After an even longer and more miserable period of writer's block, I am back.
Arvo woke suddenly, breathing heavily as if he had just come up from being dunked into black, icy water. He felt disoriented and vaguely uncomfortable; the kind of feeling one gets right after waking up from a nightmare without being able to recall the specifics. It was so dark that he could hardly tell if his eyes were open or closed. Arvo took a brief look around, trying to catch some semblance of light in his field of vision while his hands scrabbled about on the ground, desperately trying to find something to hold onto.
"Ryabina?" He called meekly. "Where did you go?"
Arvo stood on unsteady legs, his heart still racing as he limped through the ill-lit house. Why is it so dark in here? He didn't even remember where he had first woken up in his frantic attempt to locate Rowan, the more walls he banged into the more discouraged he became. Upon rounding the corner, his bad leg knocked into the large trash can in the corner and he fell forward, palms hitting the floor. You're right back where you started.
Across the room, he could hear footsteps. Almost immediately he turned around and began to back away while trying to get up at the same time, which only resulted in him falling back onto the ground. His hand was on his gun at that second, forgetting he was out of bullets and might as well have been completely blind, considering how dark it was. "I-I will shoot! Do not move!"
The sound of movement ceased the second he spoke. He waved the gun around, the feeling that he was pointing at nothing no matter where his arm went grew stronger every second, feeding into his panicked state. "Stay away!"
"It's just me, what the hell!?" Rowan cried.
Arvo let the weapon fall to the ground at that second. "Oh." He got to his knees and tried to register what had just happened. "Oh, thank God."
"The fire went out, and I couldn't get it to go again." She continued regretfully, "It's so cold now…"
"So no one is out there, yes?" He asked nervously.
"I didn't see anyone...Why?' She asked, as if she already knew what his answer would be.
"Are you sure?" He ignored her question and stood up. "Where were you?"
"Yes, I'm sure! Quit acting like this, you're scaring me."
"I can't." He admitted quietly. "I'm scared too...Ryabina, something bad is going to happen."
"Like what?"
"I do not know." He bit his lip.
"Something bad is always happening." She replied.
She didn't sleep, but couldn't bring herself to talk either, and neither did Arvo. They leaned against the wall and let the hours pass until the sunlight finally began to seep through the window. Rowan clenched the fabric in her pockets tighter, trying to keep her fingers warm. The embers that once thrived in the fireplace had all gone out, for good this time; she knew there was no point trying to resurrect it when they'd be leaving anyway.
"You need to tell me where you want to go." She finally spoke, exhaling.
"Chto? I do not know where yet."
"You have to, we're alone now." She insisted, the truth of that statement dawning on her the second it left her mouth. "It feels so wrong to say that."
Arvo put his chin in his hands. "That we are alone?"
She nodded, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm glad we met, okay?" She clung to the sleeve of his jacket, as if he'd slip away with her saying so. "I would have died if you didn't help me." It was something she told to everyone but him.
"I-I'm happy too. About you, I mean. Not...this." Arvo gestured to nothing in particular. "Do not cry about good things."
"I can't help it." Rowan rubbed at her eye. "All that stuff I said about finding a place to live, I don't even know what I'm talking about. There's nothing out there no matter where we go, we're just gonna die eventually."
He was quiet for a long time after that, and then offered in a tone that made her unsure if he was kidding or not, "If we do, then at least we can die together, yes?"
"How romantic of you." Rowan said dryly.
"Really?"
She laughed, the kind of laugh that tickled inside of her chest. "I only said that stuff about us saving ourselves so you'd talk to me again. I thought you were never going to talk again."
"So you do not really think there is a place out there for us to be safe?"
"I used to. I used to live in one. But I don't, not anymore. Kenny kept talking about Wellington, and whenever anyone asked him where it was, all he'd say was 'up near Michigan.' What the fuck does that even mean? That could be Canada, for all we know."
"Then we go to Canada." He joked. "That's where we can go. I like Canada better anyway."
"We'd need better coats. But seriously, even if a place like that is still around, we'll probably never find it."
"You know, I told my sister that I would rather be in this hell with her, than at home without her. My country-my home, is probably as fucked as this one, but it is thought that count."
She leaned into his shoulder and smiled. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. Everyone else I have known is dead or gone, you are it."
Rowan was in the same position, though she didn't voice it, she knew that he was aware.
"I feel like I love you sometimes." He continued.
As soon as he spoke, she sat up again. "Y-you're kidding, right? You don't mean that."
"I-I don't know."
"Don't say stuff like that, we've only known each other for like, two weeks. Quit playing around."
"I'm not." He said, narrowing his eyes. "Time is different now. It feels longer, somehow...Do you not feel that?"
"Just because it feels that way doesn't mean it is."
"So, you feel it too?" He asked again.
"Can you just stop? Please. I don't want to think about this right now." Rowan said quickly, still not sure what exactly to say to him.
"Okay, if you do not want to, is fine."
Rowan couldn't leave it at that. If she did, every silence they had from here on out would be suffocating. "I'm not saying I don't want to ever, just not now, do you get that?"
Arvo only shrugged. "Sure."
He seems so nonchalant. Rowan half expected him to flip out on her, or cry even; have some sort of outburst of negative emotion. But he was quiet, and somehow that was worse-she didn't know how he actually felt. If he really was mad at her, she would have known by now-he never kept his anger secret.
Arvo didn't know what to expect from her when he said that. He didn't even know himself why he had said what he did, she was right-he didn't mean it. But he wanted to mean it.
Rowan didn't seem angry at him; she still held his hand to help him navigate the shin-deep snow and kept making the effort to speak with him as they made their trek towards the town; though everything she had to say was just inane small-talk. They were moving at a pitifully slow pace, and he knew it was because of him and his damn leg-but Rowan kept with him. Even though she told him she didn't want things to be different, he couldn't help but think he had ruined things between them, somehow.
The time he had spent in the unfinished house couldn't have been much longer than a month-but he still felt a pang of sadness seeing it shrink more and more each time he looked over his shoulder. Now it was nothing but a dark speck in his field of vision; a blot of ink on a great white canvass. If it had been finished all the way, he would have rode out the entire end of the world in that house out in the middle of the woods, away from both the dead and the living.
Taking the road proved to be a more direct path to the town, and soon Rowan began to recognize her surroundings. She adjusted her backpack and looked towards the familiar stone-arch bridge.
"Close now." Arvo confirmed with a nod.
She knew it'd be a terrible idea to mention that this is where she had met Maeve, considering how poorly Arvo had reacted the first time, so she kept quiet as they reached the bridge. If the girl were still in the area, she probably had set up a place here, but she definitely wasn't going to mention that to him either. I'm sure she's moved on now, anyway. Either way, Rowan knew he didn't want to spend any more time here than they had to, and in all honesty-she didn't either.
A drift had piled up at the bottom of the bridge; the curve of the structure too steep to hold up all the snow that had fallen, despite the fact that it wasn't as bad as it had been the last time she had gone out.
Rowan clutched the cold metal railing and pulled herself up over the pile, kicking over some of the snow to make it easier for Arvo to cross. Though the rail was ice cold, she couldn't help but cling to it as they continued to walk. She looked to the side, observing the winding riverbank. Arvo, on the other hand, was looking straight ahead with a grim expression, as if he were scoping for threats that lie miles ahead of them.
Once they made it to the other side, Rowan was stunned at how quickly the scenery changed. The trees gave way to houses, cars, streetlights-abandoned houses, dead cars, broken streetlights...but the novelty of it all was still preserved. Many of the houses on the block were surrounded by brick walls and tall, Victorian-style fences. It probably kept the majority of walkers out, not that a big enough herd wouldn't be able to knock down gates-but they wouldn't go attacking obvious barriers without being provided a reason to do so.
Arvo would occasionally stop by certain cars, inspecting them and mumbling inaudibly. Rowan paused when he did, taking in her surroundings whenever he was busy. It had been a long time since she had set foot in an urban area, and though the dangers of being back in a place like this were fresh in her mind, she couldn't stop herself from reveling in her nostalgic feelings.
As they ventured further they found themselves on what she assumed was the main street. Houses began to turn into little retail stores, restaurants, and above those-the likely apartments of whoever owned said shops. When she stared down the alleyways, many of them were still filled with decorations; lights strung up, drawings spray-painted onto the walls, empty pots on the balconies that likely once held plants and so on.
"What are you looking for?" She asked after they came upon the fifth car.
Arvo growled angrily and kicked one of the tires with his good leg. "You would not know."
"There's an entire town full of cars, we'll find something eventually." Rowan reasoned. "We need to find a place to stay now, or look for supplies. I need more bullets, and I know you do too." There is no way the entire town has been picked clean, that's impossible.
He looked like he wanted to disagree for a moment, but instead sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Da. Let's go."
Arvo moved off the road and onto the sidewalk, pulling ahead of her a bit. He passed by a hopelessly totaled vehicle that looked as if it had crashed into a streetlamp, freezing suddenly. Rowan bounded through the snow to catch up to him, and paused when she heard the sound of snarling. Arvo ducked beside the vehicle and she quickly followed, kneeling down into the snow.
"Walkers." She gasped as Arvo began to creep forward, trying to pinpoint where exactly the noise was coming from. "I think they're in the alleyway up there-"
"Der'mo!" He lurched forward, falling onto his knees into the snow.
"What!?"
"I tripped on-"
Rowan looked up to see the chain-link gate from around the corner of the building beginning to slide open. As it dragged along it began to pile up snow and got caught, but left just enough space for a walker to lean onto the door and push past it.
Arvo scrambled backwards immediately as more walkers came from around the corner, and Rowan grabbed his arm and helped him up.
"Where do we go?" He asked, wide eyed.
Rowan led him around the crashed car, the walkers ambling towards them, slower than usual. The snow slows them down too. She pulled him out into the street, heading for the other sidewalk before veering off down the road. The walkers did not think to turn around, instead shambling alongside the car until the barrier was out of their way. By then, they already had a slight lead on the dead.
"I can't move! Chert voz'mi!" Arvo was awkwardly dragging himself through the snow, hardly able to lift up his bad leg.
"Keep going!" Rowan said, holding onto his arm even tighter than before as they rounded another corner. "They're going slow too! Just don't stop."
She took every opportunity she had to confuse the walkers and put them through obstacles, knocking over garbage bins that weren't nailed to the floor, weaving through any crashed vehicles to slow them down, and it seemed to be working-they fell for everything.
Arvo kept in a straight line whenever he could, focusing on moving forward and not much else, trusting her to confuse the walkers enough to keep their lead. Rowan looked over her shoulder, frustrated at how compact the group of walkers were. If there was space, she could pick them off one by one with her knife, but she knew the second she drew close they'd surround her easily on such a narrow pathway, and she wasn't willing to risk that until they were in an open area.
"Look!" Rowan pointed towards the intersection at the end of the street. Another tall, black fence like the ones she had seen earlier was not far. "Go there!" She said, grabbing onto his arm again. This section of the street had nothing for them to hide behind. They just had to move, and hope that the walkers wouldn't catch up with them.
When they made it down the street and to the gate, she began searching for the latch with increased desperation. "I can't find it!"
"It's on other side!" Arvo hissed beside her, glancing behind them. The walkers were still advancing on them, even with the snowfall holding them back.
Rowan quickly looked up at the fence, noticing the points at the top and the horizontal bars running across it. "I can get up there and unlock it." She told him, and without hesitation Arvo linked his fingers together and boosted her up over the fence.
With his help she was able to latch onto the upper part of the gate and pull herself upward. She hoisted herself over the fence and landed awkwardly on her hip, the snow doing little to brace her fall. Ow. Slightly stunned, she got to her feet and ran to the gate just as Arvo threw their bags over the fence. Hands shaking, she found the latch and undid it, opening the gate in time for Arvo to squeeze through and help her lock it back up.
"You okay?" He asked, panting.
"Are you?" Rowan countered, concerned with how hard the run had been on him.
Arvo nodded as she moved towards their bags, ignoring the walkers that had begun to pile up and reach through the open slots in the fence. She unzipped his bag and pulled out one of the water bottles. "Here."
After he finished drinking and handed it off to her, he pointed to the walkers, "Someone did that to us."
"What?" She asked once she was done drinking.
"I tripped on rope. The gate did not open by itself." Arvo said darkly.
"Okay." Rowan said calmly, not sure if she believed him or not. The memory of the walker's head in the trash-can that day came back to her, and she narrowed her eyes. The whole city must be full of traps like that, then. Who would go through all that trouble? It's probably the same person.
"You do not believe me." He said indignantly. "Ya ne mogu poverit v eto der'mo!"
"No no, I do." She said softly. "...Someone did it, obviously."
Arvo looked towards the building. "They are fucking with us, whoever they are."
"Not just us, anyone who sets foot in the place."
"They are after me, Rowan. Please listen to me." Arvo begged.
"Okay, so they are, whoever they are." She snapped. "What are we going to do about that right now? We're stuck here until those things wander away or we kill them, so we should probably focus on that first."
Upon seeing the hurt look on his still slightly-bruised face, she felt bad. "Let's just go inside for now, alright? We need to take care of one thing at a time." I just hope whoever set that trap didn't intend to lead us here.
