Somewhere west of Methuen, M.A, U.S 

Valentin and Kyle had been walking through the streets of the western side of the city, and they hadn’t found anything nor anyone yet. Methuen had been ruined by all those zombies, truly. The buildings were completely damaged, torn into pieces, and the boys could smell a strong scent of blood. From time to time, they could distinguish dead bodies lying on the ground, and it was highly murky. 

Valentin was never the scaredy cat type, and nor was Kyle. And yet, this city had something weird about it, and both had an intense desire to run off and never come back. Perhaps it was because that girl called Isabel, and her sister Lucia were from there and experienced traumas there. Whatever the reason was, they didn’t want to know. Not yet at least. The boys were best friends and came from North Carolina, and they had never seen this type of landscape before. 

As soon as the news of the apocalypse started to spread, they were dragged to the camp, without knowing why. They learned just a while later-it wasn’t because they were considered as strong or whatever, but they didn’t mind not knowing. Lazarus took them under his wing, and they were just grateful that they were still alive. Would they still be alive for a long time again? They didn’t know. 

“Are you sure we’re still in Methuen, Val?” Kyle muttered, adjusting his glasses as he glared at his friend, “It doesn’t look like we’re safe out there.” 

“We’re not safe anywhere, you know. And yeah, we’re still in Methuen, because if we weren’t, we would’ve seen a sign saying we were to a different city.” 

“Well, chances are that sign got crushed down, the zombies probably ran over it or something.” 

“Don’t be so negative, Kyle. Jonas said that the city was big, and the architecture didn’t change.” Valentin retorted, before he stepped into a pool of blood, “Bleh, ‘can’t believe I just make my shoe all dirty.” 

Kyle’s eyes widened, and he looked away instantly, feeling like he was about to throw about. He was about to snap at Valentin to be this spontaneous about something so disturbing and disgusting, and yet he couldn’t help but chuckle at his friend’s clumsiness and the way he only cared about his shoe. 

“Ha, shut up, you! That’s a dead body!” The boy squalled in amusement, trying to remain serious although he visibly couldn’t do it. 

Isabel was right. Boys are immature. Kyle thought as he immediately shook the thought off-he hated the truth, and yet...They were both fourteen, after all. Lucia’s age. One of them had just stepped on a dead body and left a bloody footprint? It was funny to them. But it wasn’t for everyone.  

Soon, the teens heard a growl, then an awful sound of something being pulled away. Whatever it was, it was gross. Valentin’s head snapped back, and his ears perked. Kyle looked up as well when he realized his friend stopped laughing at his stupidity, and he glanced there as well. Their faces went white. Zombies... 

“How much are they?” Valentin questioned, holding his revolver, closing an eye, ready to aim. 

“More than you think...” Kyle answered, tugging on his sleeve, his voice getting lower, “The weapons we have can defend us from one or two zombies, but they’re way too much. We must go, now.” 

Valentin swallowed, and yet he kept his armed gun in front of him. He was torn with the feeling of helping the city by eliminating more zombies-a dead city, with the consequence of him being dead- or saving himself. Jonas and Isabel gave them the mission to find more survivors, and he was prepared to do so. He couldn’t give up to a bunch of zombies, could he? The boy felt weak. 

“But we didn’t find any survivors! We can’t just give up like this!” He shouted in anger, his knuckles turning white as his pride and his stubbornness overtook him. 

“It’s not important, Val! Those guys will rip us apart if we don’t kill them!” 

Valentine stood there, not reacting to his best friend’s comment. He heard it, obviously, but he didn’t care, he was lost in his own thoughts, watching the zombies creep closer, grunting and bawling as they reached their arms forwards. Kyle noticed how determined Valentine was, and so he tried to snap him out of his trance. 

“Do you want to die, Val?” 

Both sprinted back to Isabel’s place. 

*** 

Somewhere East of Methuen, M.A, U.S 

“Astrid, I don’t think knocking at your old friend’s door is safe....” 

Astrid ignored her completely. Michelle knew her enough to know that it was pointless to try and change her mind. When Astrid had a thought in mind, she was immediately convinced that it was the best idea and that it would always work. And even though most of her plans-all of them- all ended badly, she didn’t get the lesson. She only thought Oh well, that was bad timing. It would’ve worked at another time. 

No, Astrid, your plan is just bad, Michelle wanted to tell her, but of course, she didn’t dare. With blue deep-set eyes and a roman nose, Astrid looked very intimidating. And she had that one habit of clenching her fist every time she was angry, and it never meant anything great. Michelle hated it when she did that because it instantly made her stop arguing. 

“Trust me with that, it’ll work.” The concerned one hummed, pulling out the keys as she grinned widely, guffawing to herself, “Katrina will be so happy to see me!” 

Michelle gawked at her friend, remaining silent. She was mentally cursing, knowing well that Astrid would pull them into serious trouble. Well, that’s what she was used to seeing every time that she made dangerous deals with her sassy buddy. She could be surprised, though. But of course, she didn’t think so. 

And so when she knocked, no reaction, no sound. For now, they weren’t in danger, but Michelle was confident that it would eventually lead to something bad. Well, probably. 

“That’s what I told you.” Michelle riposted, shaking her head, “There’s nobody in there.” 

At the exact same time, the door opened, revealing a pale teen with short blonde hair, who seemed like she hasn’t gotten any sleep in days. Her lips were dry, and her expression was filled with grief and something weird, something that Michelle couldn’t quite read. 

“I knew it!” Astrid smiled, before she looked at her old friend. “Hello, Katrina.” 

*** 

Getting everyone back home was a little difficult. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a lot of people. They had Rosa, Katrina, and a bunch of young adults. Not everyone managed to get some survivors, and most of them rushed there, zombies running after them. Great for them, they weren’t attacked. 

Nobody was hurt, everyone was safe and safe, yet still in a state of shock for some of them. Once Isabel described their plan, all the new survivors nodded, and started to talk about the weaknesses they had realized that the zombies had. Obviously, Rosa didn’t know for now, as she hid in the store for about a day and had a lot of food there and didn’t go out. 

Isabel and Lucia talked things out after. And they have realized one common idea: The zombies were weak when they were in contact with the sun. They had an idea-mirrors. Mirrors could reflect the sun very well, no? They just had to test the theory....