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It was on one such foray that I came across our newest guest. Quite attractive, and also apprehensive to me initially. I had left my daughter secure in the mansion's sweltering attic, unwilling to allow her to search with me for fear we would be overwhelmed by them should they come upon us in a horde. As such I was alone. We saw each other across a trash strewn street, and I immediately made my way toward her. Unfortunately, two of them had spied her as well. She hid in an empty general store, the two monsters stopping immediately outside of the door, seeming to consider how to get at her. I thought of my daughter, and how terrible it would be for her should I never come home. I turned away. I actually turned to leave, my family sentiment and preparedness disposition taking over. I stopped and turned back around. The two creatures were moving toward her. The first one reached the flimsy door and pounded on it, and I realized that I couldn't leave this person whom I had never met to her fate. To die by the hands of them.

So preoccupied with their prey, and so sneaky was I, they didn't notice me until I had already dispatched one from the rear. As the other whipped around to face me, my new friend burst from the door and grappled with the second creature. They went down in a tussle, the thing making those mewling sounds. I moved to help, but she finished it off as quickly as I had exterminated mine. She looked up at me, her eyes defiant, and I believe she knew then that I meant her no harm, when I extended my hand to her. She accepted it. We scavenged all the nearby food we could carry and she began to move off on her own when I invited her to come back with me. She was hesitant, but that didn't last.

The town wasn't entirely deserted, as she and I had first thought, and two more of them saw us and immediately gave chase. We would not survive without the food we were carrying, but it slowed us down, so I looked for another avenue of escape. I opened a door to a building, and we moved inside and up some rickety stairs. We were not the first occupants. Two others were upstairs, and from the emaciated look of them, had been since the beginning of the plague. There must have been little food to scavenge in the town, it being consumed during the initial stages of the epidemic I'm sure. I would have gladly shared with them, but before I could attempt to explain that evil was on our heels, they attacked us.

They tried to push me down the stairs, undoubtedly thinking that my friend, being smaller would put up little fight, and they could overpower her when by herself. They could not have been more wrong, and she and I fought them off. The larger one came at us quickly, or as quickly as he could in his condition. He tried to grab the meager portion of food that I had, simultaneously attempting to shove me backwards. I side stepped and he fell. At the same time our smaller adversary grabbed at the food my compatriot was holding close. She used an elbow and stunned her attacker. We moved past them only trying to escape, but the larger one grabbed at my new friend's ankle. I stomped on his hand, and he pulled it back and tried to rise. His friend tripped over him, and they ended up going down the stairs into the arms of the creatures that had gained access to the landing below.  The screaming started almost immediately. For the briefest of instances, I thought of helping them. Destroying the things that would probably kill them, but I didn't. Not only that, but my decision making paradigm on others changed then as well. Letting anyone who needed refuge into the mansion could be a bad idea. Isn't this why I had prepared the structure anyway, to repel invaders?

We found an egress down some ancient stairs and onto an even more ancient porch. There were flowers and a small vegetable garden below the porch. The plants were flourishing, and I couldn't help but think that at least something thrived while the rest of the world died, or killed.

I convinced her to come with me to the mansion, and she has been with my daughter and I for two weeks now. My daughter stays with our guest when I go on forays, and they have formed a strong bond. I believe that they would protect each other to the best of their abilities should the need arise and I have no doubt it will.

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