Rachel

                                    

                                          

     Rachel entered Orange, Texas at around noon. She scanned the streets for any Creeps as she called the undead things. Seeing none she proceeded cautiously the rest of the way into town.
     Since this all started she had been on her own. Hell, since well before it all started she had relied mainly on herself to get by. Being alone was nothing new to her.
     She was a woman of small stature, petite one might say. She kept her red hair short though it was beginning to grow out now that it was hard to find a hair salon. Her eyes were a light blue and set in a fairy like face that made her look much younger than her twenty years.
     She didn't bother with concealing her noise, it was better to see the Creeps coming instead of walking into a whole mess of them at once. She noticed they traveled in clusters or groups. It was very rare to find one or two without there being a larger group somewhere nearby.
     She was only here to replenish her supplies. She had noticed in the initial panic, most people had just fled. It wasn't unusual to find stores or fastfood restaurants still somewhat stocked. In the future it wouldn't matter, once the groceries went past their sell-by-date there would be nobody making more.
     A convenience store with its glass door busted out was just across the way. She figured to just amble over, check for any Creeps inside and if it was all clear, go in and refill her knapsack.
     "Well, well, well boys," a man's voice froze her in place, "looks like we got us a little play thing."
     She turned slowly to see three men about twenty-five yards away. The man in the lead who had spoken was a bean poll and had a bad case of acne. He had curly brown hair and a scraggly beard. The grin on his face told of the unpleasant things he wanted to do to her. He pulled a machete from a scabbard on his belt.
     The two behind him weren't very threatening on their own, one was wearing a ball cap and was short and fat, the other had a kind of blank look on his face and was tall and skinny. Even at the end of the world there were those who would take by force what you weren't willing to give freely.
     "Now, now," the lead man was saying with that grin, "don't you even think of runnin'."
     She started running back the way she had come before he even finished talking. She heard the men start after her. As soon as she was around the corner and was out of sight she ducked into a bar with its door off its hinges. She ran over and leaped up on the bar and jumped down on the other side, squeezing herself underneath inside a cubby hole under the cash register.
     She heard the men just outside, breathing heavy and cussing.
     "Dammit Brian," one of them said gasping hard, "if you'd have waited we could have gotten closer and grabbed her."
     "She ain't going nowhere," the one named Brian said and snickered and then said loudly, "are you sweetie?"
     Another voice seeming to belong to a mentally challenged person said, "she's pretty, maybe if we're nice to her she will wanna come home with us."
     "Sure Beanie," Brian said sarcastically, "we'll just treat her real nice and she'll come home with us and clean and cook for us. We'll be just one happy family."
     There was a smack and the one called Beanie started to cry. Rachel heard someone else telling Beanie to be quiet and stop being such a baby.
     "Now," Brian said loudly at the bar entrance, "little girl, you get out here right now...and I promise we will be gentle with you. If I gotta find you, it will suck to be you."