We're Still Alive(Book1)BEING REWRITTEN

Fifty-One

   The next morning, Renee shook Cora awake. She grumbled and curled up farther into the corner. Renee dragged her out.
   "I know you're tired, but it's already noon." She pleaded. "We need to find Bill's team." At that, Cora sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
   "Fine, I'm up." She mumbled.
   "Good. Now help me with the others." Renee stood up and offered her hand to Cora.
   "No one else is awake?" Cora took her hand.
   "Tom's starting to wake them, but I'm not sure if he's even completely conscious." Renee explained as she pulled Cora to her feet.
   "He's dead-set on finding them, isn't he?"
   "Oh yeah." Renee sighed. "It took me forever to convince him to go to sleep last night. He wanted to stand guard the whole night."
   "Your boyfriend's crazy." Cora noted.
   "That's why I love him." She smiled, then stooped down to wake Joe up.
   After everyone was completely awake and ready to go, they piled into the truck and jeep. While sitting in the jeep, since there wasn't much for her to do and no one seemed to be in the mood to talk, she stared out the window. She caught little movements in the alleys between buildings and behind cars, and sometimes even up on the roofs of the shorter buildings that they passed. She remembered last night;
how Jared acted with the zombie. He'd said it was challenging him. Why? Why not attack right away? It probably could've found its way up easily. The worst thing about it was that smile. That smile that she
knew might haunt her dreams for the rest of her life. It was a knowing smile, if there is such a thing. It looked like it knew something they didn't, and she hated it. Seeing the little flickers of movement made
her hate it even more. It was annoying, always having to look over her shoulder and watch her every step, and it made her hate them. She thought of that first night, and the lady that attacked her outside
her apartment building. That was after she'd said goodbye to Mica, Cassidy, and Jay. And now Cassidy was dead. And her mom was even worse off, wandering the streets as one of those things. She knew that she would do anything to get rid of them.

   After more searching, they pulled into a parking lot near a few lines of storage units. It was 2:00p.m. and they still hadn't seen any sign of Bill's team. They were starting to lose hope, even Cora andJared.
   "We might as well try to bring back some supplies if we don't find them today." Tom announced. "So split into pairs and see if you can find anything useful. And be careful." They randomly paired themselves
off, and Cora ended up with Joe. They got to work right away.
   "Are you having fun yet?" Joe asked as he used a crowbar to break the padlock of one of the units. "Sleeping on the floor in a bar, sitting in the jeep half the day and shooting infected for the other half. Hell, I think we're livin' like kings!" Cora laughed as the lock broke and they pushed the big door up.
   "I don't know, I had a pretty exciting life before all of this." She answered, pushing aside old chairs and looking for anything useful.
   "Oh really? What did you do in this exciting life of yours?" He
asked incredulously.
   "I was a train surfer ." She smirked. She hadn't given it much thought when she was trying to survive, but when she thought about train surfing now, she suddenly missed it more than she thought possible.
   "You liar!" He half-yelled.
   "No, I'm being serious. Me, Jay, Mica, and Cassidy." Her voice
broke at the end.
   "Really? Why have I never heard this before?" He walked out of the unit with a pocketknife and on to the next one.
   "I guess we were so caught up in surviving and thinking about thefuture that we didn't give much thought to the past." She raised her voice to be heard over the breaking of another lock.
   "Was it fun? Isn't it illegal? You could've been arrested, or even had your head cut off. How much space is there between a train's roof and the subway ceiling?"
   "Yes, it was fun, and yes, it is-was, illegal. I could have been arrested, but we were too good to be caught. There was enough space for us on the train's roofs to not have to worry about decapitation." She picked up a katana and slid it out of the case.”As long as we were careful.”
   "That's nice." Joe said, noticing the sword. "It should be helpful."
   "I hope so-" She was interrupted by a single shot from outside. "Joe..."
   "Stay here. Watch the entrance." He said before running out with his gun drawn. Cora walked out slowly. There was nothing in their line of storage units, but looking to the next one, she saw the bloodied
body of a zombie laying at Tom's feet. She started to walk closer and make sure they were all right. That was when another zombie ran out and blocked her path, facing Joe, who was now standing with Tom and
facing the monster. Cora took advantage of her position and shot it dead. Her eyes met Joe's before another one appeared, and another. One after the other they ran at the convoy. Shots rang out from all around her, and Cora moved so her back was to one of the units, making sure that nothing could sneak up behind her. She shot one after the other and started to back into the unit as they kept coming. How many could there be? When her gun clicked empty and she knew the two magazines she had left were zipped up in her bag, she ran forward and shut the door to the unit. Bodies slammed against it and the gunfire continued, making it hard for her to focus enough to reload her gun. Now loaded, she stood up, but hearing the attack on the door, she knew she wouldn't be able to open it completely before they dragged her out.
   She paced around the little room, bumping into the dresser in the corner every once in the while. There weren't as many zombies at the door now, but she knew it would be a while before she could get out.
What really worried her was that the shooting had stopped completely. That meant that the others were either dead, hiding like her, or had managed to get away. Without her.