Previously

Day 20 *early morning*

I loaded every food item I possibly could into my car that was parked in my garage. Levi grabbed other essentials that I had and also threw them in my car.

Once we had everything we thought we needed, Levi got in my car as I stood by my garage door. I had an old garage door that had to be open and shut by hand, no remote or electricity.

When the door was fully open, I quickly hopped into the passenger seat of my car as Levi took off flying down the road. Once I buckled up, I also buckled Levi since he himself neglected to do so.

"Where are we heading?" I asked after I got myself situated in my seat.

He smirked and gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter as he drove into the darkness. "You'll see..."

Day 20 *evening*

A mall? I asked Levi as we pulled into the parking lot.

He sighed as he put the car in park and rubbed his temples. "No, you idiot, look past the mall; its our way out of this city. See the wall? Were escaping at nightfall. The thing is, we have to ditch the car."

I stared at him like he was crazy. "There is no fucking way Im ditching this car! What if this is all over in a week? I dont want to lose my car and have to buy a new one. No. Way."

Levi sat in the car, not bothering to look at me at all. "Whatever brat. IF this shit ends and something DOES happen to your car, I'll buy you a newer and better one. How does that sound?" He turned to me with a blank expression on his face, but I could tell that he was really pissed off by my worry for my piece-of-shit-car.

"I've only known you for thirteen damn days, but fucking hell, you are one of the most annoying people that I have ever met. You're so goddamn stubborn."

"Is that why you hate me? Because I'm persistent and stubborn?"

The raven-haired man shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose as a response. I took that as my answer, which happened to be yes. I was sure that he didn't truly hate me, he was only annoyed by my personality. Not that I didnt blame him. When I'm persistent about something, I can be the most annoying person in the world.

We sat in the car with awkward silence also occupying the space. I didn't know what to say to him, and there was still a few hours before it was going to be dark enough for us to sneak out of the barricade.

I decided to look from where we sat to see how wed get over the barricade. I saw a plank from the top of the mall that lead to the top of the barricade. Were we supposed to cross that in order to escape to the other side? It just looked like a few 2X4s connected rather shoty-like.

"So, are we supposed to cross on that tiny board up there?" I asked pointing up the spot on the roof.

Levi nodded. "We need to get to the roof in order to cross. We should head inside soon. Dark is coming. You don't want to be traveling in the dark with the living dead things walking about, now do you?"

I shook my head. Traveling in the dark was dangerous if you didnt know your surroundings, and where we were was definitely foreign to us at the moment.

As I thought about it, a question popped into my head. Wait, what about once we get across? Won't it be dark then? What are we supposed to do then? Sit and wait? I managed to crawl into the backseat to put a few things together before we left.

"Relax," Levi breathed, "I have it all covered. I still have a few contacts. Have you not seen the satellite phone that I've been carrying around? It's kind of hard to miss, or are you just that much of an idiot?" He spoke as he looked at me through the review mirror.

I rolled my eyes at the man in the car with me as I continued to pack our backpacks with the essentials. "I'm really starting to wish that I never opened my door to you. You've been nothing but rude." I looked at him and made eye contact with him through the review mirror, and he had a giant smirk on his face. I took that as the opportunity to flip him off. In return, he reached for my hand and grabbed it before I had even thought of pulling it away from him. He squeezed my finger as hard as he possibly could. It felt as if my finger was going to break which cause me to physically wince at the pain.

"Don't like it, then don't do it again, brat. Or else." He threatened in a deep tone.

The way he sounded intrigued me. I wanted to see how far I could possibly push him until he broke and literally beat me to death.

"Or else what?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and an evil smirk on my face.

"Or I'll fucking push you off the top of the mall. Doesn't that just sound heavenly to you?" He continued to try and sound threatening again. I rolled me eyes at him. He wasn't scaring me.

"Push me and I'll take you down with me. That's a promise, Ackerman." I stated with a deep glare.

I continued to pack another backpack. They both had equal supplied, at least as equal as it could be. We each had an extra set of clothes, a fire started, some general medicine, energy bars, energy drinks, personal hygiene items, and a blanket. A few other things were thrown into the packs if they could fit. I tossed Levi an ax that was laying in the backseat and I gave myself a baseball bat. We each had a few knives, and we each carried guns of our choice. Thankfully, I happened to hunt and use guns quite often, so they kind of came in handy in this situation. I had an AR15 along with my .45 revolver. Levi carried an AR15 as well but instead had a .44 magnum instead.

I stepped out of the car to put on all of my gear and Levi did the same.

"Your ammunition is in your bag, and mine is in my bag. Don't worry, its on the top and easy to get to." I said in a monotone voice as I loaded my handgun.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Levi give a small nod in response.

A sigh escaped his lips and he looked at me which grabbed my attention. "Look," he started, "I don't know what were going to face in there. Stay close to me at all times. Do not stray away, please. Also, try to be- "

I cut him off. "I know, I know. Be as quiet as possible, they're attracted to noise. Only use your gun when necessary. Blah blah blah. You don't need to give me the talk, I already know. I'm not five." I received a hum from him.

Together we walked up to the malls entrance. We both had a gun pointed wherever we were looking at all time—except at each other—to make sure that no one snuck up on us and tried to make some sort of attack.

When we were close enough, I noticed that there were signs hanging in the entrance. They read, 'DO NOT ENTER BEWARE NO TRESPASSING TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT.'

I turned to my partner. "What do you think?"

He seemed to think about it for a while before speaking up. "By the looks of it, I don't see any sign of the threats that they made. From here I can't see any fresh blood or fresh dead bodies. It was probably put here by the police or military to ward off people that were trying to escape, but I don't think the police or military have stuck around."

I nodded as I listened. Everything that he said made sense to me. It had been twenty days ago, and now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen a single police car or military vehicle out while we were driving.

We continued forward to the front entrance. Levi had his AR15 out and ready to shoot. He opened the door to let some light in and peeked his head in. He waved for me to follow, so I did and kept close to him, I was practically on his heels. Once inside the mall, everything seemed dead. Not just dead like it has been for the past twenty days, dead like there were no signs of any kind of life. But something seemed off, eerie even.

"I dont like this," I whispered to my partner, "do you get that strange feeling?"

"Yeah," he whispered back, "be on your toes. Never let your guard down."

I let out a low hum to let him know that I heard what he said. I held up my revolver along with a large hunting knife. I never had to use any of these on a person, or even a dead person for that matter, but I was prepared to do so if needed.

After walking around to find the stairs, we finally reached the roof without any troubles. I still had that strange feeling lingering within me. It almost felt as if someone was following us, but every time one of us turned around, there wasn't anyone there, yet I still couldn't shake the feeling. Even on the roof I still felt that way.

It didnt take us long before we found the walkway to get across to the other side.

The view from on top of the mall was breath-taking. The sky was a dull orange color as the was almost completely set, stars were out and shining brightly. There were tall buildings in the distance, some had smoke rising from them. The town felt barren. It made me think of my friends. I didnt know if they were still alive, or where any of them disappeared to if they were able to make it out and find a hide-out in time.

Suddenly I felt my eyes water, but I willed the tears away. I couldnt think about them now at a time like this, I had to do it when we were safe after crossing over the barricade.

"So, what now?" I asked while looking out at the apocalyptic skyline. It was almost dreamy, it would have been dreamy if this was a movie, yet sadly, this was our life now.

"We need to wait here until its a bit darker out. Then I have a friend who is picking us up."

"Hmph." I closed my eyes and nodded. I took a seat to let my body rest.

My eyes opened to see a dark sky before them. I cursed under my breath. I turned my head to find Levi sitting next to me. He looked tired, almost as if he was going to fall asleep as well. I was going to let him sleep, but then I heard a rumbling of a truck. My ears perked up along with my other senses. Levi also got up but he seemed to be groggy.

"She's here." He spoke plainly.

I was confused. Who was here? Was it his friend that he told me about? He hasnt given me any details even though weve been traveling together. I felt like he should have included me in his plans whether I agreed with him or not wouldnt have mattered to me, I just wanted to know what was going on. What if he was going to kidnap me and he and his friend were going to hold me hostage. I became weary of the man that Ive been living amongst for the past thirteen days. It's not like he has shown me that I could truly trust him. He's been nothing but rude. I mean, he did help me clean my house, and if he wanted to kill me, he had plenty of opportunities to do so. I still couldnt help but think of the possibilities.

We walked over to the very unsteady-looking planks that attached the mall to the barricade. I gulped as I looked down from the roof. It was a three-story drop. If one of us made a wrong movement while walking across we were going to fall to our deaths. And although there may not have been any zombies under us, we would have died from the fall.

"You first." He told me with a hint of a smirk on his face. I knew that he could see the fear in my eyes.

"Fuck you. I hate you." I sneered at him.

Unsteadily, I began my walk across the boards. It was a slow, meticulous walk. I placed each one of my feet in a specific place. Everything was going how I wanted to and to top it all off, the other side was just a few mere steps away. I felt like I could run for it, but making a wrong step and falling to my death didnt please me very much.

My final step was approaching and I had a smile on my face until I felt the boards start to move under my feet. My heartbeat quickened and my mind began to panic. I thought that the boards were going to collapse and fall to the ground. I knew that I didnt want to make that fall with them, so I jumped to the other side. I barely made it. I turned around to see Levi laughing his ass off.

"You should have seen yourself," I could hardly make out what he was saying because he was laughing so much, "You thought the boards were falling. You're such an idiot."

I flipped him off and kept my back turned away from him. My face was flush and I didn't want him to see that. He pissed me off, and one day he will have pushed me too far to the point that I leave him, or until I beat him.

I looked down on the other side of the barricade and say a woman sitting in a truck. It was hard to make out what she looked like because all lights were off in and on the truck. I assumed that she didnt want to be spotted.

She began to get out and grabbed two ladders that were in the back of her pickup. She easily attached them and leaned them up against the barricade. Soon after that Levi appeared behind me and looked down to see what his friend was doing. He climbed down the ladder and I followed as soon as he was far enough down.

"Hanji, this is (F/N). For some reason, she let me into her house in the middle of all of this."

The woman named Hanji stepped forward to examine me. She put her glasses on and got close to my face. "So, this is the girl you were talking about!" She exclaimed, "she's cute, Levi." She nudged Levi with her elbow. A light blush dusted my face, but Levi just rolled his eyes.

"Just get us out of here like we agreed."

Hanji hopped into the drivers seat, Levi in the passengers seat, and I sat in the back all alone. Just as we were taking off, some living dead began to gather around us. I had never seen one so close. They looked exactly like humans. Was I able to kill one?

I reached forward and placed my hand on Levis shoulder. "What next?"

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This was really long and I didn't know how to end it. Sorry! But that leaves it open for a part 3 if you guys like this part.

I really enjoy the PLAGUE little mini series here. I like to write them. I apologize if you were expecting the Reader to be super lovey dovey with Levi right away. I try to stray away from that because 9 times out of 10, that's not how it goes in real life. In part 3 there WILL be some lovey stuff if I get a good response from this part.