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We got out of the car, grabbing our bags from the trunk. I grabbed Bandit's as they walked up to us. "Welcome to our home!" they all said as Bandit walked over to me.

"Where are we?" I asked stupidly, looking around. It looked like this place had been untouched. There was green grass, a few hills, a couple statues and, over one of the hills, it sounded like running water.

"It used to be a high school, but none of the teachers survived." Sword Girl laughed. "It was great, cause I only like maybe one or two, and they just ran away." she smiled. "But now it's used by the city's few living as a base and safe place."

"Home." The almond eyed hammer girl smiled, her face softening little.

"Oh, you don't know our names yet, huh?" Sword Girl asked, her bangs falling into her left eye. She tucked it back and held out her bloody hand. "Oh, sorry." she wiped it on her tight black pants. "I'm Ren." She shook my hand. "That's Emma." she pointed to the blond hammer girl. "Sin." she moved her hand to the other. "Cass." she nodded to the girl with the bat. "And Ally." she waved her hand at shovel girl.

"I'm Gerard. This is my brother Mikey, my best friend Frankie, his daughters Cherry and Lily, and my daughter, Bandit." I put my hands on her shoulders.

Ren smiled at the girls sweetly. "You three are gonna like it here." she crouched down in front of the three of them. "There's not a lot of boys here, so everything is clean and smells good." she laughed. "No offense guys."

"Oh we know it's true." Frankie waved his hand. Mikey laughed softly and ducked his head. I smiled and shrugged.

"Well what are we still doing out here then?" Cass asked, heading to a set of doors. The other girls followed her, but Ren was still standing with us.

"Everything is okay here." she reassured me with a smile. How'd she know I was worried the fence wouldn't hold? "I swear. We've been here from the very start. And we made the fence ourselves. Nothing can get over it. And if it does, we kill it."

I nodded. We headed into the old school. The differences were obvious in the rooms we passed, the doors standing open.

A few had to be the cooking and home economics classes, with the stoves and ovens. Others had desks piled up in them, seemingly useless. There were huge rooms, which I assumed were performing arts rooms.

"This way." Ren waved us on. We followed her through the large school, past the former cafeteria, which was now lined with boxes and a few trash bags. Past former class rooms, the doors shut and the cloudy glass dark.

"How many people are here?" I asked, looking around. I'd yet to see anyone.

"At the last count up, twenty five. And only five were boys." she looked over her shoulder. "It's obvious that males didn't have what it takes to survive the zombie apocalypse. Here at least." she shrugged. "The guys here all had to act tough and got themselves eaten."

"Or thrown out." Emma laughed. "See, Ren here started the take over of the school. So she's kind of like the mayor here. Everyone listens to her."

"And when the guys that hadn't been killed yet heard that a girl was in charge, they tried to take over. So we drugged them and threw them over the fence." Sin said calmly, like she was talking about her favorite food.

"Nobody stands against Ren." Cass murmured from ahead.

"Nobody. Consider this a warning, boys." Ally smiled at us. For her height and small frame, I didn't expect her to be so frightening.

"Here we are." Ren said cheerily, like she'd tuned out the whole conversation. She opened the door to a huge gym. A few teenage girls were sitting around on the bleachers in groups of three or four.

"Ren!" they all roared, running toward us. They swarmed her and took her to the ground. One girl stood out of the small mob. She was a little shorter than Ally and hand long brown hair, a shade lighter than Ren's.

She clung to Ren even after the mob had thinned and vanished. "Guys, this is Guin. She's my best friend." she held the girl tightly.

"I'm her girlfriend." Guin growled at us. She had a look of a wolf closing in on someone who'd threatened her pups. Ren sighed.

"No, you're not." she tickled the girl. "You know what happened." the look on Guin's face faltered slightly.

She looked crushed. Her hair hid her face and she walked away. Ren sighed again and put a smile back on her face. "Come on girls. Let's go get cleaned up." She took Bandit's hand.

Frankie started to follow, but Ren shook her head. "No boys. I had little sisters and a niece. I got this. But, you guys can shower over there." she pointed to the door on the other side of the small alcove dug into the wall.

"Had." I whispered. "Hey Ren, can talk to you once you come back? Alone?" I asked.

"Sure shoes, Gerard." she smiled at me before she took the girls past the swing door and out of our sight.

"She's so happy even though she's lost everything." I said to myself.

"How old do you thing she is?" Frankie asked me. "I can tell she's nowhere near our age, but she can't be all that old either. She's so strong though."

"They all are." Mikey said softly from behind us. "Let's go shower and wash our clothes again. They need it." he sniffed his shirt and grimaced.

We headed into the boy's showers. It was barren, of course. As we headed past the lines of blue lockers, I saw the showers.

They were just stalls made of some kind of stone. Shampoo, conditioner and bar soap hung from little caddies in each stall. I took my shoes off by the lockers and took the keys out of my pocket.

Sniffing my jeans, I decided they were clean enough. But my shirt needed some help. I brought it into the stall with me. In one of the open lockers, we found a huge stake of towels.

Once we were clean and our clothes were clean, I wrapped a towel around my waist and tucked it into place. I wrung out my shirt as hard as I could over one of the sinks.

Mikey did the same with his pants and shirt. Frankie joined us in the sink beside me. "I feel so much better."

"Yeah, me too." I sighed. Mikey nodded happily. Once I'd gotten as much water out of my shit was I could, I headed back to my small pile and got dressed. wrapping my shirt in my slightly damp towel, I sat on it, hoping it would be dry enough to put on. Mikey had to share Frankie's towel, considering he didn't take his off.

There was a knock on the door. "Everyone decent?" Ren's voice made me jump.

"More or less." Frankie laughed. Ren laughed as she came up to us. She looked at the towel wrapped Mikey to the shirtless me and Frankie.

"You know we have washers and dryers here, right?" She asked us, raising her eyebrow. "So if you need clothes to wear while we clean yours and the girls, we have some from the guys we threw out."

I groaned and pulled my shirt out from under me. Frankie and Mikey copied me, holding up our wet clothes.

Ren laughed again. I noticed that her hair was wet and braided along her shoulder. The blood was gone from her face and neck, and she now wore a sundress. "The clothes are in the lockers behind you, actually Gerard. The open locks were the other's. The rule we try to hold is always have two outfits to wear so you never stink too bad."

I hung my head. "So we'll get dressed. What about our clothes though?" I asked her softly. She smiled and kicked a basket toward us.

"You wash them, of course. With the rest." she tilted her head. "Well, we all take turns doing laundry. We take turns with everything, actually. A week for each job. You'll all understand soon enough. But laundry is my job this week, so just find me." She turned and left us to get dressed.

I found clothes than fit me perfectly. Frankie had a little trouble, but managed to get away with a pair of jeans that were a little tight on him. We put our clothes in the basket and I picked it up, heading out of the locker room.

Maybe this life will be okay......






So another chapter soon in a bit. I really don't want to stop, so no real AN on this either.

R+R and all that

Hugs and FMB,
-Lala