Pitch Black and Lonely
-/-
The blackness is the FAYZ is darker than anything Howard's ever seen. He knows some of the kids have Sammy Suns, but there's no way he'll ask Sam for something like that. Howard's fingers hurt from trying to light matches and having the sparks hit his fingers, with no resulting candlelight. It's colder than anything, too.
Orc sits up, beerless, dizzy. His eye doesn't adjust to the darkness, so he scoots against the mattress propped up against the wall and lays back.
"You still give off body heat?"
He hears Howard from somewhere nearby. Feels Howard clamber up onto the futon, hears Howard's chattering teeth.
"Don't think so. My face is cold, though."
"I can't see worth anything."
Orc stands up and pulls the tarp out from under him. He ruined all the blankets a long time ago.
Howard is surprised to feel the tarp on top of him. It's not warm enough, but it's something. He crawls under it entirely and curls up in the fetal position to stop the shivering.
"Can't wait till those walls come down and all this shit's over with," Orc says.
"Yeah," Howard says.
They sit in silence, Howard unable to voice what he knows is true: as soon as the walls come down, Orc goes to jail or to a research facility. But he won't tell Orc that, won't plant another fear in a world full of terrifying ideas and never any answers. So instead he breathes shallowly into the folds of tarp above his face, and faces Orc's general direction.
Somewhere downstairs, Drake and Brittney thump and moan.