Chapter Four
This is not believable.
This can't be true.
I will not allow it to be true!
Karkat yells at me again. "Get your fucking ass over her now!" I snap back to reality and finally run over and help Dave walk. I take Nepeta's side and she leaves and reloads her shotgun. She then aims it at the door behind us. The door is slammed on and dented but the door will not break.
"Oh god oh man oh god oh man..." Karkat repeats over and over. Dave smiles at me and whispers, "Just leave me behind." I ignore him and continue to carry him forward. We head in the direction of the church which will take a while to get to.
The sun is being lowered behind the hills far, far away from the buildings. The church's' bell sits still at the top, never to be rung again. Until now. The bell chimes over and over again and all the zombies turn to the church and walk over to it. Most walk while others run and sprint.
Wait. Didn't Nepeta say that Kanaya and Terezi went to the church. Shit!
Karkat stares at the bell. It moves back and forth with it's own rhythm. "No." He finally manages to whisper. "No no no no no." He lowers his head and I can see his anger and sadness building up inside him. "Why would they do that? There is no point!" His rage is taking over his emotions. "Fuck you Kanaya and Terezi! Fuck you both!" He screams into the sky.
No zombie seems to notice us up on this low hill. Where to go now? The church will soon be infested with zombies. Kanaya and Terezi are probably dead by now. No. They are fine. They are totally fine.
I will see their faces again. Smiling and happy.
Everything is going to be fine.
Nepeta grabs Karkat's shoulder and looks at him sadly. His anger disappears and his emotions are taken over by sadness. It looks like he is going to cry but he fights them back. Nepeta leads the way. We then walk down the low hill and we venture to a tall building. I think Nepeta want's to get a good view.
We follow Nepeta all the way to a tall bank building. it's almost taller than the church. We climb up flights of stairs. Which is hard because Dave's legs will not work as hard as they use to.
Once we finally reach the roof, the hard winds hit us, calming our emotions. There is no stench of death up here. It is partly clean air! There is still the stench of smoke though. It's heavy gases makes it hard to breath.
Karkat lays Dave next to the door we came through. I help Dave lean against the concrete wall. I rub his arm sadly and whisper, "It's going to be alright Dave. You're going to be fine." I give him a friendly smile and he returns it. Then he looks in the direction of Nepeta and looks shocked. I whip my head around and see Nepeta and Karkat.
Nepeta is standing on the rim of the roof and Karkat is holding her hand and standing on the rim too! I leap to my feet and run over to them I grab Karkat's arm and yank him off the sile. I reach for Nepeta's arm but...
...she jumps.
I leap half my body over the edge and grab hold of her hoody. She grunts and wriggles and screams, "Let me go!" I use all my strength and manage to pull her up half way. But Karkat tries to pull me back. Is he trying to help or is he trying to have me let go of her so he can jump to.
He's helping.
He yanks me back and I keep my firm grip on Nepeta. She is pulled back onto the roof and we are breathing heavily from shock. Nepeta sits up and I slap her face. She looks at me, stunned.
"Why would you do that?!" I scream at her. She stays silent. "Never do that again!" I turn to Karkat. I raise my voice and erupt at him. "Why the hell would you do that too?! Were you going to jump as well?!" he stays silent also. "Well fuck you! Fuck you both! Stop being a bunch of dumbasses and get you head out of your ass! Just because we 'think' Kanaya and Terezi committed suicide does not mean you can try too! Think about the people who would grieve over you. They would be dramatised and would kill themselves if they got a chance!"
Karkat looks at me and I keep going on. "But why the hell would YOU, of all people, try to commit suicide?!" I raise my hand and prepare to slap him. Hard. But someone grabs my wrist. I whip my head around and look into the eyes of Dave.
I try to relax but my anger is erupting. Dave lets go of my wrist and hugs me. "Calm down." He says, closing his eyes. My body tenses. I sit there, frozen and shocked. Sadness builds up inside of me and I hug him back and sob into his shoulder. "It's ok." He whispers to me. I can hear the pain in his voice even when he is trying to hide it.
Karkat and Nepeta. What do I do about them. They tried to KILL themselves! I can't handle this anymore! I just can't!
I have the solution...
Just don't think about it. That's simple enough isn't it? No. Apparently it is very hard. The images keep flooding into my head and I can't stop crying! Stop damn it!
But I can't. The images, the pain, my feelings. I just can't calm down. I can't stop feeling emotions. I can't stop being human. Emotions is what makes humans. Zombies can't feel emotions. That is why they are not human. We are. We feel emotions. We feel pain and sorrow. We feel love.
Dave is not letting go and I am not calm yet and Karkat and Nepeta, I don't know what they are doing. After some moments pass, I finally cease my crying. But Dave does not let me go. Neither do I.
I finally let go because I was starting to fall asleep in his arms. That would be even more embarrassing that crying I think. Dave stares at the cement below him. I look at him, hoping to see his beautiful eyes. His blond hair blocks my sight. Dave stays still. No movements at all besides his chest moving up and down with his breath.
I finally manage to say, "Dave," in a worried voice. I look around. Karkat and Nepeta sit back to back and frown, hoping for the best. "Dave?" I croak. His arms shake and I see tears dripping off his nose and chin. I crawl over to him and hold his hand in mine. "What's wrong Dave?" I ask, fighting back an urge.
Yes, and urge. I really want to do something that will both surprise us and embarrass me and him. I fight the urge to kiss him.
Dave looks up and me and whips off his shades and sets them on the floor. His red eyes shine in the sunset light and his tears shimmer brightly before they hit the stone. "I can't hold back my feelings of sadness any longer." He whimpers. "With all that's happening right now, I can handle it but there is something that I can't handle. Having to watch you all die."
Karkat and Nepeta whip their heads around, surprised yet happy. Dave truly cares about all of us. I can see that is Karkat's eyes.
I grab his other hand and hold them tightly, never wanting to let go. "Everything is going to be fine." I say. "You will never see any of us die." I guess it's my turn to comfort him. He smiles at me and pulls me close. He rests his head on mine, wraps his arms around me, and we fall asleep a few minutes later.
. . . . .
Hours pass and I finally wake to Karkat tapping my forehead. "What?" I ask annoyed. "We need to get moving."
"Where?" I ask.
"To Roses' mansion. That's where John told us to go right?"
"Yeah. Do you know where it is?"
"It's east from here. If we start now and take breaks at night, we will get there in about two days on foot."
"What is we find a car?"
"Then a few hours."
"I chose to find a car." I insist.
Karkat nods and walks over to Nepeta and wakes her up. I am about to wake Dave up but he is already awake. "Good morning sunshine." He says. I look up and smile at him. "Morning." I say as he lets me get up. I grab his hand and help him to his feet.
Karkat peers through the door window and says, "All clear." We then open the door and rush to the bottom floor. Down we go until we hit the front door and exit.
I step outside and the stench of death stings my nose. "Ok." Karkat whispers to us. "Where do you think a working car would be?" I think for a moment then whisper back, "At my house. My parents always have a working car in the garage."
"So lets go then."
"It's not far. Plus, to our luck, it's also east form here!"
"Let's go!"
We race east and avoid all the hordes of zombies that walk by until we reach my old, broken down house. It looks so worn down and moldy... I can't believe this happened. My mom always cares for the house and her family but now that she is gone... I run up to the garage door and push out the thought. I try to open the garage door with my hands. Stuck. So I just give the keypad a try.
9-4-6-2 I type in. The garage door just barely opens. "I can't believe that worked!" Nepeta says surprised. I smile and help Karkat yank the door open enough so we can get in and the car can get out.
There it sits. The only working car in the neighborhood and it's all ours.