This Broken City Sky

The eight refugees all slowly began to collect their presents, ready to all tuck themselves into their nice warm beds after celebrating. Quiet conversations filled the room as they cleaned up the bits of newspaper that had been torn into. That’s when they heard it; a low, thudding whoop, whoop, whoop in the distance, like a blade cutting through air over and over again. The room fell silent as everyone froze in their places, staring up at the ceiling as though it had the answer to what was making the familiar noise. Suddenly, they all sprung into action, running toward the door and throwing it open and continuing to the staircases.

One by one, they filed up the stairs, talking excitedly to one another as Frank, since he had been closest to the door when they heard the helicopter, pushed open the door to the roof. They ran out onto the snow-covered top of the hotel, immediately being buffeted by a bone chilling winter wind. However, none of them paid attention to the cool wind bearing against them. They had their eyes lifted to the sky, in search of the helicopter that was flying over the buildings.

“Right there!” Johnny called out, pointing to a nondescript point in the sky. Everyone turned and followed his finger to the only thing they could see of the helicopter, a few flashing lights; one red and a few other white ones. Over the whistling wind, they could hear and feel the blades of the helicopter propellers slicing through the nighttime sky. A few of them took to jumping and yelling as the thing neared them, but a few of the others knew it was hopeless. There was no way they’d be able to hear them over the spinning of the propellers, let alone the howling winds.

It passed over them as soon as it came and they could tell it was heading toward New York City. Those who had taken to shouting and waving their arms gradually stopped, feeling a bit crestfallen that a helicopter had passed over them for the second time. They all stood on the roof for a few moments, staring off at the city that they couldn’t see off in the distance.

“Do you think they saw us this time?” Dylan asked finally, glancing around to everyone. No one wanted to say anything, because they weren’t sure if the helicopter saw them. However, no one wanted to ruin the happy mood they had managed to bring themselves to with Christmas and the possibility of being spotted by a helicopter.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Kat said, crossing her arms over her chest to conserve what little body heat she had left. Eventually, they all started back for the door; all except for Kat. She was staring off in the direction that the helicopter had gone in. The wind was slowly letting up, yet little white snowflakes were beginning to fall from the sky.

“You coming back inside, Kat?” Johnny asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked over at him and shook her head.

“I’ll come back inside in a minute or two,” she said softly, “I just need some time to think.” Johnny nodded and turned, walking to the door with his hands shoved into his pockets. He saw that Gerard was lingering behind as they filed through the door, glancing back at Kat. Johnny passed him, since he was sort of holding the door open as the others passed through. Just as Johnny was about to place his foot on the stairs, Gerard’s voice stopped him.

“Johnny, tell the others I’ll be down in a bit,” he said, causing Johnny to turn and look at him with a slightly surprised look.

“Alright then,” he said before turning and continuing on down the stairs. Gerard let the door shut; the hinges giving a loud screech as it shut. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and walked over to Kat, who had her back turned to him and was standing at the edge of the roof. The snow crunched under his shoes, causing Kat to turn and look at him with an unreadable emotion behind her eerily blue eyes before turning her gaze back to the night. She let out a heavy sigh, which turned to steam as it exited her lips.

“So…who told you that I was an artist?” Gerard asked, curiously watching her profile. The smallest bit of a smile curled her lips and she laughed, shaking her head a bit.

“No one,” she said simply, her eyes darting to him for a moment before looking down to the street below them.

“Bullshit,” Gerard said, sounding a bit angry. He thought she was merely playing a word game with him, like she had so frequently done. She liked to go in verbal circles with him and he often fell headfirst into the trap.

“No, I’m serious,” Kat said, a genuine smile curling her lips as she looked over at Gerard. He just stared at her for a moment, biting on the inside of his cheek as he mentally debated over whether she was joking or not. The blonde woman let out a raspy laugh as she shook her head, cutting her eyes at Gerard. “You don’t think I get you…but I do, probably more than you realize.”

“You don’t know shit about me,” he said in a low voice, shaking his head as he looked away from Kat.

“Believe whatever you want,” Kat said with a raised brow and a humored look, “you look at things differently than most people. I see it in your eyes. You look at color and shapes; if something is aesthetically pleasing to you. You see it in the tiniest things; the curves of a tea cup, a rough bit of wood, a piece of silk…” Gerard brought his eyes back to the woman beside him, who was watching him closely with the slightest smirk curling the corner of her lips. He was in awe of how much she had observed from him in the few months they had been together. Not once had he drawn or even so much as doodled since he had been locked away in the hotel. She had deducted that he was an artist just from the emotion he had shown in his eyes and it shocked him.

“You’ve had a lot of time to think about this, have you?” He asked, breaking the silence between them. Kat laughed lightly and looked away, shrugging a bit.

“Not much else to do, to be honest,” she said softly as she stared down at a few straggling walkers on the street, barely lit by the bright flood light on the top of the hotel that nearly always stayed on at night. Gerard let out a heavy sigh as he looked over her profile, to the ridiculous cop hat she wore, to her slightly upturned nose and thin yet pouting lips. An itch suddenly came over him, an inexplicable sort of urge that he felt the need to act upon.

Kat continued to watch the streets beneath them for a few silent minutes as the snow fell around them. Gerard continued to look over at Kat, intrigued more than he had ever been about the woman that stood beside him, shivering slightly from the cold.

“Kat,” Gerard said softly, causing her to turn to him with an expectant expression. Before either of them knew what was happening, Gerard had leaned forward and placed his lips against hers, tentatively, as if he were dipping a toe into piranha infested waters before taking a plunge. She tensed for a moment, her eyes wide. He pulled away suddenly and stared down at Kat with wide eyes and a slightly agape mouth. “I-I-I…” He stammered, seeing that Kat’s expression mirrored his own. “I’m sor-”

That was all he could get out because Kat had quickly placed her hands on his jaw and brought him for another kiss. This one they were both more prepared for, since Gerard was quick to relax and close his eyes, kissing her back softly as he placed his hands on her hips, pulling her closer to him as if she could keep him warm. They stood there for what seemed like hours, kissing as a cold breeze blew past them, making the snowflakes falling around them appear to be like monochromatic confetti.

“Ten bucks says Kat’s going to come back angry and Gerard’s going to come back with a broken nose,” Johnny said as he laid back on the bed in room ‘413’. His hands were beneath his head and his legs were crossed at the ankles. Mikey merely let out a chuckle and shook his head and the young boy’s attempt to break the silence in the room, their room at least.

“Ten bucks says Kat’s going to come back angry and Gerard’s going to come back even angrier,” Mikey commented softly before there was an insistent knocking on their door. “Oh shit,” he said to Johnny with a wide grin, “moment of truth.” He stood and walked over to the door, pulling it open slowly, as if he were afraid of what lay on the other side. Kat quietly walked into the room, sending a small smile to Mikey before walking over to her bed and sitting on the edge of it, pulling off her shoes. Gerard merely grinned widely at Mikey and held his arms open wide to him, pulling him into a warm, tight hug.

“Merry Christmas, Mikey,” Gerard said happily, despite the fact that Mikey wasn’t returning the hug in the slightest. The raven-haired man let go of Mikey and walked over to Johnny and gave him the same greeting. Johnny merely sat there as he glanced to Mikey, who was wearing a shocked expression as he glanced between Gerard and Kat. Johnny noticed that their noses and tops of their cheeks were tinged pink with cold, but also that their lips were slightly swollen and flooded with more color than usual. As he pulled away from Johnny, Gerard gave Kat a cheeky grin before walking into the other room and doing the same to the four others in the room.

It only took a few moments for Dylan to appear in the doorway, glancing to Mikey, then to Johnny, and finally to Kat.

“Kat…what the fuck did you do to him?” She asked in a low voice over the sound of Gerard wishing Ray a “Merry Christmas”. Kat merely grinned, wordlessly, and gave her a shrug of her shoulders. Dylan scoffed and cut her eyes at the blonde woman. “Next time we’re alone, we are so discussing this.”