Free Age of Z: A Tale of Survival by T. S. Frost

heads.
     
    Being a surrogate sibling was sort of new to her anyway, making it even tougher, since she'd never had a younger brother or sister before. But she was determined all the same to give LS at least a few good memories that he could hold on to when times got bleak, to remind him that even in these times not everything was bad.
     
    She wished she could give LS some classic kid experiences: take him out for ice cream, visit an amusement park, go swimming at the beach, have a movie marathon, check out a concert, or play video games.
     
    These were the things he always seemed puzzled over or unable to grasp entirely, when Alexa rambled on about them during the quieter and safer moments of their journey. Sadly these things were simply impossible right now, with the state of the world. But Alexa wasn't known for giving up, and eventually engineered several other opportunities to teach him about the good side of life.
     
    She started simple. During one of their necessary scavenging expeditions, after skirting around Baltimore, she came across a mostly intact deck of playing cards. It was missing a few cards from the hearts suit, but miraculously both the jokers were still there, which mostly made up for it.
     
    Alexa taught LS poker, blackjack, go fish, and half a dozen other games, taunting and ribbing her surrogate sibling in friendly fashion to get a rise out of him and engage his competitive streak.
     
    At first he scowled and was unresponsive, but gradually he began to get the hang of both of the strategies and the taunting, and he had one of the best poker-faces Alexa had ever seen on anyone, ever.
     
    They started betting on basic things to up the ante, then: who got stuck on which watch shift, or who got the last piece of rabbit meat or scoop of canned rations. During the day, if LS reported no dangerous sounds in the area, Alexa would idly shuffle the deck in her hands as they walked, and practice her magic tricks.
     
    But Alexa found better opportunities as they traveled, starting with a few days after they crossed over the Pennsylvania state line. On their travels they found an abandoned high school that had, of all things, a mostly-intact volleyball court.
     
    The nets were a little rotted, but not so badly that they were completely useless, and there was still an intact sports shed off to one side with a decent collection of mostly-inflated balls and a semi-working pump.
     
    Alexa made a snap decision, and called for a halt. It was probably not the best decision, admittedly, and now her instincts screamed that she should not be wasting valuable time and energy on this, and that there could be zoms anywhere . But she could afford to be a little more relaxed, now that she was traveling with someone with enhanced senses.
     
    LS's hearing could give them ample warning about approaching zombies long before they actually got near there, and the field was open enough they'd have advanced visual warning, too. If this didn't pan out they could still be long gone before danger arrived.
     
    So she called for LS to set his pack down in the court and pick a side. The clone did so, perplexed, and Alexa gave him a brief rundown of the rules (which she couldn't really remember anymore, so it mostly consisted of 'don't let the ball hit the ground or the other guy gets a point') and volleyed it over the net.
     
    LS hit it back with so much force it flew over the fence and the field and bounced out of sight. Alexa counted it as a point for herself, laughed, and retrieved a second ball from the shed. The second time he was able to rein himself in for the first return volley, but couldn't match Alexa's more natural agility and speed when attempting to subdue his own strength, and missed the ball.
     
    The third time Alexa almost gleefully spiked it at the clone's feet, and laughed at the sullen expression on his face. “C'mon man, I thought you were supposed to be superior! If you can't keep up with little old me, then I