door of the store, taking his sniper out. He pointed to the rotten that was the closest to the blonde and the bullet went right through the side of his head and ended the one that was by his side as well. Two in one shot. 

The blonde guy flinched and looked around. Duncan whistled so he could see him. And when his face turned his way, the black-haired gestured him to run to the store. More zombies walked over him and even if Duncan had enough bullets to kill them all, it was better to stab those things and help the boy.

Duncan fully opened the door and walked out with a dagger in his hand. He reached the blonde quickly and put his arm around his shoulders, noticing his unwell state. They walked as fast as they could to the door, Duncan lead the boy towards the nearest thing that he could lean on, and then he closed the door safely.

"For fucks sake...Thank you" the blonde said breathing deeply, coughing right after, and bending over to rest his hands on his knees. His face was covered in dirt and a few scratches, too small to be nail scratches, though. "Don't thank me yet, those things will break the glass in a few minutes. We have to get to the roof" Duncan said patting the other's shoulder. The blonde nodded and stood up properly. Duncan noticed that he had a wound in his arm because it was wrapped on some old fabric and there were stains of blood. He didn't ask, though, because the blood had normal color instead of dark like it would be if he had been bitten. 

They heard the crack of the glass starting to give up as a bunch of zombies hit the door. Duncan looked towards the blonde and pointed to the stairs that took to the highest part of the building. It was dark upstairs and he hoped no zombies were there to give them a scary moment. Duncan had his gun ready just in case and he gave the guy one of his knives.

They were walking carefully until they heard the crash of glass breaking and the characteristics noises of the rottens increased. They speeded up their pace and luckily they were in front of the door in less than two minutes. Duncan tried to open it but it was locked, he got ready to hit the knob but the blonde stopped him.

"If you break it, the zombies will be able to get in as well" he said with a strained voice and the black-haired looked at him narrowing his eyebrow. "Then what do we do?" he asked looking downstairs, hearing the clumsy steps of the rottens. The blonde guy stopped to think and then asked him if he had a thinner knife. Duncan nodded and started looking in his pockets for it. He handed it to him, and he crouched to be at the same height as the lock, Duncan noticed that he was chewing bubble gum pretty loudly, no idea how he found that. The black-haired frowned when he took it out of his mouth and put it on his knife. He put both things in the lock and started moving them around. Duncan closed his eyes and thought 'what the fuck is he trynna do?'. But his eyes shoot open as he heard a click coming from the door and a quiet "yes" came out from the blonde's lips.

Duncan looked at him and smiled impressed. The blonde took the knife, and gum that was stuck on it, out of the lock. He opened the door and closed it just as soon as they were on the roof. Duncan breathed in relief, running a hand through his hair pulling it away from his forehead. The blonde took the sticky thing off the knife and, once he cleaned it on his jeans, he gave it back to its owner.

"That was ingenious. Disgusting, but ingenious" Duncan said breathing better now that there were no zombies tailing them. "Didn't think it would work at all, to be honest" he said pressing his lips in a line. The black-haired nodded and put his rifle on his back. The other boy sat on the floor looking at the horizon while Duncan walked to the edge of the building, hoping to see the black double cab van that his group owned. But it wasn't near to see. People couldn't disappear like that, it was the apocalypse, not a magic world. He sighed and looked for his walkie talkie in his pocket. There were really a few times that it worked but he had to try. Duncan talked to the small device, asking if anyone could hear him.

"Guys, do you copy? Duncan here. Someone answer" he said a few times. The only answer that he could get was that annoying sound that walkie's made when there's no connection. He sighed and put it back in his bag. Duncan let his eyes rest for a few moments feeling the slight tiredness from running and killing rottens.

"So, your name is Duncan" the blonde boy said. The addressed realized that they hadn't introduced themselves. It wasn't his fault, after about four months of society falling down, he wasn't used to meeting people. Duncan walked closer to him and crouched in front of the blonde guy. "I'm actually Derek Duncan, but I don't like people calling me by my name" he said with a small smile, the guy seemed frightened and Duncan tried to act as nice as he could "What about you?"

"I'm Isaak Azarov, call me IsaaK" He said running his hand through his hair. Derek looked at him narrowing an eyebrow. He believed that there weren't any Russian people out of their country since the Coronavirus infected the whole world. Isaak's scoff made him stop thinking about his last name like he read his mind.

"I know it is weird to meet Russian people, but I ran away from there before all the airports shut down back in the day" He explained looking away. Duncan nodded, telling him that it was interesting. Most people in his country wanted to stay away from all the possible issues outside their land and that's why he found it weird to find him there.

"Are you alone out here?" Duncan asked, sitting on the floor, still facing him. "Yes, since I got out of a bunker. I had been there for months, but one of the people there turned into a zombie and...yeah" Isaak told him looking at the sky, he didn't seem bothered by their deaths if you asked Duncan.

Living in a bunker since the start of the apocalypse? That was everyone's dream. Duncan thought. Only the rich people were able to be put in safe places like that while the rest of them battled against the rotten. But looking at the guy in front of him, Duncan could tell that bunker wasn't as good as the ones that the high class owned. He looked so lost like he hadn't eaten in some weeks and most likely the wound in his arm hurt like hell. He looked from the sky to Duncan and then again to the horizon like he was thinking about something.

"You have a group somewhere, right?" Isaak asked looking at him, finally. "Yes, we wanted to get some shit, supplies, but the rottens made us separate. They will be fine, but I have to find them. And the walkie talkie isn't very helpful" Duncan said sighing with a lazy hand movement. Isaak nodded and mouthed "I can tell" with a small smile. They started talking to avoid the silence of the apocalypse, which wasn't actually silent as the rottens growled and hit the door that kept them safe and sound. Isaak asked the black-haired how long he had been with his group. Duncan told him to get comfortable to hear the story.

He started telling him that the first week of the apocalypse he was with someone that sadly didn't make it. That woman helped him a lot back in the day and he would always be grateful. Then after days of walking alone, he found a car, there was no one inside or around so he opened it carefully. Duncan looked for the keys when he heard the sound of a gun being loaded and the cold object touching his scalp. He put my hands up, reassuring the person that he didn't want any problems and that he would leave if it was needed. A woman around thirty-five years told him to turn around and get away from the car. Duncan did as told and she looked at him with a frown. Apparently, she had seen him killing rottens and she was impressed when she found out he was just a teenager. Duncan kept telling her he was no harm until she believed him and offered him to get in the car. She introduced herself as Sargent Queens or Victoria, to be less formal.

 She told the boy a lot about how the virus was being spread literally everywhere and how no one seemed to know what to do. The governments had lost hope and the important people were moved to save places. Both of them spent another week wandering around keeping themselves alive. Until they found Josh and Mads in the third week of the apocalypse. Madison, a girl with bright red hair, was trying to run away from Josh, who was also trying to kill all the zombies around them. At first Victoria and Duncan thought that Joshua had bad intentions towards the young girl. But they were wrong, Josh was a firefighter and all he wanted was to keep Mads safe. Which the redhaired girl didn't understand at first with all those rottens around. 

They offered them both water and food. None of them had family around to be with so Victoria offered them to come with her and Duncan. Josh was a great help, he knew lots of places to find supplies and he knew about strategic places to be safe for some time. And Madison, even being fifteen, was really good at killing zombies. Which at first, had worried the black-haired boy, but when he got to know her he could see that she wasn't going to kill them all at night. They all spent all that time together, looking for a safe place to stay.

"They sound like they are really cool" Isaak said in a way that Duncan could tell was surprised. Before he could say anything, a big bang was heard against the door. He stood up quickly helping the slightly, taller boy up as well. Duncan pointed his rifle towards the metal door, ready to shoot the rottens. But before the door could even be opened Isaak tapped his shoulder signaling the ladders at the side of the building. Duncan agreed, he went first, in case there were any zombies to get rid off. They heard the noise of the metal falling to the floor. What could be a dozen of rottens walked past it. Duncan jumped to the floor, looking for the small gun that he had on my back. Once the blonde was on the ground as well he gave him the weapon. 

The black-haired looked up, the zombies were about to fall down the building and he didn't want to be there when they did. Both boys turned around the corner to the right, but there was a rotten coming from the left towards Isaak. "Shoot him!" Duncan told him before it got too close. "I don't know how to use a gun, man!"

Duncan turned around with shock, and Isaak just looked at him confused and shaky. The black-haired fired his rifle and killed the rotten for him. How had he survived from the last time he was at that bunker to that right moment? He didn't ask it out loud though, just signaled him to stay close. The noises of the rottens started to increment as their bodies fell to the street from the roof. The sound made other zombies come their way as they picked up their pace. The guys ran to the main street, which I may say, was a really bad idea. The smell of blood, the noise of their steps, and the grunts of the rottens had combined to the point where those motherfuckers were everywhere.

The boy by Duncan's side didn't look really well after all the running. He hoped he could find a way to get out of there. And he was running out of ammunition, there were too many rottens to kill them with knives. The boy started to stress out right when he saw an empty van not far away.

"Come on, man. We can be safe there!" he said pointing to the car with his head. They started running again, this time with a real direction. Duncan jumped over a legless corpse but apparently, Isaak didn't see it and fell on top of it. Duncan cursed and shot the dead woman in the head, before crouching and helping Isaak up as quick as he could, dragging him to the vehicle. He opened the door and pushed him in, jumping right in as well. Isaak scooted to the passenger seat as he locked the doors.

"Are you okay?" Duncan asked the blonde, out of breath "Oh, yeh, I think I'll just..." And he...he passed out right there. Great, Duncan hoped he was just resting and not dead. Because it wasn't a really good idea to have to deal with a rotten in a car.