A Fishy Beginning

Sara smiled as she saw the twins and to her it looked liked they were practicing. "Never a dull moment around here eh?" thought Sara to herself as she watched the twins. When asked how she slept she let out a sigh of relief as she felt she was on cloud nine. "It was perfect. I mean I always felt safe around Ziggy and Ayita whenever I was sleeping but just last night was just perfect." said Sara to one of the twins she wasn't sure which one said it as she had trouble telling them apart. When she saw Ziggy she embraced the hug and held her tightly before letting go. She heard Ziggy's concerns about the dress and she face palmed herself as she smirked. "Yeah I know I just wanted to wear this for a little bit longer. I feel like myself in a dress I'll be back." said Sara to Ziggy. Sje waved bye to the twins and headed towards the beast where she opened up the passenger side and took off her dress before opening her bag and grabbing some jeans, an old band t-shirt and her coat. She put on her clothes and put her dress in her bag before joining Ziggy and the twins. When Ziggy pointed the corpse coming at them Sara took out her knife and looked at Ziggy and the twins. "I got this. I don't want Justin, Ayita or anyone else who is sleeping to wake up." said Sara casually to the twins and Ziggy. 

It had become normal to Sara now to kill them and at first she felt guilt thinking that the person who they were before was still in there but after being with Ziggy and Ayita for some long and surviving it just became normal to her. She wasn't afraid of them anymore, if anything she was afraid of the living they were unpredictable but still she believed that everyone had a little bit of good left in them. She walked up to the corpse and as it got closer she stuck her right hand out in front of her on it's chest and used the knife in her left hand to stab it in the head not once but twice just to be sure. When the corpse fell to the ground she stabbed it a second time. She looked back at the twins and Ziggy as she smiled before wiping off the blood on her knife on the walker's shirt. She walked back to Ziggy and the twins. "About a week before I met you and Ayita. I met this group of four on the road and one of them a nerd like myself had a set of rules. In my opinion some were a bit silly but some were pretty helpful. He had about twenty two rules when I met them and rule number two was double tab. Hit them twice to make sure they stay dead. I left them after I found my own car they were a weird bunch but friendly none the less." said Sara to Ziggy and the twins.

Ayita's eyes fluttered open and looked at the ceiling of the car for a solid five minutes before she moved a muscle. The night before had tired her out far more than she enicially thought but thinking back on it with rose red cheeks she wouldn't have changed a second of it. Shifting her weight with a satisfied sigh she looked to the spot that Ziggy had been sleeping in, it was empty. A tinge of panic set into her mind as she then turned to look at the front seat where Sara had slept. Also empty. "Guys?" She questioned as she got to her knees in a hurry and started looked out the window towards the camper in a frantic state, It was there she saw both her friends as they talked to the two twins from Justin's group.

With a deep breath Ayita clinched her chest and sighed in relief. "Oh.. There you are." she said to herself before laying back on the bed not wanting to move. She laid there for another fifteen minutes or so before with another sigh she was up and getting dressed, first a fresh pair of underwear and bra, then a pair of black cargo pants and a green t-shirt which she covered with her flannel button up. Popping the door open She hung her feet out of the vehicle while she slid her socks and shoes back on, with another deep breath she hopped to the ground and set to join her friends.

"Hey Sara, Other Sarah, Fearah." Ayita greeted them as she came to stand next to Ziggy. "Good morning, Sieglinde." Her voice endearing and full of love as she hugged her girlfriend. Letting the hug end she took to holding her hand. "Thank you for letting me sleep in." she said under her breath just loud enough for Ziggy to hear.

Looking to the distance Ayita saw the corpse of a walker a short distance into the trees that hadn't been there when they had gone to bed. "One get through?" She asked everyone around.

"Yea, But your Sara there put on her badass mask and took care of it." Ayita heard the more energetic of the twins answer.

Ayita turned and smiled to Sara as she heard the news. Happy to see that she had begun to trust her ability to take them on instead of running or hiding from them. "That's good to hear." She answered. 'I'll say a prayer for you before we leave.' she thought to herself as she looked at the body laying limp on the ground.

"So what's the plan?" Ayita then asked, unaware that the twins had posed the exact question just before she had arrived she along with the two twins looked to Ziggy. "We get across the river and then what?" she added before going quiet while she waited for her girlfriend to answer.

Sara chuckled at Ziggy's joke and smiled. That's what she liked about Ziggy she always knew how to make a tense situation seem like nothing. It calmed her nerves a bit for a moment and she sat on the grass as she stretched her arms out. "The rebels are definitely are best chance. If Richard finds us...We are condenar. (Doomed)" said Sara to the group saying the last word in Spanish as she didn't want to worry anyone. She just looked at them and smiled as she stood up patting her butt to get the grass off as she started to walk towards the raft. As she reached the raft she got on and stuck out her arms as she lost her balance for a moment. She walked back to the girls and smiled. "Sorry guys it's been awhile since I've been in the water last time I was lost at sea but luckily I crashed on a beach in New Hampshire. That was something being lost out there...Never want to go through that again." said Sara softly to the group. She looked out and could see Bar Harbor out in the distance and as she looked at it a smirk appeared on her face as she turned to the girls. "Home is almost here...Do you guys ever think about the past? I mean what if the world didn't end right now where would our lives be and would we even meet up?" said Sara to Ziggy and Ayita. It was one those questions that she had been pondering for a while for quite sometime.

Other Sarah went to see if she could get any ammo and Ziggy was glad to see her come back with Justin and the type of ammunition she needed.

"Good morning Justin." Ziggy greeted. "Yes, thank you. We'll repay you when we can, for everything."

Ziggy still felt indebted, even after they had the girls take their pick in clothing. Perhaps it was because she hadn't experienced hospitality like this since before it all began. The brainy girl Ellie asked if they expected conflict but Ziggy felt optimistic about that.

"Not really." Ziggy answered. "Sara will know a lot of them and maybe they'll be glad to see her returning. Also, if they're fighting the bad guys they can't be too bad themselves right? They'll probably love seeing us if we offer help."

Ziggy filled her magazines, putting five in her sniper rifle and topped off the Glock 17's magazine to fifteen. The rest of the bullets she put in her satchel before strapping both guns to her body. The others had started talking about what would've happened if the world hadn't ended and when Ziggy's turn came up she thought for a moment before she answered.

"Would've changed majors from sociology to anthropology like I planned." Ziggy answered. "I definitely would've traveled the world... After that, I don't know. I never plan ahead so far. Pretty sure I would've met Ayita and Sara in normal life too. I like to think people who are destined to meet will meet no matter what."

Ziggy was a rational thinker and liked scientific explanations as much as the next person, but she also liked a bit of mystery. As far as she was concerned not everything had to be explained and things could just be blamed on 'fate'. Justin then asked if the brainiac wanted to come along and Ziggy like that idea. Maybe like Ayita and Sara, she could get Ellie to come out of her shell a bit more too if they could spent some time with her.

"Oh you should definitely come." Ziggy said. "Just eh... no books okay?"

Ayita stood beside her girlfriend with a calm expression on her face while she felt her lovers hand on hers. Her thumb rubbed slowly along the top of Ziggy's hand as her mind fell to what the day would hold and what the people they were planning on meeting would be like. If they were anything like how Sara talked about them then they had nothing to worry about, but, if they had grown cold to her due to her fathers involvement with the tyrant that controlled the town, or if they weren't there at all then they'd be in for some serious trouble. It was those buts that led to Ayita's apprehensions, The kind of apprehension that would have caused her to disappear with other groups. But this time was different, She had a reason to stay, and that reason stood next to her.

"Good morning." Ayita said politely to Justin as he and their Sarah returned. In their hands they held boxes, one contained ammo for Ziggy's rifle while the other held ammo for their pistols. "Thank you again for your hospitality Sir, It's greatly appreciated." She spoke again in the same respectful tone as before.

Using her free hand Ayita reached out and helped Sarah open the box, inside where boxes of ammo with the caliber and a brand printed on them in a decorative design. Sarah pulled one out of the cardboard box and held it out for her to take. Taking the box from Sarah Ayita inspected it for a moment and noted how the design was oddly pretty for something built to contain things made to kill before handing it over to Ziggy. "Uhh, here, I don't have a use for them." She said awkwardly. Having spent years being taught that staying quiet was one of the best ways of getting the jump on game when hunting Ayita had always placed silent weapons such as her bow and tomahawk above the modern equivalent, which traded stealth for a high velocity round. Waiting for Ziggy to take the box from her Ayita then let her hand fall from her girlfriends as she went to fetch her pack and bow. Reaching the car she popped the door open and pulled her pack up from the floorboards of the passenger seat and slung it over her shoulder before doing the same with her bow. Attaching her quiver full of freshly carved arrows that she had fashioned during their drive up to Maine onto her belt loop before returning to the group.

Taking her girlfriends hand once more Ayita looked on and saw that the girl that never seemed to look up from her book the previous night was now among them and it seemed that Justin had volunteered her to go with them as well, or at least asked if she would like to, Then Sara posed a question. She asked what they think they would be doing if the outbreak had never happened. A thought that made Ayita laugh slightly before catching herself. It was sad to think that if the outbreak had never happened she probably would have never left the farm and never met anyone from the outside world, would have never met someone that made her stomach do somersaults every time she looked in her direction, never would have been introduced to things like clothing stores and would still be deathly afraid of vehicles of any sort. Thinking on it Ayita chuckled again although this time it was obvious that the thoughts had dampened her spirits.

"If the outbreak never happened I'd still be on the farm, doing my daily never changing routine and probably just take over the business after my father." She said offering a weak smile to Sara. "But, in a way I'm glad the outbreak happened, because even though it's made life ten times harder and I've had to go through some rough times it's also had it's good times and It's shown me things that I would have never even given a second thought before hand." She then answered as her smile turned genuine while she looked to Ziggy.

Soon Justin began dishing out hugs which caused Ayita to smile.

Pulling the sisters into his embrace Justin let it linger for a moment before his arms fell. "Stay hidden, Watch over them." he said to the both of them before moving to Ellie who he held out his hand for her to shake. "Don't let your attitude get you in trouble, okay?" He said as their hands fell, Ellie smiled slightly "I'll attempt to refrain from rambling on matters of non importance." She answered. Justin then came to stand before the three of them. "Girls." he said before kneeling down to Sara.

"Hey, Keep your chin up Sara, no matter how hard it gets you'll always have friends and they'll always have you." He said before giving her a hug. "And remember: Only shoot if you mean it."

Then he moved to Ziggy and Ayita. "You two keep them in line alright?" he said to them before kneeling down to the two of them and smiled. "take care you two." He said before turning to Ziggy. "Remember, you ever need us just call." and with those words he got to his feet and returned to the camper where he waved them off.

Ayita smiled and waved back. To think they'd meet such a genuinely kind person out here was an oddity to say the least but there he was, standing right before them. With one last wave Ayita turned and followed Sara and the others to the raft.  

As the group was on the raft Sara sat a still as a rock not wanting to move. She had told the others of her getting lost at sea before ending up on a beach in New Hampshire and even though Bar Harbor wasn't that far away she couldn't wait to get off the raft although she was impressed by it. Ziggy and Ayita never failed to impress her and this here took the cake in her opinion. When Ziggy started to sing follow her own rendition of "Row, row your boat" followed by a question of the dead being in folklore and stories now she sat there pondering over the question. "Wow...I honestly never thought of it like that. I mean instead of telling kids about the big bad wolf it's going to be about the dead that can sink it's teeth in your neck." said Sara to the group. The thought of it gave her shivers and when Ziggy said a joke to lighten the mood she smiled and took a few minutes to think of her own joke. A light bulb went off in her head and she looked at the group of girls. "What is the safest place to be in when the dead are around?
The living room." said Sara with a smile. She then laughed at her own stupid joke and shook her head before opening her little black book and writing in it.




"Almost home, made it with Ziggy and Ayita two of my best friends who I met by pure chance. I was lucky I met them but also...I'm lucky to have met the people that I have met on my journey back home. Their stories are forever in this book and that can't be taken away." Sara closed her book and looked at Ellie as she offered her the book. "Before I met Ayita and Ziggy I was on my own for awhile and I met people on the road. I have their stories written here. Maybe someone you know is in here, if you want to look." said Sara to Ellie as she held out her book to her. She looked away from Ellie for a moment and could see Bar Harbor getting closer. "Home sweet home sisters." said Sara with a smile to the girls. 

Ziggy chuckled. Living room, that was a good one. Ellie remarked that folklore involving the dead had already been written. And from what she could hear it rhymed as well. Ziggy wondered whether or not Ellie came up with that one herself but immediately after Ziggy got complemented by Fearah that she was able to get a full sentence out of her. And that was just the kind of encouragement Ziggy would need.

"Well leave her with me for a week and you'll beg for her to shut up." Ziggy said jokingly. "Getting people out of their shells is kind of my thing, right Ayita?"

Ziggy smiled and winked at her girlfriend knowing she had done just that for her, if only a little bit. There were still so many things Ziggy wanted to show her. There was still Star Wars after all, and all the other cool stuff Ziggy still wanted to show Ayita, if only for her to finally understand what Ziggy and Sara had been geeking out about all this time.

As Sara gave her journal to Ellie, Ziggy just listened while rowing the raft. Apparently Ellie had recognized the name 'Amalie' and was asking Sara about her. As the plot thickened Ziggy listened to it unfold. She wondered who Amalie was and in somewhere in the back of her mind she was already volunteering to help Ellie find her.

It was important to Ellie so Ziggy decided not to interfere. They still had a ways to row so she focused on that for the time being. But she was interested however to find out more.