I was very familiar with this mall. Now that the world was ending I had to make sure it was completely safe for me to walk around without having my guard up all the time. The problem was, today it didn't feel safe. I felt as though I was being watched, there was an unsettling feeling in my gut that told me someone was here. I heard loud footsteps and saw shadows, I was either going crazy, or there was someone in here.

"W-who goes there?" I asked frustrated and scared.

"I'm just looking for supplies, that's it," a male voice replied. You know when boys are going through puberty and they have that mix of a female and a male voice at the same time? This person sounded like this. But his timbre was graver.

"I know you've been stalking me since I got here," I started, backing away from the kiosk he spoke from, "I've seen your shadow, and you're not the lightest on your feet," I retorted, "I don't want any trouble, please, come out slowly."

"Promise me you won't shoot me," he asked.

"Unless you give me a reason too, I won't do anything," I spat while taking tiny steps back.

He was a light brown skin good looking boy with medium length braids, hazel eyes, tall and well built, and he looked no more than 17.

"Who are you?" I asked eyeing him suspiciously.

"Jacob. And you are?"

"Zyla, but everyone used to call me Zy."

"Used to?" he questioned me.

"I've been alone, so..."

He didn't say anything instead he got out of the kiosk he was hiding in and came up to me with his right hand extended. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." I looked at his hand warily before shaking it and walking away without saying a word. "Hey! Where are you going? Come back please," he pleaded.

"I got what I needed, so I'm going home."

"Oh, home! Let's go! Where is home?" he joked.

"Listen, Jacob, I do not have the patience for this today, it was nice meeting you, but I don't know you, and honestly I've been good by myself thank you very much," I spat and kept walking. He jogged until he met my pace and settled beside me walking.

"Okay, I'm sorry. That wasn't me back there, I'm not like that. I just recently wandered away from my group, and I don't want to have to endure this by myself. I was just trying to be friendly because you look scary as hell."

"Why does everyone say that!" and to that, he merely shrugged and let out a small giggle.

"I know you don't trust me and all that, but I promise you I don't disappoint," he smirked then winked at me.

HE WINKED AT ME! This dude really has the nerve!

I didn't trust him, I had just met him after all. During times like these, everyone was out to get you, so all precautions needed to be taken. The people I have crossed have mostly been people I knew in some way, the ones I didn't know, I asked questions from my favorite hit television series. Since I was always faced with dilemmas like could they help me? Could they hurt me? Do I trust them? I found that these questions gave me a chance to quickly analyze the person on brief aspects such as history, competence and abilities, and moral codes.

"How many walkers have you killed before?" I began the interrogation.

"Many," he replied with a look of confusion on his face.

"How many people have you killed? Why?"

"I have never killed a person," he didn't hesitate to reply which was a huge relief. It meant he wasn't lying.

"What are you good at?" this last question was something I added myself.

"I'm good with guns and cars, plus I'm strong," he boasted himself with another stupid smirk plastered on his face.

I could use some help carrying some things around, and I guess a little company would not be so bad. Still, that initial unsettling feeling in my gut was still there.

"Just for display, this is temporary. I repeat TEM-PO-RA-RY," I reminded emphasizing 'temporary' as much as I could, and he only laughed at me than answered:

"Yes I know, thank you very much."

I am taking a big risk here.

~~~~~~

Jacob was currently unloading the car, since he was so strong, while I was putting the things in their rightful place.

"That's the last of it," Jacob said entering the kitchen.

"Put it on the island," I told him.

Jacob saved my life!

After we had left the mall, we decided to go to other compounds and look for more stuff. I know, we're just two how much food could we possibly need? A LOT! C'mon I'm a girl, I get cravings when I'm on my period, or when I feel a little under the weather, and now I have Jacob who is a boy and boys eat a lot. Plus you never know what can happen so, food, food, and more food.

When I go out, it's not just for food, but other supplies too like flashlights, umbrellas, ammo, guns or other weapons, clothes, blankets, gas, cars and car parts, basic necessities and that's what we did.

What we were not counting on was a mass horde of zombies in one of the compounds. We quickly made up a plan to hotwire a vehicle and let the horn beep so we could distract the walkers and make our way around them. I went to the car and worked the wires and failed to notice one of them creeping up on me. This happened because it was crawling, it had no legs. When it could reach me, it gripped my leg so tight that even my attempts to kick it off with the other foot did not work. Just when it was going to bite down on my left cab, its head flew off. Jacob was staring down at me with a cocky smirk sprawled on his face. This made him a bit more trustworthy. He could have simply let the walker bite me and doom the rest of my existence, but he didn't.

I put all the extra food in the pantry and some in the fridge—the ones we were going to consume this week—and all the other supplies we'd gotten we took them to the supply room I had upstairs.

I moved from my room to my parent's bedroom when I finally realized they weren't coming back because it was the master suite and I've always loved the bed! Plus there is a small room connected to it that my mom was planning on turning into a small living area and I used that as the supply room.

When we got to the supply room, I showed Jacob how to organize the supplies properly. When I was scavenging, I found metal shelves, so I assembled and used the latter. So there were shelves for the ammo, shelves for the knives and all that.

"I see the ammo but where are all the guns?" Jacob asked suddenly. I was dreading this question because I barely knew the dude what if he starts plotting something? Play it cool Zy, play it cool.

"Come," I told him. I then proceeded to remove the blanket from one of the smaller shelves and showed him, "Here are some of them, I don't like to keep them all in one place. These are the ones I consider to have a shorter range and if you notice they are kind of old," I told him.

"Where are the rest?" he kept coming with the questions.

"I keep some hidden around the house and some hidden in more obscure places, and now I hope that's the last of these questions boy," I concluded hoping he understood I wasn't comfortable talking about that.

"Yes," he said with a smile.