No Time To Bleed

Sing a song, sing a song
That takes away the pain.
Sing a song, sing a song
That pours away the rain.
And I’ll try to survive.
Yeah, I’ll try
To supply
Everything you need.
Don’t ever loosen your grip
On what I know is slipping.
Don’t ever loosen your grip
On what I know is slipping.

The smooth guitar strings purred and wisped with the singer’s voice. Alex’s voice.

“Was that good?” His voice cheered up and a shadow moved behind the curtain.

My hand reached for the curtain. Someone grabbed and strangled a hold on my wrist.

“Who the hell are you?!” A boy’s voice scrapped from behind.

I turned to see a stinking boy, dirt and sweat clouded his pores on sun tanned skin. Teeth of his were missing and one eye appeared to be straying. His tongue slithered inside his mouth and scabs were all up and down his arms. Doesn’t seem to happen often, but this guy was scared me.

“Um, well, I-I’m-“

“Who the hell are you?!” Wads of spit hit her face and the fabric moved around behind me.

“Louis! Calm down!” A heavy set woman came clambering out and reached for the boy. “Girl, you need to get inside! Get inside!”

I stumbled inside past the fabric and found a large area closed in by fabric. Area rugs on the floors, instruments on the walls, a Sterno stove cooking, a large cooler, makeshift tables, and even board games.

Alex stood up, smiling. “Jasmine! You’re up!”

Cece and Clarissa were in the background playing an intense game of chess. Eli was working with a toy with another little boy who had fiery red hair. A man and a teenage boy sat on one of the couches.

“Um, what the hell is going on?” I eyed some rats in a cage in a corner.

The boy from before, Louis was screaming his head off outside. “She’s one of them! She’s one of them!”

Alex reached to the back of his neck, guitar in the other hand. “Well, we made a stop here. These people are nice. They said they can give us shelter for a few days.”

My jaw literally fell open. “Do you want me to hit you with this bat right now?”

Alex’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Oh my gosh. Are you stupid?” My hand went to the brim of hair over my forehead. “Clarissa, are we seriously staying here?”

“Yeah. We need to rest a few days. Think things through more.”

“Do you realize that there’s a crazy boy his head off outside?”

Eli jumped up. “I won! I won! You lose Kevin!”

Kevin was the little boy at Eli’s age with the fiery red hair. He had dirt on his skin as well and pouted madly.

“Not fair! You cheated! Daddy!”

The large man on the sofa just stared at the TV with the barely functioning channel. “Kevin, behave. Be nice to your new friend.”

The teenager laughed. “Yeah, Kevin. You don’t want Mom to bust you up like she did last time!”

The boy’s eyes flickered to me and he licked his lips. “Alex, you never told me this girl was hot.”

Alex gritted his teeth.

I ignored the boy and looked to Alex. “Are we seriously gonna stop at some dump and waste more time?!”

Everyone got silent, even the screaming outside had ceased.

The gut bellied man stood, eyebrows smashed together. “What did you just say about my house?!”

The man stomped forward. I swear he had a least 10 different stains on his shirt.

“Well, technically it’s not a house. We’re under a bridge.” I almost would have smirked at him if it weren’t for Alex stepping front of me.

“Boy, you need to move before I make you move!”

Alex’s arms wrapped behind him.

“I have a bat and I’m not afraid to use it, Hoggy!”

Cece jerked up and aimed a gun at the man. “I’d advise you not to make a move or you might just have your brains being splattered all over your kids. Not to mention your wife outside.”

The man stopped, but glared to Alex and then, me. “You better control your girl or something bad is going to happen to her real soon.”

The son at the couch snickered. “Girl’s got a lot to learn. I’ll have to teach her how to obey.”

The boy’s tongue snaked out of his mouth, saliva dripping.

Kevin swallowed anxiously then, stood. “Eli, come on. I wanna show you the secret liar I made.”

Eli jumped up, giggling.

“Eli, be careful. Bring your brick.” Clarissa ordered.

Eli picked up his brick from the ground and left out the other end of the curtains with Kevin.

“Oh my gosh. You guys are utterly stupid.”

Alex finally whipped around to look at me. “Why? Because we want a break?”

My hands stuck to my hips. “Because you guys are wasting time and Eli just ran off into the open with another little boy! 5 year old boys can’t fight off zombies!”

Cece came over. “Calm down. The most we might do is staying here a day or two.”

“A day or two?! Are you fucking insane?!” I felt like heaving the bat at her head right now.
I mean, who could be so incredibly ignorant!

I barged my way out of the tent’s fabric. The heavier set woman was on the ground with her son near a burning barrel, wiping his sweaty face with a rag. I just kept walking til I reached the SUV.

I just felt like crying, completely balling my eyes out and screaming while slamming in the car’s windows.

“You’re mad.”

I leaned against the car. “Just leave me alone, Clarissa.”

The night was so dark. Stars were all that filled the sky.

I felt her move closer. “This’ll be good for us. We all need a break. Eli woke up in the car crying, saying the little girl shouldn’t have died.”

I couldn’t help if Eli cried about that. It was sad he felt that way, but this was survival. Even a five year old boy had to understand that, right?

“But, we need to find him.” I turned to her. “Don’t you understand what they could be doing to him? Torturing him? Turning him into…”

Clarissa’s eyebrows rose. “Turning him into what? A zombie?”

No one would ever get it. Not even her.

“Yeah, a zombie, that’s what I’m scared of.” I was lying, but she wouldn’t be able to comprehend it even if I did explain.

Her hand went to my shoulder, an attempt at comfort. “Ryant isn’t going to turn into one of those monsters. And he’s a fighter. He’ll make it.”

Acid burned in my chest. “But, that doesn’t mean…”

The words weren’t even enough to leave my throat. This was scaring me so much. They were getting comfortable. Lethargic. Easy going. That always led to danger, very bad danger.

“Just come back inside when you calm down, okay?”

Clarissa left me there with just the open highway road, the stretching star lit sky above, and this weird sticky situation for me to comb through. Maybe I could get the keys and drive off without all of them, leaving everyone in my trail.

Or maybe things would just keep getting worse with every second I stayed with these people I'd gotten used to.