Jae was probably the first to here the singing.
A light, lofty sort of voice, gently singing, "When you're smiling" from seemingly nowhere.
At first, Jae thought she must have been going mad.
"Who the fuck is singing?" Said Austin, with all of this usual charm.
"That is really eerie," agreed Kayla, looking over to Austin for some sign of acknowledgement that they both thought the same. She got none.
"Sounds like a person," said Samantha, "It's too clear to be a recording," all of this went over Jae's head as she simply stood still and listened to the music.
It had been three months since the infection had broken out, "the Green Flu". And now Jae found herself travelling on foot with a tiny group of friends that she felt she didn't want to hang around anymore.
"Jae? Jae! JAE!" Samantha was shouting before Jae decided to actually give in to her attempts to catch her attention, a feat she secured the first time Samantha had said her name.
"What?" said Jae roughly, finally turning to face her ex.
"What?" said Samantha, suddenly taken aback.
"You were calling after me," said Jae, voice tainted with exasperation, "what do you want?"
"Nothing," said Samantha, who drew her eyes away Jae's, "you just spaced, is all,"
Jae sighed; she'd done it again. She never meant to get angry with Samantha. She was a phase, a high school phase, where as she wanted to do was experiment a little. Unfortunately, Samantha was actually lesbian. Unfortunately, they hit it off.
Unfortunately, Jae could never reciprocate the feelings that Samantha had given her.
"Hey," said Jae after a moment, "sorry I went off at you like that Sammy,"
"Yeah, whatever," said Samantha. There was a moment's pause as the singing continued in the silence created by tension of the group. Jae, turned to try and find where the singing was coming from, but it was impossible to pinpoint.
The four were standing in the heart of a ruined city, around them, abandoned cars, horrid blood smears, and the empty sound of a dead metropolis. As suddenly as it had come, the singing stopped, turning the silence deafening.
"Do you think someone else is out here?" Asked Jae.
"Nope," said Austin taking a step forward, behind him Kayla took a step forward of her own to stay close to the boy, "It was probably the wind,"
"Wow," said Jae, sarcasm dripping from her voice, "the wind's got an amazing sense of pitch, doesn't it?"
"Jae, I'm starting to like the 'wind' explanation," it was Samantha who had spoken this time.
'Some group of friends,' thought Jae, 'an ex, a dick, a clingy girl, and me; and they told me that grade 12 was going to be hard, my grade 11 is shooting undead fuckers in head!' Jae sighed openly. Surviving in the zombie apocalypse was hard.