White Noise

I could tell by the broodingly annoyed look on Darren’s face that he didn’t like my dismissing him back to the van with Lila. It wasn’t that I liked being without my number two while the truck jerked along down the road. With his dagger glares at the Gabe the entire ride to meet the others though, I couldn’t scope out Logan. Not while she was fielding angry huffs and gun fidgeting from Gabe.

“Please, I’d feel less anxious if you stayed with Lila.” He nearly rolled his eyes, but wrapped an arm around Lila. She gave me one last look, a look with emotions I couldn’t quite place, then let Darren lead her away.

Sasha and I swung ourselves into the bed of the truck where they had their packs. Resting my back against the cab, I glanced at the van. Holland didn’t seem angry. More like exhausted, drained, and morose. I made a mental note to make time to talk to him when we made it back to Logan’s base. I gave him a small smile as the truck lurched forward.

I didn’t take the time to remember the other men’s names. James or Jason or Jack or something. They both started with J and it wasn’t worth it.

The middle portion of the back window slid open and Logan poked her head out. She offered me a lollipop for the third time, and again, I shook my head. She shrugged, popping it into her mouth. Didn’t this chick know that it’s the apocalypse? If her teeth rotted from these things she’d be so fucked.

“So, Scarlett. By the look on the pregnant one’s face when I asked if you had just lost someone, I’m guessing it was her baby daddy?”

I glowered at her and she held up a hand. “Sorry. It’s been a little bit since we ran into other survivors, I seem to have forgotten how to act.” Gabe had turned to watch us talk, I focused my stare on him. Logan glanced at him, sighed, and shoved his face away. He growled, but faced forward.

Logan turned back, giving me a smile. “Gabe is a bit…much for some people.”

“Keep him away from Lila.” I warned, voice dripping with malice.

She nodded. “We don’t wish any of you harm. Especially her.” She waved a hand at the desolate land around us. “We need children in this world if we’re going to take it back.”

“You make it sound like you’re leading us into a breeding ground.”

Logan laughed animatedly. “I promise you, I am not. We have one woman, Trudy, who is expecting. And a nine-month-old little girl as well. I guess we’ve had conversations about babies in the apocalypse so often, that it’s rubbing off on me.”

Sasha had a look on her face that told me she wanted to ask something. I nodded at her and she turned to Logan. “Do you have a plan if the horde turns towards you?”

Logan’s face fell. “Honestly?” She ran a hand through her chest length dirty blonde hair. “We didn’t even know about it until our run this morning.” Beside her, Gabe’s face twitched. “We ran into stragglers from this side of the horde. Almost lost J up there.” The man in the passenger seat held up the knife he was cleaning in response.

J. Great. No reason to remember his name then.

“What’s the non-planned plan then?” I asked, taking a second to look around us. The van was about two car lengths behind us.

“Well, when we get back to base, we’ll gather up everyone and talk it out.”

“How many survivors do you have?” Sasha asked.

“Including the baby and fetus baby?” She looked off to the side as she counted, her lips moving silently. “Sixteen.”

I mused silently. While we were staying at their base, there would be twenty-four people. Twenty-two if you didn’t count the unborn. That was too many people. How do you keep track? How do you make plans to run or hide or fight with that many people? With children? The mere thought was stressing me out.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught Logan watching me as I panicked wordlessly. I realized minutes had passed since she answered Sasha’s question, and neither of us had replied.

I dodged having to reply by grabbing onto the edge of the truck and scanning around us. I needed to get back to watching where we were. If something happened we needed to know how to get out of here, and where we had gone. Hopefully Darren had been watching the road as they drove.

After what seemed like forever by the setting sun, we hit a gravel road. “We’re about to turn into our bunk.” Logan spoke up, calling out to me over her shoulder. Sasha and I had ducked down into the bed to hide from the gravel cloud being kicked up by the truck tires.

As the cloud stopped forming around us, I got back up and leaned slightly over the side of the truck. We had pulled into the fenced in parking area of a worn down abandoned warehouse. Well, previously abandoned. Shattered windows were covered in planks and sheets of wood.

We came to a stop amongst barrels, bricks, and broken glass. Sasha and I hopped down from the bed of the truck as Holland pulled into a stop beside us.

I moved towards the truck, cocking my head to the side at the sight of Peter and Holland in a fit of hysterics. Opening the door, I looked at them quizzically. “What’s so funny, Hol?” I asked, glancing over at Peter.

“Holland has a fucked-up sense of humor,” Peter replied in the midst of calming himself. “That’s what’s so funny.”

I felt my eyes narrow in a tangle of confusion and jealousy. Jealousy? What was that there for? I shook my head, trying to shake it from me, and moved to the front of the van. Darren watched Lila carefully as she hopped to the ground.

Our group gathered into lines as we stared at the building before us. Worn out red brick surrounded by rusted metals.

“Scar.” Sasha’s soft voice spoke up from beside me. I looked over at her. She looked pointedly at Holland, who had grabbed Natalie and Peter’s hands. A twinge in my chest caught me off guard. We were all one group now. Why did this bother me so much?

I glanced over to where the Logan and Gabe were arguing in whispers. The J’s started unloading the backpacks and such from the bed of the truck. After huffing angrily to himself, Gabe marched his way to the far side of the building.

Logan watched him go, before laughing a laugh filled with annoyance. She turned to us. “Alright then, y’all, let’s get inside before it gets completely dark.”

Darren and Lila were ready to go in, standing beside Logan. With one final look towards Holland, I fell in line behind Logan, heading into the warehouse.

Despite being two years into the apocalypse, and probably abandoned before that, the inside was somewhat homey. Walking in, the main part of the warehouse was one giant room, with ceilings so high that looking straight up hurt my neck. A pair of torn up couches lined one wall. Opposite the couches was rows of lockers, and chairs and tables filled the back of the room. People were scattered around the room.

Logan turned back towards us, holding her arms out wide. “Welcome to the Batcave.”

“I still prefer the Fortress of Solitude.” Came a voice from behind my group. I whirled, hand on my pistol. The man smiled, and moved around us to stand by Logan.

“Sawyer, this is Scarlett.” Logan smiled at me. “And her group. Lila, Darren, Sasha, and…sorry, I don’t think I caught the rest of your names.”

“Natalie, Peter,” Holland answered, dropping Nat and Peters hands to point at them. “Holland.” He pointed a finger at himself as he resumed looking around the warehouse warily.

The twinge panged in my chest again, and I shoved it down.

Sawyer’s eyes followed along each of us as we were introduced, but when Holland pointed at Natalie, his eyes stayed with her. Nat’s face warmed to a pink I’d never seen before, and I couldn’t help but smile the tiniest of smiles.

Logan nodded in response to the introduction, and then wrapped an arm around Sawyer. “Sawyer is my brother.”

“Twin brother, unfortunately. We got saddled with roughly the same face. Poor girl.”

Natalie laughed very quietly and Sawyer beamed.

Logan rolled her eyes, and looked back to me. “Come on, Scarlett, I’ll show you around.”

Before following her, I looked to Holland, question on my face. He thought for a moment, but shook his head, waving me on. Guess he was staying here. “One second.” I told Logan, moving over to Darren. “Could you keep watch on Lila? Maybe ask to see the medical stuff?” He nodded. “Take Sasha. She’ll know what questions to ask and what things to look for.”

Sasha had followed me over to Darren and Lila. She looked at Lila, who was glancing around nervously. “It’ll be okay, Lila.” She said, resting a comforting hand on her arm. Lila smiled and laid her hand over top, gripping Sasha’s hand thankfully.

With one final nod to Darren, I turned back to Logan.

“Lead the way.”