Author's Note - I thought i'd let you know that i cried a little while writing the beginning of this chapter. I love reviews and reviewers. Reviews tell me how well i'm doing. So . . . . Review! i always want to thank those who Favorite. I really appreciate it. Anyways, for copyright (i guess), I don't own the guys from my chem. sad panda.
ENJOY!
Oh, and something extra special happens to the first person who can tell me what show that the color mentioned towards the end is from ;)
My world was turned upside down. A week ago I was taking my economics final, celebrating the end of a school year and today I'm sobbing because I'm about to lose my sister, who is laughing at some guy's joke right now.
"Hey Elizabeth," I meekly greeted, wiping the tears from my eyes.
"What's wrong?" she asked cautiously.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I said weakly.
"I'm talking to Aaron right now; can we have this chat later?" She asked me.
"No, we can't. It has to be now," I replied.
"Fine," she huffed.
The two of us walked away from everyone, Ray and Gerard watching our every move. When we were a good distance away from everyone I sat down on one of the benches and fought myself to not start crying again.
"I love you," I blurted out, losing the fight.
"I love you too. What's wrong Torrie? Please don't cry," she said pulling me into a hug.
"Even though we fought growing up, you know I always cared for you," I told her.
"Victoria, you're starting to scare me," she replied.
"You know how a zombie bit you," I started.
"Yeah and? Oh, do you want to look at it? We could probably find a first aid kit somewhere," she said trying to stand up.
"No, I … uh … I … Remember last night when dad was bitten by some crazy guy and then in the morning he tried to attack you?" I asked sniffling, pulling her back down.
"Yes," she answered.
We were quiet for a few minutes. I had hoped she would figure it out so that I wouldn't have to explain what was going to happen to her. The pain of knowing that I would be losing my sister soon was starting to become unbearable. I took her hands in mine and stared into her eyes. When she realized what her fate was her eyes went wide. She pulled away from me and started pacing.
"What? No! I'll get better. I'm fine. I feel fine," she said quickly.
Ray and Gerard started towards us, but still kept their distance. I stood up and wrapped my arms around my sister as we both broke down crying.
"You mean I'm going to become one of those things?" she asked.
I couldn't talk. I tried to speak but no words would come out. We held each other as we sobbed in the almost empty hallway. When Gerard and Ray approached us I held her as tight as I could.
"No! You can't!" I screamed at them through tears.
"Torrie, you need to look at her," Ray begged.
My eyes opened and rushed to her face. Her eyes looked tired and her face had become pale. I moved my hand to her face.
"I love you sis," I sobbed.
"I love you too Victoria," she replied as tears fell freely.
"Torrie," Gerard said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"No!" I refused.
He pulled me up and away from her. Lizzie's hands shook as she took the necklace off from around her neck.
"Torrie," she beckoned, her voice shaking as well.
I fought Gerard as hard as I could and ran towards my sister. She put the necklace on me and pulled me into a hug. I held onto her as tight as I possibly could. I closed my eyes and pretended that we weren't here, but instead I was 12 and she was eleven and that I was about to leave for camp. She held me just as tight then as she did now. I opened my eyes and stared into hers. They had become vacant and stained. Something inside of me told me to run while my heart screamed at me to not let go. Gerard grabbed my arm and pulled me away while Ray led her down the hall. He stopped in front of a little kids clothing store and led her inside and out of sight. Gerard pulled me into him while I sobbed uncontrollably. The only reason I was still standing was because his arms had supported me. Minutes later a monstrous scream was heard followed by the sound of a muffled gunshot. I fell to the floor and cried even harder, if that was possible. My hands clutched the locket around my neck and I sobbed on the floor. He picked me up and carried me back to the bench I had been on with her moments ago.
"Hand in mine, into your icy blues
And then I'd say to you we could take to the highway
With this trunk of ammunition too
I'd end my days with you in a hail of bullets
I'm trying, I'm trying
To let you know just how much you mean to me
And after all the things we put each other through and
I would drive on to the end with you
A liquor store or two keeps the gas tank full
And I feel like there's nothing left to do
But prove myself to you and we'll keep it running
But this time, I mean it
I'll let you know just how much you mean to me
As snow falls on desert sky
Until the end of everything
I'm trying, I'm trying
To let you know how much you mean
As days fade, and nights grow
And we go cold," he softly sang as he stroked my hair.
Ray had walked towards us and sat down with us on the bench.
"I'm sorry Torrie. I waited until after she had passed," Ray explained, taking one of my hands into his.
"Thank you," I whispered, attempting to squeeze his hand.
"I'm going to head back to the others. We should scope out a place to stay soon," Ray said to Gerard, letting go of my hand.
"Sounds good. We'll be there soon," Gerard replied.
Ray nodded and walked away towards everyone else. I lifted my head and watched Ray walk away. My eyes were transfixed on the gun in his hand, watching it fade away in the distance.
"I think my dad killed my mom," I said, startling Gerard.
"What?" he asked, taken aback.
"Last night when I got home, my mom was bandaging my dad's arm. I think he changed sometime during the night and that's when …,"I managed to say before I started to cry.
"When my brother and I woke up this morning, we couldn't find our parents," Gerard told me.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"It's okay. I like to believe that they went out grocery shopping and kept running," he replied.
"What's going to happen to us?" I asked.
"We're going to survive; one day at a time," he said, kissing me.
"Hey, what happened to that girl I was talking to earlier?" Aaron asked Ray.
"She was bitten," Ray answered solemnly.
"Oh shit," Aaron replied.
"Yeah man," Ray said.
Ray continued past him and climbed on top of a bench to get everyone's attention. Mikey, Frank, Jackie, Aaron and the others circled around Ray.
"Alright, I need to know if any of you were bitten." Ray asked.
The group had answered with 'no's or shaking their head.
"Good. We're going to be living together, so we need to make sure we get along. There is a furniture store over by Nordstroms. We're also going to need to lay down some ground rules if we're going to be living together," Ray told them.
"Who died and made you leader?" A girl around the age of 19 yelled at him.
"Meg!" Aaron scolded the short blonde.
"If we want to survive this then we need to come together and live like a family," Ray added.
"And what if I don't want to join your family?" Meg spoke up again.
"Meg, if you don't shut the fuck up I swear to god I'm going to throw you off the fucking roof and you will be fucking zombie food," Aaron heatedly said.
The two stared each other down. Everyone else was quiet and unsure of how to act.
"I hate you," Meg replied.
"No you don't. You're just in a bad mood," he told her.
"I'm sorry. I miss mom and dad," she apologized.
"I do too, but their gone," Aaron said, pulling her to him.
The group slowly made their way towards the furniture store while Mikey and Ray hung back.
"Where are Gerard, Torrie, and Lizzie?" Mikey asked
"Remember when Lizzie was bitten earlier?" Ray reminded him.
"Oh fuck," Mikey said, his jaw dropping.
"Lizzie is gone now. Gerard is comforting Torrie. Someone should probably let them know where we're going. Do you wanna let them know?" Rey replied.
"Yeah, I'll let them know," he said, the numbness of Lizzie's death washing over him.
"Hey guys," Mikey said as he approached us.
"Hey Mikey," Gerard greeted.
"We're all headed to the furniture store to pick out our beds. You guys better hurry before all the good ones are taken," he smiled.
"Yeah, let's go," I said, standing to my feet.
I pulled Gerard to his feet and the three of us walked towards the others. Gerard's arm was wrapped around my waist as we took our time walking.
"Torrie?" Mikey said, stopping me.
"Yeah?" I answered.
"I'm sorry about your sister," he said, pulling me into a hug.
A few tears fell down my face as he pulled me close. My arms wrapped around him as he embraced me. I felt like crying more, but I had been crying so much I was almost out of tears.
"I'll run ahead and grab us beds. Mikey, if you two want to take your time," Gerard offered.
Mikey nodded as his elder brother started jogging ahead.
"Thank you Mikey," I said, pulling away.
"Anything for you Tors," he smiled.
"If you need anything or if you need a guy to talk to who isn't my brother, I'm here," he offered smiling.
"The same here, if you need a girl to talk to, I'm here," I replied.
"Let's go, I'm curious to see if Gee was successful," Mikey laughed, causing me to smile.
Mikey and I slowly walked into the furniture store and started to wander through the mock bedrooms. We going until we were at the back of the room and spotted two rooms next door to each other with whiteboards that had our names on them; the one on the right "Mikey" and the one on the left "Gerard/Torrie". Mikey walked into his while I into mine. Gerard was sitting on the bed drawing on a small whiteboard.
"Hi," I said quietly, joining him on the bed.
"Hi, um I'm sorry we're in the same room. This one and Mikey's were the only two left so I thought that maybe we could share a room instead of me sharing a room with him," he hastily explained.
"Don't apologize, it's not a big deal," I replied, trying to smile.
"How're you holding up?" He asked, staring at me.
"I'm holding up," I answered.
Gerard set down the white board and marker and pulled me over toward him. I laid my head down on his chest and closed my eyes, replaying everything that happened today. He took my hand and held it as we laid in the silence. It was comfortable and felt right. Not the whole lying on a bed in a shopping mall in the midst of a zombie attack, but the whole lying on a bed with Gerard.
"Hey, we're going to go find some food. Do you guys wanna join us?" Frank asked, quietly stepping into our room.
"Sure," I said as I lifted my head from Gerard's chest.
"You sure?" Gerard asked me.
"Yeah, I'm hungry and coffee sounds good right now," I replied.
"I guess we're coming with," Gerard smiled.
"So what we should do is take stock of what there is and consume the perishable items first," Aaron said out loud as we all walked through the dimly lit food court.
"And we're also going to have to ration the food out. We need to make sure it lasts us as long as possible," Ray added.
"Any volunteers to take stock?" Aaron asked as he turned around to face us.
Jackie and a few people raised their hands and joined Aaron up near the Hot Dog On A Stick.
"Hey, while you guys take stock, I'm going to take a few people to the roof and make a sign or something. That way if anybody flies overhead they know that we're in here," Gerard told Aaron.
"Great idea. We should find walkie talkies or something, to keep in contact," Frank suggested.
"Good idea Frank. Why don't you go find them and give one to Aaron and then come find us on the roof," Gerard replied.
Frank grinned and took off for the security office. Gerard started off for the hardware store with myself, Mikey and Ray in tow. We silently stalked through the corridor, taking note of which stores we wanted to raid later on. When we approached the store, the door was locked and bared us from entrance. Ray and Gerard lifted up the park bench and broke the glass in the door. Ray took his shirt off and wrapped it around his hand and fore arm, to protect himself from the broken glass, and reached in to unlock the door. Once the door was pulled open, he slipped is shirt back on and we walked in. Mikey walked to the back in search of the lights while the three of us went to look for paint and power tools.
"Alright, so what blue do you want?" Ray asked, staring at the different shades.
"How about Parade Blue?" I suggested, comparing the shades as the lights flickered on.
"Sounds like a plan," he said as he started throwing cans of spray paint into a shopping basket.
"I found this cart, it could be useful," Mikey smiled, rolling it towards us.
"That will be useful, seeing as how carrying all of this paint would be a bitch," Gerard commented, rounding the corner on us with his hands full of rollers, brushes and trays.
"So the art student will be able to put his degree to use," I smiled.
"Yeah, I'll finally put it to some use," he grinned.
