POV: Zoe

I was awoken by the resonating crack of gunshots. They were far off, the report echoing throughout the city's buildings. I was surprised I'd woken from such a faint sound, but I had been a bit on edge lately. I slowly sat up in the queen sized bed we'd found, looking to my right to fnd Sarah sound asleep. I carefully swung my legs over the edge of the bed and tried to get up without causing too much of a disturbance.

I guess the decompression of the bed must have been enough to wake Sarah, "Where you going?" she asked, her voice sounding nowhere near like someone who'd just woken up.

"Gonna go sit downstairs, come?"

Sarah shrugged and threw the covers off of herself, standing and walking with me down the houses small flight of stairs. The step second to last creaking under each of our weights.

As we transitioned from wood to carpet and left the strange lingering smell of the upstairs rooms, I looked to my right and saw Alex sprawled out on the couch, and Laz, curled up like a puppy in the room's chair. I stifled a laugh and pointed out toLaz when Sarah looked at me questioningly. She chuckled softly to herself before turning toward the kitchen. And going to raid the cabinets. Sarah was my height at 5'5" so she did have some trouble reaching the top cabinets. She was able to get there standing on her tiptoes though. I smiled as I watched her stretch to grab a can of pork n' beans. She dropped back flat on her feet and used a claw to pry open the lid. Without heating up the can she downed the contents and chunked the can.

"That can't taste good." I whispered.

"Better than going hungry." she whispered back.

I gave a crooked nod of thought before grabbing my hoodie and holstering my sidearm.

"Again, where are you going?" she asked in a frustrated tone.

"Just follow me." I said with a roll of my eyes.

She sighed but followed anyways when I slipped on the grungy red hoodie and quietly slipped out the door into the chilling autumn night. Sarah walked outside and replaced the small plank of wood we'd propped against the door to keep it closed since she'd busted the knob. I walked over to the building's wall and jumped up, grabbing hold of one of the bricks. And pulling myself up to the next handhold I could find.

Sarah was suddenly right next to me on the wall, moving up as I did.

"So, you and that other hunter like each hunter huh?" she asked with a playful lilt to her voice.

"What, No!" I said defensively before moving up once more.

"You two are so obvious, just say it." she said back.

"I'll admit I had some...interests." I said, grunting as I leaped and extended my arms to grab hold of a pipe on the exterior of the building.

Sarah shuffled across the wall and quickly positioned herself next to me again.

"That can be taken in many different ways Zoe."

I chuckled, "Ok if all you were gonna do was try and give me relationship advice I don't even know why I invited you."

"Oh well that just hurts."

I laughed again, harder this time. As I went to grab my next handhold after shimmying up the pipe, the brick crumbled under my fingertips and my hand fell before I could grab another handhold. I was still holding onto the pipe but I had no grip so my hand slipped from the metal and I was falling. But then I wasn't. I had my eyes squeezed shut when my body jerked to a stop and when I opened them I was no less than 5 ft. from where I'd initially fallen. Looking down on me, upside down on the wall, was Sarah with a handful of my hoodie bunched up in her right hand.

"Maybe I should just carry you up?" she asked with a playful smile.

I exhaled in relief before speaking, "Let's just do that."

Sarah kept a handhold on me, chuckling as she turned right side up and heaved my weight up to her with ease. She moved me up to her back where I latched on and didn't let go until we'd reached the top.

"So we went through all this trouble to get you up here, now what?" she asked

"Sit." I responded simply before sitting and hanging my feet over the edge of the building.

"Sounds simple enough, I like it." she responded, sitting next to me.

I've always found it beautiful up here you know? Not this particular building just, above it all. Almost like you can see everything from up here. Queen of the world." I chuckled to myself, looking out over the city's skyline, Mercy Hospital rising above all else in the center of the city.

"So I take it you've known Alex quite a while?" i asked, turning my head to face her, a gentle breeze knocking some strands of my hair loose from behind my ear.

She chuckled, "That's one hell of an understatement. Known him my whole life. We grew up in Georgia together, down in Savanna. From younguns we were friends immediately, and from there our friendship grew with us."

I smiled at her, her blue and fading kool-aid tips swaying in the wind, "Sounds fun down in Georgia. What did you guys do for fun down there, I mean all I've ever heard about you are all the normal stereotypes" I transitioned to my best redneck accent, "'ya'll sum cuntry folk and all dat jazz'" I said, chuckling to myself.

Sarah laughed, "That's about the worst impression I've ever heard! Jeez where'd you learn about southerners, a comedian?"

"Nope, from the bar down the street from my college. Apparently they aren't exactly the most reliable of sources."

"You're just now figuring that out?"

We shared a laugh and sighed as the sun began to brighten up the very fringes of the horizon, the entire sky becoming seemingly more alive, the few scattered clouds that hovered above them disappearing as if to allow the sun entrance, the stars fading as the light came.

"I never realized there were so many stars. Too many city lights and hustle and bustle."

"Oh you've never seen a Georgia night sky, there are some night, at just the right time, where if you go into just the right field, you can look up and see the milky way. It really is beautiful back there, I only wish I could see it one more time." Sarah said, her voice trailing away with her thoughts on her last words.

"That must be amazing…" I said, imagining the glory of the sight.

She nodded in concentration and drifted away into her own thoughts. We sat there for a while and got lost in our own heads, the stars each starting to slowly fade away, the black of night becoming softer and softer until a dull glow could be seen in the horizon.

I sighed and we watched the sun rise over the city of Mercy, the buildings silhouetted in the sun's rays. I of the two still in the house, and the one out there somewhere in this desolate wasteland of a city. Sarah gave off a sound similar to purring and I looked to my left to notice her standing in a beam of sun that had reached the roof. I chuckled at the sight to which she just gave me a sidelong glance. I basked in a ray that fell upon me moments later, bathing in the early morning glow. After a few minutes of this I looked over at Sarah, to which she nodded towards the ground. I nodded and slid myself over the edge of the roof, grabbing onto a drainage pipe and sliding down to the nearest window ledge. I let myself fall before grabbing the ledge and lowering myself to a foothold and climbing the rest of the way down.

I softly moved aside the plank and slipped inside after letting Sarah through. We snuck past the two sleeping boys and into the bedroom upstairs, slipping off our clothes and making small talk until we heard the boys stir downstairs.