Before you ask, Yes, I did almost forget to post chapter 11. I remembered only because I was looking for my unfinished doc on chapter 12...
~Loner
The day the Apocalypse finally made it's way into her small suburban town, it rained hard. The dark sky was lit up with an ominous white light of lightning and the surrounding screamed with the resounding boom of thunder as the heavens shut their doors one after another. That day the gods made it clear to her. They had abandoned them.
In the streets, rivers of red blood drained like waterfalls into the emergency sewage line built along the roads. On the sidewalk, two young adult women walked, slowly taking in the scene they had only imagined when reading horror fantasy novels. If one didn't know any better, they thought, you would think the sky's opened up and dumped a bucket of bloody rain on their heads.
However, this was not the case for this small but pitiful town that seemed to be forever bursting with positive energy in their memories. Once active and lively body's laid all across the freshly mowed lawn of their neighborhood. The rain pouring down tried it's best to wash the blood and guts away.
Pitiful, one girl thought as she raised her thin face, averting her eyes from the lifeless green of the old high schools prince charming. This is the ending of the 'happily ever after' that no one ever elaborated in their fairytales. Her eyes unwillingly slid over two more feet where a woman laid, face riddled in holes from a shotgun blast. The princess marries the prince only to die in such a cruel way. The woman wanted to raise her arm up to cover her face but could not muster up the energy to do more then put one foot in front of the other at this point. The sorrow in her heart weighed too much.
The woman next to the thin, pale and seemingly wispy woman tried her best not to look at her surroundings. She walked with her plump face tilted downwards, chin to chest, brown eyes unconsciously following the streams of scarlet water flowing passed her small feet. Tears of pain and anguish streamed down her face as the smaller plump woman carefully avoided stepping in the stream. With great difficulty, the young woman forced her injured leg forward. The blood flowing from her leg dripped into the water as she did so, dying the already red water a thicker color before being washed away.
So many people lived in their town, and, today, no one would be walking out of it alive; not even her and her companion. They could feel the fever already coming on. Soon, they would have to stop and rest. When they did, the virus would catch up with their bodies, and they, too, would be joining the herd of undead in it's overthrowing of the world. Live was cruel, but it was, especially, cruel today. There was always a price to be paid, and, today, the devil had visited them for their debts.
The taller of the two wasn't exactly sure who reached out first but, eventually, the two girls hands collapsed together tightly. One hand, thin and pale, dripping with blood that was tinted black, a sign of the infection from what they understood. The other, carrying the signature tan of her ancestry, covered in dirt and grime from their life or death fight. Silently, they both prayed in their heads: Dear god's, spirits above, please, don't let me die first. It wasn't an I'll intended prayer, but one made of protection for the other. They had both seen what the dead did to the living. Neither wanted to stain the other. They had known of each other for years, but, in recent the past 3 years, they had become best friends who told each other secrets and shared happiness and sadness together like a platonic married couple living in the same house.
"I don't want to die," the thin woman said in resignation. She wasn't a saint. She had dreams like the rest of them. Big dreams. Even though she knew she would never accomplish them, she still wanted to
try. This was unfair and cruel! If the heavens wanted to punish her, then this was too much. If hell above didn't want her, then what could she do? Was she really destined to wonder the Earth for entirety? Was this what purgatory was?
The woman next to the thin woman couldn't say anything. What could she say? This was hardly an appropriate time for a joke. Even if it was, she for once… didn't have one to spit out. All she could do was hold her friends hand tightly and let her speak her mind as they limped to the city gates in the storm. Usually, she was the one that was always doing the talking as her friend sat back and listened. It was time to let her friend do the talking. The chubbier woman took a small comfort in knowing, no matter what had happened or will happen next, at least, she was not alone.
The thin woman suddenly let out a very loud and unlady like grunt that was half pain, half frustration. "I was supposed to die by fire, damn it!"
There was the phyro part of her personality roaring it's head to the heavens.
"Not by some stupid virus that we all know was man made." The woman raised a boney arm, curling back the cricked twigs the woman called fingers: flicking off the already angry sky. Lightning flashed in a weirdly curved line across the dark clouds in response. The woman frowned. Was the heavens laughing at her? She blink darken green eyes, then squinted at the clouds. That flash of lightning had looked suspiciously like a grin to her. Rude! She snarled back in her heart.
Forget it.
The woman turned her attention to her companion. "Hey, Chibi Turtle," the woman called to her dazed friend.
Startled by the old nickname they never use anymore, the woman called Chibi Turtle tilted her head towards her friend's dirty face.
Seeing she had her companion's attention, the thin woman continued, "In the next life, let's continue being friends."
In the distance, they could hear the bell to the old church building ringing. The dings of the bell tower seemed to eco in their souls, beating painfully with in their hearts. Even over the heaving thunderstorm, they could hear the death bell.
Chibi Turtle nodded firmly. "Mhm."
Ten meters from the gate to freedom, Chibi Turtle's injured leg finally gave way, no longer able to support her weight. Down the woman went, short black hair floating around her face from the force of the fall. She landed on her knee both a audible crack. The pain of the fall mixed with agonizing pain of the virus rushing through her veins caused her unwillingly shout out.
Her thin friend, feeling the tug of the fall, followed after her. Together, they fell to their knees before the sign wishing them a great day and showering thank yous for visiting their small village. The thin woman stared at the optimistic sign in front of them, silently cursing their luck. It seemed they were going to die here with the rest of them. No one would know about this small town and what had happened within.
As one, both women collapsed face first in the dirt, too tired now that they had fallen to even hold themselves up right. Chibi Turtle was the first to turn her heavy head towards the woman next to her. Her dim vision took in the short light brown hair and long pale neck of the woman next to her. Through her blurred vision, she could see the red scratches contrasting harshly with the pale skin from the woman's struggle with death. The image made her eyes burn with tears of anguish. Her friend was once a beautiful young lady, but, now, she looked like a refugee that caught hard to walk out of her own home.
"Hey, Firestarter," Chibi Turtle called to the woman. For a moment, the woman called Firestarter didn't respond, and Chibi Turtle's heart skipped a beat.
Firestarter struggled to muster up the last of her energy to look towards her greatest friend. Slowly, sluggishly, the woman turned her face towards Chibi Turtle. First a dim blue eye, then a button nose covered in dirt and blood, smeared across the ground until finally Firestarter could see the blurred outline of Chibi Turtle's round face. With great difficulty, the wispy woman pushed out a grunt from deep in her chest in response to the call.
"In the future, let's…."
Chibi Turtle's voice faded as she spoke, but Firestarter understood. "Have grand adventures…." She finished for her friend as her vision finally blacked out completely.
With that, two young adult died ten meters from the end of the road, hands collapsed tightly together as if afraid to lose the other amongst the blacking storm. Almost as if they were connected together, their heartbeats slowed to a sluggish stop, like someone stepping on the breaks for a red light during heavy traffic hour.
When the night ended, the storm evaporated with the sun. When the bell rang for morning mass, a pale finger twitched. Then, a groan emerged from the darker woman next to the pale woman. The thin woman hissed lazily in response to the groan.
Where there is death, there is life. Where one adventure ended, another began.