Tick. Tick. Tick.

That was odd. My alarm did not sound like something tapping on metal.

I blearily opened my eyes and realized this was not my bed. It took several long seconds for me to realize where I actually was.

This was the car I had crawled into the backseat to hide. At some point, I had burrowed into the discarded clothing. Using them like makeshift blankets as I buried myself on the floor of the car. Despite the wooden bat being rammed into my side, I had apparently slept like a baby.

It was at that point that I realized I had the worst sense of self-preservation ever.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The strange metal tapping sound came again. Looking up from the seat of the car, I saw the source of the noise.

Sitting on the frame of the door was a crow.

A regular. Normal. Crow.

Only it was trying to pick a piece of something reddish out of the edge of the doorframe. I was definitely not going to think about what it was trying to get. Just like I was definitely not going to think of the guy who had exploded yesterday.

I pushed all of it from my mind as I climbed out of the car.

The crow made an angry cawing noise before it flew into the air. I could have sworn it looked annoyed at me before it flapped away. I watched it go and then shuddered when I saw it join a whole horde of crows.

Coincidentally, they were all converged in that one spot I was not going to think about.

I stepped away from the car, but quickly changed my mind.

Reaching back inside, I rummaged around until I found that bat. There was something comforting about having a weapon, even though I knew it would be useless against anything big. Something like that wendigo-creature could probably use it to pick its teeth after it finished eating me.

Gripping the bat tightly, I looked down the highway towards the city. I realized I would have to pass the body if I wanted to keep going this way. Turning, I could see that even the turf was full of abandoned cars.

People had left their cars all the way to the edges of the trees. It was haphazard. Like people had parked in a hurry and then ran away. Only the highway had a clear, empty lane that stretched all the way from there to the city.

I realized that it did not matter if I walked along the highway or closer to the wooded edges. It was going to be dangerous either way.

Chewing my lip, I decided to take the empty path. I just planned on staying close to the cars. It would be easier to dodge out of the way if I saw someone up ahead. Something about walking close to the forest made me feel a little more paranoid.

Especially as I considered the possibility of encountering another mutated hare or something worse.

I took a deep breath before striding away from the car and towards the city. I just came to an immediate stop once I was next to the body that had been the cannibalistic guy’s meal.

Part of me just told me to keep walking.

Yet, I still found myself stopping to check if they were still alive.

Not that I considered what I was going to do if they were alive. It was just some idea that popped into my mind that I should check.

Like that feeling you get when you stare over the edge of a cliff and your mind wonders what it would be like to jump. That was how I felt as I crouched down to put my fingers against their wrist to feel for a pulse.

Then they coughed.

And I jumped back with a barely suppressed shriek.

“Not…” Their voice was raspy, as if someone had lovingly embraced their throat with a cheese grater. “Not… dead. Yet.”

“How… how are you still alive?”

“I… heal.”

“What?” I stared at the body and realized that they looked better than yesterday. There was more skin on their body as if they had regrown it. Their face was still a mess and there was nothing about them to tell me about their identity. It just was not as bad to look at as I had imagined it yesterday.

“Heal.” They struggled to speak. “Can… can you… find… me… pants?”

“Uh. Sure.” I managed to say, before I walked back to the car I had slept in.

I managed to find a pair of sweatpants that looked like it might fit. There was another moment of hesitation before I decided to grab the hoodie I had used as a pillow as well.

Returning, I found the not-dead-person was watching me intently with bloodshot gray eyes. They did not move their head, but those eyes followed me.

“Here.” I said as I held out the pants.

Those eyes just stared blankly at me before I heard a rather helpless whisper.

“I… can’t move… yet.” Even with the damage to their throat, they sounded almost embarrassed. “Can you… pants… me?”

I stared.

And then I looked down at the person’s legs.

“Uh.”

There was nothing that could have ever prepared me for putting pants on a person. Especially not when their lower body was so mangled that they looked like a sexless barbie doll.

“If you try to bite me…” I left my words hanging.

“Don’t… have… strength.”

“Right.” I said. I put everything else on the ground next to them before I slowly began to put the pants on them, one leg at a time. I felt like I was back in retail, awkwardly trying to dress a mannequin.

It was better to think of them as an inanimate object instead of the rather fleshy nature of their skinless muscles. I thanked Buddha that there was still some skin around their ankles that I could grab to lift their legs.

The person did not complain at all.

I guessed this was probably a much more comfortable alternative to being dragged down the street and chomped on.

“Thank… Thank you.” The person said when I finally managed to get the pants over their waist.

“Here, a sweater.” I said and grabbed the hoodie.

Once more, they stared blankly at me. I realized exactly what they were asking with their silence.

Sighing, I decided that if I had put on the pants, I might as well put the sweater on them. I kept quiet as I put the remaining piece of clothing on them. The only sound was the person’s raspy breathing and the occasional cawing of the crows.

Surprisingly, those sounds made me feel a lot more comfortable than the eerie silence of earlier.

“I couldn’t find any shoes.” I admitted after I took a step back.

“Feet… still healing…” They said as if that made it okay.

“You know… you’re awfully calm.” I mumbled.

“You… too.” Came the response.

I did not feel like telling them that I had fainted after everything I had seen yesterday.

“Do you know what happened here?” I said and motioned to the highway.

Not only did I not want to talk about my mental state, I was also curious about what had happened. This person was the first human I had encountered since leaving the airport that did not want to eat other humans.

“Gov…” They struggled with the word. “Army… Army came. Eva…Eva….”

“Evacuated?” I provided the word.

“Yes.” They did the barest move of their head. It was like a nod.

I immediately thought of Fezzik encouraging Wesley about a little head movement in the Princess Bride and somehow, I managed not to say it.

“Army… moved people… further…” Their voice was starting to get better. It was still raspy, but it was no longer the horrific sound it had been when they started talking. “Tried… empty city…”

“That’s weird.” I said. “I was at the airport yesterday. Everything seemed hurried, but people weren’t trying to eat each other. And there was no sign of the military there.”

“Happened quickly…” They continued. “Barricades… on… other highways.”

I guessed they meant that the military had blocked off the other highways while leaving this one with a clear lane. I looked up at the space and wondered if it was so they could move quickly. That still did not explain to me how everything looked straight from a horror movie.

“The rain… killed engines. And… Monsters…” The raspy voice came. “Monsters… dragged off… people.”

Well, that explained the abandoned cars.

“Oh.” I mumbled. “Well… now that you’ve got clothes on, I’ll be on my way.”

I got to my feet and quickly dusted myself off. Not that it really did me much good, as dirt and blood stained me from head to toe.

“W…wait.” They rasped.

“Sorry, I don’t have any other clothing. There is a car a few back that has a bunch of stuff in it.”

“T…take me…”

“Buh?” I made a confused noise and stared at them. While I had been willing to get them clothing and talk with them, dragging them along with me had never crossed my mind. Never once had I really planned on being the good Samaritan type.

I was not a hero.

“I… don’t… want… to get… eaten.”

“How do you know I won’t eat you?” I asked with a quirked eyebrow and doing my best to look intimidating.

“You… would have… already…”

I wanted to argue with their logic, but I had the feeling they were probably right. If I was going to go all cannibalistic, I probably would have done so by now.

My classmate had not even lasted two hours before he tried to eat me.

“Please…”

I lowered my head and gave a defeated sigh.

“Fine.”

I thought about looking around for something to use as a travois. That way I could drag them behind me, but I really doubted I would find anything in any of the nearby cars. It was not like the average person would put that kind of survival equipment in their backseat.

Eventually, I gave up that thought and just hoisted them over my shoulder. I managed to figure out a way to balance them against me while I kept a grip on that baseball bat. It was awkward as they were taller than me, but they were surprisingly light. It was just that their feet dragged along the ground while we walked.

We were silent as we went, not a complaint issued from them, and I could hear the normal sounds of wilderness. While we had left behind the crows, there were other birds that were making their presence known. I did not know which birds were there, but the chirping was comforting in just how normal the sound was.

Not that it really changed how not normal everything was right now.

“Rowan.” My new companion said.

“What?” I answered.

“My… name.” They rasped out. “Rowan.”

“Oh. Nice to meet you, Rowan.” I answered. “I’m Ava.”

Then we both became silent once more. My guess was that it was hard for them to speak, so they chose not to say anything else. As for me, it was just too weird to try to have a conversation with someone who was missing half their face.