Morning

A gleam of sunlight shone on Axel's face. His eyes shuttered open slowly. For a second, he felt at peace after a good night's sleep. Right as his eyes were lazily closing shut, his brain woke up and his body jolted upward. He looked around in slight panic and calmed down once he saw that the other three were asleep.

He took a second to check his ankle. The inky blackness in his veins expanded from his ankle. It started to encroach upward and had reached his calf. Soon, it would cover his whole leg and then his whole body until it eventually receded completely. Though it would seem like a good sign, it actually meant that the infected person only had a few more minutes before they died. What comes after is obvious enough.

Axel pushed himself up as he observed the other three in the room, although one of them specifically caught his eye. The sunlight trickling in had let him get a better look at the room and the three strangers in it.

The room was mainly filled with cardboard boxes. Most of them were empty and stacked on one side of the room, while a few of them in the corner Axel positioned himself in were filled with medical supplies and emergency provision.

He rummaged through one of them and found a Hershey's chocolate bar. Axel stared at it longingly for a second before he tucked it into his pocket. Rae loved chocolate and it's been weeks since she's had one. He took out an oatmeal bar and ate it with only a bit of reluctance — he's always hated them but the apocalypse does wonders in adjusting one's appetite.

Axel walked up to the window, taking care to keep silent as he didn't want to wake his neighbors next to it. When he looked outside, he saw around twenty zombies spread out around the parking lot in front of the complex. Slightly dangerous, but nowhere near as bad as the hundreds surrounding them last night. The others either left to wander around or went inside the building to escape the sun.

The first thing he would have to do is close that door when he went down. It would help Rae in the long run to have more of them trapped inside. He could definitely avoid the zombies in the parking lot. The biggest problem would be dealing with whatever mess the other three would cause.

He couldn't exactly leave them alone with his hidden stash. Many of the things hidden there could save his and Rae's lives. He also couldn't carry it all with him.

"Maybe I could..."

Axel's musings were cut short by a yawn on the other side of the room. He looked over and spotted Dylan glaring at him. Axel scratched his head in confusion for a second before deciding to ignore him. He discretely covered his emergency supplies as Dylan woke the other two.

"Why are you both sleeping?" Dylan asked furiously. "One of us was supposed to keep watch at all times."

"Chill, man." Angela yawned.

"Yeah, it's not like anything happened." Elena said. He wasn't sure, but Axel could swear that he felt her eyes on him when he wasn't looking. The thought made him smirk.

"You never know what could have happened!"

Axel rubbed his eyes as his smile went away. "They could have saved themselves from your whining."

He continued, even after seeing Dylan's glare intensify. "Now how about you shut up, leave, and cry all you want afterwards?"

"Gladly." Dylan said. He harrumphed and walked over to the door to look outside. His complexion quickly changed as he started counting the zombies in the parking lot.

"There are, like, two dozen zombies out there!"

"Only nineteen. It's manageable," Axel said. He was taken aback when he saw the other three stare at him.

"What?"

"Only nineteen? Are you crazy? That's enough to kill half a troop filled with experienced fighters!" Dylan shouted. Axel could feel his head ache as he listened to Dylan shout again and again. He was starting to get annoyed again.

"Your fighters don't seem to impressive if they can't handle this many zombies."

Angela and Elena glanced at each other as they connected the dots. No wonder people in the coalition told them to be careful of outsiders. It took a delicate combination of craziness and ability to be able to speak so lightly of nineteen zombies.

"Axel," Elena said. He turned his head toward her. "Could you...help us get out of here?"

Axel hesitated. He didn't want to keep getting entangled with these people, since they had already brought him so much trouble. However, he still needed someone to take care of Rae after he was gone.

Although he had a good feeling about Elena, Rae remained his main concern and he wouldn't make any decision lightly. This may be the chance to see if the three (more like two, Axel could already rule out Dylan as nothing more than a hindrance) could help him. It was also an opportunity to get them out of his stash.

"Sure." Before Elena and Angel could smile, however, he continued. "For a price."

Dylan scowled. "We can't trust him. We don't know what he wants or if he's gonna stab us in the back."

"True, you don't know that." Axel grinned as he walked over to the pile of guns, causing Angela and Dylan to tense up. His grin widened at the sight, while his head wondered why Elena seemed so calm. Under the wary eyes of the two, he picked up one of the pistols lying on the ground and sized it up as the other two seemed as if they would jump him at any moment. He removed the magazine and checked the ammo as if he had done it hundreds of times before and repeated this for the other three pistols on the floor.

After he was done, he slid two of them to Elena and Angela.

"Why do you guys only have four pistols?" Axel asked with a frown. He wished there was heavier artillery there. Only the two he had in his hand were fully loaded.

"We lost the rest of our stuff while we were getting chased." Elena said.

"I don't see you contributing any weapons. Hand us the other two pistols," Dylan said with an obnoxious tone.

"No. These are part of my commission. You're lucky I gave you back those two." Axel replied. He looked over the three of them.

Elena and Angela appeared well-rested and energetic enough to fight. Dylan seemed worn out with heavy eye bags decorating his face. Axel could feel his ankle strain under his weight as he just stood in place. Rolling it, he estimated he could fight for less than ten minutes before he would be forced to rest. Looking over the three of them, he sighed as he knew that he was left with few options in the current situation.

"Follow me," Axel said. He walked over the window and shielded his eyes from the glaring sunlight. He squatted and analyzed the zombie's positioning in the parking lot.

"If you lag behind, it's not my problem," he said as he stuck his two pistols in his pants and climbed down.