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They were silent for a few minutes, then Maddie hummed. "It feels weird being in someone else's house without their permission."
Saff glanced over at her. "Have you not been doing that this entire time?"
Maddie took a bite off her bar, chewing and swallowing before she answered. "The outbreak happened after my college graduation, when I was with my family at our lake house." She paused, taking another bite from the bar. "It was a gated community and a small neighborhood. Kind of the perfect setup for something like that."
Saff didn't say it out loud, but she was surprised they lasted as long as they had untouched. She’d heard from one of her father's friends at the beginning of the outbreak that most of the wealthier areas were being raided first. After she’d joined them, they’d raided lots of places, but none of the wealthier areas were really left as good targets.
She pushed away the thought that the people who attacked Maddie’s community were people like them. People like—her.
"We had a good group of people there," Maddie said, "and since they were able to build strong walls around the gates, I never really had to leave."
"Must’ve been nice," Saff muttered, taking another bite of the bar as the nausea returned. She forced herself to swallow.
They fell into silence again, but this time Maddie broke it quickly.
"Where were you when it happened?"
Saff turned back to look out the sliding glass door again. She paused for a moment as the memories of those first few days re-entered her mind.
"Work."
"A hospital?" Maddie asked, turning on the stool until she almost faced Saff.
"Yeah."
Maddie nodded. "You sound," she paused, as if searching for the right word, "young, for a doctor."
Saff forced down another bite. That was something she'd grown used to hearing after graduating early. At twenty-seven, she'd been the youngest intern at the hospital, and it'd been pointed out by both doctors and patients continuously.
"Yeah. I guess," she muttered.
"What was it like being at the hospital those first few days after the outbreak?"
Saff let out an exhausted exhale. "What do you think it was like?"
Maddie popped the last piece of the bar in her mouth, then continued, ignoring her question. "What did you do after everything shut down?"
Her jaw tightened, and it made her headache pulse again. She closed her eyes for a moment, waiting for the nausea to subside.
It didn't.
Finally, after a few moments, she stood from the table, picking up the second half of the uneaten bar.
"Here," she said, walking toward her. She stuffed the bar back into the plastic bag and placed it in Maddie’s free hand. "I’m full."
Maddie frowned again, but stayed quiet.
"We should try to rest until the rain stops," Saff muttered, rubbing the back of her neck where pain from the headache radiated. "There are rooms upstairs we could stay in."
Maddie nodded, sliding off the stool.
They grabbed their backpacks and went upstairs, each of them moving slower than before. Saff wondered how exhausted Maddie was after the events of the last two days. Living life in the apocalypse at a protected lake house was probably a much easier life than escaping from zombies and murderers in the rain.
When they reached the top floor, Saff led them down the hallway to the right, stopping before two of the bedrooms she’d checked.
"There's a bed right here," she said, stepping into one room.
Maddie followed her in, feeling her way around with her cane, and Saff watched her, waiting until she reached the bed. When she did, she ran her hand along the comforter, then set her things down on top of it.
