Preserving the Light
"I told you this was a bad idea." Anders said.
"I know, shut up." Bryce replied.
"I just had to let you talk me into this." Anders complained again, this time adding hand gestures to emphasize his disappointment.
"Yeah, I get it, I screwed up. You can chew me out when we get back to the Tower in one piece, kay?"
Anders shot him a glare. "Fine. Got another genius plan to get us out of this one?"
The sun had set an hour ago. The pair had went out on a run to recover an antizin crate when some of Rais' men ambushed them. They were fine, but the noise attracted a group of virals, and the ensuing chase led them too far from the Tower to get back before night. They'd certainly tried, but just couldn't do it.
"Still got your uv light?" Bryce asked his partner.
"Yeah, of course. Don't you?"
Bryce rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the floor.
"Are you serious?" Anders seemed surprised, but he'd been used to things like this for the past twenty-one years. Ever since Bryce was born he'd found a way to lose or break anything that was given to him.
"It fell outta my pocket, cut me some slack!" Anders pressed his hand over Bryce's mouth.
"Shut. Up. Too loud. We don't know how close those things are. No need to draw them any closer."
Bryce's joyful eyes narrowed into determination and he nodded. Anders carefully removed his hand. The duo had their backs pressed to the waist high wall on a building's balcony. They could see the Tower off in the distance. A five minute run from where they were now. Only problem was the volatiles. Bryce peeked his head over the wall and sure enough halfway down the street a volatile was prowling. It climbed on top of a car and let out a howl. Its head was turned toward the sky but then snapped downward. The two made eye contact. Bright orange to dark green. Bryce dropped back behind his cover.
"Please tell me it didn't see you." Anders asked. Bryce didn't answer. "Bryce?..."
Bryce turned his head to face Anders.
"We should run."
Footsteps pounded toward their temporary sanctuary. Anders drew his uv light and aimed it at the wall. As soon as the volatile appeared over it Anders turned the light on. The creature raised its hands to shield its face and fell back to the road. "Lets go!" Anders shouted as he leapt off the balcony with Bryce behind me. The two took off at a breakneck sprint, weaving in and out of the abandoned cars that dotted the street. They passed a few infected, but they were too slow to stand a chance against the runners.
Bryce found himself with a smile on his face. Despite the fact that he could lose his life at any given second, he was never happier than when he was running, especially with his brother at his side. He looked to his right and Anders was there, although he looked considerably more worried than Bryce. And then, Bryce collided straight into a zombie.
Bryce fell on top of the creature, and the two fumbled on the ground together. Bryce tried to plant his hands on the street to get back to his feet, but the feeling of rotting hands clinging to his forearms made it difficult. The monster reared its head back and as it was going to chomp forward, it was interrupted by a foot to the face. Anders stood over Bryce and offered a hand, which he gratefully took. They cast a glance back the way they came, only to be rewarded with an image of the volatile from before still coming with others behind it.
"Oh goodie. He's brought friends." Bryce muttered.
Anders punched him in the shoulder. "Shut up and run." He took off again and Bryce followed, a little more serious about it this time.
They burst into the parking lot in front of the Tower and their heads immediately shot to the entrance, and the uv light hanging above the doorway. They summoned their last bit of strength for the home stretch and barreled up the stairs.
They climbed up the wall into the area that had become their sanctuary and breathed sigh of relief in unison.
"I told you we'd be fine." Bryce told his brother through ragged breaths.
"You know that I hate you, right?"
"What would you do without me, bro?" Bryce asked with his trademark grin surfacing.
The question hit Anders harder than he expected. What would he do? Bryce had always been there, no matter what. Through good and bad. They'd each bailed each other of some pretty crazy situations pre-apocalypse and after. Before he could answer, Bryce spoke up again.
"I'm beat. Nearly dying takes a lot out of you, so I'm heading to the room. Night, man." Bryce clapped a hand on Anders' shoulder before jumping in the elevator that led to the upper floors.
As Bryce disappeared to the upper levels, Anders took a seat near the wall and tried to catch his breath. As he was resting, a man in a bright yellow t-shirt came in. He was nearly the spitting image of Brecken, save for a few differences in the face.
"Anders!" He said with a smile.
Anders offered a weak wave. "Crane. What were you doing out there?"
Crane sat down next to him. "Antizin drop of my own, but I didn't have any luck. How about yours?"
Anders just shook his head.
"Ah. I'm sorry to hear it. Hey," he looked around the room. "Where's your brother?"
"Upstairs. We had a close call just before. He went straight to bed."
"Yeah, I don't blame him." Crane stood and looked out the window. "City's so damn dangerous, but gorgeous too." Anders stood and gazed with him.
The moonlight refracted off the deep blue ocean's surface. The corrugated sheet metal rooftops shone with pale blue light. The lights of the Infamy bridge acted like beacons of hope, or despair. When the bridge blew, it became a symbol of hopelessness. The way out of the city was gone. But in the dim light of the evening, it was beautiful.
"Yeah. It really is." Was all Anders could say. The view staggered him.
"All right, I'm pretty tired myself. I'll see you tomorrow, Anders."
"Yeah..." Anders said. His eyes were still locked on the horizon. Nothing else seemed to matter but that. Then, the howl of a volatile broke the silence. And just like that, he was on edge again. Anders shook his head. "Nothing good can last in this damn city." He muttered to himself as he headed off to bed.
Bryce stepped out of the elevator with aches everywhere. He spent the whole day running, and he was very happy with it, but his body hated him for it. It was his favorite kind of sore though. The kind that leaves you feeling satisfied afterward.
On his way back to his room, something caught his eye. A group of people were standing outside a room. Bryce approached them with a, "Hey guys, what's going on?"
One of the men told him that they thought one of their own had turned and they sent Nicole in to see. Nicole? Of course. Bryce was going to step into the room, when Nicole herself stepped out.
"Oh, hey Bryce. What are you doing here?" She asked with a smile that Bryce couldn't tell if it was genuine or not. Her dark brown hair hung down to her back and contained a streak of blue on her left side. Her eyes were a a shade of gray that Bryce found oh so appealing. A small scar resided on her right cheek, the only blemish he could find on her otherwise flawless face. Bryce always looked forward to seeing her, flirting with her, and getting horribly rejected by her.
"Wanted to see what got everybody so riled up, and now I understand. And I do not blame them." He said with a grin.
"You're still trying?" She asked with a grin of her own.
"Mhm. You'll love me eventually."
"In your dreams." She said as she walked away with a dismissive hand wave.
"What happened in there anyway?" He asked as he followed her. His body screamed at him for rest, but he pushed through the aching in his limbs.
"Bad antizin. Stuff almost killed him."
"Are you kidding? Jesus. The world's coming to an end and people are still selfish enough to rip each other off." Bryce said. Jane just nodded.
"I'm telling Lena tonight, and setting out to take care of it tomorrow." She looked him up and down. "You should come with me."
Did she actually just invite me to go with her? The hell is this? "Nicole, you feeling all right? You just invited me work with you. You're aware of that, right?"
A small smile graced her lips, and the sight made Bryce want to smile too. "If it's humans we're going against I'd rather not be alone. Why don't you bring your brother along too? Strength in numbers."
Damn it. "Yeah, sure. I get that. I'll tell him tomorrow."
"Great. I'll meet you tomorrow at ten." And with that, she turned and left to find the doctor. Bryce shook his head as he headed off to bed.
Bryce woke the next day at around eight-thirty. He walked into the bathroom of his small apartment and began his morning ritual. First he attempted to tame his unruly head of short brown hair before giving up and letting it stay messy. Then, he changed into fresh clothes, which today was a black tank top and cargo shorts. He always wore a pair of tough gloves with the fingers cut off to aid in his climbing. He rolled his shoulders and flexed. His arms weren't huge, but they were defined and fit his body. He was proud of them. He hopped in the elevator with a smile on his face.
Anders woke up less gracefully, but earlier. He was already awake when Bryce was coming down the elevator shaft. He stood in a short sleeve flannel unbuttoned with his undershirt showing and a pair of jeans. His dark brown hair was neatly spiked in the front. His eyes were the same green as Bryce's but held something different in them. Bryce's contained joy and enthusiasm, while Anders' were filled with intensity and worry.
Anders was holding a conversation with the quartermaster when his brother came through the elevator door. He greeted Anders with a fist bump, as he normally did.
"Got any plans for today?" He asked as he took a seat on the quartermaster's desk.
"You know that's not for your ass, right?" He asked with an annoyed tone, but his face didn't show any anger. Bryce was pretty sure that his antics helped him get through the day. If he'd been stuck behind a desk all day, every day, he'd be looking for something to amuse him too.
"Not really, what about you?" Anders asked him back.
"I'm helping Nicole out with something, was wondering if you'd like to come along."
"Nicole? I thought she hated you." The quartermaster burst out laughing.
"Oh yeah, because you know a lot about women hating you, right?" Bryce said to the man behind the desk, who quickly shut his mouth. He turned back to his sibling. "Some assholes are running a bootleg antizin operation. Nicole's doing her investigator thing, we're gonna meet at ten if you're interested."
Anders hesitated on his answer. He had no problem dealing with zombies, he'd done it enough, but humans? He hated it. He hadn't done it yet. Bryce did it once, to save him in fact. And it shook him, but he was his old self soon enough. Could I forgive myself that easily? He'd have to. His brother needs him. "Yeah. You can count on me."
"Beautiful. I'll see you then." Bryce took the hatchet that the quartermaster had for him and dropped down the hole out into the slums.
He emerged into the light with a smile. He bounced on the balls of his feet a few times before beginning a jog around the tower. He lapped around it twice before taking one of the runner installed ramps to the rooftops. His jog turned into a sprint as he used the speed to clear gaps between buildings. He was free again, with no master but the wind. His body was built for this, and he was at home in this blazing speed.
He hit a particularly large clearing and propelled his body off the edge without a second thought, and then he realized he had no clear destination in mind. He slammed into the concrete side of a wall, his hands groping for a hold to keep himself off the ground. His fingers caught in the metal bars on the outside of a window, but he was dazed from the impact. As stars danced in his vision, his grip began to loosen. He had enough time to mutter an "Oh, shit." Before he fell to the ground.
He landed flat on his back in the dirt. He felt his breath fly out of him and he was left gasping. He fought to raise himself to a knee with shaky limbs. "God damn it, that hurt." He said in a hoarse whisper. A moan from his right instantly snapped him to alertness. A woman was shambling toward him, her dress tattered and torn. Her eyes were focused on him, and made him uncomfortable. He stood and drew the hatchet from the belt loop of his shorts. He twirled it in his hand before attacking the creature.
Moments later Bryce sat with his back to the wall that now bore an indent of his torso with a decapitated corpse a few feet away from him. The head rolled away, he didn't keep track of it. The sight of it made him sick to his stomach. This world had hardened him, surely, but seeing a severed head leave a trail of red as it rolled to God knows where could get to anyone. He was catching his breath, which was more difficult than he expected. He cast a glance to his watch to see that it was nine-thirty. He should get back to the Tower.
So, he wearily stood, and once he was back on the rooftops he took it easy. Only really running when he needed to. Otherwise he was trying to recover what stamina he had to prepare for going out with Nicole.