"Cry!" Krism's light voice pierces the air as she enters the bathroom. Felix wanted to follow, but it seemed he wasn't needed in this situation. When Krism yells his name, Cry jolts upright from the recliner, in surprisingly good shape, and bounds the path to her toilet.
"What is it? Are you okay? Are there any Walkers? Bugs? I don't know, uhh..." He lets his voice fade, out of ideas about what was wrong.
"I- I- I want to tell you something...just, please let me tell you before you break things again. Please, Cry?" She had a very pained and worried expression, like something bigger than what was happening was up. He couldn't keep looking at her with her upset expression and lets her lead him to sit on the edge of the bathtub.
"What's up, Kris?" She looks up at him worriedly, but tried her best to look ok.
"When this whole thing started, I- I wasn't alone. Like I said, I was- I was with my friend -best friend, actually. Her name's Emeryth, and her family started to act all weird while we were playing soccer in her backyard -our favorite pastime during, well, anytime. The ground seemed to shake, and we looked in the direction of the heavy footsteps to see her two older brothers, seemingly scaly -crumpled like paper- and peeling as they grunted towards us.
"We scaled her tree, without anything to help fight them off, and noticed they couldn't climb; like, without falling flat on their head, anyways. And I noticed her mother and younger brother were nowhere to be found, thankfully, but I was concerned they were long gone, or whatever happens when you 'go' after that- that thing takes over you. I saw what looked like h-her neighbors coming over. They seemed concerned and stared at us, but were taken away by a younger woman and little boy. But neither looked close to Emeryth's family, especially considering we were way too far to see any major details.
"And I found out that m-" Cry had already stopped her from her impromptu story, noticing tears forming against her will.
"You don't need to tell me, you know."
"But I feel like you actually understand, and y-you deserve to know... Felix is so innocent and full of life, I don't want to ruin his light, and you're stressed -compressed with all that emotion- and I can tell a lot about you, like that you have faced things that I've come to deal with in life. I just want you to know, I- I trust you, Cry, and I hope it's the same with you and Felix."
"How do you- what do you- I know that- yes, w-we trust you. But... It's not at all like what you think I've been through, you don't know...You don't know much about me or my past, it's just-"
"Bros, ya wanna head out yet? I think it'd be best before dark sets out any further." Felix burst through the small opening in the door, noticing the still and stuttering Cry and teary eyed, spacing out Krism. "Oh, uh... Sorry. You still need to talk?"
"No, I've got everything. Thanks for h-helping, Cry..." Krism pulls her backpack over her shoulders and helps Cry up, her grip small but firm, as she pulls him up to his feet.
"Good, ok. Let's go." Felix slings an arm over each of their shoulders as they make their way to the front office of the complex, Cry gripping his rusted pipe from earlier tighter and tighter with each step.
"You two, stay close, got it?" Cry says, not really asking at all, but giving an order, to Felix and Krism, holding his arm out to stop them as they reach the door.
"Yes, Cry." Felix sighs monotonely, having heard this line almost exactly in every single airport or bus stop they'd ever been at. "We won't leave your side." Krism giggled and rolled her eyes.
"Okay, here goes nothing." Cry pushes the door open, hesitating before rushing out into the grim streets. "Which way to your girls' house, Kris?"
"Left." Krism says quietly, but quickly her eyes wide with shock as a walker rounds the corner across the street, eyeing them with a wistful glance before turning onto some smaller critter near it.
"Ok," Cry says. "Left it is." They turn the corner, Cry swinging the pipe forcefully into the hungry walker's leftover head, knocking it to the ground, a hole in its skull. Krism gasps, slowing down a second before covering her mouth and walking faster, but as quiet as possible to catch up to the boys.
"Go straight forward and take a right at the corner. She's in the apartment complex on Maple." She says, voice cracking with fear. "And- can we hurry, I have a bad feeling a-about this." Krism could barely keep her voice from shaking when she thought of the near future and how her girlfriend would be.
"Felix, take Krism over there for a sec, huh?" Cry spoke up, catching Krisms' shaking figure from the corner of his vision.
"Cry...?" Felix questioned his friends' sudden change of conversation.
"Go.." Cry barked quietly back to him, sensing his urgency, finally.
"Gotcha, Friend." Felix caught Cry's glance and gave him a small smile.
"Cry... what's going on? Please, you can tell me.." Krism whispered and padded behind Crys' tall figure. He stayed planted to his position, kneeling down and tried her best to calm her bouncing nerves. She tried to wretch his arm towards her in order to move him to face her. But, without any luck, he only cringed more into himself. Soon enough, his shoulders were in a steady motion going up and down.
"Cry..." Krism and Cry both heard the gentle voice of Felix, realizing he could be of help at the moment.
"Cry, trust me.." Krism tried to get his attention again, and turned from Felix once again. She let go of him, and got to her feet slowly, getting more concerned by the minute as to why he was shaking.
"Krism, can I have a moment?" She nodded at Felix's words, and scuttered a few feet away, so as not to intrude, and not to get noticed by their new 'friends' trying to eat their faces off.
"Cry, shh, look at me, Cry?" Felix tried to quiet the small figure of Cry, noticing his tears hit the dirt of the road.
"I'm-m f-fine." Cry tried to reassure, but to no avail. "We need to go, I'm-m fine. Seriously Felix, tell Krism to find herself a weapon. Now." He tried his best to sound authoritative, but that backwashed as quickly as it came. Soon enough, Cry was being held by Felix, and Krism slowly made her way to the boys. She got to her knees, still wary of walkers, and looked to the spot Cry was at, and saw something that she was surprised to ever see again. It was a picture from before the apocalypse, one that she had taken herself, right before it all ended. Underneath the beautiful glowing sun-tanned picture, was a caption. But why would Cry be such a mess over something so small, so useless?