Red at Day

Reed crouches down and wraps his arms around Rose. She buries her head in his neckline, unable to stop sobbing. I hear Jackie, along with a few others, whimpering behind me.
“D-do you think she made it?” Kasmira asks, James's arm around her.
“Depends on which religion is right. She could go to hell for suicide, be reincarnated, a spirit, or just be dead. Anything is possible.” Carter says, petting Angel's hair. Angel's soundlessly crying into Carter's chest.
“S-so how do we do this?” Jackie asks. I pull Honey and Jackie into my arms. They're shaking like a leaf.
“We have to throw her off the boat.” I murmur.
“No!” Rose yells, pushing herself off of Reed “You can't!”
“She'll slow us down.” Carter sighs, looking exhausted and on the verge of tears.
“No, you can't do that to her! Her memory, her person, and who she is is that body! You can't disrespect her like that! I know you guys have had your differences but you just can't!”
“Honey, we have to.” Reed says to Rose. Rose looks at him and begins to cry more. Reed kisses her forehead, pulls her back into a hug, and tries to lull her.
“How are we going to get to her? I mean...” James asks, pointing out the blood everywhere.
“Do we even have anything to clean it with?” Honey sobs. Angel shakes her head no.
“We can walk around it and let her go. We'll give her a proper funeral and then we'll all go to bed. Tomorrow we'll set sail to Savissivik.” I say “Rose, is that okay with you? We won't be disrespecting her by having a funeral for her.” Rose looks up at me with a hard look but her expression softens. She nods and a smile at her. She smiles back and returned her head to Reed. My shoulder's are wet so I hug Honey and Jackie tighter. They hug me back and I kiss the top's of their heads. I rest my head between theirs and we stand there for a few moments.
“Annabelle, are you ready?” Reed asks. I look up and see Carter and James.
“Yeah.” I say. I let go of Honey and Jackie. Honey walks over to join Angel, Kasmira, and Reed who are comforting Rose while Jackie and I walk over to the two.
“So who's getting what?” Carter asks.
“I don't know if I want an arm or a leg...” Jackie says, not wanting the bloody parts from the arm.
“Calm down there Edward Elric.” I say.
“Low blow.” James laughs.
“Hah, only a little. Jackie, I'll be grabbing a leg so you can grab whatever you want.”
“I think the legs are bloodier because it's all trickling down now so I'll grab one of those.”
“I dunno, seems about even. I'll grab an arm.” James says.
“I'll, uh, grab an arm.” Jackie says. We all walk around the blood and brain chunks to get to Paris's body. Jackie lifts up Paris's left arm and checks underneath. It's covered in blood.
“I'm touching a dead body!” Jackie squeaks. I give a supportive smile at Jackie but I have the same feeling. My hands already drenched in blood and I have no idea how we're going to lift her.
“On three?” James asks.
“On three or go?” Jackie asks.
“What?”
“You know, one, two, three or one, two, three, go?”
“...On three!” We all tighten our grip on Paris's appendages “One... Two... Three!” We all pull up and Paris is lifted off the ground. As she's lifted you hear a sneaker screech followed by a thud. Carter slips on Paris's blood which causes a chain reaction. Without the balance of everyone holding Paris, everyone falls under her weight. My front, which becomes soaked in blood, hits the ground and a few brain chunks with a wet slap sound. My face is drenched and as I lift my head, brain slides down my cheek and off of my chin. I groan, my body just hurting and I just feel disgusting. I will be needing a shower after this.
“Help! Her arm is on me!!” Jackie yells, wiggling underneath Paris's arm. I stand up shaking and walk over to Jackie to help her. Blood drips off my hand as I reach out to help her up and there's still brain squished into my shirt. I take Paris's arm off of Jackie and help Jackie, who is also dripping in blood, stand up.
“When I fell backwards, I hit my head on the railing of the boat.” Jackie says, about to rub the back of her head.
“Don't touch it while you have Paris's blood on your hands!” Carter yells, stopping Jackie “If you two have different blood types, it can cause a bad reaction. I'll have a look at it after I wash my hands.” Carter has blood all over his front and even his face has blood splattered on it. I look over at James who only has blood on his hands.
“Why are you so clean?” I ask.
“I fell on my ass.” James replies, turning around so we can see his soaked butt.
“Ugh it looks like something from 'Dreamcatcher' by Stephen King.”
“Are you guys okay?” Angel calls from the other side of the boat.
“Super duper.” Carter calls.
“Anyone else wanna throw up at the pink spongy shit on us?” James says, wiping it off his ass.
“That's brain.” James's face drains of blood and he wipes his hands on his clean shirt.
“I want to burn my pajamas.” Jackie says.
“Oh, you're not the only one.” I reply, shivering from the cold.
“On three?” James asks.
“On three or go?” Jackie asks.
“Three! One, two” We all pick up our part's again and steady our feet.
“Three!” James yells. We lift again and slowly shuffle Paris off the boat.
“No one slip!” I order.
“Never again!” Carter yells. Paris's shoulder's are now over the railing.
“Off the rails, yo!” Reed yells from a distance. We all smother our laughter and push the rest of Paris off the boat. One big splash later, we're all on the ground catching out breath. People are heavy.
“You know, this is really bad timing,” James begins “but when Paris and Bruce were about to fuck, do you think Bruce ever said 'I see London, I see France. I see Paris's underpants'?” Carter and I lose it. We begin laughing so hard that we're bent over, shoulders shaking, and no noise coming out of our mouths. That was a little too perfect.
“Rose, would you like to say something? You don't have to come over all the way so you're not covered in blood.” Jackie calls. The group of five slowly walks over, avoiding all the mess they can.
“I-I don't know what to say.” Rose stutters.
“What do you mean?” Angel asks.
“It's just, Paris said I was a bad friend. She's right too. I let you guys throw her overboard instead of giving her a proper funeral. I'm sorry for not trying hard enough an-”
“No, shut up.” Jackie says “You were a good friend to her. All you did was stick up for her and help her out when she was depressed. If anything, she's a bad friend for leaving you here with a chance that everyone could still hate you. She's a bad friend for telling you on her death bed that you're a bad friend when you wanted to help her. She's a bad friend for controlling you this whole time and telling you who you can and can't be friends with. And you know what? She was a bad friend to Annabelle and me too. Before all this happened, she didn't want to be my friend over Bruce and she didn't want to be Annabelle's friend because she defended me. Even then she only came and joined our group because she was selfish. She wanted to save herself and Bruce. She knew that if she joined us, there was a chance considering Annabelle and Carter are die-hard zombie fans who knew what they were doing.”-I really don't know what I'm doing-“So don't lie to me and say that you're the bad friend when all she did was horrible things to benefit herself.” Tears begin to go down Jackie's face. It's all hitting her about Paris and how true it all is. How mean Paris had been to Jackie and how Jackie just took it. Even on Paris's death bed, she had blamed Jackie for her and Bruce's death. That must be eating Jackie up. Rose hugs Jackie and cries into her shoulder.
“I'm so sorry.” Rose sobs “I just wanted to be a good friend to Paris and she kept telling me how bad you were. She said I can't be friends with her if I'm friends with you.”
“It's okay.” Jackie sobs into Rose's shoulder “It's okay. I'm sorry for being such a bitch to you.”
“I'm sorry for treating you like how Paris did.”
“You didn't have a choice, though, I did.”
“No you didn't.” The girls continue to sob in their pajamas until they're all cried out. They say sorry one more time and release each other from their hug.
“Do you guys want to change rooms or anything since Paris is gone? James can have Paris's bed, Kasmira can move in with Honey, Angel and Carter can move into James and Kasmira's old room.” I ask. Kasmira looks at James who shrugs. He walks up to me and whispers something in my ear.
“I cleaned the bed in the sink when everyone was out so no worries.” James whispers.
“Oh sweet. So do you wanna do that?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I want the bunk bed.” Jackie says.
“You can't have the bunk bed.” I say.
“It would be easier! Honey could have Paris's bed, We take the bunk bed- I want top-, Angel and Carter could take our bed.”
“Five people would be moving instead of four. Plus you would be forcing Honey to be alone.”
“You're making James be alone!”
“I honestly have work to do so...” James trails off.
“What do we do with Paris's stuff?” Honey asks.
“We can throw it overboard or loot.” I say.
“Not to be rude or anything but no one can fit in her stuff. It's too big..” Kasmira mumbles. Paris was a bit larger than the gang so that's true..
“Then, uh...”
“Overboard it is!” James laughs.
“Wait, isn't that littering? Jackie, you get into the shower first. If people with blood on their butts sit, we'll have more mess to clean up.” I say.
“We're in an apocalypse. Why are you worried over littering?”
“It's bad, apocalypse or not.” Jackie looks at me, then huffs. She heads into the bathroom without a towel and starts stripping. You can hear the wet clothes hit the floor. She's also throwing them on the ground but that's another story. Well, it's in this story but still.
“Alright, where am I sleeping?” James laughs.
“In Paris's bed.” Carter replies, going into the bathroom to wash his hands so he can gather his things. Angel, clean and blood free, is already headed in Honey's room. Kasmira sighs and does the same.
After washing my hands, I hand Jackie a towel for when she finishes. The rooms are switched and James heads into the bathroom. After James, I go into the bathroom and after me, Carter goes into the bathroom. We all fall asleep around five-twenty-six and we won't wake up until eleven-thirty-two.
“I don't want to be alive right now.” Kasmira sighs.
“What a time to be alive.” Honey laughs “I got top bunk, by the way.” Jackie glares at Honey who laughs harder. Angel finishes making toaster stroodle and hands everyone either apple or strawberry. I moan, taking my first bite. I love apple. Carter takes his stroodle and heads to turn the boat on. He'll steer the ship after and we'll go to Savissivik.
“How do I clean the boat?” Angel asks.
“Salt water?” Jackie asks.
“No, don't think that'd work.” Jackie shrugs and Angel continues to think about how to clean the boat.
We arrive into Savissivik with chattering teeth. People come out of their homes and look at the boat arriving. Slowly but surely, we dock the boat and people gather around. We all walk off the ramp and look at the people around.
“Hej, havad taler du?” a man asks.
“Um, what?” I ask.
“Oh, you speak English.” he replies “I Victor. Who you?”
“Oh, um, I'm Annabelle, this is Jackie, James, Carter, Angel, Rose, Reed, Honey, and Kasmira.”
“Good, good. You tell why no one come here no more?”
“Have you not heard of the zombie apocalypse?”
“What zombie?”
“Oh, uh, they're people who come back to life.”
“That not so bad.”
“It is, though. You see, when they come back to life they have no conscious or ability to control themselves. All they do is walk around looking for someone to eat.”
“Someone?”
“Yes, they eat people, sir.”
“So plane no come from 'zombie'?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Horrible, horrible! How you make it?”
“Strength and boats.” I laugh “But we have lost a few people. Last night we lost someone.”
“Zombie eat?”
“No, she killed herself. Can you tell us how to get rid of all the blood on our boat?”
“Salt water and good cloth.”
“I knew it! I so knew it!” Jackie yells.
“You guessed!” Angel yells.
“No way! I knew it!”
“You kinda did guess.” Honey says.
“No way! I kn-”
“Jackie, quiet.” I order. Jackie's eyes narrow and she goes to say something but refrains from saying it.
“Would you mind if we stay the night?” I ask.
“You are welcome here.” Victor smiles.
Angel, Carter, James, Kasmira, and I have three buckets full of salt water and a piece of Paris's clothes. Carter dumps a bucket on top of the blood and we all get on our knees.
“Do you think this'll actually work?” Angel asks.
“I dunno but a good majority of it should come off if worse comes to worse.” I reply. We continue to wash and scrub until most of the mess is clean.
“I don't think it'll all come off.” Kasmira says.
“Well that's okay.” Angel sighs “Tonight we should be able to watch the northern lights.”
“Right, we didn't really pay attention last night but they were there too.” Carter smiles. I look up at the sunset and smile. It's a beautiful orange color that makes me feel warm again. Later tonight we'll all curl up in front of the fire just be happy. A nice old woman had died not too long ago and their home is ours to sleep in. Her body was buried and she had a lovely funeral. It's kind of nice to see that even through all of this craziness, there are still places that retain pre-apocalyptic habits.