Day's End

Team

                Skyler and Kristen brought Natalie to the tower, but, along the way, they had forced Natalie to kill walkers they had caught the attention of. When the trio reached the right side of the tower, close to a wooden fence, Skyler removed the flimsy board, revealing a whole in the wall barely big enough for Sky to fit in to. Immediately inside was a staircase that towered upwards. On each floor were doors leading to different rooms, and the siblings lead Natalie to the third floor. Kristen silently opened the door with the number '6' on it and walked in, throwing Natalie's backpack into the corner of the room.
             Mold was starting to inhabit the room's walls, and the pain was peeling off, showing the bare wood underneath. The room was small compared to what one would have in a normal house and was seemingly used for storage in the past. There was a large cabinet that touched the ceiling when erected, but it was knocked over, blocking access to a corner of the room. There was a tattered, scarred bow sitting atop the cabinet; Natalie guessed this belonged to the blonde woman that sat next to it. Empty and filled pill bottles, water bottles, and food cans were set in the far right corner of the room, and they signaled the group had been here for a while by the sheer amount. There were bullet shells scattered on the floor along with a gun which was loaded with only one bullet. She noticed there was blood and bits of torn flesh just outside the door and on the door frame, but she decided not to question it.
              Kristen pointed to a small mattress by the door and spoke up, "Sit there." Natalie brought herself out of her panicked state and obeyed the command. Skyler sat next to the gun on the floor, picking it up and holding both guns in either hand. The girl sitting on the fallen cabinet spoke in a quiet but powerful voice, "Who's this?"
Kristen answered almost immediately, "This is Natalie; we found her scavenging at the store while we were there."
"Why'd you bring her here?"
"Well, there's only three of us, and there's strength in numbers..." Kristen paused before adding, "Plus, she had a lot of food in her bag."
The blonde woman stood up and looked through Natalie's bag, taking out things she had found. "Does she even have a weapon?" The woman tilted the bag, spilling everything inside.
"Be careful, Rose! And, yes, she does.." Kristen pulled Natalie's knife out of her pocket, holding it up for Rose.
Rose smirked, which was rather creepy, and took the knife, studying it. "Sweet.."
Natalie's gaze snapped to Rose. "H-Hey, that's my knife!"
Said woman looked at her unamused. "Yeah, I know."
Natalie looked at her, not knowing how to respond.
Kristen took the knife out of Rose's hand and gave it back to Natalie. "Hey!" Rose shouted.
"Might as well be able to protect yourself if you're going to be with us," Kristen said, looking down at Natalie and smiling hollowly.
"Thanks.." Natalie took the knife and rubbed the hilt with her thumb, as if trying to comfort it. The backpack thrown on the floor caught Natalie's attention. "But, my bag.." She trailed off.
"You can have that back," Rose said, throwing it on the mattress next to Natalie. "But the food belongs to all of us now."
She looked down, grabbing the bag and putting it on her lap. "Yeah.. Of course."
            Rose picked up a can of peaches that Natalie had found, opened it, and ate straight out of the can with her fingers. Skyler glanced at the contents of the bag spewed out on the floor and picked up a small box of cereal, and Kristen picked up a chocolate bar. Rose looked up at the pile and muttered, "You have the most random crap in there.."
"I got what I could," Natalie voiced, defending herself.
"She's right, Rose. This 'random crap' could save our lives."
Rose scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. I'll be bitten before I rely on some stranger for survival!"
"You rely on us," Skyler retorted with a slight chuckle.
"I don't see it like that.." Rose whined, resuming eating her peaches.
"How do you see it, then?"
She shrugged and remained silent.
            After a while of silence, Kristen put the leftover food back in Natalie's bag and tossed it back over to her when she was done. She picked up one of Skyler's loaded guns and faced the small group. "Now that we have Natalie with us, we should.. attempt to move again."
"Again?" Natalie asked cautiously.
"Yeah.. Last time we tried, we were pushed back by a horde of walkers."
"What makes you think one person is going to change anything?" Rose inquired, apparently choosing to be negative.
Kristen shrugged. "Maybe it won't, but we need to get to a less-populated area; that way, there'll be less walkers."
"But, there will probably be more survivors there, because that's probably the same thought process everyone else has," Skyler put in.
"If there are any other survivors," Rose muttered.
Kristen sighed. "Still, we need to go. What do you think, Natalie?"
Natalie was pulled out of her thoughts and responded, "Yeah, we should go. I know somewhere in the countryside we could go."
"Where?" Kristen asked, clearly interested.
"I used to go to this horse stable in the summer, and there was a house the owners could live in near the stables."
"Okay.. Yeah, that's a start. We should head out towards the country and look for that place. If we find anything else along the way, that's a bonus!"
"Don't have any other plan," Skyler commented while shrugging.
Rose closed her eyes and stood up, picking up her bow and her quiver full of arrows. "Fine."
"Good!" Kristen cried out happily.
             After ordering everyone to gather the group's things, Kristen made sure they had gotten everything they needed and made sure they all had weapons. Skyler made sure the three guns were loaded, took two, and gave Kristen one. Natalie clutched onto her knife, and Rose prepared her bow. The small group made their way down the three flights of stairs, and Skyler moved the thin wooden board and killed two walkers that were right outside. The reckless shooting had caught the attention of three walkers behind them and two walkers in front of them. A short walker stumbled towards Natalie, and her hands froze in panic. Rose and Skyler killed the two in front of them, and Kristen killed a walker behind them. The gunshot triggered an action from Natalie, and she rushed to the walker in front of her, plunging the blade into the side of its skull. The ridges on the edge of the knife snagged on bone and flesh, rendering the knife stuck. The taller walker lumbered towards her as she struggled with the knife. Before it could get anywhere near her, Skyler shot its head, immediately killing it. Kristen looked around the corner of the alley the exit lead to. "Okay, guys. Let's go."