*Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to South Park
Chapter Ten
My brain felt like it was a few seconds away from melting. I think I was suffering from an overload of information, or trauma, or something. It's like everything I'd encountered the last few days had finally caught up to me, and I'd never bothered to ask questions about them before. Like, the weird strain of virus that Craig seemed to have, the fact that we ran into another zombie identical to his condition, the idea that there are now undead mutilated dogs begging to get a taste of my liver! And now Craig confessed that he knew who took Bebe. Jesus, I wanted to scream, I wanted cry, I wanted to bury my head in the ground and never see the light of day again. But I didn't do any of those things. Instead, I simply stopped walking and leaned against a thick rotting tree.
I ignored Craig's questioning glance in favor of staring forward. I ran a hand through my crusty hair, reminded of the fact that I was currently covered with flaking black goo. A shaky breath escaped my lungs and I closed my eyes, slowly sliding down the rough tree bark and sitting on the damp forest floor. Craig awkwardly stood above me, his face torn between asking me if I was okay or just staying silent.
I ended the dilemma for him.
"Who are these people," I murmured, "that took you, and now Bebe?"
Craig was quiet, before he carefully sat down in front of me, picking at the long jagged scab that ran down his arm. I rubbed black flakes off of my baseball bat as I waited for him to answer. Honestly, I wasn't completely sure if I even wanted to know what he was about to tell me.
"I don't know their names specifically." Craig finally spoke. "There were a bunch of them, maybe there's even more now." He shrugged.
"So who are they?" I asked impatiently. "Why t-the hell would they take you and Bebe?"
"Just listen. If you didn't already guessed, I haven't really been telling you the truth. But I'm going to now. So please, Tweek, don't fucking interrupt me every other sentence."
I bit the inside of my cheek, nodding for Craig to continue instead of spitting back a retort.
" I left South Park shortly after it went down, like you and Bebe did. I drove out through a rush of mad people." A bitter look contorted his features. "I didn't bother finding my family. I assumed they got out of there—but if they didn't—that's not the last thing I wanted to remember them as, you know?" I nodded.
"W-Wait," I interrupted, "so, that wasn't your cousin's house? You made all that up?"
"I'm getting there." Craig growled. "Now shut up.
"Like I was saying, I got out of South Park, but I screwed myself over. I had no food, water, or even a weapon to fight off the monsters running around. I drove for hours before stopping at an abandoned house off the freeway. The place was left open.
"The kitchen had barely any shit in it. But I managed to collect a few bags of chips for later. I was thinking that I could make it through whatever the hell was going on. I planned on barricading myself in that house, and to simply wait for the chaos to blow over." Craig scoffed, rubbing a pale hand over his face. "It worked for a few days, until the water got shut off. Then after that it seemed like all hell broke loose.
"Zombies swarmed the place, and the only thing my sorry ass had to protect myself was a lamp stand. I thought I was done for.
"But then I heard voices. Like, actual voices. And shots. Before I knew it, the zombies around me were being mowed down and dropping like flies. I remember feeling like I was about to shit my organs out." I made a face at Craig's last remark but he kept going. "These two guys were the only ones left standing…" Craig squinted his eyes, like he had trouble remembering what happened next. "And the next thing I knew they were coming toward me. I think one of them injected me with some sort of drug or some shit, because the next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital room."
"Were you a zombie?" I squeaked.
Craig shook his head no.
"I was still—uh—human. I got up to leave the room, but it was locked. I banged on the door for what felt like hours before some dude dressed in all white finally opened it. I was pissed and asked him what was going on. He told me that I was in a safe place, Hells Pass, actually." My eyes widened. "He said that they made a vaccine—for the virus I guess—and it was my lucky day.
"And it's not like I was about to question the guy. I was just glad everything was over, so I followed him. I could hear people banging from inside their rooms, and maybe that's where I should have run off, but I didn't. " Craig mumbled, looking almost ashamed. "The guy took me to the psych ward. There were bunches of other people walking around in white too. It was the most people I'd seen in days.
"I was put into a room with nothing but a bed and a woman, who was standing there with a syringe. I remember that she looked so happy, and told me that the solution was in her hands or something like that. So anyway, she stuck the shit in my arm and it hurt like hell. I felt like liquid lava was being injected into my veins. "
"Then did you become a zombie?" I asked.
"No." Craig rolled his eyes. "Despite how fucked up the situation was, I still didn't question anything. Until they led me to a small room with nothing in it. There were windows, where I could see some more people in their white lab coats. I think they shoved me into an observation room or some shit." Craig's face turned to anger so suddenly that I flinched back against the tree slightly.
"I didn't know what was happening. I tried talking with whoever was on the other side of the glass, but they ignored me. Then, the next thing I knew, a chained up, rotting zombie was shoved into the same room that I was in." Craig paused, flexing his blue fingers. "It bit me, obviously, in the arm. The doctors shot it before it could finish me off.
"Clearly the vaccine didn't work. Not all the way, anyway. I began turning fast." Craig hesitated with his next words, like he wasn't sure on what to say next. "And, uh, luckily I escaped—then you found me."
I could tell there were details Craig was purposefully leaving out, but I decided not to ask him about it. My brain was still stirring with the new information he had given me.
"S-So you're telling me," I began shakily, clenching my bat, "that there are people…taking other people, and basically experimenting on them?" I peeled off my blood-crusted glove and rubbed at my eyes, tears springing from them immediately. We were screwed. It was probably too late for Bebe, unless she got away. I was such a bad friend. I couldn't even rescue her.
"Hey," Craig mumbled awkwardly, nudging my arm, "don't start crying damn it."
"She's probably dead man." I sniffled, looking up at Craig through bleary eyes. "T-there's no point in getting her now."
Craig furrowed his brow, rubbing at the back of his neck. "She could be alive." He didn't sound so sure. "Besides, once we find the road again, it's basically a straight shot to South Park. I didn't just drag your sobbing ass all this way for nothing." Craig grumbled, standing up and brushing off his jeans. He offered me a rotten hand, and I pulled my glove back on before taking it. I grunted as Craig hoisted me up, holding my baseball bat in my other hand. We stood there awkwardly for a moment, Craig's hand still holding mine, before I ripped it away.
"Ngh—why didn't you tell me any of this from the beginning?" I couldn't help but ask. I was pissed—don't get me wrong, but at the same time, I felt too exhausted to do anything about it. Plus, I couldn't just ignore the fact that Craig had saved my ass a countless amount of times since this whole ordeal began. I mean, I was covered in the guy's blood for God's sake!
Craig bit his lip and began to walk again. I followed him for the purpose of finding the road before more mutant creatures would attack me. "I already told you," he sighed, "I didn't want you flipping your shit."
"You never seemed to care if I 'flipped my shit' before." I spat back. Craig frowned at that but stayed quiet. We walked in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before I asked, "Can't you just find the scent trail and lead us back to the road?"
"Well—uh—" Craig glanced at the dead forest floor, "…I kind of lied about that too. Zombies can't see scent trails. I just made that up so you'd follow me." He said sheepishly. "It was pretty stupid, actually. I'm surprised you believed it."
I was tempted to smack his head off, but that would take too much energy.
"Jesus, tell me Craig," I seethed, "is there anything you've told me that is the truth?"
"I just told you the truth." Craig growled back defensively.
I didn't argue, instead I gruffly inquired, "Once we get back on the road, how m-much farther is South Park?"
"Why are you asking me, I'll probably just lie about it."
This time I actually hit Craig in the side with my bat. He yelped before stumbling forward.
"Ow, Tweek, what the fuck?"
"I'm sorry man!" I cried innocently. "My arm just had a—ngh—spasm!"
"You know, I don't have to be so nice to you." Craig retaliated.
I simply pursed my lips and held the bat to my chest. "You call this being nice?"
"Yeah. I could have eaten you. You don't even smell shitty, at least not compared to the crap I eat." Craig pointed out.
"So you're saying, that you're being nice by letting me live?" I clarified.
"Yep."
"Well," I narrowed my eyes, "how do you know I'm not being nice by letting you live?" I shot back, pointing my baseball bat in his direction like a large wooden finger.
"You couldn't kill me." Craig scoffed, seeming to find the idea hilarious.
"Sure I could! I've killed hundreds of zombies!" That may have been over exaggerated.
"Hundreds?" Craig raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
"Yes." I held my baseball bat up proudly. "Hundreds."
We fell quiet again. Craig didn't look as if he believed me, not that I expected him to.
"Hey." I suddenly said, catching the zombie's attention. "W-What went through your head when you were put into that room with a zombie?"
"Nothing besides a string of curses." Craig replied cheekily, but when I didn't laugh he sighed. "That I'd been duped," he answered honestly, "and that I was screwed. You know how when you're shoved into situations like that, you begin thinking about what you could have done differently to avoid it? That's what I was thinking mostly. I shouldn't have just followed them around like a stupid sheep. I shouldn't have let them shoot shit up my arm. Then my thoughts went further back than that. Like, I thought about how I should have left the house instead of holing myself in it. Or, I should have gone back to get my family." Craig paused; he picked at the scab on his arm again. "I should have done a lot of things." And when Craig looked at me, for some reason, it felt like he was talking about things that have happened long before the zombies popped out of the ground.
I looked away, unable to hold eye contact. "I thought that too." I admitted shakily. I could see Craig peer at me curiously from the corner of my eye.
"When?"
I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks, so I continued to stare at the ground, hoping that Craig wouldn't notice (he probably did though). "Um—when you—uh—ki-bit me." I squeaked. I didn't dare look at Craig, but I remembered an odd thought that flashed through my mind: if a zombie were to blush from embarrassment, would they blush black?
"Oh." Craig replied shortly.
"Well, like," I sputtered, trying to dispel the awkward, "it was only natural! I-I thought about how I should h-have killed you, or stayed with Bebe—or-or never stopped off at the town! You can't blame me, you're the one that bit me."
"I didn't bite you." Craig mumbled gruffly.
My head snapped up then, and I was surprised to see Craig in the posture that I was just in, with his coal black eyes fixed on the ground.
"Then what did you do?" I asked, not really expecting an answer. We walked several steps in silence before Craig finally answered.
"I kissed you."
Wow, who deserves worst author of the year? I DO! This update isn't even that LONG for me to use the excuse that it took me forever to write. I'm so sorry I haven't been updating, and that this chapter may have been a disappointment, but I promise very soon the chapters will be more action packed…and creeky!
**Thank you Darker Than Black12, Vember 85, Creek Grrl, ttaf1991, Goregeous, Monthadog, . , xoxjesiixox, OsinR, Sandy x Maxwell 4ever, tar mouth, reyrocks, Anon, and TheDeepestEmeraldGreen for your lovely reviews!