This Broken City Sky

“Ugh, I’m so fucking tired of this shit,” Kat groaned as she looked over herself in the mirror on the back of the door to the room. She pulled the front of her jeans forward and the fabric stretched an extra five or six inches forward. She had just found a pair of jeans that fit her, and it seemed that she had lost enough weight to merit her finding another pair. With a discontent sigh, she walked over to her bed and fell down, face first, onto it. Johnny gave her a glance as he looked up from the Gameboy he had commandeered from Ray, before focusing on the game again.

She lay, facedown, for a few minutes before she heard the door open. Pushing herself up, Kat looked over to the door to see Lily walk in with a few maps in her hands. She was immediately up and out of the bed, following Lily as she placed a couple of maps down on the table in the room.

“I figure it wouldn’t hurt to check out fastest routes and how far we are from the Yard,” she said softly, glancing over at Kat, who merely gave her a nod as she lifted one. “You’d probably be the one I’d trust most to plan something, should we need to,” she murmured so that only she could hear before leaving the room. Kat looked down at the folded map and turned it over in her hands a few times before pulling it open. It was a road map of the surrounding area that encompassed both Belleville, where they were, and Brooklyn, where they would eventually need to go. Well, at least in Kat’s eyes. There’s no way they would be able to survive much longer in the hotel they had lived in for the past three months.

Kat had leaned over the map for the better half of an hour, her fingers gently tracing over the red, blue, and black lines that ran over the map. Her eyes searching endlessly for the most direct route. Her brow was quirked thoughtfully, yet the rest of her face remained emotionless. She hadn’t spent much time in Brooklyn, merely just passed through or visited the bars they had to offer when the ones in Jersey couldn’t provide her with what she wanted. Kat had never even heard of or seen the Brooklyn Navy Yard, or at least she couldn’t remember it if she did or not.

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking we should leave this place, Kat?” Johnny grumbled from his spot on the bed after more than an hour had passed and Kat hadn’t moved an inch away from the table. Slowly, Kat lifted her head and shot him an unreadable glance over her shoulder. She stared at Johnny for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh and shook her head, turning back to the maps. “You’re wasting your time. Once we get out there, plans and maps you’ve memorized will just disappear the moment a walker comes running at you.” Kat merely closed her eyes as Gerard and Mikey, who had been chatting quietly in the chairs by the window, watched the siblings intently.

“I don’t need this right now, Johnathan,” she said in a soft voice. Johnny let out a slight snort of laughter as he put the Gameboy to the side, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh, so you’re calling me by my full name now, Katherine,” he hissed, glancing darkly at his sister’s back.

“We’re ending the conversation right now,” Kat growled, her palms pressed flat against the tabletop as she glared down at the map. Johnny gave another indignant laugh and Kat spun around. The hard look she was giving him caused him to shut up immediately. “Whether or not we go to the Yard is one thing. We’ve needed an escape plan since the moment we locked ourselves into the building,” she spoke in an eerily calm voice as she stared down her brother. He looked away, slightly embarrassed at the way he had been speaking to her early. “But…unless you have something else planned for us…you know, perhaps you do. A private jet waiting in the parking lot? A nice yacht bobbing out in the Hudson?” He clenched his jaw as he brought his dark brown eyes to Kat. She paused for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. “That’s what I thought…”

She turned and leaned back over the maps without another word. Kat didn’t speak or acknowledge anyone else in the room for the rest of the day. Not when Dylan and Frank returned from where ever they had been. Not when Gerard asked her if she would join the rest of them for their weekly dinner. Not when Johnny tried apologizing for his behavior. All she had on her mind was those maps and the easiest way to get to Brooklyn Navy Yard. That night, she found that sleep eluded her again, like it had for the past couple of weeks, and she stayed up for the entirety of the night. Kat poured over those bloody maps by candlelight, smoking cigarettes and slowly nursing a bottle of Jack Daniels.

“This is scary,” Dylan murmured from her spot on the end of Mikey and Gerard’s bed. The seven who seemingly brushed off the idea of leaving the hotel, at least not that soon, woke up that morning to see that Kat hadn’t left her spot at the table with the maps. They noticed she had gathered a few multicolored pens, highlighters, pencils, eyeliner, and lipstick, anything to trace routes.

“She’s obsessing over it,” Mikey said softly as he watched Kat grab a bright green highlighter and began to make marks on the map. Gerard, who had woken in the middle of the night to see Kat still awake and fully immersed in those maps, found the woman’s desperation to protect all of them, and ultimately Johnny, disheartening. They still had time in his eyes. They had time to set a pace and figure things out in steps, not all at once.

“You know, perhaps a few of you could go and shovel off those signs on the roof,” Kat said to them and they all knew she had been listening to them despite how distracted she appeared to be. “It snowed again last night. It was coming down pretty rapidly at one point,” she murmured before grabbing a cigarette from a pack and lighting it up. Johnny frowned slightly at his sister’s antics, knowing that she tended to feel the need to overprotect and that when she was in moods like she was in, it was best to leave her be and do what she wished.

“C’mon you guys,” Johnny said softly as he grabbed a jacket and began to tug it on. He turned to the four others in the room, Dylan, Frank, Mikey, and Gerard, and gave them a look that silently had them all getting to their feet and getting ready to brave the cold. Eventually, they left the room, Gerard shooting one last glance to Kat before closing the door behind him and beginning to follow the four others to the roof of the building. As much as Kat was right about them needing to uncover the signs from the snow, he couldn’t help but to think that it was a ploy to just get them out of the room and get their focus off of her and her overnight obsession with those maps.

The bright morning sun hit them full force when they pushed open the door to the room. It took a bit of persuading to get the door open, past the couple of inches of snow that had fallen overnight. Johnny gave a heavy sigh as the door closed behind him. Without another word, he walked over to one of the signs with a broom he had taken from the room before leaving and began to brush away the snow. The three others on the roof sent each other worried glances before beginning to brush the snow off of the other signs.

“It seems like we made these things such a long time ago,” Mikey said as he brushed the snow from the first three letters of the word “Alive” with his gloved hands.

“Or yesterday, for me,” Frank commented as he lifted one of the sheets off the roof and shook the snow off in one flick. The others just gave him a look before stopping what they had done before and followed Frank’s example, finding it a much easier way to clear the snow. It also meant they could get back inside the warm building as well.

“I don’t even know why we even bothered with these,” Dylan said with a heavy sigh. Gerard sent her a look and sighed heavily as well. “I mean, it was a good idea at the time, but that fucking helicopter has flown over twice and they haven’t stopped to see if we were still here.”

“Maybe they had more important things to do,” Mikey murmured as he stared out in the direction of New York City. Frank glanced between him, Gerard, and Dylan, his bright hazel gaze lingering on her for a moment longer than the rest before he turned his eyes to the city.

“I wonder how long this’ll last,” he said softly before biting his bottom lip, “there’s only so long we can hold out before we die or become one of them. Food supplies will run out. We’ll get sick and need medicine we can’t get. Something will happen…” He gave a shrug and sighed through his nose as he turned, glancing to Dylan once more to see her watching him carefully, and starting toward the door, the others slowly following behind him. Johnny, who hadn’t said much to them, walked behind them silently as the filed through the door after cleaning off all of the snow. Gerard was just in front of him and Johnny gnawed a bit on his bottom lip before letting out a heavy sigh. He knew something had to be done about his sister, and with how stubborn she was, she’d needed to be met with someone just as stubborn as herself

“Gerard, could I ask you a favor?” Johnny asked, causing the man in front of him to turn around and watch him closely before nodding, watching the young man curiously.

The only thing that drew Kat away from her focus on the maps was the quiet knocking of the opposite room’s door. She heard soft talking in the other room and expected that they all got the hint and knew that she wouldn’t want to be bothered. However, when only Mikey walked into the room, she got a bit worried.

“Where’s Johnny and Gerard?” She asked softly, lifting her eyes from the maps in front of her to glance over at Mikey.

“I think Johnny was asking Gerard something. They stayed behind for some reason,” he said softly with a shrug. Kat pulled a face before returning her eyes to the colored lines and grids that were all beginning to blur into one conglomerate image. It wasn’t until there was a frantic pounding at the door to that room that Kat began to get a bit nervous. Mikey hopped up and walked over to the door, pulling it open to see Johnny, slightly out of breath. He gave Mikey a look before turning to Kat, who was watching intently.

“Gerard needs you in one of the suites on the eleventh floor. He says it’s urgent,” he said in an out of breath voice. Kat pulled a face before quickly grabbing her handgun and beginning towards the door. Johnny quickly stopped her and tugged the gun from her grasp. When he noticed the look she was giving him, he explained, “You won’t be needing it.” She just stared at him hesitantly for a moment before he grabbed her, turned her around and pushed her in the direction of the stairwell. “Just go,” he exclaimed before pulling the door shut in case she decided to turn and try to get back into the room.

Kat stared at the golden numbers on the door before sighing heavily and slowly making her way up the seven flights of stairs. She hadn’t had time to grab shoes or a jacket, so she was getting pretty cold by the time that she had gotten up to the eleventh floor suites. Crossing her arms over her chest to conserve heat, she slowly paced down the hallway. Obviously it wasn’t as much as an emergency as she initially thought if she didn’t need her gun. In the few seconds she had seen Johnny, he had a look in his eyes; one that told her that he was up to something.

As she neared the only open door of the eleventh floor suites, she stopped and sighed, staring into the empty living area of the suite. They had kept the door open for some reason unbeknownst to her and she knew that would be the only place open to Gerard since Lily had been in the other room the entire time. Slowly, she walked into the room and glanced around, shivering slightly from how cold she had gotten in the frigid stairwell.

“Gerard?” She called into the suite, seeing no movement or any indication that he was in the room. Kat walked further into the room and stopped when she faced the bed. Suddenly, she felt a bit angry that he had walked all the way up to the eleventh floor, just to come to an empty suite. Turning around slowly, she was met, nearly chest to chest with Gerard. She gasped and took a step back, staring up at him with wide eyes.

“How the fuck-” Her voice died off as she tried to calm her breathing, shaking her head a bit.

“Johnny and I want you to just sleep up here, alone, for a little while,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched her with a humored smile.

“Well…I’m not tired right now, so…” She tried to step around him but he merely blocked her way, staring down at her with a raised brow. Kat looked up at him with a less than enthused expression. “Gerard? Really? I’m not in the mood for fucking around.” She tried to side step him again and he moved to block her way.

“I’m not letting you out of here until you’ve at least slept for eight hours, Johnny’s orders,” he said stubbornly, yet smiling all the while. Kat looked up at him before letting out a heavy sigh, knowing that she would never be able to leave if she didn’t do what he said. She turned on heel and stomped toward the bed, throwing back the neatly made covers and slipping underneath them. Gerard stood in the doorway for a while, watching her as she moved around in the bed and got comfortable.

“Will you stay up here with me?” She asked softly, slowly turning her eyes to his. He gave her a warm smile and a nod before he walked over to the bed, kicked off his shoes, and sat just beside Kat. She looked up at him for a moment as he gently brushed her messy blonde hair back from her face. “I’m afraid I won’t be much company if I go to sleep, so feel free to leave once I am asleep.” Gerard wrinkled up his nose and shook his head.

“Nah, I’m not just going to leave you here,” he said softly. Kat smiled widely and gently took his hand in hers, intertwining their fingers slowly. He looked over her as she slowly closed her eyes and nuzzled her cheek further into the fluffy pillow.

“Good,” she breathed as a content smile worked its way across her face. Using his other hand, Gerard gently brushed his fingertips through her hair, beginning to hum lowly as he lulled the blonde woman to the sleep that she desperately needed.