Sequel: Static Screams
Status: bloody

White Noise

Fault

When Caitlyn died, I handled it surprisingly well in the moment. Fighting off the zombs and running quickly. I didn’t get thrown into shock. I didn’t nearly die. I saw her go down, and I acted. There was no hesitation and no frozen fear. Was I sad and scared? Of course. I’d be a cold hearted bitch to not be. But the fear and heartbreak didn’t cause every bit of my brain to forget my human survival instincts. In fact, throughout this entire ‘apocalypse’ I have yet to freeze.

But I think I’m in shock. Is this what it’s like to be in shock?

I remember Darren grabbing my arm and pulling me away from Ian. I remember Sasha and Natalie screaming and weaving in between the moving dead. I think I shot one or two. Maybe. The gun was heavy in my hand. Everyone was swinging their weapons into the horde as we tore through it.

I remember Darren helping us all climb onto a dumpster. He tried to help Natalie pull the fire escape down so we could get to higher ground. She ended up halfway on the end of the ladder. It wouldn’t move and Darren had to help Peter, Sasha and I fight off the oncoming horde.

I kept swinging my axe and shot one or two of them. But I was frozen inside. My brain wasn’t firing and I couldn’t think to come up with a plan.

I was failing them.

And then there was an explosion. And another. Nearly all of the horde moved away from us and headed to the loud noise. We swiped our sharp tools through the remaining ones and then we all froze. Covered in blood and guts and sweat. Panting and numb. Peter looked up and squinted. Someone was running towards us, yelling.

I was in shock. We were all in shock. We didn’t move. They all turned to look at me for direction and a plan. He shouted again and grabbed Sasha. Normally I would’ve wanted to chop his arm off for grabbing her when we didn’t know who the hell he was. Instead I followed everyone off of the dumpster and ran behind them, watching their backs as we followed the guy.

He stopped at a van, and practically tossed Sasha inside. Everyone followed after her. I stopped, unsure. Everyone looked at me. He had just saved us. I turned to ask him what he got out of it. He pushed me into the van and then quickly got in the drivers seat. We didn’t move. We didn’t speak. We were all breathing hard, some with tear stained faces. Others seemed to come out of the shock as hard looks slowly appeared on their faces.

I warily eyed the driver. Moments later we stopped. We all pitched forward and cursed. I opened the sliding door and shielded my eyes as I squinted at the house in front of us. A redheaded girl stood on the porch looking super pissed off. Our ‘hero’ ran to her, yelling that he could explain. They started in on a screaming match.

My group and I looked around frantically. Didn’t they know arguing so loud would draw the dead to us? He grabbed her and put a hand over her mouth. She flailed. They headed inside and we all quickly followed. I went last, checking out the yard and street. It was so empty.

I went inside and quietly closed the door behind us. I shoved a chair underneath the handle and turned back to the two others. A third had joined them. The girl grabbed the guy by the collar and started practically spitting in his face with words that flew from her mouth. He tried to get a word in anywhere but she wouldn’t let him.

She called us a wreck and said they had no food to share. I narrowed my eyes at her. He started trying to reason with her. I could already tell that was not going to work. With a heavy, annoyed sigh, I stepped forward.

“Wait.” They all turned to look at me. The redhead (Lila?) looked like she wanted to stab me in between the eyes. “Let me talk, please.”

Lila’s mouth opened quickly. “Absolutely not.”

“Lila, for fucks sake, shut up.” The guy said in an exhausted voice. “Please just let someone else talk for once.” Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say another word.

“Okay. First of all, we are not a wreck.” Lila scoffed. That didn’t last long. Exasperated, I threw my hands up. “Jesus just hang on.” She looked taken aback. “We are not a wreck. If we were a wreck we would not have made it this far in this damn ‘wreck’ of a world.” The dude that saved us seemed to kind of agree. “Okay, wait, I’m kinda tired of calling you ‘the guy’ and ‘the dude’ in my head. Do you have a name?”

“Um. Yeah. Holland. This is Lila and Ryan.” Ryan nodded in our direction.

“Cool. I’m Scarlett.” I turned to the group. “This is Sasha, Natalie, Darren, and Peter.” Each waved or did the guy head nod at their name. “Now that that’s over.” I turned back to Lila. “We aren’t a wreck, as I was saying. We had a shitty incident that got really bad really quick. We went into shock, I think. Which has never happened. We’re a solid group.”

I set my pack down beside me, and waved at it. “We have our own food and water, and enough of it to last us until we scavenge again. We don’t need anything from you. We are very grateful to you, Holland, for saving our dumb asses. But we aren’t planning to stay or cause you,” I looked pointedly at Lila. “To flip shit again simply because your friend helped save living humans.”

She looked like she was about to scream at me. “I understand your hesitation, but maybe if you let someone else talk once in a while you would have less to scream about.”

Holland laughed and Lila hit him on the shoulder.

“Also, if we had the virus? We'd fucking be zombies. If you’ll let us know how far your claimed stake is in this neighborhood we’ll get out of your hair.”

“I knew you were the leader.” Holland murmured with a smile.

“Of course she is.” Darren rumbled. “And she always will be.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

Even though it’s my fault Ian was killed. Even though it’s my fault we were almost all killed. Even though we probably would have been killed if Holland hadn’t saved us. They still wanted me to lead them?

Ryan leaned around Lila. “You guys can stay with us for at least tonight.” He smiled.

Lila turned and glared at him. “They can. She,” she pointed at me angrily. “Can’t.”

“I stay where they are. They’re my people. If they stay, I stay.”

“If she doesn’t stay, we don’t stay.” Sasha said, stepping to stand by me.

“Fine.” Lila crossed her arms and stomped off, slamming a door shut behind her.

“If she doesn’t learn to be quiet, she’s going to get both of you killed.” Darren said matter of factly.

Holland and Ryan laughed.

This was going to be a long night.
♠ ♠ ♠
word count; 1,211

Scar and Lila are not buddy buddy at all.
And of course the group still considers and wants Scarlett the Leader.

Still in love with this story and the direction it's going.

Abbs is so talented mwahhh!

xoxo