The Kids From Yesterday

I woke up the next morning and was half asleep. I was still exhausted because of yesterday’s events, so I just closed my eyes and rolled over on my mattress. I slammed into a log.

“Umff…Python ow…” it growled. My eyes flew open and sure enough there was Zombie not even an inch from my face.

“Did you pass out in my bed?” I asked slightly irritated. It’s my bed. Mine. Zombie flashed me a big sleepy grin.

“Morning to you too” he chuckled.

“Ugh your breath reeks...” I groaned. Zombie breathed right on my face.

“Asshole” I laughed as I rolled back to my side and sat up. I’m not a morning person.

“Whoah nice bed head” Zombie laughed. I glared at him and thumped him over the head with a pillow.

“Out I need to get ready...Skizzy’s funerals today…” I reminded him.

“Oh don’t mind me! You do your thing I’ll just sit here!” Zombie laughed. I couldn’t help but smirk.

“Now Zombie…” I growled. Zombie gave me a sarcastic salute and strolled out my door. I walked around my room trying to find anything all black. All I could find was the shirt I ran away in, my leather jacket, and a pair of shredded black jeans. It’ll have to do. I heard R.J. moan from her bed. I guess I was being loud.

“What are you doing you crazy bitch? It’s like… ITS ONLY NINE WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?”she snarled.

“Getting ready for Skizzy’s funeral. Like you should be doing.” I replied quietly. I looked down at my wrist and saw the citizen’s barcode.

“R.J. can you do some more ink for me?” I asked her.

“Yeah, when I’m conscious though. For now, piss off.” She grumbled from under her pillow. I nodded, threw on my boots, and walked out into the hall with a can of spray paint.

I uncapped the can and sprayed a hot pink line all the way down the hall. I finally made it to the ‘kitchen’. I grabbed a can of food, a bent fork, and cup of coffee. Then I plopped down at a table by myself. I didn’t have much of an appetite, so I just swished my canned…whatever it was… around. I picked up the fork and stared at it.

When I was little, before the whole BLI thing, Freddie and I would go out to dinner with our parents, and we’d steal the utensils. I always took forks, he always took spoons. I had a thing for forks.

I felt the corner f my mouth twitch into a sad smile and tucked the misshapen fork into my boot. I finished my coffee and offered my untouched food to someone else. I walked back into my room and poked R.J. with my foot.

“Get up lazy ass…” I growled. R.J. moaned into her pillow and rolled out of bed. She looked like a bird with her pink hair sticking up everywhere. I tried not to laugh because knowing her, if I did, she would’ve tattooed a dick or something on my arm.

“I need to get this taken care of R.J…” I sighed. R.J. rubbed the sleep from her eyes, nodded, then motioned for me to come towards her.

“So let me see what I’ve got to work with…Ok cover up…ummm what do you think you want?” She asked me.

“Just a black bar will be fine for that, as long as you can’t read it.” I decided. R.J. nodded.

“Ok it’s going to hurt in that spot though…” She warned. I rolled my eyes.

“R.J. I got fucking Medusa tattooed onto my shoulder the same day I got shot. I think I can handle it.” I objected. R.J. rolled her eyes

An hour later I had my third tattoo. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it would do. I wrapped it and went to find Zombie. I found him in his room hanging out with Freedom.

“Ready?” I asked. Zombie nodded and stood up from sitting on his bed.

“You look nice” He offered. I twitched the corner of my mouth into a faint smile.

“So do you” I replied. And he did. He and Freedom were both in all black.

“You ok?” Zombie asked. I tried to reassure him by nodding but I guess I wasn’t that convincing. “Let’s just get this over with” I sighed. We headed out the door and went outside for the funeral.

It was miserable, and oddly enough, it was raining. But it was still hot, so it was just disgustingly humid. I couldn’t breathe. Daydream had some of the killjoys make Skizzy a coffin out of scrap wood, and dig a hole six feet deep. It was closed casket. We all stood out in the rain, even Mark and Squirt. Audrey was M.I.A again.

I heard the words Daydream spoke, but they didn’t stick. I stood there, completely numb. I only started crying when they lowered her into the ground. Zombie held my hand the entire time. We scribbled her name and death date on a rock. We didn’t know her birthday…we didn’t even know her first name. At the end we all pulled our guns out and shot into the air. We didn’t care if the dracs heard us. At the end Daydream handed Skizzy’s red ray gun to me. I guess it’s because I was the closest to her.

After the funeral, Zombie and I were walking around a couple miles from the camp, trying to process what happened.

“My name is Jenifer.” I said barely audible. Zombie stopped and looked at me.

“What?”He asked with a confused smile on his face.

“My name is Jenifer! I don’t want to die with nobody knowing my real name! Not like Skizzy did! My name is Jenifer Martin and my birthday is December fifth! I hate the thought of being buried in the ground without a name! I want someone other than Audrey and Mark to know because I don’t know how long they’ll want to hang around me with their baby! I just wanted someone to know!” I yelled.

I slapped my hands over my mouth as soon as I said that and I felt my eyes start to fill up with tears. I always thought of how eventually Mark and Audrey will leave me, but I never told anyone. I looked at the ground. Zombie extended his hand towards me.

“Nice to meet you Jenifer, I’m Ben.” Zombie said. I looked at him smiled, and shook his hand. He smiled back.

“So what are we going to do about the raid?” I asked, changing the topic.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“Well…we could die…” I said calmly. Zombie nodded.

“We could” he agreed. “But, we could also take that place out, and get the supplies we need and get one step closer to beating BLI.”Zombie continued. I nodded.

I felt him squeeze my hand hard. He was down. I collapsed to the ground next to him and placed his head in my lap. His eyes were bulging out of his skull. He looked like he was being electrocuted. His body thrashed in every direction. I tried staying calm, holding and stroking his head, waiting for him to come out of it, and making sure he didn’t hurt himself. When he finally did, he grabbed my arm, and stared at me with that same terrified look.

“Shhh…It’s ok…your fine. No one was here” I said quietly while petting his head. He loosened his grip. Zombie nodded and relaxed.

“Thanks Python.” He mumbled. I sat there, stroking his head and waiting for him to recover and looking at all his tattoos.

They were pretty gruesome. He had an entire sleeve of zombies tearing people apart. It was mostly black and grey, except for the blood. His other sleeve was made up of random tattoos I assumed he just picked up over the years. My eyes drifted back towards the zombie sleeve.

“Well I couldn’t have my name be Electric Zombie and not have something to do with zombies on me” he chuckled when he caught me staring at one of the zombie’s faces.

“I don’t see anything having to do with anything electric on you” I said narrowing my eyes.

“Ah but your wrong” Zombie taunted quietly as he turned the wrist of his other arm towards me. Sure enough there was a little black lightning bolt where his barcode should be.

“I should’ve gotten something like that” I growled as I showed him my little black bar. Zombie smirked, stood up, and helped me up.

“Well it’s not your fault you can’t be as cool as me” Zombie shrugged. I couldn’t help but giggle. I hugged him.

“What’s this for?” he chuckled.

“For making me laugh” I replied. And it was true. I felt so guilty because I felt I shouldn’t even smile yet because of Skizzy, but he just made everyone around him happy. I looked down at Skizzy’s ray gun. I didn’t want it.

“Freedom doesn’t have a gun yet does she?” I asked. Zombie shook his head.

“No, just knives. I won’t let her go on patrol so she hasn’t been able to nab one. She knows how to shoot though.” Zombie said. He was only serious about two things, death and his cousin.

“Ok with you if I give this to her?” I asked him. Zombie gave me a look.

“No…but she needs to be able to defend herself…Daydream’s sending her on the raid too.” He sighed.

“She’ll be fine, she may only be twelve, but she has the mind of a thirty year old.” I said while patting his back trying to reassure him. He gave me another look.

“Didn’t she even help come up with some of the plans? She’s a tiny little genius! She’s going to be one of the greatest killjoy leaders one day!” I exclaimed. Zombie relaxed a little and nodded.

“Fine… you can give her the gun…” he mumbled. I grinned from ear to ear. I won.

We turned to head back to camp, when we heard a rustle in the bushes. We twirled around and whipped out our guns.

“Show yourself!” I growled. Audrey stepped out from behind the bushes.

“How long were you there?” Zombie asked. Audrey narrowed her eyes.

“I just got here” She growled.

“Where were you?” I asked suspiciously.

“I was looking for water! Now move I want to go home!” she snapped. She stomped off towards camp.

“…there’s a small pond a couple yards that way…” Zombie said pointing in the direction Audrey came from after she was out of earshot. I stared at him in disbelief. Why would she lie to me again?