4. Impression

A Chapter by Pancae

It didn't take long for Alex to lead me to the leader of this hide-out. He remained

silent throughout our walk here, aside from the occasional watch your steps' and duck your head a little.

Once we finally made it to the ladder and trapdoor, he led me outside.

Aside from the blinding sun that refused any opening for me to open my eyes, I realized the instant warmth that my face was hit with. Inside of my denied prison, its not like it was cold, but it wasn't too warm either; so the sudden heat that my body was wrapped with was nice and soothing.

When I was out of Alex's way, I let myself close my eyes and enjoy the warmth for a few seconds before I'd have to go and follow Alex to the commander again. Then the seconds seemed to turn into minutes, which made me focus instantly. I opened my eyes and turned to look at Alex, who's expression and eyes were now a lot softer and warmer than before.

'' Summer.. It's your favorite time of the year.. ''

His tone too, didn't miss the transformation.

I was taken off guard by the sentence, but held my expression together and smiled in return.

Summer.

It didn't take long before we were on the move again, but once we were I got a full view of this place. Aside from the underground hideout, we were surrounded by large metal guard fences with barbed wire on top; obviously not for the dead. The bit of ground and grass that we were once walking away from once we exited the bomb shelter was now replaced by hard, grey, cracked concrete. Then, a fair bit away from the bomb shelter was a large building, or what was left of it now anyway. The windows that weren't blown to pieces were cracked and the large entrances to the buildings were at odd places, leaving gaping holes.

As I took all of this in, Alex came to a halt before turning around to meet my gaze for the 3rd time today.

'' She's over there, but doesn't know what happened to you yet. She left on a raid the day you.. you lost your memories. I'll do the talking and explaining. ''

So much for the transformed tone and expression.

Once Alex was out of the way, the commander came to my full view. I was taken back from the obvious prejudice picture that was build into my brain.

The woman was a bit taller than average, with light brown skin and eyes, along with thick black hair that was wiped back into a rather long braid.

Her expression, although wincing in pain now and then, was rather hard; but only when we got closed did I realize how ancient her eyes looked.

'' Kalenah. ''

Although short, Alex's tone could easily pass as an appropriate greeting.

'' Ken- I mean, Mackenzie.. Sh- ''

'' Nick is dead, we've to assign a new raid leader. ''

Her voice, although hard, had an obvious tint of pain and sorrow in it; her facial expression no different. Although the name didn't ring a bell, this obviously took Alex back.

'' Nick ?.. But, ho- ''

'' He got bit.. We were on our way through the town, some gang jumped us. Got away before we could take a prisoner, but they shot him. He made it, of course. Tried laughing it off.. We were going back when a walker got him. It was either me or him.. Damn him, he flung himself in front of me before the thing could bite me. Bit him instead.. ''

Kalenah's eyes remained on some arm wound that she was cleaning, although her hand was no longer moving.

'' Who.. Who shot him ? ''

Judging from Alex's voice, it was obvious that he was quite hesitant to ask that question.

'' I did.. We promised each other something, a while back.. ''

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