Dagny took some deep breathes and forced herself to stop crying as quickly as she could after Dennis kind of apologized to her. She didn't really buy his weak apology, but she didn't like crying in front of him as it made her feel weak and she knew he already thought she was weak. She frowned again though when he sighed after she asked him if she was going to be ok, but she couldn't help but smile just a little when Dennis told her the cut was going to leave a bad ass scar and told her she would be fine.


Dagny looked up with interest when Dennis suggested they make a deal concerning her gun. She figured a deal would probably be easier than trying to steal it back from him so she listened to what he had to say without interrupting. She still had her own canteen of water but she gratefully took the water bottle Dennis offered her and took a couple of long swigs. She scooted a little away from Dennis though when he sat down next to her. "No it does not sound like a deal!," she answered heatedly but without raising her voice. "I told you I could use the gun it was just my first time and I forgot to shoot the head. I didn't miss a single shot!," she added not that any of the shots she had made had been particularly difficult or impressive. BUT," she began as she looked up fiercely at Dennis. "You can teach me how to survive and I'll split my ammo with you and show you my safehouse and where I get my water from," she negotiated. "I don't know how to find things I might need, except for water and I don't know how all those friggin zombies found me. I swear I was being quiet and careful, and I didn't see any of them until I ran into that one inside the mini mart. Then they were everywhere!," she exclaimed not putting together the fact that her gun had actually attracted the zombies and not scared them or anything like she probably would of thought. "How about that deal?," she countered firmly. "Or I could always start screaming my head off, and see if your as good as you think you are and can make it out of here with just the ten bullets I got in that gun right now," she threatened. It wasn't something she would normally do but the more she thought about it the more she realized she didn't want to be alone and the man seemed to only want to do things that served his own interests, despite saving her from the zombies that had jumped her. She hoped that maybe he would even be impressed to see she wasn't just some princess after all and that while she may not be experienced it didn't mean she wasn't smart.

Despite not letting it show on his face, Dennis was relatively surprised at the fact that the kid wasn't okay with him only teaching her how to use a gun. She apparently wanted him to teach her more than that in exchange which the man was impressed with...Dagny was going to get her moneys worth for their deal and wasn't about to let him take part of her ammo supply for nothing.

The threat she made caused Dennis to roll his eyes in response as he rested his feet on the small table in front of the couch; he didn't believe that Dagny would do something as suicidal as attract the zombies to the house since she had barely survived three of them earlier but the look in her eyes told a different story. Dennis decided staying cautious just in case the teen would do something so ludicrous was the smarter option. "It doesn't look like you're giving me much of a choice. Fine, deal. I get to keep the pistol until we make it back to your base though." He attempted to take control of the situation at least a tiny bit.

"Now will you go wash your damn face in the bathroom upstairs already? Use that water bottle, you have blood all over your cheek. You look like Bloody Mary." Despite the insult, Dennis gave Dagny a small smirk to let her know he was only joking with her this time. It had been a very long time since the man had even remotely smiled but for some reason he liked the blonde's spunk; it was a strange mixture of very impressive and very annoying.

He definitely had his hands full.

Dagny tried her best not to let it show, but she watched Dennis like a hawk as she made her own deal and her own threat, to get him to not only give her, her gun back but also to teach her how to survive which would be just as useful especially when she went to find her family. Dennis showed no signs of anger or surprise, and Dagny began to get nervous that he would not accept her offer. She gave a small sigh of relief when he finally agreed to the deal but said that he was keeping her gun until they made it back to her base. "Fine," she huffed back, but on the inside she was smiling at her own success. "But don't run off and try to leave me behind like a zombie snack again."



Dagny frowned as the man cursed at her and insulted her once again, but she nodded her head as she didn't like the feeling of all the blood on her face anymore than Dennis liked to look at it. As she stood she finally noticed the smirk on his face, and realized that he was actually teasing her in his way. She figured that was a good sign that he wouldn't abandon her the first chance he got her or kill her in her sleep at least. Just as she passed by Dennis she stuck her tongue out at him for just a moment like she used to do to her older brother when he teased her. She then headed into the bathroom with the water bottle, and washed her face first and then her arm second. Both wounds seemed like they would be ok, but she could feel that they had taken a lot out of her. Once she finished scrubbing off the blood she headed back to Dennis. "So when are we heading out of here and whats the first thing you are going to teach me, O wise one?," Dagny questioned doing her best to sound demanding, and not just worried.

Normally sitting around doing nothing for quite a while would be boring but Dennis was used to it considering he hadn't had the luxury of distracting himself with electronics for a while now. About an hour or so passed before Dagny made her way down the stairs looking refreshed and like a brand new person without all that blood and gunk on her face. It made her seem slightly more normal like that.

"Teach you?" Dennis almost forgot about his part of the deal as he forced his exhausted body up from the couch and glanced outside one of the windows that were near the door. A majority of the zombies had disappeared and walked off who knows where but there was still one lone zombie standing in the front lawn growling to itself. "There's one more, we'll wait a couple minutes to see if it goes away but if not then we can just sneak out of here." The man explained his plan to the teen as he grabbed his backpack and pulled out a long, not to mention sharp, knife.

"Well your first lesson in 'surviving a zombie apocalypse' should be easy but apparently you don't know it yet: never shoot unless you have to. Always use a quiet weapon like a knife, an axe, or some other shit that's sharp to kill a zombie when they're by themselves. Has your brother taught you how to use a knife against those things?" He asked.

Dennis suddenly gripped the knife as if he were going to cut vegetables with it, his thumb and the blade face upwards towards the ceiling. "You hold the knife this way if the zombie is taller than you; then you stab it through the jaw and the blade should be long enough to reach it's brain...you'll probably have to use this technique a lot, shorty." Dennis said once again grinning before flipping the knife the other way around so the tip of the weapon was facing downwards though his thumb stayed facing the sky. "If they're shorter or the same height as you then stab it in a downwards motion through the head or forehead-- hit the brain obviously. Now try holding it in both positions."

Dennis handed the blonde the knife though made sure to add, "Don't kill yourself...or me for that matter."

"That's right teach me, that's what you agreed to do remember?" Dagny scooted up to the window and peeked out carefully as Dennis told her that there was only one zombie left outside. It didn't seem like the thing was going anywhere there and she wasn't sure how she felt about trying to sneak right past the horrid creature. It sounded like an especially bloodthirsty one to her, the way it kept growling at itself. Dagny looked back as Dennis announced it was time for her first lesson about survival. She was actually surprised when he told her that you didn't shoot zombies unless you had to. She quickly realized that she had been the cause of all those zombies swarming at the mini-mart when she had used her gun so freely. "I had to shoot that thing in the mini-mart I didn't have any other weapons and it was too close," Dagny defended herself instinctively as she blushed as she realized what a rookie mistake she had made. It made perfect sense once she heard it that killing zombies quietly was much better than with a gun when you could help it, or when they were alone. "No he didn't give me any other weapons and I certainly don't know how to kill a zombie with a knife."


Dagny watched and listened carefully as Dennis showed her how to hold the large knife he produced from his backpack, and explained how to strike with it to kill a zombie. She ignored his little quip about her height and nodded nervously. "I don't know if I could get that close to one. It seems really dangerous to do it that way." Dagny hesitantly took the sharp blade from Dennis when he offered it to her, after all she had said she wanted to learn. She guessed she had hoped learning had involved more about learning to survive without combat than about combat. Her hand shook but Dagny held the blade just the way Dennis had showed her and then she carefully turned it in her hand and held it in the opposite position.


Dagny rotated between the two grips on the knife several times, and gradually felt more comfortable holding it as she did so. She stepped away from the walls and from Dennis and then began thrusting the knife upward, and then stabbing downward as if she was attacking a zombie with it. She peeked over at Dennis for confirmation that she was doing it right, as she practiced mostly the upward thrusts as he had suggested would be the more important one for her. After practicing for awhile Dagny headed back to the window, and saw that the lone zombie was still out there. "Are you going to show me how to use that knife on a zombie or are we sneaking out of here?" Dagny asked as she was more than ready to make it back to her safe house before it got dark. She just knew her brother and uncle would be back when they showed up tonight and everything would be ok again.

Dennis shook his head at the girl's comment. "Everything you do in this world is dangerous now, kid, so you have to get used to being close to them. If you had a close ranged weapon when that zombie tackled you earlier then you could've killed it by yourself without my help." The man was surprised that Dagny has survived this long while only slightly knowing how to use a gun; the people in her group must have been very skilled survivalists themselves if they were able to baby her in such a way during the apocalypse without her dying immediately. He nodded his head as she slashed the air.

"Eager to see for yourself, huh? There aren't any other zombies nearby so I guess it won't hurt to show you how to kill one." Dennis shrugged as he grabbed his knife back and holding it in the second position he'd shown the blonde since the zombie was shorter than him; though he still remained cautious since it was a bit...chunkier and could pin him down rather easily.

The brunet walked over towards the door and gripped the handle. He spoke to Dagny without even turning back to look at her. "Now here's survival lesson number two: shut up and don't make any noise whatsoever because even breathing too loudly attracts these things. Keep your knees bent and stay low so your steps are quieter. Check what's on the ground in front of you every once in a while just in case because stepping on a stray leaf or stick can sound like a siren in complete silence...also stay close to me." Once he finished giving orders, Dennis slowly opened the door and made his way towards the zombie.

Luckily the dead guy was looking away from the house as he continued to growl to himself. It was looking like a fairly easy kill as long as it didn't turn around suddenly. Dennis walked a few steps onto the front lawn and began to stand up and lift his knife, a few more inches and the non stop snarling would finally stop!

Dagny had to admit that Dennis made sense when he told her that she could of killed the zombie that tackled her, herself, if she would of had a close range weapon that she could effectively use against it. Her instinct had always been to avoid danger however, Dennis seemed to be stressing that she was going to have to learn to defeat danger as well. Dagny noticed when Dennis nodded in conformation that she was doing it right as she practiced slashing with the knife. She smiled a little to herself as she finally seemed to have gotten at least a tiny ounce of something close to approval out of him.


"Well I want to make sure what you are teaching me works is all." Dagny was certainly not eager to see a zombie getting stabbed up close, but she did want to see how to properly stalk a dispatch one stealthily as Dennis claimed she needed to be able to do. She also agreed that the lone zombie outside was a rare opportunity to see the skills she needed to learn in action, and would make their escape to her safehouse an easier one. Dagny followed Dennis to the door and listened as he told her to stay low, close, and silent. This was one skill Dagny had practiced and felt fairly competent in. "Ok, gotcha," Dagny whispered back while she rolled her eyes at the back of Dennis's head.


Dagny followed Dennis quietly out of the house, but her heart began to pound as soon as she heard the zombie starting to snarl again. Her eyes immediately went to it, and off of her step and her fear ratcheted up another notch as she saw how close they actually were to the terrifying thing, and without a gun drawn! Taking her eyes off of her feet, Dagny missed the small step from the little patio in front of the door and she stumbled right into a bush, loudly. In her state of fear she felt the bush brush her leg, and with her eyes on the zombie her mind flashed back to being tackled only a few hours ago. Before she realized what she was doing Dagny added to the noise she was already making by starting to scream. To her credit she threw her hands over her mouth and cut herself off almost immediately, but the damage had been done. The zombie in the yard spun around, not only toward her but Dennis as well. It snarled ferociously and immediately began to attack. Dagny immediately backed against the house in fear, as she realized what she had done. Her first instinct was to run, but she couldn't abandon Dennis after she had just endangered him. The problem was he had the knife and her gun. Dagny scanned around her and saw a brick that had crumbled off of the house they had sheletered in. She picked it up as Dennis squared off with the zombie with his knife. She darted to the side and heaved the brick at the zombie's head. She missed, but she did managed to hit the zombie in the arm with enough force to throw it off balance and hopefully create an opening for Dennis.

An ear piercing screech caught Dennis's attention just as he was about to stab the zombie, causing him to pause. The man turned with eyes wide expecting to see Dagny getting torn apart only to see she had fallen into a bush and was relatively unharmed excluding maybe a few scratches. The man obviously was relieved that the girl wasn't injured but that also meant she had just screamed her head off for no reason whatsoever; annoyance and frustration began to fill the survivor but he had to time to act on it as the zombie suddenly lunged towards him, it's attention squarely on the fresh meat in front of it.

"Ugh!" A grunt came out of Dennis's mouth as he was just barely able to push his own hands against the zombie's chest just and shove the dead guy away in time before it latched onto the man and began devouring him. Unfortunately this was only a temporary defense as the emotionless fiend found it's balance easily and once again charged at Dennis with incredible speed for such a slow being; luckily the blonde teen has slightly redeemed herself by chucking a brick at the zombie causing it's momentum to go backwards. This gave Dennis enough time to grab the zombie's neck and stab it through the forehead with his knife.

Dennis didn't even have any time whatsoever to catch his breath as he glanced around the neighborhood to see if there were anymore zombies coming. Unfortunately there were quite a few though they seemed to be more so attracted to the noise and didn't know that two living humans were standing right there in open view...they had to get inside fast!

"What were you thinking, kid?" The man of course took a moment to scold the girl as he lifted her up from the ground and gave her two sharp swats to the seat of her jeans. He then practically dragged her inside the house before shutting the door behind them.

A few seconds of silence passed as Dennis rested his hands on his knees attempting to catch his breath after the near death experience. It was pretty clear once time passed that the zombies didn't know where Dangy and he were but they were still roaming around in the front lawn searching for the sound from earlier...this would mean they would have to play the waiting game again which meant that the past hour of doing nothing was a waste. Dennis stood straight and glared at then teen in front of him. "Tell me what on earth happened and what you were thinking. Now."

Dagny was horrified as she watched Dennis barely push the zombie away from himself as it attacked. She quickly found the brick and threw it at the zombie managing to stumble it and giving Dennis the time to stab it through the brain. Sure enough the zombie died just as Dennis had advertised, and Dagny gave a sigh of relief. Before she knew it though Dennis was lifting her up and she suddenly saw that all the zombies that had dispersed earlier were shambling back towards the area. Dagny twisted and arched to her side as her bottom began to sting for just a moment and then again. At first Dagny thought she must of brushed against the prickly bush again but then she slowly realized that Dennis had smacked her butt!


Before Dagny could react, Dennis was dragging her into the house, and for good reason as it was clear they need to hide once again. "Sorry," Dagny apologized sheepishly as silence filled the room once they were inside. Dennis looked a little shook up but otherwise unharmed, and Dagny gave another sigh of relief as she slid a hand back to her bottom for a moment as she was still in a bit of disbelief at what Dennis had done. She stood straight up though and took a step back as Dennis reared up and practically growled at her.


"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!," Dagny quickly apologized blushing now as she realized she had to admit to what she had done. "I just got scared ok? That thing was growling and we were so close, and I just got scared. I missed my step and fell against that bush, and I thought something was grabbing me. I panicked ok? But I mean I grabbed that brick and tried to help you know. I just haven't done this before and you took all of the weapons," she explained trying to turn some of the blame back to him for a moment. "I just freaked out ok? I'm sorry. I'll try to do better," she added weakly.

"Everyone is scared now! I've always been scared of getting eaten by those things; that's not an excuse anymore!" Dennis yelled at Dagny before quickly biting his lip and cringing both from the noise he was making while zombies were outside and the fact that he was taking his anger out on this girl a little too much. The man took a deep breath before giving the teen a stern look calmly.

"Look, kid, it's alright to be afraid. The problem is that you didn't tell me you couldn't handle it. If you had then you could have stayed inside and watched through the window as I killed the zombie...you decided to rush things instead of gradually learning how to do this shit." Dennis took a deep breath. He wasn't a very emotional guy though he had admittedly just let out quite a bit of emotions to this teenager he had met just hours earlier.

The brunet wasn't very happy when the blonde began to partly blame him for the incident. "I took the weapons because you haven't proven yourself to handle them yet. I saved your ass before so don't think that helping me with a problem you caused makes up for that. Clearly you're way too careless which will get you killed in an instant in this type of world; I thought that idiocy was a one time thing but apparently you need to be taught better...so I'll be the one to teach you."

Dennis suddenly grabbed Dagny by the arm once again and began dragging her to the couch where he sat down and brought the teenage girl over his lap so her jean clad bottom was jutted in the air. "If you're going to act like some kid then I'm going to treat you like a kid." The man told her as he immediately gave her two sharp swats to her butt in quick succession.