Warm Bodies: The Little Brown Bear

The Proposal

They walked, hand in hand, down the deserted street, as sheets of newspaper and urban detritus fluttered weakly in the limp breeze around them. The day was overcast, dark clouds hanging low in the sky, obscuring the sun and diffusing the light into a flat grey.

It was wonderful. He was with Julie and it was wonderful. Today he was going to ask her to marry him, and he had just the place planned.

"Where are we going?" she said, giggling as she asked, smiling at him as he pulled her along.

"Somewhere," he answered, grinning like a fool. Nervousness and joy were wound together so tightly inside of him that he was almost dancing as he walked. He couldn't wait.

"Somewhere," she echoed, her eyebrows raising and her smile turning sly, "Well, that's helpful." Then she laughed, because he was running now, and almost pulling her off her feet.

They passed a bus stop, and seated on the bench inside were two corpses, stripped to the bone, their flesh flaked skulls resting against each other, their spindly fingers entwined.

As they ran by, Julie smiled at them and waved. "That's so sweet," she sighed, then giggled as he wrenched her away.

Finally, they were there.

The park spread out before them, stunted trees twisted against the grey sky, brown leaves quivering, trembling in fear before the final fall. The old scarred oak reared back from the burnt out skeleton of a car in the center of the park, surrounded by a circle of charred ground.

It was perfect.

Before them, on the very edge, sat the grey bench.

This was the spot. This was the moment.

Heart pounding in his chest, R took Julie's hands in both of his own, and pulled her towards the bench. Smiling softly, her blue eyes focused only on him, she sat back against the old weathered wood as he guided her there.

Slowly, he knelt down in front of her, and her brow crinkled in curiosity.

"What are you doing?" she asked, but he just shook his head and smiled.

Reaching back, he pulled the ring box from his back pocket.

The moment she saw it was just as he had imagined over and over again - her eyes went wide, her hand flew to her mouth as it fell open in surprise. Then those glorious eyes rose to his and flooded with tears. His heart thrummed wildly in his chest.

"Oh my god... R..." she whispered, the tears flowing freely down her face, "Oh my god..."

He laughed then, because everything was perfect, and he knew she'd say yes. He just had to show her the ring.

Prying open the box, he presented it to her and opened his mouth to say the words he'd practiced in his mind for a month.

But something was wrong. Instead of the joy he'd expected to see, there was just confusion. Her eyes drifted from the box to him, to the box again, and she frowned.

"R..." she said, sniffing back the tears, "It's... empty?"

Heart plummeting, he twisted the box around. She was right. It was completely empty. Everything clenched inside of him as his gut twisted wildly. How could this happen? He'd found the perfect ring? What happened to it?

Did he drop it? He must have! God, he had to find it!

"Stay here, I'll be right back," he mumbled, getting to his feet, and Julie nodded, wiping her eyes against her sleeve.

Scanning the ground in front of him, he ran back the way he'd come, occasionally stopping when something glittered promisingly on the ground. But the ring refused to be found.

As he ran, something began to feel strange.

Why were they here?

As he passed the bus stop, he stared at the only occupants, the couple holding hands. But they were skeletons. They were dead.

Why did I bring Julie here?

Staring around himself, R started to feel a terrible, rising dread. This place, everything around them, was dead. Everything. The people in the bus stop, the corpses lying in the brown grass in front of the house with shattered windows across the street. The man in the blue sedan in front of him, flies drifting in and out of his swollen mouth.

Oh my god.

Julie.

Adrenaline jittered through his body as he turned and sprinted back the way he'd come, back to the park. He had to find Julie, he had to get her out of here, this wasn't a good place, he had to...

He slowed to a walk, frowning as he spied the bench in the distance.

Who's that?

Someone was holding Julie on the bench? Someone had their arms around her?

This is wrong. I've been here before... this is...

Julie screamed and jerked wildly in the arms of the figure, that he now recognized as a young girl with wild auburn hair. Julie was fighting her, but held fast.

Blood sprayed over them both.

"JULIE!" R screamed, and rushed forward, watching in horror as Julie's struggles grew weaker in the girl's arms.

"NOO!" he roared, and tore around the bench, grabbing Julie around the waist and wrenching her free. There was a horrific wet tearing sound as the girl pulled back, and he gasped as he saw the jagged gaping hole at Julie's neck, gushing with dark blood.

Julie was jerking in his arms, strangled noises coming from her throat, as he pulled her away and desperately pressed against the flow of hot blood.

Too much blood, too much, I can't...

"No, Julie.. no... please," he cried, unable to stop the bleeding, unable to stop the life leaking from her.

Her eyes locked onto his as her mouth worked soundlessly, and her body relaxed, easing back against his arms. He felt the pain and shock there as his own, the terrible sadness that filled them as she faded away.

Then she was gone. The blue eyes that stared up at him lost their focus, lost the soul that had lit them from within, and went dull.

Julie was dead.

"No..." he whispered, shaking his head as he pulled her to his chest. "Nonono..." Holding her close, he rocked her still body gently, pressing his face against her cooling skin. Her warm blood dribbled down his arms.

"Come back to me... Julie.. please," he whispered against her ear, stroking her hair as he held her.

But she didn't stir, and he knew she never would.

An agonized, desperate wail rose from his throat, shattering the still silence of the park. Despair enveloped him, filling him utterly, and he sank to the ground, unable to bear its weight.

Everything was gone. Everything that gave his life meaning was gone. Julie was dead, and every dream he had inside, of their life together, of a world changing, growing, healing... died.

As he lay there sobbing, holding her body in his arms, the chill from the ground seeping deeply through his skin, a small cold hand fell on his temple and stroked there, leaving a wet trail of blood.

A girl's voice spoke above him, in the thin whisper of a corpse, "You have to end our pain..."

An overwhelming stench of blood and rot engulfed him as she leaned down to his cheek, rasping the words he knew she would say.

"You have to FIND ME."