Chapter 2 Dynamite Plays The Name Game

Dynamite opened the door and let the girl in. Inside the treehouse, twelve bunk beds, six on each wall, were neatly made, each with a nameplate on the bed board. Some of the beds had girls lying or sitting on them, others were empty. Dynamite brought the new girl to the large dining table in the center of the room. The others girls all pulled themselves away from what they were doing to take a seat at the table, with Dynamite sitting at head.

    The girls whispered amongst themselves glancing at the new girl.

    "Ahem," Dynamite cleared her throat, and the girls quickly became silent.

"As you can see we have a visitor." Dynamite inclined her head at the new girl.

    "Hello,My name is Liz- ," The new girl started, but Dynamite quickly shushed her.

    "We'll decide your name. For now, we'll just call you Newbie. How about you let us introduce ourselves first," Dynamite interrupted.

    "What?" Newbie said, confused.

    "You'll see," Dynamite said, grinning.

"Now, let the introductions begin! As you know, I'm Dynamite. I'm the captain of this place, and you do as I say."

Dynamite's long, blonde hair that was tucked beneath a red pageboy cap. Her tank top was the same scarlet color as her hat, and her big hoop earrings and skinny jeans topped off the look.

    "The one who saved you, that's Kitty. I'd suggest doing what she says as well, unless you want to end up with a black eye or get eaten by wolves. But, you know, your choice," Dynamite continued.

Kitty had straight brown hair and long bangs that partially covered her amber colored eyes. Her arms were covered in black designs that looked like they had been drawn in Sharpie. With her metal-toed combat boots, ripped jeans, and multiple ear piercings, she looked like she was pretty tough. Newbie decided she wouldn't even try to mess with her(or at least not as much as the others).

"The twins, whom we call One & Two, are the youngest girls in our gang, but don't let that fool you." Dynamite said, pointing to two girls who looked almost identical, aside from the fact that one was blonde and the other was brunette.

Newbie nodded, reminding herself to figure out which one was One and which one was Two.

"Widow is our resident protector, and is in charge of protecting the treehouse." Newbie recognized the dark skinned Widow as the one who had been talking to Kitty when they first arrived.

Widow smiled at Newbie, then went back to adjusting the rose clip attached to her intricate braid.

Dynamite went on to introduce Jaguar, the nunchuck wielding martial arts master, whose freakishly long hair kept getting tangled in her nunchucks, making her look so strange that Newbie had to stifle a giggle.

Finally she introduced the last person, a pretty girl who was nicknamed Venus. Her curly blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail, and a black baseball cap shaded her pale skin from the light.

"Okay," Newbie said, trying to process all of the info.

"Dynamite's the boss, Kitty is kind of like the second in command, the Twins are the youngest, Window protects, Jaguar is a ninja, and Venus is the goddess of love…so am I right?" Newbie hoped she had remembered everyone.

"Pretty much. Except it's Widow, not Window. But that's a common misconception," Dynamite corrected.

Widow shrugged, as if people calling her Window was normal.

"Oops. Sorry. I just have a few more question. Why are you guys hiding in a treehouse in the middle of the forest? And why is there no adults at the camp?" Newbie asked.

Everyone just stared at her.

"What? What'd I say?" she asked confused.

"You mean you don't know about the apocalypse?" Jaguar asked, obviously shocked.

"What apocalypse?" Newbie asked.

"The zombie apocalypse. Wow. I can't believe you don't know about that," Widow said, sounding slightly amused.

"What?!? Zombies?!? No way, sooooooooo cool!!" Newbie gasped .

"I told you. She's weird and is confused about everything that's going on here," Kitty said. The girls started to whisper things to each other.

"I heard, she thought she was going to a normal summer camp for a week."

"She thought she would be able to go home at the end of camp."

"Boy, was she wrong. This place ain't normal. Not one bit."

"And she won't be going home. Like, ever."

"Poor, creepy, little girl."

Newbie sat there, confused, listening to the whispers. Her head began to hurt from trying to hear what the others were saying. She began to absentmindedly pick twigs and leaves from her tank top, lost in her thoughts. Finally, they turned back to her.

"You must be tired. We have an open bunk, so you can stay the night. After that? We'll see," Venus said, pointing at the bottom bunk of one of the beds.

"You can borrow some pj's from me. You look about my size." Jaguar said.

Newbie changed and headed to the bunk. As she sat on her bed, she watched the others getting prepared for the night. Widow picked up a sheathed dagger and a bucket of water and headed out to the deck for the night watch.

Venus hung her cap on a hook that was attached to the bunk she shared with Kitty and rolled over to go to sleep. Jaguar brushed out her hair and made sure her nunchucks were nowhere close to her head. The twins sat together, reading. One was reading Peter Pan, the other, The Jungle Book. The kept pointing out lines in their books to each other, then giggling.

Dynamite slept in the bunk above her, snoring quietly. They all seemed so peaceful. Even Kitty, who was drawing on Venus's face with Sharpie while she slept, seemed content. Newbie finally fell asleep to the sound of the twins laughing at something Kitty had written on Venus's face.