A Rose and Her Thorns

Woken up by the morning sun streaming through her window, Victoria lays awake in her bed thinking about last night. "God, I'm so stupid." She mumbles quietly to herself, rubbing her forehead in embarrassment and a little frustration. 

"I need to be stronger, I can't be breaking down like that. Especially not in front of someone I barely even know." Victoria vents, moving both hands to cover her face as she groans and gets mad at herself. 

'She wouldn't want you acting like this,' a small thought echoes in the back of her mind. Taking a deep breath, she holds it for a little bit before slowly exhaling. 

Climbing out of bed, Victoria takes a few more breaths to calm herself before going over to her vanity in the corner. Grabbing her special brush, she takes her time to brush her hair—it doesn't feel as nice as when 'she' does it though.

Once her hair is all straight, she ties it in a ponytail with a white hair tie. Looking at herself in the mirror, she can't help but get teary eyed again. Every time Victoria looks at her reflection, she's reminded of her.

"Let's face him, I guess…" 

Grabbing her knife, she puts it in one of the pockets of her purple pajama pants before leaving her room. 

Not seeing Leo walking around her apartment anywhere, she tiptoes over to the couch and spots him still asleep. Reaching over to wake him up, her hand stops mere inches away from his shoulder. 'Maybe I should let him sleep a little bit longer?'

Deciding that he at least deserves that much, she goes to the kitchen and begins preparing a breakfast consisting of cut-up fruits and vegetables with a side of beef jerky. Without power, she hasn't been able to store any actual decent food. There is plenty of canned food in her cupboards, but while she still has produce, she isn't going to be eating any of that for breakfast. 

After making two plates, one for herself and one for her guest, Victoria places Leo's plate on the coffee table in front of him while she plans to eat hers in the kitchen. However, as she's setting down his plate, her attention is drawn to an open sketchbook on the table. 

Glancing at Leo to check if he's still asleep, she can't help but smile at the image of him sleeping with his mouth open while he drools all over her couch.

Once she makes sure the coast is clear, she gently picks up the book and begins to flip through the pages. Eventually, though, she stops on one page in particular—the page with the rose. 

It was absolutely beautiful, he was able to capture exactly what her withered rose could look like. Well, it isn't exactly her rose anymore… There was a time when she gave the rose to someone rather special to her as a gift. 

"Do you like it?" Leo suddenly asks, startling Victoria a little as she thought he was still asleep.

"Oh!" She exclaims, dropping the book and closing her hand around the knife in her pocket. Realizing how she must look, her cheeks tint in embarrassment as she tries to calm her beating heart.

Once she calms down, Victoria looks away from Leo's goofy smile and picks up the dropped book before replying. "Yes, it's very nice. You're an amazing artist." She says honestly, watching as his silly smile is replaced by a more softer one.

"Well thank you, I've found that drawing is quite therapeutic for me. Do you have any artistic interests?" He asks curiously, sitting up from his makeshift bed.

"I used to write poetry, but I haven't written anything in a while." Victoria replies a little sadly. However, before Leo could think about it too much, she motions to the plate of food on the table next to him. "I made some breakfast, I hope you're not allergic to anything there. Wasting my food would be considered extremely rude, you know."

Laughing a little at her ending remark, he graciously thanks her for breakfast before absolutely devouring the food in front of him. Not wanting to see Leo gorging himself on his meal, she makes a face and walks into the kitchen where she 'gracefully' eats her own breakfast. 

As she's finishing up, Leo attempts to make his way to the restroom, only to be stopped by Victoria shouting at him, making him jump a little bit. "Not that one!"

Turning around to look at her, he sees that both her hands are covering her mouth with her eyes open wide. They stand there in silence for a few moments before she slowly lowers her hands to cross them in front of her while she twiddles her thumbs awkwardly.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted at you… The room you were about to enter was my s-sister's room. The bathroom is the door on the left." She says quietly, her voice trembling a little as she turns back around to pick up her paper plate and throw it into the garbage.

Understanding that her sister must be a touchy subject, Leo doesn't say anything and goes about his business. 

Laying with her hands on the counter, Victoria takes deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself once more. Her sister wouldn't want her to beat herself up like this every time she's reminded of her, she knows that.

'Come on, chin up, buttercup. You're stronger than you think,' a familiar voice rings softly in her mind, a memory of a happier time. 

Fighting to hold her tears back, Victoria bites her bottom lip and squeezes her eyes shut. She doesn't want to be caught crying by Leo. She doesn't need him asking questions about whether she's okay or trying to pry into her personal life or anything like that. 

Managing to get her feelings under control, she goes and sits on the couch while pretending like everything is fine. Soon after, Leo exits the bathroom and joins her on the couch, making sure to sit on the opposite side from her. It's not like he didn't want to sit next to her, but he doubts that she'll appreciate it.

"So what else would you like to know?" Victoria asks, meeting his eyes.

Struck by a sudden jolt when he looks into her ice blue eyes, he almost forgets what he was going to ask her. Clearing his throat before speaking, he begins his inquiry. "How long has it been since the first outbreak?" He asks curiously, recalling only a bit of dust in the houses he's stumbled across and the fact that nature hasn't begun reclaiming what was hers. 

"About two months or so," she answers after a bit of contemplation.

"That's not long at all," he replies honestly with a little bit of confusion. "How can the entire world be defeated by the undead so quickly?" 

"As I said last night, the virus spread like wildfire." Seeing his confused expression, Victoria explains further. "It's not that the bites infect you, but the fact that we are all already infected. The disease is airborne, but it doesn't kill you. However, once you die, no matter how, you'll wake up as a walking corpse. Unless the brain is destroyed, of course."

Mulling over her explanation, things start to make a little more sense. If the virus was only spread by physical contact with the zombies, the military wouldn't have any problem defeating them. But since everyone is already infected, anyone who dies is now suddenly able to wake up and attack the nearest person next to them, which makes control of the problem very difficult to deal with. 

"Surely there's still military holdouts spread out around the country, right?" Leo asks, unable to believe that government authority has given up everywhere. 

"There are some, yes. Several of these 'quarantine zones' are still up and running with military personnel keeping the peace; but they are far and few between. Most military installations have been overrun. As you'd expect, people believed them to be safe, and so there were many that made their way to these bases and facilities in desperate hope. However, there's not really any way for me to know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that quite a few of their secret facilities are still up and running somewhere." 

Mulling over what she said, he's in agreement with her about there still being secure facilities spread out. Surely with their locations being secret and having apocalyptic level defenses they'd be able to last longer than two months. 

"Now that I'm a little caught up, what can you tell me about the group in town, the Grizzlies?" He asks, a little curious as to why she would hate them so much. He's seen how they treated that couple from before so he can understand it, but there has to be more than them just being ruthless.

At the mention of the Grizzlies, Victoria's eyes become cold and the atmosphere seems to change drastically.

Clenching and unclenching her jaw before answering, she looks down at the coffee table, or more accurately, she stares at the sketch of the rose he drew last night. 

"They used to be the town's police force, most of them were anyway. They've always been corrupt: taking bribes, looking the other way, planting evidence, and so on. But when civilized society began to fall, their true colours quickly came to light.

"I've seen them kill many innocent people, people that were just seeking help. Yet, all the Grizzlies wanted was their stuff. Every once in a while they'll take on a new member to their group, but it's not often. And even then, they try to look for people with low morals, people who are willing to do anything to survive." She finishes strongly, practically spitting the last sentence out as her anger with the group begins to show. 

Leo nods at the information she gives him. From what he's seen so far, her description of the group checks out pretty accurately. 

"I think that's all the questions I have at the moment. If there's something I want to know, can I ask you more in the future? He questions hopefully. Victoria is the only decent person that he's met so far, so he hopes that he and her can eventually become friends at least. 

"Absolutely," she answers with a small smile. "You know where I live, so I doubt today will be the last time I see you. You said you live in the apartment building near here, right?" 

Hearing her answer, Leo matches her smile. "Yup, the big red brick one. I have yet to clear out the entire building though, so only about half of it is walker free. The apartment that I chose has a pretty good view of the entire town, especially over the courthouse where the Grizzlies are located." 

Once he mentions how he has a good vantage point over the Grizzlies, she gains a weird look in her eye that he can't entirely place. 

"That's something I would definitely like to see," Victoria says interestedly, thinking about the ways she can gain intel and maybe come up with a plan to get rid of them once and for all. 

"Well you can come over anytime, it'll be good to have an ally in times like this. However, make sure you give me ample warning or something, I don't want to accidentally attack you." He replies with a light chuckle, not entirely joking.

Hearing his joke, she can't help but smirk slightly. From everything that's happened so far between them, she's pretty confident in her ability to defend herself against him if need be.

"Same, but please don't come here too often. This place is very personal to me, and I liked my privacy even before everything that's happened with the world." She states with a strange seriousness in her tone.

"Completely understandable." Leo remarks, glancing out the window. "I think it's about time I get going, daylight's burning and I need to look for some stuff. Maybe I'll even be able to find a radio or walkie talkie that we can use to communicate." 

Looking outside, she can't help but agree with him. There is some stuff that she needs to do as well before night falls.

"Yeah, me too." Victoria says a little distractedly. Turning back to Leo, she offers him a handshake while saying, "It was nice meeting you, Leo. You're welcome to visit, but please ring the bell like you did yesterday so I know that it's you, okay?" 

Shaking her hand, he can't help but take notice of how nice her hand fits in his own. Her skin is soft and her fingers feel delicate. She reminds him of a rose—stunning and beautiful, but also capable of causing pain if necessary. 

After saying farewell to his new ally, he grabs his weapons and makes his way back to his little base of operations. During his walk back, he encounters a couple undead that shambled their way into the alley off the main road. Thankfully, they were only walkers, so they were easily and quickly dealt with.

Climbing up the fire escape, Leo stops at his window and looks out over the dead town. There's still so much that he has to do. He really wants to check out that port down by the river.

With any luck, he'll be able to find something interesting in one of the containers aboard the docked cargo ship. 

Even better, he may be able to find a sailboat that he can use. Surely there's more settlements a little ways further up the river. And if he follows the river down, eventually it'd open up into the ocean. However, he has no idea how far the ocean is from where he's at. It could be a hundred miles away for all he knows.

Adding a visit to the docks to the mental list he has going, he heads inside the apartment to grab something real quick and to try and finish clearing out the building. Since his inventory has only twenty slots, he isn't able to throw everything he finds into his system's storage, and so he leaves a few things in his apartment to save space. 

Grabbing a chain and lock that he found in one of the other apartments, Leo goes into the hallway and makes his way down to the lower floors using the staircase. 

Before, he managed to clear out the hallways on the third floor, but he didn't end up clearing any of the rooms yet. Moving from door to door, Leo makes sure he's cleared each apartment before trying to loot any of them. Because of the noise, a few shamblers make their way up from the second floor, but he's able to deal with them rather easily. 

With his notifications turned off, he's able to deal with the undead without any distractions. Once he clears the whole building, then he'll turn them back on again.

Walking around the last apartment he has yet to check out on this floor, he stumbles upon a rather disturbing and grizzly scene. Handcuffed to the bed with a pair of pink frilly handcuffs, is a naked heavyset man that's nearly been eaten in half. His large stomach is torn open with his intestines hanging out and his large ribcage clearly on display. 

Standing across from the blood-ridden bed, is an irregularly large, obese naked woman. Spotting him, the large woman lets out a wet, gargling howl, blood dribbling down her double chin onto her chest. Her large breasts swing wildly as she begins to charge towards Leo.

"Oh shit!" He shouts, slamming the bedroom door shut and running towards the living room. From behind him, he hears the cheap particle board door get smashed through by the heavy bearing undead woman. 

Once he's in the open area of the living room, Leo stops and turns around to face what is pure nightmare fuel. 

Feeling each and every stomp of the monster charging towards him, Leo strengthens his resolve. Taking out the revolver from his inventory, he lines up the sight and pulls the trigger.

Bang!

Within an instant, the woman's head snaps back, viscera spraying out behind her. As if her strings have been cut, the zombie collapses under her own weight, coming to a rolling stop at Leo's feet. 

"Well, that was terrifying," He utters lowly, hoping that the Grizzlies didn't come to investigate the gunshot.

Slowly but surely, Leo begins to hear groaning sounds coming from the hallway a ways away from the apartment door. Of course the undead would be attracted to the sound of a gunshot within the same building, it's much louder than a runner's howl. 

Returning the gun to his inventory, he takes out his crowbar to get ready for the upcoming slaughter. 

Peeking his head out into the hallway, he is able to see about five walkers slowly making their ways towards him. "Could be worse," Leo mumbles quietly, going out to meet them head on. Within a few minutes, all of the undead have been successfully dealt with. 

Now that the coast is clear, he finally takes a look at the notifications he's been ignoring. 

[+3 Exp x15]

[+2 Levels to Melee Weapons]

[+1 Level to Bladed Weapons]

[New Skill acquired: Firearms] 

"Not too bad, not too bad.." Leo trails off, appreciating his progress for the day so far. Having not looked at his stats since he leveled up, he pulls them up so he can see his total overall progress.

[Name: Leo Hopkins (Age 20)

Title: None

Level: 4

Exp: 142/2500

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 7 

Perception: 8

Endurance: 7

Charisma:7

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 8

—

Stat Points: 0

Skills: Melee Weapons (level 13/25)

Trapping (Level 3/30)

Bladed Weapons (Level 7/25)

Sneaking (4/30)

Drawing (7/20)

Cartography (2/20)

Acting (1/15)

Firearms (1/20) 

Perks: None]

Looking at his stats, Leo can't help the grin that forms on his face. He's come a long way since he first came to this world. He only hopes that it will be enough for whatever happens next.