World Ended

Avery was sitting on the couch going through her maps, which she often did when she was angry. It was her substitute for yelling at whoever she was mad at. Ariah just so happened to be the target of her frustration at the moment and she refused to fight with him. Life was too short. People died all of the time and she would never forgive herself if either of them died upset with the other.

If she was being honest with herself she wasn’t even mad at him, just irritated. Ariah was 16, two years younger than her, but since he was way bigger than her he liked to think of her as the baby. He took on the role of being the overprotective sibling which meant that if anyone came within a foot of Avery they had better had a good reason or they would have a head full of lead. Ariah’s greatest fear was loosing his sister. Before everything happened they used to fight all of the time. It was weird how the end of the world could pull people together.

With a Sharpie highlighter Avery made marks on the map. She scratched out the towns they had already been too and the towns she thought they should go to next. Unlike some of the others, she wanted to find other survivors. She had dreams at night of repopulating the world and eliminating every single mindless. It was kind of funny. She used to dream of being a doctor. She had wanted to travel to other countries and help out where she could. She didn’t think that would ever happen. It was pretty silly to wish of such things. There were more important things to think about.

“Hey.”

The normal response people have when they are startled is to jump but Avery grabbed the knife that was next to her leg and was instantly to her feet, holding the knife against Braxton’s throat.

“I guess I deserved that,” he said as he tried to back away from the knife.

Avery quickly lowered it. “I’m sorry. You startled me…Are those Clay’s?” She looked over the clothes he was wearing.

Clayton was another member of the group that was still alive. He was the first one to join Ariah and Avery. They had found him in the supermarket. A mindless was trying to attack him but they rescued him. He had been homeless before all of this started. He was only 17 and he didn’t have a family. He ran away when he was 15 because his father sexually abused him. It always pained Avery to know that his whole life was hell before the hell on earth even started.

“Yeah, I ran into him when I was leaving the bathroom.”

Braxton’s cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink as he recalled meeting Clayton. His clothes had been filthy and would have defeated the purpose of the shower if he put them right back on so he simply wrapped a towel around his waist. He was going to hunt down Avery to see if she could gather him some clothes but when he opened the door he walked right into somebody. His heart had stopped for the quick second he thought it was Ariah but built was too small, not enough muscle.

Clayton apologized for bumping into him and introduced himself. He couldn’t stop himself from checking out Braxton who was still slightly damp from his shower. Despite the years of abuse he was still one hundred percent gay. It was hard to dismiss beauty when it was standing right in front of him, naked. Braxton had felt completely uncomfortable as the younger man flirted with him. He wasn’t a homophobe by any standards, he just wasn’t interested.

Once he had stopped his ogling Clayton offered Braxton some clothes to wear. He gladly accepted, anything to keep the man from staring at him so hard.

When they had entered Clayton’s bedroom he found a woman reading a book on the bed. She waved at him as he entered and introduced herself as Brook. Brook was 22 and before everything happened she was pregnant with twins. A mindless knocked her down and she lost them both. She pretty much kept to herself and read her books until it was time to move again. Avery wasn’t sure she would ever get over loosing her children. She was sure she blamed herself.

Clayton gave him a shirt, a pair of black jeans, and a jacket. Clayton was a little disappointed that Braxton left the room to change but he hadn’t really expected him to strip in front of him, though he had hoped.

“Well I should probably clean up your wounds,” Avery suggested, pulling Braxton from his thoughts.

“Oh you don’t have to. I’ll be fine.” Even though he objected Avery pushed him on the couch and gathered the first aid equipment she had placed beside the couch. Without asking she tugged his leg into her lap and pulled up the pants leg. The shower had washed off all of the blood but it still needed to be cared for.

“So,” she said as she grabbed the disinfected. “Where are you from,” she asked randomly. It wasn’t the best conversation starter but it was the first question that came to mind.

“Oregon,” he stated simply. He didn’t really know what she wanted him to say. It wasn’t like people were thrown into these situations everyday. He couldn’t even remember how to flirt with a girl he liked. It had been awhile since he had time to focus on girls, or anything for that matter.

“Oh. Ariah and I are from California.”

“Are you two together?” He hadn’t meant to ask that. It had just slipped out.

Avery smiled. “No. He’s just my little brother, even if he thinks he’s older sometimes.”

Braxton smiled as thoughts of Brendan came into his mind. They had always fought about who was older. Their mom had never really told them who had come out first. She said it was because she didn’t want them to fight. Braxton just thought she didn’t know. His smile faded as he thought about what he had done earlier. His brother was dead, at his own hand.

“What’s wrong?” Avery asked softly.

Braxton forced a smile. “Nothing, just thinking. Thanks for fixing my leg.”

She knew there was something bugging him but she didn’t know him enough to bug him about it. In time though she hoped they would get to know each other very well. She smiled at him. “No problem.”