This Broken City Sky

Kat sat up for the rest of the night, her mind reeling with ideas and thoughts all centering around that damn helicopter. The room was dark, as it was still very early in the morning, yet the half-moon that sat in the sky provided a dim, blue light that just barely highlighted the shapes of the objects in the room. Her tired eyes glanced to Johnny, who slept nearly on the edge of the bed with his hands tucked under the pillow to keep them warm, then to the broken radio in the corner of the room that the four who lived there neglected to pick up. ‘There has to be someway to fix that,’ she thought to herself as her brow furrowed in deep thought, ‘They’ve got to have a safer place set up somewhere.’

The next morning, she sat beside the coffee maker as she smoked the morning’s first cigarette. She still wore her pajamas; a mere baggy, white shirt and her underwear. The little modesty the woman had left when she decided to room with three men. By now, they were all accustomed to seeing her changing or knew when she was PMS-ing and to avoid her. The small black machine on the table bubbled and hissed as it warmed up the water, the only noise in the quiet room. She found that Gerard and Mikey had sleeping patterns just like her brother. They wouldn’t be woken up for anything and if they were woken, they were absolute bears about it. They also liked to sleep until the afternoon if allowed. Kat looked out the window, at the snow covered buildings and let out the smoke she had been holding in. Despite the fact it hadn’t snowed in a week, the temperature hadn’t risen enough to melt the thick layer of snow on everything.

Her mind then wandered to the days that had passed since the infection broke out. With a heavy sigh, she leaned over and plucked a small schedule book she had nicked from one of the rooms. Flipping to a page with a calendar of the months, she counted through the days stuck in God-forsaken hotel and found they were a week away from Christmas. A frown formed on her lips and between her brows at the thought of the holiday being forgotten. It had always been one of her favorites for it signified a time for happiness and a time with family. She glanced over to Johnny, knowing that there had to be something they could do to celebrate with what little means they had. He would have a Christmas and he would have presents. Kat would make sure of this.

Ray suddenly poked his head into the room and glanced around a small smile curling his lips as he saw that Kat was awake. He walked over to the chair opposite of her and sat down, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“No one in my room is awake yet,” he whispered his explanation and Kat merely gave him a nod as she took a sip of her own coffee. There was a long silence between the two of them as they heard someone moving around in the other room.

“What do you think will happen if that helicopter didn’t see us…or chooses not to see us?” Kat asked quietly, glancing over at Ray as she perched her cigarette between her lips. He regarded her with a thoughtful look for a moment, his eyes cut at her slightly.

“What do you mean ‘chooses not to see us’?” Ray asked. Kat took a final drag of her cigarette and extinguished it in an ash tray. She blew the smoke away from Ray and watched him closely.

“They should have seen us…or at least our signs,” she said lowly, “but whoever was in that helicopter could do the right thing and come back for us. Or…they could do the smart thing and not come back.” She glanced to the door to see Dylan shuffling into the room, scratching the back of her head. Kat brought her eyes back to Ray and saw him wearing a curious expression. “They don’t know how many survivors are in here. For all they know, they could have to come back three or four times. Then, once we get to wherever the other survivors are they may have to end up feeding an army.”

“So…you’re saying you don’t think they’ll be back?” Dylan asked as she sat down on a couch in the room, in a voice thick with sleep. Kat glanced over at her and shook her head.

“Shit,” Ray hissed and ran his hand over his face. Dylan let out a heavy sigh and looked out the window.

“But…if we can find out where they’re staying and get to them, there’s no way they can deny us,” Kat mused softly before taking a sip of her coffee.

“Yes, there is,” Dylan said, causing Kat to look over at her, “if you think about it logically and realistically.” Kat stared at her for a moment before glancing between the two of them.

“I think it was an army helicopter that flew over. So, they could turn us away…or they could recognize that there are strength in numbers,” she said softly. “Either way, we’re going to run out of food sometime soon and we’ll have to leave this hotel if we want to survive.”

“How do you propose we find where they are?” Dylan asked quietly, crossing her arms over her chest.

“We find a radio that actually works in this place. That’ll be a good place to start. If it is the Army, like I think it is, they should be broadcasting where their location is for survivors,” Kat said before biting her bottom lip in thought before sighing heavily. “Then again…these are all just theories and I could be completely wrong.”

“Still…it’d be worth it to get a radio to work, just to be sure,” Ray suggested, glancing between Kat and Dylan. Near silence fell between the three that were awake and Dylan finally stood and walked over to the coffee maker, pouring and fixing herself a cup of coffee. When Dylan sat back down, Kat glanced between Ray and Dylan with a look that clearly said she wanted to say something.

“Guys…I’ve checked the calendar I have and if I’m right, we’ve got about a week until Christmas,” she stated softly. They merely looked at her, waiting for her to continued since it didn’t look like she was done speaking. “I was thinking, we should try to celebrate with what he can here. Have some sort of ‘Secret Santa’ thing and scrounge up gifts. Maybe try to decorate a bit and have some sort of dinner or get together on Christmas.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Dylan said, giving Kat a small smile as she cupped her hands around the glass coffee mug she held. “Christmas was always my favorite holiday and I don’t see why we shouldn’t celebrate it together. Maybe Lily knows where the hotel kept their decorations and stuff…they may even have a few Christmas trees we could bring to the rooms.” Kat smiled to her in return before turning to Ray, the smile never fading.

“What do you think?” She asked him. “Do you think any of the guys would have objections to it?”

“No,” Ray said, shaking his head, “not at all. They’ll all think it’s a brilliant idea, actually.”

“No, I absolutely will not help you guys set up Christmas decorations,” Gerard growled venomously. “I just don’t see the point in putting them up when we’re just going to have to take them down within a week…besides, shouldn’t we have greater priorities than putting up trees and lights and stockings?” Kat glanced over at him, for she had been the one to gather the rest of the refugees and suggest her idea to them, once they all woke up.

“Oh, get the fuck over yourself, Scrooge,” she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest as somewhere in the room, someone stifled a chuckle. “It’s not like you’ll have to take part in anything if you don’t want to. I just thought it’d be a change of pace.” Kat glared over at Gerard and he glared back in return. Johnny, who was watching them apprehensively, in case either of them lunged at the other, noticed something deeper in their stares before Ray nervously cleared his throat.

“Well…since that settles it, we’ve decided to do a ‘Secret Santa’ deal. We’ll just have to scrounge around for gifts instead of going to the mall and buying them,” Ray said, from the table, where he had finished writing on a piece of paper. He then ripped the paper up, eight times to be exact, and placed the scraps into a beanie and shook it around. “Now, if Gerard does decide he doesn’t want to join in, one of us will have to pick two, and if you have anyone else you’d want to get a gift for, feel free to.” He held the beanie out to Lily, who tentatively reached her hand into the bag and pulled out a slip of paper. It read “Johnny” in Ray’s slightly messy handwriting. Ray continued to move around the room and the slips of paper in the bag became fewer and fewer.

Ray stopped in front of Gerard, since he was the last one to pick a name. Gerard merely looked up at Ray, who was giving him an earnest look. The raven-haired man gave a groan and stuck his hand into the beanie, relieved when he came back with the name “Frank.” In the end, Lily ended up with Johnny, Dylan ended up with Ray, Johnny ended up with Mikey, Mikey ended up with Lily, Kat with Gerard, Ray with Kat, Frank with Dylan, and Gerard with Frank. Kat had made a face when she got hers, letting the rest in the room know she had gotten either Dylan or Gerard. After the had all tucked away their tiny slips of paper, they stood and left the room, following Lily to the storage room where they kept the Christmas decorations for the hotel.