The following week was a bit of a blur. Mabel liked to run off in the morning as soon as she woke up, and Sam told me in good faith she wasn't up to anything too bad. I didn't ask what too bad meant because in some part of me, I really didn't want to know. Being around people who genuinely seemed to care really showed me just how bad I had had it before.

The categorization of before and after had changed in my mind, I wasn't sure exactly when it had happened, but it was no longer a before the zombies rose, and after they were here. No, the new before and after related to before and after I met the boys.

Now that things had settled down for the most part, the boys had me on a semi schedule. Mornings I jogged with Cody. We didn't talk, not as much as the other guys did when I was around them. Cody liked quiet, and the silence that accompanied our pounding feet on the pavement wasn't awkward or unwelcome. It was encouraged, peaceful, never empty.

After the run I would usually go upstairs and change. After that night with Chester when he had given Mabel her second night, I had been checked up on every night. I didn't bother trying to spin a story to defend why I was on the floor, why I waited until Mabel was sleeping before attempting to go to sleep myself. There was always the underlying layer of untrust in my relationship with my sister, and I wasn't sure it would ever be lifted.

I'm not going to lie, I'm no saint. It wasn't like I had never done anything bad to her- I mean, I had gotten her mother killed, and I had been the one to get her uprooted from her home. I was the reason she wasn't still with her mother, I was the reason her mother had been so hateful towards us, why her mother lectured us, kept us inside and isolated us from anyone and anything.

After the shower I would help whoever was on breakfast duty, and then I would volunteer to do dishes and be turned down. After breakfast it depended on which boy had to go where but as of lately I went with Beck and helped work the gardens. It was peaceful work, and somehow I always managed to come out of the gardens with dirt everywhere.

After that I would have some free time, and I would generally clean up around the house, or help whoever with whatever. I had learned how to siphon gas, prep meat to be smoked, smoke the meat, and fish without a fishing pole.

After lunch but before dinner I worked out with Cody again, in the gym, practicing my aim and lifting weights to better my strength. When I had questioned Beck on this he had turned away and said that if we were to let ourselves get lazy and something bad happened, we wouldn't be prepared. All this 'break time' would be for nothing, and we'd be gone before we could even see the enemy.

Sam, I had figured out, was one of those guys who always appeared super happy and joyful, because he genuinely was super happy and joyous. What you saw was what you got, nothing more and nothing less. He was the most real person I had ever met. And that's not just because before I hadn't met hardly any people.

Beck, on the other hand, had a sweet disposition, but was always pointing out the reality. He could joke and tease with the best of them, but if you ask him a question, you had better not be expecting him to spare your feelings. He was honest to a fault, but he always managed to say it in a nice way. He was usually the one I spent time with during the day.

Chester, sweet Chester, was like Sam, but not. Have you ever met the happiest person, the one who's always smiling and cracking jokes to make others smile? The one who you've never seen cry, who is a little loopy, but at the same time loved by virtually anyone? What you don't always realize about those people is they are usually the saddest, come from the worst homes and if they were to be themselves, it would break your heart at how much they fake it every day.

Chester was one of those people. But slowly, I could tell being here in this house with the boys, he was coming out of his funk. He was rising up, and more often than not I saw genuine smiles. The real ones, not the perfectly practiced ones that trick the world.

Cody on the other hand was a hard person to crack. But yesterday during training I had a glimpse into his life, into who he was. It wasn't much but it was enough to be credible into how he was shaped into the hard ass he is today. He had had a sister, and he had protected her, until he couldn't and she had died. That was all I had managed to figure out before he had locked up his past.

Getting to know them all was hard, because when you get to know someone, you're supposed to open up too. And so far, all they knew was what they've known the whole time. My home wasn't quite right, something was up with Mabel and I, and I had a cute kitten who was becoming more of a spitfire the longer she spent time with Leo.

I was home alone tonight. Sam and Chester had left to go on some sort of run. I had come to realize they did some sort of run every three to four days, and the boys who had taken me in seemed to be among the favorites to be chosen to go out and help out. Beck and Cody were out preparing things for tomorrow, I didn't know what was so special about tomorrow, they wouldn't tell me and I knew it was no one's birthday because those were clearly marked on the calendar. I wasn't sure where Mabel was, but she had a strict curfew to be back, and if she missed it it would be her third warning, and she'd have to do some sort of punishment as a result.

Chester had explained that the strikes were reserved for big things.

Like her trying to drown me.

I shook the thought from my head and started to get to work on the stack of dishes in front of me. There really weren't a lot, maybe three sink loads or so. I was mainly just procrastinating, I could have had this done about an hour ago if I hadn't gotten distracted by the radio, the window, the stairs, you know, just about everything one can be distracted by.

I was listening to one of Chester's CD's, it was upbeat and really helped me get a move on as I skipped around the kitchen, putting away the dishes that had already been cleaned so that I could wash the ones that hadn't. When I finally got into the groove of cleaning up the dishes it took me no time at all, and soon I was left with nothing to do. The random things that had previously distracted me had no appeal because I knew that I didn't have anything I really needed distracted from.

The house was quiet and I contemplated going over to Evan's house. He was nice, we had spoken a few other times after that night I had met him but other than that I didn't really know much more of him. In the end I convinced myself I shouldn't go drop by. We didn't really know each other and if he had prior arrangements that would just be weird to impose. Not to mention awkward.

I went upstairs and found my worn out novel before skipping down the stairs two at a time, when I got to the couch I tucked my feet under my body and covered my lower half with a blanket. I got lost in the pages and within what felt like moments but could have easily been an hour, I was dozing. It was one of those sudden dozes that you don't realize is happening until you wake up with a puddle of drool all over your book.

Cold air hit my upper half and I felt goosebumps rise up all over. I let my book drop to the ground and I pulled the blanket higher as the boys walked in. I heard their voices float around me and I felt one of them lift me up into their arms. By this point I had actually woken up so I was well aware that Beck was carrying me to my shared room.

He set me down in the bed and I kept my eyes shut even as he pulled off my socks and replaced them with a softer pair, and tucked me in. I heard Cody say something from the doorway, but it was too quiet to make out.

"Huh?" Beck asked, while still standing next to me. I guess I hadn't been the only one to miss Cody's question.

"I said," Cody murmured a little louder, "Do you want to heat up some food, or should I?"

Beck started to reply but my sleepy brain was suddenly wide awake and very alert. I sat right up and put a hand out, grabbing Beck's wrist as he tried to walk away.

"Wait," I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

I felt Beck pause and his hand jostle as he turned towards me, "You okay? Do you feel alright, what's wrong?"

I stifled the smile at his worry and looked up at him, "I want food too.."

Beck smirked and looked down at me, "Wait were you sleeping at all?"

I felt my cheeks heat up, "Well I mean, I was when you picked me up?" I said, questioning as to whether it was a good idea to admit I had knowingly made him carry me up those stairs.

He just rolled his eyes, "What do you think, Cody?" he looked up and over at Cody.

Cody was watching me, he looked at Beck, "She has to heat up dinner," he gave a slight smirk before stomping down the stairs and I gave a playful groan.

"Cheer up, buttercup, he could have made you carry ME down those stairs," Beck said. I could only imagine my facial expression when Beck grinned and tousled my hair, "kidding, come on, hurry up!" with that he winked and walked out of the room as well. ***

The next morning I was up bright and early, lacing my shoes up for the run that Cody and I would be going on. Mabel had gotten in minutes before curfew and when Beck had offered her food she had said she ate already. She was now snoring in her bed and she looked as if she had been run over a few times. Not like she had been abused but like she was sick or something.

I was debating whether or not to tell one of the guys to see if we couldn't get the Doc to check her out, when there was a light knock on my door. I grabbed my grab bag and slipped out of my room. Since coming to the compound I had changed up what was in my grab bag. It now held a change of clothes and my gun, along with my dagger and some energy bars, along with a bottle of water and a first aid kit.

Chester had advised me to keep it light, and I made sure to do as he suggested while still keeping the things that I needed.

In the hall Cody gave me a look of approval, probably because I was actually up today and not groaning at him until he bribed me with food when we came back.. either that or he liked my shoes.

"Listen, today's run is cancelled," he kept talking before I could cut him off, "And before you rip my head off, it's because the boys are getting back today, if everything on the outside went as planned, and they want to do something with you."

I frowned, "What .. like they want to run with us too?" I asked, not understanding what he meant.

Cody shook his head, "No, not exactly. Look you'll see, anyways since you're dressed why don't we jog down to the gym and work out a bit before they get back?"

I didn't exactly understand the change in plans but I wasn't going to start complaining about it, especially if the others were getting back today. I nodded at Cody and he said something about going to finish getting dressed.

I went downstairs while I waited and decided to make some pancakes for breakfast. One good thing about pancake mix is all I really did to it was add water, and then drizzle syrup on the finished product.. which meant it was pro apocalypse as long as I had syrup- which the guys had.

Cody came down just as I had finished cooking, he took his plate with a thank you and we ate in comfortable silence. When we had finished breakfast, I rinsed off the plates and washed them, and he washed the bowl and the pan that I had used to cook with.

Outside we started our jog off slow, as the gym wasn't really far away and we weren't in any real hurry. The pain of running had sucked the first day, and it still sucked when we ran, but I was slowly getting used to it, which was why it was kinda sucky that we weren't running today. I didn't want my body to have some sort of conniption when I started up running again tomorrow.

We made it to the gym in no time at all, and got submerged into the workout.