Chapter 19- Power of the Rose.
Upon further investigation, it turned out that the bulldozer was actually functional. It was a gift from Jane and Hank's graves. Rebecca volunteered to take it back to Wellington alone, and when she was met with protest letting a pregnant woman go off alone, she responded that she was used to this line of work, and that she didn't get those arms from nowhere.
And so, Kenny sat in the car driving, with Clementine in the passenger seat. It was certainly less crowded. Jane was gone, and Rebecca was making her way back to Wellington on her own. The car was silent. That was yet another death in the group, and the question 'How many more?' could not be answered on its own. Only time would tell.
Clementine was tearing up.
"Hey. Don't you worry." Kenny said. He turned to her, and put his arm on her shoulder. "Hank was a great guy. He's the reason we made it as far as we did today. We can't ever thank him enough." He smiled.
"That's not it." She said. "I don't feel safe at Wellington." The tears were streaming down her face. After what had just happened to them, they still had to go back and explain what happened to Cathy. She would probably be wondering where they are right now, although Kenny did leave her a note, he heated his I's just like any hunty would.
In the middle of their serious conversation, Luke took out a bag of chips and opened them. The ruffling of the bag was the only thing that could be heard, and Luke was chewing so loudly. No one had ever taught him any matters! He would surely get a dragging once they made it back to Wellington.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
"Luke! Can that wait?" Clementine snipped at him . He threw his doritos out the window.
"Oh my god! Can I live?" He yelled back. He had a scowl on his face in the back seat. "This is oppression in it's worst form. This is AMERICA, of the FREE." Kenny laughed.
"OH no. It's not America no more, it's AmericOURS." Kenny was driving, but he hadn't once glanced at the road. Several small children were in the middle of the lane but no one noticed, he killed them all instantly. Kenny looked back at Clem, a concerned look. "You okay Clemmy?" The rest of the group continued as normal, most had dozed off. Kenny didn't look at the road and continued steering with his feet. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you having your first 'girl time'?"
Clementine's face quickly turned a shade of Emilie. She gasped and covered her mouth, "No! I don't even know what that is!" She tried to hide in shame but there was nowhere to go. At the most unlucky time, Rebecca's face appeared in the windshield. She was staring at Clementine, her face reminiscent to Björk or Sky Lee.
"I remember my first." Rebecca looked into the window, the passing scenery slowly changing. Her head had manifested in the window from thin air.
"First period?" Clementine didn't really want to know.
"No… my first pregnancy."
SOME TIME AGO.
Rebecca and Alvin were scavenging for supplies, her baby bump slightly showing. They were running so low on food, and since she was eating for two, perhaps more, they would need some food right away. They were at their local Chuck E Cheese, there would be so much food there if it wasn't already found.
"I'm starvin, hun." Rebecca moaned. She would really love some leftover pizza, even feathers would be good to eat. The tickets were a wonderful source of protein too, they used to keep her full for ages as a kid. It was part of her mama's special recipe, recipes that she would never give up. Alvin was rummaging around the coin machines, perhaps they'd find some delicious treats in there as well.
"If I don't get some food soon...I'm gonna start eating everything I see." Her arms were somehow deflated in her desperate hunger. No bulging arms, no nothing. Things were getting bad. Alvin used to love to fondle her strong, cattle like arms. But now, they were like overcooked Maruchan ramen noodles. In fact, not even Maruchan. They were more like Top Ramen noodles. They were truly flaccid, and every time Alvin looked at them for more than three seconds, he would vomit. Not even Maruchan. What a spectacle.
Rebecca was gnawing on the little lunch tables, hoping to suckle on some old dried pizza cheese. There was always nutrition in those. But then, their prayers were answered. She saw it. The Chuck E Cheese ticket blaster. There would be so many tickets in it. Rebecca ran over, her small stomach bumping into Alvin.
"Get me in here right now." She commended him. Alvin did what she said. Any lip from him, and she could would rip him a new one. Those pregnancy hormones were getting to her. But getting in the way of her tickets would be certain death.
The vacuum powered up, and the precious tickets shot out. It was heaven on earth. They were so good, and they kept you so full, as long as one didn't get a paper cut, or eat too many. Rebecca was no stranger to constipation as a child. The tickets really riled her up, they did. She was bumping into the walls of the blaster, but she didn't care. She was being ticket blasted. It wasn't until the glass inside cracked when things went wrong.
The air was so hot in there, she remembered. She banged against the machine, sliding her hands all around the spicy tickets. "That's how I like it!" Just then she slammed her stomach against the wall, an act of exhibitionism against the glass. When a cord snapped. The ticket machine turned over on its side. The lightbulb had popped during the catastrophe, leaving Rebecca stuck, in the dark. She waited for Alvin, for days. Even though after the first hour she knew he had gone. Where? Was none of her concern. Why? Was a bigger issue. The little ticket tube turned into her little ticket HELL.
She counted the tickets, there were so many tickets in there with her. She didn't know how much time had passed, but her voice felt numb from screaming. 82 tickets. She had been sure she fell asleep 3 times, now for how long she did not know. She had become terribly thirsty, probably about a day later. She tried drinking the sweat off her clothing, but no luck. The tickets… they stared at her. She felt near death, like on the line of life and death itself. The tickets had begun to decompose, sealing her ironic fate. The smell of rotten paper burned a hole through her nose- debilitating her of her sense of smell. She touched her tongue, it was cracked and rigid. She needed water. She hummed a song to herself, wondering where Alvin was and if he was thinking of her. She prayed, she prayed hard, but the lord offered her no mercy that night. She was desperate, pleading with the gods! Someone had to release her of her torture! A light shone down, offering her a way out of the vending machine. It led her downwards, down to the darkest place she had ever known. Much darker than the vending machine. Rebecca was met with a voice, one that spoke with guile.
"And why should I release you?" The voice cracked. Rebecca's body was nonexistent. Just her thoughts were alive.
"Because I am with child." Rebecca tried to look around but she learned quickly she had no eyes.
"And If you were to choose between your child's life and yours? Who would you pick?" Rebecca looked down, she knew what to say.
"Mine" The voice was not as shocked as Rebecca was to say that. She meant to say the child's but for some reason in this plane she could not lie. The voice laughed, and laughed.
"Then you shall continue to live… forever…. cursed to birth yourself for all eternity!" WIth that the world all spun back to the ticket machine. She was alive, once again! Trapped, once again. She felt something odd though, something- suddenly her stomach grew 10x sizes. It bloomed all at once. The ticket machine felt an immense amount of pressure, a struggle between the metal and her stomach. POP. The machine had cracked open. Steam, moisture, scent all poured from the tomb. A baby's cry pierced the previously silent room. Rebecca stood over her other dead body. She had just squeezed out a 34 year old woman out of her avocado hole. She was soaked in blood, and tickets. She wiped her cheek, and rubbed her equally pregnant stomach, to leave the Chuck E. Cheese a new woman.
Clementine stared in astonishment, she was the only one to hear what happened to Rebecca. Her story. Her struggle. Her deal. Clementine was the only one to know. Rebecca's face eventually faded from the window. Perhaps this was all planned. She would take the bulldozer home, and then contact her telepathically. It was the perfect crime in a way. If anyone else found out...there would be fallout. Clementine's Ascension was enough to deal with anyway.
Clementine decided that she needed some relaxing ambience for the rest of the ride home. She turned on the radio, and the blissful static emanated from the radio. The frequency was on 97.5 AM. The static from the radio was so soft, and it felt like there were mini-people inside it all shushing the entire car. Clementine found herself dozing off to the blissful static. It was beautiful, really.
Luke sat up. "Can we change the station, please? I don't like this static." His fedora was over his eyes, looking mysterious. She turned around in the seat.
"No. I like this station." She responded. Luke was not getting any radio privileges after abandoning them after they got so close to Wellington. He wasn't even in the passenger seat. How dare he overstep his bounds? This wasn't his decision. Luke was an asshole.
"Clementine, seriously. We just had a great beach day, are you really going to ruin it?" He retorted. The nerve of him! Clementine frowned.
"Shut the hell up Luke! I don't care about this beach day. 97.5 is the best station to listen to the static! I've been at this just as long as you have, but somehow I know my shit better." Responded Clementine. "What station do you want, anyway?"
"I want 106.1. They have more of a calming tune for me." That was it for Clem. 106.1 had the most obnoxious ring to it, and she was not having any of it. 97.5 was the best station on the radio. Clementine ignored his pestering requests to change the radio's frequency.
"Clementine! I swear if you don't change it I'll do it myself! This just ain't right. The discrimination against men must be stopped. No one gets how hard it is to be me in society." He said, while tears are streaming down his face. "It's because I'm a man, right?" He continued. "You know what? Forget it." Just then, Luke jumped up through the seat, hitting into Emilie and Kim, who cried out in pain and changed the radio. Clementine knocked his hand back, and the entire upper part of his body hit into Kenny, who swerved off the road.
"Woah! Everybody hold on!" He said in a cliché matter. The entire group was yelling as Kenny was weaving in between trees, and at the fact of how horrid 106.1's static was. Clementine was right after all. 97.5 was way better. Although, that didn't matter. In a second it would all be over. Their car ride of terror stopped abruptly when Kenny rammed the Beetle right through the walls of Wellington. Their 8 day and 8 night road trip was over, and even though the vehicle was down two people, still no one had a good time. Rebecca came running out of the house, her leg muscles almost as swole as her arm muscles.
"My lord, hunnies! Talk about an explosive entrance." She shouted. The wall was broken, and Cathy was standing behind Rebecca. She was scowling.
"You broke the Wellington Statue." Was all Cathy managed to say. Clementine looked down, and saw crumbled stone all over.
"Oh no. We didn't even see a statue!" Clementine explained. Cathy walked over to the car, reached under the front hood and picked up a ruined statue. It was as big as a jelly bean. Clementine was covering her mouth in surprise. It was almost completely shattered.
"This statue was of the man who founded our wonderful town. in 1818, Ephraim Wilcox settled here. And it was the start of something new. Everything he worked for was of course completely destroyed with the impending apocalypse and all, but this helped the townspeople, helped them hope that one day we could have something lasting. This can't be possible with some people in your group. Especially since you stole one of the vehicles on reserve here, and on top of that you couldn't even bring all nine of you back; Edith, bring out the table." Edith rolled out a table with seven roses on it. Cathy picked up the first rose, and held it up to the group, who all formed a shoulder to shoulder line.
"Here on this table rests seven roses. Seven of you will be staying here at Wellington with us. The eighth person shall be packing their bags and leaving today. To start. this has been such a crazy few weeks with you nine- well, eight now. But I know for the rest of my life I will never forget it. That is why this first rose will go to...Clementine." Cathy explained. Clementine showed a relieved look on her face. She walked up to cathy. "Will you accept this rose?" Cathy asked.
"Of course I will." Clementine said. Cathy smiled at her.
Cathy picked up the second rose, and held it up in the air. She studied the group's nervous looks, this was the power of the rose. It would likely be deciding the rest of their lives.
"Emilie." Emilie smiled. She would be getting the second rose!
"Will you accept this rose?" Cathy said, staring straight into Emilie's eyes.
"Why yes!" Emilie exclaimed. There were only five roses left, and six survivors. Fate spun the wheel on whether they live or die. Someone's end was coming, and it was coming swiftly. Cathy picked up the third rose. She smiled yet again.
"Rebecca." Rebecca walked up to Cathy.
"Will you accept this rose?" Asked Cathy.
"I'd love to." She responded. Cathy was enjoying this sick game. This wasn't an episode of The Bachelorette, it was serious. But Cathy gave no fucks. The fourth rose was given out quickly to Sarah, who then stood a bit closer to Clementine. The fifth rose was given to Kim. Luckily for Mike, he was to receive the sixth rose.
After this, it was down to Kenny and Luke. Both of them have caused their own number of problems in and out of Wellington, and how much of it was known to Cathy could not be told. Suspenseful music started to play from Edith's stereo in order to set the mood.
"Now, I know this has been quite the turn of events for you all, and this decision was not made easily. Both of you have been able to offer what you could in the time that you were here, but since Luke arrived, he has not stopped ranting about SJWs. He smells really bad, eats nothing but taquitos and Mountain Dew, and has the IQ of a rock. But regardless, he has helped the town get hot water. Kenny is a strong man, and he was able to hold and carry heavy things for people around town, for example the time he helped lug around ten-thousand pillows at once for Edith." Edith smiled at Kenny, who then mouthed a thank you. Her earmuffs were particularly happy as well. Kenny and Luke though, were both at their wits end with this terribly long ceremony, they had gone pale in the face and both of them were shaking.
"But in the end, there is only one rose left. One of you will be going home today." Cathy looked down solemnly, contemplating her decision one last time, before it could never be changed again. She said her next few words with a frown on her face.
"Luke." Kenny's tears could not be stopped, even if there were cement in his eyes they would not be stopped. It was over for him.
"Will you accept this rose, Luke?" She asked. Luke looked back to Kenny, his fedora once again covering his eyes, although they could see his face was wet. If the fedora were alive, it would surely be crying tears of Anti-SJW energy. His fedora was almost bobbing on his head, in a way. Clementine looked away from it, gagging. Luke really had to get rid of that thing.
"Yes. I will." He said. Cathy turned her attention to Kenny. Whose eyes were also tearing up.
"I'll see myself out." Kenny said.
"No! You can't go!" Clementine pouted. "I just found you again! You can't go!" It only made it worse for Kenny. He turned away from Clementine.
"Hunty...I've gone too far. I can't be here anymore.I'm too dangerous to everyone around me." He said. He took off his hat, and gave it to Clementine. "You take good care of this now, okay? I'll miss you so much, sweet pea. You keep slaying at twerk ball, okay?" He made his way to the gate, where Edith gave him his things. It all happened too fast.
"Kenny! NO! You can't go!" Clementine was running after him, but two guards were holding her back. She was howling at the sky in despair. Kenny was gone. The group was in an uproar. Emilie had her fists clenched, as if she was going to fight all of Wellington for what they had just done to their group.
"You bitch! I'm gonna kill you!" Clementine said. Clementine was growling and snarling at Cathy, her wolf senses activating for the first time in ages. Cathy wasn't smiling when she turned away, but as she did, Clementine swore that she saw the sides of Cathy's mouth tilt upward. She turned at the rest of the group, who couldn't even look at her or themselves. Most of them had their eyes closed. Sarah was on the ground, trying to forget what just happened. All of their lives were saved at the cost of another.
"Clementine, don't fight it. It's the law of the rose." Emilie said. "Rose, rose, rose, red will I ever see thee wed?" She was singing now, a tune of an old time..
"Emilie's right. You can't fight the law of the roses. They're #like, totally #final!" Kim said.
Chapter 19. End.
Survivors Remaining- 7