Day 3: Pretty Girls Leave Beautiful Corpses III

—All right, girls... you have nothing to fear. We have seen you on the cameras and we have come to rescue you. I am Nikolai. This is Jason, Markus and Clark —Nikolai kept his distance from the women, who seemed not to trust them as they stepped back while holding the injured woman.

—What do you want? —Asked a young brunette. Nikolai could see that under her cocktail dress she had a gun and a holster around one of her legs.

—We want to help you. as my friend here already said —Clark Kennedy answered. —There are many people alive in the shelter where me and my... colleagues are. We have been rescuing civilians like you since the outbreak began. Do we scare you by any chance? You'll excuse our particular clothing... it's a protective measure for us, we can't go around completely unprotected.

—How do we know you are the good guys? I've seen it all! I won't let you kill my girlfriend and the woman who saved our lives —The brunette woman expressed her displeasure. —We don't need help, we can manage...

—I think you are somewhat mistaken, and a little bit stupid —Clark smiled. —Clearly she can't walk and, I wonder what you will do when a horde surrounds you. Are you going to shoot them with your pistol with infinite ammunition? I don't think so.

—You bastard!

—What my friend is trying to say... is that we can take you to a safe place where your girlfriend and that woman will be safe. I'm Jason Slater and along with my friend the Russian...

—I'm not... you know what? Fuck you.

—We're leading a group of civilians and mall workers. Look, we don't know each other and you are right NOT to trust us entirely, or at first glance, but my friend who saw you through the cameras is very worried about you, because she saw how hard you struggled to get food and, she couldn't help but feel something when she saw that woman crying, probably in pain. Why don't you let us help you? You can decide to leave or stay later... but at least try to be considerate for her, who needs help and we can give it to her.

—Daisy! Maybe these people are right... we can't go on like this. Leah needs help and we have no medication to control her pain —A white, blonde woman with beautiful blue eyes pleaded.

—Kimberly...

—We have no choice... these men already found us anyway, so it doesn't matter if we try to escape or not, they have the guns and we have a weak and wounded woman, like us...

—How do we know you can be trusted? —Daisy asked for a good explanation.

—There are... there are children in the shelter where we are located, it was not in our plans but we even have dogs too. I took the liberty of grabbing the camera of my friend, Jason, who is a photographer and... took some pictures of our shelter. Check them out. —Nikolai showed them a camera.

Daisy took the camera and looked at several pictures, among them were two girls playing with two dogs. In one of the pictures she could see a nurse administering the serum to a woman who looked pretty bad and, there was a photograph from the rooftop that took a picture of Grand Mont Plaza from above, showing the zombies around.

Daisy was most shocked to see a little girl being carried by a black woman, plus there was another man in the picture with them... Markus.

Markus removed his climbing mask and Daisy was surprised to see the young man's gray eyes.

—God... Are there children involved in all this? —Daisy returned the camera to Nikolai, and looked down at the ground in sorrow.

—She is Kali... her brother was infected but she is too young to understand death. She is the symbol of hope of our shelter because it is for people like her that we fight and, we go out of our comfort zone to help others. You can come with us, Daisy, or not, but think about who you would affect with your decision.

Markus left Daisy in deep thought and she was lost in Markus' eyes, then nodded.

—Okay... Fine! We'll got with you.

Daisy was ready to join them.

—Well then! After our touching talk... What happened to her? —Clark asked as he saw that the woman named Leah could barely stand up.

—She hurt her ankle when we tried to escape. She's got a fucking sprain that, every time we try to help her walk... it gets messy.

—I have strength, Kimberly! I just need to know how to stand up and....

The woman couldn't do it no matter how hard she tried.

—Stop it, you're going to hurt yourself. All right, ladies... it's time to get to work —Clark addressed the group in general. —We'll make this quick. Our safe place is at Grand Mont Plaza. We'll just have to dodge those idiots, they're too slow.

—Do you ladies know how to use weapons? —Markus asked.

—I've taken some self-defense classes —Kimberly replied. —My father taught me how to use them... he's a member of the force. I took Daisy with me to take some classes... Why do you ask?

Markus drew two pistols, and extended them to the women.

—I don't want to be delayed. If you see anyone nearby, shoot them in the head. Each pistol has a total of sixteen bullets in the clip. Use them wisely, make every single bullet count.

—God! And I thought I'd never use one of these... I haven't even finished the classes! I don't know if it would be right to use a pistol if I haven't even been given permission to...

—Daisy, right? None of those rotten people care, actually, no one gives a shit about it. Point and shoot, end of discussion. The dead don't care if you took a course or not; kill them —Nikolai was direct. —Right in the fucking head.

—But... Kim's father told me that...

—Her father would be proud to know you defended people around you and yourself using your last resort. As I said... End.of.discussion.

Without further ado, Nikolai opened the bathroom door carefully, realizing that the dead had begun to prowl around the area because they had grown tired of eating the human remains they had hunted earlier.

## Next Chapter

Day 3: Pretty Girls Leave Beautiful Corpses IV