"Zombie!" 2D in turn screamed, "Where!"
"Stay back, zombie! Stay back!" She picked up the box of band-aids she saw on the floor and chucked it at the man's head.
"Ow!" 2D rubbed the spot on his forehead where the box bounced off and then fell to the floor. "Wha're you doin?"
"I don't want to be eaten by zombies! All I wanted was to visit Europe, see the sites, visit Camden High Street, feed the frikkin pigeons!"
2D slowly reached towards her. "Listen, calm down. M'not a zombie. If you would just -"
"Get away!" she shrieked again. Having no current memory of being shot, or even aware that she was hurt, the girl pushed herself up off the bed and tried to run.
"Wait! Don't -"
Blinding hot pain shot up her leg. The girl felt as though she would vomit as she went crashing into the hard floor. She breathed heavily through her mouth as she waited for the pain to dull away. Even when the pain was gone she didn't move from her spot on the floor. She felt a warm hand touch her arm.
"You okay?"
She didn't say anything. The girl felt cool liquid building in the corners of her eyes, so she turned her face into the war machine decorated rug.
"Are you sad?"
She shook her head.
"Are you scared?"
She shook her head again.
"Do you hurt?"
Once more she shook her head.
"Then why're you crying?"
"I don't know..."
"That don't sound like a very good reason."
"All right... I guess I hurt... a lot."
"M'not surprised." 2D pulled his hand back and his arms rested on his knees. "Y'got pretty messed up."
She rubbed her eyes and turned her head just enough to show the corner of her face. "What happened?"
"Murdoc said you were gettin' eaten by th'zombies. He used a gun t'save you... sort've. I guess. He shot ya a couple times. There," he pointed to her leg, "and there," he then pointed to her waist, "um and there," he pointed to her shoulder.
The girl looked at her leg. The banadge work was of poor quality, the pieces ripped, hanging loosley, or just in aggravated knots. She was about to complain but then she noticed the obscenely large, bright yellow shirt she was wearing, which was safety pinned in the back so as not to fall off her shoulders. "What am I wearing? Where are my clothes!"
"I had t'put 'em in the wash. They were a bit rubbishy, dirt and blood and whatnot. That's one of Russel's."
The girl was aggravated with the way she was being tended to. She was convinced the man had to be an arrogant idiot. She looked up at him to yell, but she stopped. 2D stared back at her with his vast black eyes, but despite their seeming emptiness, his eyes expressed a concerned curiosity. Suddenly she realised that his efforts had been innocently genuine, and she couldn't stay angry with him. "Um... thanks I guess."
"Don't you wan'to know about th'ova' one?"
"Other one?"
"There." His long knarley finger grazed over the band-aid on her neck. "That's where the zombie bit ya. I s'ppose it hurts the worse."
She flinched. "Could... could I have my glasses? I can't see well without them."
"Oh, right. I'll just be a sec."
When he stood, 2D towered high over the girl. "Wow," she whispered, "You're tall."
"Yeah. I guess I am. I've been told I'm about 5'11" maybe 6 feet. I don' fink about it much." 2D picked her glasses up off the nightstand then walked back over to the girl. "M'2D, or Stu, Stuart, Stu-pot, or you can call me D if you want." He scratched the back of his head. "Um... you hungry?" She nodded. So 2D knelt down and picked her up. Now that she was clean, he was more willing to cradle hold her in his arms. "I guess I could give you a tour of th'studio. Th'kitchen is three floors up. Um, this is my room, it's in the basement."
Having expected to be bored by the "tour," the girl was actually surprised at how interested she became by the studio. She wasn't exactly expecting a cinema, cafe, bowling alley, or shooting range to be housed is the giant, grey, ugly, and most of all creepy builiding atop a hill. Of course she hadn't expected to be half eaten by zombies and shot by a green-skinned stranger either. As interesting as the tour was, the girl found it difficult to keep her focus on the man's voice. 2D spoke with an awkwardly high-pitched voice that was hard to listen to, not to mention his incessant incoherent mumbling.
After getting lost once on the ground floor because 2D couldn't remember which corridor lead where, they finally made it to the first floor and to the kitchen. "Excuse me." The girl tugged on the collar of his shirt to be sure she had his attention, she had figured out by now that 2D had a screw or two loose. "Why didn't we just stay downstairs and use the kitchen there?"
The blue-haired man stared at her for a moment, almost as if he was having to use all his brainpower to analyze the question she had posed for him. When the look of deep meditation turn into blank idleness she started to take the question back, but he interrupted her. "The one downstairs isn't really that much've a kitchen," 2D answered, "There's a mike-row-wave in there... and I fink there might be sum popcorn or summink in the cabinets. We mostly use it t'store extra instruments an' junk an' wot not."
"Oh, I see." 2D walked into the kitchen. It was there that the girl saw the sliding glass door that lead out onto a small patio deck. She noticed the sky was no longer pitch black, but instead there were rolling grey clouds illuminated by the sun on the other side. "Is it daylight already?" she asked.
"Wot? Daylight?"
"Yeah," she pointed to the window, "You know. Day time, as in, not night time."
The blue-haired singer walked to the glass door. He attempted to reach out his arm to open the door, but quickly realized he would drop the girl in the process. He then tried to nudge it with his foot, but this attempt also failed due to the door being locked.
"Do you want me to get it?" she asked, noticing his building frustration.
"No, no... No, I can figure it out," he answered. Finally he turned to the side, bent his wrist, then unlocked and slid open the door. Surprisingly enough 2D had not forgotten the original purpose for wandering onto the patio. He looked up into the sky and sniffed. "Huh, I guess it is day. You were uncon... unkonshy... asleep for a long time. I guess I forgot."
The girl stared in disbelief at the giant mountains of garbage and raw filth the stretched endlessly behind the studio. "Oh my God..."
"Hm?" 2D looked out at the wasteland, not quite sure what she was looking at.
"Let me guess this straight. You live in a studio, in the middle of nowhere, with a zombie infested graveyard out front, and a landfill in the back?"
2D smiled, revealing the gap from his front two missing teeth. "Yeah," he shrugged, "But it's a happy landfill." The man took her back inside and sat her in a chair at the table.
Again 2D seemed to be thinking, hard, trying to remember why they had come to the kitchen in the first place. He stood for what seemed like an eternity. His dark eyes would look at the girl, then at the floor, then at the ceiling and cabinets, and then back at the girl. She was about to remind him when suddenly he exclaimed, "Food!" 2D turned around and started rummaging through the fridge. All that he could really find was the gooey brain that had been there since before he could remember a detached finger, and various rotting fruits. He figured if he didn't want to eat such things, the girl probably didn't either. "Um... do y'like..." He rummaged around through cabinets and cracked jars. "Do y'like, like... candy?"
"Candy?" she repeated.
"Yeah, candy. See... Ya don' want wot's in th'fridge. But the only otha' fing I have is candy." 2D held out his hand, it was full of Jolly Ranchers. "M'sorry. I hope this is okay... But don't tell Muh-doc!" he said pleadingly. "He don't know I'got me own stash. Y'see... it's kind've a secret. But you're nice. I like ya'. So I'll share wif you."
The girl smiled and took the candy. "I appreciate it Stua- um... 2D..."
The man sniffed and then took a seat on the other side of the table. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a switch blade. Once he flipped it open he started scratching at the underside of his fingernails. "I need a gun, to keep myself from harm," 2D mumbled the bouncy tune to himself. "Da da da da dee dee da da dum... I need da dum... cos all I do is dance." The girl was surprised at how well the man could sing, considering his awkward speaking voice. She'd had a hard time believing him when 2D had told her he was the lead singer in a band. "I need a gun, da dee da dum from harm. The poor people da dum dum dum... I need a gun..."
The girl watched as 2D stared intently at his nails, working the knife roughly beneath them. She found his black eyes peculiar, never having seen eyes like them before. She knew the sockets weren't hollow, empty, voids in his head because she could see the light reflecting in them. "Um 2… 2D?" The girl still found the name awkward. "What happened to… Why are your eyes like that?"
The Melodica male lifted his head at the question. He stared at her, again. He was thinking, again. Suddenly afraid she had offended him; the girl popped another candy into her mouth and sucked on it vigorously with her head turned down. "I was in an accident," she heard him say. The girl looked back up at the man. "Muh-doc, the guy you met earlier, the one who… Muh-doc, he's our bassist now y'know." 2D realized he was getting sidetracked. He paused, sniffed, and then continued his story. "I was working in this music store, right? Then one day, his buggy comes crashin' fru the window. The bumper, on the front of'the car, y'know, hits me square on the side of me 'ead. M'pretty sure that's how I lost ma teef too. So, anyway, I got into a coma and everyfing, and Muh-doc has t'take care of me. It was either that, or prison." 2D took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "One way or anotha' Muh-doc gets me into another accident. I get this second crack in me skull right? But it knocked me out'of the coma. That's why they call me 2D, cos I got two dents in me 'ead. I guess long story short, y'know that black dot in your eye? Mine are constantly die…dial… dilated, cos of the cracks."
"That must be horrible. How can you call that man your best friend after everything he did to you?"
"B'cause he saved my life."
The logic in his answer was painfully flawed, but she decided to let it go. "Does it hurt? I mean your head injuries."
"Bloody hell does it ever!" he exclaimed. "I get these headaches, crikey, all the time! I just take a bunch of painkillers and I'm fine. I zone out sumtimes, but it's worf it."
The girl sighed. Suddenly all of Stuart's awkward tendencies made sense. She started sucking on another candy when Noodle walked into the kitchen. "Ohayo, 2D-kun," the little Japanese girl said with an absent wave.
"Um, konnichiwa?" The girl greeted Noodle, hoping that her Japanese wasn't too rusty.
Noodle closed the cabinet and turned around holding a soda. "Konnichiwa. Genki desu ka?" she asked, gesturing at the woman's leg.
"Ah, Daijobu. Arigato," the older girl answered. Noodle smiled and then she walked out. "Oh my God, she was so cute! 2D was that the girl you told me about? Noo-" She looked to where 2D had been sitting, but oddly found him missing. Where did he go? How did he leave in such a short time without her noticing? Assuming the man would return shortly, the girl just remained in her seat. After awhile, though, 2D didn't come back, and girl realized she was going to have to get around on her own.
She struggled to grab a stick that was leaning in the corner. She wasn't sure why it was there, or why it was broken on one end, but she didn't really care. The girl managed to hobble around the studio, eventually making her way to the carpark. She hoped to find her car there. If the men couldn't fix it, hopefully they at least brought it in out of the rain last night. The girl came across Murdoc's Winnebago and was about to knock on the door. However, she soon discovered the vehicle to be shifting back and forth. "When the van's a-rockin, don't go a-knockin," she muttered to herself, and returned to the search for her car. Having only made it a few feet, she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. The girl turned to be greeted by the same face that shot her. She had chills at first, but they gradually subsided. "You're Murdoc, I assume."