Chapter 04: Leaving

"Can you take this spike?
Will it fill our hearts with thoughts of endless
Night time sky
Can you take this spike?
Will it wash away this jet black feeling?"

- from "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" by My Chemical Romance

The next morning was a gray one, with snow falling light and lazily from the sky above... although the beds of the hotel were comfortable, and sleep came easy, it didn't last so well for Sam...
Her mind kept wandering back to Gatlin, back to the shinning eyes of the dead, the hunger that caused her own mother to slam her into a wall and bite like a rabid dog at Sam's neck held off only by a broom stick the girl had clutched on instinct, back to the look on Emily's face the last time Sam saw her, the last time Sam would ever see her alive. These horrors and more came before her eyes, as if they were playing on a movie screen, her closed lids the back drop.
9:14, the red numbers of the clock on the bedside burned into Sam's irises. She sat up in bed, sighing, and ran her fingers through her blonde hair; the closest thing she could do to brushing it. She looked to the other twin bed on the opposite side of the nightstand, where Mark was still a lump curled up under the gray quilt, and smiled.
Poor kid... why did this have to happen to him? Sam understood why something like this would come to her, she called it as punishment for all the bad things she'd already done in her life, but why Mark? Mark was clean! He was still innocent... at least, he was before it all happened to him, too.
She felt heaviness in her chest... Mark had been braver than her, Mark had faced them, although Mark had had allies, when she and Emily were all alone. She felt as if she'd done the wrong thing, and maybe she had; but after last night, she'd had to come to terms and make the hard decision, and how unfortunate that it was to do the right thing... at the very least, she had to tell him... he'd know what to do after that...
She waited, on her bed facing his, as the minutes ticked by; waiting for him to wake up, for she didn't have the heart to wake him... it wouldn't take too long, though. Mark was never one to be settled for too long.
It only took him as long after waking to fit up and turn his head before he stopped, seeing her watching him with those feline eyes. Her face was very still, and her arms were draped limply in her lap.
"I lied..."
He rubbed his head and groaned out, "About what?"
"Gatlin. The vampires," that got his attention. "They're not dead. I lied. They're still alive. They're still back there."
"Are you shitting me?"
She shook her head. "I was so scared, Mark. They took my mom, and my friends, and the whole fucking town! Emily was scared, too... she didn't want me to know it, but she was."
Mark was too stunned to speak for a moment, so Sam went on, correcting the ending from her original version of the tale told...
"That night, wee drove down to the train station and ran out both ways. I made it to the platform and called out to Emily, but that just got the attention of the vampires... they came at me, but Emily got there first. She shoved me on one of the carts and stayed behind to fend them off... I was calling to her, begging her to get on the train, but she just wouldn't, and I watched her disappear beneath them. I think they ate her, Mark!"
Mark slumped back down, holding a hand to his forehead. Damn it! Would this ever be over? With much reluctance, he concluded; "... Well then we have to go back."
Sam was petrified. She knew that was what Mark would say, but it was a completely different thing to hear... she forced herself to snap out of it, looking away and out in to space, though truly at the wall. She nodded, absent-mindedly, though all she saw was Terry's face...
Her mother's face, contorted in a death grin, laughing at her.

Squatting... that's what they call it when homeless kids sit on street corners and beg for money. Welcome to afternoon for Sam and Mark!
The weather had cleared up since morning, becoming a fleece of white that coated the sky, with the occasional tares that allowed short bursts of sunlight through.
Sam prepared a sign made of cardboard and marker reading, "TRYING TO GET HOME; EVERY $ HELPS", propped it up beside them, and sat down next to Mark, leaning against a building. After all, it was only a half lie... Sam had lived there for a while.
They waited patiently, as lunch-time traffic began to kick up. Sam turned on the charm, making her eyes very wide and glassy, and reached up to everyone that passed, pleading; "Excuse me, do you have any spare change?"
That worked to get inflow started, although after a while she didn't even need to anymore. People just began to notice the sign and drop money into the tin Sam had placed in front of it. A couple hours passed, and Sam took a little snooze, resting her head in Mark's lap, her hands on his thigh. He put his arm around her shoulder, and manned the streets.
Mark didn't even need to put on a face, or say a word... he appeared pitiful enough as it was, and the dollars and quarters and, occasionally, larger bills came falling it steadily, like the snow storm that was building in the west.
As evening sunk in, and the less-giving folk on their way out to dinner or rushing past on their way home began to prowl, Mark figured it was time to give up the chase. He collected the money, counted it, and was surprised to find a portion more then he expected!
He and Sam crawled to their feet, and walked along more comfortably then they had in days. Figuring that they were soon to be faced with the undead again, street dangers didn't seem so terrible anymore.
A short walk, maybe twenty minutes, brought them to the local bus station. They waited in line for quite some time, before finally making it to the desk. The attendant informed them that a bus heading for a town just before Gatlin was departing in forty-five minutes. Sam made the final decision, purchasing the tickets and walking back with Mark to a waiting room, obviously, with many navy blue chairs.
"Why," Mark checked his ticket. "Montgomery The local buses do runs to Gatlin, we could have just waited 'til morning."
"Montgomery is right before Gatlin," she told him, pulling at her sleeve nervously. "I wanna see if they've... spread y'know?"
Mark nodded, suddenly understanding. He hadn't thought about that... god, what would they do then? Could they take that many of them? It wouldn't be as easy as burning the place down, like in the Lot, then...
Mark, boredom sinking in from the waiting process, surveyed his surroundings... several rows of chairs, white and gray tiled floors, beige walls with large, rectangular windows that displayed only the blackness beyond, interrupted by street lamps that illuminated cars and roads and buildings with pale yellow light. The other room was pretty much the same, except sans chairs, plus the reception desk and navy blue carpeting on the floor... and then, Sam.
Sitting beside him, her shoulders slumped and head hung a little, staring down at her hands in her lap that fitled with her sleeve nervously. The light caught on the ring her lip and shined like a tiny golden light. Her hair was up in a high pony-tail, except for a few rebellious strands in the front that curled around her chin. He noticed, now that her zip-up hoodie was unzipped partially, hanging off of one shoulder, the strap of her black bra... his eyes followed it, down to the collar of her cami, where a tiny bit of cleavage could be seen; betraying her boyish nature by feminine beauty.
Feeling his face grow hot, he looked away quickly -- maybe a little too quickly -- and tried to place his mind on something else. Sam may have been a girl by nature, but to Mark she was a (technically younger, by four months) brother, and guy's just don't feel that way towards their brothers, now do they?
Lucky for Mark, he was saved from this situation when a voice came out over the speaker, announcing that the bus to Montgomery was now boarding. The pair picked themselves up, Sam slinging her sleeve back onto her shoulder and zipping her hoodie up a little, and headed outside, checking their tickets for the number.
They found it without much trouble, and boarded reluctantly. As the bus pulled out of the station, they both silently wondered the same thing; if they'd ever see Detroit again... hell; if they'd ever see anywhere again!

Ryou - slash - Bakura's Wench -- Thank you so much for being my first reviewer on this story! And don't worry about updates; I intend to finish it.

Next chapter; the friends make allies and enimies, and all in one night!