CHAPTER FOUR:
why is it following me?

    The sun rose and glared brightly into Winona's resting face, waking her up instantly like an alarm clock. Her green eyes blurred as she blinked away the sleep, hands raised to help rub them awake. Zombie rested on the vans window, coos coming from his beak as he dream of whatever birds dream about. Winona throws the blanket she used at him, effectively waking him up. The gray parrot shakes his head and raises his wings letting out a squawk that sounded a lot like him calling her a bitch.

Winona glared at the only friend she has had for years. "If I'm awake, you're awake."

The red-head looks around the van, noticing Joel and Boy were still passed out. She tilts her head at the sight of Joel spread out and halfway off his makeshift bed. With a roll of her eyes she starts doing her morning stretches. She pushes her limbs as far as she can in the warrior position and then quickly lays herself flat on the ground into a bow pose.
She slowly breathes in and out to ignore the slight pain from stretching.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Joel asks, the red-head not ever realizing he woke up.

Winona's sea green eyes met Joel's whiskey one's. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Yoga?" He questioned, his eyes squinted as he looked at her.

"Nothing gets past you," she smirked. "It's rule #13: never skip your daily stretches. You don't want to cramp up when you're usain bolting for your life."

"So... these rules that you have... do they actually help?" Joel asked, curiousity shined throught his eyes.

Winona shrugged. "They've helped me get this far."

"Are they all in your head or did you get them from a book?" He badgered.

Winona rolls her eyes. "I made them and I wrote them all down," she told him, getting up from her pose to walk towards her backpack. She opened the zipper and pulled out a tattered notebook. "It's my pride and joy, this is years worth of planning in here," she said proudly. The red-head gave him a once over before continuing, "It's foolproof."

Joel's head jerked back in offense at the last part. "Why were you underground? Were you with a colony?"

Winona sighed at his incessant questions. She safely tucked her rule book back into her backpack. "It was my bunker and no, it's been me and Zombie ever since my mom died."

Joel's face fell. "Oh... I'm sorry... my parents are dead too," he offered, trying to find common ground with the girl who seemed to be quit annoyed in his presence.

Winona shrugged before grabbing her backpack and gun. She shoved her arms through the loops of the backpack and patted her shoulder for Zombie to sit. She heads towards the door, loading her gun, and walks out.

Joel scrambled at the girls sudden departure. "Hey, wait up!" He called out, he quickly gathered his things.

Boy's head raised from where it was resting on his arms. He followed the two humans out of the bus and barked at them.

"Shh!" Winona hushed as Joel also tried to quiet the dog.

"You wanna come with us?" Joel asked, pointing towards himself and Winona.

"Us?" Winona echoed her face full of confusion on when exactly they became an 'us'. Winona watched the exchange between Joel and Boy before rolling her eyes and walking away.

After Joel successfully took the red dress from boy and put in a safe place, he then realized that Winona was already a halfway down the block.

"Wh- hey!" Joel called out, chasing after the girl. "Where are you going?"

"Do you hear something?" Winona asked the parrot that flew above her.

"Hey!" Joel called again as he ran next to Winona, awkwardly stumbling into a walking pace. "What are you doing?"

"Maybe if I ignore him, he'll go away," she mindlessly commented towards her parrot smirking at the offended look that fell upon his face.

"Shouldn't we stick together?" He questioned. "Isn't that like a ... rule? You know... like rule #23 sticking together," he offered, a proud smile on his face for coming up with it.

"Nope," she told him, her lips making a popping sound. "And don't mock my rules."

"I-I wasn't... you know I'll just follow you, you won't even know we're here!"

"Don't follow me," Winona glared.

"I'm gonna follow you," Joel retorts, lifting his backpack straps to a more comfortable position. "Feels good actually, having company," Joel commented interrupting the silence that aurrounded them.

"How about we play the quiet game? Yeah? Starting now."

NOTES.
short chapter but anyways, winona and joel are 100% the emo gf and golden retriever bf and zombie and boy are just there for the ride lmfao.