Static Screams

I remained on the ground, staring at the worn ceiling of the porch. Why had I done that? I thought we were good. Had I not forgiven him? Was there even anything to forgive? The absence of Holland's weight on me felt hollow. I sighed deeply, slapping my bruised and bloody hands over my face. “Dammit, Scarlett.”

“Scar?” I peeked through my fingers to find Darren watching me warily. Great. I didn’t need to be told how I fucked up again. He held a hand out to me. I hesitated. “Let’s do a supply run before we go. For old times.” He beckoned for me to stand up.

Sighing again I accepted the giant calloused hand of my friend, and allowed him to pull me up. “Anything to get out of here.” I glanced towards the back door and groaned. “I have to go get my stuff.”

“I’ll grab it, you, uh, you stay here.” Darren held a hand palm out, telling me to stay put.

“Lila’s mad.” He smiled softly before heading inside to grab my things. I rocked on my heels, letting my back bounce against the railing. I was rubbing the blood off the back of my hands when the door opened. “That was qu-” I barely had a moment to duck as a pillow flew at my face, then the door slammed shut again. Straightening, I cursed myself. “Idiot.”

Things were finally getting back to what we could call normal, and I had to freak out.

The next time the door opened, Darren stepped through, pulling the door shut tight behind him. If he saw the pillow in my hands, he ignored it. After passing me my items, he stepped off the porch. “Let’s go.”

-

At the end of the long winding driveway, Darren pulled out a small map. “The old residents of that house had this on the wall in the office.” He held it up, lining up the roads. “Right, there’s a small town square about two miles off that way, and nothing off to the other way that I can tell.”

“This way it is.” I veered off to the left, without waiting for Darren to catch up. He had the longest legs in the group, he’d catch up.

We walked silently for about half an hour, before Darren spoke. “Scar,”

I cut him off. “I don’t know what happened, D.”

He held a hand up in defense. “Wasn’t going to ask about Holland.” I huffed. Even if he wasn’t about to ask, he wanted to. “I was going to ask if you had any ideas about how we’re going to travel with two babies.”

“Oh.” I rubbed my head. “I have a few, but if I’m honest, I’m a bit anxious about them crying. Not because I’m worried about us, but I’m worried about them. I don’t want them to get eaten, Darren. Babies? Zombies? The two don’t really mesh well.”

“I can’t say I’m not worried about it either. I think we all are.”

I started kicking a small rock ahead of us, kicking it again each time I reached it. “We have to keep them safe. Lila, the babies. We have to keep them alive.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Darren nod.

We left it at that. There wasn’t much else to say about it, and we could see downtown appearing at the top of the hill. It was the smallest town center I’d seen. A small city hall, a building split into three shops, a post office, and a pharmacy.

“We stay together.” I insisted.

“Always.” Darren agreed, and we moved simultaneously towards the pharmacy.

Once inside, we heard the familiar faint groan of the dead. We ducked, moving silently along the center aisle. Zombie took a step into the aisle, and instantly hit the ground as Darren swung his bat into it’s skull. As it crumbled to the floor, the soft scream of a second made me grimace. I whirled around, another had come down the aisle behind us. My bow was already in my hand, I quickly released an arrow through the eye socket.

It hit the ground with a thud. “I think that’s it.” Darren stood on his toes, looking around. “Yeah, unless there’s one behind the counter that’s it. I’ll do it.”

I nodded, moving to swipe things off of the shelves in the center of the store. Gauze, bandages, a small thing of hydrogen peroxide, some healing ointment. At the register I scored. I held up a handful of chapstick triumphantly. The good stuff too, in the round balls. On the next aisle, deodorant. “Oh my god, yes!” Darren knew that scavenging would make me feel better, and by god did it. Dried fruit and bottles of water were the last things I found, and I headed up to the counter to check on Darren.

He was grinning, holding up two plastic bags of medicine and such. I couldn’t help but smile back. “I found chapstick.”

“Gold!” He exclaimed, vaulting over the counter and holding a hand out. I dug into the bag and presented him with a ball. His brow furrowed. “What the hell is this?” I laughed, taking the ball and twisting the halves in opposite directions. His eyes shone. “Oh!” He grabbed it, slathered it on his mouth, and grinned again. “Score, Natalie will love this.” I nodded in agreement. “Bookstore cafe next?”

“Oh yes.”

-

Two hours later we reached the end of the driveway, hands full and the empty spaces in our backpacks filled. I felt better, although I was dreading getting back. I was going to bite the bullet and apologize to Holland. Admit I have no idea why I attacked him. It was necessary to own up to fucking up, and that I was wrong. I had a half charged iPod nano, with earbuds and a charging cable in my jean pocket I was planning on using to apologize.

“Thanks, Darren.” I bumped shoulders with my friend. “I needed that.”

Darren gave me a small smile, then rubbed his lips together and made a loud smacking noise. “Hey, I got chapstick out of it.”

We both started to laugh, but they were caught in our throats at the sound of a scream.