Building A New Home Part 1

The next morning, Leo woke up to the normal feeling of Rebecca lying half on top of him. She had been up most of the night crying, and Leo stayed up as well to comfort her. He gently pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, which caused her to stir slightly. She slowly opened her eyes to see Leo's handsome face looking back at her. She smiled and leaned up and kissed his lips. After crying all night, she felt much better. 

While she still felt sad about what had happened, she let all her emotions out last night. Leo held her and gently caressed her back the entire time. The more she knew this man, the more she fell for him. "Sorry about last night."

"No need to be sorry. You did well holding it in for so long." Leo replied as he kissed Rebecca on the lips. He hugged her slim waist and gently stroked the top of her head. "We have a lot to do today."

"Mmm… I will get our food so we can eat while we decide on our plans for the day." Rebecca gave Leo another peck on the lips before sitting up and stretching.

Leo wondered just what they were going to do. They had to secure food and also clear the floors above. But he also did not know just how many people were still alive in this area. 

"Becca, are there any places you can think of that would have food around here?" Leo asked.

"There are two stores down the street, but I am not sure if we can get to them. It will be tough. You saw the zombies on the street. We are in the city now, so there are thousands of them. The store will be packed with them as well." Rebecca answered.

"That's true…. Hmmm.. Is there a garage around here? If we can get some welding gear, we can find a truck that still works and weld some plating to it. Then we can move around easier." Leo was thinking of the apocalypse movies he had seen before, where they fixed up vehicles to have armor on them. Even spikes and other things to kill zombies as they ran them over.

"We can take a look, but can you weld?" Rebecca turned to look at Leo.

"I can learn. I mean, what else can we do?" Leo replied with a smile. He was kind of excited to do something like this.

"Alright. The closest garage is about two blocks away. We can also look to see how the store is from there as well. If it looks easy to get to, we can take a look and try to stock up on some food." Rebecca suggested.

"We will do that then. We also need to take a peek at the first floor above us and see what we are getting ourselves into. If we get the welder, we can also secure the first floor better as well. There is plenty of metal lying around, after all." Leo took a sip of water and then a bite of the pop tart that Rebecca gave him. It was not much, but it was enough to keep him from starving to death.

"After we eat, let's go outside and check on the bodies…" Rebecca had to make sure that each one of them had been cremated. 

"I will go check. You check on our food supply and see if we can figure out a way to lock this place up." Leo got up and licked his fingers. He then placed his hand on top of Rebecca's head and said: "Don't push yourself."

"Okay…" Rebecca nodded. She clenched her fists in the sleeves of her jacket and watched as Leo walked away. "I am so useless…" She whispered as she stood up. She knew where the owner of this place hid the spare key. They could lock the place up without issue.

Outside, Leo looked at the smoldering pile and sighed as he walked over and got some more trash to use to relight the fire. The girls who had turned into zombies did not completely burn to ash, so he had no choice but to start the fire again. He piled a bunch of boxes and even a few old pieces of furniture on top of them and lit it on fire once more.

He stood back and closed his eyes to give another moment of silence before walking back to the dance studio. When he walked in, he saw Rebecca packing things up. "This last burn should do it. I will carve a memorial in the wall by their ashes when it's all over."

"Okay." Rebecca nodded as she raised her hand and showed Leo the keys she found. "We can lock up so no one can get inside."

"Do you think our stuff will be safe here if we leave it while we go out and search for more?" Leo asked.

"It should be since this door is meant for security and is almost impossible to break open unless you know how to pick locks," Rebecca replied.

"Alright, then we will leave our things here so we can go out with empty bags. Only bring a bottle of water with you to keep yourself hydrated. We will begin our search for the things we need to build our encampment on the rooftop." Leo really just wanted to make a place they could feel safe. While this entire basement floor was not bad, it was still too vulnerable to attacks. If what Nora said was true and the virus would mutate, then there would be a chance for a zombie to grow so strong that a door like this would mean nothing to them. He wanted the two of them to be out of sight, out of mind, until he was strong enough to contend with such issues in the future.

"Okay. Even if it gets stolen, I am sure we can find something to get us by. It's only two days' worth of supplies anyway." Rebecca started emptying her bag. She pulled out the box of condoms that were in there and looked at them before stuffing them back into her bag. She could not let these get stolen. Death was around every corner. She wanted to lose her virginity to Leo as soon as possible. She wanted to make love to the man who had saved her and gave her a second chance at life.