‹ Prequel: White Noise
Status: Active

Static Screams

Rebirth

“Holland?”

I finally looked away from Sasha’s body, but it took my eyes a minute to focus. I found Darren standing there; strong, scruffy, rugged Darren, sporting a busted lip and a black eye. He watched me sadly, and my wet eyes squeezed shut. “I can’t leave her here,” I finally said.

“I wouldn’t ask you to.”

He stood in the doorway of a small storefront, glass and wood splintered all around. He leaned against the doorframe, standing in silence while I ran my hands through Sasha’s hair. In silence we stayed, until I found my voice again. It wavered, but I spoke. “What happened?”

“Nothing good,” he muttered, before rubbing his face with his hands. He winced when he touched his eye, but recovered quickly. “Some group hunted us down. By the time we were getting ready to leave, they ambushed us.”

I shook my head, tears still rolling down my cheeks. “Wh…where is everyone?”

He frowned. “Logan, Peter, and Lila are inside.”

My eyes shot to his. “What about the others?”

He focused his gaze on Sasha, on what used to be Sasha, before he simply stated, “I don’t know. They took them.”

My shoulders slumped, and I looked at Sasha again. Another long silence passed before I spoke again. “I guess I should go see Lila.”

“I…wouldn’t worry about that right now.”

My eyes snapped to his again. “What do you mean?”

He moved forward slowly. “She’s okay. She just took a bit of a nasty fall when the ambush happened. She’s recovering from it, but we’ve kept her pretty heavily medicated these last few days.”

“Medicated?” I asked flatly. “She’s pregnant!”

“Well…she was pregnant.”

I shot straight up, grabbed him by the collar and pushed him against the wall. “Excuse me? She was? Do you want to tell me what the fuck you mean?”

But then I heard it. A small, tinny sound coming from somewhere that felt far away. My grip on Darren’s collar loosened a little.

He grinned. “I mean, Holland, to say congratulations.”

I let go of Darren, and backed up. My eyes widened, and I felt the grin spread across my face. “You’re serious?”

He nodded, laughing. “Yeah. I’m serious.”

I looked toward Sasha’s body, and the weight settled back on my shoulders, though not as heavily. “I…can I…”

“I’ll take care of Sasha, Holland,” he smiled sadly. “Straight back and to the left, that’s where you’ll find everyone.”

I patted him on the shoulder as a silent thank you before I sprinted in, following the sound of the cries that seemed to grow, but were muffled by a wall of mattresses and curtains that had been strung up around a corner of the store.

I took a deep breath before I poked my head around a curtain, readying myself. The first thing I saw was Lila, deep asleep on a dingy mattress and covered in blankets. She was a little pale, but no worse off than anyone else, which calmed me instantly.

My eyes then wondered to Peter, in a rocking chair with a bundle of blankets in his arms. He cooed lovingly at it, with a small smile on his face.

And then there was Logan, on the floor next to Lila, with another bundle of blankets in her arms as well. My heart began to race as my brain worked to comprehend what I was seeing. “There’s two of them?” I whispered.

Logan’s eyes shot up at me, and she smiled brightly. “You found us! Lila knew you would. Come here, come see!”

I stumbled in, carefully maneuvering around the mattress, taking a seat in between Logan and Peter. “Are they…they’re both…”

Peter smiled. “Few weeks early, probably, but perfectly healthy!” He held out the baby in his arms, offering it to me. “This little lady is Hollyn,” he said, placing her in my arms.

I looked down, holding the child in my arms. “Hollyn?” The baby smiled up at me, with big blue eyes and rosy skin.

“Lila picked out the names,” Logan explained. “She said she wanted them to honor the two most important people in her life. She figured she couldn’t name the baby Holland, since having two Hollands would be way too much. She found Hollyn in a baby name book we picked up along the way, and she loved it.” She looked down at the baby in her own arms. “This little princess is Ryanna.”

I looked over, another beautiful baby with bright eyes staring up at me, a goofy grin spread across her face. “She looks just like her father.”

Logan smiled. “I’ve heard a few stories these last few days. At least when Lila is awake. I wish I could have met him.”

I smiled at the two babies, before nodding. “He was a great guy. He would have been an amazing father. That’s all he ever wanted out of his life.” I chuckled. “Well, that, and butt sex.”

Logan laughed. “You men are all the same.”

“I resent that,” Darren said as he entered the curtain.

“Whatever,” she snorted. “That’s why I try to stick to girls.”

It felt so surreal, laughing with our partial group while holding a baby in my arms. It felt so hopeful, too hopeful, and I knew it would come to an end sooner rather than later. I sighed, readjusting Hollyn as she closed her tiny little eyes. “What do we do now?” I asked.

Logan frowned, leaning back against the old wall. “We find the bastards who took our friends and we skin them alive.”

Peter spoke, “I don’t know how you expect to do that, since we have no idea where the hell they are.”

Darren shook his head. “True. And there’s also Lila, and two babies. We can’t exactly do recon with them.”

“Aren’t you guys worried about these people coming back here?” I asked them. “I would think the smartest thing to do first would be relocate.”

Logan nodded. “I agree with that, but Lila sprained her ankle. She can’t really walk very far.”

“I have the van, though,” I said. “It won’t get too far, but it’ll get us somewhere safe.” Ryanna gurgled happily in Logan’s arms, which brought a smile to my face.

“That’s not a terrible idea,” Logan mused. “There’s a farmhouse about two miles south of us, raised up on a hill. It’s small, but it’s deserted, and it will at least get us out of the middle of town while we think about what to do next. Because, let’s face it, we can’t just try to follow their tracks blindly. These people…they’re insane.”

I frowned to myself, running thoughts and scenarios through my head. If these people were as bad as everyone said, god only knows what’s happening to Scarlett, to the kids, to any of them. If any of them are even left. I felt a sense of urgency in my soul, but I knew I couldn’t leave Lila again, either.

“Alright,” Darren said. “Let’s get Lila in the van and get the hell out of Dodge.”

I wouldn’t ask what he did with Sasha, but was thankful when I reemerged to see that her body wasn’t there. The leftover supplies in the back of the van was shifted around while Peter carried Lila in his arms before placing her gently across the backseat. He climbed in the back with Logan, sitting between several large storage boxes and suitcases full of random items. Peter held Hollyn and I held Ryanna, while Darren drove to our destination.

Lila mumbled a few times in her sleep, even said my name, but she didn’t wake up.
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word count; 1277

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