Filas looked Kim in the eyes. Kim looked Filas in the eyes. Then, at the same moment, they approached each other with a few, large steps and embraced each other in a close hug, the first one they’d ever shared. The first time they were physically close. The first time they got to smell each other’s odour. And that in one of the most unlikely places and at the potentially most unlikely time.

“Umm”, the man who had addressed Filas before dragged them back into reality way too soon, “whatever you two are doing there, you should continue once we’re out of here…”

Filas and Kim let go of each other, still holding hands though. “Dad’s probably right”, Kim told her, pointing to her right. “There’s more of those freaks coming.”

Indeed, as Filas looked that way, a new group of zombies were approaching them.

“Follow me”, Kim told Filas as the group of living people departed, holding Filas’s left hand with her right and dragging her with her. Filas didn’t even want to contradict and followed Kim and her group, holding her spear in her right hand.

The parking lot they were on was an utter mess. Cars had crashed into one another, so a straight path into any direction was just not possible. Even so, they had to slide about bonnets to make it through. During their run, Filas didn’t even let go of Kim’s hand for a second. For over a year, since she had chatted with her for the first time, she had dreamed of being close to her. Now that they were finally together, she was just afraid she could lose her again if she let go of her hand.

They got to an underpass leading below the street Filas had passed earlier, where another bunch of cars were blocking each other. The underpass itself was filled with cars as well, but since it was quite narrow, only one car fit on the width of the street there, and it was possible for pedestrians to make it past the row of cars without too much effort if they kept close to the wall. One after the other, the group made it into the underpass, Kim’s dad with his axe leading them.

As soon as they got out of the underpass, it was the same mess as on its other side. Cars, cars, cars. Being spread around like splashes of sauce after having it boil and not taking care of it.

“Could I please all the politicians who were so proud of the car nation Germany?”, Filas whispered.

“Chances are they’re already dead anyway”, Kim responded quietly.

“Keep an eye open for those freaks”, a red-haired woman who was carrying a Katana sword muttered in front of them. “There might be some ahead that we didn’t get on our first run.”

Everyone nodded and held firmer to their respective weapons and followed him once he had started moving forward again.

Forward, forward. Quick glance to the left, then to the right. No zombies to be seen. Over that bonnet. Forward, forward. Past that hotel. Forward. Over another bonnet. Grunting. Kim’s dad put his axe into a zombie’s head, that had appeared behind a blue van. Forward. Another parking lot though not as overrun as the one they’d come from. They turned right. Kept close to the brick stone wall of a factory.

Filas thought she’d heard something. She glanced over her shoulder and was horrified as more and more zombies made it around the corner behind them, from different directions, but clearly following the sound of their steps on the cobblestoned ground and their scent. “Run! RUN!”, she shouted. “ZOMBIES BEHIND US!”

She quickened her pace and so did the others.

“We’re almost there”, Kim tried to calm her. “There!”

They closed in on some vehicles which, unlike the others, were parked neatly behind each other, forming a circle. It consisted of a, white RV, one dark-blue estate car, a black SUV, and a camouflage pickup. A middle-aged woman was standing on the RV and shouted at them, “Hurry, HURRY!”, before she slid through the skylight into the vehicle. An elderly man and a little girl, maybe ten years old, were in front of the estate car, looking at them with a shocked expression, before getting into the car. Seconds later, the back door of the RV on the side the group were approaching from was opened, and few seconds after that, its engine started, like the estate car’s.

As the group got closer and closer to the vehicles, they split up, two or three people focusing on one car each. Kim followed her dad towards the RV, dragging Filas with her. They hopped onto it one after the other. Kim’s dad headed toward the front seats, while Kim shut the door behind them.

“Come with me”, she whispered to Filas, and they followed her dad to the front. He had already taken the passenger’s seat, while the woman Filas had seen was behind the stirring wheel. She was looking at the car in front of them concentratedly.

“We have a fixed formation when hitting the road”, Kim explained. Then, the dark-blue car in front of them started moving. The woman behind the wheel sighed out of relief, and seconds later, Filas could feel the RV moving too. They made it across the parking lot, which had only few cars on it on this part, and none of them really blocked their way, so they had a clear run. Filas glanced at the side-view mirror of the RV and saw the pickup and the SUV following them. Soon, they reached the street and turned left. They made it past the jammed street on their left, and seconds later past the street with the church and the pharmacy. Several zombies were stumbling out of the street, probably attracted by the cars’ noises, but they weren’t fast enough to follow them. The street in front of them seemed to be clear.

“Well, girls, I think we’ve made it”, Kim’s father commented. He threw a glance at Filas over his shoulder. “I’m Herman, by the way. That’s my… ex-wife, Belinda.”

“He couldn’t stand the fact that his wife was a better driver than him”, Belinda remarked.

Filas chuckled. “I’m Filas, nice to meet you”, she replied.

“Nice to meet you, too. I suggest you two have a break now, I seem to recall I interrupted to earlier.” Kim and Filas blushed. “We’ll call for you when we need you.”

The two of them turned around, walked past cupboards and one couch on their right and through the kitchen area of the RV before reaching the back. A square wooden table was placed there, with another cupboard over it and a cushioned bench around. Kim dropped her bat on the bench. Filas did the same with her spear and her backpack before they took place on the opposite site of the table.

“Are you ok?”, Kim asked. Her voice sounded like velvet to Filas.

“More than ok”, Filas replied smiling, looking her in the eyes. “How about you?”

“Me too”, Kim responded, smiling back, before hesitating. “Apart from one thing maybe…”, she added.

“Oh, what’s wrong?”, Filas asked riddled.

“Well… Could I have my hand back?”

Filas looked down. Indeed, her hand was still linked with Kim’s and had been so since after their greeting. She released Kim’s hand and smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry.”

“It’s ok”, Kim smiled back at her while massaging her hand, “I just like having my hand back after some time, is all.”

Having her hands free now, she took off her black leather jacket, revealing the dark-grey top she was wearing, and put the jacket next to her.

“I just… wanted to make sure I’d not lose you again”, Filas replied shily while silently admiring how gorgeous Kim looked.

“Awwh, don’t you worry about that, you won’t lose me like that.”

They gave each other a soft hug. Now Filas could focus more on the moment and took in Kim’s smell and enjoyed that and the comfort she got from it and from the feeling of Kim’s hands on her back, while having her own hands softly rubbing her back.

“Tell me though”, Filas started once they had let go of each other again, “how is this… What are you doing here? The chances of meeting you here were like non-existent…”

“Oh”, Kim replied, “I had some relatives in this area and we were looking for them, hoped it’d be safer here, where there aren’t too many people, and that they might have made it.”

Filas noticed the resigned undertone in Kim’s voice. “But they didn’t?”

“I don’t know. Their house was abandoned, but their car was gone, like some things from their household. They probably made it out of here, but we don’t know where they are now…”

“I’m sure we’ll find them eventually”, Filas replied calmingly. “We got to meet by chance, so meeting them is possible as well.”

“Yeah, maybe so”, Kim said, without sounding too convinced. “Anyway, what about you? What are you doing here? I thought you lived more in the north?”

“I was just running through”, Filas shrugged. “I’ve been to a few places in that area, but none of them were safe, so I figured that south might be a good direction to head to.”

“All on your own?”, Kim asked impressed.

“Umm, yeah”, Filas replied. “I was with some people when I was at places, but they were either douches, or died soon. Never really both, unfortunately”, she added.

Kim chuckled. “Poor you”, she remarked and hesitated again. “So, would you like, you know… Stay with us?”, she managed to ask and looked Filas in the eyes.

Filas considered for a second. Sure, so far, she had been better off on her own, but that was for the most part because the people she’d met were quite unaccepting – thinking of the Hanses, who knew what they would have done with her if they had found out that she was trans? – or didn’t manage to keep alive long enough. But so far, this group seemed to be a decent option. After all, Kim was a part of it, so being trans apparently was no issue here. And being on the road as a group was probably safer than staying in one place all the time or traveling on her own. Most importantly though, she was finally with Kim. Filas smiled at her.

“Of course, I will”, she cooed, “I can’t just let you leave me now, can I? That is, if your group are fine with me joining?”, she added hesitantly.

“That should be no problem”, Kim replied. “My parents will be fine with it, and so will the others. They’re good people, we have plenty of food and water and we still have some seats in the cars.”

“Good”, Filas replied and rested her head on Kim’s shoulder. “I might have left my bike and food supplies back there, to be honest…”

“Bike?”, Kim asked in a riddled tone.

“Oh, yeah”, Filas chuckled. “I thought it might be best to travel by bike. You know, don’t need fuel, be more flexible and quieter than a car…”

“And you’ve made it this far like that?”, Kim probed her.

“Umm, yeah”, Filas replied, slightly lifting her head from Kim’s shoulder and looking at her bewildered. “Why, what’s wrong with that?”

“Haven’t you encountered any... herds on your way?”

“Herds? As in: a herd of zombies?”, Filas asked concerned.

“Yeah”, Kim nodded, “we’ve come across a few of them. Those freaks seem to be leaving the large cities and are moving across the country now. Well, probably not all of them”, she admitted, “but the sight of thousands of them is frightening enough, let me tell you.”

“Wow”, Filas remarked, being quite frightened by the thought of that only, “I really haven’t seen anything like that yet.”

“Probably better like that”, Kim replied, “you can’t really get away from a herd on a bike only, Safer and faster to get away by car.”

“Yeah”, Filas nodded before putting her head on Kim’s shoulder again, “now I’m even gladder that we got to meet.”

They were silent for a moment, enjoying each other’s presence, while only the noise of the RV driving along the road was to be heard.
“So”, Filas started again, “might I ask how it all went off for you in the beginning? It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it, but…”

Kim stared into the void for a few seconds, and Filas was afraid she had gone past a boundary before Kim replied.

“It was pretty miserable”, she said in a shaky voice. “The Dutch police and military took over after the first outbreaks, trying to put people into quarantine. They messed up though.” Her voice faded into whispering. “They killed my brother and my sister.”

Filas lifted her head from Kim’s shoulder again and looked at her. She was shocked and out of words from this revelation. Kim’s voice and her eyes mirrored the pain she had endured. A single tear was running down Kim’s cheek.

Eventually she managed to stutter, “oh… oh no, I’m so sorry…”

Kim nodded and continued after wiping away that tear from her face. “Soon after, their lockdown broke down. My dad has got this RV and we managed to get out with it. Met some people and decided that the Netherlands were not safe anymore. The country is… was… too densely populated and soon overrun with freaks. We figured we’d have to find a more rural place. We’re heading for the Alps now since it doesn’t seem to be safe here either and our family has disappeared anyway. And maybe we’ll find some kind of shelter before we even get there.”

“Sounds reasonable”, Filas replied, “that was my plan as well, heh.”

“Good”, Kim remarked and managed to smile, “we’re really headed into the same direction then.”

“Indeed.”

“How was it going for you in the meantime?”

“Oh”, Filas hesitated while thinking what had happened to her in the past months. “I got out of my hometown, hopped from town to town, but all of them were overrun eventually. Last night I was in a village nearby, but they were transphobic conservatives at their worst and I was quite relieved once I got out of there again…”

“Urgh”, Kim replied, “you’re better off with us now. But what were you doing in this town? I take you for smarter than lurking around in a town, where you might expect more freaks than in other places.”

“Usually, yeah”, Filas stuck out her tongue. “But… I had to get some meds, my supplies were running low.”

“Meds? As in…”, Kim started.

Filas gave her a smug smile. “Hormones, my dear. Hormones and blockers.”

“Awesome”, Kim whispered. “Maybe, do you think we could share?”

“Of course”, Filas replied happily, “we can go and scavenge for them together when need be. That’s the dream.”

“The dream?”

“Well, at least a dream of mine, heh.”

“Hihi, fair enough.”

“So”, Filas went on, “what were you doing in that town? You probably didn’t plan to rescue the damsel in distress…”

“Well, not quite”, Kim chuckled, “although I’m glad we managed to save said damsel. But as a matter of fact, we might have looked just for what you found, apparently…”

“Really?”, Filas was surprised. “Also looking for those meds?”

“Yeah, figured that since we already were in a town, we might just give it a shot, you know? But those freaks around you made that quite impossible…”

“Uh, true”, Filas responded. “By the way, why are you calling them ‘freaks’?”

“Oh, well, that’s just how we called them once it all broke out and it kinda stuck. Why, how are you calling them?”

“I call them ‘zombies’. I don’t know, they’re just like those from movies and games and stuff, you know?”

“Huh, true”, Kim replied. “Good to know, so we will understand each other in the future.”

“Hehe, yeah.”

They fell back into silence for a bit again. Filas softly caressed Kim’s hand while they both listened to the engine’s droning and enjoyed each other’s company.

After a few minutes, Filas raised her voice again. “Tell me a bit about the people in your group.”

“There’s not a lot I could tell, really”, Kim replied. “You know me, I guess. My parents got divorced when I was three, but they’re still friends as you can tell. Otherwise, they’d probably not be around each other right now…”

“Uh huh”, Filas signalled her understanding. “And the others?”

“Phew, that’d be quite a lot to talk about right now… We picked them up along the road. Some are Dutch, some are German, some Belgian, I think… Tell you what though, let’s wait until evening, after we’ve pitched camp. Then you can talk to them in person, that should be easier.”

“Yeah, sounds good”, Filas confirmed. “Do you have some kind of ritual or something for new members of your group?”

“Oh, you have to empty a whole bottle of vodka, get a brand on your butt and walk barefoot through the shards of the bottle you smash after emptying and through some hot coals.”

Filas looked at her flabbergasted. “Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah, I actually am”, Kim giggled.

“Oh you”, Filas snorted and cuddled and tickled Kim. Kim squealed, fell back to the bench and offered Filas a better position to apply tickles, which she took advantage of.

“Stop it. Stop!”, Kim managed to utter in between of her giggles, and Filas generously obliged her, took her hands and pulled her back into a sitting position.

“Is everything ok back there?”, Herman shouted from the front.

“Yes, dad, all is fine”, Kim shouted back, before addressing Filas in a lower volume. “At least now”, she added with a last giggle.

They slowly calmed down. This time it was Kim who took a hold of Filas’s hand, but she did it quite softly. To Filas, it felt like having her hand wrapped in cotton wool.

“So, are there any?”, she asked eventually.

“Any what?”, Kim asked in a riddled tone.

“Any rituals or something or anything I need to do to join your group.”

“Nah, nothing like that. We’re a quite secular group, you know… We’re just going to sit together at the campfire tonight and talk, get to know each other… Or rather, they will get to know you, and you will get to know them.”

“Sounds good to me”, Filas smiled.

The next few hours, they kept talking, caught up on what they had experienced in the past weeks, but also on their previous lives. Filas tried to talk in Dutch a bit, only to realize that she’d really needed a native speaker to talk to because her accent after having learned that language at university with only German natives was quite heavy. All in all, however, they just enjoyed being together, as the RV moved further forward.

“How are you handling the food situation?”, Filas asked as she felt her stomach beginning to rumble.

“Oh, we usually have breakfast and dinner when we’re on the road”, Kim replied and, in response to Filas’s stomach giving a disappointed rumble, apologetically added, “we don’t have many snacks or stuff for in between, unfortunately.”

“Eh, that’s a shame”, Filas remarked. “I’ve only had a slice of bread today and escaping from a zombie attack doesn’t exactly help against being hungry.”

“True”, Kim replied, stood up and gestured Filas to do the same and they got to the kitchen area. “But, you know, specific situations, specific measures.” She opened a door and took out an energy bar which she handed to Filas.

“Oh my gosh”, Filas exclaimed as she took the bar. “Thank you so, so much!”

She opened the packaging of the bar and hesitated after.

“Aren’t you hungry too? We could share it if you’d like…”

Kim refused, “I had some decent breakfast, so I’m fine. You need it much more than I do.”

Filas’s stomach rumbled again, louder than before now. “I think you’re both right”, she replied to Kim and to her stomach, causing Kim to let out a soft giggle.

“Kim, come over for a minute”, Herman demanded from the front.

“Well, you heard him”, Kim said to Filas. “Why don’t you take a seat again? I’ll be right back at you.”

“Ok”, Filas replied and watched Kim getting to the front seats. She turned around to head to the back of the RV again. In the motion, she noticed a door opposite the cupboards in the kitchen area. She had never been in an RV before and therefore she had no idea how it was constructed. So, she wondered what might be beyond that door. Curiously, she opened it and found herself at the entrance to a small restroom. Makes sense, she figured with a little chuckle, closed the door again and went back to the benches where she took the energy bar out of its packaging after sitting down and started to eat it.

She had never really liked energy bars in vast contradiction to chocolate bars. However, after the events of the day – cycling into Sundern, the physical and mental exhaustion from the zombie attack, and the overwhelming joy of having met Kim – and all of that after having only one slice of bread for breakfast, the energy bar, which had peanut flavour, was a feast for her. Potentially a trophy for her having made it through the mess that was called her life so far. She enjoyed each and every little crunchy bite she took until Kim returned. Filas had just taken the final bite of the bar and swallowed it down before speaking.

“What’s wrong?”, she asked.

“Apparently there is a bridge which has collapsed”, Kim replied in a worried tone. “We are at a lake right now, and according to the maps, all the other ways around it are leading through smaller cities. Dad and the others want to avoid going through them, but that would require a massive detour. For now, they are looking for a place where we can pitch camp for the rest of today and for the night, and we will continue our way tomorrow.”

“Oh, ok”, Filas replied. “Doesn’t sound too bad.” A thought hit her. “How are they all communicating with each other?”

“They’re using walkie-talkies”, Kim replied. “Phones and stuff are of no use anymore, but those are still doing the trick”, she added.

“Oh, cool”, Filas remarked.

“Yeah, we were lucky we got a hold on them.”

In the following minutes, it became clear that the RV had left the proper roads which back then were highly frequented, and which had therefore received a lot of maintenance. The journey so far had been rather smooth, but now Filas could feel that they were going through quite a number of potholes which made it a rough ride now and could also make out the curses from Belinda and Herman in the front.

“Should we worry?”, Filas managed to ask Kim.

“More than usual, you mean?”

“I mean, what if zombies are attacking the cars right now?”

“No”, Kim calmed her. “If that were the case, dad would be silent, and mom would be cursing worse than right now.”

Filas nodded. She almost regretted the energy bar she’d eaten, and which now was moving up and down in her stomach. She was relieved when the RV slowed down and eventually halted. She let out a deep breath.

“Ok, let’s have a look around”, Kim said and gestured Filas to stand up again.

She obliged and took a step away from the bench, allowing Kim to get away from there as well. The black-haired girl reached to the bench again first, handed Filas her spear and picked up her bat. “Just in case”, she remarked with a rather serious facial expression.

Filas nodded in understanding and followed Kim to the door, where Belinda and Herman were already waiting for them.

“Ok, girls”, Herman welcomed them, “this place looks safe, but let’s have a look around and make sure that it is.”

Everyone nodded, he pulled open the door and jumped out, followed by the others.

The were on a crossroad, surrounded by mixed forest in every direction. The road itself was made of gravel only. They seemed to be on the top of a hill, but the trees around them made it hard to tell – and would also make it hard for anyone or anything to discover a campfire they might light.

The other cars from their convoy had stopped as well. The vehicles were forming a block, with the blue car in front of the RV, the pickup on its left and the SUV on its right, where one road was leading off. The other people of the group were getting out of their cars as well, each of them carrying anything that could be used as a weapon – Filas made out a shovel, a metal bar, knives, a screwdriver and the like. They all gathered at the RV.

“Ok, guys and girls”, Belinda addressed them. “You know how this works. Let’s make sure this place is secure. We form pairs and check out each direction. Herman and Rhea, you go down there” – she pointed into the direction opposite the RV. “Mara and Johannes, you check out the direction where we had come from. Maybe some freaks have followed us. Make sure they don’t anymore. Kim and – Filas?” Filas nodded. “You go there” – she pointed left where the road split up in two paths – “and take the left path. Michael and I are taking the right, and Benjamin and Mia will stay here and hold the fort. All clear?” Affirmative nodding and murmuring all around, although Filas noticed that the little girl who was standing next to the elderly man looked quite disappointed. She figured she was Mia, and indeed, as the group parted, she stayed back and followed the man, apparently Benjamin, into the RV. Before they lost visual contact, Filas looked back again and saw him unfold a camp-chair on the RV’s roof and taking a seat on it while Mia was looking around with some binoculars. Then Kim and Filas rounded a bend and lost visual contact.

Cautiously, with their weapons ready to strike, Kim and Filas moved through the forest. This could be quite a romantic walk without zombies existing, Filas figured. Now that they were walking next to each other, she noticed that Kim was a bit taller than she was with 170cms (5’9”). They didn’t talk too much though, but focused on any noises around them, trying to ignore their own stepping noises and the wind making the leaves rustle. They also stopped every once in a while, to have a closer look into the woods, but they couldn’t make out anything else than trees and undergrowth and shadows. Filas also noticed that their camping space in fact wasn’t on top of the hill: the forest rose further on their right-hand side, while there was a slight slope on their left. Due to the dense forest though, they couldn’t make out a lot on either side.

After some hundred meters, however, the trees on their left were growing less densely. There was a line of them directly next to their path, but beyond that, Kim and Filas had an astonishing view on the environment. They sighed happily and took each other’s hands. Birds and insects were chirping around them and contributed to the peaceful moment they had.

In the afternoon sun, they saw that there really was a lot of forest around them. There were barely any fields or meadows nearby, and only some populated area to the lake which was shimmering in a bright blue beyond the forests. There seemed to be a camping area on the lakeshore, but it appeared abandoned from their point of view.

“It would be amazing to jump into the lake and swim around a little”, Filas whispered dreamingly. She had seen a number of places in the past weeks, but barely ever had had a view as beautiful as this.

“Yeah”, Kim agreed and squeezed her hand. “Would be quite lovely.”

They just stayed there for a few minutes, enjoying the view and forgetting the overall situation for a moment, which was made possible by the fact that they also didn’t make out any zombies from up there. Then, a sudden breeze caused the leaves to rustle louder than usual, which ripped the two girls out of their dreams. They stared into the forest rising over them but realized that it hadn’t been zombies that had caused that noise. Reality had caught them now though. They sighed deeply and simultaneously and continued their patrol.

After some more minutes, they reached a junction. From there, they had a view on the direction into which their path was leading, only this time it wasn’t too pleasing. Only about 100 meters away there were the outer districts of a small town which was embedded in the valley between the hills. Although it was only a small town, both of them knew that they’d have to be extra careful now, even back in their camp. Towns these days always came with a higher risk of zombies lurking around.

“Don’t get a fright!”, a voice on their right demanded.

Filas startled and looked into that direction from which another path was leading to them. Belinda and Michael were approaching them, the former one with a slight smirk.

“I told you not to get a fright”, she chuckled, halted next to them, looked at the town and frowned. “I don’t like this too much”, she mumbled more to herself than to the others, “but I think our position is safe. No visual contact. Should be ok for the night.” She looked at Kim and Filas. “Did you have any incidents?” They shook their hands. “Good, we neither”, she replied. “I think we should be fine up here. Let’s get back and see what the others say.”

“You should come with us, mom, there is a place with a really amazing view”, Kim told her enthusiastically.

“Really?”, she replied and smiled. “We should do that then, I could use a nice view for a change.”

“I said ‘amazing’, not ‘nice’”, Kim remarked, rolling her eyes and they got back on their way.

On their way, they had a break at said place and Belinda and Michael had to agree that it was indeed an ‘amazing’ view. After enjoying it for a few minutes again, they walked on and got back to the vehicles after some more minutes.

As they got back to the junction, Benjamin, who was still on guard on the RV’s roof, greeted them by waving his hand. Belinda responded by doing the same, and once they reached the vehicles, she asked, “were there any incidents?”

“No”, he replied with a raspy voice and shook his head. “Have you found anything out of the order?”

“No”, Belinda replied and shook her head as well. “Are the others not back yet?”

“No, you are the first ones.”

“Let’s wait and see what they have to report then.”

“Oh, I have to show you something”, Kim said to Filas. “Come with me.”

She grabbed Filas’s hand and led her to the pickup which was parked between the RV and the edge of the woods. She led her to the loading space which was covered with a tarpaulin.

“The other cars are all carrying some food supplies and all that important stuff”, Kim explained while loosening the eyelets. “But Rhea is quite adamant when it comes to the cargo on her pickup. But I think you will love it…” She loosened the last eyelet and took off the tarpaulin.

“That’s so awesome”, Filas expressed her delight as a heavy, black motorcycle was uncovered.

Kim chuckled. “I knew you’d like it.”

Filas herself had never learnt how to ride a motorcycle, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t find them cool and admired people – especially women – who were able to ride them.

She rounded the loading space to get a better look at the bike and inspected it a bit further.

“That woman has got some good taste”, she remarked after finishing the investigation. “Why does she have the pickup too instead of driving only the bike?”, she wondered.

“It’s safer this way”, a voice replied from behind her. Filas turned around quickly and saw the red-haired woman with the Katana sword approach her with a smirk. “Having some metal between me and those freaks when we meet on the street is better than being on the bike without too much protection at all. And I can have a few supplies with me in the pickup, next to the bike. But I can’t just part from my baby. Who knows, maybe she’ll come in handy at some point.”

She reached Filas and held out her hand. “I’m Rhea, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you”, Filas replied and shook hands with her smilingly. “I’m Filas.”

Rhea looked quite butch to Filas. She was wearing a plaid shirt and had blistered hands and a very firm grip. She was a little bit taller than Filas, but not more so than Kim. From the short distance she saw that her dark-red hair was fading to brunette at the hairline.

“Nice to meet you. I hope you haven’t touched my baby?”

“No, only admired it from a safe distance”, Filas smiled.

“Good”, Rhea replied. “I take it you’ve known Kim somehow?”

“How do you know?”

“Your reaction when you met on that parking lot was quite telling.”

“Oh”, Filas blushed, “yeah, we, we met online and got to know each other there.”

“Did you meet each other in real life before today?”

“Umm, actually not, no.”

“So, you just met by coincidence in a freaking zombie apocalypse?”, Rhea probed with a surprised voice.

Filas nodded.

“Wow, what luck”, Rhea remarked while opening a door of the pickup and looking for things inside. “Anyway, it seems like we are pitching camp here for tonight. We’re all back and haven’t found anything out of the ordinary. Better go to the others and see how you can help.”

“Yeah, I will”, Filas replied and headed back to the RV, where people had begun to unload the things they needed for a camp: camp-chairs, tents, a sunshade, sleeping bags, some tools… Filas made out Kim, who had already got there while she had been talking to Rhea. She was getting some cooking gear out of the RV and approached her.

“Any way I can help?”, she asked as Kim put down her load.

“Umm, yeah”, Kim replied after catching some breath. “Could you help pitch the tents? They should be behind the SUV.”

“Sure will”, Filas replied. She had some experience pitching tents from her LARPing in earlier days, and so rounded the RV and saw that the others were already busy there. Mia was there, trying her best to help, along with Mara and Michael.

“Oh, yeah”, Mara replied. “Could you and Mia stake out the tents?”

Filas looked at the little girl. “What do you think, can we do that?”

“I… I think so”, she replied shyly.

Filas got to her, kneeled before her to meet her at eye-level and held out her hand. “I’m Filas, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Mia”, she replied.

“That’s a pretty name”, Filas remarked with a smile which was returned by the brunette girl.

“Thank you.”

“Do you know where we can find the hooks and a hammer?”, Filas asked.

“I already have a hammer”, and indeed, Mia was holding one in her left hand. It had cloth at the head in order to mute the noises it’d made without it. Smart, Filas thought.

“Oh, cool”, Filas smiled in response. “Do you also know where the hooks are?”

“They are in a bag at the rear end of the car.” Mia pointed toward the SUV and indeed, Filas saw a bag lying there on the road.

“Ok, wait for me here, will you? I’ll just go and fetch them.”

Mia nodded and Filas got to the SUV and picked up the bag. She looked inside and found many hooks in it. She returned to Mia.

“Ok, we can get started”, she told her, and they went to the one tent that was already up.

Filas kneeled again, took a hook out of the bag and put it through an eyelet. Then she looked at Mia.

“I will hold the hook here”, she explained, “and you drill them into the ground with the hammer. And… try not to hit my fingers, ok?”

“I will try”, Mia replied insecurely and kneeled as well.

She took a big swing…

“Wait”, Filas stopped her, worried about her fingers. “Better do some lighter blows. You don’t need to swing so much, and the chances are better that you will hit the hook.”

“Oh, ok, sorry.”

“It’s ok.”

Mia followed Filas’s instructions, and although her fingers did hurt a bit after they’d finished the tent, it could have been worse.

“Well done”, Filas praised Mia as they made their way to the next tent that had been erected in the meantime. “Also, might I ask how you know Benjamin?”, she asked the little girl as they kneeled.

“He’s my grandfather”, Mia replied and looked quite sad. “I was visiting him when…”

“Oh, I see”, Filas replied. She was wondering what could have happened to her parents after the breakout, but the look on Mia’s face told her not to ask any further questions. “Well, let’s get this tent done”, she said encouragingly instead and the two of them got back to work.

In the following minutes, Filas and Mia staked out the remaining four tents once they’d been pitched. Filas found that Mia was a quick learner who hit the hooks quite accurately soon. She was sad though that the two of them might have something in common: not having the childhood that each of them should have. Once they were finished, they took a few steps away from the tents and had a good look at them.

“Good job, you two”, Mara praised them. She had dark-blonde hair and was a bit smaller than Filas. Filas estimated her to be in her thirties.

“Thanks”, Filas and Mia replied simultaneously.

“Have you got used to building places to sleep in yet instead of designing them?”, Michael asked Mara chuckling.

“I guess I never will”, she sighed. “I used to be an architect”, she explained to Filas.

“Oh, that’s cool”, Filas replied. She knew that to become an architect, Mara had had to study, and she admired people who took the effort successfully.

“Yeah, it was.” Mara sighed again. “I’m afraid I won’t design any new buildings though…”

“Well, who knows”, Filas remarked. “Maybe things will change at some point, and then people will need new houses.”

“Yeah, maybe”, Mara replied without sounding too convinced as they headed back to the RV, where the others had already gathered.

“Might I ask how you met the others?”, Filas asked curiously.

“Umm, which others do you mean?”

“Well, Kim and her family, basically…”

“Ah, ok”, Mara chuckled. “Well, I had escaped with Rhea from Belgium and had made it to Germany. We were at a gas station, re-fuelling our cars and ourselves when they showed up there. And instead of killing each other, we decided to cooperate and to become a group.”

“I’m glad you chose that option”, Filas remarked. She realized how lucky she really was to have met Kim against all odds.

They reached the RV, and the smell of cooking rose to Filas’s nose. Although she’d only had cooked food the evening before, she was used to its absence and was happy to make it out again. Also, she had been quite insecure at the Hansel’s house. She was feeling better now, feeling a sense of community, especially after bonding with the others one by one. Feeling like that, the smell of properly prepared food was much better than back then.

They got to the spot where Belinda and Kim were preparing the food. They had set up a campfire site with a grill attached to a tripod. Two pots and a pan were placed on the grill, while mother and daughter were around it, stirring the contents of the bowels and checking on the meat in the pan. A fire extinguisher was placed next to the RV in case the fire was getting out of control or in case they’d have to leave quickly. A few metres away from the fire, camp- chairs were positioned as a circle.

When looking around, Filas noticed that Rhea, Herman and the one guy whose name she hadn’t memorized yet seemed to be vanished. She couldn’t make them out around their camping site at least.

“Where are Rhea and…”, she waved around with her left hand, hoping the name would come to her, but it didn’t.

“You mean Johannes?”, Mara tried to help.

“I guess”, Filas shrugged.

“They’re looking for some wood we can stock”, Mara replied as they headed to the chair-circle. “Our stock is reducing a bit too quickly.”

“I see”, Filas nodded in understanding as they sat down together with Michael, while Mia got to the RV to talk to Benjamin, who was still keeping watch from its roof.

Filas got lost in talking to Mara and Michael in the following time. After telling her story, she learned that Michael, who was quite huge and had black hair, used to be a farmer before the outbreak. He used to live on the German side of the border to the Netherlands, where the area was totally flat and provided good farmland.

“After the outbreak, I was going to stay at the farm”, he told them. “Basically in the middle of nothing, what could have gone wrong? But more and more people were looking for barely populated areas, and after them came those… things. My farm got overrun eventually and I barely escaped with my SUV. I just wanted to get away from there and didn’t really pay attention to the direction to be honest… Eventually, I met up with Benjamin and Mia, and only a little later, we met these people here and were happy to join them”, he concluded his narrative.

“Wow, I’m glad you made it out of there”, Filas commented.

Heavy steps were approaching the junction. Alarmed, Filas turned into the direction where she made them out and was relieved to see that it was only Rhea, Herman and Johannes who were returning from chopping wood. They were carrying one box each filled with material for fires, which they brought to the SUV. Michael hurried toward them to help them place the boxes in the trunk before they got to the circle and sat down as well.

“We will need some more wood before too long”, Rhea remarked. “Winter will be coming eventually, and it’s better to gain some stock when as long as it’s reasonably dry.”

“You’re right”, Mara agreed with her before adding, “but before we can put op a stock of wood, we have to find some proper shelter, a place where we can stay in winter. I can’t see that happening before we get further away from here.”

“That’d better be some good shelter”, Herman chimed in. “It needs to be defendable, have enough space to grow our own food – we can’t get vegetables and meat from cans for the rest of our days – access to fresh water…”

“Maybe we should think about it after dinner”, Belinda’s voice reached them. “It’s ready now, by the way…”

Immediately, everyone was up on their feet and headed toward the cooking place where Kim and Belinda were distributing the food on paper plates. Even Benjamin and Mia were coming down from the RV to join them. The very smell of the food already made Filas’s mouth water, but she got in the line patiently. She couldn’t really tell what kind of food they’d have from the smell alone though.

Herman was the first one to get some food. After receiving it, he walked straight to the RV. Filas was confused for a moment, but as he showed up on the vehicle’s roof and sat down on the camp-chair there, she understood that he’d keep watch while the rest of the group were eating and talking together.

One after the other, they got their food and it was Filas’s turn soon. She was distracted by Kim’s looks for a moment though. She had put up her hair while her forehead was still covered by her fringe. A few strands were loose though and were framing her face quite perfectly. Filas smiled at her gayly, until Mara started to moan behind her. Kim, who smiled back at Filas, put some potatoes and carrots on her plate, whereas Belinda added some salted meat and tomato sauce to it and handed her a plastic fork and knife. She got back to the chair circle and picked herself a seat with an empty chair next to it in order to be able to have Kim sitting next to her once she got there. Johannes was sitting on the other side of Filas’s place, but he was already eating, so she didn’t bother to start a conversation with him. Instead, she smiled at Kim as she was approaching her and took the vacant seat next to her.

“Enjoy your meal!”, she told Filas while getting into the right position to handle her plate and cutlery.

“Eet smakelijk!”, Filas fished out of her Dutch skills, causing Kim to chuckle. Soon they were both eating, and Filas had no problem following Kim’s order to enjoy her meal. It was basically the best food she’d had in a long, long time, maybe even the best ever. In fact, Kim looked up several times and had to chuckle whenever Filas moaned in satisfaction.

She finished far too soon for her taste, although her stomach told her that she was in fact stuffed. She sighed with satisfaction one last time while getting into a more comfortable sitting position, putting the plate and cutlery on the ground next to her.

“I take it you liked it?”, Kim asked playfully. She had already finished her meal as well.

“It was awesome”, Filas remarked. “In fact, I almost cried because it was soooo good”, she added truthfully.

“Awwh, I’m glad you liked it”, Kim replied with a large smile. She had a look around the circle. Everyone had finished eating. “I’ll be right back”, she told Filas. “I gotta take care of the rubbish.”

“Oh, I could help you with that”, Filas offered.

“Thanks, but it’s really not necessary. I’ll be back in, like, a minute.”

“Ok, fair enough”, Filas replied. I will miss you every second though, she added in her thoughts, took her rubbish up from the ground and handed it to Kim, who thanked her and continued to collect the rubbish from the other people from the group.

Filas watched her for a few seconds before stretching in her seat. She then looked around. The others were engaging more and more in talking to each other. Filas felt good about being in a real group again for the first time in weeks, and she was eager to talk more to Kim, but she had to wait for that a bit. She looked to her left, where Johannes was sitting. He was not engaging in any conversation with anyone yet but seemed to be thinking about something. She realized that she hadn’t talked to him yet at all and decided to change that.

“Hey, I think we haven’t talked to each other yet”, she addressed him. He slowly turned toward her. He was in his middle-ages, she guessed, with short, blonde hair and rather on the huge side as well. A pair of glasses through which he was looking at her were sitting on his nose.

Filas was confused. His eyes appeared dead to her. There was no light in them, unlike Kim’s which were just sparkling on their own. A dead man's eyes, she thought.
“I’m Filas”, she added, becoming quite nervous.

“I’m Johannes”, he told her without wasting any time on saying “hello”. He had a deep voice. “Johannes Schmitz”, he added before staring into the void for a bit, until Filas thought he had passed out. But before she could ask any of the others for help, he started to talk again. Quietly, so she had to try hard to make out his words.

“I’m the one who developed the virus that’s created undead life.”