White Noise

I was upstairs packing and repacking my backpack while thoughts flooded my brain. Logan wanted to go with us. What did that mean? Were we leaving soon? And would her large group come with us?

I wanted to be able to keep them safe as well, but I felt more of a responsibility to protect my people. Peter, Natalie, Holland, Lila, Sasha, Darren. Logan… But I didn’t feel like a group of more than six or seven was a good idea. Trying to keep everyone quiet, trying to keep up with items of necessity, and finding places to stay with a large group would prove difficult.

But I wanted Logan to come with us. Old Scar would have vehemently denied that, even to herself. But this Scarlett was attached to people now. There was no way for me to go back to not caring. So now I was admitting feelings to myself. And I was admitting that I didn’t want to part with Logan.

As I folded socks within each other and shoved them in my bag, a chorus of screeches echoed their way up the stairs. I leapt off the bed and scrambled towards the landing. Everyone was all over the place. Shoving things into their bags, weapons into their waistbands, and trying to find their family. Logan was bellowing instructions and supportive mantras as people tore through the building. The horde was coming, we had to go.

“Scar!” Lila screamed as I stumbled down the stairs as fast as I could. “Scarlett!” She screamed again, and I finally focused on her. She waved her arm towards the door. “Holland is leaving us to get the horde away!”

My heart dropped. He was doing what? He thought he could just sacrifice himself and leave me to care for the entire group alone? Ignoring everyone shouting at me, I dashed towards the door. He couldn’t do this. He had to stay. I couldn’t lead without him anymore.

A strong gust of wind hit me as I threw the doors open, and my hair flew out around me. “Holland!” I shrieked. The look on his face was one of strength, but also of complete terror. With one last look at me, he pulled away, blaring some shitty country music while I stood there wondering if we would ever see him again.

I stood there holding my breath as he drove away, most of the horde following after him. Ones that knew better and knew there was fresh food a mere thirty feet away, ambled off and started running towards the factory.

“Incoming!” I shouted. The only weapon I had on me was a large bowie knife with a handle that looped around your hand and back into the hilt. I yanked it from the holster on my thigh and squared up to the closest dissolving dickhead. It had teeth dangling from its head, and pieces of its scalp swung as it ran.

I bent over and flipped the dumb fuck over my head, whirling quickly to bury the knife in its skull. As I yanked it out, three others from inside appeared to help. Darren charged at a group of three as I spun on the heel of my boot to kick the one approaching me in the skull as hard as I could. The skull made a satisfying crack and the reanimated body dropped. A man I’d never officially met was off to the side starting a pile of dead undead, and Sawyer had his back to Darren’s as they double teamed the group.

I pounced on the back of an undead as it approached the random man, slamming its head into the concrete as we tumbled. It didn’t die immediately, and tried to spin to bite my arm. I wrenched its head until it cracked off. It had been hanging on by a spinal cord and strings of muscle, like a baby tooth hanging by the gums. The jaw snapped at me, but a quick boot to the face finished it off.

“Scarlett! Go grab shit and Lila and let’s go!” Darren shouted over the commotion.

Launching my knife into an ear of another, I shouted a confirmation to that plan. I yanked the knife out, and ran back to the factory. As I approached the door, another undead fucker barreled into me, screaming and flailing its arms. “What” I shoved at him “the” I tried to twist out from under “fuck!” I groaned as fleshy dangles hit my chest. Chomping teeth got too close to my face, but were stopped by an arrow. The point went through the skull, and pierced the ground three inches from my nose.

I shoved the body off of me and accepted Logan’s hand. “Here’s your pack, I threw in some other things as I packed mine and Sawyers.” She handed me my bow and quiver, pistol, shotgun, and a metal baseball bat as well.

“Thank you.” I swung the large canvas and leather pack onto my back and gave a quick smile to Logan as I headed inside. Logan nodded and then shouted at Sawyer, diving into the action. Inside, the group was thinning. People seemed to be breaking off into groups if they didn’t care about staying with Logan. Stragglers helped others get out by shooting bullets and arrows at the undead that followed after them.

Lila, Natalie, Peter, Sasha, and Jason were shoving things into bags and grabbing any weapons they could fit on their person, extras for those fighting outside.

“Come on!” I yelled. “We’ve got to get out of here!” A teenage girl maybe sixteen, and young boy, approached me as I waved my group to hurry.

“You’re Scarlett.” The teenager commented.

“Yes? And?” I gave her a tiny glare as she seemed like she was challenging who I was in this situation.

“We want to come with you.” The boy said.

I glanced at Sasha, who shrugged. I groaned. “God dammit, okay, fine. But you listen to me.” I emphasized the last part, looking hard at each of them. The boy nodded. The teenager nodded as well, albeit with an eye roll. I started strapping on my weapons and braiding my hair down my left side while I spoke. “Names?” Kid answered that his name was Seven and then he wouldn’t tell me his real name.

“Cosmic.” The girl replied. I shook my head.

“Okay, fine. 7-11, and Cosmetic, let’s go.” I turned to Lila as she approached me, panic on her face.

“Where is Holland? Did you get him to stay?”

I grabbed her hand. “Lila, he’s gone. We have to go too. We can’t let his plan fail by staying here too long. It’d be a moot point if we didn’t go.”

She looked like she wanted to punch someone and cry at the same time. She didn’t reply. Just swallowed her words, held her fists at her sides, and narrowed her eyes. I kept my hand wrapped around her wrist, and turned to the others. “We can talk about what Holland did later, we have to go. Now.” I said firmly, with authority behind my every word.

They all nodded, which seemed to be a theme going on.

When we got back outside, I headed over to Darren and Logan, who were standing over a pile of the dead. “Okay, everyone that’s coming with us is here. We’ve got to go.”

Most of the zombies around us had been taken out, and now I could clearly see how big this group was going to be.

Myself, Logan, Darren, Sasha, Natalie, Sawyer, Seven, Cosmic, Peter, Jason, Lila.

Eleven. That was twice my original group. I cursed under my breath.

Fuck you, Holland.

“Let’s go!” I shouted, as more undead crowded around us.

A flurry of weapons and blood and bodies filled my vision. Knives, flesh, shouting. Arrows, blades, axes, and crowbars flashed around me.

After what felt like forever, the fuckers had mostly disappeared. Logan looked towards me, and I shouted. “Stay together! Check behind and around! Let’s go!”

Time to find Henry.

And hopefully Holland.