Arrow to the Side

The van wasn't particularly comfortable that night. Jasmin slept for a few hours while just tossed and turned. She thought of Andrea and Shane and Patricia. She was plagued by her imagination showing her twisted pictures of their bodies shredded and bleeding. thoughts of their dull grey eyes looking out from walking rotting corpses. She sat in the front of the van and watched the stars twinkling in the darkness. They were comforting to Anna. Even after all this had changed, the stars stayed the same. They were constant. Definite.

They made her smile as she remembered the last time Jasmin had mentioned the stars. They were camping with a few friends from school and she had woken them all up at 3:00 am telling them how beautiful the stars looked. Needles to say they had not been to impressed. She chuckled at the memory.

She cast her mind to another time on their prom night. They had gone to their friend Hannahs house for an after party and had sat out on her trampoline at 1:00 am, still in their prom dresses, questioning their own existence and making dirty jokes.

She thought of her old prom dress.Still in her room. Never to be worn again. Gathering dust. She felt lonely and mourned these simple things she had lost, but she could never lose the stars.

It was these thoughts that finally pulled her into sleep.

************

The morning sun glared at Anna as she opened her eyes. It wasn't what had woken her though. Instead, it was the gentle tapping of Ricks knuckle against the window. He raised an eyebrow and looked towards Jasmin still sleeping in the back. He opened the door and gestured for her to get out. Anna clambered from her warm seat and was hit in the face by a rush or brisk morning air.

"Umm, Morning, Rick."

"I was about to go on watch at the end of the road. I want you and Jasmin to come with me."

Anna was a little taken aback but she didn't question Ricks judgement.

"Okay. Give me five minutes. I'll wake Jasmin up."

Rick nodded and looked towards the sunset. He shielded his eyes before walking over to talk to Glenn who was standing a little way off. The rest of the group had yet to make an appearance. Sighing Anna moved to the back of the van. Waking up Jasmin was never going to be an easy task.

She yanked open the door to the van and pulled the tennis ball from her pocket.

"Hey, Jasmin!" She said to announce her presence. Jasmin grumbled and rolled over to squint at Anna.

"Think Fast!" She tossed the ball in the air and watched as it fell towards Jasmins face. The girl just had time to roll away before the ball hit her pillow. Jasmin gave her a look that would scare the devil before throwing both pillow and tennis ball half-heartedly back towards Anna.

"I hate you, you know that right?" She groaned.

"You say hate but all I hear is love!" Anna chanted as she danced out of range as Jasmin tried to kick her.

"Rude." Anna made an exaggerated offended face before turning serious.

"Anyway you gotta get up. You, me and Rick are going on watch so that we can have a good ol' chinwag."

Jasmin yanked the covers back and pulled a her gun from the top of a pile of food cans. She stuffed it in the waistband of her jeans.

"And the fun begins!" She cheered sarcastically as she jumped from the van.