“And being a cheerleader will toootally be beneficial in a post apocalyptic world. Oh, I know, how about we shoo them away with some spirit!” The fiery young woman with pale skin and slightly slanted eyes whispered sarcastically. Her hair was pulled up into a topknot, a beady hair tie keeping the short, sleek, raven bangs out of her enigmatic brown eyes.

    
   “Okay, how about we sing them to a lullaby in hopes they’ll fall asleep?” A woman with chocolate brown skin hissed back, keeping her velvety voice low. Her eyes were a brilliant blend of blue, her pupils shrinking until they were small pinpricks underneath the sweltering sun. Her grimy hand, coated in dirt and blood, was clutching onto a thick shard of transparent glass. The bottom, where her slender fingers were wrapped, was coated in layers of a matte green tape. Running a hand through her frizzy, unwashed curls, the woman sighed sourly. “We need to get around this bus, so we can break into the science building, Selene. From what I can tell, there are about three Cans in the way.”
    “Go show them how to clap their hands and shout hooray, you got this!” The Chinese woman, Selene exclaimed quietly. “Go, Roxanne! Fight, Roxy--!”
    “I’ve had enough of your sarcasm, Selene. You’re going out there with me, because when we break in, there is going to be a lot of noise. Whoever’s left behind will get ambushed.” Roxanne growled. She rose to her full height and peeked into the windows of the old bus. Her vision was tinted purple, but she could still see the fuzzy outlines of three scraggly figures. They were walking slow, languid. Their backs and heads were slumped over, and all of them, all at once, twitching. Convulsing as if they had a severe case of endless epilepsy. Roxanne squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to flush out the memories of the people she once knew, the three people she was about to kill, to snuff their puny light out, all in order to survive. A lot of lights had been snuffed out over the past couple of months, leaving thick, oozing shadows on the Earth.
    “Ugh… fine.” Selene breathed. She used her small hands to help her up off the hot, rough concrete. When Selene stood, she was head and a half shorter than Roxanne. She smoothed her brown leather jacket and dusted off the dirt on her tight pants. Selene threw her backpack on the ground and ruffled through it, pulling out a rusty, crimson stained metal pipe. Selene threw her pack over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”
     Roxanne nodded in agreement. “I’ll get the one on the right, you on the left. Once killed, we’ll converge to take out the one in the middle.” Selene muttered a few words, some sounding like an okay, so Roxanne shrugged to herself and took that as an agreement.
    “Wait--how are we gonna break the windows once we get to the science lab?” Selene questioned.
    “I was just going to wing that part, I have several things in my bag that should do the trick, if not we can find a door.” Roxanne replied. Roxanne’s grip on the glass shard tightened, the sharp pricks covered in tape bluntly dug into her skin. She looked back at Selene and beckoned with her eyes to start moving. The pair went in opposite directions, each at one end of the bus. It was quiet. As if the world was desolate. No wind blew, no ruffle of the autumn leaves to give the two girls reassurance that they were here, alive, on this torturous planet. All there was in the empty world was racing hearts, empty groans, and the anxious pit pattering footsteps of two human beings that were alone.
“Remind me to hug you when we’re not being chased by cannibals, thanks.” Roxanne prompted, hopping over fallen traffic signs, car parts, garbage, and a swirl of debris as she was sprinting. Selene scrunched her nose, scurrying as fast as she could behind Roxanne, struggling to keep up. “Good idea knocking that garbage can over to slow them down. Anyway. We’re almost there.”
    “Roxy, I swear to God if you lay a finger on me, I will go kiss a Can, so I can get infected and eat you.” Selene panted, the words tumbling out of her mouth in between breaths. Roxanne grinned to herself. She glanced behind her quickly to see about seven cannibals gaining on their heels. The groaning, gauche, gory beasts were following them, yearning to taste fleshy human skin between their teeth. Selene saw that she turned her head and she quickly joined suit. Fire was dancing in her eyes “I thought you said there was three!”
    “It was an estimate!” Roxanne chided. “Oh, by the way, being a cheerleader in the past is beneficial. You’re already out of breath.”
    “Definitely going to kill you.”
    After a few minutes of running and pointless arguing, the pair had reached the giant windows of the science building. A cream colored brick had been built around the glass panes. The roof was also made out of glass. “We’re going to the window on the west complex, so start turning, because this has to be perfect.” Roxanne informed.
     “What happens if it isn’t?”
     “We’re dead.”
     The windows were there. Waiting for them. Roxanne pulled out a giant sledgehammer and tucked her arm back, breathing. She swung, all her muscles tightening. The glass broke in one, lucky try. The glass shattered, spraying the women’s skin, making small cuts and nicks and bruises. They climbed through, the haunting groans of the people they once knew pushing them in, and whispering in their ears, motivating them to run faster until they reached a place where they could be human for a few minutes.

    Barry fiddled with the plastic slab safety pinned to his light gray sweater. He adjusted his pale orange collar overlapping the button up under his sweater and ran his long fingers through his chocolate brown hair. Barry pushed up his glasses. He felt ready. But, he knew he wasn’t. His mind was jumbled, racing so fast, that it could compete against light. Barry placed his shaking hands on the cool countertop and closed his eyes. He thought of his mother and uncle, drifting in and out of the peaceful meadows of Texas, plucking wheat and grain to sell in the market on Saturdays. He saw George K. III, his family’s beloved beagle, chasing flies on the porch while his sister, Maryann, scribbled her hyper four year old mind onto a piece of paper. His lip twitched upwards. Barry breathed in cold air. His lungs froze. There was loud noise. A shatter of glass. His only haven had been breached. His isolation fractured. Gone.

    The pair sprinted into the double doors that led into the main area of the science center. Selene quickly lifted up the golden door stop, and flipped a few switches. A large noise rang out in the building, and suddenly, silver gates began lowering from the sky, about three inches off the wall. The girls stepped back frantically.
    “What’s the that and how did you know it was there?” Roxanne exhaled. Her hands were on her knees, breathing heavy. Selene was in worse condition, laying on the floor with her eyes closed. Selene held up her finger, muttering in a minute.
    “It’s one of the buttons for lock down,” A tentative voice spoke. “There’s several in the building, but not on the outside of the double doors, where the glass is.”
    Selene and Roxanne’s head swiveled to the side to see a tall young man hanging out of the door frame. He had brown hair the color of Roxanne’s skin, and eyes the color of the tape on the glass shard digging into Roxanne’s hand. He was dressed rather properly, considering the world outside. He was wearing a muted orange button up with a gray sweater over it. Khaki pants. A torn up pair of converse. What was peculiar was the name tag attached to his breast bone.
    Roxanne raised her glass shard. “Who are you?”
    The boy’s eyes widened.
    Just as Roxanne was about to demand another answer from the young man, Selene gasped. All eyes darted to her in anticipation. “Barry?” She exclaimed questioningly. Barry focused on Selene’s face for a moment, before he raised his hand up to his mouth in surprise.
    “Selene Tang?” Barry questioned. Selene nodded and struggled to get up. He came out from behind the door frame and walked over quickly to help. “It’s nice to see you again, Selene, especially in this mess.”
    “Ditto.” Selene agreed. Roxanne stood confused. Selene seemed to have caught on to her questionable look. “Barry Blancha meet Roxanne Williams, Roxanne Williams, Barry Blancha. Barry’s been my lab partner all throughout high school, coincidently. He liked science so much he decided to study it. Roxanne’s major is health and seizure or somethin’ like that.”
    “Two years of being your roommate, and you still don’t know… health and Leisure.”
    It was silent for a moment before Roxanne spoke, “What are you doing in the science building? I mean, why haven’t you left  the college yet?”
    Barry shuffled his feet and rang his sweaty palms together. “Sort of hesitant to go alone. And I’ve been observing the peop--um, the infected. I sit on a bench in front of the glass and just watch their behavior. Uh, I’ve discovered that if they see you, they won’t attack. They have to smell or hear you, I’m quite sure as to why--”
    A fierce growling occurred, interrupting Barry’s explanation. The horrendous noise had been right beside Roxanne’s ear. She had whipped back so fast her neck seemed to pop. The noise was coming from an infected cannibal. The cannibal had once been beautiful, as far as Roxanne could tell. She had a honey caramel pigmentation, with textured black hair that was pulled up into a small ponytail, the bangs covering her right eye knotted. Swelled purple blotches coated her face, making her dark, cloudy eyes pop out against the differing contrast. Her clothes were torn and ripped, and there was a harsh bite mark on her left shoulder, where her shirt sleeve was nonexistent, crimson strings oozing out of the wound. The wound that ruined her life. The wound that made her far from human. Roxanne’s blood froze, and she took a step back from the girl. Selene sniffed, and skittered backwards, farther away from her. “She was part of the vocal department, her voice was angelic. It’s… not anymore.”
    “We need to leave.” Barry whispered. His eyes were silent, soft, fragile. As if they were paper. If one tear was to trickle out, they would crumble. “I-I can’t stay here anymore. It’s just--every time I see a face of an someone I’ve encountered, even if they were just another shade in the crowd, I start thinking of my family. Roaming the fields, all alone, bruised, and swollen. Their skin tore up. Yearning for human flesh. It just kills me, every time. And I think I deserve to be killed.”
    “Why would you say that, Barry?” Selene questioned harshly. “Nobody deserves that. Nobody deserves to have their life gripped from an unknown force and torn out from under them, causing them to fall into an endless void of torment, where all they do are forced to destroy everything that they cherish. No one.”
    They sat in a weary silence, the groans of the infected melting into the background. “We o need to leave,” Roxanne agreed. “We can’t stay here. I doubt that there is supplies, and I’m not sure I trust the strength of those bars. Barry, do you have an idea?”
    “Um,” Barry started. “There is a camp about 6 miles East of here. I’ve heard them broadcasting every single day since a few weeks ago. According to the message, they have food, water, shelter, medical supplies, and more necessities. I think we should try it out.”
    Roxanne nodded, “We can leave in the morning. It’s our best bet.”
 
    The trees hung over the eight foot wooden fence. The sky was a bright blue, plump clouds billowing lazily in the sky. The sun shone down, providing a beautiful flow of light on the chill, autumn morning. One the wooden fence, there were the words, HUMANS HERE, scrawled on with bright yellow spray paint. Roxanne, Selene, and Barry all glanced at each other inside the car, warm, confident smiles tracing their cheeks. “We made it.” They all seemed to sigh at one point. The gates opened, exposing a large community with women, men, children, animals, and homes. But most of all, freedom. The gate had opened their new haven, their new enclosure, to be free.
    “It’s funny, most of the time humans want to break free of what’s confining them in their everyday life, but once the world hits rock bottom, their anxious to crawl back.” Roxanne muttered.
    “It’s those confines that keep us human.” Selene replied, her sparkling orbs trained onto the new home.
    Roxanne and Barry smiled. “Yeah.”
   They knew in their hearts that they were going to make it.