Alex's POV

When I wake up the next morning, I feel myself tightly pressed against something warm. I open my eyes and smile when I see the dark raven locks of Lucy's hair poking out from under the blankets. I snuggle up closer to her if that's even possible, and slide my arm around her waist.

I feel her start to stir and she slowly stretches her back out. My eyes widen and I bite my lip when her ass presses into my crotch. She turns over so she's facing me, sleepy gray eyes smiling at me.

"Sorry, I got cold last night." She says, blushing a little.

I put a finger under her chin and tilt her face up, pecking her lips once because I don't want to kill her with morning breath.

"Don't be sorry." I whisper, pulling her closer to me. "It was nice to wake up to."

I hear a familiar grumbling noise and I look down at her with an amused expression.

"Lucy, how can you be hungry already when you almost ate three of those burgers last night?"

She just blushes again. "I don't know.. I guess I have a fast metabolism."

"Well what do you say we go find you some nourishment then?" I suggest before sitting up.

Suddenly Jack bolts up from his bed on the other side of Lucy.

"Did someone say food?" He asks excitedly, black hair sticking up in spikes.

I laugh at him. "Nice bed hair Jack."

Lucy sits up and ruffles my hair. "Same goes for you Alex." She says with a smile before Jack attacks her with a hug from behind.

"Good morning Lucy! You've got bed head too!" He says.

Lucy makes a face and tries to escape his grasp. "Eww Jack you've got skunk breath, get away!"

We all laugh quietly, seeing as everyone else is still asleep, and grab toothbrushes and toothpaste from our bags before heading to the bathrooms. Lucy just brings her whole bag, probably planning on changing clothes. She goes into the girl's bathroom and Jack tries to follow her, but I grab the back of his shirt and pull him into the men's room with a laugh.

"You two seem to be getting pretty cozy." Jack says with mischievous grin after we brush our teeth.

I just shrug and smile, feeling my cheeks heat up. "She and I talked yesterday, and we came to a mutual agreement of sorts."

Jack raises an eyebrow and his grin disappears. "Oh?" I just nod and he puts a hand on my shoulder. "You know how that could end Alex.. Are you sure you want to take that risk?"

Jack's words shock me, it's rare that I hear him be this serious. I look him right in the eyes and nod once.

"Yea Jack, I know the risks. But I can't explain it, I really can't. There's just something about this girl, she's special I can feel it." I say, placing a hand over my chest. "She's worth it."

Jack's serious face disappears and his smile returns. "You're trusting your heart, and that's never lead you astray before. Therefore I just your judgment."

I raise an eyebrow at him but smile. "Thanks Jack."

* * *

Breakfast comes and goes and soon everyone is gathering their guns and other weapons. We also go around the store to find things to use as targets, like pillows, a TV, and a couple actual targets we manage to come across; this store really does have everything. We're getting as much practice as possible today and in the days to come. When we reach the roof, which is covered in a thin layer of slush from yesterday, I notice the sky. It doesn't look good.

The air itself is still heavily scented with smoke. A few miles away, the sky is black with said smoke, and I can actually see the orange glow of the fire now. It seems that this fire might actually become a problem. I notice that Lucy is also looking in the direction of the fire, then she looks up at me with anxious eyes.

"Um, was the fire that close before, or am I just imagining it?" I hear Vinny ask.

"It's definitely gotten closer. I thought for sure it would go out." Colussy says nervously.

Someone clears their throat. "So what? It's just a fire, we can deal with it later. Right now we need to do what we came up here for." Flyzik's voice snaps us all out of whatever trance the fire put us under.

I shake my head a little and suppress a smile at Matt's return of character. "Right, so, who's actually shot a gun before all of this?" I ask. Every hand goes up. "Paintball guns excluded." I add. Many hands go down.

"Paintball guns kinda do count in a way though don't they? I mean, you're still aiming and shooting at things, guns just have more recoil right?" Jack points out.

I hadn't really thought of it that way.

"Yea, guns have more recoil than a paintball gun, but it depends what kind of gun you're shooting of course." Lucy says, covering for me.

"Well lets get started, shall we?" Rian says with determined look on his face.

Practice actually goes pretty well. As it turns out, all those times we've played paintball made us well prepared for shooting real guns. Who would've known? Of course, we are shooting at stationary objects, even from different distances. Lucy kicks ass with the crossbow we brought though.

"How'd you become so handy with a crossbow?" I ask her.

A soft smile spreads across her lips and she shrugs. "My grandpa and dad used to take me hunting. We'd use a lot of different weapons, including crossbows, and even did some practice with throwing knives."

I feel my eyebrows disappear into my fringe. "Let me get this straight. You played softball in high school, so you're good at hitting things, AND you can hunt and shoot? Did we rescue an All Time Low fan or an Amazonian warrior?"

She laughs at the comparison. "I could probably teach you a trick it two."

"At least you look hot when you hold a weapon, compared to Jack whom I want to laugh at because he looks so ridiculous trying to hold that gun." He says, lowering his voice and winking at me.

Suddenly we hear someone shout, "Guys, come look at this!"

We all see Evan peering over the edge of the roof and join him. When I look over, I can't decide of I'm surprised or not. I guess Evan was right about the gunshots attracting zombies. Damnit. There has to be at least thirty of them down there, and they do not look pleased.

Zack raises his rifle and aims carefully at the creatures below. He takes his shot and for a second the air splits with a deafening noise and then a particularly fat zombie goes down, a bloody mess where its head used to be.

"Nice shot Zacky!" Jack shouts, raising his own gun and aims for a target. He pulls the trigger and hits a zombie, but is knocked back from the recoil.

Despite the intensity of the situation, everyone is taken off guard for a moment by several bursts of laughter directed at Jack, myself included. I smile when I even see Flyzik shaking his head and grinning.

Jack blushes but laughs with us to shake it off. "Quit laughing you dicks," He looks at Lucy. "And lady-dick. I just gotta get the hang of it!"

After another twenty minutes or so of carefully killing off the zombies down below, we decide to call it a day. Good thing too, because that smoke in the air was really starting to get to me.

I check my still functioning watch and see that it's only 3 o'clock; we still have half the day to kill practically. Lucy notices me checking my watch and smirks. She grabs my wrist and pulls me suddenly, causing me to stumble.

"Come on slow poke! I have an idea!" She says with a playful grin. I, of course, happily follow.