A first the Bloodies seemed to almost ignore them when they walked by, but in a few moments they were stumbling after them. Not wanting to kill any of them, Harper pushed them away and continued walking beside Sam. Some of the Bloodies got distracted seconds after the girls had passed and stopped following them.
Harper bumped into Brook and shoved her along to make her move faster. She glanced around and said, "so, Brook, where is your sister's house?".
"Just around this corner...I think" Brook said and shivered.
"You think? So you don't know."
"I know! I just, it is dark and...Y'know I don't live here and…"
"God damnit Brook."
Brook went quiet and continued to walk beside Sam, who seemed kind of oblivious to the conversation that was just held.
"The house is brown" Brook said.
"I don't care about the color of the house, just show us where it is" Sam replied.
Brook sighed and pointed at a house that was indeed brown. Sam handed the bag with baby food to Harper and whacked a Bloody across the face with her baseball bat. The Bloody fell to the ground and Harper gave the bag back to Sam. They walked around the crawling corpse and to the steps of the compact house that shared its walls with neighboring houses.
Brook painfully stepped to the front door and unlocked it with a key. They entered the house and Brook locked the door again once they were inside. Harper set her backpack down and sat on an armchair. She ran a finger over the diamond patterned fabric and glanced around. Sam was already at the top of the stairs and looking for the baby's room.
Brook limped up to Sam and into what Harper assumed to be the baby's room. There was some muffled talking coming from the room and Harper pulled out her bag of gummy worms. She ate them in silence until there were no more, then she just sat in silence while crumpling the plastic bag.
Harper slumped in the chair and groaned, she hated being left out of things but at the same time she didn't want to put effort into going up the stairs. After a few moments of arguing with herself in her mind, she stood up and walked up the stairs. She wandered around and got distracted looking at a painting before going into the baby's room.
The room had forest green walls and toys littered the carpeted floor. Sam was holding a sleeping baby while Brook fussed about when her sister would come back. The baby had wavy, golden hair, like Brook. It was very much likely that they were related. Harper placed the stuffed lion she stole earlier on the ground and watched for a bit. She leaned on the wall.
Sam's thick, reddish-brown locks of hair fell over her face as she smiled at the small baby. "What is his name?" she asked.
"Oliver" Brook answered while she dug through some drawers.
Oliver whined a bit and opened his eyes. Sam bounced him lightly and shooshed him a bit. Harper laughed and said, "You're a fuckin' natural!".
"Don't swear around him" Brook muttered.
"Chill out, he can't even walk yet. Hell, he won't remember jack shit!"
"Harper! He might"
"You're just being paranoid, besides, does swearing even matter?"
"Fine fine, just tone it down a bit"
Harper sniggered and stuck her tongue out. Sam rolled her eyes and lay Oliver in his crib. Oliver opened his eyes and rolled on to his belly. He kicked his legs and giggled.
Harper picked up the stuffed lion and put it in the crib next to Oliver. She grinned when the small child sat up and grabbed at the lion. He shoved an ear into his mouth and chewed while he took in his surroundings.
Brook limped out of the room and out of sight. Sam left the room as well, probably to go snoop around. Harper just stood there for a bit, watching Oliver play by himself. Man, she sure hoped this whole apocalypse thing passed over. She didn't want Oliver to grow up in it.
Oliver eventually fell asleep again. Harper closed the door on her way out of the room. She pulled her hoodie over her head and trotted down the stairs.
Sam tugged at the collar of her sweater and sighed.
"I don't want to stay here, we need to go somewhere. We need a plan, a purpose of some sort" she mumbled.
Harper blinked slowly and glimpsed at Brook, who was napping on the couch. The twenty year old looked like she was having some sort of crazy dream, with all the shifting and muttering she was doing.
"Whatever we do, Brooklyn isn't coming. We don't need her weighing us down" Harper said.
"What about Oliver? Brook won't be able to take care of him with that fucked up ankle…"
"Shit, didn' think about that…"
"Well, he isn't exactly our problem so"
"Sam! Don't say that"
"It is true though"
"You are being an asshole"
"I'm being sensible"
"No you are not, you want to abandon a baby with a woman who can't take care of him. You wouldn't have done something like this a few hours ago! Why is it different now?"
"The world is different now"
"You don't know that"
"Oh I think I do"
"You think you know everything! Well guess what Sam, just because you are a bit older doesn't mean you are right"
"Okay okay, what about we let Brook decide"
"Fine"
They both looked at Brook kind of expectantly, even though she was asleep. Harper rested her head in her hands. "Should we wake her up?" she said.
Sam shook her head, "we need to talk more" she replied.
"About what"
"We still don't have a plan or purpose at the moment"
"What about we find your family?"
"Why not yours?"
"I…"
"Your family lives in the area and your mom isn't on vacation, unlike my parents"
"No you don't understand. I CAN'T go back to my mom's place"
"What the hell do you mean"
"Just back off for once. You don't need to know everything about everyone's life"
"Jesus christ can't you just...Okay whatever. We find my family. Then what?"
"Then we find somewhere safe. A place with no Bloodies...God, we need a new name for them. For all we know they are just sick people! We can't talk about them as if they were just some pesky insects…"
"What else do we call them then?"
"I don't know, give me a second to think"
"Okay, what about we try and figure out somewhere to go once we find my family. While you try and find a new name of course"
"Alright, sounds good"
"What kind of place are we looking for?"
"Somewhere with steady weather throughout the year. No cold ass winters or shitty hot summers"
"Does the internet still work?"
"Harper, you dumbass. You are the one that has a phone right now!"
Harper glared at Sam and pulled her phone out. Yeah, there were bars. She typed in the passcode and opened a search browser. Sam swiped Harper's phone and started searching up multiple things.
Harper slouched and grumbled bitterly about Sam's recent behaviour. Sam ignored her whining and continued.
"Get me a notepad and a pencil" Sam said.
Harper got up from the diamond patterned armchair that she pretty much claimed as her own and ambled to the kitchen. She dug through a few drawers until she noticed what she was looking for was held on the refrigerator by a good sized kitten magnet. "I guess Brook's sister is a cat person" Harper commented to herself when she pulled the magnet off. The notepad was pretty small and had an even smaller pencil velcroed to the top of it.
Harper brought the notepad and pencil to Sam, who took it without a word.
"Now isn't the time for drawing" Harper complained as soon as Sam started sketching out something.
"Chill out, I'm drawing a map you baby"
"Of what?"
"Of the few states surrounding the one we are in, and a few important roads as well as major cities. We will use this until we find a better map"
"Uh, Sam, no offense, but you kinda fuckin suck at drawing. You are going to get us lost"
"I'm good at copying. Not creating"
"Lmao okay"
"Why would you actually say the 'lmao'. Isn't that just short for 'laughing my ass off'?"
"Chill dude"
"I will 'chill' when you stop saying stupid shit"
Harper scowled and pretty much threw herself into the diamond patterned armchair, causing it to slide a little bit on the wooden floor. She crossed her arms grumpily.
Sam continued to ignore Harper's childish yet kind of justified behaviour and looked outside the window. The sky was blanketed with lumpy stormclouds that hid the moon and stars. With none of the lights being on in the house, it was very dark besides the light illuminating from Harper's smartphone.
The light and quick tapping on the roof alerted them that it had started to rain.
"We should sleep for a bit" Sam said.
Harper nodded and took a quick look at the time before she turned in. It was 11:36. She wandered off to find somewhere to sleep while Sam just curled up in the recliner she was sitting in.
I really hope you liked this chapter, please send in characters I can use! I would really appreciate it because I am having trouble developing my own. Thanks for reading!