White Noise

Logan led me back towards the way we came in, before stopping at a single door. She turned to me with a giant grin on her tiny features. “I saw you had a bow and arrow equipped when we ran into you earlier.”

I nodded. “I used to take archery before the world went to shit. Even placed in a few competitions.” It was the only sport I was ever interested in. When I was a kid, my Aunt Tala took me with her to her practice field. Watching the arrows fly through the hair and thwack into the hay boards gave my heart tingles. She bought me my first bow and quiver.

“No shit. Me too. Did you go to the pro meet in Chicago a few months before the first report?”

“Uh, yeah, actually. Finished fourth out of seventy-four.”

Her grin grew wider, and she raised a hand. “I was second! I knew your name sounded familiar.”

Still a little apprehensive, I just smiled in return.

“You’re going to love this.” She knocked on the door to indicate she meant what was in the room. I gave her a quizzical look and she laughed, then opened the door. We stepped into the room and she pulled on a cord hanging from the ceiling. My eyes grew wide when they fell upon the weapons surrounding us. Lockers, open cubbies, and shelves, lined with different tools, ammo, and guns.

“Jesus, shit.” I mumbled.

“Oh my god wait, look!” Logan grabbed me by the shoulders, and spun me around. Then she jumped forward and swung open a weapons safe. The inside was lined with regular arrows, sharpened steel arrows, and numerous other kinds of arrows. She opened another part of the safe, revealing three different bows. I stood there, mouth open, eyes dancing along the gorgeous sight before me.

I ran my fingers carefully along the arrows before me. My bow from Tala was still in good shape, but my arrows were cracking and dying down. I didn’t have a full set of arrows anymore either. I was down to five. Sometimes you can’t get them back from the zombies you take down with them. I crouched down before the safe, sighing contently as my fingertips danced along the arrows.

Finally, I looked up. Logan was zoned out, watching my happily. “What do you think?”

“They are so beautiful.”

Logan smiled, and winked at me. I returned her smile, and stood up. Looking back at the arrows, I subconsciously touched a hand to my quiver. Logan nudged me forward.

“Go on. Replenish your quiver. Take a cloth quiver and some extra arrows if you want. This isn’t even all that we have.” I glanced at her, question in my eyes. She laughed, and nudged me forward again. “Seriously, go on.”

Ten minutes later I had replaced my five arrows with twenty-six various arrows. Logan had handed me a purple cloth quiver with a drawstring opening, in which I fit thirty other arrows. I was practically bouncing with excitement. She even grabbed two bows, and held them out for me to pick one. When I was hesitant, she spoke. “It’s never a bad idea to have spare weapons in this shit hole.” I grabbed the metal and wood bow from her hands, and grinned.

When I opened my mouth to thank her tremendously, she stopped me by squeezing my hand, and smiling again. My face warmed, and her hand tightened again. “Come on, I’ll show you the bathroom stalls and the showers.”

***

Fifteen minutes later, Logan was leading me by the hand up the stairs to the metal walkway that lined the walls. She opened another door, and showed me around the wardrobe room. Jackets, t-shirts, jeans, shorts, socks, shoes, and other clothing items lined the walls, and filled three boxes. Logan motioned for me to change, and take a spare set of clothing.

“Then we can find your friends and they can change too.”

She turned her back to me, and I pulled on a clean outfit. Black cargo pants, army green tank top and a grey and green plaid shirt. Shoved another outfit into my bag, and yanked on some fingerless leather gloves. I crouched before the shoes, and nearly drooled over the pair of dark brown boots covered in buckles and laces. They would fall about six inches below my knee.

“Take them if they fit!” Logan spoke up. “You’ll look so good in them. And,” she spun around in her boots. “they’re good for fighting. Comfy enough to walk miles in.”

Holding my breath, I looked at the bottom of the shoes. They were a half size above my size. But you can’t be picky in the apocalypse. I yanked them onto my feet, securing the buckles and laces, before buckling the front cover flap. Logan pulled me to my feet. I spun in circles, did a few squats, high kicked the air, and then clapped excitedly.

“Perfect!” Logan exclaimed. “Come on, I have an extra shooting glove and thigh holster in my bunk.”

***

As Logan and I left her room, we passed by an open door. Hearing Sasha’s voice, I stopped. I had only taken two steps into the room when I heard it.

Lila’s voice. “So, you grew up in New York?” The smile fell from my face immediately. New York. Allen. Henry. Henry. Henry.

“New York?” I repeated from the doorway. “As in...the city? The state? When did you leave?”

The man from the truck shook his head. “I got separated from the people I was with when it started. After a couple of days on my own, I heard what the government was going to do, so I decided to head as far south as I could.”

My eyes grew wide and the panic in my soul set in. “What do you mean, what the government was going to do? Who were you with?”

Sasha then leaned up, covering her mouth with her hand before making quick eye contact with me. She had already connected dots and figured out what I was trying to desperately ignore. “Scar, no...”

“I need to know, Sasha!” I shouted, hands shaking in fists beside me.

James looked at me like I was being purposefully ignorant. “You didn't know?”

I was shaking as he spoke. “Bombing.” He said. “New York.” He said. “Infected.” He said. My vision was blurring. Is this what a heart attack feels like? I couldn’t breathe. My bones rattled within my flesh.

“How could you possibly know that?” My words vibrated around my head, like someone else had said them. Everyone else in the room disappeared but the man tearing down my hopes. Tunnel vision blacked them out and zoned in on him.

He did a sort of shrug. He shrugged! My world was exploding in my ears and he was shrugging! “Sorry, hun. New York is gone.”

Gone.

Gone.

“No.” My head was on fire and my skin was burning.

In the corner of my eye I saw Holland stand up. “Scar, I need to talk to you.”

Sasha laid a hand on his arm and shook her head. “Holland, no. Not right now.”

“Yes, right now! It’s important!” He nearly shouted, and ripped his arm away from Sasha. He practically stomped over to me. “Scarlett, now.”

Feeling a rage take over, I looked up at him, a withering glare on my face. Sasha repeated Hollands name, but he didn’t back down. “Did you not hear that? That the government bombed the big cities? They bombed New York!”

“That doesn’t matter right now!” He yelled. A fire was exploding within me.

“Henry was there!” I screamed. “They saved him! He was there!”

Holland blinked, confused now. “Who?”

I shook my head violently. “This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening.”

“Scarlett!” Holland shouted, moving to grab my shoulder.

I jerked away from him. “No!” I screamed, and then turn and ran.

My nephew was so small. Surely the neighbors saved him. She said they were going to save him. I knew Allen and Kristy were gone. There was no denying that. They were gone. But all this time I had had hope that Henry had gotten out. That he was now four, nearly two years having passed since the beginning. That his blonde curls were grown to a point that he could gnaw on them, like I knew he would. That he was alive.

I ran down the stairs and ran out the front doors. I doubled over, holding on to the corner of the building, and puked. I felt my hair being pulled back as I let go of what little was in my stomach. Then I just dry heaved. After I started to feel like I was dying, I wiped my face with my arm, and managed to keep from crying.

I straightened up, and my hair fell forward around me. Lila was standing beside me, looking at me with a heavy worried look on her face.

“Are you okay?” She asked, then shook her head. “No, don’t answer that. Do you need anything?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Answers. A plane to New York. All of this,” I paused and gestured out around us. “to end.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” She put a hand on my back.

Shaking my head, I tried to start putting together a plan. There had to be a way to get to New York. I had only gotten as far as remembering there was a giant horde nearby when Holland burst through the doors.

“Scarlett, I have to talk to you.”

Lila looked up with a glare on her face. Essentially telling Holland that now was not the time.

“Lila, go inside.”

“You don’t tell me what to do.” Lila crossed her arms across her chest, the glare on her face getting deeper.

Holland looked at her with pleading eyes. “Please, Lila. I need to talk to Scarlett alone.”

After glaring for a few more moments, Lila sighed, bumped arms with me, and then went inside. Her eyes didn’t fall from Holland until she was indoors.

“Hol, now is really not a good time.”

Holland huffed, “I don’t care. It’s important.”

Breathe, Scarlett. I ran a hand through my hair, and took a deep breath. “Listen, we can talk later. I have to figure out what I’m going to do.”

“What I have to tell you is about what we have to do.”

Fuck breathing. “No, not what we have to do. That’s not what I fucking said, Holland. I said what I’m going to do. Because I have to get to New York.” I waved a hand towards the north.

Holland’s eyes had grown wide. “We have bigger problems than your need to throw us into danger after danger!”

“I don’t give a single shit what you think I’m doing. My nephew is in New York. I have to go see for myself if he’s fucking dead!” I shouted, throwing my hands around.

“He’s gone, Scarlett! But there are people here who are plotting to hurt and then kill Lila! We have to get her out of here!”

My brows furrowed together. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Holland sighed a deep, angry sigh. “Gabe and his friend are planning on killing the baby, Trudy, and Lila. And they want to attack Lila before murdering her.”

What the fuck was going on? I couldn’t deal with this shit right now. I had to get to New York. I had to get to Henry. I crouched so low the heels of my boots touched my new pants. Pulling my hair back into my shaking hands, I tried to gather my thoughts.

“Scarlett, we have to-”

Not lifting my eyes to him, I cut him off. “Shut the fuck up for two seconds, Holland. Between the New York bombing, and Gabe, I need a fucking second to think.” He impatiently started dragging the toes of his shoes through the dirt. I followed his patterns while I tried to think straight.

I was still trying to form a plan when a scream echoed out around us. I stood up quickly and grabbed Hollands hand. “Lila.” We said her name at the same time, and flew back inside.