Fatal Flaw

The dark outline of a strange town peeks around the curve of a hill and Juliet shifts in the driver’s seat, her eyes glancing down at the gas gauge: a quarter of a tank is still left. It should be enough to get the close enough to the town for her to find an empty car to siphon from, at least she hopes it is. Beside her, Niall sleeps, his forehead pressed against the window and his face more peaceful looking that she’s seen it in almost nine months.

From the backseat she can hear Harry cough and stir and she glances in the rearview mirror to make sure he’s still asleep. Juliet knows that both him and Niall will be mad that she let them sleep instead of keeping lookout but Juliet knows that they need to sleep: they’d both stayed up last night to keep lookout so that Juliet could get enough sleep to drive and in a world where coffee and energy drinks aren't easily accessible, you have to sleep whenever you can.

Humming to herself, and wishing the radio would still work, Juliet takes a right hand curve faster than she should and in the backseat she can hear Harry wake up with a groan. She’d accidentally made him slam his head into the window with the turn. Pressing her lips together to keep from laughing, she watches Harry straighten up in the backseat, his fingers coming to touch his forehead gingerly.

“What are you trying to do, kill me?” Harry asks, leaning forward between the passenger and driver’s seat, the bandana he wears like a headband tilted so far backwards so that his wild hair starts to fall in front of his face.

“If you’re not dead then I don’t want to hear any complaining,” Juliet says, winking at Harry and rolling through a stop sign. Reflexes make her toes curl around the brake pedal before she remembers that she’s not going to get a ticket.

“Besides,” she continues, her fingers drumming against the steering wheel, “we need to get to that town before it gets dark. We need to fill the tank up and get something to eat otherwise we’re going to be stuck in the car and that’s not a plan I’m down for and I know Niall won’t be either.”

Harry hums, his eyes glancing over at Niall before his face breaks into a wicked grin.

“He’s a bit of a bore, don’t you think?”

Juliet can’t tell if he’s teasing or not. Regardless she purses her lips and pushes the gas petal down further. It’s always bothered her when someone had something smart to say about Niall, after all he’s her best friend, but she holds her tongue. She doesn’t want to start a fight with Harry and she doesn’t want to wake Niall up.

“He’s not. He just doesn’t really plan for the future. All he’s worried about is getting us somewhere safe right now so he’s not a fun as he used to be.”

Harry lets out a quiet snort of disbelief and muttering something Juliet can’t make out. With an annoyed expression, Harry pushes the hair out of his face; Juliet slides her spare ponytail out of her of wrist to hand it to him but he waves her off.

“Alright, struggle then. Anyway, we’re maybe fifteen minutes from the edge of town and I’m not driving all the way in; the car’s too loud. We’re going to have to do some old school scouting so get ready because as soon as I park this car, we’re getting out.”

They pass a welcome sign and Juliet figures it’s time to wake Niall up. He wakes up with a start whenever she shakes him gently, one hand shooting out to grab Juliet and one flexing around his gun.

“Did I fall asleep?”

Before Juliet can answer, Harry does, telling Niall that he snores. Rolling his eyes, Niall relaxes his grip on Juliet so he can rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“You shouldn’t have let me fall asleep. What if something would have happened?” His annoyed, just like Juliet knew he would be, but Juliet just rolls her eyes and nudges Niall.

“Why, so you could fall asleep in the middle of scouting again? No way. Anyway, we’re getting close.”

They spend the rest of the drive in silence, the only sound is the click of Niall’s ammo clip as he refills it and his spare. In the backseat Harry rubs his fingers along his baseball bat, his face lacking his usual smile as he stares out the windows at the approaching town.

Juliet slows to a crawl, her eyes searching around for empty cars, she spots a red minivan and points it out to the boys.

“I’m getting gas before we get food and I’m starting with that van. Who’s going to be my backup?”

Harry volunteers before Niall can even get his mouth open. Juliet grins at Harry, who grins back before she parks the car, ten feet away from the minivan. Juliet pops the trunk and all three of them pause, waiting for a head to pop up from the sound. When nothing ovens, Juliet hops out of the car, Harry following close behind. In the corner of her eye she sees Niall step out of the car just enough that he can aim his rifle and snipe anything that tries to get close to them.

Juliet grabs the supplies she’ll need, making sure she has all the hoses she needs. Wincing at the slam of the trunk she jogs towards the van, her eyes shifting back and forth in front of her. She left her crowbar in the car with the hopes that she wouldn’t need it and if something did happen, Harry would have her back. Now that she’s out in the open, she regrets it- she feels naked.

She pauses before the van and drops down to one knee, to make sure nothing’s hiding underneath the van. Finding it clear she tosses her supplies down as Harry takes a fighting stance behind her.

Deftly, she inserts one end of a cut water hose into the gas canister and the other end into the gas tank. The second smaller hose goes beside it and she covers the tank with a dirty rag. Almost gagging from the scent of the gas, Juliet wraps her lips around the smaller hose and blows twice into the gas tank to get the gas flowing through the longer tube. Spitting out the taste of gasoline Juliet stands up and stretches, her muscles still sore from the car drive.

“How do you know how to do that?” Harry asks, not turning around to look at Juliet. With a grin Juliet leans against the minivan and runs her fingers through her dirty hair.

“The internet.”

Harry quickly stifles his baritone laugh and Juliet can’t help the wide grin that covers her face. As much as she loves Niall, he doesn’t quiet laugh like that at her jokes, not anymore at least.

The can is half full before the minivans tank empties out and Juliet can’t believe their luck at how much gas they got. Swiftly, they make it back to the car so Juliet can fill the tank up, but she knows that they’re going to have to find another vehicle to fill up before they leave the town.

“Get your rifle,” Niall tells Harry, shutting the car door behind him. The stress lines stand out on Niall’s skin and Juliet can’t wait until they find somewhere safe to sleep for the night so Niall can destress as much as possible. Juliet’s sure that he’s getting an ulcer from all his worrying.

Digging out her crowbar from the trunk of the car, Juliet watches as the two boys load bullets into the chambers of their guns. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, Juliet shuts the car door with her hip and tucks the keys into her back pocket.

Without a word, Niall starts to creep towards the center of town, his ratty Converse slapping loudly against the pavement.



“I hate Twinkies,” Juliet mutters before shoving a box of the half smashed pastries into a large backpack she’d managed to scrape up. With a sigh she moves on down the rows of food, her stomach rolling whenever the smell of rotting meat reaches her nose.

Decomposing steaks litter the floor and Juliet gags, kicking one out of her way. She can hear the sound of Harry shoving things into a bag as she rounds a corner onto the medicine isle. She spots him not even looking at the bottles of medicine that are still left, instead he’s just shoving them into the bag. Ignoring him, she moves on, finding a few badly dented cans of condensed soup littering the floor.

This is the part of all of this Juliet thinks she hates the most. Juliet can’t stand to have to walk around an empty store and look at all the empty shelves. She’s annoyed at herself when she remembers all the food she used to waste and feels her stomach rumble. Dragging her feet Juliet turns a corner and trips, her crowbar sliding away from her, leaving a long scratch mark in the floor.

Her hands hits something wet and slippery and she can smell the iron tang of blood. Pushing herself back to her knees, Juliet can’t help the scream she releases whenever she spots the zombie she tripped over. Scuttling backwards, she reaches for her crowbar. It’s raised halfway in the air before she realizes the zombie hasn’t moved.

Tentatively she pokes it with the end of the crowbar before realizing it’s dead-dead this time. With a shaky sigh, Juliet lets herself lay down, her heart still beating out of her chest. The squeak of shoes turning sharply on the linoleum floor.

“Juliet!” Niall shouts, and Juliet pushes herself up into a sitting position so that Niall doesn’t step on her. Niall slips to a stop beside Juliet, his gun still trained on the dead zombie. There’s a beat of silence before he lets the gun fall and kneels down to look at Juliet.

“Are you alright?” He asks, one hand wrapping around her upper arm so that he can pull Juliet closer to him.

“Yeah, I just tripped and it scared me.”

“Christ,” Niall starts, rubbing at his tumble, “you almost gave me a heart attack.”

Niall pulls Juliet closer towards him so that his arm can wrap around her; Harry comes sliding around the corner, his own gun drawn and his backpack dangling off of his right arm.

“Is everything alright?” He asks, lowering his gun only slightly before Juliet answer, her head leaning back against Niall as her heart rate finally starts to return to normal. Harry stares at the two of them, biting his bottom lip before turning around, his steps louder than usual. Juliet watches him walk away and out of the corner of her eye she sees Niall glaring at the spot Harry was at.

“You know,” Juliet says, pushing herself into a kneeling position and tightening her ponytail, “you need to loosen up about Harry. He’s a nice guy.”

Niall snorts as Juliet helps him stand.

“I don’t think he’s not a nice guy. I just don’t trust him is all.”

Juliet rolls her eyes and reaches for the backpack she dropped, she just knows the Twinkies are completely smashed now. Before she can grab it, Niall puts one hand on her shoulder and squeezes tightly before pulling her into a quick hug before letting her go.

“I’m sorry I’m not being nice to Harry but you’re my main priority, Juliet. I have to keep you save, anyone is just a nuisance.”

Juliet nods and pokes Niall in the stomach to make him grin.

“I know it Ni. Now seriously, all I have in this bag are smashed Twinkies and like, two cans of soup. Unless we intend to starve, I suggest we keep looking for food.”

It takes another fifteen minutes for the three of them to realize that there’s nothing left in the store. Deciding to move the car to the other side of town so that they clamber in and creep through side streets.

“Right there,” Harry points out, his hand reaching into the front of the car to make sure that Juliet and Niall can see a small green grocer. Juliet parks the car outside but before she can turn it off, Niall stops her.

“Don’t. It’s getting dark and we’re going to have to leave soon. Just stay in the car while Harry and I go scout it out.”

Juliet protest but Niall ignores her as he gets out of the car. Harry reaches up to ruffle Juliet’s hair as he slides out of the car, banging his knee in the door as he clambers out. Huffing Juliet locks the doors and unbuckles her seat belt. She watches as the two of them disappear into the store.

Muttering to herself, Juliet absentmindedly turns on the radio, groaning when nothing but static pours through the speakers.