When Elijah opened his eyes, he woke with a shiver. He had always been one for the cold but even he realized it was stupid to sleep without anything to warm him. Though he did not regret giving away his jacket to Izzy, besides it was two sizes too small for him and it was the thinnest jacket he owned. The only reason he had it at the time was because the weather was beginning to get consistent and his normal leather jacket was too heavy for the weather.

When Elijah awoke he was the only one wide eyed. This was the usual case with him, even an attack by demons, leaving people behind, Greg's driving and sleeping in a gazebo wouldn't make him sleep past seven. And with that Elijah assumed that was the time, it looked so by his rough assumption of the sky and sun. When he looked around to the others he saw them all the same, untouched, safe. He stood himself up and walked over to the stairs to wait and take in the still air.

After an hour or so he heard stirring from behind. When he turned to see who it was, he saw Noellia begin to stand up and walk over. Noellia walked over and sat down on the stair next to him. Her arms stuffed into her sweatshirt to hold any heat to herself. Most of the blood was now dried and was only on her sweatshirt with it gone from her face. She leaned against the railing looking off into the distance before saying to Elijah.

"Those things were terrifying. They got so many people."

"Yeah, yeah they did. Where were you when it all hit the fan?"

"The gym, you?"

"In the hallway... getting rejected."

"So you told her. If we weren't where we are I'd be impressed."

"You were right though, she said no. Like you warned me."

"I was rooting for you. Thought you needed a girl. You were getting lonely."

"Oh, well thanks then. I mean I guess I agree, I really was hoping for a yes."

"I mean hey ask now and who knows. You are probably one of the final guys on the planet."

"Nope, now you jinxed it. We're gonna stumble upon like, a football team now."

"Just be better. You're smart and nice, you can think of something."

"Noellia, where did the blood come from?"

"The gym got bloody quick, lots of people having blood sent out of them. It was hard not to get any on you."

"Yeah, I get that. But it was on your face, arms, hands, legs. All over. Who died Noellia?"

Noellia finally turns to look Elijah in the eyes and before speaking turns away to the ground, "It got crazy, We were all running around, no one knew what was happening until it was in their face. I was with Melanie and we were trying to find a way out, and one, one, jumped," At this point Noellia begins to sob as she speaks and when she talks it is almost like she is forcing the words out of her mouth, "And it tore through her throat almost immediately. She, she didn't even have a chance, it just killed her, no fight, no chance. Just blood, everywhere. On me, on it, on her body, it was all over." At this point Noellia charges Elijah with a hug still speaking, "I don't know what to do. She was my best friend and now, and now she's just gone. We didn't even get to say goodbye. I'd kill to do anything with her again. Even if it was just to grab a slice at Bella's."

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Elijah completely stunned by the actions and words of his small friend was in a shocked phase before finding the right words and putting his arms around her, "Yeah, you're gonna feel like that for awhile. But trust me, the good memories of old will always stay. You can do nothing right now besides mourn and bargain hoping something will listen and send you a small favor. And it won't. Friends are hard to lose, death is a hard concept. In the end we don't know where we will all go and we don't know if we will see each other again. But, and that is a hard but, you can do your damn best to stay alive. You can make absolute sure that she didn't die for you to as well."

Still hugging, Noellia silently says, "Alright, I can do that."

"Good."

And with that the two of them ended their embrace and Noellia wiped the tears from her eyes. They both turned back to staring at the outside scenery. Elijah at the river with its flowing and crashing and Noellia at the general attractiveness of the trees and green. They heard a rustling from behind as they saw Greg hop up from his spot and walking over to the two. He stepped down the stairs and leaned against one of the pillars that marked the entrance to the gazebo. He didn't say anything and in response they didn't say anything back. After another thirty or so minutes everyone else began to wake up and also find a spot on or around the stairs. After everyone had woken Greg started the conversation.

"So, what's the plan?"

Cody stopped chucking pebbles into the river and turned with his response ready. "We should hit the Grocer, like Elijah said we could."

Elijah turned to look at Cody seeing the hope in his eyes and that was what forced his response to change. "Yeah, I mean we should check it first but, yeah."

Jared hopped off the railing around the gazebo and started speaking. "Well probably best we plan this out now. Don't want to wait too long. So who goes, who stays?"

"My idea, I'll go." Elijah said as he stood up.

"I can help." Cody says rising with Elijah.

"I'll stay here if you don't mind. A bite the size of a dog kinda hurts." Said Aydan still sitting on the top step of the gazebo.

"I'll be there in case you get in trouble." Said Greg already standing.

"Me too." Spoke Jared with the shotgun out.

"No, we're gonna need you to stay in case anything finds you four. If anything, does use the bus and see if you can find us in town, if we get that far."

From the corner of the conversation spoke out Izzy. "Wait, I'm coming with."

"We are already risking it with three people who don't know what they're doing, we can't risk another."

"I have friends, family back there. I can't leave them."

"We all had friends and family back there. But those things did a lot of killing and almost definitely did it to them, we can't act like that isn't the truth! We have to stick to our survival if we can ever hope to see anybody ever again!"

Izzy began to hold back tears and started to look at the grond. Everybody around them had the wide-eyed looks like a fight was going on back in school. Elijah turned and began to walk away with Cody and Greg at his heels. Just when Cody began trying to talk to Elijah about his sudden outburst, they heard from behind in a stone-cold voice.

"I. Am. Going. And you will not stop me becuase you think you have all the answers! I have my reasons to go and you have yours. Either we go or I leave. So choose which?"

Elijah looked at her with the widest eyes anyone had during this confrontation. He wasn't stupid enough to act like he could call her bluff, that was if it was a bluff. This sudden premonition of how little he truly knew her hit him like a brick. Though what truly hit him like a brick was her now in his face yelling, "Which!"

"Uh, yeah. Come on. I guess we will be off than."

"Great," said Izzy as she walked past the three of them and started to close in on the edge of the woods.

After a good long second of her walking Elijah turned and wordlessly led Cody and Greg with him to the woods after Izzy. As they reached the edge of the woods, they all stood there and turned to see the remnants of the group still staying back looking with melancholy on their faces as they left, future unsure of.