An Even Better Plan Part 1

The next morning, Rebecca slowly opened her eyes only to freeze in place. She found her current situation was not very good. Her arm was wrapped around Leo's chest, and one of her legs was wrapped around his. She was one hundred percent using him as a body pillow!

She listened carefully, not daring to move. Only when she heard Leo's steady breathing did she finally, slowly and gently pull her arm and leg away, before rolling off the mattress and onto the floor with a small thud. 

She let out a sigh of relief as she stared at the ceiling. But she had to admit, unlike the night prior, she slept very well. She did not wake up even once. But what concerned her was that she did not wake up. She sat up and looked at the sleeping man on the mattress and frowned slightly. But when the images of her crying into his back appeared in her mind, her cheeks flushed red. She had actually cried herself into a deep slumber! She knew he had heard it. There was no way he could not have!

But this did not change the fact that he did not keep watch at all. "Hey, wake up!" Feeling slightly angry, she could only reach over and shake the unreliable man. 

"Hmmm? What's wrong?" Leo stirred slightly before smacking his lips and falling back asleep.

"I said wake up! Why did you not keep watch!?" Rebecca growled. She couldn't yell, but she could still growl!

Leo frowned slightly. He hated being woken up. He half opened his eyes, turned his head to look at Rebecca, and said: "No need. I told you. Nora will keep watch for us. She doesn't need to sleep." 

It was only then that Rebecca remembered their conversation last night. She sighed and began to feel bad. "Sorry…."

"It's fine…." Leo yawned before lying back down. "Give me one more hour."

  "You are worse than a child!" Rebecca snorted before standing up.  "We have a lot to do today. Sleeping in during the apocalypse is asking for death."

"Alright…." Old habits were hard to get rid of. He had always slept in without a care. But now, he no longer had such a luxury. He forced himself to sit up before looking at the girl who was sitting there staring at him. "I'm up, don't worry."

"Good. I will get us breakfast." Not that Leo was awake. She could finally eat something. She did not know if all the crying had made her hungry or if the small amount of food she ate yesterday had something to do with it, but she felt very hungry when she woke up.

Leo stretched a bit before having a packaged pastry shoved in his face along with a bottle of water. He took it and watched as Rebecca sat down with her legs crossed under her and began taking small bites of her food. "It sucks…." Leo suddenly said as he looked at his ration. "Going from being able to eat freely to having to ration your own food."

"It does. I will not deny that. But what can we do?" Rebecca replied. "If we are lucky, we may be able to somehow set up an indoor farm if the studio is secure." 

  "Yes, but I was thinking maybe the ground floor was not the best option either." Leo had thought about it as he listened to Rebecca, letting out all her fears.

"Oh? What did you have in mind?" Rebecca was curious.

"Well. What if we started a rooftop city-type thing? We could start off with the dance studio and then slowly clear out the floors above. Then, we could move to the rooftop after getting the supplies we would need to build a shelter. This way, we could use solar power to give us lights. If we work at it, we can even set up a water source as well. We can then work on creating a bridge to the other rooftops. So we have an escape or even build a rooftop farm." Leo's idea was only feasible since the area the dance studio was in had buildings just about the same height. 

"I guess this would work since most rooftop doors are made of metal. The one with the farm, if we were to find some welding equipment, we could weld the door shut altogether." Rebecca started getting all kinds of ideas. For the first time, her lips curled up into a smile as she looked excitedly at Leo. "Let's do it!"

Leo was stunned by Rebecca's beautiful smile. Normally, she had a gloomy expression, but this smile was like the light in the darkness that blinded him. He felt she became ten times more beautiful when she truly smiled.

Seeing Leo staring at her but not answering, Rebecca pursed her lips and asked: "What?"

"Ah… Sorry. I thought your smile just now was very cute. Ahem…" Leo blushed as he coughed into his hand and continued: "I like this idea. We will need to gather everything we need while we clear out the first building."

Rebecca's cheeks were red as she nodded. "Yeah, we can make something good and be self-sufficient. It's the water that worries me, though…."

"Yah… the water itself had the virus in it, but if we have zombie gummies, we should be fine…." Leo looked up at Nora, who thought for a moment and nodded.

"As long as you have the zombie gummies, you both will not get too infected. But after drinking and showering, you will need to eat one. This means you will need to at least have enough to last you a while. Well… She will need one, but you are different. You can go a while without needing to eat any. And a higher virus infection rate for you is more beneficial." Nora felt these two plan was really good. She had her doubts about the basement plan, but this was a much better plan.

"Nora said you will be fine as long as we reduce your infection rate after you eat or drink." Leo's words brightened Rebecca's mood. 

"So, does that mean I can take a shower today?" Rebecca asked. She hadn't taken one since before the zombies appeared.

"Yeah. There is a clean towel in the cabinet. Soap and shampoo are in the shower." Leo replied. 

"Yes!" Rebecca quickly shoved the rest of the food in her mouth and took a swing of her water before grabbing a change of clothes and running into the bathroom. Leo looked at her retreating back and chuckled. He really had to admit he was really starting to like this girl.